2023/2024 Syracusefan Fantasy Basketball

[jncuse]

Injuries and rest days are wreaking havoc on my team and I assume others. Blow outs too around the NBA. Silver better hope they start playing more consistently after the Super Bowl as people will be hungry for action.

Being on the west coast I’ll say whoever has Clippers players will do well. They are gelling and playing fun ball.. until one or four of them go down with injuries.

The sitting a game out does make you think about how high you should draft a vet that tends to sit more. Something I never really considered, but it does screw things up. I am lucky that my best players are younger like SGA and don't to be the sit guys.

That being said I'm getting hammered by injuries right now. Really hasn't been to big of an issue for me this year, but now I am getting it. 3 player on my IL, 3 players as "GTD", and 1 player as "Out". This is by far the worst I have had it. I dislike the GTD/Out no man's land area where they take forever to place them on the injured list - not that I have any room right now or additions left this week.


I was also probably fairly lucky the first 25 games of the season despite having to keep a suspended JA Morant on my active roster -- I was winning a lot of close categories each week and didn't have any real injuries for a number of weeks.

But the last 3 weeks I have had some real bad luck
This Week - Injuries
Last Week - All my 13 players playing on a specific night for two night. Basically have to sit healthy players - it was the main factor resulting in me having I believe 6 or 7 less games played then my opponent for the week.
Week Before - Number of players stuck in GTD/Out land. Thankfully that was a week my scrubs stepped up.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

The sitting a game out does make you think about how high you should draft a vet that tends to sit more. Something I never really considered, but it does screw things up. I am lucky that my best players are younger like SGA and don't to be the sit guys.

That being said I'm getting hammered by injuries right now. Really hasn't been to big of an issue for me this year, but now I am getting it. 3 player on my IL, 3 players as "GTD", and 1 player as "Out". This is by far the worst I have had it. I dislike the GTD/Out no man's land area where they take forever to place them on the injured list - not that I have any room right now or additions left this week.


I was also probably fairly lucky the first 25 games of the season despite having to keep a suspended JA Morant on my active roster -- I was winning a lot of close categories each week and didn't have any real injuries for a number of weeks.

But the last 3 weeks I have had some real bad luck
This Week - Injuries
Last Week - All my 13 players playing on a specific night for two night. Basically have to sit healthy players - it was the main factor resulting in me having I believe 6 or 7 less games played then my opponent for the week.
Week Before - Number of players stuck in GTD/Out land. Thankfully that was a week my scrubs stepped up.

LBJ not playing tonight in Utah. No surprise as he sits a lot of games there.

 

[jncuse]

Now up to 4 guys who are injured, and 4 players who are GTD including SGA.

I drafted 3 Memphis players and that is going to be a problem - Morant Injured, and I'm pretty sure they are going to be tanking fairly hard to close the season because of it. Bane is injured and I'm sure it will be dragged out, and Jackson has missed 2 of his last 3 games. Bane and Jackson are going to miss a lot of games I think.

 

[jncuse]

About to be down 9-0 after tonight, although we have some weird scheduling this week where our rosters largely play on different nights.

My team is certainly trending down, has been for a while, some bad luck, some players slumping and some so-so decisions. Just make the playoffs, and I will have to make some nice timely acquisitions like I did a few years back as rosters re-set due tot tank/rest.

GBO has a nice team (I think its his team in 1st/2nd).

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I'm down in last. It's not great. Some weeks I can't adjust my lineups.

 

[HakAttack]

Ok what is this awful trade? Curry for Giannis straight up is cool. I suppose you can also squint and say Keldon and Brown cancel each other out because both have been bad in fantasy this year.

But then Soup Bags also gets Siakam (Top 60 guy) for free as an add-in?

Thats an auto “vote against” from me, dog.

 

[HakAttack]

Also, can we add LaVine back to Parsil Canyon’s roster? They clearly don’t get that you can put multiple guys on Injured Reserve. Thats a guy who’s 96% owned who was straight up waived. That should never happen when we have 3 IL spots.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Ok what is this awful trade? Curry for Giannis straight up is cool. I suppose you can also squint and say Keldon and Brown cancel each other out because both have been bad in fantasy this year.

