Espn Insider Bros Help

[KiiiiNG]

http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/basketball/insider/story/_/id/13939475/fantasy-basketball-insider-2015-16-draft-cheat-sheet-rankings-advice-more

Got a draft on sunday

Haven't done any homework

[JimmyMcAdocious]

CFB draft? Rather sure that what you linked to. Ill post it but whatever.
[QUOTE]
Haney's 10 tips for Week 8 college daily fantasy

Week 8 is the perfect time to dive into daily fantasy college football. There

[KiiiiNG]

Sorry meant to post this:

http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/basketball/insider/story/_/id/13939475/fantasy-basketball-insider-2015-16-draft-cheat-sheet-rankings-advice-more

[JimmyMcAdocious]

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ESPN Insider

With the NBA season right around the corner, we at ESPN Fantasy aim to provide you the most comprehensive information possible to win your leagues. Participating in a snake draft? Read this. (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11793776&postcount=5) (and this). (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11793777&postcount=6) Picking players in auction format? Make sure to check out our strategy guide. (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11793778&postcount=7) (cont) (http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11793782&postcount=8). And if you're looking for a one-stop shop with lists of every player you must target come draft day -- sleepers, fallers and risers, guys set to see a major boost in production, for example -- you've come to the right place.

Introducing the 2015-16 Insider Cheat Sheet.

Our group of writers hit on every fantasy basketball topic imaginable to provide readers with the best chance of success this season. This includes:

• Amin Elhassan's top "one-tool threats" and most NBA-ready rookies

• Kevin Pelton's list of players set to outperform and underperform WARP projections

• Bradford Doolittle's second-year breakouts and

• Tom Carpenter's sleepers to watch

Stay with us throughout the season for the latest in fantasy basketball and good luck!

Printable PDF (http://www82.zippyshare.com/v/8woTj853/file.html)

[JimmyMcAdocious]

How to win your fantasy hoops draft

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Joe Kaiser, Fantasy, Insider

Professional franchises have general managers who bring on coaches who can direct the roster of players assembled by the GM.

Over the years, history has shown that the best franchises have strong leadership at the top that's able to create a positive, winning culture. It's true no matter which sport we're talking about. And even when one of those well-run franchises experiences a rare down season, what happens the following year? You guessed it -- more often than not, it manages to find a way to shuffle the deck and start winning again.

Is it magic? Is it luck? No, it's a part of a well-crafted, time-tested plan that continually leads to success.

On the flip side, the opposite is true of poorly run franchises. You know which ones I'm talking about. The Sacramento Kings. The Cleveland Browns. The Seattle Mariners. They are the ones that never seem to figure it out. Or bring on inexperienced general managers. Or hire coaches who don't fit the roster. Then what happens? Losing. Lots of losing, actually. The players grow unhappy and so do the fans. These are the franchises that chronically find themselves at the bottom of the standings. The ones that continually overpay for free agents and miss on draft picks.

I bring all this up because there's a reason the San Antonio Spurs make the playoffs every season, and the St. Louis Cardinals are always still playing every October, and the New England Patriots are perpetually a Super Bowl favorite.

It all comes down to leadership. The people in charge have the winning recipe.

So as you enter another season of fantasy basketball, I want you to answer this question honestly: If you look at the way you run your fantasy teams, which of these would you be?

Are you challenging for the championship every season? If so, good for you!

For everyone else, I want you to think about what you can improve upon -- however big or small -- to become a force in every league you join. Simply by reading this, it's clear that you care more than the casual owner, so you already have that working in your favor. But that's not enough.

You can't fire yourself as coach or GM, so the improvement really has to start with you; take a moment and brainstorm how you can become the San Antonio Spurs of your league. To help, here are a few ideas that may apply:

[JimmyMcAdocious]

This ISN'T the season to overpay for a rookie.
If you do use a top-50 pick or sizable auction dollars on a rookie, let it be on Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns. His ADP is 47.3 in ESPN leagues as of Oct. 12, and he looks more ready to make an impact than Jahlil Okafor (82.3 ADP) of the Philadelphia 76ers or D'Angelo Russell (96.1 ADP) of the Los Angeles Lakers. I see Denver's Emmanuel Mudiay (92.5 ADP) as the second-best rookie in fantasy this season, but his low field goal percentage and high turnover rate could torpedo your team in both of those categories if you're not careful.


