Week 5 Review

Recently, Jason was wondering about our league's system for ranking players. To help further illustrate how a typical player rater works in fantasy leagues using rotisserie scoring, here's a clip from Seth Landman article on ESPN.com:

"Many of you wonder why the player rater is based on stat totals and not averages. The rationale here is that standard fantasy basketball leagues are played in a roto format. As you are no doubt aware, in roto leagues, the standings are based on where your team finishes relative to the league in each category. With the exception of the shooting-percentage categories, roto scoring is based on the accumulation of totals.
For example, a player who averages 17 points per game over 82 games is worth almost exactly the same as a player who averages 23 points per game over 60 games. The player who averages 17 points is probably a pretty good scorer, maybe the second- or third-best on his team. The player who averages 23 points is probably an All-Star. Either way, over the course of the whole season, each player provided your team with basically the same number of points.

What this means is that the player rater is focused on what has happened previously. It tells us which players have been the most valuable fantasy entities overall (and in each category) over the course of the season. This is one piece of useful information for fantasy players.

Of course, there are many more useful pieces of info out there. Fantasy basketball is fun because it is about predicting what players will do tomorrow and each subsequent day after that. We always use past performance as a basis on which to make our speculations about what is about to happen.
Just as we need to temper our enthusiasm about the player who has been just an average performer but is ranked fifth overall three games into the season because everyone else has played two, we also need to put into context the player who puts up gaudy averages in a tiny sample of games.

At the end of the season, the Player Rater, more than any other tool, will provide us with a clear picture of which players actually went out and had the best fantasy seasons for us. The usefulness of this information is, of course, up for debate, but so is all information we receive. If there were a perfect way of judging who the best fantasy player will be from today through the rest of the season, there would be no point in playing fantasy. Let's just be glad we still get to argue about the relative value of all the tools at our disposal; it's one of the conversations that makes sports great.

As for the current Player Rater, each team has now played at least 14 games, so we're starting to see the stats reflect the truth a bit more each day. Still, in case you haven't counted, Sacramento and Milwaukee are the two teams who have played the most games with 19. Clearly, there's still a range here, so when you see Spencer Hawes and John Salmons of the Kings continuing to hover in the top 20 overall, make sure you supplement that piece of knowledge with a healthy bit of skepticism."

Hopefully that helps clarify things.

There hasn't been a lot of movement in the standings over the past couple of weeks but that's not from a lack of effort. There has been over $100 worth of transactions made already and the season is only one month young. Everyone appears to be actively setting their lineups and the trade chatter remains strong. Although, we are still looking for our first non-commissioner involved trade. This past week the Cagers completed their 3rd trade of the season when they shipped center Brad Miller to Arlie's Hogs in exchange for Randy Foye. With Josh Boone and Andrew Bogut on the shelf due to injury, the Hogs were without a center and the Cagers were happy to help out. After shipping LeBron, Devin Harris, Mike Conley, and Mike Miller out of town via trade, the Cagers were looking for some assist help at the guard position, and the deal was born. Also on the trade front.......

How do all the naysayers like the Nowitzki trade now??? Where are all the torches and pitchforks and sour pusses? Is the 25.3 points and 6.4 assists per game from Harris enough for you all??? For those of you who flapped your trap without thinking first, you owe Pete Lunchbox a huge apology. Alright, perhaps that's a bit dramatic, but you get my point. Harris is awesome.

We're also starting to see some of the injured ducks return to action. Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Jason Richardson, and Michael Redd have all seen playing time in recent days and can be used by their respective owners once again.

So far this season, four players have been elevated from the D-League ranks to NBA fantasy squads. We Wear Short Shorts brought up Spencer Hawes and Mario Chalmers while ATTIC promoted Ramon Sessions and D.J. Augustin. Hawes and Sessions were no brainers since they were productive 2nd year players who wouldn't be eligible for the D-League in 2009, but Chalmers and Augustin are rookies who could have been carried over into next season without salary cap ramifications had they remained on the D-League squad. All four players are currently sitting in the top 100 on the player rater so as long as Chalmers and Augustin keep playing at that level it will help justify the early promotion. And so far, those two haven't done anything to suggest they weren't worth the call up. But when the dollars get tight in the off season and everyone's trying to keep as many players as possible heading into 2009, there might not be enough room on the NBA roster for the two talented point guards. Time will tell.

Trivia question: Who is the only franchise in the league to retain all 12 original draft picks?

Answer: The Miller Lite Muff Drivers (now that's loving what your cooking)