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Average Draft Position (ADP): The average pick a player is selected in a snake draft. You can identify a player’s ADP by round or by overall pick. Different fantasy platforms will offer ADP as well as their own experts’ pre-draft rankings during fantasy drafts. In auction drafts, the average bid is the equivalent to ADP. 

Category League: A league format in which predetermined categories are selected and totals are compiled over a week’s worth of games. The most common category formats are 8-cat (8 categories) and 9-cat (9 categories) leagues. In a 9-cat league, the categories are typically: Field Goal Percentage (FG%), Free Throw Percentage (FT%), Points (PTS), 3-Pointers Made (3PTM), Assists (AST), Rebounds (REB), Steals (STL), Blocks (BLK) and Turnovers (TO). 8-cat leagues typically eliminate Turnovers (TO).

Head-To-Head (H2H): Fantasy managers are matched up against other managers in their league. In H2H category leagues, managers win or lose categories versus whoever they’re matched up against. Your season-long record is an accumulation of the category wins/losses over the weeks. It is common for categories to end in a tie, especially in categories such as steals or blocks when the sample size is much smaller. If you win FG%, FT%, Points, 3PTM, and Assists in a given week, but lose Rebounds, Steals, Blocks, and Turnovers, your record for that week will be 5-4 (five wins, four losses). A season-long record would look like 96-75-5 (W-L-T). In H2H points leagues, your record is wins/losses from your matchups in the season. A season-long record would look like 15-8 (W-L).

Learn More: H2H Strategy Primer

Injured Reserve/Injured List (IR/IL): A player who is injured for more than seven days will be assigned an “INJ” designation. This makes them eligible to be placed in an IR spot. Placing a player in your IR spot opens up a roster spot for managers to make an additional add. There is also IR+ or IL+ which players who are just labeled O (out) or GTD (game time decisions) can be placed in.

Points League: A number value is assigned to each statistic in points leagues. For example, a rebound is worth +1.2 points, steals/blocks are worth +3 points and turnovers are worth -1 point. As players accumulate stats, they also accumulate these points. In a H2H points league, your team’s totals are compared against an opposing manager’s totals and you win or lose the week. This is the format that is most common in fantasy football. Some players’ qualities are better suited for points leagues than in other formats. Players that have high usage are generally favored and poor efficiency is not as heavily penalized.

Go Deeper: Points League Predictions from 2022-23 Ranks

Punting: A roster composition strategy where you focus on specific players who are deficient in a given category but excel in others. When playing punt builds, you’ll want to target multiple players who share similar statistical strengths and weaknesses. In a punt FT% build, a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo would be a prime target as he may tank your chances of winning FT% but he will significantly bolster other categories such as FG%, REB and PTS. In this scenario, it is not advised to fill out your roster with players whose value comes from their FT% as their contributions in that category would be washed out by your poor free throw shooters.

Learn More: Punt Rankings

Rotisserie (Roto): Unlike in H2H leagues, you do not match up against managers on a weekly basis. The stats your team accrues are tallied over the course of the entire season. The total amount of rebounds your team gets is compared to other managers’ rebound totals and whoever has accumulated the most rebounds over the season is deemed the winner of that category. Whoever wins that category gets a certain number of points, depending on how many teams are in that league. In a 12-team league, whoever finishes first gets 12 points. Whoever finishes second in that category gets 11 points and so on. The highest roto point total wins at the end. The roto format is popular as some believe it to be the most accurate way to determine which team is best. In H2H leagues, matchups determine the outcome of the league and performance varies week-to-week so it is arguable that more luck is involved.

Dive In: Dan Besbris's Five Tenets of Roto Leagues

Salary Cap League: Leagues where the draft is in an auction format and waivers are determined by FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget) bids. Waiver bids from other managers are not known so you bid on players without knowing what the next highest bid will be (blind bidding). The FAAB is typically set at $200 and that is your budget for waiver pickups for the entire season.

Setting Lineups/Rosters: The two options for setting your lineups are daily or weekly. In weekly leagues, you set your lineup on Sunday or Monday for the entire week. If a player is entering the week with a questionable injury designation, the manager has to decide whether it is worth starting that player with the risk that they might miss multiple games. Weekly leagues are less demanding compared to leagues in which you set your lineup every day. In daily leagues, rosters can be modified on a daily basis and you have to sit/start players before the games start each day.

