Fantasy Basketball Draft Strategy: Head-to-Head (H2H) vs. Roto

Roto vs. H2H - The Basics for Fantasy Basketball

I’m sure anyone reading this site probably knows the difference between the two types of category-based fantasy basketball leagues – roto and head-to-head. However, if anyone has just emerged from under a rock, here is a quick overview. Go ahead and skip the next two paragraphs if you already know the basics – I am just covering my bases here.

Rotisserie, or roto, leagues count up how well each team does in each category (points, rebounds, assists, etc) scored in your league, ranks every team and gives them a point value based on where the team ranks in that category. So if your team is ranked first out of 12 teams in field-goal percentage, you receive 12 points, second and you get 11 points, and so on. The point totals awarded for each category scored is added up and the league is won by whoever has the most total points at the end of the season.

One important restriction in a true roto league is that you will be limited to a set number of games (usually 82) for each roster spot, so you cannot run away with the counting stats by adding and dropping players to get as many games played as possible in each spot.

Head-to-head, or H2H, meanwhile, may take the same set of categories as a roto league, but each week you will face off against a specific opponent. If you beat them in a specific category you get one “win”. The wins and losses in each category will determine the “score” of your matchup that week. It does not matter where you rank in the league in each category, it only matters what you do compared to your opponent in a given week.

Normally, the regular season standings will be determined by the total of your weekly category “wins” and “losses” – so the “score” each week does not actually matter for the regular season (unless you are playing “H2H – one win” where the person with the best score is credited with a win in the standings, while the person with the worst gets hit with a loss). At the end of the year in a H2H league, there are playoffs, where the team with the best score in each matchup advances to the next round.

Okay, that is out of the way now.

So what is really the difference? How should you play each one differently? Does it matter when you are putting a team together?

Stop asking so many questions, imaginary person! Can you not see that I am getting there? There is a monstrous difference in roster construction between a winning roto team and a winning H2H team. Here is what I like to consider in each system.

Roto Strategy for Fantasy Basketball

In roto, efficiency is king. Every player should be considered for how much they help and how much they hurt relative to average in each category. If someone is 50 percent better than the league in field-goal percentage, but 50 percent worse than the league in free-throw percentage, that tends to even them out to an average player.

Balanced players who do a little bit of everything without hurting you – like San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard or Portland's Nicolas Batum – are as good as guys who do a few core things really well while providing below average production in other areas – like, say, the Kings' DeMarcus Cousins or the Clippers' Blake Griffin.

I go out of my way in roto to find guys who will not cripple me in a category. I am looking to compete and earn points in every category, even if it means giving up the chance at dominating any one statistic. I would rather earn nine points in rebounds and eight in free-throw percentage with a team built around Serge Ibaka, than earn 12 in rebounds and one in free-throw percentage due to having Dwight Howard on my roster.

I am going try to meet my cap of games played at every position, which should provide an edge in counting categories over anyone who gets lazy and does not do so (which will always be some portion of the teams at the bottom of the league).  This means I will get an artificial boost there.  Two categories where I want to compete that cannot be helped with more games, though, are field-goal and free-throw percentage.

Roto - Protect the Percentages, Manage Up the Other Stats

I am always trying to get guys who help both percentages in a roto league, or at least do not hurt one.  That is the reason I am always the guy who ends up with Chris Bosh.  I protect my percentages to a fault.  If I can finish with a strong total in both percentages, it is much easier to squeeze out enough points in the other categories by maxing out my games played and playing things by ear at the end of the season (for example, if things are tight in three-pointers while other categories are more set in the rankings there, I can play a few long-range specialists off the waiver wire).

In other words -- you can improve your results in threes or blocks or steals midseason with some good management, while it is much more difficult to do that for the ratio categories.  And being strong in the percentages from the start of the year gives you some cushion later in the year -- you know where you can take a hit in one of the percentages compared to your competition, so you know which flawed players you can take a chance on late in the year to give you a boost where you need it.  Give me a bunch of solid percentage guys in my draft, and I will figure out the rest from there.

I even pay attention to turnovers in roto leagues where they are scored.  My strategy does involve hitting the cap in games played at each position, which will invariably give me more turnovers than the lazy owners who do not.  However, it is a key difference maker when it comes to the teams at the top who are usually also maxing out their games played. If you can be the team to finish with three or four points in the turnover category, while the other top teams sit at one or two points, that can end up the being the difference between winning your league and finishing as the runner-up.