But then Soup Bags also gets Siakam (Top 60 guy) for free as an add-in?

Thats an auto “vote against” from me, dog.

Giannis is much more valuable in Fantasy. Top 10 with potential to be top 5 guy. Curry is also taking more off days due to age. Top 20 guy. Siakam while really good in the last half of this season will have his usage go down once Halliburton returns and they spread it with him and Turner.

I’d rather have more top 10 guys than 30-100 guys as I think they are fairly interchangeable based on category needs. But you do you jefe.

 

[HakAttack]

Giannis is much more valuable in Fantasy. Top 10 with potential to be top 5 guy. Curry is also taking more off days due to age. Top 20 guy. Siakam while really good in the last half of this season will have his usage go down once Halliburton returns and they spread it with him and Turner.

I’d rather have more top 10 guys than 30-100 guys as I think they are fairly interchangeable based on category needs. But you do you jefe.

Giannis is a top-15 player in our league. Curry top 25. Both were first round picks. Curry is actually projected to be the better fantasy player out of the two the rest of the season. Siakam is being thrown in for free and is projected to be a top 75 guy the rest of the way. The negligible difference between Curry and Giannis doesn’t negate that your trade partner is getting the equivalent of a 8th round guy for free.

 

[jncuse]

Also, can we add LaVine back to Parsil Canyon’s roster? They clearly don’t get that you can put multiple guys on Injured Reserve. Thats a guy who’s 96% owned who was straight up waived. That should never happen when we have 3 IL spots.

I agree. Noted that earlier tonight. I was going to post a message asking people what I should do - if they wanted me to override or not. But I think the best and fairest decision in this case was just do the override now.

I have added both Zach Levine and Jakob Poeltl (a serviceable 84% center) as there was spots for both.

As commissioner I do have the ability to add or edit anybody's roster (just realized that now). For transparency purposes. You can see the moves I just made under "Commish Notes" and "Recent Transactions".

 

[jncuse]

I'm not personally vetoing the trade. My first reason is as stated several times, the deal was done in good faith. My second reason is I think its reasonably fair.

I'll start with this comment

Would the following trade be vetoed? I don't think its that uneven.
Giannis + Bojan (Roster Spot)
for
Curry + Pascal Siakam

Here are 3 things to note about this trade:
1) Keldon Johnson is basically a free agent level player, minutes down. 83% but trending downward today (71 adds, 2000 deletions). He can a be replaced by another free agent.
2) Bruce Brown is a guy that can easily be replaced by another free agent.
3) This trade creates a roster spot on Guy Fawkes roster (adding Bojan) that must be considered.

Point I'm trying to make is take Johnson+Brown out of the trade because those are replaceable parts via roster adds + drops. But you must also consider the contributions that Fawkes will now get from that empty roster spot, since he did a 2 for 1 deal. And to me Giannis is by far the best player in this deal, plus perhaps the easiest thing to get on waivers right now is 3's - and bigs are hard to find,

Anyway my thoughts.

 

[HakAttack]

I'm not personally vetoing the trade. My first reason is as stated several times, the deal was done in good faith. My second reason is I think its reasonably fair.

I'll start with this comment

Would the following trade be vetoed? I don't think its that uneven.
Giannis + Bojan (Roster Spot)
for
Curry + Pascal Siakam

Here are 3 things to note about this trade:
1) Keldon Johnson is basically a free agent level player, minutes down. 83% but trending downward today (71 adds, 2000 deletions). He can a be replaced by another free agent.
2) Bruce Brown is a guy that can easily be replaced by another free agent.
3) This trade creates a roster spot on Guy Fawkes roster (adding Bojan) that must be considered.

Point I'm trying to make is take Johnson+Brown out of the trade because those are replaceable parts via roster adds + drops. But you must also consider the contributions that Fawkes will now get from that empty roster spot, since he did a 2 for 1 deal. And to me Giannis is by far the best player in this deal, plus perhaps the easiest thing to get on waivers right now is 3's - and bigs are hard to find,

Anyway my thoughts.