Specialists: Players who provide value in a limited number of categories or even one specific category. Specialists are especially useful in H2H category leagues. If you are losing by three steals going into a Sunday, you can try to find a steals specialist to increase your chances of winning that category.

Learn More: One-Cat Studs

Streamers: In leagues where rosters are updated daily, “streamers” can be found on the waiver wire. These are typically players who are effective enough to be on the radar of fantasy managers, but not good enough to be kept on a roster for the bulk of the season.

Waivers: Players that are not currently on a fantasy roster and are eligible to be picked up. Different league settings determine whether waiver adds are reflected same day or the following day/week. When a player is dropped from a roster, there is generally a window before that player is eligible to be added to another roster. Fantasy managers are typically limited to a select number of adds per week.

There are two main types of contests on DFS platforms, GPP tournaments and cash games.

GPP Tournaments

These are the contests that most casual or beginner DFS players will play. In most GPP contests, the entry price is low, but the payouts are high. When you put in $1 or 25 cents and you’re going for payouts in the thousands, those are GPP, which stands for guaranteed prize pools. Generally, a more expensive entry means less competition and a higher prize pool. GPP contests can be limited in how many entries a single DFS player can make. You will see contests limited to a single entry per player and some with as high as a 150 entry max per player. 

Cash Games

Cash games are contests where the payout is equal among participants. These are contests such as 50/50 in which half of the entrants each win an equal share of money. Double-up contests are an example of a cash game in which you win double your entry fee. The payout structure in cash games is more limited than in GPP contests, but you have a higher chance to win. 

NBA DFS Strategies

When playing DFS in any sport, the process is king. If you think you can pick out 10 guys that will have a good game and be right about all 10, more power to you, but it is difficult to be consistently successful in DFS that way. The key to placing “in the money” in any DFS contest is to identify a strategy that works for you and stick to it. Strategies differ for every sport and there are some that might work in NFL or MLB that do not work when playing NBA DFS. 

Stars and Scrubs

This is one of the more popular methods of constructing a DFS lineup and part of that is due to necessity. The pricing structure for NBA slates means that you will not be able to fit more than a few “studs” in your lineup. You want to fit players who are capable of producing high point totals and to do so, you’ll have to pay a premium on the more consistent high point producers. That leaves you strapped for cash at the bottom of your lineup. Some DFS players view the “scrub” as a shot in the dark, but you want to target specific matchups where that lower-priced player is more likely to see minutes. 

The most common reason a ”scrub” will see more action than normal is usually due to a blowout. Another reason might be that the guy in front of them in the depth chart has their usage limited, typically because of injury. The opposite of this strategy is filling your lineup out with players who are priced at the middle to upper middle echelon with no “stars.” You can take the average of a “star and scrub” and compare it to two middle-tier guys and you’ll probably find the average is closer than you think. 

Minutes Means Opportunities

This is a theory that you see in season-long NBA fantasy, but one you can use to identify players that might be undervalued in DFS. The theory is sound, more minutes means more opportunity for a player to produce. As with making any DFS selection, you’ll want to look for any edge based on matchup or potential history. If you decide to target guys who have high minutes but are lower on the price sheet, be prepared to be disappointed. Guys like P.J. Washington or Tobias Harris are examples of this where they both sit around the top 50 in minutes per game, but the impact they have on a given game varies. If you catch them on the right night, you will have a good chance to win, but it can be a risky play. 

Game Stacking

In NFL and MLB DFS, player stacking is the way to win. You pick a matchup that stands out to you or a game with a high-point total and stack multiple guys from the same team. If that team scores a lot of runs or points, each run or point scored is reflected in your lineup. The same is not the case for the NBA as other teammates can act as a cap on the amount of fantasy points their teammate might have. You can, of course, have games where Anthony Davis and Lebron James both go off, but for every point Anthony Davis scores, that is one less basket for Lebron. For that reason, you want to avoid overexposure to any one team. There is a way to play games that have the potential to be higher scoring, but that means spreading out your exposure on both sides of the game and at different price levels. For example, if one team is favored by double digits, you can play the star on the favored side and some of the lower-priced guys on either side.

You can also stack a game if you feel like it’s going to be closer than the general public thinks it will be. You can roster the star on the underdog and a few role players on the better team. If the stars aren’t doing well, or they go down with injury, you could be looking at a big win in a GPP.

