What I Learned
I’ll be playing every day this season at FanDuel, starting on Tuesday. On Wednesday, one of my daily leagues is the $1,000 Tournament for Sheridan Hoops readers. If you haven’t tried that exciting new format yet, jump to Page 4 to learn more about how it works.
I have three drafts in traditional leagues today. One will be on autopilot from a preranked list, the other two are live. Many thanks to SH colleague Jeff Nichols for helping me prepare better than ever this season.
While reading Part 2 of his Fantasy Basketball Primer, I started nodding in agreement at the Role of Luck segment, where Jeff complained about real NBA teams often sitting their best players while most Head-to-Head leagues are being decided. “The timing of these absurd weeks often determines who makes the playoffs and who doesn’t. They also largely dictate success in the playoffs.”
The concept of a category killer wasn’t new to me, and I’ve never been one to punt categories, but for the first time, I really understood why punting is, “a sucker’s strategy [that] actually hurts your team more in H2H than in Roto.”
Next he set conventional wisdom on its ear by claiming consistency is overrated, and players who alternate big games with quiet ones aren’t so bad. “Guys who get white-hot can win you weeks singlehandedly.”
This is especially true in H2H, where short-term thinking and tactics are so important. “The hot hand becomes more valuable to you than the player likely to revert to the mean,” who Nichols considers a better target in slower-evolving Rotisserie leagues.
Where I really started to question my own approach was during that week’s final section, which identified a common fantasy trap I’ve stumbled into before.
“Every keeper league has a couple of owners who are perpetually thinking about next year and not this year,” was enough to make me rethink my strategy in the middle of one draft. Convinced that my mid-pack team was better off ‘rebuilding,’ I’d taken Harrison Barnes — the best available rookie — with my first pick. Suddenly, I realized that half the league was overvaluing rookies, and flipped mine for Ray Allen, plus an upgrade at PG. Voila — instant playoff contender.
In Part 3 on League Rules and Settings, I had to agree that injured players make a lot of sense in shallow leagues with deep benches; I’d tended to exclude them in all formats because I play more in deep leagues with fewer bench spots. Even Jeff’s take on transaction limits was helpful. A so-called expert on that stuff, I knew nothing of using bowl-shaped and dome-shaped curves to distribute those valuable roster moves.
My take on James Harden trade – http://mikezanity.com/2012/10/james-harden-traded-to-houston-rockets-good-trade-or-not/
As detailed as Jeff Nichols’ series was, it’s a stretch to think anyone with a ‘life’, i.e. wife, job, kids, school commitments, etc. would have been able to absorb all 13,500 + words.
And your column was just a rehash, if not lovefast of everything Nichols wrote.
Please, let the readers decide how best to apply any of what he wrote to their own fantasy requirements.
Also, please, be more concise in your opinions.
I’m not questioning your expertise, but at this rate I get more info is less time by reading Rotoworld’s daily ‘player news’ category with appropriate links.
The season hasn’t started, but at the rate you are writing, I get the impression your fantasy staff will be exhausted by Feb. 1, either with writers’ cramps or sore-handed from patting each other on the back so much.