The "Big Four" of Los Angeles basketball royalty played in a combined 219 of possible 328 NBA games during the 2022-23 season, barely two-thirds of the games, and bitter fantasy basketball managers clearly noticed.
Still, Lakers Anthony Davis and LeBron James, along with Clippers Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, remained wonderful players, their statistics critically valuable to fantasy basketball teams, but the main and legitimate complaint in recent seasons has been about their lack of games played.
Nobody can make that complaint this season.
In a stunning development worthy of being one of the biggest stories of the fantasy basketball season, James, Davis, Leonard and George entered Thursday having missed a combined 15 of a possible 190 games, finding a way to suit up and thrive for more than 92% of the team's games.
This is startling, especially considering James is 39, and the other three are on the other side of 30, and none of these four played in more than 56 games a season ago.
With 76ers C Joel Embiid's status cloudy due to a knee injury and bringing the league's new 65-game edict for players being eligible for playoff awards to further light, fantasy managers should not view the change as negative. Perhaps Davis, James, Leonard and George would have played most of their games this season regardless of the new rule, but fantasy investors are certainly pleased with the change.