Contrarian

In large GPP tournaments, this is the way you will find the most success. It may seem counterintuitive as you have to go against what common sense is telling everybody else and probably you. This can also be platform specific as on Fanduel, for example, you are allowed only one Center. Say Joel Embiid is out and you know everybody is going to play Paul Reed due to his price and perceived increased usage. Instead of Paul Reed, play someone else and maybe even a higher-priced Center over a value play. By doing this, you guarantee you have outscored everybody in at least one position. 

Most likely, you will be using some combination of these strategies to fill out your lineups. NBA DFS can be great fun and enhance the viewing experience. Where else can you use your basketball knowledge to win thousands on a one dollar bet? The absolute, hands down, most significant part of NBA DFS is keeping up to date with injuries. Especially as the season goes on, the injuries and “injuries” have a huge impact on DFS. Staying up to date on news and notes will give you the single biggest edge over casual NBA DFS players. When playing NBA DFS, there’s no such thing as too much information. Stay up to date on all things NBA and take advantage of the tools available on SportsEthos to help you throughout the entire NBA season.

So how do analysts come to these conclusions?

Often, this is a result of circumstance; for example, if a void is left to be filled, due to a big trade or a starter leaving in free agency, someone (or multiple individuals) obviously has to/have to soak up those minutes. One must ask oneself not only who was or were the backups in the previous season; one must also ask oneself how much this potential pickup might make sense on a real-life roster. A thing to remember is: as much fun as we have pretending to be front office executives, and as much as one of our guys we took a flier on at the end of the draft or scooped up from the waiver wire in week two might make us proud, fantasy basketball is still, in many ways, strongly impacted by and associated with the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of what happens in the real world between the players, the coaches, the front office, the owner(s), etc.

Why are there sometimes such disparities between fantasy production and real-life success?

How many times have we seen guys ball out so hard every time they get minutes, only to have those minutes be yanked away? I mean, think about it for a moment…Christian Wood is someone who immediately comes to mind. No matter how much we want to will someone like Wood into the starting five of a competitive team and see what he’s truly capable of doing, if the coach thinks he’s a ding-dong and/or the front office already invested the owner’s time and money into a guy – which really isn’t all that unusual or uncommon – it makes for an awkward situation (at best) for all parties. Wood recently has and will probably continue to get drafted in fantasy leagues (in any format) far earlier than he ought to go, reflecting the upside, rather than the likely continued string of subpar contexts. But whenever he is given the chance, he produces at a high level, in very significant ways, dominating inside the paint and making it rain from beyond the arc. However, he can’t stop watching players zip past him like he’s having a picnic on the grass infield at the Daytona International Speedway.

Fantasy managers tend to not care so much about RPM (Real Plus-Minus), PER (Player Efficiency Rating), VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), and other advanced metrics; however, we should (if we want to win, which makes playing more fun, of course). Every single NBA franchise has entire departments using analytics to make decisions about their personnel. You should do the layman’s version of that with your squad(s). You don’t need to know every acronym and what they all mean. But you should make note of some of these things when considering who to go after, whether it be a sleeper or a third-round pick. There’s a reason Alex Caruso is such a highly sought-after player in the real world – basically, he doesn’t make bad plays, which is in many ways, the opposite of the aforementioned Christian Wood.

Perhaps you ought to consider striking a balance between the two extremes when attempting to pinpoint potentially crucial players and extract as much value out of them as possible. From my experience, this will likely lead you to land on some of the less sexy names in the sport, such as Tobias Harris or Khris Middleton. But don’t forget that Middleton, specifically, has been named to multiple All-Star teams, and not just because he plays with Giannis (only partly because he plays with Giannis). He’s not exciting, nor does he have much upside; that said (recent injuries aside), guys like him (and Harris) will absolutely help you – at the very least – have a solid foundation, a high floor. They’re the types of players who allow you to take the bigger, riskier swings on rookies, sophomores, new players from other countries, etc. You need that roster balance to be as competitive as possible, week in and week out.

What are some other factors that cause analysts to get duped, and in turn, inadvertently dupe you?

Sometimes some people get tricked into thinking silly season or the Summer League are somehow indicative of something other than the fact that every single player who makes it far enough to compete on a professional level is ridiculously good at basketball, even though it sometimes doesn’t always seem like that’s the case (forcing myself to watch the number five pick of the 2015 draft, Mario Hezonja, was at times more painful than going through my divorce; seriously – even that guy, who “sucks,” is actually really, really good).

