How to draft the best fantasy basketball team

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.

The best strategies to dominate your fantasy basketball drafts

Nov 16, 2020

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Think about it. When you're rapping about fantasy sports with a stranger at a bar or chattering away online with your friends, what are you talking about 99. 9 percent of the time? Player rankings, right? This guy is better than that guy. I can't stand Player X and will never roster him. I love Player Y and want to be his best friend.

Whether you're new to the fantasy game, a grizzled veteran or a so-called expert, we all do the same thing. It's not without merit, of course. If you don't have a sound opinion on which player is better than another, you have no hope of winning your league.

But ranking your players is just the beginning of the process. What we should be talking about 99.9 percent of the time is pre-draft strategy because knowing how to construct the best team possible is how you win championships. That's why we draft our teams live rather than going straight down a cheat sheet, taking the top player available each turn.

Let's take a look at some tried and true methods to help you construct the best team possible in your fantasy hoops drafts.

Know your league rules

This seems about as basic as it gets, but we've all made mistakes, such as thinking a league started two centers instead of one. One simple mistake like that could wreck your whole roster. Think of the potential ramifications. You could end up reaching for that second center in the middle rounds instead of a real breakout power forward, or you could take a decent center with your third pick instead of a surefire star shooting guard.

In fact, you need to think through each rule and the potential ramifications of both good and bad draft-day decisions.

What's your scoring system?

If it's a nine-category rotisserie league, the 3.5 turnovers per game Joel Embiid has averaged for his career might make you think twice about taking him too early.

Whether eight- or nine-category roto, a guy such as Andre Drummond could torpedo your free throw category. On the other hand, in a category-based, head-to-head (h3H) system in which you get the weekly win if you outperform your opponent in more categories, you could draft Drummond, toss out the free throw category and focus the rest of your draft on winning the other categories, knowing you have a great start in rebounds, blocks and field goal percentage.

If it's a points-based, h3H system in which you earn a certain amount of points for each rebound, block, etc., you'll want to determine what that scoring system stresses and how it affects the stat production of your players. Are shot-blockers rewarded more than 3-point shooters? Are turnovers really costly?

What are your roster size and limits?

If you have eight people in a league and use only 10 roster spots, everyone's roster will be full of quality players. Because every player on every roster is sure to produce, you'll want to focus on having balanced production in all categories in roto leagues. Odds are, in a small league such as that, you'll have to be near the top of every category by season's end to win (i.e., you can't "punt" a category).

On the other hand, if you have 14 teams and 13 roster spots, you better make sure you have a good handle on the values of the top 180-plus players. That's because not every player on every roster will produce a lot, so the more low-end players you have giving you quality stats, the bigger advantage you'll have overall.

A lot of leagues use rosters that are loose on positions. Maybe you have PG, SG, SF, PF and C, but you also have a couple of guard spots, a couple of forward spots and a couple of flex positions. In this case, you don't need to pay much attention to which positions you are filling during your draft, because the G, F and flex spots give you a lot of leeway.

This is especially true these days, when the NBA is largely a position-less league, which has resulted in many or most players being granted multiple position eligibility in fantasy hoops games. There is no shortage of PG/SG, SG/SF, SF/PF and PF/C players in ESPN leagues.

On the other hand, if your league has strict roster requirements, you'll have to pay close attention while filling out your roster during your draft. Say your league requires two each at PG, SG, SF, PF and C and has no flex spots. You'll be in a tight bind if you wait until the middle rounds to address your PG and C positions.

Think about your draft position

Ideally, your commissioner will let you know the draft order well in advance. But even if you let ESPN's system randomize your draft order, you'll find out your draft spot an hour before the draft begins, and that's enough time to at least give it some thought.

I believe this is the most important part of your pre-draft strategy. Think through your first pick and beyond it. Consider what your team should look like after the first four or five rounds -- map it out.

If you're deciding whether you want Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry in the first round of a roto draft, you aren't choosing just between those two stars. You are deciding what the next few players you draft should look like too. If you go with The KAT, you'll have a terrific base of big-man stats and should focus your next couple of rounds on stocking up on dimes and 3s. If you go with Curry, you'll be in great shape for dimes and 3s, but you might want to aim for a big man for blocks and rebounds in Round 2.

