I have to say in the last few weeks I've been getting really into this whole fantasy thing, for some reason I felt the need to make a big post looking back and looking ahead.
Going all the way back to the draft, it's pretty funny how things went down. I know a lot of us were total fantasy noobs but to think that some of the best picks/teams were built by people who were afk at the time (Coquis, CoolClyde, the team formerly known as QueenzStreetSweepers, Trillionairres) is rather tragic.
A look at some of the highlights (epic fail) picks of the draft:
Round 1
9 - Carmelo Anthony - Pringles4Life
11 - Amare Stoudemire - rady (Trillion?)
Round 2
9 - Danny Granger - yours truly (what the f was I thinking??)
I'm also reminded that I actually drafted Raymond Felton with my 5th pick, who by two weeks ago was the worst player on my team.
The league has been a whirlwind of ups and downs. Major props for CoolClyde for getting the trading started, and boy have there been some crazy trades.
Metrocard getting bored enough to give away the farm on two seperate occasions, rady and RTE1 making some serious noise with their rejected and dejected (watching too much MSG) squads... The Crazy Pirates of Pork basically handing out fantasy studs like a charity...
As far as trading goes I might be the most active and possibly candidate for GM of the year! Considering how tragic my draft was I can't believe I managed to turn my squad of useless wastrels into such a crazy beast of a team (albeit the most inconsistent piece of shits in the NBA).
It's really interesting to see how people play the game. There are a few of us who are playing really high risk and others who are just playing solid, no risk fantasy. I'm predicting the championship will go to either myself (if I make the playoffs), Coquis or CoolClyde as I think the risk strategy is going to pay off.
On to the future!
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I think next year we should promote this hard and fast....
I'm sure there are a few of us in the league who would be really interested in playing multiple leagues. The 12 team format works really well IMO so we should get try to get 2-3 12xteam leagues going. I'm sure there are PLENTY of people on these forums who would be up for it.
To anyone viewing the thread or thinking about signing up for next year I thought I'd do a little breakdown of how to play fantasy and how much time/effort it requires. You can copy paste this shiz when we go next year.
As a side-note I would say to any potentially interested people, you really do need to spend at least 10 minutes a week making sure your team is semi-competitive, otherwise it screws things over for the rest of the league.
CASUALS: 10-20 min per week
You can play this game casually easily. You don't even have to be present for the draft! All you need is about 10 minutes a week. Log on once a week, set your lineups for each day for the next week. If you want to dabble in the FA pool, you can make 4 adds/drops per week starting 12.00am Monday Pacific Time. Just make sure to re-confirm your lineups afterwards.
Casual players can use the little yellow notes button next to the players name on yahoo to check recent player news, performances and future matchups. This tool is not up-to-the-minute news so can be flawed on occasion but it's easy and quick.
INTERMEDIATE: 1-2 hours per week
As someone who dedicates an average amount of time to fantasy, you have the potential to easily hang with the best. You might not be as heavily involved in the free agent market but with a little time day-to-day spent micromanaging any injuries, hot players and such, you can put up very respectable scores.
You would probably want to use external sources and keep an eye on the league as a whole to see trends, latest injury news and the like.
HARDCORE: 30min-1hour per day
If you have this much time to spare fantasy can become pretty rewarding. You are scraping every point out of your team. On a night when your team is stacked you know which of your lesser players is likely to go off. You are adding/dropping based on injuries, minutes, current form, weak days for your team and more.
Over the last few weeks I've been playing "hardcore" and it's been a lot of fun, it has gotten me a lot more into the NBA as a whole as oppose to just the Knicks. When you bring in a mercenary for a game or two and they just go off and win you a matchup it's so satisfying!
If we manage to get a few leagues up next year we should try to put people in based on their activity. A 12 man league of people who really go deep (...) with their teams would have awesome competition. On the flipside a league with 12 casuals would give them all hope and it's less likely to turn into the kind of imbalanced league we have this season.
PHEW! I haven't even written this much about the Knicks lately... But hell, apart from Linsanity, fantasy has been alot more fun this year than the Knicks! Here's hoping that's about to change :crossfingers:
:agreed: Nice one.
I like the idea of running two leagues, with one being a "veterans" league, open for people who have proven themselves as worthy GM's in a given season.
The league has been a smashing success this year, either way. A truly competitive league. For a league that isn't played for money/prizes, this is possibly the most cut-throat (in a good way) fantasy league I've been in. Real ballers.
And it's def true that it will get you more into the NBA at large, and more generally aware and keen to things.
It's early, but may as well mention again....to really up the ante in a super-competitive or "veterans" league, doing it auction/cap style is the most fun and interesting.
Basically, you draft and manage your team with a fantasy equivalent of a cap system.
Also, and I can't do it now since it impacts how you draft in a HUGE way: we could a keeper league. Where at the end of each season, every team can hold onto 3 players to start the next season with.
EG, even after Rubio's injury, Metro would have still wanted to keep him.
Rubio's very draft ranking would have been higher, too.
Do you really want KG, or is it better to reach on a young buck PF to hopefully hold on to for years down the road....
Only thing with a keeper league, is you should be reasonably sure you'll have at least a decent core of ppl who could realistically commit to doing the league for a good 3+ seasons.