In the next series of posts, I will be discussing what any fantasy basketball manager should do before picking up a free agent. This is the first of five installments.

(1) Look at a free agent’s overall & season ranking
This is pretty obvious, but deserves repeating. Yahoo Fantasy Basketball always lists two rankings by a player’s stats: “o-rank” and “rank”. There are several other rankings (actual, average, monthly, weekly, etc.), but these are the two most prevalent and useful rankings. Together, they provide a good initial measure for determining a player’s general value.

O-rank refers to a player’s overall rank.
Yahoo calculates this by taking into account both current AND prior seasons. O-rank is set before the season even starts, contingent upon previous fantasy stats and not taking into account potential in the future season. As the season progresses, it’s value is impacted by the current season, but it is unclear by how much. Generally, however, the overall rank is considered a measure of performance in previous seasons, or a player’s “overall” fantasy rank as determined by his career. Clearly, the overall ranking system has its positives and its negatives. Fantasy Basketball Guy tells us how ‘o-rank’ is flawed by the fact that a player can “live off old stats”. He reminds us how TMac had a few amazing seasons and now is consistently bumped-up in the o-rank. Advocates of the ‘o-rank’ might claim that it is a useful measure of a player’s past fantasy consistency and is just as reliable as a Fortune 500 company’s previous annual earnings.

Rank refers to a player’s rank in the current season.
Yahoo calculates this by taking into account only the current season. It is a ranking that gains more applicability as the season grows older and player’s begin to settle into to their averages for the season. For instance, it means a lot more if Yao Ming is the #1 ranked player through 60 games than if he is the #1 ranked player through 5. For this reason, sorting by ‘rank’ can be a valuable tool for late-season acquisitions.

Given the above, there are two things I recommend:

• First, make sure there isn’t a huge discrepancy between a player’s ‘rank’ and ‘o-rank’.
  If there is, this tells me one of two things (neither of them good)–either the player has vastly underperformed in the current season or his prior season’s were aberrations. To illustrate let’s look at Delonte West (G, Seattle). As of December 27th, Delonte West’s ‘o-rank’ was 102 and his ‘rank’ was 256. Absent extreme circumstances, it is clear West has either severely underperformed this season or his prior season’s were aberrations. I think the former is more true here. Looking at West’s numbers we see he has lost substantial minutes this year due to injuries and the emergence of Earl Watson (G, Seattle). In addition, nearly ALL of his stats are down, except for TO’s (which unfortunately are up). It’s players like this that I avoid despite their strong overall ranking. Sure West was good last year and the year-before-last when he averaged 5 more points and 2 more assists, but this is a new year and it is clear he does not deserve a ranking in the low 100s. This is just one example of how it pays off to do a little bit of homework before picking up a player.
• Second, pick up players that have a better ‘rank’ than ‘o-rank’.
  This is a pretty standard fantasy tip. What this means is that a player is outpacing his prior career production and is having a breakout season. Obviously this technique is more sound when looking at players that have been in the league for at least 5 years, because young players will always be improving (and have a higher ‘rank’ than ‘o-rank’). A good example of a player that fulfills this criteria is Hedo Turkoglu (GF, Orlando). Obviously Turkoglu will not be a free agent in your league, but he’s worth looking at as a test case. An eight-year vet, Turkoglu’s overall rank is 117 (as of December 27th), but his season rank is 24! Clearly Turkoglu is having the best season of his career, averaging 19 points, 6 boards and 4 assists and has greatly improved his shooting and passing statistics. It’s players like this that are great pick-ups because they represent improving players that may be playing at their peak.

Share your pick-ups in the comments section and let me know why you picked up the specific player!

Other Parts: Part 2/5 | Part 3/5

To hoops,
Farid

The Problem
Ever wonder how you really stack up against the competition in your H2H league? Well if you’re a hardcore Yahoo Fantasy Basketball veteran like myself, you probably check your (1) H2H overall Win-Loss records in each category and (2) your total H2H stats in each category often. The cool thing about the latter is that if you put in a few seconds of work, you can actually figure out how you’d be stacking up if the league were scored rotisserie-style. For example, how do your 4300 total points thus far compare to the rest of the league? It’d also be cool to see if you’d be ranked higher if the league were scored rotisserie.

The Solution
With that said, I’m excited to release an excel spreadsheet that does just this. So try it out and tell me how you like. Simply copy-and-paste the names of the teams in your league as well as the total H2H stats in each category. Let me know in the comments if this works for you and if you have any suggestions.

