NBA Supercoach | Fixture Analysis

If you are a Supercoach regular, you will already know the importance of fixture analysis when trying to build the best Supercoach side possible.

Well, I am here to tell you that fixture analysis is even more important for Supercoach NBA, but for totally different reasons.

In the majority of other Supercoach variants, teams each play one game per week.

Therefore, for these sports, fixture analysis usually involves looking at the ‘difficulty’ of their opponent to judge how well they might perform.

Supercoach NBA offers a whole different spin on the concept of fixture analysis. Here’s a breakdown of how many games each team will play per round:

What is fixture analysis?

For Supercoach NBA, fixture analysis will mainly involve looking at how many games each team will play in a certain week.

Each week of Supercoach will start on Tuesdays and wrap up the following Monday (Australian time).

Over this week-long period, teams can play anywhere between 2 to 5 games.

Therefore, you want to target players in your side who play the maximum amount of games for that given week, as additional games will likely be the difference between a good and a great weekly score.

One factor that we do not really need to consider is matchup difficulty.

For two reasons:

1. Teams play multiple games per week, so it is hard to measure difficulty across all opponents
2. Opponent difficulty really doesn’t impact performance much overall (if anything, better opponents are good as it reduces the chance of a blowout and restings)

Now, it would be rude to just harp on about the importance of looking at schedules without helping you actually achieve this.

That’s why we have created an all-in-one chart for you to use for any and all matters regarding NBA fixture analysis.

This is currently in the works and will be out in the next day or two, so keep your eyes peeled on our SCPLAYBOOK NBA socials for the chart.

What to look for?

Considering we are given three trades to use every week (you can boost for four), and there is no such thing as ‘saving trades’, we can focus a lot more heavily on short-term rather than long-term fixtures.

I am talking proper short term, where I will personally be looking at maximising fixtures over the coming 2-4 weeks.

In saying that, let’s look at the best teams to target/avoid in your starting side by analysing their fixtures over the first month.

Teams to target

Week	Games	Teams To Target
1	3	ATL, BKN, BOS, CHA, CLE, DAL, DET, GS, IND, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIA, MIL, MIN, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHX, POR, SAC, SA, TOR, WSH
2	4	ATL, BOS, CHA, CHI, CLE, GS, LAL, MEM, NO, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHX, TOR, UTA
3	4	BKN, BOS, DAL, DEN, DET, GS, HOU, IND, LAC, MEM, MIA, MIL, MIN, OKC, PHI, SAC, WSH
4	4	ATL, CHA, CLE, DAL, GS, LAC, LAL, MIL, NO, ORL, PHX, POR, SAC, SA, UTA
5	4	ATL, CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, DEN, LAC, MIA, NO, OKC, ORL, PHI, POR, TOR
6	4	DET, IND, MEM, MIL, MIN, NO, NYK, PHX, SAC, TOR
7	4	ATL, BKN, BOS, CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, GS, HOU, IND, LAL, MIA, MIL, MIN, NO, NYK, ORL, PHI, POR, SA, TOR, UTA, WSH
8	3	ATL, CHI, HOU, MIA, MIN, NYK, SAC, SA, TOR, WSH
9	4	CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, IND, MEM, NO, OKC, ORL, POR, UTA
10	4	ATL, BKN, CHA, CHI, CLE, DEN, GS, IND, LAC, MIA, MIL, MIN, NO, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHX, POR, SAC, SA, WSH
11	4	ATL, BOS, CHA, CHI, DEN, GS, HOU, MEM, MIA, MIN, NO, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHX, POR, SA, TOR, UTA, WSH
12	5	LAL
13	5	MIA
14	4	ATL, BKN, CHA, CHI, CLE, DEN, DET, HOU, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIN, NYK, ORL, PHI, PHX, POR, SAC, UTA, WSH
15	4	HOU, IND, MEM, MIN, NYK, PHI, WSH
16	5	ATL, BKN, CHA, CHI, CLE, DEN, IND, LAL, MIL, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHX, POR
17	4	BKN, BOS, CLE, DAL, DET, HOU, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIL, NO, OKC, POR, SAC, SA
18	4	BOS, CHA, DAL, DET, HOU, LAC, LAL, MIA, MIL, NO, NYK, ORL, SA, UTA, WSH
19	5	PHI
20	5	PHX, WSH
21	4	ATL, BKN, CHA, CHI, DEN, DET, GS, HOU, IND, MEM, MIA, MIL, NO, OKC, ORL, POR, SAC, TOR, UTA
22	4	BOS, CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, DET, HOU, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIN, ORL, PHI, PHX, SA, TOR, UTA, WSH
23	4	ATL, BKN, BOS, CHI, CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, GS, HOU, IND, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIA, MIL, MIN, NYK, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHX, POR, SA, TOR, WSH

When just looking at the first two weeks, eleven teams play the maximum of seven games.

These are the Hawks, Celtics, Cavs, Hornets, Magic, Thunder, Raptors, Lakers, Warriors, Grizzlies, and Suns.

If you are looking for players to get off to a hot start and potentially make some quick coin off the bat, look towards these teams.

Five teams play the maximum (11 games) across the first three weeks: the Thunder, Celtics, Warriors, Grizzlies, and Lakers.

This makes SGA and Doncic potentially the pick of the premiums to start the season.

It also makes all the undervalued Celtics options, like Brown, White, and Pritchard, even more enticing to start the season.

Looking at the first month in total, many teams will equally play the maximum of 14 games.

Therefore, we won’t go through all of them; instead, let’s look at the teams with unfavourable starting schedules.

