Player productivity

August 27, 12:09 PMFantasy Basketball ExaminerBruce Allen

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Regardless of the game you play (see links), the challenge is to maximize fantasy points per player per week.

Draft and Trade Versus Salary Cap
For each player, this is the product of number of his team’s scheduled games for the week and his average points per game. These statistics are available on your game’s site. Your game has its own scoring system (rotisserie or shish kebab), and may or may not use player salaries. If it has restrictions on the number of players per position, you need to check how they classify each player. Different sites tend to blur the difference between power forwards and centers, and between small forwards and guards. You don’t want to get caught entering your roster and having the site reject your team for having players out of position. Oh, and I was kidding about the shish kebab.

The game I play at fanball.com is a salary cap game. I’m in the process of updating my spreadsheet to account for player moves, new positions, new salaries, new rookies, even a new NBA home town in Oklahoma City. By this time next month, I’ll have all of the data entered, and I’ll be ready to go.

At fanball.com, there is a rough correlation between 2008 player salaries and player production in 2007-08. If I were in charge of things, I would scale this season’s player salaries in direct proportion to last year’s productivity.  At fanball Lebron James was the highest paid player, and also the most productive, which is a rare double-double. Thus, if Player A averaged 72% of what Lebron averaged, I would pay him 72% of what Lebron is making this year. It doesn’t work that way, which distorts the results a little.

Fantasy Points Versus Fantasy Value
Here’s an illustration of the difference between fantasy points and fantasy value. This is a list of the top 15 forwards in the league last season in fantasy points per game: 

1. LeBron James
2. Amare Stoudemire
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Dirk Nowitzki
5. Tim Duncan
6. Carlos Boozer
7. Chris Bosh
8. Josh Smith
9. Caron Butler
10. Kevin Garnett
11. Antawn Jamison
12. David West
13. Ron Artest
14. Gerald Wallace
15. Marcus Camby

Here’s the top 15 with fanball.com salaries factored in. The forwards who made the list based upon fantasy value are in bold:

1. Amare Stoudemire
2. LeBron James
3. Caron Butler
4. Marcus Camby
5. Ron Artest
6. Gerald Wallace
7. David West
8. Corey Maggette
9. Carlos Boozer
10. Josh Smith
11. Kenyon Martin
12. Chris Bosh
13. LaMarcus Aldridge
14. Emeka Okafor
15. Pau Gasol

During the season, we will always be seeking value as well as points. As a General Manager, you need to find the diamonds in the rough to complement the stars if you’re going to compete in your league.