Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball

What is NBA Fantasy Basketball?

Fantasy basketball came into being after the success of fantasy baseball. It followed fantasy baseball as basketball is also among the more popular sports these days. Basketball, just like the other games today, has a number of people keeping track of the different actions as the game is played and compile these numbers into basketball statistics by which any basketball game later is analyzed. Fantasy basketball was originally played by keeping track of stats by hand, and it became very popular in the 1990s after the advent of the Internet.
Those who play this game are referred to as General Managers (GM), who draft actual NBA players as part of their fantasy teams and compute their basketball statistics. As fantasy basketball came just when the Internet was already around, the game has experienced big leaps in its popularity especially among the tech savvy young.

There are many rule variations when playing fantasy basketball depending on what are agreed upon. The rules used would depend on the categories, the number of teams and their roster size, fantasy basket ball drafts and the types of scoring.
Fantasy basketball leagues’ tracks differ, as few as three or as many as eleven categories. Three-category leagues are those which usually account for only points, rebounds, and assists. The five-category leagues add blocks and steals to the three mentioned above. Tracks on field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and either three-point field goals made or three-point field goal percentages are added to make a league of the eight category type. Higher category results when the category of turnovers is further added, although other stats such as fouls are rarely counted.

There is normally a league "commissioner" assigned to determine which categories will be tracked. He has to choose the tracks well because categories chosen poorly could cause the league to be unfairly weighted for or against certain positions. A league that tracks points, rebounds, assists, steals, and three-point field goals would be weighted in favor of the guards, who typically have higher numbers in many of these categories, and unfavorably against power forwards and centers, who typically have higher numbers in the block and field goal percentage categories, which may not be counted by a less discerning commissioner.
In public fantasy basketball leagues, the number of teams is typically ten or twelve. On the hand, in private leagues, which are by invitation-only and usually utilized by players who want to compete against a group of people they already know beforehand, the number of teams will vary substantially.

The term "roster size" in fantasy basket ball refers to the number of players that may be assigned to any given team. The roster size is the same for all teams in the league, obviously for a better competition. "Roster composition", another term that came up with this fantasy sport, refers to the number of players from each position (point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center) that a team may use.

Some leagues require only few (five players per team - one from each position), challenging the player (or GM) to assemble the best starting lineup from week to week. But other leagues may specify as many as twelve or fifteen players per team. These leagues usually include one or more "bench" positions; statistics however accumulated by players assigned to the bench do not count for the team. Leagues with larger roster sizes challenge the players, the GMs, to manage their rosters well internally.

Two types of drafting are used to select players – the snake draft and the auction draft. In a snake draft, the first round is drafted in order, maybe by the drawing of lots. In the second round draft the order is reversed so that the manager who made the last pick in the first round gets the first pick in the second round. This reversal procedure is carried throughout so that the manager with the first overall pick does not maintain this advantage in every round. In an auction draft, on the other hand, each manager has a set budget that he/she must use to fill out the team's roster. Players are put up for auction by managers, and the GM willing to pay the most for the player "drafts" that player.
Scoring Types in Fantasy Basketball

1. Rotisserie Scoring

In rotisserie scoring, the real-life statistics accumulated by the players on a team are aggregated and ranked against the same statistics for the other teams in the league. Fantasy basketball points are earned based on these rankings. For example, in a particular league, the team with the highest number of rebound stats would get twelve fantasy points. The team with the next highest number of rebounds would get eleven fantasy points, and so on. The team with the fewest number of rebounds only gets a single fantasy point. For negative categories like fouls or turnovers, the team with the fewest stats is awarded the most fantasy points. Scoring this way is done for all categories in the particular league. The team with the highest number of fantasy points is the winner for that season.

2. Head-to-head (H2H) Scoring

There are two styles of head-to-head scoring used:

Most categories are a win — whichever team has the more favorable statistics in the categories chosen (most points, highest free throw percentage, etc.) gets a point for that category. The team with the most points accumulated wins that game.
Each category is a win — whichever team has the more favorable statistics in a category (most points, fewest turnovers, highest free throw percentage, etc.) gets a "win" for that category. The opposing team is tagged with a "loss". The results of these match-ups are accumulated to provide a seasonal win-loss record.

Head-to-head leagues often use a "playoff" system, with seeding based on the seasonal win-loss record. Match-ups are bracketed, with the winners of each match-up advancing and the losers eliminated, until a winner is determined.

3. Fantasy Point Scoring

In fantasy point scoring, the commissioner determines beforehand the number of fantasy points that a particular statistic is worth. For example, the commissioner may rule that a steal is worth two fantasy points, whereas a rebound is only worth one, and a turnover is worth negative one. The team with the most fantasy points at the end of the season wins.
As when choosing categories, care must be observed in assigning fantasy point values to categories, to achieve balance for a fairer fantasy basket ball competition.