In H2H leagues, the teams with the best records qualify for the playoffs, and the champion is the winner of the playoff tournament. In an H2H (head-to-head) league, you face off against one team per week, your categories against your opponent’s. Both players are still valuable in weekly or non-IR leagues, but if you’ve already drafted Paul in a non-IR league, maybe take a pass on Kevin Love a few rounds later. That injury is easier to wait out if your roster has an IR spot. Similarly, Chris Paul is still a fantasy force, but he usually misses a few weeks each season due to injury. Someone like Joel Embiid, who is likely to miss a lot of games for “load management,” does more damage in a weekly lineups league than a daily lineups league – in a daily lineups league, at least you can start someone else those games. Managers in weekly lineups leagues or leagues without an IR spot need to be more cautious on draft day. This isn’t special to category-based leagues, but fantasy managers need to know whether they set lineups every day or once a week and whether they have an IR spot. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) Weekly vs. Nikola Jokic's value varies greatly depending on the format. There is still a lot to gain and a lot to be learned from articles, tweets, podcasts, etc, but remember that all of that advice assumes that you’re playing in either 8-cat or 9-cat. If you play in one of these leagues with atypical categories, the most important thing to remember is that most fantasy advice is not tailored for your leagues.
counting made field goals, made free throws, eFG%, TS%, or some combination thereof). Some of the most common alternatives are double-doubles, triple-doubles, splitting offensive and defensive rebounds into two categories, or changing the way field goal efficiency is measured (i.e.
Occasionally, league commissioners experiment with some other category options. Rookies tend to be particularly turnover prone - especially rookie ball-handlersĬatch-and-shoot specialists (think Danny Green) and big men who don’t pass (think Hassan Whiteside) tend to see the biggest boosts in 9-cat value. James Harden and Russell Westbrook are turnover machines I think that’s going a step too far, but I agree that they should not be a primary consideration.Ī few themes to remember if you play in a 9-cat league: Some analysts recommend ignoring turnovers on draft day, even if you’re in a 9-category league. Generally speaking, the fantasy community has been shifting towards the use of 8-cat over 9-cat in recent years, but both settings remain very common. Turnovers are the ninth default and the only difference between 8-cat and 9-cat leagues. The eight default categories are points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, threes, field-goal percentage, and free-throw percentage. 8-cat, 9-cat, or something else?Īlmost all category leagues are either “8-cat” (eight default categories) or “9-cat” (nine default categories). Anyway, now that you’re playing in a category-based league, what strategies do you need to know? How can you best prepare yourself for domination? We’re here to help.įirst, as always: Know your league’s settings.