Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
And what it taught me about fantasy basketball.
The CBS 30-Man league is on. For those of you who are unaware of this league, CBS invites 14 fantasy basketball experts and me (aka, “The Word”) to complete against 15 CBS employees (aka, the “CBS”). The man who runs the league, Sergio Gonzalez, is pretty much the man when it comes to fantasy basketball-related content over at CBS.
It’s my third year in the league, which starts 6 players (PG, SG, SF, PF, C, UTIL) with 6 bench spots. If your keeping score at home, that means the draft goes 30 teams x 12 rounds = 360 players deep, which is beyond ridiculous. Add in the fact that CBS is the position nazi when it comes to dual position eligibility and you have one tough league to draft in. When you hope that Bobby Simmons falls to you in the 8th round, that’s the 30-Man.
Anyway, it’s an H2H league using standard 9-cat scoring where you compete against 2 different teams every week. Unlike most H2H leagues, it uses an all or nothing win/lose format. If you beat your opponent 9-0 or 5-4, it doesn’t matter, you “win”. Likewise a 4-5 score for the week is a “loss”.
So, starting with year 1, here is what I’ve learned playing in this league.
Year 1
In my first year in the league, I didn’t know what they hell to expect. The draft, which wasn’t timed, took like 3 weeks to do and I may have gotten married somewhere in between, it’s tough to remember. I fortunately got hold of Chris Paul in the draft, but unfortunately I built my team more like a roto one than an H2H one. The results were decent and I made the quarter-finals of the playoffs, but ultimately my lack of a cohesive H2H plan left my team a little short of the best teams in the league.
Year 2
Ok, 1 year of experience behind me, I now “knew” that there was exactly 1 quality free agent that could be picked up during the year. The first year it was Jamario Moon, while in the second year it happened to be Anthony Morrow (both of whom were not on the player list to begin the season, resulting in someone calling “dibs” while waiting for the player to be manually added to the list). And while you could trade players, you were basically stuck with the team you drafted at the start of the year. I also knew that my year 1 team lacked the star juice to complete with the best in the league. So, I did what I thought was the smart thing and went high-risk, high-reward.
And it completely blew up in my face.
Picking at spot 16, my first round pick was Elton Brand, Kevin Martin “fell” to me in the second and I went to DEFCON 1 in the third with Gilbert Arenas. It was the most epic failure of a draft I’ve ever had the pleasure of conducting. Somehow, with Nazr Mohammed and Walter Herrmann leading my squad for most of the year, I did not finish in last place. It was the sweetest 28th place finish ever.
This Year
Ok, I’ve learned some more things.
1. Injuries will break you – injuries hurt in all types of leagues, but when there are no free agents to pick up, you are screwed if more than 1 of your starters gets hurt.
2. I need a f**king plan – Given the win/loss structure of the league, the best way to protect myself from injuries while giving myself the most chance to win every week, is to only complete in 5 or maybe 6 categories while tanking the rest. Call it the ultimate in H2H strategies.
3. F**k you Gilbert Arenas
The Draft
For a complete rundown of the draft for every team in the league, check out the CBS 30-Deep page.
So, heading into the draft, here is what I was looking at in terms of draft order and competition.
1. Tom Carpenter, ESPN
2. Jamey Eisenberg, CBS Sports
3. Mike Yam, ESPN
4. Sergio Gonzalez, CBS Sports
5. Matt Stroup, Rotoworld
6. Scott White, CBS Sports
7. Rick Kamla, NBA
8. Jeff Lippman, CBS Sports
9. Dave Gawron, RotoCommunity
10. Peter Madden, CBS Sports
11. Patrick Madden, GiveMeTheRock.com
12. Eric Mack, CBS Sports
13. David Klyce, HoopsKlyce.com
14. Dave Richard, CBS Sports
15. Steve Alexander, Rotoworld
16. Greg Urbano, CBS Sports
17. Brian Flood
18. Michael Hurcomb, CBS Sports
19. Eric Karabell, ESPN
20. Fazal Imam, CBS Sports
21. James Questel, MSG
22. Jason Horowitz, CBS Sports
23. Aaron Gleeman, Rotoworld
24. Corey Guerrera, CBS Sports
25. Hector Castro, RotoExperts.com
26. Ross Devonport CBS Sports
27. Brandon Funston
28. Denny Burkholder, CBS Sports
29. Dennis Velasco/Matt Satten, BarkleysMouth.com
30. Lauren Shehadi, CBS Sports
So, I had the 11th pick in the draft, which is nothing to complain about (man, picking in the bottom half of the 30-Man draft has to suck). Here’s how it all went down for me.