If you're drafting last in the first round of a snake draft, you'll get two picks in a row. This gives you a nice advantage because you can pair two players to make the foundation of your team. If you can get Damian Lillard and Rudy Gobert, you'll have a good base of stats for your team in every category. But maybe Lillard and Russell Westbrook are clearly the two best players remaining, in your opinion. There's nothing wrong with taking them, but it will affect your next few rounds, as you'll have little need for point guard production after that.

You should map it out. Get your cheat sheet set, and mark off where your first-, second-, third- and fourth-round picks will fall. Then you'll see which players you can get with each pick (e.g., if you draft first out of 12 teams, you know you will get three of your top 25 players). Examine the players ranked just ahead of your draft spots carefully, so that when it's your turn to draft, you're deciding between two or three players you've already studied. Then it's just a matter of determining whether you want to take the best player of that group or set your roster up in a certain way.

Know your fellow managers

If you're in several leagues, you know that some managers trade, and some don't. In the fantasy sports industry, most of us have a slew of leagues. With limited time to spend on each of them, many industry leagues have few, if any, trades. So when you draft your team, you know that aside from waiver-wire work, that's probably going to be your team for the season.

In leagues in which you know you have little chance of trading, you need to construct your team well during the draft. In most scoring systems, you can't have a big hole in scoring and blocks, or you probably can't win. You also can't have a complete dud starting at point guard and no depth at that position, or you'll have a brutal time making any headway in assists.

On the other hand, if everyone in your league loves to trade, you can lean more toward drafting the best player available each round because you know you can tweak your roster by selling from your strong categories or positions to fill out your weak ones.

If you know your managers personally, you can take advantage of that too. Suppose a guy in your league is known for overpaying in trades, and you know his favorite player in the world is Trae Young. You might need a center, but you could draft the guard Young because you can be reasonably sure you can flip him in a trade for a better player than the centers left in the draft.

Also consider drafting extra players at one position to trade them, especially in leagues with tight roster settings, such as two-center leagues.

Filling out your roster

While you really must set up a quality backbone to your team in the first four or five rounds, leagues are won and lost in the final third of your draft. Did you select Pascal Siakam or Luka Doncic last season? How about Lonzo Ball or Devonte' Graham? Did you win? Did you lose? Admittedly, there's a lot of luck involved, but the better you're prepared ahead of time, the smaller role luck plays and the better your odds of winning.

I pay far less attention to rankings in the latter rounds of drafts and far more attention to players I aim for, regardless of which round it is. I recommend going through the bottom third of your cheat sheet and highlighting players you would like to have on your team. Although there are reasons you might rank Chris Paul above Jamal Murray in a vacuum, I am more inclined to draft the younger Murray. He has a ton of upside and could exceed his draft spot, unlike the veteran CP3.

In the latter rounds, I'm focused primarily on upside -- players who have a shot at breaking out, whether through natural development of their talent or because the only thing stopping their explosion is a brittle or overrated guy ahead of him on the depth chart.

Don't get cute, though. If every player you take in the bottom third of your draft is just as likely to do nothing as to explode, you're probably going to be in trouble. Make sure you have at least two or three guys whom you can bank on to give you some production every week, and surround them with skilled guys who can outperform their draft spots.

I'm certain that if you heed my advice on pre-draft strategy, you'll have your best drafts to date. The more prepared you are before a draft, the fewer mistakes and more correct decisions you'll make during the draft. Think about it.

TOP 13 best basketball movies

A list of good basketball films: there will be stories about victories over oneself and the arrogance of others, there will be legendary basketball players and fictional stars from the ghetto. And then there will be NBA players and coaches who believed in their guys even when the whole world looked away and lowered its head. Basketball players do not give up - this is a sport for those who always strive to the top, even after hundreds of offensive falls. So it will be interesting for those who have not heard about players like Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal: there is something inspiring for everyone in sports movies.

Rebound (2005, USA)

comedy

Director: Steve Carr
Script: John Lucas (“Boy in Vegas”)
Cast: Martin Lawrence, Wendy Racuel Maher
Kinopoisk: 9000 900 9000 9000 6, 9000 9000 9000 900 9000 900 9000 900 9000 9000 6, 6, 9000 9000 9000 9000 6, 6
IMDb: 5. 2

9,000 : 6.6

This basketball movie is based on real events.

Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive hurricane in US history, displacing more than half a million people from their homes, and the survivors of the disaster faced a lack of electricity, water, schools and jobs. August 5, 2005 will forever go down in the history of New Orleans, and in the cinema there will remain the exploits of people who, despite the difficulties, the helplessness of the authorities and the growing crime rate, believed that everything would work out and tried to return the victims to normal life. An example of such heroes is a basketball coach who brought together guys from different schools into one team and led them to a decent result in the state championship. Teenagers who previously did not know or dislike each other must come together in a short time and believe that the future is worth the effort, even if tomorrow the world collapses again.

Trailer:

Love and Basketball (2000, USA)

sports drama, melodrama

Director and screenwriter: Gina Prince Baytvud
Cast: OMAR EPPS, Sanaa Laten, Elfrey Woodard
KinoPoisk: 7. 6
9000

A film about a guy and a girl who have been in love with each other and basketball since childhood. And in the outwardly happy, harmonious story, a whole minefield of dramas is scattered. Monica and Quincy devoted themselves to the game: they played in school, played in college, and also played after college. Only now, in the excitement and frenzied energy of the site, the guys began to forget that the rest of life is not a game. There is no arbiter here who will immediately notice the violation, and retribution for mistakes is not a card, but the loss of loved ones, loneliness, and sometimes someone's broken destinies.

Chasing a career and a dream at the expense of one's own happiness is just one problem that keeps Monica and Quincy from being together. Another sore point is the different price of success. Quincy, whose father is a famous NBA player, achieves the captaincy and flutters around the court as easily as if his fairy godmother is Jordan himself. During this time, Monica trains to the point of fainting, struggles with the gender stereotypes of a conservative mother, and still watches many basketball games from the bench.

Bottom line: in a simple story about two real athletes who hate to lose and be afraid to be weak, the creators fit both a suitable melodrama and a serious motivating movie. Here are touching scenes when young heroes play together on the lawn at night and dream about the future, and a well-developed metaphor that everything in life is like in basketball - fractures, losses, falls, helplessness, desperate jerks and the speed at which the world narrows down to one point. We didn’t forget about important questions about a career in professional sports and socially important topics, such as unwanted marriage and self-acceptance - everything to think about and not get bored with the visual.

Trailer:

Omar Epps was nominated for the MTV Award for Best Actor.

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Pape is 17 Again (2009, USA)

comedy, romance

Director: Burr Steers
Screenplay: Jason Filardi
Cast: Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Perry

Mike O'Donnell whines all the time: kids don't obey, friend is a freak stuck in adolescence, job is boring, wife isn't the same anymore, tired of wearing a suit, no happiness, life sucks. In order to take his mind off these depressing thoughts a little, Michael drives his wife into depression and constantly mentally returns to his school years, to the day when he chose a family, and not a college with an athletic scholarship. When Mike was seventeen, his girlfriend became pregnant, and the star of the school basketball team, a dream boy with a bright future, gave up everything to stay with his lover and raise a child. Adult act of an adult man. But twenty years later, the supply of nobility and love in Mike's soul ended, and the hero turned into a capricious Dementor, pulling out all the good things from his loved ones. A karmic lesson is needed here, and the universe hurries to the hero with a magical cuff. Mike suddenly turns into a seventeen-year-old guy and becomes a classmate of his own son, goes to his own school and shines again on the basketball court. The coach adores him, schoolgirls drop textbooks at the mere sight of him, a sports career in basketball shines ahead again - but all this does not mean anything anymore, because there will not be the same one nearby. Mike needs to understand himself, help his children during a difficult school period and return to his beloved wife as soon as possible.

Trailer:

And for this film, Zac Efron was nominated for the MTV Award for Best Actor.

His game (1998, USA)

sports drama

Director/Writer: Spike Lee (Uncaught, No Thief, Black Klansman)
Cast: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich
Movie Search: 7.2
IMDb: 6.9

Jesus Shuttlesworth grows up without parents, takes care of his younger sister and beats out resentment against the world on the basketball court. And Jesus really has something to run furiously from, banging the ball on the asphalt - his father killed his mother six years ago. For this, Jake, the elder Shuttlesworth, was sentenced to fifteen years, but the head of the prison gives the killer a chance to reduce the term. The subject of the deal - Jesus, as the most visible and talented player in the city, must go to the right university to bring the local basketball team out of shameful oblivion. Jake is released from behind bars for a few days, but it is hardly possible to regain his son's trust so quickly after the murder of his mother.

