X
Lost password?

Don't have an account?
Gain Access Now

X

Receive free daily analysis

NFL
NBA
NHL
NASCAR
CFB
MLB
MMA
PGA
ESPORTS
BETTING

Already have an account? Log In

X

Forgot Password


POPULAR FANTASY TOOLS

Expert Advice
Articles & Tools
Import Your Leagues
Daily Stats & Leaders
All Pitcher Matchups
Compare Any Players
Compare Any Players
Rookies & Call-Ups
24x7 News and Alerts

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 that I drafted a basketball team before I drafted a fantasy football team. Other crazy people like me are out there.

As part of a strategy series for those who want to get into the game -- or those who want to get better -- let's talk about scoring systems.

Upgrade To VIP: Win more with our NBA and DFS Premium Pass, get expert tools and advice from proven winners! Jamie Calandro and Dan Palyo lead the RotoBaller team in 2024-25 with exclusive DFS picks, Prop picks and more. Gain VIP access to our Lineup Optimizer, Research Station, DFS Cheat Sheets and VIP Chat Rooms. Go Premium, Win More!

 

Why Your Fantasy NBA Rankings Are Wrong

Scoring Systems Matter -- A Lot.

Yahoo has only one set of default rankings, but their default leagues are split between 12-team head-to-head category and rotisserie. ESPN also has only one set of default rankings, and their default public leagues are split incredibly widely. You can join a default league with as few as 8 and as many as 20 teams, and with scoring systems ranging from "H2H each category" to "H2H most categories" to "rotisserie" to "H2H points." The differences between these scoring systems are not small -- in fact, you might as well be playing completely different games. One size definitely does not fit all when it comes to ranking players for different scoring systems.

Once you get past the site defaults, it only gets worse, too, since you often do not know whether the person who is putting a set of rankings together plays ESPN, Yahoo, Fantrax, or somewhere else. Do they rank centers lower than you because you're in a Yahoo league that starts has to start two, while they're in an ESPN league that only requires one? Are they putting weight on turnovers because they play in a Yahoo 9 category league, while you play in an 8 category ESPN league where you don't have to care about them? This is the eternal problem with the non-standardized nature of fantasy basketball. It's not like football where you can have simple PPR vs. non-PPR rankings and cover 90% of leagues. Even good rankers, who split their rankings between H2H and roto, are still going to be an imperfect fit for a huge number of leagues.

This is the challenge -- and the opportunity -- for critically thinking fantasy basketball managers. You have to know your home court scoring settings and be able to adjust your rankings accordingly. To give you a head start, I'll be giving you a quick overview of the three most popular ways of scoring fantasy basketball -- H2H Each Category, Roto, and H2H Points -- with a breakdown of what kind of players are worth more, and what kind of players lose value, in each system.

 

H2H Category Leagues: Big Strengths and Punted Weaknesses

In a standard H2H Category League (called "H2H Each Category" on ESPN), you compete against a different opponent each week. In your matchup, it totals your players contributions in each of the different categories scored, and you get a win or a loss for each category. Each of those wins and losses is added to your record in the league standings that determines playoff seeding. So in a week you might win 6 categories and lose 3. That counts as 6 wins and 3 losses in the standings.

Once you're in the playoffs, though, whoever wins the majority of the categories in each matchup advances. So it doesn't matter if you win 8 to 1 or 5 to 4. Winner takes all.

This kind of scoring advantages building up big strengths in as many categories as possible to ensure you make get a playoff spot, then enter playoffs favored to win a majority of the categories against each opponent. One of the main conclusions of this is that if you have one category where you're bad, it doesn't really matter how bad you are. If you can improve your chances of winning other categories at the expense of getting even worse in a category you're already going to lose, that increases your overall odds of winning the majority of categories in a matchup. This strategy is called "punting" and I'll have a big piece about it on RotoBaller in September.

Guys who see the biggest value boosts: Players with big weaknesses, like poor FT% shooters (DeAndre Jordan, Andre Drummond, Dwight Howard) or high usage, low FG%, high turnover guys (from stars like James Harden to "best guy on an awful team" types like Dennis Schroder).

Also, players with "out-of-position" stats to build a strength in those categories. For example, PF/C eligible players who get assists (like Nikola Jokic) or who hit a lot of threes (like Kevin Love), or guards with a plus FG% (like Elfrid Payton) or a high number of rebounds for their position (Russell Westbrook, especially).

Guys who see the biggest value falls: Well-rounded guys with few big strengths, like Otto Porter and Al Horford.

 

Roto Leagues: It's About Balance and Efficiency

In roto (or rotisserie) leagues, you are given a score in each category that your league counts, based on where you rank in that category on the season. So if you're in a 12 team league and you have the most assists for the year, you get 12 points for assists. If you're in last place in blocks, you only get 1 point for that category. Your score in each category is added up to a total team score, and whoever has the highest total score at the end of the season wins (there are no playoffs).