This IS the season to stash injured stars on the injured reserve.
With the IR spot becoming more standard across fantasy basketball sites this season, there's never been a better time to stash injured fantasy studs like Kyrie Irving and Brandon Jennings who (a) won't take up an active roster spot, and (b) can provide a big boost once they return to the lineup. Be the person who takes advantage of this, and not the one wishing you had thought of that.

This IS also the season to win it all!

Good luck this season. Hopefully some of these tips and strategies help you bring home the championship!

[JimmyMcAdocious]

How to win your auction draft

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John Cregan, Fantasy Basketball

If you're reading this, it's because you've joined the high-flying ranks of auction league ownership. Perhaps you've even endeavored to throw your arms around that most noble king of all fantasy sports: the auction keeper hoops league.

Congratulations on choosing the high life!

The Basics

In ESPN's standard auction format, your reign as owner will commence with a wad of cash, and an empty roster to fill.

You start with $200.

You have 13 roster spots.

You start 10 players at the following positions: 1PG, 1SG, 1SF, 1PF, 1C, 1G, 1F, 3 UTIL and 3 Bench.

You can pick any categories you like, but we prefer: FG%, FT%, 3PM, REB, AST, STL, BLK, PTS

Despite what my in-laws might say, this is still America, so you're still free to choose the scoring system that suits your league best, be it head-to-head, traditional rotisserie, categories, points and so on.


How to win

Above all else, make a plan. I don't have a plan for retirement, but I sure have a plan for my fantasy basketball auction draft. Don't judge me.

What is my recommended plan? Spoiler: It involves using your calculator app. But because I care, I'm about to do the calculating for you.

Step 1: Pre-draft homework

1. Properly valuate your player pool into an easy-to-remember ratio.

This is a way of saying "figure out how much money your league has to spend on the amount of available value."

I write for ESPN, so I'm trying to figure out how many dollars I have to spend per Player Rater point. How do I do this? It's a similar calculation to determining auction keeper league inflation.

First (stick with me), determine the depth of your league's player pool. Let's say you're in a 10-team league with 13-man rosters. That's 130 players.

Second, I determine aggregate production. Again, because I write for ESPN, I use Player Rater points as units of production.

And because I have no life, I know that 130 players produce an aggregate 900 Player Rater points. So, we are spending for 900 points of available production.

Third (stick with me), I determine how much money my league has to spend. A 10-team league with $200 budget per team has $2000 to spend.

So our equation looks like this -

$2,000 for 900 Player Rater points of production.

$2.22 per Player Rater point.

When you have this ratio in mind, it's a good way to calibrate what a player is actually worth on the fly -- especially in the mid-to-late stages of your draft when owners have overspent on big names.

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Wizards guard John Wall's value changes dramatically if turnovers are counted in fantasy leagues. AP Photo/John Bazemore

2. Downgrade certain players if your league counts turnovers.

This is a subtle tactic that gets ignored far too often.

Turnover leagues penalize players who tend to rely on volume (points, assists) to produce their fantasy value. When turnovers are factored in, certain players can lose 10-to-25 percent of their value.

Here's a quick list of players to downgrade in rough order of importance; DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, Michael Carter-Williams, Reggie Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Eric Bledsoe, Elfrid Payton, Tyreke Evans, Victor Oladipo, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry.

Alternately, big names like Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, Curry and Jeff Teague get upgraded. So do catch-and-shoot players like Danny Green and Klay Thompson. So do big men.

But point guards with high assist-to-turnover ratios like Curry, Paul, Ty Lawson, George Hill, Kemba Walker get the biggest bump. This is because they're producing in assists without hurting you like a Wall or Westbrook.

3. Break down your player pool by projected dollar value and position into tiers.

Bradford Doolittle has already done most of the work for you. And Bradford Doolittle knows what he's doing.

4. Figure out which positions suffer from positional scarcity.

Because ESPN is generous with its PF/C classification, centers aren't as scarce as you'd believe. On the other hand...shooting guard is looking a little thin these days.

5. Identify players who carry and alternately destroy certain categories.

A Serge Ibaka can help dominate blocks. But an Andre Drummond can kneecap your free throw percentage.

Damian Lillard has the green light to fire at will from 3-point range. He's going to kill it in 3s this season. But he only shot 34 percent from deep last season. So Lillard will also kill your team's field goal percentage in the process.

