Greetings my peeps and welcome to the All Things Basketball Podcast with your boy GD.
In this episode I'll be doing my fantasy basketball 101.
I'll be telling you all the things you need to know about fantasy basketball.
I'll even slip in a few players that I'm targeting, some that I'm not bothering with.
So just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
Okay guys so it's your boy GD back once again with the All Things Basketball Podcast with your truly GD.
And this episode I'm totally going to geek out on this one because this is one of the things I love to talk about.
And it is fantasy basketball.
I'm going to give you my fantasy basketball 101.
What is fantasy basketball?
Well it's much like fantasy football.
It's a season long league that consists of players that you draft and the leagues can be either free or they can be cash leagues.
Where you put in a set amount of money at the end of the year, there's a pool of money there that you can win.
So you have those options there.
And you have regular leagues and then you have what you call dynasty leagues or keeper leagues.
A keeper league is where you get to keep a certain number of players from the following season.
So let's say you have a 15 man roster and you're in a keeper league and you're able to keep five of those guys.
So you pick the five that you want and they'll carry over to the following season.
That's how a dynasty or keeper league works.
And usually when you join those leagues you pretty much have to make a commitment of X amount of years that you're going to be in the league.
I've never done keeper leagues so that's the best I can explain in that regard.
That's your keeper leagues.
But what I'm going to focus on is regular league.
Now with that said, let me tell you about the types of leagues.
And there's five major types of leagues.
You have your head to head leagues which consist of three types of head to head leagues.
There's head to head points.
Head to head points is where you compete against another team for like a week's time.
Whoever compiles the most points in that given week wins the week.
So it's basically one win based on the accumulation of points that you have.
And the league can be basically your standard leagues are eight to nine categories.
That's pretty much standards and leagues can go from four teams up to 20 teams.
I've seen 20 team leagues never played in them but I've seen that.
And the more teams you have the more extensive the research you have to do within the league.
So you want to be able to have bench depth with guys that you know will get the minutes
and so forth.
But again the larger the league the more players you have to know.
So bear that in mind.
For example with the points league let's say points like scoring wise is one point each.
Three point goals maybe three points.
Rebounds one point.
Assists one point.
Your steals and blocks are usually a higher amount of points from your regular points.
Rebounds assists those sort of things.
They may be let's say five points for steals and for blocks.
And then you have turnovers that's usually a minus usually minus one or can even go to
minus two three so forth.
That's how you accumulate points guys.
So more points you score once again that gives your team the win.
That's points and head to head points is one of the more popular leagues actually is pretty
popular in both ESPN especially ESPN and your Yahoo league.
Let's transition to head to head categories and the categories can be.
Oh with the points the categories can be just one category.
Like for instance I have a league that's purely scoring so that's where the concentration
is not anywhere else.
I'm actually in league where it's just rebounds only rebounds so you can have leagues like
that.
Let me go back to head to head categories.
So you can have as little as three categories scoring rebounding assists.
You can go that way.
Your standards are usually eight or nine categories.
Eight categories would exclude turnovers and your nine category would include turnovers.
Me personally I prefer not to have turnovers as a category because to me turnovers they're
fluky at least in my eyes so why even have it there so that's just me.
But again most of your leagues nine categories more likely than not turnovers is one of those
categories.
And again it's similar to points you compete against another team for weeks time usually
from Monday to Sunday and the only difference with categories head to head and points head
to head categories for each category you end up with the most you get a win for that.
Let's say it's a nine category league if you win in points rebounds assists usually field
goal percentage free throw percentage and three pointers made as well as steals and
blocks and also turnovers.
If you lead in all four of those categories you go nine and 0 for the week.
If you lead in eight of those categories eight and one you lead in seven of those categories
seven and two you get to just a bit.
And if you lose every single category as a 0 and nine that's not good.
That is your categories league head to head then you have head to head most categories
if you win in the most categories let's say in a nine category league you're winning
in points rebounds assists steals and blocks but you're losing and free throw percentage
field goal percentage threes and turnovers you still win the week because you have five
out of nine so it's five and four so you win the week so that's how that works so it's
one win which is similar to head to head points where accumulation of points you only get
the one win.
