Fantasy Basketball Season

OK, it's fantasy basketball season once again. This is one of my other hobbies besides poker. If you have zero to little interest in NBA basketball, then feel free to skip this post as it has nothing to do with poker.

This year, I joined 2 leagues with live drafts. Both are 14 team Head to Head leagues counting 9 categories under the normal yahoo system of having PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, UTIL, UTIL and bench as positions.

The first league is a local money league. Everybody puts in a certain amount and cash prizes go to the one who finishes with the best regular season record as well as prizes for finishing in 1st, 2nd and 3rd after the playoffs. The 2 teams who finish in last place are also required to pay an additional amount that goes into the pot. (This was done to prevent last place teams from colluding and trading their stars for scrubs in exchange for some favor)

I drafted 7th in this money league and here are the players that I got in the order that I got them. The number inside the parenthesis is the overall draft position

1.(7)Kevin Durant SG,SF
2.(22)Joe Johnson PG,SG
3.(35)Brook Lopez PF,C
4.(50)Nene Hilario PF,C
5.(63) Mo Williams PG
6.(78) Charlie Villanueva SF,PF
7.(91) Eric Gordon SG
8.(106) Greg Oden C
9.(119) Louis Williams PG,SG
10.(134)Courtney Lee SG,SF
11.(147) Brandon Jennings PG
12.(162) Nenad Krstic PF,C
13.(175) Antonio McDyess PF,C

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with this draft. Durant as a 1st round pick is quite good as he will absolutely explode this year in Oklahoma. Some experts were picking him as high as no 4, so getting him at 7 is good value. Eric Gordon at the 7th round 91st overall is an absolute steal. I took a risk with Oden at the 8th round even though he's been injured every year, because he's tearing it up this pre season and I see a lot of upside as long as he stays healthy. Louis Williams inherits the starting point guard position in Philly with the departure of Andre Miller to Portland and he should be in for a big year. Courtney Lee takes the place of Vince Carter in New Jersey, so that's another pick with a lot of upside.

The 2nd league that I joined is a champions league. The managers are screened. If you don't have a fantasy gold trophy in your yahoo profile, then you cannot join. This assures everyone that it is a very competitive league even without money involved as there is some pride at stake of being the best among the best. It is composed of players around the world who love to trash talk and the live draft was one of the tightest ones with lots of nasty comments. Everybody knows their basketball and draft steals were harder to get.

I drafted 12th in this league and here are the players that I got

1. (12)Dirk Nowitzki PF
2. (17)Joe Johnson PG,SG
3. (40)David Lee PF,C
4. (45)Kevin Martin SG
5. (68)Russell Westbrook PG
6. (73) Jeff Green SF,PF
7. (96)Greg Oden C
8. (101)Mike Conley PG
9. (124)Thaddeus Young SF,PF
10.(129)Samuel Dalembert C
11.(152)Al Thornton SF,PF
12.(157)Drew Gooden PF,C
13.(180) Terrence Williams SG,SF,PF
14.(185) Steve Blake PG

This is just a fair draft for me. Good picks were Nowitzki in the 1st round and Kevin Martin in the 4th. Oden at 7th was too early but this was caused by a dropped connection. Conley at 8th was also a bit early as TJ Ford was still there and I missed drafting him. The only steal I think I got was Thaddeus Young at 124th overall. The rest were just average picks and not so much upside. Again, as I said, everybody knew their stuff and all the players I were targetting were coming off the boards before my turn.

Oh well, I've been playing long enough to know that fantasy leagues are won through free agent acquisitions, so I'm hoping for a good pick up during the course of the season to bolster the team.

For those poker players interested in fantasy basketball, comments about the teams above would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.