For real, though – just because a freak athlete, like Obi Toppin, dunks on the head of some rando, who was just recently called up from the G League, during the 4th quarter of some game at the end of March…well, that doesn’t mean that he’s going to blow the frick up once he moves from Manhattan to Hoosierville. He certainly could, but please don’t bank on it. If you look at the list of all the Summer League MVPs from the early days of the tournament until now, I must say…it’s quite impressive. But over the course of the past five years, Brandon Clarke, Cam Thomas, and Davion Mitchell are a few of the winners of the award. If you could combine all three of their skill sets, you’d probably have a first-round fantasy player; however, they’re all fairly one-dimensional (with Davion actively trying to further grow and develop his game) and none of them were ever going to and probably never will help you win your league(s).

So how do you find the ideal sleeper(s) for you?

Well, first of all, you need to watch basketball; like, I mean, actually watch basketball – pay attention to the on-court feel of players you might be interested in rostering, pay attention to various coaches’ rotations, and track patterns instead of blips (Kyle Anderson, the 2015 Summer League MVP, consistently getting peak Draymond numbers is something to seriously take note of and do something about; Cam Thomas scoring 40 points or more three games in a row was never ever going to be sustainable, and he quickly returned to the bench).

Of course, you can’t consume basketball and basketball-related content all day, every day. We all have lives – jobs, families, other hobbies, etc. So, in addition to using your eyes, find a few analysts with proven track records and listen to them; and again – try to pay attention to some of the more basic analytic models; they really are useful, despite what the old heads have to say.

Get sleepers from the trusted analysts at SportsEthos by purchasing an NBA FantasyPass or All-Sport FantasyPass!

Now, to further illustrate my point as to how off the experts can be, I present to you:

The Five Worst Sleepers of the Past Five Years

Darius Bazley

Looking back, this one was such a unique combination of things: the Thunder were clearly tanking, they had no legit centers, and Bazley profiled as a spry and sturdy small-ball five option, who ostensibly could stretch the floor and swat some shots. Fantasy experts really ran with this one and convinced a bunch of people to overdraft him, and he was immediately a bust. His shooting percentages were mostly atrocious, and he could kind of get some blocks, but not really. He showed some flashes in the Thunder’s worst tanking moments, and he still has some people hoping he can eventually do something, but in all likelihood, he’ll be a journeyman from here on out.

Chris Boucher

Unlike Bazley, The Mighty Boosh lived up to his pre-draft hype…for a matter of, I dunno, two weeks? And then Nick Nurse, as he’s prone to do with non-starters, played with his minutes and his psyche. And as soon as fantasy managers got insane value for their late-round pick, it had completely dissipated. Toronto’s front office gave Boucher a very nice contract for a backup big, but Nurse essentially wasted the prime of his career and the time of every fantasy manager who held out hope for the rail-thin stretch big to be their baby unicorn of the North.

Bones Hyland

This one is personal for me. I received my master’s degree from VCU, so I had high hopes for Bizzy Bones when he entered the league. He had swagger and soul, and there was a void in Denver’s backcourt that it seemed as though he could eventually fill – remember what I said earlier? Voids can be a trap! Jamal Murray was injured, and there was nobody talented enough to block his minutes, if he managed to convince Coach Malone that he deserved them. However, somehow, somewhere along the way, Hyland decided he didn’t want to live the easy life catching magical passes from the unicorn of all unicorns, Nikola Jokic; instead, he stirred enough controversy in the Nuggets’ locker room that Calvin Booth chose to trade him to the Clippers for a pair of Taylor Swift tickets. Bummer…

Elfrid Payton

I cannot believe anyone, at any point, had this dude on their sleepers list. The only thing worth mentioning about him was his hairdo. Seems like a sweet guy, though.

Jalen Smith

This one was understandable, to some degree. Phoenix idiotically passed up on Tyrese Haliburton for Smith, but then they never even really gave him a shot. In the few instances where he got some run, he produced. Then they didn’t guarantee his rookie contract and he ended up with the Pacers. As soon as he got there, he looked like a potential diamond in the rough, putting up very, very promising stats. The Pacers gave him a guaranteed contract and a guaranteed spot in the starting lineup. However, it turns out he was just an elite “silly season hero,” and within weeks, Rick Carlisle more or less pulled him out of the rotation, and he was watching Aaron Nesmith pretend to be a power forward through his Horace Grant-style Rec Specs.