Round 1 (11) Amar’e Stoudemire
Tough to complain about Amar’e falling to me at 11 (although I remember being exciting about getting Brand at 16 last year). While he’ll always be an injury risk and he’s not center eligible in CBS leagues, drafting Amar’e clearly defines my team. I’m going big.
Round 2 (50) Vince Carter
People think they can find shooting guards later in the draft, so VC falls all the way to 50. Going big, I want points, percentages, threes and rebounds from my guards if at all possible, so Carter actually kind of fits with what I’m doing. At least that’s what I tell myself.
Round 3 (71) Troy Murphy
Ugh. Murphy is not exactly in line with what I’m trying to do, but I couldn’t pass him up all the way down at 71. On the down side, he’s an injury risk and only qualifies at PF in CBS leagues, so I’ve effectively painted myself into a corner by eating up my UTIL spot after 3 picks. Here’s hoping Amar’e gains C eligibility quickly in CBS leagues.
Round 4 (110) Marvin Williams
Back on track. Not only does Williams look good going into the year, but he brings a nice all around game that jives with what I’m trying to do – he shoots threes, decent rebounder, will block some shots and shoots good percentages. He also qualifies as a small forward.
Round 5 (131) Samuel Dalembert
Needing both a starting center and point guard, I bypass the last remaining starting PGs (like Aaron Brooks) to grab Dalembert. Unfortunately, the Murphy pick left me a little short on blocks, so I needed a good shot blocker to compete in my big man categories.
Round 6 (170) Steve Blake
When you wait until pick 170 to draft your starting point guard, not only do you get Steve Blake, but you’re lucky you get Steve Blake. Someone like DJ Augustin would have been awesome for my team (especially since Raja Bell is now injured), but he went at the beginning of the 5th. Instead, at the end of the 6th I get Blake, who will hopefully contribute to my team in 1 lone category: threes. Fortunately, news breaks a few days after my pick that Blake will enter the season as the Blazers starting PG because Andre Miller isn’t meshing with the team. So Team Give Me The Rock is now powered by chemistry.
Round 7 (191) Mike Dunleavy
Bazinga! Dunleavy neither fits my strategy nor is a safe pick health-wise, but rather this was a pure value play at pick 191. It is certainly is a risk that Dunleavy may not play until January and when he finally comes back he may not be all that effective, but considering the picks around Dunleavy included Roger Mason Jr., Nicolas Batum, and Darko, it seems like a calculated risk. Once Dunleavy regains some value (crosses fingers), my plan is to flip him for someone more big ball appropriate.
Round 8 (230) Bobby Simmons
There is a chance Simmons will start. And he shoots threes.
Rounds 9-12
(251) Shaun Livingston
(290) Joel Anthony
(311) Earl Clark
(350) Bobby Brown
Livingston is my backup point guard, which means that Blake better stay healthy. Anthony is the Heat’s 3rd string center, but I like that Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Magloire are the two guys ahead of him on the depth chart. At pick 311, my only goal was to find someone who might be good at some point in the future. And taking Brown at 350 is my prerogative (SING IT).
The Lesson
It was a lot more difficult to stick to my plan of staying big than I was expecting, especially in the later rounds when you start sifting through garbage to try and find something of value (hence the Dunleavy pick).The team is still more of an injury risk than I would have liked, but that tends to be how I roll in fantasy leagues. Unlike most fantasy leagues, it’s almost impossible to get a starting six that you’re happy with, but overall I’m content with the team’s focus on big man stats, percentages and threes. If I can win rebounds, FT%, TOs and threes in nearly every matchup I have, all I need is one more category out of points, FG% or blocks to win the week.
It remains to be seen if my strategy will work and if I was able to execute it successfully. But as was the case the past couple of years, no matter what horrible things happen to my team, it should be a fun ride along the way.
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