This kind of scoring means you don't want to completely tank any of your categories. Every point in the standings matters, even in your weakest category. Meanwhile, being way stronger than anyone else in a category is not an advantage. You're not trying to be so good you have the most rebounds or assists in each individual week. You just want as many as you can have by the end of the year. It doesn't matter if you have 1 more steal or 25 more steals than the 2nd place guy -- that's still only 12 points in the standings either way.

The seasonal nature of roto leagues also means the losing teams whose owners stop managing their teams start to affect different categories in different ways. And let's face it -- in 90% of leagues, the guys having the worst year will start losing interest in the season, so it's absolutely logical to assume this it's going to happen (unless you know everyone in your league very well and they've proven themselves to be committed).

These non-attentive owners will soon fall to the bottom in counting stats like points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and three pointers, they may stay in the middle of the pack in percentage stats like FG% or FT%, and will actually start moving up the standings in negative standings like turnovers. That means teams in the lower part of the standings in counting stats will get an undeserved boost those categories, and some teams may undeservedly take a hit in turnovers. However, the standings in the two percentages won't be as affected by these teams inactivity.

What does this mean in practice? Let's say there's one team where the owner has checked out because his entire team is injured. Now, the rest of the teams are now fighting for between 2 and 12 points in the positive counting stats (and between 1 and 11 in turnovers), while everyone is still fighting for 1 through 12 in the percentages. There's an extra point up for grabs in the percentages. Improvement in the percentages becomes slightly more valuable for your team that improvement in counting stats. While the math is not ever going to be that simple, my experience is this bears out. The two percentage stats -- FG% and FT% -- are more valuable than the other stats in a roto league, and you want to protect them.

Guys who see the biggest value boosts: Very well-rounded guys, particularly very efficient guys like Kawhi Leonard, Otto Porter, and Gary Harris. Anyone who is average or better in both percentages -- Kevin Durant is a god in this respect, while high FT% centers from Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis to Marc Gasol, Brook Lopez, and Jonas Valanciunas are highly coveted.

Guys who see the biggest value falls: Guys with huge weaknesses in any category, but especially in the percentages. The biggest offenders are poor FT% shooters (Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan are extremely difficult to win with in roto leagues) and inefficient shooters with a high usage rate (DeAngelo Russell, Devin Booker, and rookies like Lonzo Ball are scary propositions in this respect).

 

H2H Point Leagues: Volume, Volume, Volume

The way point leagues work should be familiar to anyone who plays fantasy football, which I assume is everyone. Every week you play someone different. Their players get fantasy points for everything they do and so do yours. The team with the most fantasy points wins. The problem is that practically all point leagues are different. ESPN has created a default points system that attempts to impose some order on what people consider to be "standard scoring" for basketball point leagues. However, it seems even on ESPN a lot of people who do point leagues are still customizing their own settings. As a result, I'm just going to paint with an extremely broad brush here.

What usually ends up happening is that the counting stats where players end up with bigger numbers -- points, rebounds, and assists -- are king. Guys don't get enough steals, blocks, or threes in a week for those stats to make a big difference in points leagues, unless they're awarded a very large number of fantasy points in customized scoring. And while points leagues will usually dock points for missed field goals or missed free throws in some way, it's usually not enough for efficiency to matter all that much. If an inefficient guy has sufficiently high volume, he'll overwhelm the negative of those misses with extra points elsewhere.

Guys who see the biggest value boosts: High usage players. Almost all point guards fit the bill. High usage guys in positions where that's less common are even more valuable -- like DeMarcus Cousins at C or Giannis Antetokounmpo at SF. Big time rebounders with terrible free throw shooting also see big boost, since their boards provide a steady stream of reliable points, while their terrible FT% doesn't matter. DeAndre Jordan will earn getting the feature picture on this article after getting a shout-out in all three scoring types.

Guys who see the biggest value falls: Efficient low-usage guys with good defensive stats, like 3-and-d wings (such as Khris Middleton and Trevor Ariza). Guys who derive a big part of their category value from blocks, like Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside.

 

Takeaways

I know trying to tackle your fantasy league without a reliable source of rankings is daunting. However, don't give up -- think of it as a chance to get a leg up on everyone else. Learn how your own league scores, and think about how that affects different players. Before you can win the game, you have to learn what game you're playing. If possible, seek out the opinion of people online who make it clear they're ranking players based your league settings. At RotoBaller we will try to identify the scoring system and site that our rankings are designed for. Good luck this year!

