Welcome newcomers and fantasy veterans alike! We sometimes take for granted that some people are just starting out, and may not know every term in fantasy basketball. That’s where this comes in. This will be constantly updated as we come across new terms and remember old terms that need to be added.

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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.