NBA Fantasy Update

As predicted, the NBA fantasy website screwed up. I joined two leagues in the NBA website for good measure. And now, both leagues are lying dormant as of this writing. The drafts were did not take place, leaving the managers of both leagues dumbfounded. Next year, I'll definitely stick with Yahoo.

New Orleans phenom Chris Paul is having another fantastic start, with phenomenal assist numbers and great across-the-board numbers. Philadelphia's Elton Brand, ranked 6th-10th in pre-draft rankings, is struggling with his shooting percentages and turnovers. He clearly has not fully recovered from last year's injury. Among the rookies, Miami's Michael Beasley and Chicago's Derrick Rose post impressive numbers. Although Beasley will probably have better numbers at year-end because of the volatile guard situation in Chicago.

In a somewhat related news, the Wall Street Journal reports that Joseph Abboud will be providing the 30 NBA head coaches with suits, sport coats, dress slacks and ties. Methinks that Joseph Abboud is taking advantage of the fact that NBA coaches unlike other sports coaches, wear suits. Good for the clothing line if the coach wearing the suit is suave like Pat Riley. But if it's the likes of Stan Van Gundy, forget it.

The NBA season begins!

I'm a big basketball fan, so the new NBA season is welcome news. And because I'm obsessed with the NBA, I have joined four fantasy leagues this year.

My favorite is the Yahoo Fantasy Sports. I have 2 rotisserie (aka roto) leagues and 1 head-to-head league in Yahoo. In roto, you add up all the stats to decide the winner of the league. For example, if you have 12 teams in your league and you lead the category of steals, you get 12 points for that category. 2nd place gets 11 points, 3rd gets 10 and so on. You add up all the points garnered in each category to determine your ranking in the league. In head-to-head leagues, you play against someone in your league for a single week. The points garnered will determine the ranking for the playoffs for the season. Whoever wins the playoffs will be crowned the champion.

I used to favor head-to-head, because there is variety in the opponent you play every week. However, it is frustrating to play because even if you end up being the first at the end of the regular season, it doesn't mean squat if you somehow get unlucky in the playoffs (e.g. your players all get injured, busy schedule, etc). A manager who somehow gets lucky (e.g. sudden surge of his players, weak brackets, add/drop strategy) can win the championship even if he has had an ugly regular season So I am now more into roto because it entails more deliberate thinking (i.e. there are only a limited number of games that you can play for each position). Plus, the stats are tallied for the whole season. Thus, you cannot win the championship by just pure luck.

NBA has its own fantasy games, but I'm not a big fan. The pages are slow to load, the instructions are confusing, and the service is generally unsatisfactory. But I joined one league because it has a different format, a points-based league. It is similar to roto, so I am intrigued. If it's good, then maybe I'll stick around. But if it's not, I'm staying with Yahoo.