RADIO
There is more to this world than playing in standard nine category head-to-head and roto fantasy basketball leagues. Why, there are also eight category leagues without turnovers, or ten, eleven, twelve... twenty(!) category leagues too. Adding categories can be a fun way to shake up your basketball league, but it can also lead to lopsided drafts as owners who know how to properly value players' contributions in the new categories can run laps around owners who are blindly drafting based off of standard league rankings.
There are plenty of tools out there that can weigh different categories using actual math. However, I think it's still useful to take a high level view of non-standard categories, along with where they create major shifts in value and incentivize different team-building strategies. Here I'll run through some of the most commonly used non-standard categories scored in fantasy basketball leagues. Then I'll talk about on a high level about how you should add extra categories if you're setting up a league and how extra categories affect major strategies like punting.
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Common Non-Standard Categories
FGM (Field Goals Made) and FTM (Free Throws Made)
Often you'll see leagues adding both of these raw volume shooting categories at the same time, though sometimes you'll see just one or the other. Both have similar implications to the value of players. Percentages - FG% and FT% - become less important if either of these are scored. Not only are the two percentages only 2 categories out of 11+ now, rather than 2 out of 8 or 9, but the best totals of raw FTM and FGM are often made by the kind guys who may not have great percentages -- they just take a ton of attempts. DeAndre Jordan hits a ton of free throws amidst all those endless misses thanks to hack-a-Jordan inflating his attempts, for example. You have a ton of incentive to punt at least one percentage and not be all that protective of dominating the other, just so you can amass a bunch of guys who take a ton of attempts and run up the score in FGM and FTM.
Gainers: James Harden (whose monster number of FTM dominates that category), DeMarcus Cousins (takes a ton of both kinds of shots), and slashers who take a ton of shots and draw a ton of fouls, like DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Thomas, Danilo Gallinari, Andrew Wiggins, and Dwyane Wade.
Losers: Role players who take few shots -- defensive specialists and three point specialists -- whose efficiency and non-scoring contributions just aren't as important with more categories rewarding guys who take shots.
3P% (Three Point Percentage)
This category really isn't fair right now, but people insist on including it in their leagues. When it comes to impact in 3P%, there's really only a handful of players who have a strong positive impact, and one player who stands head and shoulders above the rest. Stephen Curry's ridiculous 45.3% rate on a league-leading 11.2 three point attempts last year smashed the impact of anyone else by several standard deviations. If you use some of the fancy math tools out there, you'll see the difference between Steph and an average 3 point shooter in fantasy impact when it comes to 3P% is larger than the difference between an average FT shooter and Andre Drummond. It's that stark. You can win 3P% pretty much every week with just Curry, and he should be considered #1 overall in most leagues that feature 3P%, especially because the category doesn't help James Harden and actively hurts Russell Westbrook.
Gainers: Steph, obviously. Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard improve their first round stock, too. J.J. Redick and Klay Thompson see huge leaps later on. C.J. McCollum, Bradley Beal, J.R. Smith, Eric Gordon, George Hill, and Evan Fournier also see a boost. Not so obviously, guys who don't take any threes, like Hassan Whiteside and LaMarcus Aldridge -- their lack of attempts will make it easier to keep a high 3P% with a smaller number of the elite shooters.
Losers: Russell Westbrook and his awful 3P%. Until he improves his, Giannis Antetokuonmpo as well. Guys who may put up average to below average 3P% but take a ton of attempts -- LeBron James, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Eric Bledsoe.
OREB (Offensive Rebounds) and DREB (Defensive Rebounds)
How much one of these affect their leagues depends a lot on what rebounding categories there are. Sometimes you'll see OREB scored alongside the standard REB category, sometimes you'll see OREB and DREB scored with standard REB removed as a category, and sometimes you'll see all three scored. If you're in a league where REB are scored alongside with one or both of OREB and DREB, then you're getting double-credit for rebounds, and you should be more willing to sacrifice single stats to get them. Once again, I'm looking at you FT%. If you look at a top 12 list for projected OREB, you're likely to see names such as Andre Drummond, Rudy Gobert, Tristan Thompson, Clint Capela, DeAndre Jordan, Steven Adams, and Kenneth Faried -- all names that lend themselves to disregarding FT%.
If OREB and DREB are scored separately and without REB, it can be a different story. While you can still be strong in DREB alongside OREB by hoarding bigs like Drummond and Jordan (who are legitimate threats to lead the NBA in both types of rebound), it's a bit more possible to compete in DREB with a small ball team than it is to compete in standard REB. Some of my favorite FG% punt bigs -- Kevin Love, Pau Gasol, Myles Turner -- don't get a large share of OREB, but do get a competitive share of DREB. Meanwhile, almost all rebounds by most guards and wings like James Harden and Paul George are DREB, so those guys lend themselves well to being the basis of a team that disregards FG%, BLK, and OREB, but still competes in DREB.
Gainers: Russell Westbrook really shines in any league that scores multiple rebounding categories, alongside the of aforementioned bigs.
