How to create a fantasy basketball team

Ten Rules To Follow When Building a Successful Fantasy Basketball Team | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

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Ten Rules To Follow When Building a Successful Fantasy Basketball Team

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Although not as dominant the fantasy sport that football is, fantasy basketball leagues have been able to acquire a relatively loyal following throughout the years. While football will always be number one due to its gigantic fan base and almost excessive coverage from various mainstream media angles, fantasy basketball will always be an undeniable, lesser force which will attract many NBA fans.

Fantasy leagues are basically heaven for stat geeks, where points are assigned to different statistical categories for sports gurus to breakdown in hopes of putting together the master team. What makes fantasy sports so compelling, like sports in real life, is the unforeseen changes that occur throughout the duration of the season, such as injuries (sometimes nagging, other times season-ending), players struggling to find their groove, or random figures emerging from obscurity to become coveted chips for any fantasy owner.

Here are ten rules to follow for putting together a team that should have an undeniably solid chance at being awarded champions of their league at year’s end.

No. 10: Staying Confident In Your Team

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Sure, there will be times when your guys have off nights or show signs of regression, but you should attempt to stay confident with who you pick, even if they suck for more than a few games. I cannot even tell you how many times I have benched a player after a bad game and he goes off for 30 points and seven boards on my bench.

This is what happens in fantasy sports. You have these guys for 82 games and most of the time, they do a great job. So I would stress having confidence in your guys. Only when you are one hundred percent certain that a player will not return to original form or is going to be out for a while due to a nagging injury—waiving him might be a good decision.

Otherwise, stay patient, no matter how hard it might be sometimes.

No. 9: Don't Overvalue Scoring

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Sure, scoring threats inside and outside are ones to be desired, but never underestimate other categories such as rebounds, assists, and blocks. That’s why guys like Gerald Wallace and Rajon Rondo are such awesome players to have on your fantasy teams, because even when they do not light up the scoreboard, it is still very important to have players that will fill up each category (except for turnovers) each night.

I am not saying that scorers who do not really do much else besides hit threes are horrible (Kyle Korver), but I would definitely advise against taking players who just specialize in scoring in a high round, since they will be around on waiver wire or during the last rounds most likely.

No 8: Beware Of The Rookie Wall

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Sure, guys like John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Derrick Favors look like they are going to be very nice NBA players. However, one must always take into consideration the dreaded “wall” most first-year players run into during the later part of the season. Since all of these players are not as well adjusted to an 82 game schedule as other veteran players in the league, this might make for an erratic season for some.

Take for example Brandon Jennings or DeJuan Blair, who were both phenomenal to start the year and had overall good years for their respected squads, but both players crashed hard into the rookie wall last year. It happens to most rookies, it takes a special talent to hop over it (maybe Wall fits in here? We’ll see…).

No 7: Make Sure At Least One Of Your Big Men Is a Nightly Double-Double Threat

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Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, heck even Zach Randolph are names that pop to mind when one is searching for that coveted double-double nightly threat. Maybe one of your forwards or centers is a rebounding/shot-blocking machine, but make sure one of the guys you pick in the draft will at least be a consistent menace on both the low-block and glass.

It is important to have a low-post scorer with a high field goal percentage on any team if you have to be successful.

No 6: Aim to Have Atleast One All-Around Player

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Take for example my team—I made Rajon Rondo fit into this category. He does everything generally well and can be a triple-double threat any given night. However, he is not alone in this category. Guys like Andre Iguodala and Gerald Wallace also possess the ability to fill up the stat sheet on random nights.

If you can, try to get a guy who is balanced across the board, since double-doubles and triple-doubles are definitely desired by anyone who is enamored with fantasy basketball.

No 5: Make Sure Your Guards Are Not Turnover Machines

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Just like in real life, turnovers in fantasy suck and cost your team. Since guards handle the ball considerably more compared to the rest of the positions, it is absolutely important that your guards have a firm grasp on ball-control.

Although you might be able to get away with guys like Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry since they make up for their high turnover rate with impressive scoring, most of the time over three turnovers is where I draw the line. If you can get Steve Nash, a guy who can shoot from outside as well as have some ridiculous games from an assists perspective, I’d say you’re in good shape.

No 4: Never Discount Veteran Players

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Yes, guys like Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, and the like might be getting old and this potentially means they will not be as effective. That still does not mean they are not worth picking in early rounds.

With the current infatuation with young talent and potential, most old vets get tossed aside when it comes to draft time, as one would rather get a player that could really expand during the year instead of an aging star in the league.