Yeah so that's the way head to head works it still works with categories but the person
who wins the most categories for the week gets the win that's how that works.
Those are your three type head to head leagues then you have a total points league where
you can go as little as six teams but you can go beyond that obviously.
Where your competing against actually the entire league it's similar to rotisserie which
I'll talk about in a minute and it's whoever has the most points in a variety of categories
wins the league so if you accumulate so many points as far as points scored rebounds assists
and all those things you win for the entire league never played in one of those I played
in all the head to heads all the types of head to heads but not that and then your last
one is rotisserie which they also call roto leagues again like the total points you're
competing against the entire league each and every week and you get points from your
rankings each week so for instance let's say your team scored the most points for the week
and you're in a 10 team league if your first place you will get 10 points second place
nine points third place eight points and so on so forth if you lose the league you're
in 10th place zero points and then at the end of the year the amount of points you accumulated
over the duration of a season is how you win the league I played roto before and roto is
not for the faint of heart that's for sure you really got to stay on top of your team
in categories and stuff I mean you still have to do it with those other types of leagues
and you really have to draft for balance you want balance you want of course obviously
people score people who can rebound assists usually in the roto leagues it's usually field
goal percentage and free throw percentage you definitely want big men who can sink their
free throws and of course pretty proficient from the field don't want let's say a Mitchell
Robinson type of center you don't want that unless you are heavy in the free throw percentage
that it can offset his numbers then you got a chance but you don't want to hinder yourself
with a guy who will drag your rankings down so that's something to bear in mind but roto
league is entertaining as well categories we talked about categories so let me give
you the most common I think I did already points scored obviously rebounds assists
steals blocks and now they've made up a term stocks which is a combination of steals and
block you want guys who can give you plenty of stocks also amongst the common ones is
field goal percentage free throw percentage and three point goals may which makes for
eight categories and then the ninth category would be turnovers like I mentioned in a nine
category league more likely than not it includes turnovers in a eight category league it probably
does not include turnover again I'm one who doesn't like to play with turnovers I don't
like that here's some other categories you have field goals made free throws made now
I have a league that I've had around for a while and it's actually the black mamba
league of course name for the late great Kobe Bryant but actually when I started the league
he was still alive upon his passing I changed the name of the league to the black mamba
memorial league but in that league I do field goals made and free throws may I don't use
the percentages so here's that also for categories you have three point goal percentage double
doubles course that's double digits and points and rebounds or points and assists and triple
doubles of course you know triple doubles as double digits and scoring rebounds and assists
it's rare that you see a league that has quadruple doubles in its categories because
it happens very rarely very rarely but you usually see double doubles triple doubles
also more nuanced categories you have minutes played per game that could be fluke as well
also assists the turnover ratio you have that as a category fouls you have as a category
flagrant files as a category ejections as a category to me that's I can't get into that
I can't get into fouls I can't get in flagrant fouls and ejections amongst your categories
that's just beyond the pale for me and then you have a category team win like that night
your player for the team wins you get points for that I mean it's a myriad of these categories
here again I don't like to go too much beyond eight categories I've been in leagues where
double doubles are amongst the points and so forth so if I see double doubles and triple
doubles that's okay that's fine but I prefer eight category league without the turnovers
that that's my preference that is your categories guys then you have the types of drafts you
have an offline draft where your team is predetermined for you offline some people like that and
then they could go and make the changes me I rather have my hands on drafting the team
and picking the team that's just me and then you have live drafts where it can be one of
three types of live drafts there's the snake draft which is the most common where first
round goes in order let's say it's 10 team league one through 10 and then coming back
up you're going to reverse the order so the 10 pick would also pick the 11 pick and then
the 9th pick will be picking 12 the 8th pick 13th and so on so forth and then once you
hit the 20 mark you come back around to the person who picked first overall when the draft
