LeBron James is a bona fide first round pick in any fantasy format.
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Before you embark upon your quest, you have to select a path to follow, or, in this instance the type of fantasy basketball game you will play. Heretofore we will examine the most common type(s) of fantasy basketball games that are available for play and the factors that influence their play.
In most fantasy basketball formats, especially those that encourage participation by new or inexperienced owners, the league will consist of ten to twelve teams. More ambitious leagues will consist of as many as thirty teams, but it is not generally recommended that those new to the game participate in such expansive leagues, as the level of competition is far greater and can be daunting to the point of frustration, or worse. On your quest, adhere to convention and you’re far less likely to be disappointed. Even more than winning, having fun should be the primary objective here, although many of my colleagues would disagree. I will freely admit that winning is the most fun aspect of the game, but success is neither a necessary ingredient of nor blueprint for fun.
What is necessary is familiarizing yourself with the fantasy basketball vernacular—the lingo that is used to describe the various aspects of league play. You needn’t have a secret password to gain entrance into some otherworldly club of magic and mystery, but knowing the meanings of various terms about fantasy sports generally can only be of help. As this article will clearly illustrate, words such as “format”, “rotisserie”, and “snake” have meanings that differ from their everyday usage, and this newfound language will seem strange at first (much like Elfin), but will soon become the backbone of many a casual conversation.
Fantasy basketball leagues can track any number of statistics, but the most commonly used are the following eight: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, three point field goals made. Equally common is the addition of a ninth category, turnovers. Here again, finding a league with standard scoring categories will probably ease your transition into fantasy basketball. If nothing else, these run of the mill scoring categories will be the same ones your friends are likely to be using, giving you all one more thing to bond over—as if a bottle of Jack Daniels weren’t enough.
It is also important that you are fully aware of the roster positions that your league will utilize. While there is no “correct” way to configure a league, there are conventional and unconventional configurations that will necessarily influence both strategy and outcome. For the new or up-and-coming fantasy basketball owner, we’ll focus primarily on the most common position distribution—in this case, Point Guard, Shooting Guard, Guard, Small Forward, Power Forward, Forward, Center, Utility or UTIL, and Bench. Any and all players eligible for the Point Guard (PG) and/or Shooting Guard (SG) positions is also eligible for the Guard (G) position. This rule of thumb also applies to the Small Forward (SF) and Power Forward (PF) at Forward (F). An owner is allowed to use any and all players (regardless of designated position) at the Utility (UTIL) position. Your league will also have a pre-determined number of Bench positions—also able to be occupied by any and all active NBA players, regardless of position. Players that are on the bench will not accumulate points while on the bench. Only players on the active roster can accumulate points for a given fantasy owner’s team, regardless of scoring format.
The three most common scoring formats are Rotisserie (or ROTO), Head-to-Head (or H-2-H), and Points-Based. It’s not imperative that you chose the “right” one to have fun, but you will have to know the differences between them in order to be competitive in your league.
Points-based leagues use scoring categories with a point value assigned to each that determine each team’s score. This is perhaps the most simple of all fantasy scoring systems as it neither rewards nor penalizes an owner from being overly abundant or deficient in a given scoring category. However, points-based scoring games are not the most commonly used among default settings at most of the fantasy sports host-sites new players are likely to encounter. Far more common are ROTO and Head-to-Head leagues.
Rotisserie or ROTO leagues place teams in rank order from first to last in a number of statistical categories, as covered earlier. Points are then awarded according to the rank order in each given category. Points are then totaled to determine the overall rank of the teams. For example, the team that scores the most points in a league will be awarded a “10”, while the team that scores the fewest points will be awarded a “1”, and so on in between. The same rank formula is applied to all scoring categories and total rank is determined by adding the numerical values together to rank the teams from highest to lowest cumulative point total. At season’s end, the team with the highest point total is deemed the “winner”.
It’s been said frequently that head-to-Head (H2H) leagues are essentially the fast food of fantasy sports. To a certain degree this is probably true, as H2H offers both short and long-term rewards for winning. Head-to-Head leagues generate wins and losses based on weekly “head to head” match-ups against one other team owner in the same fantasy league, using either a points-based or ROTO scoring style. Fret not; it’s not as complicated as it may initially sound. Your weekly match-up, which rotates between each of the other owners in your league from week to week until all other owners are played (and then repeated), and based on the outcome of those weekly match-ups, a designated number of teams (typically 4-6) advance to a league-wide playoff at the end of the NBA’s regular season. The H2H winner does not have to have the best record during the regular season, but has to win all their respective playoff match-ups (also head-to-head).