Teams to avoid

Week	Games	Teams to Avoid
1	2	CHI, DEN, HOU, NO, PHI, UTA
2	3	BKN, DAL, DEN, DET, HOU, IND, LAC, MIA, MIL, MIN, NYK, POR, SAC, SA, WSH
3	2	CHA
4	2	PHI
5	2	HOU, LAL
6	2	ORL, WSH
7	3	LAC, MEM, OKC, PHX, SAC
8	2	BKN, BOS, CHA, CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, GS, IND, LAC, LAL, MEM, MIL, NO, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHX, POR, UTA
9	2	BKN, LAC
10	3	BOS, DAL, DET, HOU, LAL, MEM, PHI, TOR, UTA
11	2	LAC
12	2	DET, MEM, MIL, ORL
13	2	LAC, ORL, POR
14	3	BOS, DAL, GS, IND, MIA, MIL, NO, OKC, SA, TOR
15	2	CLE
16	3	BOS, TOR
17	2	PHX
18	2	ATL, CLE
19	2	NO
20	3	CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, IND, LAC, MIA, MIL, OKC, PHI, SAC, TOR, UTA
21	2	MIN, PHX
22	2	DEN, NYK, POR
23	3	CHA, NO, SAC, UTA

There are three teams that only play five matches across the first two weeks: the Nuggets, Rockets, and Clippers.

Is this enough to avoid players from these teams entirely in your starting side?

I would almost argue yes.

It really depends on what players you are deciding between, so let’s give some examples of decisions you may be facing.

The obvious player that is impacted by this is the best player in Supercoach, Nikola Jokic.

Honestly, as big a call as it is, at his hefty price tag, I would almost say you should avoid Jokic to start the season.

Even if he plays five outstanding games, which, knowing him, he more than likely will, he is going to struggle to score as many as the likes of SGA or Doncic, who play are set to play an additional 2 games over the first two weeks.

Similarly, Amen Thompson and Sengun were two players I was eyeing off to start with, as I can feel a big season coming.

Instead, I am now leaning towards starting without them and watching how they perform over the first two weeks before jumping on.

However, there is someone like Reed Sheppard, a popular bench option, who also finds himself with this tough schedule.

For your bench players, I would argue schedule does not matter as much as they are not going to score points for your team.

Instead, they are there to hopefully rise in value over the season, and you do not want to be wasting trades here based on the schedule.

Anyway, moving on to look at the first three weeks, nine teams will play a minimum of 9 games.

This includes the Rockets, Nuggets, Bulls, Pelicans, Knicks, Jazz, Spurs, Trail Blazers, and Clippers.

I wouldn’t entirely avoid any players from these teams, but if you are tossing up between option A, who plays 9 games across the first weeks, and option B, who plays 11, I would definitely go with option B.

Building an NBA Supercoach Strategy

Team	W1-4	Rank	W5-8	Rank	W9-12	Rank	W13-16	Rank	W17-20	Rank	W21-23	Rank
ATL	14	2	14	2	14	9	15	6	12	29	11	7
BKN	13	14	12	19	13	24	16	2	15	1	11	7
BOS	14	2	12	19	13	24	13	27	15	1	11	7
CHA	13	14	13	8	15	4	15	6	13	21	11	7
CHI	12	26	14	2	15	4	15	6	12	29	12	1
CLE	14	2	13	8	14	9	15	6	13	21	11	7
DAL	14	2	13	8	14	9	14	22	14	11	11	7
DEN	12	26	13	8	16	1	16	2	13	21	10	24
DET	13	14	13	8	12	28	15	6	15	1	12	1
GS	15	1	12	19	14	9	14	22	14	11	11	7
HOU	12	26	12	19	14	9	15	6	15	1	12	1
IND	13	14	13	8	15	4	15	6	13	21	11	7
LAC	14	2	12	19	12	28	13	27	15	1	11	7
LAL	14	2	11	30	14	9	15	6	15	1	11	7
MEM	14	2	12	19	13	24	15	6	14	11	12	1
MIA	13	14	14	2	14	9	15	6	13	21	11	7
MIL	14	2	13	8	12	28	15	6	15	1	11	7
MIN	13	14	14	2	14	9	15	6	14	11	10	24
NO	13	14	14	2	16	1	13	27	14	11	10	24
NYK	12	26	14	2	14	9	16	2	15	1	9	30
OKC	14	2	12	19	15	4	15	6	13	21	11	7
ORL	14	2	12	19	14	9	14	22	14	11	12	1
PHI	12	26	13	8	13	24	17	1	14	11	11	7
PHX	14	2	12	19	14	9	16	2	13	21	10	24
POR	13	14	13	8	16	1	14	22	14	11	10	24
SAC	14	2	13	8	14	9	15	6	14	11	10	24
SA	13	14	13	8	14	9	14	22	15	1	11	7
TOR	13	14	15	1	14	9	13	27	13	21	12	1
UTA	13	14	12	19	15	4	15	6	14	11	11	7
WSH	13	14	12	19	14	9	15	6	15	1	11	7

Of course, you are only limited to two trades (three, if you use a boost) per week. So you can’t trade in every player who will have the most games in a week.

However, you can plan a successful trading strategy by grouping the weeks into periods throughout the Supercoach NBA competition. Like we’ve done above.

For instance, if you want to start the season strong you’d target players from Atlanta as they start the first 8 weeks with the most amount of games.

It also might be worthwhile to move away from the Lakers after the first 4 weeks, as they got an 11-game run from Weeks 5-8. They only play the max games in Week 7 of that period.

Mid-season, you’d consider Nikola Jokic, if you haven’t already got him, as the Nuggets play the most games from Week 9-16. Whilst the Clippers and Celtics are ones to avoid, as they play the least in that period.

To finish the year on a high, the target teams are the Pistons and Rockets, who both play the most matches to end the season.

Remember to keep an eye out for our socials for the drop of our NBA schedule chart that will make all this fixture analysis a whole lot easier for you!