The role of Jesus was played by Allen Ray, the NBA record three-pointer, sportsmanship award winner, basketball hall of famer and Olympic champion, a humble, intelligent basketball monster. You can definitely not worry about the quality of the image of the game on the screen. It also shows that real talent is not only a ticket to a secure future, but also a piece of fresh meat for starving predators. There is a fierce hunt for Jesus, and everyone around wants to use the guy for their own purposes - success is dizzy, but if you fall, the fanatical crowd will scatter, and out of a million outstretched hands, not one may remain.

Trailer:

The film is not based on real events, but Tupac's fans note that the rapper did not seem to play - he was just himself on the screen.

Basketball fever (1996, USA)

comedy

Director: Tom Deserchio
Screenplay: Judd Apatow ("Forty Year Old Virgin", "Knocked Up")
Cast: Damon Wayans, Daniel Stern, Dan Aykroyd
MovieSearch: 6.5

The film is not so much about basketball, but about the fans of the major basketball league. Schoolteacher Mike and plumber Jimmy go to every Boston Celtics game and are willing to do anything for another win for their team. Even the kidnapping of the famous and player Scott Lewis, who plays for rivals and seriously threatens the victory of the Celtics. Scott had the imprudence to come to the bar shortly before the match - then Mike and Jimmy finally understand: while they are “part of the ship, part of the team”, their not very successful life is filled with vivid emotions and a sense of something significant, which means that the ship will never must drown.

Tom Shepard could play in the NBA and be friends with Shaquille O'Neal or Kobe Bryant. But instead, a talented man works as a school watchman: a gray reality without hopes and prospects is an excellent hiding place from feelings of guilt. Several years ago, Tom's friend died, and Shepard could never forgive himself for this. Now Tom takes the ball in his hands only at night and alone fights an invisible enemy. One of these workouts is noticed by the main character, high school student Kyle Watson. The guy plays brilliantly, but his temper and aggressiveness prevent Watson from getting an athletic scholarship at a prestigious college. But these qualities do not prevent Kyle from joining the criminal gang: the talented game of the schoolboy was noted by Ptah, the leader of the most influential gang in the area. Kyle finds it hard to resist the temptations: Bird knows what it's like to live in a poor neighborhood with a single mother, and offers Watson gifts for loyalty. Security guard Tom Shepard understands that Watson needs help, and the man will finally stop running from life and is trying to pull Kyle off the streets.

Trailer:

White people can't jump (1992, USA)

sports drama, comedy

Director and screenwriter: Ron Shelton
Cast: Uesley Snips, Woody Harrelson, Rozi Perez
KinoPoisk: 7.4
IMDB: 900 6.8 6.8

After the movie, Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes lit up in two nominations for the MTV award: for "Best Screen Duo" and "Best Kiss". Their criminal bromance really leaves few people indifferent: it's funny, it's powerful and it's unexpected.

Billy Hoyle realized that it was impossible to threaten South Central long before the release of the legendary comedy. The white guy Billy in the African American ghetto did not even try to show everyone what a cool basketball player he is, but he cleverly makes money on it. Blacks look at Billy as a naive child who got involved in a game with adult uncles, but in fact Billy turns out to be Eminem from streetball, and easily takes the money of those who do not believe in the white's success on the court. Billy carries all dishonestly earned banknotes into a three-liter piggy bank to pay off debts. Gloria, Billy's girlfriend, who dreams of a cozy home without any criminal sports, puts all her savings there. The only problem is, Billy and Gloria live in dreams of different rings, but it will not be clear soon. In the meantime, Sidney bursts into Billy's life - one of the skeptics, who at first did not recognize Billy as a serious player, and then realized that it was easier and more fun to monetize white stereotypes together. This is how an on-screen duo appeared, capable of pulling out both a hackneyed script and a two-hour timekeeping.

Trailer:

Space Jam (1996)

comedy

Director: Joe Pitka
Script: Leonardo Benvenuti
Cast: Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Teresa Murray
Kinopoisk: Kinopoisk IMDb: 6. 4