positional diversity

[dewgongoo]

In a standard Yahoo! daily H2H league, how many players of each position do you carry? Or does it not matter too much?

PG
SG
G
SF
PF
C

You carry two centers or three? Or is it more important to go with the best players available? How many centers can you carry before you run of roster slots to put people? I find that carrying 4 PG results in a lot of times of benching one.

[silentjim]

It really just depends. Carrying too many players with just PG eligibility of just C eligibility can hurt you in games played some times. 4 of just PG players means you're taking up the PG, G, and both UTIL slots, which can make sense depending on your teams strengths and needs. Clearly 5 of any one position makes no sense unless you can make sure the schedules games are optimized. It's why guys with PG/SG or PF/C are probably slightly more valuable depending on league setting and such. For some reason guys with just SF status really bother me.

[RedHopeful]

Agree with Jim that it could vary given the situation. However, in the overall scheme of things, I'm a variety guy: the more options the happier I am. Oftentimes, in most of my competitive leagues, a category or two comes down to the wire so it's not only important to strive for max games per week but also have options which categories to focus on during the busy scheduled days.

[Fenris-77]

A lot depends on your draft. I tend to draft a lot of PGs in most drafts, and I often make sure I draft at least one PG/SG eligible guy who puts up PG numbers (Mo WIlliams this year, and Andre Miller late). Picking guys up off the wire works the same for me. In general I try to have at least two guys for each slot (with some overlap) but it's not my guiding principle on draft night.

A lot also depends on what kind of G, F, and Utl slots your roster has. The more of those you have the less of a problem eligibility is.

[Yilun]

I've always stuck by my theory that in order to consistently win yahoo H2H leagues, you need 2 things: specialization and depth. Positional diversity should always come after these 2.

Specialization - You always want to go into a draft with a strategy in mind.
a) If I get the top 3 pick, who am I going to draft and what kind of team should I build?
b) If I get a late round pick, who am I going to draft and what kind of team should I build?
c) I don't care which pick I get, I'm going to draft a best possible big-men dominant team
d) I don't care which pick I get, I'm going to draft the best possible small-ball team

Each player you draft should strengthen your core categories (6 or 7). Try not to draft players that contradict your strength categories, i.e. drafting D12 for a big-men specialized team and then drafting a Corey Maggette to strengthen FT's doesn't make any sense. Instead, you rather take another poor FT shooting big like Griffin to augment the categories you are already strong in.

I think spreading your team too thin will always result in you being mediocre across the board. On the other hand, if you try to specialize in 6 or 7 categories (while punting 2), you will be much more focused in your strengths and more consistent.

Depth - You rather have a team full of above average players who are consistently producing rather than a team with 3 mega-stars and a plethora of waiver wire garbage. So if I have a stud like Varejao who was going ape-s*** crazy in the beginning of the season, I would much rather trade him at his peak value for a Hickson + Asik because it provides me more depth. My FG% and rebounds will be much more stable with 2 double-double bigs than simply having Varejao alone.

Lastly, positional diversity comes into play. I tend to just stick with the general rule of thumb that you want at least 2 players of each position. I've won leagues with having only 2 PG's or 2 SG's or even a single PG at times depending on how specialized you are.

For example, if you're building a big-man team, having 2 PG's, 2 SG's and 2 SF's are probably enough while the rest of your roster can be PF/C's. I found this to have much less impact to the overall success of your team compared to the importance of the first 2 concepts mentioned. The reason being is that aside from Wednesdays and Fridays (sometimes Saturday), you're never going to have a full roster going. So it really doesn't matter all that much how much positional diversity you have. You just want to maximize the best talent possible for the positions that you DO have in order to stay competitive.

[PatriotsGirl]

A lot depends on your draft. I tend to draft a lot of PGs in most drafts, and I often make sure I draft at least one PG/SG eligible guy who puts up PG numbers (Mo WIlliams this year, and Andre Miller late). Picking guys up off the wire works the same for me. In general I try to have at least two guys for each slot (with some overlap) but it's not my guiding principle on draft night.

A lot also depends on what kind of G, F, and Utl slots your roster has. The more of those you have the less of a problem eligibility is.

Agreed.