 

More 2017-18 Fantasy Basketball Analysis




POPULAR FANTASY TOOLS

Expert Advice
Articles & Tools
Import Your Leagues
Daily Stats & Leaders
All Pitcher Matchups
Compare Any Players
Compare Any Players
Rookies & Call-Ups
24x7 News and Alerts

REAL-TIME FANTASY NEWS

Yordan Alvarez

Resumes Swinging -- Return Imminent?
Jake Burger

to Miss an Additional 2-3 Weeks
TreVeyon Henderson

Signs Rookie Contract
Christian Watson

Goes on PUP List
Austin Riley

Hopes to be Activated Next Week
Ketel Marte

Lands on Restricted List After Burglary
Ricky Pearsall

Heads to PUP List
Brandon Aiyuk

Placed on PUP List
Luther Burden III

Signs Rookie Deal
Washington Nationals

Eli Willits Expected to Sign Contract on Saturday
Grayson Rodriguez

Being Shut Down Again - Will We See Him Again This Year?
Ezequiel Tovar

Activated and Back in Lineup on Friday
Max Fried

"Hopeful" to Pitch Next Week - Looks Like He'll Avoid IL Stint
Steven Kwan

Receives Injection in Wrist, Considered Day-to-Day
CJ Abrams

Back to Start Second Half
Alec Bohm

Back From Rib Injury on Friday
Trey Hendrickson

Holdout to Spill into Regular Season?
Jalen McMillan

Bucs Offensive Coordinator Not Forgetting About Jalen McMillan
Levi Onwuzurike

to Miss at Least Four Games
Nick Emmanwori

Seahawks, Nick Emmanwori Reach Agreement on Rookie Deal
Max Holloway

Set For Main Event
Brandon Lowe

Back From 10-Day Injured List
Dustin Poirier

Set For His Final UFC Fight
Roman Kopylov

Set For Co-Main Event
Paulo Costa

Returns At UFC 318
Luis L. Ortiz

to Remain on Leave for Another Month - Will he Pitch Again?
Daniel Rodriguez

Looks For Third Win In A Row
Kevin Holland

Set For His Fourth Fight This Year
Dan Ige

Looks To Win Back-To-Back Fights
MMA

Patricio Freire Set For His Second UFC Fight
Daniel Zellhuber

Set To Open Up UFC 318 Main Card
Michael Johnson

Looks For Third Consecutive Win
Elijah Arroyo

Signs Rookie Deal
Jaydon Blue

Described as "Borderline Lazy"
T.J. Sanders

Bills Sign T.J. Sanders to Rookie Deal
Christian Wilkins

Raiders Put Christian Wilkins on PUP List
Jabari Small

Lions Add Jabari Small to Backfield
Quinshon Judkins

Remains Unsigned, Won't Report With Rest of Rookies
Mason Taylor

Agrees to Rookie Contract with Jets
Hendon Hooker

Leading Lions QB2 Battle Entering Training Camp
Ozzy Trapilo

Agrees to Rookie Contract with Bears
Tate Ratledge

Agrees to Rookie Contract with Lions
Jack Bech

Signs Rookie Contract with Raiders
Yegor Chinakhov

Requests Trade
Dakota Joshua

Maple Leafs Acquire Dakota Joshua
Lukas Dostal

Signs Five-Year Extension with Ducks
Shemar Stewart

Not Practicing With College Team
Eugenio Suárez

Eugenio Suarez Expected Back Friday
Damian Lillard

Returning to Portland
Paul Skenes

Pirates Could Preserve Paul Skenes in Second Half
Brooks Barnhizer

Grabs 19 Points, Nine Boards in Summer League Win
Jeremiah Fears

Scores 22 Points in Summer League Loss to Thunder
Isaiah Collier

Collects 17 Points In Summer League Win
Caleb Houstan

Joins Hawks
AJ Johnson

Erupts for 25 Points in Summer League Loss
Washington Wizards

Leaky Black Logs Double-Double in Loss to Jazz
Connor Norby

Undergoes Surgery, Expected to Miss 6-8 Weeks
Trey Alexander

Tallies 25 Points in Losing Effort
Johni Broome

Records Second Consecutive Double-Double
Jahmir Young

Has Historic Summer League Outing
Rob Dillingham

Plays Big Role in Wednesday's Win
Tyrese Proctor

Erupts for 35 Points Against Kings
Cody Williams

Leads Jazz to Victory Against Wizards
LeBron James

Mavs Not Interested in "Gutting its Roster" For LeBron James
Josh Hart

Undergoes a Procedure on Right Finger
Jake Burger

Goes on 10-Day Injured List With Quad Strain
Sal Frelick

Dealing With Grade 1 Hamstring Strain, TBD for Start of Second Half
Chris Sale

Plays Catch
Los Angeles Clippers

Bradley Beal Heading to Los Angeles to Join Clippers After Contract Buyout
Rayan Rupert