Click here for spreadsheet (hosted on my school’s server).

To hoops,
Farid

On December 14th, I traded my first-round draft pick (Pick #6), Steve Nash, for third-rounder (Pick #27) Allen Iverson in a Yahoo head-to-head league that I am playing with my friends.

In this particular instance, I believe I was justified in trading Nash (#6 overall on Yahoo) for the incredible upside potential in Iverson, (#34 overall on Yahoo). Over the years I have found that, in a head-to-head league, it is okay to trade away a “better” player for a slightly poorer overall player if the player you are trading for brings you production in categories you have historically been weak in.

Here is how they compare stats-wise (as of December 24th, 2007):

Category– Nash, Iverson
FG%– 51.6, 45.7
FT%– 93.3, 83.1
3PTM– 1.9, 0.9
PTS– 17.3, 26.4
REB– 3.8, 3.0
AST– 12.4, 7.3
ST– 0.6, 2.4
BLK– 0.0, 0.2
TO– 3.7, 3.7

By looking at the comparison, it’s very easy to see why Nash is ranked as high as he is. There is no disputing his strong stats. But at the same time, when your team is weaker in certain categories and changes need to be made, a great overall player is especially lucrative as trade bait. I should note that I proposed this trade and it was accepted after 3 days.

What attracted me to a deal of this sort, and Iverson in particular?

1. Change Needed.
   At 40-31-1 (tied for 4^th) and 8 games back from the leader, I realized I needed to make a change. I noticed that the only three categories that I was underperforming in were PTS (3-5-0), ST (3-5-0) and TO’s (3-4-1). Categories that I was strong in included 3PM (6-2-0), AST (6-2-0), FG% (5-3-0) and FT% (5-3-0).
2. Nash is great in categories I already perform well in.
   Nash is known for his crazy assist numbers, his three-balls and his percentages. I get production in these categories from many players on my team. I do realize Nash is supplying much of the strength in these categories (especially assists), but at the same time he would be a great candidate for trade if I wanted to make a change.
3. Iverson is exceptional in categories I need.
   I need points and Iverson has been on a scoring hot streak. Last time I checked, he was averaging over 33 across an eight game stretch. I also need steals and Iverson is always among the league leaders in that category.
4. Iverson v. Nash.
   The good thing about this trade from my perspective is that Iverson has been scorching hot and Nash hasn’t been on such a tear as of late (in the last month, Iverson ranked 11^th in the Yahoo game, Nash ranked 30^th). That will definitely even out in the long-run, but there’s no denying that Iverson scores around 9 more points-per-game and gets around 2 more steals per-game than Nash (categories I need). At the same time Iverson doesn’t really give up too much on the boards or with turnovers. Nash only has distinct advantages in percentages, threes and assists, and even in those categories, Iverson performs above-average overall (i.e. Iverson’s 7 assists a game is very respectable and shouldn’t impact my commanding lead in assists).
5. Intangibles and future production.
   I also like the fact that Iverson is very durable and can still average 7 more minutes per game than Nash (41 v. 34). This has been the case for many in stating that Iverson will wear down, but out of all the players in the NBA, Iverson has shown the most passion and has the ability to play-through and overcome minor injuries. In addition, Iverson has emerged as Denver’s leading threat on the offense side as Melo has done a better job of getting him the ball. With the Nuggets continually improving and Iverson anchoring the ship, I like the chances of him moving up in the rankings better than I do Nash and his multi-dimensional, streaky offense.

Therefore, trades of this sort can be beneficial to your team if you net out the costs and benefits. In my particular situation the benefits are enormous if A.I. plays at a level even close to what he’s been playing at the last month and the costs are minimal because A.I. has been shooting better, his FT% is strong and his assists are ever-increasing. I’ll give this trade a few weeks to have its effects and then I’ll update on how it’s impacted my team. I am off to a good start, though, I took out the number 2 team last week 6-2-1!

To hoops,
Farid

This is a blog I’ve been wanting to create for a while.

It will be a fantasy basketball blog relating most specifically to Yahoo’s Fantasy Basketball game. I hope to add useful, interesting and relevant content to contribute to the fantasy basketball community! and take a break from playing poker online!

I was inspired by: Fantasy Basketblog, the Rotowire Blog and Fantasy Basketball Cafe.

To hoops,
Farid