Early season advice thread

[Hamiltond18]

So this is my first year in a fantasy basketball league. Normally stick to football and baseball but the guys I play with in my other two leagues had an opening so I figured, why not? My NBA knowledge is limited, I'll watch some of Celtics games but no where close to a diehard.

I'm curious how you decide if a player starts or sits. With the roster size most nights there are plenty of guys with nights off so is it as simple as if you have a game you're in there? Common sense tells me nothing is that easy so how do you decide? What should I be looking at?

Here are my league settings...

12 team head-to-head.
Start: PG,SG,G,SF,PF,F,C,C,UTIL,UTIL.
Scoring Catagories: FG%,FT%,3PTM,PTS,TOTAL REB, AST, STEALS, BLOCKS

[RedHopeful]

So this is my first year in a fantasy basketball league. Normally stick to football and baseball but the guys I play with in my other two leagues had an opening so I figured, why not? My NBA knowledge is limited, I'll watch some of Celtics games but no where close to a diehard.

I'm curious how you decide if a player starts or sits. With the roster size most nights there are plenty of guys with nights off so is it as simple as if you have a game you're in there? Common sense tells me nothing is that easy so how do you decide? What should I be looking at?

Here are my league settings...

12 team head-to-head.
Start: PG,SG,G,SF,PF,F,C,C,UTIL,UTIL.
Scoring Catagories: FG%,FT%,3PTM,PTS,TOTAL REB, AST, STEALS, BLOCKS

It is always smart to move guys into active roster spots in H2H leagues - if you have spots available. If not, put the best options in and then check nba news sites for injuries prior to game time. You should also be able to check the interface you're using (Yahoo, ESPN) at some point before tip-off and they'll alert you to a potential missed game.

[Fenris-77]

Yeah, always play active guys if you can. If you have more active guys than spots to play them then you start looking at who has the best defensive matchup and who's been hot lately.

[Dongmunch]

Also (tell me if you guys agree on this), in standard 12-team leagues I will always be down to do 2 for 1 trades to get the best player.. lots of gold on the wire throughout the year so you end up getting the best player in the deal plus a good/serviceable player from the waivers.

I'd do this in deeper leagues too but only if you know you can get someone who can play instead of a guy who will give you nothing

[toughtrasher]

Also (tell me if you guys agree on this), in standard 12-team leagues I will always be down to do 2 for 1 trades to get the best player.. lots of gold on the wire throughout the year so you end up getting the best player in the deal plus a good/serviceable player from the waivers.

I'd do this in deeper leagues too but only if you know you can get someone who can play instead of a guy who will give you nothing

I agree on that, I just learned from the people here on my last post to trade up for better people and I think I'd do just that with my palyers and be flexible on the free agents.

[ggs]

more advice: relax and breathe. don't sell low on first and second rounders just yet, there's a reason you drafted them where you did. most (if not all) will come around. if you need to rant, do it here or in the daily commentary thread - don't start a new thread asking if you should drop deron or josh smith.

[Yilun]

The biggest advice I can give for someone drafting in H2H leagues is to not try to draft to win every category. By that I mean, you want to focus and key in on trying to strengthen certain categories and punting a couple of others. It all depends on where you land in the draft lottery.

For instance, if I'm drafting 11th or 12th, I may decide to go with a big man build by drafting D12 and perhaps an Al Jefferson on the turn. Maybe take someone like Andre Iguodala and Jeff Teague for that team as well. Since Dwight Howard's paltry FT% means that your team will most likely not compete in FT%, you're better off served drafting other players who do not shoot FT's well either.

But let's say I manage to get the 2nd pick overall and I draft a Kevin Durant or Chris Paul as my first overall. They are both pretty stellar all-around. This opens up my avenue and I may choose to focus on categories such as treys, FT%, points, rebounds, assists and steals. I may go with a Pau Gasol in my 2nd round and perhaps a Nicolas Batum or Paul George in the 3rd.

In summary, I've found that by choosing a game-plan which focuses on primarily drafting for 6-7 categories is alot more effective than trying to draft for all 9. When you focus on all 9, your team becomes spread very thin and you end up being mediocre across the board but not dominant in any category. Focusing on 6 cats and punting 3, for example, may sound risky, but it gives you the best chance to be solid/consistent throughout the entire season because you're drafting guys which create alot of synergy in what categories they produce for you.

I've had success with big man builds that focus on FG%, Points, Rebounds, Steals, Blocks, TO
I've had success with scoring builds that focus on FT%, Treys, Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals

Try these types of strategies out for H2H drafts and hopefully, it will help you focus on certain strategies and give you a clear decision tree on who to pick up every round.