Read Next: The First Annual All Do-Nothing Fantasy Team

Auction Basics

Get the point? No two auction drafts are the same. Different owners, different bid dynamics, different player information, different bidding strategy. You can do mock auction drafts all you want but results can vary wildly. We will cover tactics later, but here are the basics:

• Every team starts out with a budget, usually $100, $200, or $300.
• Players are nominated one at a time, usually by each team. Some auction drafts can have multiple players up for auction at once.
• As each player is nominated with an opening bid, every team can bid on that player at any time. Teams can also bid on more than one player at a time as long as they have enough budget to cover all bids.
• A timer is reset with each new bid. If the timer expires on a bid then the high bid team claims that player and the auction price is deducted from the team’s budget
• Team’s can only bid as much budget as they have.
• Teams are sometimes required to win bids on a certain number of players to fill most or all of their roster spots before the auction draft concludes.

Auction Dynamics

Early round bidding is really really active. Everyone is hyped to start the draft and prone to react. Teams have their entire budget to spend. Free spenders dictate bidding. Bad things can happen like a team spending 16% of its budget on Larry Nance. Don’t get caught up in this. Most overbidding happens early so watch patterns. If there are players you absolutely want, you may need to overshoot your budget. If you go big early for guys make sure it’s for players that are worth it like Nikola Jokic, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, etc.

The early rounds can really set the table for later rounds. If you can bump up bids on players that you don’t really want you can get competing teams to burn budget. Getting owners to burn capital can eliminate bidders and create less competition in later rounds. The best way is through nominations and watching teams dogfight. This can happen in later rounds but happens more early on when teams have a budget. You might even bid on players you don’t want just to bump the total spend of the bid winner. This is risky so a couple of warnings: Don’t try this on players that you think will bust out because you might get stuck with them. Also, this tactic is best played when multiple bidders are active on a player to lessen the chances you inadvertently win a player you may not want.

For example, in an auction I participated in two years ago, Giannis Antetokounmpo went for over 50% of a team’s budget. Last year in a different auction, still in his prime, Giannis went for less than 30%. Basically same player, different draft. Certainly an overpay in the first case. Seems like the teams that won this bid ultimately lost because they had to sit out much of the middle rounds due to the lack of budget.

Middle-round bidding generally slows as teams start to look at their remaining budget and what they need. Players are less attractive and the initial buzz wears off. Bid fatigue is a thing and as that sets in some solid players can be had at good prices. For example, in recent auctions premier PGs (Tyrese Haliburton, Luka, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, etc) are bid up at a premium but some decent options (Jalen Brunson, De’Aaron Fox) usually go for more reasonable prices. The same was true of shot blockers.

The middle rounds are a good time to assess your competitive strategy. Consider how you plan to build and bid for that. This is a good time to start watching for position needs (yours and competitors’) and emerging category and position scarcities. In a dynasty format you have the option to bid on valuable assets at good prices rather than bid for need, then fill needs later through trades. In redraft consider building your team out with positions, punts, etc.

The late rounds are when teams can be reinforced, especially in deeper leagues. As teams run out of capital or focus on filling strategic needs there will be fewer bids on remaining players and therefore better bargains to be had. In deeper leagues end of roster production can be key to competing and here is where you can find older veterans and less attractive players at a very lost cost. You will also see some teams in roster crunches where they effectively can’t bid on players but still need to fill spots. So if you can save some budget for these rounds, it’s generally worthwhile as there are usually some tradable assets still available.

Auction Preparation

Everyone expects to have a good draft. Not all do. As Coach Wooden famously explained, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” It should be apparent by now that you need to study players, performance, projections, etc. as you would any draft. For auctions, you also want to study auction rules and settings. Do a mock or two to get used to the dynamic, especially if you are a newbie.

Perhaps more importantly you’ll want to get a sense of your bid strategy and potential “builds” e.g. “Studs and Duds,” balanced, punt-points, etc. Do you have specific targets and how much will you pay for them? What matters is what percentage of your budget you allocate to certain players. One useful exercise is to have an idea of what your final roster might look like, and maybe have a couple of versions that you can pivot to if your bids don’t succeed. Now match that to your budget and map out where you need to spend capital for critical players and where you have options. For me, Jokic and Luka are guys I have earmarked to spend up on this season. Every other player has a decent lower-cost option out there that gives you a little less production. If you think Victor Wembanyama is worth spending over budget on, please skip to the next section.

