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Fantasy basketball how to win

7 tips to guarantee you win your Fantasy Basketball League

Lines.com (November 17, 2020) Every basketball fan has probably once dreamt of becoming a General Manager. Maybe it’s because your favorite team’s front office just keeps on falling short and you daydream about taking over the organization so that you could make the right trades and pick the right prospects, or maybe you just want to get as close to the game as possible and have a try at applying your basketball IQ. Who wouldn’t want to build a roster of a dynasty, right?

Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely for basketball purists around the world to even be part of a team’s staff. That’s just the sad reality that basketball fans have to face.

This is why there’s such a thing as fantasy basketball leagues. Through fantasy basketball, fans are able to step into the shoes of the GM and build their own team, competing with other fantasy GMs in their own respective leagues. Some people like to do it for fun, while others introduce a monetary aspect to the competition. Whichever you prefer, here are some tips that will give you an edge over other fantasy GMs.

1. Go Big on Your Point Guard

The point guard is the deepest position in the NBA right now. From veteran stars such as Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook to youngsters like Trae Young and Lonzo Ball, the point guard position offers a variety of pickings for your fantasy team.

This means that the competition is much stiffer and picking a strong point guard early is vital. The increase in the role of point guards into all-around floor generals who can score from all levels has diversified the position and has made it much more important to strike early and pick a point guard who’s a cut above the rest.

2. Diversify Your Lineup with Players from Different Teams

The NBA is a league that is dominated by stars. All-stars are naturally the most recognizable for fans and are usually early pickings in fantasy leagues, but not all teams have the luxury of having an all-star player, and all-stars are but a small portion of the league’s population.

This is why it’s important to diversify your roster and include players from various teams. There are only so many pieces of the statistics pie for every team, especially in star-studded super teams. As much as possible, get players from various teams and try to go for those who produce the most for their respective teams.

3. Don’t Underestimate Players on Terrible Teams

Winning teams and players are naturally the most popular among fans and fantasy GMs. Of course, everyone wants a LeBron, a Harden, and a Jokic on their team, but their individual and team success and popularity will make it inevitable that they get taken early.

This is where extensive knowledge of the league will pay off. Every team has a focal point, even the terrible ones. In effect, there are players from terrible teams who rack up the stats but don’t get much recognition due to their teams’ poor performance. Think Zach LaVine or Bradley Beal. Who knows, maybe a lottery team’s best player might even statistically outperform an all-star who has to share the ball and the court with other stars in a super team?

4. Gather Stat-Stuffers

You want your team to cover as much ground as possible. Sure, it’s great having a 33 PPG scorer on your team, but what good is that if that player’s other stats are abysmal? Although it is possible to build a team full of specialists, in that you have different guys for different stats, it’s way better to stack stat-stuffers who cover every need.

This is the reason why players like LeBron and Westbrook are always taken as early as possible. Players who cover all bases are just better not just for actual basketball games, but also for fantasy leagues.

5. Trade Wisely

A crucial part of building your team is gathering assets that you can trade. This is where the importance of taking players from various teams and recognizing players from bad teams comes into play. Make sure that you have expendable assets that other GMs might need and use these assets to transact wisely.

Only make trades when you’re sure that you will benefit, and only do so when there’s a stat that needs to be augmented. Equally important is structuring your team and designating which players are unnegotiable. It’s generally unwise to trade an all-around stat-stuffer for a high-scoring player if your overall stats are doing just fine.

6. Plan According to Your League’s Format

Your strategy must be largely dependent on whether you’re playing in a roto or a head-to-head league. The different types of fantasy leagues go by different rules and things that make a difference in one do not necessarily affect the other type of fantasy league.

By tailoring your strategy with your league’s format, you can make wiser decisions based on particular considerations such as a player’s injury history and shooting percentages.

7. Keep Track of the Right Information

Knowledge is indeed power, especially in fantasy basketball. It’s expected for casual fans who are trying their hand in fantasy basketball to pick the renowned superstars of the league and other household names when building their teams. However, not unlike the NBA, star power isn’t everything.

