late swaps

I'm not going to proclaim to be an expert on how to manage lineups on daily fantasy sites offering the ability to make late swaps.

What is a late swap? Your daily site goes one of two ways:

• Your lineup is locked at the start of the first game's tip/pitch/kickoff, or
• Your lineup can be modified for players whose games haven't started yet.

There are a small handful of sites (Draftkings/Starstreet) offering late swaps. To the casual daily player, this seems like a wonderful way to make sure your lineup isn't ruined by a late scratch, whether it's due to injury or coach-player squabbles, or who-knows-what.

Unfortunately, for the same casual player, unless you are sitting around actively scouting player news throughout the entire slate of that day's games, you are at a serious disadvantage for those who are.

Additionally, it's another advantage to craft your lineup in a way that fits any possible late swaps. If you're not setting your initial lineup with this in mind, you're creating potential handicaps for your team before the games even start.

For example. Let's say you're thinking of using Carlos Boozer on a late swap site. He is prone to late scratches. If his game starts later than the first game of the day, then you would want to slot him into a roster position that makes the most sense for a swap. This means you want to put him into a UTILITY slot, and not specifically PF or F.

This is a simplistic example, and I think there's more to it. I just haven't had the time or need to really get involved with the concept, since I also don't have time to sit and watch player news all night after spending an hour or more setting my original lineup.

Because of this, I will likely be avoiding playing NBA regularly at sites that do late swaps. I don't want to play at a disadvantage that is as important as this one.