There are a few tactics in nominating players that you can utilize to tilt the bidding in your favor.

Dummy Nominations

To get other teams to burn capital consider nominating players that you don’t want but are still attractive. For example, I just don’t want guys like Kyrie Irving, James Harden, or Ben Simmons on my team. In addition to injuries there is the “wtf did they do now” risk, so no thanks. So I’ll throw them out early to flush out teams that do value them and let them spend away.

Stealth Nominations

Personally, I don’t like to nominate players I target because that lets others know I value those players and might invite additional bids. Let others nominate them and be ready when they do.

Shadow Nominations

Another tactic is to watch for position or category runs. Let’s say there are a few PGs on the board. If there is a PG you want that hasn’t been nominated yet you might consider nominating them while others are focused on active bids.

False Flag Nominations

Conversely, if you are in a bidding war over a player you want, you might consider nominating a similar player to attract attention away from the one you want.

Auction Principles

Auction variability makes it hard to define specific rules to follow in an auction. Here are some principles to follow drawn from personal experience that increase your chance of success.

Principle 1: Value is King

This is really the one principle that supersedes all others. Know player values. Crunch numbers, use tiers, whatever you like, but have an idea of relative value because you only have so much budget to spend and when it’s gone it’s gone. Do you have favorite players to target? Fine, but know what you should pay, know what is an overpay, and understand the cost to your team. I’d suggest a definite limit for “premium.” I use 10% over target and will overstep a little once in a while. But be mindful. “Bid creep” happens when you start telling yourself “It’s just one more dollar” and that turns into $5, then $10, etc. Those dollars may be more valuable later on in the auction.

One tip on auction mechanics: always bid in $1 increments. You may think you can scare someone off with a big bid up, but why? They may be ready to tap out and you just spent more of your budget for no reason.

The rest of these principles follow the value theme and how to maximize it.

Upside is a Sucker Bet

“Upside” is almost always overplayed and overpriced. It’s effectively paying for tomorrow’s performance today, and that’s risky, like buying “momentum” stocks. Stonks only go up, right? If you are that smart, go for it, but you are by definition playing catch up. Bid too much and you may never recoup your investment. Go back just four years ago and tell me what people bid on Josh Jackson. I’ll wait. Upside is a bigger consideration in dynasty leagues. Redraft upside should be a non-factor in your decision-making because of the short time frame.

Bottom line, let other teams pay for upside. Buying for value isn’t sexy, but it’s probably in your favor to do so because even established players can improve dramatically. For that matter, before last year who was talking about “upside” for Mikal Bridges and Lauri Markkenan? Two years ago this was Jaylen Brown.

Injury Risk is Manageable Upside

Owners generally shy away from bidding on players with injury history, but if priced accurately they can be valuable assets. Think of it this way: you know what the player can do when they play. If there is consensus that the player “always” misses games and if the player is underbid, you can find value there. The “upside” is any games played over the expected amount. And injuries aren’t as risky as they used to be. What would be really useful is a method to measure injury risk (more to come in our draft guide Injury Red Flag System!). For example, last year I got Kristaps Porzingis at about half of what I had him priced at. So I figured if he played more than 41 games then I would come out ahead, and I did. That’s upside. Similarly, we can take advantage of load management. Paul George probably won’t play more than 45 games ever again even when healthy. So whatever you price him at, if he comes in lower, why not take the chance on his health? You have the entire Clippers staff and Steve Ballmer on your side!

Related Preview: The SportsEthos Injury Red Flag System

Let Others Overpay for Youth

Youth is the slightly more attractive stepsister to “upside”. Same family, similar tease.

Think about any bid as an investment. An invested dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, and the further into the future the less value it has. Why not use this concept in pricing “youth?” A good career is 12 years. Are you really planning that far out? Not me. Great if you can load up on 20 to 22-year-olds, but how much more do you want to pay over what you would pay to roster 27 to 29-year-olds who will probably be productive into their 30s?

Four years ago rookies Jaxson Hayes, Jarrett Culver, and Kevin Knox all went in the same price range as Bojan Bogdanovic, Terry Rozier, and Andrew Wiggins. This was absolutely nonsensical “youth” bidding. You know how this story goes.

