Fantasy Basketball Auction Draft Strategy: Stars and Scrubs

Perhaps more than any other professional league in the world, the NBA is based around superstars. These are players you know are going to show up each and every night and produce solid all-around games. That holds even truer for fantasy basketball.  There is no need to look any further than the final per game... Read More

Fantasy Basketball Mock Drafts: Practice or Pointless?

The first team is on the clock. The draft has begun. You're picking 2nd overall, wondering if you'll land Anthony Davis or James Harden. Then the first selection is made: Cedi Osman, CLE - SF/PF. The owner proudly announces "if he's good enough to work out LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard, he's good... Read More

Turnovers in Fantasy Basketball: Are You Building for 8 or 9 Categories?

Whether you're new to this wonderful world of Fantasy NBA or already a veteran with several championships under your belt, you're almost guaranteed to have heard of or played in a 9-cat league. Whether it's Roto, Points or my personal favorite - Head-to-head; nine-category leagues are the most common and kind of the standard for... Read More

Waiver Priority and FAAB in Fantasy Basketball

Donovan Mitchell went undrafted in the majority of fantasy basketball leagues last season, and finished the season as a top 50 player. How did Mitchell end up on his owner's team? Was he added using a waiver claim? Did the owner have to spend FAAB (free agent acquisition budget) dollars to acquire him? Or, as... Read More

Fantasy Basketball Draft Theory: Injured vs "Injury-Prone"

Right up through the end of the 2017-18 NBA draft season, fantasy owners were regularly taking Kawhi Leonard with a top 10 pick despite no assurances of when he'd return to the Spurs (his average ADP across ESPN, Yahoo, and CBS finished at 9.7, per FantasyPros). The thought process was that he had top 5... Read More

Fantasy Spin: 2018 NBA Mock Draft (Part 3)

Once you get outside of the lottery, the NBA Draft becomes really hit or miss. In 2017, the 16 players picked in the first round after the lottery featured two guys who didn't play in the NBA last season, but it also produced useful fantasy players like Jarrett Allen and Kyle Kuzma. In part three... Read More

Fantasy Spin: 2018 NBA Mock Draft (Part 2)

In the first part of this mock draft, I looked in depth at the (possible) top five picks in this year's NBA Draft. In this one, we'll look at the rest of this year's lottery, picks six through 14. These players don't have the same star power and high expectations that the top five picks... Read More

Fantasy Spin: 2018 NBA Mock Draft (Part 1)

Welcome back to RotoBaller's basketball coverage. Did you enjoy the playoffs? The thrill of, uhhh, another Warriors/Cavaliers Finals? So excite! Much wow! Surprises! (Okay, I'm taking this lack of enthusiasm too far -- both conference finals were fun and exciting and a Chris Paul injury away from bringing us something very unexpected.) But now, with... Read More

Changing Tides: A Look Into Surprising NBA Playoff Performances

The playoffs are in full swing but it's not too early to look forward to next year's fantasy season. With teams going all out and putting out their strongest rotations, we can see how teams truly value each of their pieces, so big performances and surprising turns can be taken with more validity than during... Read More

Seeing The Future: A Look At This Year's NBA Rookie Class, Part 3

We've already spent posts looking at intriguing rookies, and yet we've still got plenty of great first players to examine, all of whom have high-level fantasy upside in the future. For our previous lists, check out Part 1 and Part 2. This week we dive even deeper into this year's rookies, and examine their production... Read More

Seeing The Future: A Look At This Year's NBA Rookie Class, Part 2

Last week, we started our look through the league's rookies, focusing on the most well-known players. Today, we look to move into that second tier of guys. These rookies won't be competing for any rookie of the year rewards, but they possess skill-sets that could yield many fruitful fantasy seasons to come. Let's start with... Read More

Seeing The Future, Part 1: A Look At This Year's NBA Rookie Class

With most fantasy playoffs in full swing, and articles all over the place with regards to waiver pickups, stream targets and playoff match-up analysis, I figured it'd be a good time to instead take a look with an eye on the future. 2017-2018's rookie class was one of the most exciting in recent memory, and... Read More

Building An Unconventional Juggernaut - A Story On Fantasy Basketball Draft Theory

Today, I'm going to do something a bit unique. Recently, I had a nice constructive argument with some other fantasy basketball players regarding team-building theory, centering around whether it is better to go into a draft with a strategy in mind (forcing a punt strategy), or staying open through your first few picks. In leagues... Read More

Young and Interesting: Comparing Present Youngsters To The Past

We're entering the home stretch of the season as all-star weekend just wrapped up in Los Angeles last week. At this point in the season, teams know where they stand in the NBA hierarchy, and one of the most exciting things about this part of the season is seeing what young guys can do when given... Read More