6. Make a list of players you're going to target.

And then backup options if you have to move off any of these players. An auction draft, like life, is all about options.

7. Make a list of late round and endgame picks.

Guys who might be worth an extra buck or two at the end of a draft when everyone's punchy.

Here's a quick look at some of my favorite endgame picks so far; Darren Collison, C.J. McCollum, Robert Covington, Joakim Noah, Meyers Leonard, Al-Farouq Aminu, Trey Burke, Emmanuel Mudiay, Roy Hibbert, Jusuf Nurkic, Evan Turner, Bojan Bogdanovic, Alex Len, Stanley Johnson, Otto Porter Jr., Myles Turner, Kristaps Porzingis, Kyle O'Quinn.

8. Make a list of players to avoid.

This is more important than you'd think. In the heat of a draft, I've gotten sucked into drafting a player who was off my brand because I couldn't believe he was going for so cheap. I still get night sweats thinking about the time I paid $17 for Josh Smith.

9. Make a list of your fellow owner's favorite teams.

Know that owners tend to overpay for players from their favorite NBA squads, because they want to see their players in the games they watch. Also know that Knicks and Lakers fans tend to really suffer in this area. (Don't believe me? "Lakers Exceptionalism" is now an accepted term in the NBA lexicon.)

10. Don't punt.

I can't stress this enough. Don't go into your draft thinking you can ignore a single category. You win by building depth across all positions and categories.

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Having both Damian Lillard and James Harden on your fantasy roster could cost you depth at other positions. USA TODAY Sports

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Step 2: Making your actual plan

When you make a plan, don't let it be "Stars and Scrubs."

"Stars and Scrubs" is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Here, you focus big bucks on three to four ringers, then fill the gaps with cheap role players.

Here's a typical "Stars and Scrubs" roster for a 13-man, $200 budget. I'm using actual current average auction value. Note that $174, or 87 percent of the budget, is spent on three players:

PG: Damian Lillard $50
SG: James Harden $68
SF: Jeff Green $1
PF: Tobias Harris $8
C: DeMarcus Cousins $56
G: Michael Carter-Williams $5
F: Jahlil Okafor $4
UTIL: Tony Parker $2
UTIL: Roy Hibbert $2
UTIL: Harrison Barnes $1
BENCH: Avery Bradley $1
BENCH: Ed Davis $1
BENCH: Zach LaVine $1

This team is way too top-heavy. Remember, the top player overall generally generates 20 to 24 Player Rater points. Which means a 24-Player Rater point player would only be worth $53 in terms of hard value. That's for an off-the-charts type of statistical performance, along the lines of a 1974-75 Bob McAdoo.

But the truth is that we pay more for the big names because A) we're suckers for marquee value and B) we want peace of mind. You're paying a markup because you know that Harden, Lillard and Cousins will anchor your team. And it's also just fun to roster those guys.

Just keep in mind that using our $2.22 per Player Rater point ratio, 2014-15 Curry -- the No. 1 player on the Player Rater -- was a $47 player.

Forty-seven dollars. That's his actual value in a 10-team, 13-man, $200 league. He's currently going for $74 in ESPN.com's live draft results. That's over a 60 percent markup.

When you're paying that kind of markup across multiple players, you're left wide open to injuries, trades, slumps, and scheduling abnormalities. It also places a lot of pressure on an owner to be resourceful on the waiver wire, since you will undoubtedly be scouring for new scrubs to plug in when other scrubs don't pan out.

Owners new to auction leagues tend to fall into this strategy by mistake. Many a time I've seen new owners get bid-happy and scarf up three of the first eight or nine superstars. Just like in the real NBA, the main issue with "Stars & Scrubs" is that if you whiff on one of your stars, it's difficult to recover.

Of course, there is another way to go about it.

You can promise yourself you won't spend more than $28 to $32 on a single player.

You have to weather the initial storm, napping comfortably while other owners go hog-wild for Anthony Davis at $78 and Durant at $66. Because you've done your homework that I previously assigned -- you will do that -- you will notice bargains starting to fall through the cracks.

