How to Play Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball

• by Trent

Introduction

• Playing fantasy basketball is very simple. You draft real basketball players and how they perform in real-life NBA games translates into how they do on your team. There are a variety of statistical categories (points, blocks, rebounds, assists, 3-point field goals, turnovers, etc.). The manager that assembles the players with the most consistent stats wins.

• There are several different websites that host fantasy basketball. The best sites are Yahoo!, CBS and ESPN. Yahoo! is the most user-friendly, but if you are more comfortable with CBS or ESPN, they will suffice.

Step 1: Creating and joining a league

Creating a league

• You can join a public league or set one up yourself. If you know enough people, you can create a league for you and your friends or co-workers. If you can't round up enough friends to join your league, you can open it to all users.

• Being the Commissioner of a league allows you to set the scoring system, the roster size, draft type (live, auto pick or offline) and waiver rules.

• These steps will take you from start to finish in creating and becoming the Commissioner of your own fantasy basketball league.

1. Type http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy into your web browser.
2. On the right side of the page, click on the "Fantasy Basketball '07, Sign Up Now!" tab.
3. On the next page there will be an orangish-gold tab that says "Sign Up Now". Click that tab.
4. Now you will be directed to the Yahoo! sign in page. If you don't have a Yahoo! ID or password, go ahead and create one. If you do have an ID and password, go ahead and sign in.
5. Now that you're signed in, you will have the option to become a Commissioner and create a league or a Manager and join an existing league.
6. Click the "Create league" tab.

Joining a league

• If you are interested in playing Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball and you don't want to wait for your friends, or if you don't know enough people that want to play, you can sign up to play as a manager against random people all over the country.

1. Type http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/nba in your web browser.
2. Click "Sign Up Now".
3. If you don't already have a Yahoo! account, create one.
4. On the right of the screen, where it says "Managers—Join existing league", click "Join league".
5. Unless you were invited to join a custom league, you will only choose between "Choose from a list of available Custom Leagues" or "Assign me to a Public League based on my play preferences".
   1. Custom Leagues are set up by a commissioner and usually are more active. It is for people who want to compete, but don't want to put too much time into it. Some custom leagues require you to apply, while others don't care.
   2. Public Leagues are the same as a Custom League except that there is no commissioner. Everyone has the same amount of power and all assigned leagues use default configurations.
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     Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball
6. Once you have selected what type of league you want to play in, the rest is a slam-dunk. Review Step 2, numbers 3-5, Step 3, numbers 1-2 and Step 5 if you have any questions about the draft type, scoring type and team creation.

Step 2: League name and draft type

1. First you will have to think of your League's Name, usually something basketball related. If you're playing with friends, an inside reference/joke is always fun.
2. Now you'll have to choose what League Type you'll want. If you are a returning Yahoo! fantasy basketball player, you will have the option of copying the settings of the leagues you were in in the past. If you don't want to use those settings or if you're new to the game, you can choose between the default express set-up and a custom set-up.
3. Select your Draft Type. For most people, drafting your team is the highlight of the season. For them, the draft involves weeks of scouting and strategy. It's where you pick the players that most likely will be with you for 5 1/2 months. That's why opting for a Live Online Draft is preferred.
4. If you don't have the time to draft, you can choose an Autopick Draft. An autopick draft is where your league's teams will be drafted based on Yahoo! default rankings or a manager's pre-ranking of players. This option gives you chance to arrange the players based on your preferences.
5. The third option is an Offline Draft. This is the old school method of drafting. Before computers linked everyone together, leagues would get together and draft in person. If you and your friends/coworkers have the time, it is always fun to go to a bar or someone's house and draft. Under this setting, the commissioner would manually enter the players into their respective teams.
6. If you would like to bookmark your league, you can create a custom league URL. This feature is optional.

Step 3: League settings

• Now that you have created the league, it's time to define the settings.