Sometimes veteran players are the most driven to put up big games in order to get their team wins and to the playoffs, since their days as a professional athlete are numbered and they want to make the most out of what they have left. I am not saying that you should take a guy like Marcus Camby with your first pick or anything, but just keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with picking an older player who still has star qualities attached to his name.

No. 3: Try To Predict Breakout Stars

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It is not easy, I know. I would suggest going through teams’ rosters and picking players that will probably slide through many rounds, despite being projected to get a fair amount of playing time through the upcoming year. These guys emerge every year, and almost nobody sees them coming.

My best guess as of this year would be that Jrue Holiday has the biggest chance to shine, seeing he will be given the starting point guard duties in Philadelphia and he has already recorded a triple-double in preseason action. These types of players are usually selected in the later rounds where no one sees anything special in them other than an average contributor.

No 2: If You Are Going to Take One of The Big Three Early, Make It LeBron

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No offense to Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but LeBron has to be the favorite when it comes to picking between the three of them. Unlike Wade, who has to be satisfied in assisting with the huge off season haul, and Bosh who everyone knew was leaving Toronto after the season, LeBron has been doing a lot of talking back to his critics ever since he made the choice to “take his talents to South Beach”.

Let’s face it, if he does not win as many titles as Jordan and Kobe did/does, he is going to be eternally looked as a cheap-shot artist who robbed Cleveland of their pride and identity – all on national TV.

He claims that he is motivated to prove his doubters wrong, and I for one believe him. Despite being surrounded by two other huge talents, LeBron will bust out more than a few huge games that will make his owners proud.

No 1: Your First Pick Is Your Most Important One

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I know, it sounds obvious and cliché, but your first pick in the draft really is your most crucial one. It is hard to define who the best player for this particular setting might be, since names like Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and LeBron James all have very distinct skill sets.

Personally, I would suggest going with Kevin Durant, who is feeling secure after just signing an extension in Oklahoma City and who has the purest stroke in the league. He rebounds at a nice clip and has the ability to run the floor like Lamar Odom. He is without question one of the league’s strongest talents who can score in bunches and take over games when he wants to.

With your first pick, eye a guy who can just flat out dominate in one area, such as scoring, rebounding, or assists. If you are looking for defense right off the bat, Dwight Howard is definitely the favorite there.

Like Durant, Kobe Bryant will still be a force to be reckoned with. Whatever your first pick is, make sure you get a guy you know can put up big games in certain statistical categories, as this could propel you victories at key stretches in the season.

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Fantasy Basketball 2022-23: Tips and draft strategy for category format leagues

Jrue Holiday provides numbers — and therefore value — across multiple categories in fantasy basketball.

Special to Yahoo Sports

Whether it’s your first time playing fantasy sports or you’re a seasoned fantasy football player looking for a new challenge, this guide aims to educate you about how to approach a category-based fantasy basketball league. The tips and advice found here should help you construct a serviceable — and hopefully league-winning! — team, even if you haven’t been actively following the NBA or have never played fantasy before.

Almost all category leagues are either “8-cat” (eight default categories) or “9-cat” (nine default categories). The eight default categories are points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, 3s, FG% and FT%. Turnovers are the ninth default, and they’re the only difference between 8-cat and 9-cat leagues. 9-cat is more common on Yahoo, but you can play either format depending on what you prefer.

A few themes to remember if you play in a 9-cat league: High-usage players are often turnover machines, and rookies tend to be particularly turnover prone, especially rookie ballhandlers. Catch-and-shoot specialists (think PJ Tucker) and big men who don’t pass (like Clint Capela) tend to see the biggest boosts in 9-cat value.

[Get in on the fun this fantasy hoops season: Create or join a league now!]

Occasionally, league commissioners experiment with some other category options. Some of the most common alternatives are double-doubles, triple-doubles, splitting offensive and defensive rebounds into two categories, or changing the way field goal efficiency is measured (i.e. counting made field goals, made free throws, eFG%, TS%, or some combination thereof). If you play in one of these leagues with atypical categories, the most important thing to remember is that most fantasy advice is not tailored for your leagues. There is still a lot to gain and a lot to be learned from articles, tweets, podcasts, etc, but remember that all of that advice assumes that you’re playing in either 8-cat or 9-cat.

This isn’t special to category-based leagues, but fantasy managers need to know whether they set lineups every day or once a week and whether they have an IR spot. Managers in weekly lineup leagues or leagues without an IR spot need to be more cautious on draft day. Someone like Kawhi Leonard, who is likely to miss games for “load management”, does more damage in a weekly lineups league than a daily lineups league — in a daily lineups league, you can insert a replacement for just that day. Injuries are also easier to wait out if your roster has an IR spot. That way, you can add a new player without dropping the injured one.