started so that's the way a snake draft works linear draft by bending a couple of these
wherever it's determined you're slotted to draft you stay that way each and every round
which is similar to the NBA where whatever a team drafts in the next round they usually
draft in that order that's what linear is which I like but it's pretty rare to find
linear drafts let me just say that and then you have your random drafts which is even
more scarce where you can draft in one position in one round and then go to somewhere else
in the next round I don't like that because I don't think you can prepare yourself for
a draft if it's random I mean you can you can know all the players so on so forth but
to me it's a certain symmetry to knowing here you're drafting this way you can kind of especially
in those leagues where you have a half hour before the draft where you can go into the
draft lobby this way you see where you're slotted at and you can kind of do the research
right then and there so with a random I guess you could still do that too but you have to
know where you're picking each and every round going down so yeah random nah nah I can't get
with that that's your three types of drafts and then you have salary cap or auction drafts
where I'm not nuanced in it because I have never done an auction draft never I'll tell
you to the best of my ability it's where owners draft from a set budget on players dependent
on their value and from what I understand you can nominate players then they set a value
then you bid for said player and so forth again I'm not well versed in auction drafts
so I can only give you the layman's definition well I've heard is once you go auction draft
you don't want to draft any other way some people they swear by it so I have to include
it in this discussion then you have rosters they usually consist of guards forwards and
centers most of your standard leagues whether it be yahoo whether it be ESPN you're drafting
in a standard league 13 rounds you're drafting whether it be eight teams 10 teams on so forth
it's 13 players that you're drafting so it's 13 rounds and yahoo this is how it shakes
out point guard shooting guard guard small forward power forward forward then you have
center center and after that you have utility utility which means you can slot any player
there regardless of whether they're a guard forward or center and then your bench is a
three man bench so that's how that works out and then in ESPN league it usually shakes
out point guard shooting guard guard small forward powerful forward center only one center
and then you have three utility players instead of the two and then you have three bench players
so that's how it is on ESPN that's your standard leagues if you join a custom league this is
a league where he creates categories he creates a point system if it's a points league and
then he creates rosters how rosters shake out and roster size and positions can vary
in custom leagues I've been in leagues where it's 15 rounds I've been in leagues where
was more than 15 rounds in fact I just did a draft it was 17 rounds and the positions
that's varied they varied you also can be in leagues where it's just guard guard forward
center in other words you can slot any type of guard into the guard position whether it
be point guard or shooting guard any type of forward you can slot in small forward powerful
it wouldn't matter and center and then in most of your leagues they'll have players
that play multiple positions whether it be point guard shooting guard let's say I'll give
you example Donovan Mitchell for the Cleveland Cavaliers I've seen him slider as a point
guard and as the shooting guard although we know primarily he plays shooting guard but
they also slot him as a point guard Kevin Durant let's use another example for the
Phoenix Suns sometimes they well they have them slider as a small forward slash power
forward in other words he can play both forward positions so they listed as such in fantasy
as well then take a guy like Anthony Davis for the Los Angeles Lakers they'll slot him
as a powerful slash center whereas he can play the power forward he can play the center
so you have that also that is your explanation of the roster size and actually the black
mama league that I told you that I run I only use five starters two guards two forwards
the center and have a 10 player bench and I use this is a Yahoo league I use entry
list plus I don't use entry lists and I'll explain that in a minute so I have a deep
bench five starters so it kind of forces you to think who are the best guys I can slot
into these positions here someone who could give me balance the scoring the rebound assist
who's good on steals blocks or I may have a person that's or a couple of players that's
dominant in one area and few players that may not so the stronger players carry the
low for the other players I may have a few guys that can block shots in there just where
I can cover myself I'll have like a guy who's like a you know amongst the top 10 types and
blocks but I'll also have somebody in there as well who's proficient in blocking shots
also so it works itself out nonetheless now in terms of the injured list I just mentioned
that in Yahoo that's why I like Yahoo leagues sorry ESPN I like Yahoo leagues because you
have the injured lists and you have injured lists plus this is where you could put injured