Keeping track of various information such as player movement, injury reports, and overall statistics is essential when building your fantasy team. While tracking statistics should take center stage in fantasy, basketball also has an exciting show business aspect, with all the feuds and drama going on among players and teams, and even within some organizations. These all contribute to a player’s performance on the court. Raise your edge by making sure that you’re updated on what’s happening in the league as these events will guide you in how you construct your team and make moves as the season rolls on.

Fantasy basketball - How to win your fantasy league

Sep 21, 2022

Andre SnellingsESPN

People ask me all the time for tips on how to win their fantasy basketball leagues. I love having those conversations, and I'll typically go as far as someone wants as far as the level of advice.

What I tell my father-in-law or my children on how to get into fantasy leagues is a lot different than what I'd tell someone that's been playing fantasy hoops every year for 20 years and is looking for Jedi-level tricks to get that little bit of edge.

For this space, I'll address the group of people that lives in the middle of those two extremes. But if you're the latter, and want to dive deep and/or get specific about your questions for your specific league... definitely hit me up on Twitter @ProfessorDrz.

The Draft

The draft is one of the most fun parts of fantasy sports, and it's also how you set your team up for success. Is it still possible to win a league if you had a bad draft? Yes, it is. But man, a great draft makes it so much easier to win if you start off with the type of strong foundation you can get through the draft.

Create or join an ESPN Fantasy Basketball league today and draft your league any time before the first game tips off every Monday. Your league starts fresh with 0-0 records for the new matchup period.

Sign up for free!

The first advice I'd give for drafting is make sure to take some time to prepare. I've been playing in fantasy leagues for decades, and I'll have draft-day conversations all the time with friends that say, "Hey. I haven't looked at this league much, yet. You got rankings or something I can look at?"

The answer is, of course, yes -- I've got rankings for you to look at. These days, those rankings are on ESPN. Which means that literally everyone in the league has those same rankings to work off. Don't get me wrong, it's important to have rankings. But, it'd be even better if you had a good idea about why players are ranked where they are, so you can decide if you agree with the rankings and adjust accordingly.

To do that, you'd need to be paying attention to NBA offseason coverage. What players have moved in free agency and offseason trades, and what were the fantasy ramifications of those moves? Which young players finished last season much stronger than their season averages and seem likely to make a leap this season? Who were the most impressive rookies coming out of the NBA Draft, or even better, coming out of the NBA Las Vegas Summer League?

Answering these questions are key to your draft prep. They should also be fun to answer, because it just means that you learn more about what's going on in the hoops world. You're not studying for a test, you're instead digging further into the sport that you love. And by doing so, it puts you in a better position to win your leagues.

Winning strategies

It's important to know the scoring system you're playing, and to draft according to it. A points-based league will have a different set of expectations and necessities than a roto league, which is also different than a roto head-to-head league. Category specialists are more valuable in the roto-style leagues than points-based, whereas efficient volume scorers that don't contribute across the board or that may have a horrible FT% on high volume may be more valuable in points leagues. Draft accordingly.

It's just as important to know your history when it comes to the players. These days, there are a lot of players with a huge dichotomy between their per-game potential and their history of game-to-game availability.

Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons may both project to top-20 producers on a game-to-game basis. But, between them, they missed triple digit games last season, for a variety of reasons that it'd behoove you to understand.

No player in the league is a greater risk/reward in fantasy basketball than Kyrie Irving. Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Kawhi Leonard may have a top-10 per-game average, but his load management history suggests strongly he could miss up to 25% of the games even if he doesn't have an injury relapse.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant could challenge for number one in terms of per-game averages, but they're both at the stage of their careers where they've been typically missing major swathes of games. You need to keep these types of things in mind, before you decide whether to spend a first, second, third or fourth round pick on these types of players... or whether you want to let someone else in your league deal with the situation.

Start building your team around the best players available moreso than drafting for team fit. Particularly for the first few rounds, it's better to build around the players that will generate the most points than worry about whether you have two or three of one position over another. With that said, Jedi-level drafting will pay some attention to position scarcity, but as a tie-breaker as opposed to a leading factor.