Think Macro, Not Micro: Drafting Archetypes in Category Basketball Leagues

With the all-star break limiting the amount of games to analyze, I thought I’d write about more general strategy as opposed to any player specific analysis. Even with the NBA taking a week off, there’s no reason for us to stop learning and become better players, so let’s take a look at some draft theory.... Read More

2017 Fantasy Basketball Preview: NBA Southwest Division

The season is starting next week! You may have already drafted your fantasy team or you may still be drafting this weekend.  Either way, we only have a few more days to kill before there's real basketball. To pass the time, we'll be running through the different divisions in the NBA with high level overviews of... Read More

How To Punt Categories in Fantasy Basketball (2017 Edition)

Welcome to fantasy draft season for the 2017-18 NBA season! It's time to start thinking about how you're going to win your league this year. RotoBaller will be here with rankings, sleepers, players to avoid, and much more. Before we dive too deep into individual players, though, let's take a step back and look at... Read More

2017 Fantasy Basketball Preview: NBA Atlantic Division

The season is starting next week! You may have already drafted your fantasy team or you may still be drafting this weekend.  Either way, we only have four more days to kill before there's real basketball. To pass the time, we'll be running through the different divisions in the NBA with high level overviews of... Read More

Fantasy Basketball Hype Train: 15 Minutes in Heaven with Joel Embiid

CHOO CHOO! The Fantasy Basketball Hype Train is a season-long fantasy basketball feature where I can just have fun and write about the players me, you, and everyone else already wants to talk about. Are you ready for a ride on the fantasy basketball hype train? There's no kind of hype like 76ers hype, and... Read More

Redefining How to Win a Trade in Fantasy Basketball

Big-splash trades defined the 2017 offseason. Kyrie Irving being traded to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas and a bevy of assets appeared to cap off an unforgiving and unpredictable summer of massive trades. Then, in another top-rope-finishing-move trade executed by Thunder GM Sam Presti, Carmelo Anthony was moved for Enes Kanter. You read that... Read More

Neglect Your Family, Not Your Roster: Maintaining Stamina Through Your First Fantasy Basketball Season

Imagine this: the pre-season is over. It’s mid-November and the smell of pumpkin pie is in the air. Your draft has long come and passed and you now have a real life fantasy team with a roster you set every week. You stay on top of player news and even watch a game every so... Read More

Fantasy Basketball Hype Train: Florida Man Shoots, Blocks, and Steals

CHOO CHOO! This is a new season-long fantasy basketball feature where I can just have fun and write about the players me, you, and everyone else already wants to talk about. Are you ready for a ride on the fantasy basketball hype train? There's something about a "1/1/1" guy -- a player who can post... Read More

How to Play Fantasy Basketball Without Embarrassing Yourself

Feeling left out at your office happy hour? Looking to add an extra thrill to the upcoming season? Or are you just trying to really nerd out about your favorite sport? Welcome to the world of fantasy basketball, the best way to be more popular, get more promotions, and fight with all your friends. Fantasy... Read More

Fantasy Basketball for Beginners: Snakes, Auctions, And Other Scary Sounding Words

So you’ve committed to the fantasy life. You have your league, you paid your buy-in, and you chose your stupid team name with its obligatory nonsense pun. But for a beginner, you’re about to face the toughest part of the season: the draft. People will tell you that it all amounts to luck in the... Read More

How the NBA has Changed After a Ridiculous Offseason

The 2017 NBA off-season was bonkers. Bamboozling. B-a-n-a-n-a-s. By now, you know that the 2017 NBA off-season could be remembered exclusively for its confounding big-splash trades. But if you're here, you're asking: how in the world should I evaluate players if Danny Ainge can't seem to figure it out? The new map of the NBA... Read More

When Should You Stash Injured Players in Fantasy Basketball?

One of the biggest questions heading into the fantasy basketball season is where to draft already injured NBA stars. Players such as Isaiah Thomas, Jabari Parker and Zach LaVine provide a ton of fantasy value, but will likely begin the season on the injury list. Where you select injured players could either sink your team... Read More

EuroBasket Recap: How Did the NBA's Best Look?

This year's EuroBasket was one of the richest if we look at NBA players who featured in it. How a player performs for his national team can be a good cheat sheet come draft day. You may be able to get some value picks or even steals who smash their ADP as not too many... Read More

King, Joker or Jack of Assists? Who to Pick 9th in Fantasy Basketball Drafts

The popular opinion these days, at least on the fantasybball subreddit, is that the top eight picks in fantasy basketball are Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl Anthony Towns, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi Leonard. So if we take this group of players as the "top tier", who is the leader... Read More

Why Your Fantasy NBA Rankings Are Wrong: Scoring Systems

It's just under two months away from the start of the NBA season, and RotoBaller's full Fantasy basketball coverage will be returning some time in late September. However, with both ESPN and Yahoo leagues already open for sign-ups, I know some of you early birds are out there already drafting. This was the first year... Read More