From: Carson Cistulli
Sent: Monday, February 1, 2010 8:32 PM
To: Charlie Zegers
Subject: Give and Go: Solving for X
It’s become more or less the rule in real-live NBA basketball: when you draft, draft the best player available and work things out from there – by means of trade or whatever – to craft the ideal roster. That way, you don’t accidentally end up with a Darko Milicic instead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade. Of course, some teams will never learn (Memphis Grizzlies, I’m looking at you), but generally speaking, the smart teams either take the best remaining player or trade their draft pick if they really aren’t impressed with the available talent.
I try to approach my fantasy basketball drafts in roughly the same way – namely, to pick the best available fantasy talent and let them go at it for the first X months of the season. Of course, I pay some attention to positions – I don’t pick, like, seven centers or whatever – but I tolerate a little imbalance if I think it’ll get me the greatest possible production overall.
Of course, just because such a strategy is probably the best way to begin a season, it’s not necessarily the best way to finish it. The truth is, there are categories to consider, and at some point – whether it’s sooner or later – the fantasy owner has to adjust to his team’s standing within these categories.
Like recently, I’ve found myself in a position where my points-scored standing for the season is almost entirely secure. I’m currently in second place. The team ahead of me has like a thousand more points scored than me; the team behind, about a thousand fewer. Therefore, at this point, rating players on the basis of their scoring abilities is almost entirely meaningless. Sure, a guy who takes more shots will have an effect on my FG% – a category in which I’m still trying to forge some distance between myself and the nearest competitor – but they’re still separate categories and don’t correlate perfectly.
via Give and Go: Stopping the bleeding – Fantasy – Yahoo! Sports.