If I've got a choice between a player that I believe will average 55 fantasy points vs. one that'll average 50, for example, I'm taking the former every time. But, if I've got a choice between two players that I think will both average about 50 fantasy points, and one plays a position where there are plenty of producers available even into late rounds (say, point guard) while the other plays a position where the talent falls off quickly (say, small forward), then in this case I'd be more likely to draft the latter.

Middle and later rounds

Now, in the middle rounds of the draft, I typically start paying more attention to team fit and making sure I have strong contributors across the board. By rounds 5-8 I'm also making sure I don't have any position holes that I don't think I can adequately fill in the later rounds.

And speaking of the later rounds, since by then I already have my foundation in place with sufficient positional flexibility, when it gets to the late rounds I'm shooting my 30-foot Steph Curry-like bombs with my picks. I'm going after my sleepers. I'm taking more chances. I'm leaning into more risk-reward type plays, instead of just going with steady contributors.

Often, it's the players taken late in drafts that hit that end up being champion-making picks.

Think a level deeper

Think about where your players of interest are in their careers, and how that might affect their production. You want to draft younger veteran players that are trying to carry their teams into postseason consideration... they tend to be more durable and play more minutes because they're younger but have their NBA legs under them. And they have to do everything they can to get their teams to the promised land.

On the other side of the coin, maybe you think twice about bringing in players that may be the best in the game, but they're older and playing on teams that are championship-or-bust... and therefore will have an eye on staying fresh for the postseason as opposed to going all-out every game for the regular season.

Another next level thing to keep in mind, that may be trite but also contains truth: pay attention to players that may have some contract year motivations. For example, I already mentioned about Irving's history of missing major swathes of games. However, this offseason he had a majorly publicized contract disagreement with his team, and thus next offseason he will be negotiating his next big deal.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith has suggested that Irving might even be an MVP frontrunner this season because of his motivation level. These types of considerations play into fantasy hoops expected production as well, and you should be prepared to judge accordingly.

Early season and free agency

Be flexible and ready to make moves, right out the gate. One habit that I had to change was relying too heavily on my "draft brilliance," even once the season began and initial information was different than expectation. If my 13th round sleeper starts off the season on the bench or playing poorly, but there's an undrafted free agent that's scored 20 points in the first two games, I have to be willing to drop my drafted player to move onto the better prospect.

I see those first couple of weeks as crucial, because many overlooked players will make themselves known early. And you've got to be ready and willing to give them a try early, before your competition does.

Another decision that can be tough is deciding whether to move on from injured players... or whether to stash them. To me, it's all a question of potential reward vs, availability. In order for me to stash an injured player, that player has to be significantly better than any player available on the free agency wire. The roster composition on my team also has to be strong enough to survive having an injured player on the bench. 'Injured list' spots are crucial, and allow more stashing.

Similarly, weekly transaction leagues may not require as deep of an active bench as daily transaction leagues, where volume of player availability absolutely helps determine weekly wins and losses. In a daily transaction league with no injured list and/or shallow benches, I'm not stashing any player short of a superstar.

If I'm in a team with 10 or fewer teams, or with fewer than 13 roster spots per team, I'm also much more likely to move on quickly from injured players because the free agency wire is likely to have more productive players and the line between what can be found on the wire vs. the average rostered fantasy producer is even thinner.

In a 10-team league that starts 10 players with three bench slots, the production of a 'fantasy starter' ranked in the 90s and the 131st ranked player on the wire is going to be similar enough that it'd make no sense to stash that injured player on your bench for six weeks instead of getting the production of the 131st ranked player for all that time.

Trading

I'm a firm believer that trading is the absolute key to winning championships in fantasy sports. Very often, at the end of the season, the teams that have pulled off the most trades tend to be clustered more toward the top of the leagues. Trades are your opportunity to look at your teams, identify strengths and weaknesses, and identify specific players to acquire to help accentuate the strengths and/or minimize the weaknesses.

To that end, there are important methods for making good trades. First, you need to really understand your team. Did you come out of the draft with any clear positions that weren't up to standards? Did you end up having to rely on a player(s) with a history of injury or high risk/reward, without a suitable backup and/or level of redundancy? Or, conversely, do you have great depth but not enough pop in your starting lineup such that you're unable to maximize your daily output with too much firepower on the bench?