A team built with this approach might look like this:

PG: Kyle Lowry $21
SG: Gordon Hayward $27
SF: Rudy Gay $31
PF: Nerlens Noel $24
C: Pau Gasol $28
G: Kemba Walker $9
F: Kenneth Faried $14
UTIL: Gorgui Dieng $5
UTIL: Tyreke Evans $11
UTIL: Goran Dragic $14
BENCH: Zach Randolph $6
BENCH: C.J.McCollum $3
BENCH: Kyle Korver $7

I agree, this doesn't have the same sizzle as having Harden and DMC, but this is a winning roster that gives you tons of options.

The benefits? You are guarding against a single injury destroying your team's prospects. You are building solid foundations across the board in every category. You have more flexibility when setting your lineups. And you have more flexibility when making trades.


Step 3: Draft night!

1. Track how other owners are managing their money.

If you're not using ESPN Fantasy's snappy auction draft engine, I recommend a spreadsheet that tracks available money left by position, and even by category.

2. Don't get sucked into bidding wars.

Don't let draft over-ebullience suck you into a mano-y-mano, womano-y-mano or womano-y-womano test of mettle. Like DeNiro in "Heat," don't get into a situation you can't walk away from at any time. That's how people get shot near the airport.

3. Bid up players you don't want and/or need.

Even if it's a player you disdain, don't be shy about jumping in early and bidding a player up a few bucks ... as long as you're confident the price will keep soaring.

You'll never forget the moments where the floor drops out from beneath your feet and you're holding the bag. In 2007, I once ended up with Eddy Curry ... it was very embarrassing, trust me.

4. Don't reach for "hot sleepers."

These are players who are referred to as sleepers in draft guides to the point where they reach a tipping point and become the existential opposite of "hot sleeper," the "I'm trying to look smart post-draft regret malaise pick."

5. Don't panic when you've hit a point where owners believe established fantasy starters at a certain position are all almost off the board.

The last mid-round point guard, the last center that gets 2.0 blocks...these moments inspire overbidding.

6. Don't engage in craven attempts at Gordon Gekko/Walter White-type gamesmanship.

Don't say things designed to get into other owner's minds. We see you coming from a mile away. Don't draft like a boss. You're not a boss. R.C. Buford is a boss. Pat Riley is the boss of bosses. You are, at best, a James Dolan; a guy who fell upwards into an ownership situation and celebrates blues music with a disquieting intensity.

(If you do want to try shaking people up, I recommend repurposing Donald Trump's tweets. Example; "Quit Steve Jeb quit. Your team's projected value poll is even lower than your apprentice Mitch Rubio!)

7. Don't offer stupid trades during the draft.

Don't be "That Guy." He's the one who offers you DeMar DeRozan and Jarrett Jack for Kawhi Leonard. (Coincidentally, "That Guy" tends to drive a BMW 3-series, or rides a bike.)

8. Identify when your draft is entering what I call "hangover periods."

These are the pockets of relative inactivity after owners have hit "hot spots" where they've spent a large amount of their budget.

Hot spots of overspending usually occur with the top 12 players, so-called "hot sleepers," and when the final sure-fire starters at certain positions (especially center and point guard) are almost off the board.

After these frenzies, lulls appear. That's the hangover period. There's less money available for larger projected value.

That's when you sneak in and get those players in the $5-to-$25 range at a discount. And that's how you win a league.

9. Just as the top 25 players go for too much money, players 26-to-130 go for too little.

Let's look at the median. The 65th-best player in fantasy last year was Robert Covington. He produced 5.53 Player Rater points. Using our ratio, he produced $12 of value.

This year, the 65th-highest salary in ESPN auctions (DeMar DeRozan) is going for $8. So in 65 territory, you could be getting $12 of value for just $8. That's a savings of 50 percent.

Last season, the players who finished in the 120-to-130 range on the Player Rater still averaged about three Player Rater points in production -- meaning those players are actually worth $6 to $7 dollars. The 120-to-130 group is $1 territory in our Live Results.


One final note

Deep breaths before the first throw, green tea at the halfway mark, then cold brew for the endgame.

Before the draft? Exhale. Mediate. Medicate. Have a Manhattan. Stretch. Whatever you can do to relax, do it. An overabundance of adrenaline is going to fuel the first half hour. Players are going to go for way too much. Keep your cool.

Halfway through, get up and walk around the table. Start ramping up your energy intake as the other owners begin to flag.

At the end?

Jumping jacks. Cold brew. "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. Whatever you need to do to make sure you're not as punchy as your fellow owners. This is where you sneakily bring your A game, friend.

Because in the end, the endgame is where imaginary champions are made.