James Harden should be especially productive for owners during the fantasy playoffs

After weeks and weeks of wheeling and dealing, dropping and adding, buying low and selling high, injuries, surprises, and anything that involves fantasy hoops, the most-awaited Fantasy playoffs is nearing its start. And with most trade deadlines approaching (some have even passed), the coming days will be wild and woolly. Owners are now finalizing their line-ups, tinkering whom to trade for whom, and going over again and again the line-ups of their opponents to see who they can possibly acquire.

The biggest factor that many owners consider in choosing players is how well they have performed. But before going through the top fantasy performers coming into the postseason, let us first discuss the things that are necessary to think about for the upcoming fantasy playoffs.

First and foremost, fantasy hoops playoffs will coincide with the NBA regular season’s final stretch. And the 30 NBA teams do not have the same thinking entering the final week.

Players whose teams are still vying for playoff spots will continue to play a lot, and play hard. For now, only Atlanta has secured a playoff berth, but in a few weeks time, many will have already followed suit.

In the East, expect teams like Miami, Charlotte, Indiana, Brooklyn, Boston and Detroit to go at it until their final games. And of all the teams mentioned, it is Miami who has the most noteworthy fantasy players, thanks to their newly-established trio of Hassan Whiteside, Goran Dragic, and, of course, Heat legend Dwyane Wade. Lead by Whiteside (roughly 11 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks per game this season), the Heat have reason to still believe they have what it takes to compete in the NBA Playoffs.

The acquisition of Goran Dragic has not hurt. Albeit still adjusting, the season-long averages of Dragic (16.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1 steal, and 1.2 three-point makes, while shooting 50.2 percent from the field) will not go unnoticed. And Wade will always be Wade. Despite missing tons of games this season, he has still managed to average north of 17 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal per game since returning from injury, although his 38 percent shooting from the field and 3 turnovers per game should give some owners a deterrent to own him.

And for the West, pretty much everyone will continue to play their best basketball.

Historically this time of the season, Spurs head coach Greg Popovich would have been already resting his main guys one at a time, but considering their record right now, and with their playoff hopes hanging in the balance, that would be highly unlikely. Expect Tim Duncan (14.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game this season), Kawhi Leonard (15.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 steals, and one three-point make, while making 45 percent of his shots per game this season) and Danny Green (around 11 points, four rebounds, one steal, one block, and two three-point makes per game this season) to continue to log heavy minutes. Although between the three of them, Duncan is the most likely to be rested.

Meanwhile, for those teams that already have a good seat in the playoffs reserved (teams like Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland, and, to some extent, Golden State), expect them to rest their top guns. We have seen this already with the Hawks resting some of their starters this past week, and also with the Raptors resting Kyle Lowry. This may also mean that injuries to Lowry and Jimmy Butler, albeit very unfortunate, have come at a good time. With them being sidelined, they will have a chance to rest enough to be fresh for the playoffs.

Speaking of injuries, long layoffs early in the regular season to players like Demar Derozan, Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard may lead to them not getting that much rest before the playoffs, because their coaches may feel that they still need to get some breaking-in time for the postseason. This means high usage rates for them the rest of the regular season.

On the opposite end of the standings, teams who have basically no chance of making the playoffs, historically, rest their main guys during this stretch. And in congruence with this, players who did not have that much playing time before (mostly unestablished rookies, and players still looking for their niches), will benefit from this, as teams like the Lakers, Knicks, Timberwolves and the Sixers will look to utilize these kind of players more. So players like Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Clarkson, Wayne Ellington, Andrea Bargnani and Isaiah Canaan are all worth looks in all leagues, with Wiggins having unquestionably the most upside among them.

Now comes the rankings. In the first column we’re looking at the top-ranked players leading up to the fantasy basketball playoffs. In the second column, we’re examining the top-ranked players during the fantasy playoffs.

Salvio Nachor is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Salvio, check out his archive.