Endgame is Important

Early aggressive bidders sometimes spend too much and get stuck with too many positions to fill with too little capital. These bidders end up sitting out entire middle rounds and need to get lucky or scrounge waivers to build out a roster. If you are heads up against a bidder, see what they have left in their budget and what they need to fill. You can get a sense of how high they would go against you.

Conversely, make sure you spend your money. Some bidders who are too conservative have more capital at the end of auctions than productive players remain. This is as wasteful as overbidding and goes back to knowing what you can bid and what you ought to bid at all times.

Auction Conclusion

A good draft based on value means you are in a great position to do deals and dictate future deals. A bad draft means you are “short-stacked” in any negotiations.

If you follow these principles you ought to have a good basis to compete, and certainly some experience and lessons learned for the next auction. Good luck!

So you’re new to fantasy basketball, huh? You’re maybe trying it out after years of playing in points-based fantasy football leagues?

You’ll play with friends, co-workers, acquaintances, or strangers; you don’t really care who? But mostly, you just don’t want to put down any money?

You’re more into aesthetics than information? You like apps on your phone that are super simple to navigate and almost never have any bugs?

You want skewed, dated rankings? You believe in historically defined positions, i.e. point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center?

You get your sports news from SportsCenter, and you don’t think First Take is an obnoxious trash fire of a television program?

If most or all of this is true for you, then ESPN is definitely the best platform for you. ESPN is a great place to start for anyone who likes to casually watch hoops and knows more about the sport and its inner workings than the average jamoke. But once you get the hang of it, and if you ever start pummeling fools, you’ll more than likely get bored with the basic-ass points format that peeps prefer here and you’ll want to transition to head-to-head and/or roto formats, and you’ll likely realize that what Yahoo! lacks in design, it makes up for in content and competition.

YAHOO!

Yahoo! is a much better place to build and sustain a community than ESPN. There is an easy-to-use chat function, if you choose to use it. There’s also a solid-enough message board. These alone make Yahoo! superior to ESPN, in my opinion. But again, ESPN isn’t bad…it’s just basic.

Additionally, Yahoo! allows you to customize settings in a more straightforward manner, and it has more accurate assessments of players than ESPN; although, that’s not to say it couldn’t improve in that area, as well. You definitely need to take their rankings with a grain of salt. Also, depending on whether you’re looking on your computer or on your phone – and where in the platform you’re looking – you might get a player’s per-game ranking or their total-games ranking, which can wildly vary, especially if it’s a player like KD, Kyrie, or Kawhi, each of whom are top-ten players when they play (but you know…actually playing is not any of their strong suits).

In my opinion, it’s additionally preferable to engage in head-to-head and roto leagues on this platform. Those who are on here are typically more serious and more knowledgeable than the average fantasy player, and these formats are for more serious and more knowledgeable players. They require far more skill and strategy than the points format. In points, you’re mostly just seeking out superstars who make the end-of-night highlight reels. Most top players’ flaws don’t hurt them in a points league.

In head-to-head leagues, you really need to consider roster construction – if you have a bunch of players with mix-and-matching volatile shooting percentages, for example, you could cancel the two out! This is not something you really need to consider in a points league, but it could seriously destroy you in a H2H league. That said, you can punt (disregard) certain categories and focus on being elite in at least five categories. This is a strategy you can deploy to great success in most leagues, but still…proceed with caution when leaning in so hard on any one category to the point that you’re neglecting others in your punt build.

In roto leagues, it’s not so important to be elite in any one category; rather, it’s important not to be terrible at any categories. This format tends to be easier to pivot in than the others, because patterns start to emerge over time and other managers are often willing to make mutually beneficial trades to help improve their own team. In head-to-head leagues, some managers can be a bit precious with the players they drafted, much like real-life GMs.

Anyway, once you start to enter the fantasy geek zone, Yahoo! is the place to get your feet wet. And it’s an enjoyable place to stay and dwell, as well.

FANTRAX

Once you’ve reached peak geekdom – and you don’t pay much mind to the rankings of a platform – but instead, you trust your own instincts and evaluations (and rely more on advanced metrics), Fantrax is the place for you. The rankings on this platform are worthless, as they are all over the place; I’m really not sure who determines them, to be honest. ESPN’s are generally conservative and late to the party on many ascending players; and Yahoo!, as I mentioned, are usually in the vicinity of where a player ought to be. But Fantrax is as unpredictable as James Harden.

