RADIO
Whether you're new to this wonderful world of Fantasy NBA or already a veteran with several championships under your belt, you're almost guaranteed to have heard of or played in a 9-cat league. Whether it's Roto, Points or my personal favorite - Head-to-head; nine-category leagues are the most common and kind of the standard for fantasy basketball.
But every once in a while we run into a conversation about an 8-cat league. That is the next most common number of categories a league scoring counts, such leagues typically discard Turnovers out of the standard nine categories. If you and your mates are thinking about starting up an eight-category league to mix things up, or you're already in such a league but are having difficulty adjusting your mindset which is far too attached to the 9-cat state of mind, here are some comparisons, things to look for or to look out for, what to focus on and what tactics could be useful in your attempt to win some cash or even more importantly bragging rights for the year over your friends.
As Head-to-head scoring seems to be most popular, and it is my favorite and I count myself as more competent to write about it, the advice will be from that perspective but it should be somewhat translatable into Points and Roto leagues.
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How do I build a good 9-cat team
In a 9 category league, the Turnover category keeps it a more balanced game. High-usage guys will usually rack up the counting stats. However, having three cats where you can't improve just by playing more minutes with a higher usage in FG%, FT% and TO gives additional value to those efficient players who maybe don't have the ball in their hands so much. It lets those role players who usually take catch-and-shoot, open, high-percentage shots and don't turn the ball over often increase their value.
These leagues have several more options regarding strategy. In addition to having a well-balanced team which will be decent in all nine categories, there are more options compared to 8-cat when a fantasy owner is considering punting.
Just in case some of you aren't familiar with the term, punting is disregarding a certain category (or several categories) in order to focus on becoming as strong as possible in other categories. This is a tactic best used in H2H category leagues but has been effective in points Leagues and even Roto leagues when done right.
One of the most popular punt strategies is the punt FT% strategy. This involves stacking up on players, mostly bigs, who are good at FG%, rebounds, blocks and usually have a low TO rate, not having a second thought about their poor impact on your free throws. Guys like DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond, gain additional value in this sort of strategy, as their negative category is something you don't care about and plan on losing anyway, but the stats they're good at are what you are planning to win week in, week out. You can read more about punting strategies in my man Trevor's Punting guide from last season. A new one will be ready soon, so keep an eye out for it.
No TO? So? What's the big deal!?
The biggest difference between these two scoring formats is, of course, the absence of the Turnover category. This affects player value in quite a significant way but also changes the tactics, the punts you should look to implement in your team build and it means you can pretty much throw your cliff notes for 9-cat drafts in the trash.
How is player value affected?
The sole omission of the 9th category means you can take all players with high TO rate and bump them up around 10 spots in the rankings. This makes high usage guys who rack up counting stats much more effective since there is no downfall to them handling the ball so much - except perhaps for low FG%. For example, Russell Westbrook loses the ball 4.8 times per game if we take his stats from last season. That's enough for you to lose the TO category week after week in a 9-cat unless you focus the rest of your team to limit that weakness. On the other hand, in an 8-cat you don't have to worry about that, and can just enjoy his 10.3 AST per game with no negative impact.
Guys like Westy, James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall and Joel Embiid benefit heavily here. On the other hand, players like Otto Porter or Trevor Ariza who don't get many touches, but gain most of their value off of their defensive and catch-and-shoot skill, or like Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo who have great assist-to-turnover ratios, lose some of their appeal since their tendency to keep possession isn't rewarded in this scoring system.
What should I look to do in an 8-cat league?
1. Stack up on high-usage guys and point guards.
That way you can shoot to win categories most small guys who like the ball in their hands are good at like FT%, 3PM, STL, AST, PTS, and just forget about FG%, REB and/or BLK - unless of course, you're in a Roto league.
This is pretty self-explanatory. You try and draft as many players who shoot a lot of threes, score a lot of points, get dimes and steals and are prolific from the charity stripe. Get several good PG options with high assists in the first few rounds, as they are harder to find later on in the draft. As most of these players are backcourt guys you should take into consideration that you will need to fill your roster with some SF, PF and C eligible guys as well.
You can look for out of position assists (Draymond Green, Nikola Jokic), threes (Kevin Love) and good FT shooters (Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jokic, Love) in the 2nd, 3rd and/or 4th round of the draft. This way you're sticking with your 5 strong cats and making some of them even stronger and keeping an emphasis on them. On the other hand, you're getting guys who you can put in your lineup outside of the Guard spots and are getting better in FG%, REB and perhaps even BLK depending who you pick.
2. Build a balanced squad.
It's much easier to be decent in most categories in 8-cat leagues, as you don't have to worry about turnovers. Of course, even when shooting for a well-balanced squad, you can take advantage of no TOs and pick guys like Westbrook or The Beard. They will be decent or great contributors in most categories, and their biggest weakness, turnovers, is none of your concern. Also, in order to keep your team good across the board, you should target multicategory contributors at the SF, PF and C spots with no apparent weaknesses who will contribute in those stats the bigs are good at. You will certainly lack in these cats with your small-heavy team, and these bigs will not be hurting your FT% and will still keep you competitive in threes and assists, which is quite rare for C eligible players.
How to approach the draft?
I would advise you to try and get some decent assists early on in the draft, as that category is harder to find later on. First-round pick of James Harden would set you up pretty nicely as he is #1 in points, #2 in threes, #4 in assists, #7 in steals and one of the best contributors in FT%. Also, he gets 0.7 BLK and 5.4 REB per game which is quite nice for a PG, SG. His 44.9 FG% is pretty decent too, considering he hits 3.7 threes a game. Only the Splash brothers have a higher field goal percentage out of all the players who hit 3+ three-pointers per outing. Of course, Houston's hero will probably be off the board by the time 2nd or 3rd pick comes around, but if you're lucky enough to be able to grab him in a "turnover-less" league, I wouldn't hesitate. He is great for both a competitive all-around team and a punt build.
Guys like Westbrook also gain value in this build, and are good for a punt FG% and/or BLK strategy. On the other hand multi-cat, efficiency beasts like Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, and Karl-Anthony Towns can be a good way to start a team without punting.
In the following rounds, I would look to fill out my roster with players who fit my build and play in different positions. Of course, if you have a pick of Ben Simmons or Kevin Love in the 3rd round, you shouldn't pick Love because you don't have a Center yet, but if it's a closer call like Love or Tobias Harris then I can justify positional eligibility being the tie-breaker. If you're able to fill out all the positions quite nicely throughout the draft, you will have more flexibility towards the end to pick players based solely on your team's stat needs and even more importantly, you will be able to surf the waiver wire freely and pick up those hot players, regardless of their positional eligibility.
The stats that can be more easily found nearer to the end of the draft are points, rebounds or even threes, steals and blocks from specialists in those cats. So if you are lacking in some of these, don't despair. just focus your last few picks on aiding those weaknesses. Beware though, specialists tend to be good at only one or two categories, so don't expect them to do much more than help out in that category or two you're picking them for.
Guys, I would like to wish you all good luck picking your fantasy NBA teams, in eight- or nine-category leagues. I hope this will come in handy come draft day and that it will help you reign terror on your friends when the season begins!
