NBA Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide: Are You Prepared?

You watched the draft and have been keeping tabs on all of the summer’s big moves. Summer League showed us that OJ Mayo and Michael Beasley are for real. We all saw the Olympics; Dwyane Wade is healthy, but not human.

As the NBA preseason kicks off, many of you will be preparing for your fantasy basketball drafts. Most of you will be doing live and auto-pick drafts online, while a few will be participating in the coveted offline draft. No matter what format you play, you will need a strategy so you can be successful against the ever-improving “average fantasy player.”

Ranking the Player Pool

First, you will need to establish your personal player rankings. To help you out, I have created a top 10 list for Point Guards (PG), Shooting Guards (SG), Small Forwards (SF), Power Forwards (PF), and Centers (C), as well of the next-best players, and guys to not sleep on for each position.  I have selected sleepers from all the teams too.

In my rankings, I used a combination of looking at the players’ stats from last year, lines from their entire career, the players’ career averages, as well as evaluating how much untapped potential a player has.

Another important variable to factor in is a player's injury history, such as if he misses games every year, if he has a nagging injury, and how easy is it to come back from the season-ending injury he had last season. A star player getting injured down the stretch can make or break your fantasy season. 

In fantasy basketball, most players can play multiple positions, so you don’t need to worry too much about winding up with a team of small forwards; some will play shooting guard and some will play power forward. Concern yourself more with the talents of each player. I’ve ranked my players by position to give you a broader scope, but if you make a big board, it should work just fine. Remember, there is always trading if you wind up overstocked at one position.

Don’t let my rankings be the only ones you look at. Every fantasy provider and sports media outlet will have rankings of the players. Determine what you want your team to look like. Determine how much risk you are comfortable with—would you want Greg Oden and Andrew Bynum as your starting centers?

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