H2H Draft Strategy for Fantasy Basketball

Throw all that out the window when it comes to head-to-head. In H2H leagues, your main goal is to make the playoffs and put yourself in a position to beat any team you face in a majority of categories. In a nine category league, that means winning 5 categories. Since 6-of-9 categories are a good kind of counting statistic – points, rebounds, assists, threes, steals, blocks – and you can always get more of them by using all your add/drops to maximize your team’s games played in a week, I like to completely ignore turnovers.

Even if you have several high turnover guys and that costs you the category every week, if it earns you even more domination in the positive counting categories over other owners who are maxing out their games played, it is worth the cost. Additionally, on a week-to-week basis, if you have 4 categories locked up early and still lead in turnovers somehow, you can always just bench your whole team the rest of the week to win the category.

Finally, sometimes your roster construction can lead you to being competitive in turnovers even if you do not pay attention to them pick-to-pick. For these reasons, I completely ignore turnovers in my draft process for a head-to-head league.

So you still have eight other categories. Ideally, you will create a roster that is very strong in a couple categories and reasonably competitive in all across-the-board (a well-rounded team), or a team that is dominant in five areas and barely or not at all competitive in the other three (a “punt category” team).

The process for building a well-rounded team is finding draft values and balance the same way you would in a roto league. Basically you are going by the standard rankings and looking to build the best overall roster.  You probably will not win every category every week, but you should be good enough to compete a little bit every where and take advantage of other teams' weaknesses.

H2H - Punting

It is in the “punt category” style of team building where the real interesting strategies happen. Remember how in roto you do not want to cripple yourself in any one category? Well, if you were to decide not to care about a category – say, free-throw percentage -- suddenly an unusable category killer like Dwight Howard or Andre Drummond turns into an unstoppable rebounding / scoring / field-goal percentage / blocking juggernaut. You can throw balance out the window – sorry, Kawhi – and go all out on guys who just crush it a handful of categories.

There is two tried and trusted ways of running a punt team in a H2H league – going big, or playing small ball.

H2H - Going Big

A "big" team punts free-throw percentage and is usually mostly lost in assists. You stack your team with poor free-throw shooting big men – fill in your C spots, PF, F, Util with them – to build an extremely strong base in field-goal percentage, rebounds, blocks and scoring. For your guard spots focus on three-point shooters who do not hurt your field-goal percentage much, and who can pick up steals.

Golden State's Stephen Curry makes an unexpectedly good core piece on a free-throw percentage punt team because he can do so much to make you competitive in steals and threes without hurting your shooting from the field.  However, if you do not end up getting the fantasy god that is Steph Curry, you can aim for guys like Kyle Korver, Trevor Ariza and the vastly underappreciated Jodie Meeks.

A bonus on big teams is that if you mostly avoid point guards, you mostly avoid the biggest turnover culprits in the NBA. You are not really punting turnovers anymore if you go big.

H2H - Small Ball

A "small-ball" team goes the opposite approach, and is a bit trickier. Going small ball means loading up on star point guards, with the intention of crushing the league in assists, free-throw percentage, three points, scoring and steals. The reason this is tricky is because of how hard it is to find a sixth category where your team can ever compete – which means your margin for error is extremely thin. By playing so many guards, you are punting turnovers. And you are mostly not winning rebounds or field-goal percentage against anyone with a normal amount of big men on their roster.

One idea is to build your "small-ball" team around a couple of centers who can keep you competitive in blocks without hurting your efficiency from the charity stripe in the process. Serge Ibaka and Anthony Davis are strong cores to an otherwise small-ball team.

Wrapping Up Fantasy Basketball Draft Strategy

I hope that this have given you some food for thought in how to go about drafting in your particular style of league. The best way to approach your draft is not to marry yourself to any one strategy, though. Instead, you should educate yourself on different strategies and see which one the draft best plays into.

Obviously focusing on value should still trump strategy. In roto, you want to be thinking about value, balance and avoiding weaknesses. In head-to-head, you want to be thinking about value and building a core of strong categories. Keep these things in mind and you will be crushing your league in no time.