Fantasy Basketball Drafts

Fantasy Basketball Draft Skills & Advice

When preparing for fantasy basketball drafts, there are more than a few tools and preparation items you can utilize to ensure a solid draft. You don't have to end up with the dregs again this year -- look into the following strategic tactics to amp up your fantasy basketball draft skills.

Fantasy Basketball Mock Drafts

A mock draft not only whets your appetite for fantasy basketball action, it is really the best tool to prepare you for the ins and outs of a fantasy basketball draft.

A mock draft is just what it sounds like -- a fake version of the draft you and your fantasy basketball league cohorts will participate in to begin your fantasy basketball season. Mock drafts are available via the home pages of whatever fantasy basketball provider you're planning to use during the season.

One of my favorites is available through Yahoo's fantasy sports page -- mostly because now, and leading up to the beginning of the season, you can participate in live mock drafts every ten minutes or so. That's right, you can draft head to head live against other fantasy basketball fans on a nearly continuous basis up until the mock fantasy basketball drafts shut down for good, some time around the season opener.

Why run mock drafts? To test your fantasy basketball draft skills and strategy. Fantasy basketball is less vulnerable to a bad draft compared to fantasy football because of the length of the season and because of the variety of potentially solid rosters. Remember, most leagues want you to draft three bench players and two "utility" players -- your backup roster is more active and involved in your strategy than in football. For myriad other reasons, if you have a less than average fantasy basketball draft, you haven't seen your entire season go down the drain.

But the difference between a slow start and a breakout run towards your league championship could be cementing those two power players up front or the league's best big man. Run a few mock drafts -- go crazy with draft strategy -- and prepare yourself for the big day.

Fantasy Basketball Drafts - Cheat Sheets

Once you're sitting down on draft day, watching the first few picks, you'll realize that you need some notes. If you've done your homework you probably have a couple of "cheat sheets" on the your computer desk. A cheatsheet can be one of a large number of things, though generally they are printouts of players ranked by draft desirability.

Because fantasy basketball manager's needs are so diverse, no two fantasy basketball draft cheat sheets should be alike. The idea behind a cheat sheet is to list your personal draft desires in descending order based on a large number of criteria. Generally, cheat sheets start out with a list of players by their pure statistical abilities -- guys who put up big fantasy numbers. Your first cheat sheet may start out something like this:

1. Chris Paul
2. LeBron James
3. Dwayne Wade

After listing players by statistical ability, take other factors into consideration. Maybe you're looking to draft "big men" before anyone else but still want to leave Bron Bron and D-Wade in there in case you have a shot at him. In that case, your list may now look something like this:

1. Dwight Howard
2. LeBron James
3. Chris Bosh
4. Dwayne Wade

Now you're starting to build a personalized cheat sheet. As a final factor, you may be looking for a big name flashy rookie as a kind of early round draft "sleeper" pick. Throw in a couple of potential stud rooks (and some other sleeper top picks to throw off your opponents) and your top 8 cheat sheet is looking pretty solid:

1. Dwight Howard
2. LeBron James
3. Blake Griffin
4. Chris Bosh
5. Dwayne Wade
6. Tyreke Evans
7. Jameer Nelson
8. Speedy Claxton

So before you start shooting me hate mail ("SPEEDY CLAXTON in your top 8 cheat sheet example?") you should understand that I built that list as an example of how player rankings change from one manager to the next. Obviously, you're going to want more than 8 players on a cheat sheet. Build a cheat sheet roster that is as long as you'll need depending on the size of your league . . . I always build a cheat sheet of at least 100 players just to be safe.

Fantasy Basketball Drafts - Schedule Breakdown

Maybe the most overrated way to prepare for your fantasy basketball draft is to examine NBA team schedules. I've said it about fantasy football and fantasy baseball and I'll say it again -- you don't need to treat a schedule analysis with any more interest than you would treat player rankings or sleeper reports. In fact, I'd say schedule breakdowns are about the least valuable tool in your fantasy toolbox.

Schedule analysis is available for purchase through many fantasy magazines and subscription based websites. What these guys do is analyze an NBA team's schedule toughness (by week, to match the schedule followed in most fantasy leagues) to help fantasy managers determine their player's fantasy point potential that week. Let's say you've got Andrew Bogut playing Center for your fantasy squad. Many schedule analysts suggest that his Bucks team have the toughest schedule across the NBA. You may use this information to pay more attention to the Bucks opponents in a given week than you may pay to a team like Boston, considered the team with the easiest schedule.

Remember that there's no such thing as an "easy" or "tough" schedule in the NBA, just shades of gray between teams. Can schedule analysis help you predict a player's performance? No. Can it be a useful tool in keeping an eye on a potential stud? Sure.