Do your Fantasies include these familiar faces?

Its fantasy time and as many of us prepare to put on our imaginary GM hats and draft our players (or dust off our old guys for those of us in keeper leagues) it’s a great time of year to look at the stats and speculate who are the best kept secrets and the biggest busts around the league.

Here are 5 important tips to get you started:

1) For those of you new to fantasy sports, the most important thing you need to be aware of is HOW the points are calculated and WHICH stats are being counted. For example, in the league that I play in, the only stats that are measured are:

Points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks (all of which are worth 1 point each) and FG% (where the players total points in all the above categories are then multiplied by his FG%)

For example, last season, here were Chris Bosh’s #s and his points in my league.

PTS- 1496

RB- 583

ASST-171

STL-63

BLK- 67

——————

2380 X 0.494 (FG%)

= 1175.72 total points

Some pools include categories such as turnovers, fouls, 3 pointers, PER, etc.

*** Be sure you know what categories matter most before you choose your players. For example, in my league, a guy like JKIDD, who may get you a fair amount of points (since he averages almost a triple-double) is actually a BAD choice at PG since he shoots a FG% of approx. 30%. Where as a guy like Steve Nash who in addition to putting up good point and assist numbers also shoots at a phenomenal 50% clip.

2) Many fantasy leagues also impose a salary cap that is dollar for dollar equal to the players actual salary and the NBA league wide salary cap. Under this model, you would be free to spend roughly 60 million BUT it means that Kevin Martin at roughly $8,760,335 million is a much better purchase than Michael Redd at $15,780,000 even though their numbers appear to suggest a different story.

Ie/

Kevin Martin

Michael Redd

3) You should also be aware of how many players you are expected to draft and how many you are required to draft from each position:

-for example if your league requires you to draft 2 players at each position, then you might be better off focusing your money and earliest draft picks on centres, since there are less players who play this position and can score highly (under any point system) than there are point guards with the ability to score well (after all, last year Janero Pargo could have been drafted in the late rounds- the equivalent of this type of player at the C position would be someone like Rasho or Mark Blount)

-keeping on this topic be sure you are acutely aware of WHO is considered a centre. In some leagues Tim Duncan, Chris Bosh, Amare, and anyone who plays C part time falls into this category. In other leagues it is based on the players MAIN position only.

4) Make sure you know the rules for adding and dropping players.

-For example, in some leagues, the players you draft on draft night are yours for the whole year, regardless of injuries. If this is the case, guys like McGrady or Yao, who are top fantasy producers when healthy would be poor choices.

-Also, each league will have a different policy on tabulating points for players added and dropped:

Example #1- in some leagues you get to keep all the points you have accumulated up until the drop:

-ie. You drop Caldreon on Jan 1st and pick up JKidd. You get all of Calderon’s points from Oct31-Jan1, and all of JKidd’s points from Jan1 until end of season.

Example #2- in some leagues you get to keep only the points of the players on your roster:

-ie. You drop Caldreon on Jan 1st and pick up JKidd. You get none of Calderon’s points from Oct31-Jan1, and all of JKidd’s points from Oct 31st until end of season.

5) KNOW YOUR PLAYERS and THEIR TEAMS:

a) You don’t need to draft only players on winning teams. I call this the Damon Stoudamire/Doug Christie Rule: EVEN ON A BAD TEAM – SOMEONE HAS TO SCORE SOME POINTS. A team like Sacramento has some nice young players like Fransisco Garcia and Kevin Martin who are sure to score some major fantasy points- especially with Artest and Bibby no longer in town. Likewise, a guy like Rudy Gay can expect a lot of ball in Memphis except if….

b) the teammates are just as important as the player himself:

this is why guys who play with Steve Nash get lots of freebie points and guys who play with Zach Randolph (who Memphis is apparently in talks with NYK about acquiring) never see the ball (he is the NBA equivalent of a black hole- the ball goes into the post but never comes back out).

c) and of course- the “system” matters: lots of guys playing in GS for Nellie will score a ton of points BUT they are also going to chuck up a huge number of shots- so their FG% wont be great. It’s a buyer beware scenario. Likewise, a coach like Sam Mitchell is really inconsistent in his lineups, so drafting a player who is not a guaranteed starter is dangerous since some nights Kapono or Il Mago or Humprhies may get 20 minutes and some nights they may be DNP coaches decision.
Who would you pick?

So in the league I play in here is the criteria:

1 starter from each position (and 1 rookie who does NOT count against the cap)

60 million dollar salary cap

No add/drops

Only REAL centers count as centers.

Points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks (all of which are worth 1 point each) and FG% (where the players total points in all the above categories are then multiplied by his FG%)

Based on this criteria, here is what my dream Fantasy team would look like:

C- Dwight Howard Orlando Magic

PF- Shawn Marion Miami Heat

SF- Richard Jefferson Milwaukee Bucks/ Josh Smith Atlanta Hawks

SG- Kevin Martin Sacramento Kings

PG- CP3 New Orleans Hornets

Rookie- OJ Mayo Memphis Grizzlies

————————–

Based on this criteria , what might your dream team look like?

Back from holidays, I am the Doctor, Im standing in the paint and Im planning on taking a charge.

phdsteve