Fantasy basketball is coming into view with games starting in just two months. It is time to begin thinking about drafts, but as you do, you may want to keep these tips in mind. Each and every season, I see new, and sometimes even veteran fantasy basketball managers make the same old mistakes. If you avoid these, chances are that you will put yourself in place to compete for your league’s title this season.
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Separate real-life basketball from fantasy basketball value
Back when Shaq was terrorizing opponents and was quite possibly the most dominant big man since Wilt Chamberlain, he was bricking free throw after free throw and sinking fantasy teams. Likewise, Kobe and Allen Iverson were often posting dreadful field goal percentages, which when paired with a billion shots per night, dragged their fantasy teams down. It may be difficult to accept the fact that an all-around player like Shawn Marion was ever a top-five asset in fantasy, but just because he wasn’t a real-life superstar doesn’t mean he doesn’t post the numbers you need to hoist your trophy. Likewise, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holliday are fantasy monsters while more recognizable stars like Kyrie Irving and Blake Griffin ought to be taken at least a full round behind them. Don’t get caught in your pre-conceived notions about real-life talent.
Don’t go in without preparation
This applies to all fantasy sports, but needs to be re-stated each and every year. You cannot coast into a draft and selected reputations that you are fond of in accordance to their ADP. Well, you can, but then you will lose as everyone around you is scooping up this year’s Donovan Mitchell or Devin Booker. Put in the work. Can we really call mock drafting or reading articles and statistics work, though? You get the point, practice makes perfect and mock drafts are the only way to accomplish that. Fortunately, we have an incredible Draft Simulation Software available for you to prepare and tools galore to help you get ready. Make yourself familiar with fantasy experts’ rankings and be sure to take advantage of the Draft Assistant so you have all the information in front of you on draft day.
Know your league settings
This mistake happens far too often despite it being the easiest to avoid. In fantasy football, value doesn’t change as much from standard to PPR leagues, so if you aren’t aware of your league’s setting, it won’t burn you nearly as much. In basketball, however, your league may elect to use three-point percentage or personal fouls. Custom settings are much more prevalent in the world and impact the game much more than in other fantasy sports. Run your league settings through our Auction calculator to see how values morph to fit your league. When you do this, you’ll have a major upper-hand on your leaguemates who attempt to coast by without the advantage of algorithms.
Risk is different in fantasy basketball
This isn’t like fantasy football where every season someone like Alvin Kamara or Kareem Hunt comes out of nowhere or in fantasy baseball where Max Muncy and Blake Snell turn into stars overnight. In basketball, depth is crucial. If you don’t have effective players playing useful minutes night in and night out, you’ll find yourself down for the count before you know it. Educate yourself on injuries, depth charts and anything else that may impact minutes, then execute your draft based on that information rather than hope. You can sit and wait for a player all season like many did with Isaiah Thomas last year, or you can play it smart and build a team full of guys playing 25 to 40 minutes per night. I’ll let you guess which team tends to come out ahead.
Get a wide variety of information
Do not build your opinion around one source. If they aren’t bouncing ideas off of someone else, chances are, they aren’t being called out when they make a crummy argument. Even the best basketball minds are bound to miss the right perspective on dozens of players when they are evaluating over 200. When you allow yourself to read and hear contrasting opinions, it will become easier to recognize which takes are wishful thinking and which are statistically supported and more likely to turn out correct. That is why at FantasyPros we compile the opinions of dozens of experts then combine them together to make a consensus. These consensus rankings finish among the top handful of those dozens of rankings each and every year.