1. The first setting you will have to determine is what type of scoring you will use. There are three different types of scoring: Head-to-Head, Rotisserie and Points Only.
   1. Head-to-Head is similar to fantasy football scoring. Basically, your team plays another team for the duration of a week. If there are 10 different point categories, the object is to win as many as possible. For example, if Team A wins in 6 categories and Team B wins 4, Team A will have won the week.
   2. The second type of scoring is Rotisserie. Rotisserie scoring employs the same concept of head-to-head except that you're not competing against a new person every week. Let's say there are 10 categories (points, assists, rebounds, FG %, etc) and 10 teams in the league. If you have the most assists, you get 10 points. Whoever had the least amount of assists gets 1 point. If you led every category you would have 100 points, whereas, the person who finished in the middle of every category (5 points) would end up with 50 points. As the season progresses, the points will fluctuate. Making adjustments and strengthening the categories you're weak in is crucial.
   3. The third category is Points Only. That is the most straightforward scoring system available. Basically, you will receive a point for every stat and negative points for bad stats such as turnovers. That way you're not penalized for being deficient in one category. In rotisserie scoring, if you lead your league in points the max you can get is 10 points. In total points, if you lead the second place team in scoring by 345 points, you have those points to offset other categories you might not be so good in.
2. Choose how many teams will be playing in your league. The number of teams has to be even and starts at 4 and goes up to 20. Most leagues have between 10 and 14. Keep in mind that the more teams you have, the more diluted the talent will be.
3. You can limit the amount of players one can pick up throughout the season by adjusting the Maximum Moves category. The "No maximum" option is good because it's a long season and a lot of players will be lost to injury. Plus, there is a maximum number of games that can be played at each position, which prevents a team from picking up players to play in every game.
4. Maximum Trades is almost moot. Making trades is one fun aspect of playing fantasy basketball. Besides, most teams hardly make more than one or two trades during the season.
5. The Yahoo! default Trade End Date is March 6, 2008. The real NBA trade deadline is February 21, 2008. You can choose to implement either Feb 29, March 6, March 16 or have no deadline at all.
6. If two teams propose and accept a trade, one of two things happen: a 2/3 majority of the league must approve, or the commissioner can approve or deny the trade.
7. Trade Reject Time and Waiver Time are safe at the default setting of two days. However, you can adjust them accordingly.
   • How waivers work: When a team drops a player, he is immediately placed on waivers. That means that there is a waiting period (usually two days) before he can be picked up by another team. If everyone in the league wants that particular player, they must submit a request, which is the same as adding him. Once the waiver period is over, the team with the highest waiver priority gets the player. Waiver priority is based on the reverse order of the draft. Whoever picked last in the draft gets the first shot at any player placed on waivers. Once the team who has the top waiver priority adds a player, they rotate to the end of the list and the cycle continues until the end of the season.
8. The Can't Cut List is an updated list of players on your team that you cannot cut. This is so that the teams near the bottom of the standings can't release their best players and give the other teams a chance to pick them up. For example, if the Wizards were in last place with a month left in the season, they would not drop Gilbert Arenas. This setting is so that teams out of contention can't drop a player for a team in contention to pick up.
9. The Post Draft Players option allows you to either pick up players that weren't drafted immediately, or let them go in order of waiver priority.
10. The League Start Week is safe at "Week 1 (Oct. 29)".
11. Roster Changes are also safe at "Daily - Tomorrow". The other option is "Weekly - Monday". If you add a player, he can go directly into your lineup for the following day instead of at the beginning of the next week.
12. The Positions and Roster Size option is set at the minimum. If you have more than 12 teams in your league, it is wise to stay with a smaller roster. If you want to stretch out the talent on your team, choose a large roster.
13. Select Save & Continue.

Step 4: Scoring settings

• Selecting the scoring settings is fun. You can be as simple as you want and select only the basic categories, or you can be a mad scientist and have a funky combination of categories.

• Categories include: Games played, games started, minutes played, field goals attempted, field goals made, field goal percentage, free throws attempted, free throws made, free throw percentage, 3-point percentage, 3-point shots made, 3-point shots attempted, 3-point percentage, points scored, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, total rebounds assists, steals, blocked shots, turnovers, assist/turnover ratio, personal fouls, times fouled out, technical fouls, ejections and flagrant fouls.

• Select what statistical categories you want and click Save & Continue.

Step 5: Create team

• Now that you've specified your league's preferences, it is time to focus on your team.

1. Team Name. Your team name can be whatever you want it to be. If you can't think of anything off the top of your head, don't worry about it. You can change the name anytime before or during the season.
   • One suggestion when thinking of your team's name: don't name it after an actual team. If you're an Indiana Pacers fan, please don't name your fantasy team, The Pacers. They already exist—leave them alone.
2. Choose your Team Logo or select an avatar.
3. Enter an e-mail. You'll want to check the "Notify me of Fantasy Basketball events (pending trades, etc.) via email" tab.
4. Select Save & Continue.

• Review your settings. If you need to change anything, select a category at the top of the page and edit it. If you are content with everything, select Register Now.

Step 6: Invite your friends and get ready to draft

• This is where you insert all the e-mail addresses of the people that you would like to invite. You can also leave a personal note if you wish.
• Good luck drafting and enjoy the 2007-2008 fantasy basketball season!

Resources for How to Play Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball

• Yahoo!: Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball

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