This is the big one. In an h3H (head-to-head) league, you face off against one team per week — your categories against your opponent’s. In h3H leagues, the teams with the best records qualify for the playoffs, and the champion is the winner of the playoff tournament. In roto (short for rotisserie), teams compete against the entire league over the course of the season. In a 12-team league, the leader in a given category gains 12 points, second place gets 11, third place gets 10, and so on until last place gets a single point. The champion is the team with the most cumulative points on the final day of the season.

The most important difference between h3H and roto is that punting (deliberately ignoring multiple categories, so that you can build an extra strong team in the remaining categories) usually leads to different results. In h3H, a well-crafted punt build is the optimal strategy. However, in roto, punting successfully is much harder and not rewarded as explicitly.

The reason you should punt in a head-to-head league is that you’re only trying to win a majority of the categories — it’s okay if you lose a few. For example, if you’re in a 9-cat league, you can effectively punt four categories in an attempt to win the other five. The more unusual build the better, as you’ll potentially be competing against other people who are punting, and you want to overlap as little as possible. Something strange like punting points, 3s, rebounds and assists will shift values, so you can reach to secure players who fit your build. Last season, that build — steals, blocks, FG%, FT% and TO — yielded increased value for players like Robert Williams, Herb Jones, Jaren Jackson and Mikal Bridges.

One other note on h3H category leagues: There are two types. The Yahoo standard counts each category as one game per week. So in a 9-cat league, a manager will receive a result in the standings for each category they win, loss or tie. Win five categories and lose four, you’ll be 5-4 that week.In “h3H One Win”, only one result is added to the W-L-T record per week, determined by which team wins the most categories.

Category Scarcity

Blocks and Assists

Blocks and assists are the scarcest categories. Most of the league’s assists come from the top point guards, with a few notable exceptions. All of the non-point-guard assists leaders are going to get drafted, and most of them will go in the first couple of rounds. When a point guard becomes worthy of acquisition off the waiver wire, they rarely are high-impact passers.

Similarly, there will be some shot-blocking big men who emerge off waivers as the season rolls along, but, as with assists, those players rarely block enough shots to make a major impact. As with assists, most of the best shotblockers will all get drafted in the first couple of rounds.

Rebounds and 3-pointers

Rebounds and 3-pointers are much easier to find. While the league’s elite rebounders stay pretty steady year over year, there are always several big men who emerge early in the season as reliable sources of boards. Furthermore, as big men get hurt, their backups usually step in and provide a decent facsimile of the starter’s rebounding load.

Threes are a slightly different story, but the results are the same. As the total number of 3s has increased, finding quality 3-point shooters later in drafts has become easier and easier. Every year, a few players emerge as semi-surprising additions to the 3s-per-game leaderboard. Perhaps more importantly, due to the streaky nature of long-range shooting, managers who remain active on the waiver wire can usually find a few players going through a hot streak and averaging several made 3s per game.

Points

Points are tricky. On the one hand, all the best scorers are going to get drafted early. Unless you are deliberately punting the category, you’ll probably need to draft at least one 20-plus-point scorer early to stay competitive.

On the other hand, points are often overvalued by fantasy managers. Low scorers often get drafted much later than they should. High scorers get picked up off waivers much quicker, even if they provide little value in the other categories. Furthermore, as NBA offenses have changed, there are more high scorers available in the later rounds of drafts than ever before.

Points do become available on waivers throughout the season, but most of the time, it’s only players who score between 13 and 18 points. Those guys can help, but, here too, waivers are unlikely to bail you out if you missed on this category on draft day.

Steals

Steals are always available on waivers. The problem? Most of those players don’t provide enough help in the other categories to be worth rostering. That means that managers in daily lineups leagues can get meaningful help off of waivers, especially late in the week in a close h3H matchup, but that managers in weekly lineups leagues will have a harder time using the waiver wire to bolster their rosters.

The best way to stay competitive in steals is to try to draft elite two-way players relatively early, like Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday, so you don’t have to reach late in drafts for players who have murky roles and are generally unreliable.

FG% and FT%

Players’ FG% and FT% are more variable than many counting stats, and therefore harder to predict, even if they stay in the same role on the same team.

For that reason, managers should remain careful when trying to build strength in these two categories. If you think your team is good, but not great, in either FG% or FT%, then remember that your margin for error may be small.

One last note — there are also some well-founded strategic arguments against punting either shooting efficiency category. Foremost among them, is that it is likely another manager in your league may attempt the same build, and that a punt-percentages team suffers more than other roster builds when their team has fewer games than their opponent in a given week.

If you’ve played in points leagues before, and this is your first time playing in a category-based league, make sure to compare last season’s final ranks in points leagues to last season’s final ranks in category leagues. This should help you get a good sense of which players make some pretty big jumps and which fall.