Take some time to evaluate your team, so that you know exactly what you might hope to gain in a trade on a more granular level than just "I want to get better." Next, evaluate the other teams in your league. In my best league performances, I not only know my own team's strengths and weaknesses, but I also know the same for the other teams. This is crucial, because it always takes at least two teams to trade. You can come up with trade ideas to get every great player in the league, but if your league mate(s) don't get what they need out of the bargain, there's no impetus for them to make a move.

Dejounte Murray, now with the Hawks, was a huge boost for anyone who traded for him last season. AP Photo/John Bazemore

I like to come into any trade negotiation with a logical reasoning for why the opponent should make the move, then build a deal so that they very visibly get what they want/need... while of course assuring that I get what I want as well.

Also, when you're ready to trade, know the personalities of the team managers you'll be dealing with, because the way you approach a trade negotiation will need to be case specific.

Some managers may respond well to you just sending them an offer, but in my experience, most won't. For some, adding a sentence or two of reasoning in the trade 'comments' area may be enough. For others, it might be best to send them an email with trade thoughts before you send any offer. For others still, I've found it best to call or text them about another topic entirely, then casually bring the conversation around to the fantasy league, and nudge the conversation along until you get them to bring up the topic of a trade. If they feel like the trade is their idea, they're more likely to say yes.

It's up to you to figure out the trading personalities of the people in your league, and to tailor your approach accordingly to maximize the likelihood of success. I like to trade early, and often. If you only operate off the draft, or maybe only do one or two trades in a season, it adds pressure to your evaluation skills early, because your team won't have much opportunity to improve. But if you trade often, it gives your team multiple opportunities to course correct and improve, even as the season progresses.

Final tips

Finally, and most importantly, have fun. Have an absolute ball.

Set up a group Zoom for your league on draft night, so all the team managers can talk trash to one another. Or, if possible, draft live.

If you're the defending champion in your league, show up to the draft with a WWE-style championship belt.

Make the manager that finished last the previous season buy everyone's drinks on draft night.

Personalize it. Make everyone love the league.

Once the season starts, maybe have some game-watching parties as a league. Either in person, or over Zoom.

Watch as many games as you can... I know one of my best investments when I got into fantasy sports was purchasing NBA League Pass for sheer enjoyment in addition to helping me keep up with my players and see for myself who I wanted to have on my team vs. potentially trading away.

Set up group chats or text chains. Create more opportunity to talk your stuff, bond and enjoy your league mates.

Not only do these things help motivate you to build a team that'll win, but they also help make your league super enjoyable and a daily joy for the next six or seven months of your life. If you can do that, then it's like you already won... OK, maybe that's a step too far.

Having a fun league is great but if you follow the advice in this article, you will hopefully put yourself in good position to take home the title. And trust me when I tell you -- there's nothing more fun than winning!

3 Tips for Winning Daily Fantasy Basketball

Daily fantasy sports pro player Peter "DraftCheat" Christensen gives 3 top tips for beginners on how to start winning at daily fantasy basketball.

Before we get into the NBA Daily Fantasy winning strategies, let me tell you how interesting and exciting it all is. Two years ago, I would have had to work hard to name 30 NBA players. Now I can shoot out the roster of every NBA team, and now it's my favorite fantasy sport. The feeling of fighting for the big prize in the GPP, when you have Stephen Curry in your roster, who literally starts pouring three-pointers and dragging you to victory, is simply indescribable. Add to this the significant edge that can be gained in daily fantasy basketball (if you know what you're doing), and you have a recipe for a very interesting and profitable activity. Or rather: an activity that becomes profitable.

1. Trust the bookies

Have you ever been to Las Vegas? Have you been to these huge, posh casinos? These monsters were built by smart people who knew what they were doing. One of the first steps to success in NBA daily fantasy (and even fantasy sports in general) is checking NBA quotes at bookmakers. You should aim for games with high Total Over and Total Under, which are predicted to be even games. If you have starters on your roster from a game that is far from being played by the end of the match, it is much more likely that your guys will play in those minutes.