Scores 24 Points in Summer League Win
Derik Queen

Collects Third Consecutive Double-Double in Summer League Loss
GG Jackson II

Records 13 Points in Summer League Action on Tuesday
Johni Broome

Logs Double-Double Against Wizards
DaRon Holmes II

Records Double-Double in Summer League Loss to Raptors
Kyle Schwarber

Named All-Star Game MVP
Harris English

Takes Stellar 2025 Performance to The Open Championship
Aldrich Potgieter

Seeks Better Result in Northern Ireland
Cameron Young

Likely to Hang Around at The Open Championship
Cameron Smith

Just Trying to Make the Cut at Royal Portrush
Jordan Spieth

Is Jordan Spieth Still a Natural for Links Style Golf?
Patrick Reed

a Viable Option at The Open Championship
PGA

Sungjae Im Wants to Rebound from Last Experience at Royal Portrush
Xander Schauffele

Looks to Defend His Claret Jug at Royal Portrush
Tony Finau

Trying to Turn Tide at Royal Portrush
Daniel Brown

Seeks a Rebound at The Open Championship
Rory McIlroy

Will be the Most Watched Player This Week at Royal Portrush
Daniel Berger

Trending Poorly as The Open Championship Looms
Clayton Kershaw

Retires Both Batters In ASG Appearance
Robert MacIntyre

Hoping to Bounce Back at Open Championship
Shane Lowry

Hopes to Repeat at Royal Portrush
Brian Harman

Hopes to Rekindle Some Magic at the 153rd Open
UTA

Michael Carcone Returns to Utah on One-Year Contract
Bowen Byram

Signs Two-Year Deal with Sabres
Morgan Barron

Jets Re-Sign Morgan Barron for Two Years
PGA

Chris Gotterup Punches Ticket to Royal Portrush With Win at Scottish Open
Bryson DeChambeau

Hopes to Reverse Links Golf Struggle at the 153rd Open
Keegan Bradley

Needs to Find The Weekend at Royal Portrush for Ryder Cup Hopes
Justin Thomas

Finishes Tied For 22nd at Genesis Scottish Open
Scottie Scheffler

Finishes Tied For Eighth at Genesis Scottish Open
Jon Rahm

Finishes in Second at LIV Andalucia
Tallison Teixeira

Suffers First-Round TKO
Derrick Lewis

Scores First-Round TKO
Stephen Thompson

Loses Controversial Split Decision
Gabriel Bonfim

Wins Controversial Split Decision
Calvin Kattar

Gets Outclassed At UFC Nashville
Steve Garcia

Extends His Win Streak
Nate Landwehr

Gets Knocked Out
Morgan Charrière

Morgan Charriere Scores Third-Round Knockout
Austen Lane

Suffers Submission Loss
Vitor Petrino

Scores First-Round Submission In Heavyweight Debut
Tuco Tokkos

Earns His First UFC Win
Chase Elliott

Charges to A Finish of Third At Sonoma
Chase Briscoe

Finishes Second With his First Career Road-Course Top-Five at Sonoma
Christopher Bell

Rollercoaster Day Ends With Top-5 Finish at Sonoma
William Byron

Maintains the Regular-Season Points Lead
Kyle Busch

Earns A Hard-Fought Top-10 Finish At Sonoma
Alex Ovechkin

Not Thinking About Retirement
PIT

Penguins Acquire Arturs Silovs
NHL

Nikolai Kovalenko Returns to Russia
Tyler Reddick

Evades Near Upset to Remain Alive in In-Season Challenge
Ty Gibbs

One of Three Tylers to Make In-Season Challenge Semifinals
Kyle Larson

Curiously Mediocre at Sonoma Before Late-Race Crash
NASCAR

John H. Nemechek Edges Out Teammate to Make In-Season Challenge Semifinal
Alex Bowman

Ty Dillon Bumps Alex Bowman to Advance to In-Season Challenge Semifinal
Shane Van Gisbergen

Can Anyone Beat Shane van Gisbergen at Sonoma?
Tyler Reddick

Better at Sonoma Than Record Shows
Chase Elliott

a Prime DFS Option at Sonoma
Michael McDowell

Struggling a Bit at Sonoma
NASCAR

Christopher Bell Has Never Finished Better Than Ninth at Sonoma
Ryan Blaney

Has Top-10 Upside at Sonoma
NASCAR

Sunday at Sonoma Will Likely Be a Long Race for Bubba Wallace
Kyle Larson

Is A Likely Top-Five Contender for Sonoma
Ryan Preece

Points Position Could Affect Race at Sonoma
Todd Gilliland

Struggling to Find Speed at Sonoma
Ty Gibbs

May be an Underrated Favorite to Compete for the Win at Sonoma
RANKINGS
C
1B
2B
3B
SS
OF
SP
RP

RANKINGS

QB
RB
WR
TE
K
DEF