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Fantasy Basketball High Score Breakouts: 5 guards set to be unleashed in Yahoo's new format
Alright, fantasy hoops heads, listen up. We need to talk about the new playground on the block—Yahoo's High Score format—and the guards who are about to become absolute cheat codes in this points-friendly system.Forget the boring, turnover-penalizing leagues of old; this is where volume and aggression get paid, and I've got five backcourt guys who are set to explode. First up, Payton Pritchard.Look, we all saw my guy PP get his flowers last season, winning that Sixth Man award and basically becoming a walking flamethrower off the bench for the Celtics. But his current sixth-round ADP? That's straight-up disrespectful, especially with Jayson Tatum taking a breather.When Tatum sat last year, Pritchard wasn't just good; he was a borderline star, putting up 17. 9 points, 4.8 boards, and 4. 5 dimes with a blistering three triples per game in 33 minutes.The Celtics' whole identity is built on launching from deep, and Pritchard is one of the most trigger-happy gunners in the league—he finished 11th in total three-point attempts last season. They're going to need a whole village to replace Tatum's usage, and Pritchard, who has a rock-solid 17/5/6 line in his 17 career starts, is the mayor of that village.He's not just a shooter; he's going to get the counting stats to make last year's breakout look like a warm-up. Over in Indiana, Bennedict Mathurin is that dude we've been waiting for.The aggressiveness has always been there—the man attacks the rim like it personally offended him—but now the opportunity is finally matching the energy. Coach Rick Carlisle has officially said Mathurin will start, and when he gets the minutes, he produces.In games where he's played at least 30 minutes, he's averaging 20. 3 points and 5.9 rebounds. But the real key here is what happens when Tyrese Haliburton is off the floor.Last season, without his All-Star point guard, Mathurin's minutes jumped to 35 per game, his scoring skyrocketed to 21 points per contest, and his free-throw attempts nearly doubled from four to seven a night. His usage rate climbed to 25%.This isn't just a minor bump; this is a full-scale takeover in the making. He's been cooking in the preseason, leading the Pacers with 18.3 points per game in just 17 minutes. Mathurin has the potential to be Indiana's leading scorer this year, and he's a lock for the Most Improved Player conversation.He's the definition of a boom player, and in High Score, where you don't get punished for the occasional off-night, he's a league-winner waiting in the 9th or 10th round. Then there's Jaden Ivey in Detroit.Last season was supposed to be his mini-breakout, and he was balling out until a broken fibula cut his campaign short at just 30 games. He was massively outperforming his draft capital, and now he's back, fully healthy, and entrenched as the clear secondary playmaker and scorer behind Cade Cunningham.He put up a very respectable 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists per game last year, and with the Eastern Conference being less of a gauntlet, Ivey could push for an All-Star nod if the Pistons surprise some people. I'm super high on his skill set—the explosive first step, the improving jumper—and in High Score, the fact that turnovers don't count is a massive, massive boost for a high-usage guard like him.He was already flirting with 30-plus fantasy points per game; his ceiling in this format could be 40 or even 50, a threshold he hit five times last season. The upside is absolutely tantalizing.Staying in Indiana, let's not sleep on Andrew Nembhard. With T.J. McConnell sidelined for a month with a hamstring issue, Nembhard is the undisputed primary playmaker when Haliburton rests, and his minutes are poised to jump well over 30 per game.Last season, without Haliburton, he averaged 11 points and 6 assists in 26 minutes. He's currently going in the seventh round, which feels like a steal for a guard who can reliably dish out six-plus assists, chip in with efficient scoring, and nab steals.He's shown he can take over a game as a scorer, too, which gives him more boom potential in High Score than his quiet demeanor might suggest. Projecting a career year from the fourth-year pro isn't a hot take; it's the most likely outcome given the role and the opportunity in front of him.Finally, we have the rookie—well, he feels like a rookie—Reed Sheppard in Houston. Now, the Rockets haven't said he'll start with Fred VanVleet out for the season with a knee injury, but let's be real, he's going to be a major part of the rotation, playing more minutes than he ever has as a pro.The jump from college to the NBA is huge, but Sheppard isn't some raw project; he has a history of being an insanely efficient shooter and a pesky, high-IQ defender. That defensive hustle is exactly what will win over a hard-nosed coach like Ime Udoka, and once he settles in, his passing and knockdown three-point shooting will follow.I might be a little early on this breakout call, but the potential is undeniable, especially when you consider he's going to get 25-plus minutes a night surrounded by a talented young core. He's already shown flashes in the preseason, putting up 12.5 points on 53% from the field and 50% from three over his last two outings. The Rockets will tinker with lineups, but Sheppard is poised to make some serious noise in fantasy when that bigger workload comes.So, there you have it. Five guards who are perfectly positioned to be unleashed in Yahoo's High Score format.It's all about opportunity meeting skill set in a system that rewards their specific strengths. Get your draft boards ready, folks; these are the guys who could carry your team to a championship.
JA
Jamie Lopez123k2 hours ago
pp at a sixth round adp is actually criminal smh dude is a walking bucket fr
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