If one team is beaten by another, you will often see starters going to the bench early to rest for the next game. Games predicted by the bookmaker to have a high total are likely to score more fantasy points as this is based on the teams' pace of play. High Total games tend to not only earn more points for your players, but also more rebounds, assists, blocks and steals, and more possession time. Finally, in a tied game there is always the potential to get bonus minutes in overtime. Owning players who have played in overtime can be a big advantage in big-field tournaments in the NBA's Daily Fantasy.

2. Minutes are everything

If you've never played Daily Fantasy Basketball, one lesson you'll quickly learn is that you should chase minutes. Given the nature of basketball, and the fact that only 5 people from each team can be on the court at a time, fantasy points are earned in almost every possession, be it through baskets, assists, rebounds, blocks or steals. This means that in daily fantasy basketball you need a roster of players who are likely to be on the court for the majority of the game. It can be hard to predict at times, but in general you should target starters in games that are predicted to be even, and players from teams that have few players left. Perhaps this statement sounds strange to those who do not follow the NBA closely. But as the season progresses, teams inevitably pick up injuries and suspensions, and there's often a team or two that don't have a lot of players available to play at the moment. When the team drops to 8 or 9healthy players, you can almost be sure that regardless of the score, the starters in this game will get a lot of minutes. Choose such players and reap the rewards.

3. Who owns the information owns the world

One of the most important aspects of Daily Fantasy Basketball, which is unique in the NBA, is the need to be at the computer until the start of the competition. Unlike other sports, in NBA daily fantasy, a lot of important information pops up much more often before the game starts. And if you play often enough, there will be times when you will frantically press the buttons, as a couple of your guys unexpectedly dropped out of the game a few minutes before the lineups closed. Even worse, if you ignore this news and end up drafting a player who will serve the entire game. You need to be vigilant and follow all NBA news on news sites and related sources on Twitter. Although it may sound complicated, if you know where to look and improve your information gathering process, it can really be a huge advantage in daily fantasy basketball and in the NBA in particular, as you are less likely to have zeros in their roasters.

Conclusion

There is much more to building winning rosters in Daily Fantasy Basketball. But the three points listed above are critical for those who are just starting out. Follow them and you will build a solid base to which you can add other profitable strategies and tools, such as individual matchup analysis. For starters, build a roster of high-scoring, tied-match players who are likely to play many minutes, and try to avoid dead players. This is already half the battle. The rest will come with time and experience. Just start playing daily fantasy basketball.

Good luck!

Read more: Sites where you can play NBA fantasy

Fantasy basketball is the best way to follow the NBA. The main thing is to add a commissioner, a lottery, fake news and a ring - PRO Basketball - Blogs

American fantasy basketball is a great way to follow the NBA, your favorite players and get the latest news.

I only discovered this thing last year and immediately made a league of friends. Among them are amateur basketball players, a VTB United League player, coaches and just fans. Age of participants from 20 to 36 years. Someone has been following basketball since childhood, and someone started thanks to fantasy. The main thing is that everyone is equally interested. And in this article I will tell you why.

What is fantasy

Let's take the ESPN.com tournament as an example.

Fantasy is a virtual game for basketball fans. They recruit real basketball players from the NBA to their team and act as a general manager: they carry out the draft, form the starting lineup for the week, expell, sign and trade players.

The essence is the same - every week to score more points than a rival in the league, win victories, rise in the standings and at the end of the season become the strongest in the playoffs.

This is the result of a match from last season and two fantasy squads

Fantasy basketball is based on the statistics of players in real basketball matches. It is important for the manager to gather the most effective players in the squad. After all, besides the fact that the effective action of a player in a real match brings points to the fantasy team. His losses and misses take away these points. Therefore, Russell Westbrook, with his triple-doubles and trash throws, is not the best option for fantasy.

Fantasy website or application counts players' fantasy scores in real time. Therefore, it is convenient and easy to follow. For example, a 3-pointer scored by Luka Doncic earns the team manager five fantasy points, and a Miles Turner block gives four points at once.

The table shows all the scoring actions of players who score in fantasy:

And this picture shows how the player's statistics from a real match are translated into fantasy points:

As you can see in a single confrontation, the center and point guard can be equally valuable.

