Fantasy basketball with one lineup a week
Hoops League is free fantasy basketball for a private league of friends. You draft a team of pro basketball players, set one lineup a week, and play a friend head-to-head every week until the playoffs. There are no daily lineups to set and no reason to stream free agents every night.
The draft. Your league drafts live, snake order, with a pick clock, projections and a queue. Miss your pick and auto-draft takes the best player for you. Want practice? Run a mock draft against bots any time.
Your lineup. Each week you choose your starters (guards, forwards, a center and utility spots). Each player locks when his own game tips, so you can still swap anyone who hasn't played.
Best ball, a little different. Each starter's best two games of the week score. A third game only scores if it beats one of them. And if a starter sits out a game — rest night, late scratch — your bench average fills it in. A week is decided by who you start, not by how many games you can cram in.
Your weekly call. Name a captain before he tips and his scoring games are worth 1.25×. Finish in the top half of the league's scores and you earn an extra standings point, even in a loss.
The season. Head-to-head matchups every week, then playoffs for the top seeds. Everyone else plays the Toilet Bowl, where losers advance and the last one standing finishes dead last.
Format
- Head-to-head, one matchup per week (Monday–Sunday). 19 regular-season weeks, then a 4-team playoff.
- Everyone else plays the Toilet Bowl in those same weeks: losers advance, and whoever loses the last round finishes dead last for the season.
- Weekly lineups: set your starters any time during the week. A starter locks when his game tips and stays in until next week; a bench player can move any time his game isn't in progress.
- No break weeks.
- Standings points: a win is 2 and a tie is 1, plus 1 more any week your score finishes in the top half of the league. A big week against the best team still pays.
Your weekly calls
- Captain: name one starter before he tips and his scoring games score ×1.25. Once he tips the C is locked on him for the week. The C moves with him if you move him; a slot refilled by someone else loses it.
Rosters
- 11 players: 2 G, 2 F, 1 C, 3 UTIL starters plus 3 bench. G/F/C use the player's listed positions; UTIL takes anyone.
- 2 IL slots for players listed Out; IL players never score.
- Every starter gives you his best 2 nights. If he sits out a game his team plays while he's yours (rest night, late scratch), your bench's per-game average fills it in. Games his team doesn't have, or that came before you picked him up, aren't covered.
Load management and injuries
- Every player shows an availability rate (games played vs. games their team played, this season and last) on the draft board, the Stats tab and their card, so rest-prone stars are priced in before you draft or start them.
- Weekly projections already discount a back-to-back for heavy-minutes players and use the live injury feed (Questionable, Doubtful, Out with an expected return date) rather than a guess.
- The injury refresh runs before every tipoff; a late scratch on your starters triggers a game-night notification, and auto-swap (Settings) benches an Out starter for your best healthy bench player when it can.
Why grinding waivers doesn't win here
- Each starter scores at most 2 games, so chasing whoever has the most games on the schedule doesn't pay.
- 3 adds per week and midweek adds sit until next week — streaming a new body every night isn't possible.
- The scoring is per game with bonuses for big nights, so the league is won by rostering good players and setting a sensible lineup, not by refresh rate.
Adds, drops and waivers
- 3 adds per week (waiver claims count).
- Dropped players sit on waivers for 48 hours; claims resolve by rolling priority (winner goes to the back).
- Players added midweek sit until next week's lineup.
Trades
- No trade deadline.
- Accepted trades execute immediately.
- Counter-offers replace the original proposal. Rosters must fit after the trade.
Scoring
- Points +1, rebounds +1.2, assists +1.5, steals +3, blocks +3, threes +0.5, turnovers -1.
- Double-double +3, triple-double +8.
- Big-game bonuses: 40-point game +5, 50-point game +10.
- Games are scored from official final box scores each night; live scores during games are provisional.
Commissioner
- The commissioner (and any co-commissioners) can edit settings, fix lineups after lock, adjust scores with a public note, veto trades in review, process waivers, pause the draft, and lock transactions. Every action is logged in Activity.
These are the defaults. Every commissioner can change scoring, lineup slots, playoffs and more for their own league.