players the difference is I L is longer term injuries I L plus is short term and those
were created actually the I L plus was created right after the pandemic 2020 2021 why was
it created because guys were missing games because of COVID so instead of putting them
as a long term injury they just put them as I L plus so you know eventually the person
is going to come back once they're cleared so Yahoo created this I think this was one
of the best inventions that they've done in terms of the fantasy basketball that's for
sure so now you could put guys in there who's like gave time decisions you can slot them
in there if you want you can slide a guy who's going to be out of game you can slide a guy
who has a long term injury but that's if you don't have regular injured lists or I L position
I just use I L plus for the black mama league I told you about and then ESPN what they do
they have an IR and this is where you could place players who are declared either out
or they have a long term injury and thankfully ESPN has it where an out player can be slot
it in there thankfully so that doesn't jam you up too much maybe you need to fill that
slot with somebody you can stick them in the IR and then go get somebody off the waiver
wire all the other thing I want to talk about I've mentioned waiver wire it's mostly free
agents on there it's not like football where you got wait for Wednesday and you go pick
up somebody once a player is dropped then you have X amount of days before you can make
a claim on that player that's the way that works but most of the time if the player
is already out there on the waiver wire they're pretty much like free agents you could just
pick them up but a drop player you may have to wait a few days for you to get them depending
on the league and then trades trades I'll just say in trading guys you don't want to
be ridiculous with trades you don't want to say offer somebody like Nick Claxton and
maybe a Jalen Brunson for Nikolai Yokek that deal is probably not going to fly and you
probably get laughed off by the person who actually has the Joker that type of trade
probably won't fly although it may sound like it's a good trade but you're not getting
value for value doing that yeah so you don't want to make too many lopsided offers then
you won't be taken serious I guess that's what I'm getting at that's something to bear
in mind when making these trade offers so with that said what tips can I give you guys
can I offer you guys firstly prepare for your draft by all means prepare for your draft
I usually go out there and buy a magazine Street and Smith no Lindy I'm sorry it used
to be Street Smith Lindy is the one you go to for pro basketball like they'll give their
season previews if you will of each team then they have a little section for fantasy basketball
as well that you can utilize also I like looking at each team this way I can understand the
depth chart better I know which players that I think will pop and which players may not
so prepare prepare prepare guys don't be that guy who in a draft where oh I even explain
that part Bob do it now also what happens is during the draft you're given a set amount
of seconds or minutes to draft some have it set for one minute I think one minute is fine
I think that's fine I've seen 30 second drafts I love those because you have to be prepared
with 30 second draft you have to be prepared especially in the case where somebody above
you takes a guy that you want you gotta be quick to know how to pivot and have a plan
be a plan C so forth 45 seconds I like those two 90 seconds I think is a bit much two minutes
is absurd is absolutely absurd I would never be a part of a league where the draft you're
given a team two minutes before they pick because you know something guys you give a team two
minutes a team is going to take two minutes and that slows down the draft to a halt all
90 seconds I'm pulling out my hair it's about people wait until the last second definitely
you have to be prepared so let's put that out there don't be afraid to draft your guys
maybe guys that you're targeting that you want by any means necessary you want that
guy don't be afraid to go around or too higher to get him I'll tell you some of the guys
I'm targeting right now Scotty Barnes of the Toronto Raptors from what I'm reading and
hearing especially from the new coach over there right jocovic the new coach for the
Toronto Raptors it sounds like they're putting the ball squarely in the hands of Scotty Barnes
have him be the playmaker I know they have in the shoulder I understand that I get that
but I think he's going to pop this year Scotty Barnes will he's someone I'm starting to target
also in my drafts I'm targeting Titus Jones of the Washington Wizards I understand I get
it everybody's going Gaga over Jordan pool and rightfully so but I think Titus Jones
will have a major impact over there especially from a fantasy perspective so I like Titus
Jones also I like Trey Jones of the San Antonio Spurs I like him also somebody's going to
have to run that offense over there and of course Wim Lee I've been in a few drafts
people are drafting him high I've taken him in one draft higher than what he's supposed
to be about around I think he'll be a fun player to have on your roster but Trey Jones
is who I'm talking about if I were to lose out on the Titus Jones I would mind drafting
the Trey Jones in this place or even just drafting them both also someone that I'm
targeting been maffering I'm targeting I think it seems like Indiana's pretty much washed
their hands of Buddy Heald are trying to move him but I think been maffering I think his
sophomore year I think he's gonna be able to produce with that team so I like been maffering
I understand I get it they brought in OB Toppin but shoot OB Toppin he's got a beat out Jarray
Swalker so that's a whole another issue but I like been maffering and I'm gonna say a
name that people may cringe about but Ben Simmons Ben Simmons I think is incumbent upon the
nets to at least feature him if not for anything else if Ben Simmons is healthy he's gonna
put up some good numbers shooting percentage may be another story but the numbers itself
I have no issue whatsoever drafting Ben Simmons because you're drafting them late so you know
you take a fly on them see what happens so Ben Simmons is someone I've been targeting
low risk high reward so we'll see Mark Williams I think with that Charlotte team and no one
in sight who can rebound the ball like him and I've been drafting them in drafts also
another guy Daniel Galford for the Washington Wizards they have a list of his power for
which I don't understand because I thought they were gonna put Kyle Kuzma in that position
and have him play center so in any event I like Gafford especially for blocks I think
he's gonna be able to give you a ton of blocks there I hear people down playing Walker Kessler
I don't know why I guess I know why you have a John Collins that you just brought in you
still have Kelly Olnick but I think he's gonna give them big minutes at the center position
and I think he's somebody you can target also guys I'm staying away from Chris Paul I want
no parts of Chris Paul because I know Steve Kerr says he's wants to start him by I think
eventually they're gonna make a choice to slide him to the bench I think that's gonna
end up happening Chris Paul is someone I'm not targeting Kawhi I'm on the fence about
Kawhi I know they put all these rules in place I get that but he's just hard to trust man
he's hard to trust if he were to slide down in the draft maybe I would scoop him up but
at his current ADP or ADP by the way is average draft position but at his current ADP I can't
risk it that high you want guys that are solid eyes that are gonna play I much rather take
a mckel bridges over Kawhi Leonard I'm sorry that's the way I feel about that because I
know mckel bridges is gonna be out there Kawhi that's a whole other issue so Kawhi is someone
I'm fading on I know people are down on Rudy go bear I would still draft him because I
would probably give him a mulligan because he was without calling me towns who could
have probably took some of the load away from him yeah I'm not that down on Rudy go bear
as other people are Jalen Green with all the moves they made over there I am not sold on
him because I think they're gonna distribute the ball out to other guys Jalen Green I think
he'll be fine I just don't think he's gonna shine away people think that's just me Kate
Cunningham is a guy who at his current ADP I'm not that thrilled with and Jaten Ivy
lot of people are down on him I don't understand why and I even saw where Monty Williams had
him coming off the bench in preseason but it's no way he can go with Alec Burks over
Ivy he can't do it I'm high on Ivy I think he'll be fine I think he'll be okay but Kate
Cunningham I'm not as sold as everybody else is on him maybe it's me I don't know oh I'm
sorry a player that I'm thinking hard and long about Deandre Aten I mentioned that maybe
a couple episodes ago I love the fact that Portland wants him and I think they're gonna
feature him I understand I get it Robert Williams the third is there now but you know he's injury
prone so you're gonna have to monitor his minutes monitor him from game to game as far
as where to sit him so forth but Deandre Aten's one who I would be targeting also alright
guys so that is my fantasy basketball episode I did promise it to you so here it is guys
I'm gonna push this one out before the weekend comes I got a big event coming up so definitely
want to get this episode out because the next time you'll hear from me it will be my season
preview so I'll be doing a preview of the season I'll tell you who will finish where
as far as what I see I'll give you my early postseason award predictions as well alright
guys so as always I thank you for listening all things basketball with GD.com that is
the website that sportsdude GD at gmail.com that's the email address on all the platforms
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alright guys I am done oh one last thing I did hear from a dedicated listener Kevin
we spoke on IG and just want to give him a shout out he's been listening for a while
now I just want to shout him out he reached out to me gave me some feedback which I appreciate
Kevin I'm working on thing we talked about so thank you for listening I appreciate it
and just want to give you your shout out definitely appreciate everyone that's dedicated
and listening to this podcast but Kevin reached out to me I want to give him a shout out so
alright guys so that is it I thank you for listening as always and we'll talk soon take
care so my peeps if you like what you're listening to you can go to my website WWW all things
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