Having said all that, who cares? Fantrax is the ideal platform for those who want to start dynasty leagues, deeper leagues, real salary leagues, etc. It’s not as user-friendly as the other two major platforms, but it’s not impossible to navigate, either. I guess the way I’d put is: if ESPN is Etsy and Yahoo! is eBay, Fantrax is the Silk Road. Make sense? I hope so!

One major downside to Fantrax is that drafting there can be as chaotic as bargaining with vendors on Canal Street, whereas drafting on ESPN is like going to a big nearby mall, and Yahoo! can be more like a chill stroll at the friendly farmers’ market. But once you’ve done enough drafts, you can cope with the chaos of Fantrax.

I wouldn’t say Fantrax is the supreme platform; I would just suggest that it’s the most in-depth and intense platform. But I will always have a soft spot for Yahoo!, where I built and refined my skills and strategies. I am the commissioner of a tight-knit Yahoo! league that I love, and for as long as it exists, I will continue to keep it there. But the deeper I go into this fantasy world, I imagine the deeper I’ll go into the Fantrax realm.

This is not that kind of article. This article is about the polar opposite: players who are frequently rostered that do very little to help your team win. There are certainly emotional attachments, biases, and cluelessness that anchor these players in place. My hope is to snap you out of it if you habitually roster any of these players.

To be fair, these are all good players in real life. Most are lockdown defenders often responsible for defending the opposing team’s best offensive option and not much else. That’s nice, don’t care. This is fantasy and fantasy requires production. You’d think as a defense-first player they get at least a couple of stocks, right?

As a baseline, I looked at data from the past three years (thanks BasketballMonster) and established some cutoffs for the ADN team. The player has to have played in at least 41 games and averaged at least 25 minutes per game. This filters out scrubs. These are all meaningful rotation players. Then I screened out turnovers because this is about production. Then I looked at per 36 stats to create an even playing field. The remaining players were ranked by their overall z-scored value across all categories. For those of you not familiar with the method it adjusts for the relative prevalence of stats for all categories and combines them into one metric. For example, steals and blocks are more valuable than 3s because there are fewer of them, and that affects the overall value score.

Without further ado, I give you the first annual All-Do-Nothing starting five.

ADN Starters

PJ Tucker
Career Per-36 Averages: 8.5 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.4 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 42.5/36.6/74.9% Shooting Splits

I don’t get him at all. He’s all reputation at this point. Less than one three-pointer and less than one stock (steals and blocks) per game? If uncalled fouls and flops were a fantasy category then he’d rank a lot higher.

Isaac Okoro
Career Per-36 Averages: 10.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 45.9/33/74.9% Shooting Splits

I’m not ready to call him Jarett Culver yet, but Cleveland finally reduced his minutes last year.

Reggie Bullock
Career Per-36 Averages: 11.7 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 1.9 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 42.5/38.4/82.7% Shooting Splits

He’s a 3&D wing without the 3. Just 1.9 three-pointers per game last season despite averaging over 30 minutes.

Dorian Finney-Smith
Career Per-36 Averages: 10.7 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.6 BPG, 43.7/35.7/72.3% Shooting Splits

This guy must have incriminating photos of Mark Cuban. Hope he has some of Joe Tsai.

Ayo Dosunmu
Career Per-36 Averages: 11.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 50.6/34.4/74.4% Shooting Splits

This may be a shocker, but what has he done really except for a couple nice runs when he got injury minutes on a bad team? At least he doesn’t shoot 40% like the other guys.

ADN Second Team

RJ Barrett – This is widely acknowledged and yet we continue to draft him. Other than points what does he do? When the shots decline he’s toast.
Cody Martin – We’ll have to make a special exception for the Martins as they are the only twins eligible for the ADN team.
Caleb Martin – Just shows how ridiculous his 2023 playoffs really were. As a Celtics fan am I petty? Bitter? Sure, what of it?
Patrick Williams – Time’s up, Pat. I had to make a special exception since he missed games in 2022, but he deserves the nod here.
Herb Jones – Whaaatttt? Everyone loves Herb. Just shows how little he does outside of steals. The ultimate one-trick pony.

So there it is. If you roster one of these guys you have no one to blame but yourself for losing. Who else would you put on the ADN team?