First of all, this is something I always tell people who play fantasy football and want to dive into fantasy basketball. It is a completely different type of animal. The match-ups are an entire week. There are seven acquisitions allowed per team per week, too. There are two types of leagues with one being H2H (head to head) and the other being categories leagues.
Come join me as I explain both types of leagues, my favorite between both of them and the strategy I implement into my drafts.
How to Play Fantasy Basketball
2 Types of Leagues
Categories league
Fantasy basketball is much harder than fantasy football. This makes it that much more rewarding after winning a league championship, but so much harder. With an 82-game season, injuries and players taking rest days are more likely than in football.
With that being said, in a categories league you still face a different opponent each week, but not based on the total points of each team, but on the categories of points, rebounds, field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage, three-point percentage, blocks, steals, and assists. So, this can be attacked in two ways. Personally, I either want a balanced team or I want to sacrifice one or two of the categories.
This can be attained by drafting a handful of guards and winning the assists, steals, free throws, and three-pointers categories. This strategy is much riskier than a balanced team having a chance at every category. My personal favorite strategy is based on guards. More importantly, guards that fill the stat sheet up.
There are a handful of guards that fit this mold, such as Lamelo Ball, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Jimmy Butler, and James Harden. These types of guards are who you will build your first two picks around. Then, look at Dejounte Murray and De’Aaron Fox in rounds three and four.
After that, you add a few big men throughout the draft with high upside in rebounds. Remember this build is based around guards, so do not stress so much about selecting the wrong big men.
A categories league is fun, but I have only been in one. Head to head leagues are where I excel the most.
Head to Head leagues
This is where I started my fantasy sports journey. My first-ever fantasy team featured LeBron James and then I traded midway through the season for Kevin Durant. This was in the 2012-2013 season and it is safe to say that I won the championship.
My love for fantasy basketball and fantasy sports in general started from that moment. With this league, it is a weekly match-up and that is the general standard in fantasy basketball. The one main difference is that categories mean nothing and it is strictly how much your team scores. Just like fantasy football, the total points are what dictates the outcome, but there are seven days of this.
My strategy in this type of league is similar to a category league, but I draft just three big men. Being loaded at the guard position will have fantasy managers sending their star big men for one of your top guards. Now, you have a star big man and still a plethora of guards.
My greatest fantasy team was in the 2020-2021 season. Out of the top 50 fantasy players at the end of the season, I had six of those players. That is from the top of my head. I wish ESPN kept track of teams, but what I remember was Ja Morant, Damian Lillard, Brandon Ingram, Jarrett Allen, DeMar DeRozan, and Jrue Holiday.
There are four guards not including Brandon Ingram who can be started as a guard and Jarrett Allen. My main big was Jarrett Allen. The point here is to look for players as the top option on their team and try to get them all. I do not aim for role players in these leagues.
Even if I lose the rebound battle, I am looking for the top-scoring option on each team. Besides these two leagues, fantasy basketball championships are won on the waiver wire.
Fantasy Basketball Waiver wire
The waiver wire is completely different in fantasy basketball compared to fantasy football. In fantasy football, chances are you hold on to a player for quite some time. In fantasy basketball, those bench spots are expandable and after the first game, those bench players will be gone.
Furthermore, this is where the waiver wire is important. A fantasy team has seven acquisitions in a weekly match-up. These seven adds must be used precisely with week-long match-ups. There will be times you drop and pick up that same player multiple times in a week.
Points must be maximized, so if a bench player is off that day, dropping him and adding another guy for the night can produce points as opposed to that starting spot being empty. I look at my three to five bench spots in fantasy basketball as expandable and only my starters are safe unless injured.
Turnovers
Most leagues have turnovers included and that is where you lose one point for each turnover by a player. Be aware of this when selecting players. If a player is averaging a high amount of turnovers, you need to see if they are producing enough with those mishaps. There is a great amount of thought process in fantasy basketball. Managing the turnover department is key.
Final thoughts
As stated at the start of this article, fantasy basketball is a completely different beast than fantasy football. Patience and constantly playing the waiver wire will set you up for success and always stay ahead of your league members.
Got a beef with our consensus shooting guard rankings? Let the guys hear about it in the comments below! In the meantime check out all the great analysis in our 2023 Fantasy Basketball Draft Kit!