Remember that category scarcity is now much more important that positional scarcity. Positions still matter, but they matter a lot less.

Lastly, and this applies to points leagues as well as category leagues: remember that your last few picks are probably going to be dropped a few weeks later anyway. Take a few risks on upside, or focus on players who might fill some specific categorical weakness — there is no such thing as “reaching” at the end of a draft.

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.

You will be interested in the article:

• if your idea of ​​fantasy ends with a tournament on Sports.ru;
• if you don't know what fantasy is;
• if you don't play because you don't speak English;
• if you want to know more about the NBA;
• if you have been playing fantasy for a long time, but you do not have enough real NBA attributes: draft lottery, news, commissioner or ring, for example.

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, to win, to rise in the standings and at the end of the season to become the strongest in the playoffs.

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

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.

The fantasy site or application calculates players' fantasy points 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 statistics of a player 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 replaces 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, conducts 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.

The 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. Make 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.

7. Give the champion's ring. Fighting for such a prize is much more interesting than just playing for money. The ring is canonical and unique. After the first season, the champion received a 100 gram artifact with the inscription Fantasy Champion and a basketball hoop on the surface. He came from the USA exactly the size of the winner. Next year, the champion will receive an even more custom ring with their fantasy team logo and, ideally, the final score.

That's it. Thank you for your time.

Tell us in the comments what is interesting about your fantasy leagues. Leave questions here or in my Telegram.

Where to play fantasy NBA?

Since the season in the most spectacular basketball league has already started, which means that the most attentive daily fantasy sports sites have already taken care of that part of their players who follow this sport, and have launched tournaments within which you can play fantasy NBA.

We have compiled a selection of DFS sites for you where you can play fantasy basketball for money or for free. But first, we offer a refresher on the basics of NBA daily fantasy so you can approach the game fully equipped.

How to play fantasy NBA?

Below is the general principle of NBA Daily Fantasy. However, we ask you to be careful, as details may vary from site to site. Therefore, before you start playing on a particular DFS site, study its rules. In general, daily fantasy basketball is the following.

NBA Fantasy Team Recruitment

Each tournament gives you a budget to build your own fantasy team, which on most sites will consist of 9 NBA players. The list of available players will include the participants of the matches of the selected game day.

The cost of player usually depends on:

• Average points for the season
• Number of points earned in the last game
• Popularity (% player ownership)

Normally your team will consist of 9 players from the following positions:

• Point Guard (PG)
• Shooting Guard (SG)
• Small Forward (SF)
• Power Forward (PF)
• Center (C)
• Guard (G)
• Forward (F)
• 2 Utility Players (UTIL) - Player of any position

What are points awarded for in NBA Daily Fantasy?

In Daily Fantasy Basketball, during matches, your team members earn or lose points for their actions on the court. On most DFS sites where you can play NBA fantasy, the following events are taken into account when calculating points :

• Point (Point)
• Three-Point Shot (3pt FG Made)
• Effective transmission (Assist)
• Rebound
• Blockshot (Block)
• Interception (Steal)
• Double-Double (Maximum 1 per player)
• Triple-Double (Maximum 1 per player)
• Loss (Turnover)
• Technical Foul
• Flagrant Foul

Before recruiting players to a team on a specific DFS site, study the available positions and the scoring system, as they differ on different sites.

Where to play NBA Daily Fantasy?

Now that you've got the NBA Daily Fantasy Rules in mind, check out the main articles from the Daily Fantasy Basketball Strategy section, as well as recommendations from DFS pro Peter "DraftCheat" Christensen . After that, you can start choosing a platform for playing daily fantasy basketball for money or for free.

Among the sites that provide the opportunity to play fantasy basketball, and the NBA in particular, we would like to highlight the following sites where you can play daily fantasy NBA from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia or other European and CIS countries.

Sites where you can play NBA Daily Fantasy for money

The above sites accept players from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other CIS and European countries, and provide an opportunity to play NBA fantasy for money or for free.

In addition to these sites, there are other sites, but it is impossible to play for money there if you do not live in the US or Canada. On such DFS sites, you can register using special programs to bypass blocking and play fantasy basketball for free. We do not recommend depositing money on such sites, as it may be difficult to withdraw winnings.

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Available fantasy Basketball fantasy: NBA, NCAA
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You are now pretty well prepared to start playing fantasy basketball. You know the basic rules of the game, refreshed your memory of the strategy, and received complete information about all the existing DFS sites where you can play NBA daily fantasy. It remains only to choose one or more, make a deposit and enter the game. Here are some guidelines to help you choose the right DFS site for your needs: