Utilizing games played wisely is critical
In fantasy hoops, you've got to give 'em all you've got. Use every trick in the book and every tool in your toolbox, and leave it all out on the field. Boy, could I keep going and going with the clichés, but it's starting to feel like I've thrown everything at you but the kitchen sink.
When you're managing a fantasy team, it's important to utilize the resources on your roster to ensure that the best possible games are played by the best possible players in the best possible situations. Truth is, you can make choice pickups, draft dominantly and swindle players from other owners with deft e-mail rhetoric, but it's how you manage your roster on a regular basis for the entire season that matters at the end.
How many times have you heard, "I got second place because I lost by two assists after Mookie Blaylock dropped 15 dimes on closing night?" OK, that specific sentence had actually never been spoken or written before my fingers started going crazy, but you get the drift.
But how often does this complainer misuse games played? This often means leaving players who should be starting or should be benched in the wrong spot, due to apathy, indecision or lack of time. In head-to-head (H2H) leagues, this results in certain weeks that are severely lopsided in the wrong direction, and in rotisserie formats it typically means failing to fulfill your games-played limit or using too many games early and fulfilling it prematurely. These circumstances happen all the time, and they often decide the fate of entire fantasy seasons. But they are completely avoidable, assuming you have a reliable Internet connection and less than six close friends.
It's crucial to understand the rules and regulations of your league in order to employ roster management strategies in the real fantasy world (yay, oxymorons!). Below is some advice for a variety of specific formats, as well as some that can apply to any format, but it's critical to adapt your choices to your particular situation.
Start-'em-all strategy: One simple, often-used and often-effective strategy in H2H leagues is to start as many players as possible throughout the week. This works in many leagues, and if you play with the type of people who check their team every few days and make an addition here and there but aren't meticulously shaping their rosters, it's a great strategy. It's also why I prefer roto to H2H any day, but that's another story. If you know that this will be your primary start/sit strategy throughout the season, one of the key draft and early-season plans is focusing on percentages. If your players are regularly playing more games than your opponents, the aggregate stats will be easier to accrue, but you put yourself at risk of losing both percentage categories on a weekly basis if you are loose with your starters' shooting abilities.
Facing other owners who employ this strategy poses interesting stipulations: You may need to make daily adds/drops to keep up and try to win the battle of attrition, or you could play your best players and pay close attention to percentages. At the end of certain weeks, I'll often bench great players with risky percentages based upon the circumstances. A few key benchings in these situations can win you two categories in such a week.
In H2H leagues with accomplished owners who are adept at managing their rosters, it's not as simple as starting everybody. In standard (non-turnover) leagues, percentages are crucial, as they're the only categories with negative implications. This means you can lose a category because you start a player. I'm usually more liberal at the start of the week, then make adjustments if I'm way behind in a negative category. If you play in a league that counts turnovers, the start-everybody strategy is a surefire way to punt one category per week, and that's fine if you have dominant percentages, but problematic if you don't.
Categories: Examine the results from previous weeks and know the strengths and weaknesses of your team and your opponent. If it's clear that you're going to dominate the opposition in rebounds, but free throws are going to be close, benching Joel Przybilla for the entire week could be beneficial. Also, awful shooters in either percentage category who take a relatively low amount of shots are easier to stomach in a H2H league, since benching them here or there can help immensely in any given week and not add up the way it does in roto.
Waiver wire and trades: H2H rewards short-term pickups, since a player who will be dominant for four games while the player ahead of him is injured can win you several categories during that week. Having an injured guy indefinitely riding the pine kills you in H2H because you'd often be starting players who would normally take up bench spots. Also, a big trade can immediately turn a team around more easily because previous shortcomings haven't accrued in a category-specific way, just as wins and losses.
This is my BFF (best format forever). I enjoy crafting a balanced team all season long and having the final standings as my culminating masterpiece. In this type of league, utilization of your bench, and most specifically games-played limits, is crucial. Most roto leagues have an 82-game limit at each position. Most basketball players don't play 82 games in a season, but compensating by starting everybody is a surefire way to lose in this format, so management is critical.
Categories: Roto formats provide less of an opportunity to quickly address specific categorical needs, especially as the season progresses and you build up some stats in your bank. In H2H, a two-for-two trade that remakes your roster can instantly help you win a category you never won in the past. But in roto formats, there's no real harm in building up a healthy lead early in the season, as long as you manage that lead as the season progresses, because stats aren't "wasted" at the end of the week. Say you finished this year's draft feeling pretty confident with Carlos Boozer and Zach Randolph as your bigs, with Andris Biedrins as a backup or utility player. Suddenly you have 70 more boards than any other team after seven games, but your team has glaring needs elsewhere. Don't panic and unload one of them. You can build up a steady lead for a month or two; wait until your needs and other owners' needs are even more apparent; and use the surplus to address them accordingly.
Games-played limit: Novice fantasy players often neglect that this exists, and either fail to meet the requirements or hit the limit too early, causing a rapid drop in the standings at the end of the season. In roto, for the most part, you go with your boys, except for a couple of spots where you may rotate players based on matchups, or start your flavor of the month. As long as you bench players upon injury and don't constantly rotate in bench players, you'll likely end up within a few games of the limit. The goal is to make sure each and every one of those games is used by the best player possible. If you have a strong bench, confidently replace players who will miss even one game. If your bench is terrible, and you're behind in games played or get hit with a rash of injuries, it's time to start seriously scouring the waiver wire or seeking trades. This is one of the few cases in which I'd advocate trading for depth over a superstar, because you don't want to fill those games with crummy (awesome grandma word) players or miss the games altogether. When you do have a completely healthy team, or one bench player who is on fire, feel free to build a cushion; being a game or two ahead of pace never hurt anybody -- you never know what circumstances may strike your team. Then in the final six weeks of the season, attempt to fulfill all the games possible to help your standings.
Positions: Center can be the easiest to fall behind in, so anytime you have three capable centers (or two in a one-center league) at the beginning of the season, feel free to get far ahead here. The position is shallower than others, so an injury can be that much more traumatic. If you have the luxury of being choosy, don't; start them all for now and capitalize on your strengths. Worse comes to worst, you can get several games ahead there and trade your excess later. Also, players with eligibility at multiple positions prove helpful in utilizing roster spots and limits. It's not uncommon to be four games ahead of pace in one position and four games behind pace in another, so the more flexibility you have to address this, the better.
Waiver wire and trades: Speculative picks that'll pay off in a few weeks or even months can pay off big-time in roto formats, especially if you are aptly managing your games-played limit. In most leagues, this means you have a bench player or two who don't sniff the proverbial court, so using that spot on an injured stallion for six weeks will pay off when he gets in the lineup, since stashing him had no negative short-term effect on your team.
To summarize, make sure you know the rules and limits of your league and adapt to them. Check your team regularly and make educated adjustments whenever necessary to ensure that you're maximizing the talent on your roster. Monitor your standings, past weeks, recent performances and everything else available and make decisions based on meeting needs, not the overall talent of the player. The difference between first and second place can often be found on your own roster, and no additions or modifications of personnel are necessary. Simply, use your boys wisely.
Josh Whitling is a fantasy basketball analyst for ESPN.com.
