Fantasy Basketball Rankings

Just some tips on fantasy hoops rankings. I like to use Basketball Monster, because it allows you to select the categories you want to use in the calculations. That way, you can enter the categories used in your league. That gives you an advantage over other owners who are using Yahoo! rankings or other rankings that factor in categories not used in your league...or do not factor in categories that are used in your league.

I use it as a way to determine who is overrated and underrated in my Yahoo! league. Then I look to trade my overrated players for underrated ones. If you can find owners who put stock into Yahoo! rankings, this tactic can be highly effective. Of course, many savvy owners ignore Yahoo! rankings; but still, if they're not using something like Basketball Monster, they probably do not have as good of a handle on players' value as someone who is using customized rankings.

Another useful way to use Basketball Monster is to determine the value of players, as they apply to your strategy. For example, let's say you're in a six-category head-to-head league that counts points, threes, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. You realize that you're weak in assists and points and decide to focus on dominating the other four categories to ensure that you win each week 4-2. In that case, you can enter those four categories (threes, rebounds, steals, and blocks) into Basketball Monster to see who you should target off the wire or via trade. You'll be surprised to see how high some guys rank. For example, using those four previously mentioned categories, Shane Battier ranks 52 and JaVale McGee ranks 5!

Basketball Monster also has a weekly projections feature, which is very handy in figuring out who to start in a given week. Do you start a stud with three games or a lesser player with four? I used to provide such a service here (and at Rotoworld before that), but of course I had to use set categories. With Basketball Monster, I believe you can apply your league's categories, which is obviously ideal. Only thing is you need to be a member, which costs $19.95. Definitely worth the investment if you're in a higher stakes league, though!