Losers: Obviously, anyone with low rebounding totals for his position is a dog when multiple rebounding categories are scored. Think Isaiah Thomas and Jrue Holiday among guards, or Dirk Nowitzki and Jahlil Okafor among bigs. If you're in a league with both OREB and regular REB, guys like Kevin Durant and LeBron James with low rates of OREB relative to REB take a hit (small if DREB are also scored, bigger if not) -- however, they can be just fine if you score OREB and DREB without REB.
A/TO (Assists over Turnovers)
I find this category to be pretty fun, though it does tend to inflate the value of assists even more to where everyone should be snagging elite point guards early and often. The elite pass-first point guards all see massive spikes, of course. But where it also comes into play is increasing the value of out of position assists. Any "point forwards" who can be relied upon for strong assists (and therefore good a/to ratios) while qualifying at a forward position in fantasy should be highly coveted, because now their passing skills contribute positively to two categories.
Gainers: Chris Paul, John Wall, Rajon Rondo, Ricky Rubio, and Mike Conley appear like strong risers among point guards. Elfrid Payton, Deron Williams, and Tony Parker gain more value as later round flyers. Giannis Antetokuonmpo, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Draymond Green, Blake Griffin, Ben Simmons, and Joakim Noah make good value as stronger AST and A/TO plays at big man lineups spots. Extremely low turnover guys like Pau Gasol and Nikola Jokic are very nice plays at center.
Losers: Guys who rack up turnovers due to high usage with sloppy handling, but who rarely pass the ball. Examples include DeMarcus Cousins, Hassan Whiteside, Brook Lopez, Enes Kanter, and Dwight Howard. Guards who fail to put up elite A/TO ratios lose value relative to those who do -- this includes shoot-first point guards like Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving, alongside wings who don't get assists, like Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins (you're better off starting more PGs in any G or UTIL lineup spots).
DD (Double-Doubles) and TD (Triple-Doubles)
Triple-doubles are kind of a dumb category to score in my opinion. In 90% of all matchups, it'll be 0-0 and a waste of time. Any category that's usually a tie is a waste in my book. Occasionally it will toss an extra point to whoever owns one of the select few players in the league capable of a triple double -- but that's usually going to be whoever got lucky enough to draft Russell Westbrook in the first round.
Double-doubles, on the other hand, can be a more interesting category. The easiest way to double-double is with points and rebounds, so it ends up being an amplifier on the value of players who have strengths in those two categories, alongside a couple of point guards like Westbrook, John Wall, and Chris Paul who can rack up double-digit assists enough times to compete with bigs who are averaging double-digit boards.
Gainers: Wall, Westbrook, Paul and basically any big man.
Losers: Wings, defensive specialists, three point specialists, and score-first point guards. Of the standard first round players, Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard had the fewest double-doubles. High draft favorites Isaiah Thomas and Kemba Walker also racked up very few.
What Non-Standard Leagues Have in Common
You'll notice the most common losers in all of these categories, aside from 3P%, are wings who derive most of their standard league value from efficiency and defensive stats. There are very almost non-standard categories that will increase the value provided by shot efficiency and defense. Almost all non-standard stats end up rewarding sheer volume of shooting, passing, and rebounding. Players with weaknesses in efficiency but strength in raw volume often see big increases in value, on the other hand. Danny Green will almost always lose value, while DeMar DeRozan will almost always gain value.
Beyond that, when looking for a good multi-category league -- or when creating one yourself as commissioner -- you'll want to try to walk a delicate balance. Try to include new categories that favor shooting, rebounding, and passing in proportion. If you're going to add an extra rebounding category, try adding A/TO as well, so that the guard/big man balance doesn't get out of whack. Or if you're going to add FGM, go for 3P% as well, so that mid-range guards aren't rewarded for indiscriminately chucking the ball. These are simple ideas, and I could expound on ways in which they're still imbalanced. Ultimately, the trick is to start critically about the impact of these categories, so you can have success as an owner or as a commissioner in a league with non-standard categories.
A Note on Punting Non-Standard Categories
In a league with non-standard categories, you should almost never elect to punt the non-standard categories. No matter how used to playing in these settings your leaguemates are, they're still going to be biased by conventional player rankings that don't take the non-standard cats into account. The non-standard categories almost always end up undervalued compared to the standard categories. I've never done a draft with non-standard cats where this wasn't the case to some extent, whether it's owners not understanding their value or owners expecting that other owners will undervalue the non-standard categories so they try to wait on certain guys because they expect those guys to fall (being the fool on purpose because you believe other people will be even bigger fools and reward you).
One exception to this for me are super-rare categories that often tie (like triple doubles or ejections) which I will typically ignore unless I get one of the rare guys who regularly gets them. The only other exception is if there's a category that's severely out of whack with the categories and hard to get late stolen value. Take 3P% -- if you're in a league that otherwise rewards volume shooters by including stats like FGM and FTM, and you can't grab Curry early for his ridiculous 3P% impact, I'm on board with not bothering in the category and loading up on guys who chuck up a ton of shots.
I hope you've found this primer on non-standard categories useful. Please let me know if there's something I'm missing (I'm @TeachTrevor on Twitter), and I'll include it in the future.