The most important thing about fantasy on ESPN is the interface and the possibilities. Everything resembles the official NBA website and helps to feel involved in the basketball world. And each real basketball player can only be on one team. Therefore, the number of teams in the league is limited - from 4 to 20.

Why play fantasy

Understand the NBA. Fantasy Tournament is a great introduction to the NBA. Even for those who played basketball only on the console and most of the players do not know at all. Such fans begin to deal with fantasy, select lineups and develop their own tactics. And they organically immerse themselves in the NBA: they start watching matches, find out the names of the players, understand the difference between role players and the main team, and gradually understand the rules.

At the start, managers will definitely make mistakes and learn. For example, in our league, a basketball rookie gave away Drew Holiday and got Buddy Hill. This trade jeopardized the fantasy rookie season and helped the opponent win the championship.

Keep a close eye on the regular season. Fantasy motivates you to follow all regular season matches. The manager of a virtual team must know everything about the players of his team and a little about the players of the opponent: who was injured and how much, who is on fire now, and who fell on the bench.

At the same time, the manager monitors free players, reads the news and understands who is substituting for whom in real matches in order to sign the most valuable free agent. Therefore, every morning the fantasy manager checks the results of the matches, sometimes watches the games, finds the best players and changes his roster.

Watch matches with excitement. The manager gathers players from different teams. Therefore, he can always choose a match with his players and worry about them. For example, the outcome of a fantasy duel is decided by the match between Indiana and Chicago. The manager in the Sabonis team, and the rival Lavigne. Whoever plays better will win. The manager turns on the match, worries about every productive action of Sabonis and gets angry from every hit of Lavin.

Learn English. The site and app offer an English interface: main tabs, news, injury reports, statistics and forecasts.

At first it is difficult to navigate, but then the manager begins to understand basic basketball terms, watch broadcasts with his players and understand American commentators.

7 Tips for Making Fantasy Interesting

To make fantasy exciting, you need to create an entourage of the real basketball world around it.

1. Come up with a legend. When I launched the PRO League, I invited members through a letter from the NBA. The letter contains the date and time of the draft, highlights of the organization, and the commissioner's name and signature. Legend has it that Adam Silver appointed Kobe Bryant our heavenly commissioner. But a legend is nothing without live reinforcements.

2. Appoint a secret commissioner. In real life, one of the league members or an outside observer is hiding behind the commissar's mask. Kobe Bryant was commissioner last year and Wilt Chamberlain this year.

The commissioner explains the rules to the participants, runs the draft lottery, helps with the application, resolves conflicts and takes comments from the managers.

3. Create a Telegram channel and chat for discussions

The commissioner writes to the league members on Telegram and asks them about tactics, trades, player injuries, match results and draft expectations. He turns it all into stories and publishes it in the closed Telegram channel "Office PRO League". And he makes it all look like cards from the NBA on ESPN Instagram account.

Chat managers discuss each other's comments, matches, injuries and agree on exchanges. Sometimes they gather for a joint viewing. But most often they swear and tease each other in a comic manner. Therefore, the most reckless atmosphere can be created only in a chat with friends and acquaintances.

4. Hold a draft lottery. One of the most important attributes of fantasy basketball. By default, the computer distributes spades randomly. But in our league, the commissioner runs the draft lottery two weeks before the draft. Managers have time to swap picks if necessary, prepare a draft strategy, draw up a list of desirable players and complain a little about bad picks.

Commissioner runs the lottery backstage and then shoots a video of the draft order. It looks spectacular because the participants do not know the place in advance and do not know the person under the mask.

This is how the lottery went this year:

5. Call and conduct a draft. One of the most exciting parts of the fantasy tournament. The draft takes place on a certain day and a certain hour. So everyone should join. To make it more interesting, we arrange a video conference, because the participants live in different cities. This is how we show emotions when we take away other players or take away someone very desirable. At the same time, we have time to discuss our thoughts on teams and players. You can also get together live and assemble lineups face to face.

6. Place bets and forecasts. This is optional. We play fantasy for fun and have not yet connected the financial part. But they began to think about paid participation and the purchase of various valuable prizes with the money raised. You can also add weekly motivations. For example, advance bets on the outcome of fantasy fights. Or a weekly cash transfer from the manager of the worst team to the manager of the best.