Brown and Keldon Johnson are essentially a wash so they’re not worth considering here. Giannis and Curry are close enough in value that it completely negates Soup Bags ALSO getting a guy in Siakam that’s 99% owned and if we did a re-draft today would be selected in the fifth/sixth round.

And it’s not at all accurate to say Giannis is by far the best player when his current ranking is within ten spots, i.e. less than one round of where Curry’s current ranking is.

Again, the issue is the ADDITION of a top player like Siakam for free. And if Fawkes wanted to clear a roster spot, there are plenty of worse players on his deal to get rid of than Siakam.

The trade proposals and add/drops in this league are truly baffling. If people want to drop top-75 caliber players to waivers, then have at it, because there’s a fair system (waiver claim) in place to make sure other managers have a chance to grab such players.

But just dumping a top-75 player in a trade to make it completely imbalanced, is always gonna raise my veto meter. If you want to trade Curry for Giannis straight up, and one side includes a second player to “equalize” the two of them, you include a guy who’s 80% owned, something like that.

NOT a 99% owned guy who is in the top 75.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Brown and Keldon Johnson are essentially a wash so they’re not worth considering here. Giannis and Curry are close enough in value that it completely negates Soup Bags ALSO getting a guy in Siakam that’s 99% owned and if we did a re-draft today would be selected in the fifth/sixth round.

And it’s not at all accurate to say Giannis is by far the best player when his current ranking is within ten spots, i.e. less than one round of where Curry’s current ranking is.

Again, the issue is the ADDITION of a top player like Siakam for free. And if Fawkes wanted to clear a roster spot, there are plenty of worse players on his deal to get rid of than Siakam.

The trade proposals and add/drops in this league are truly baffling. If people want to drop top-75 caliber players to waivers, then have at it, because there’s a fair system (waiver claim) in place to make sure other managers have a chance to grab such players.

But just dumping a top-75 player in a trade to make it completely imbalanced, is always gonna raise my veto meter. If you want to trade Curry for Giannis straight up, and one side includes a second player to “equalize” the two of them, you include a guy who’s 80% owned, something like that.

NOT a 99% owned guy who is in the top 75.

I agree 100 % with you, however it's the sixth place team who seemingly wants to give the 9th place team more value. So for that I would approve it. However, my first inclination, is that Giannis's numbers are going to improve under Doc Rivers, while there is a good chance that Golden State will be on the outside looking in, so Steph will get less play moving forward. I'm thinking that's the risk Fawkes wants to take.

 

[HakAttack]

I agree 100 % with you, however it's the sixth place team who seemingly wants to give the 9th place team more value. So for that I would approve it. However, my first inclination, is that Giannis's numbers are going to improve under Doc Rivers, while there is a good chance that Golden State will be on the outside looking in, so Steph will get less play moving forward. I'm thinking that's the risk Fawkes wants to take.

Sure. It’s really a three horse race in the league anyway.

 

[jncuse]

So at this point we are vetoing the following trade? And we are disrespecting a long time initial member who has had success in this league in the process. Brilliant!

Team A/Team B
FG% .481 vs .543 (win by Team B)
FT% .832 vs .634 (Team A)
3's 5.7 vs 3.4 (Team A)
Pts - 48.4 vs 51.5 (Team B)
Reb - 10.7 vs 15.3 (Team B)
Ast - 9.9 vs 8.9 (Team A)
Stl - 1.6 vs 2.2 (Team B)
Blk - 0.6 vs 1.4 (Team B)
T0 - 5.1 vs 5.8 (Team A)
This is the impact of Giannis/Bojan (Team B) for Curry and Siakam (Team A)
So team B wins 5 categories, team A wins 4 categories, but let's rip Team B.

It's beyond ridiculous that this trade is vetoed. And that we are mocking a long time member for it, and creating divisiveness. That is my major point of anger here.

I clearly made a mistake in setting up this new veto process. I'm not changing the process mid-season because it would be unfair. But it will need to be re-evaluated next year, because this league is not continuing with me as commissioner next year.

From stupid vetos, to people calling the rest of the league TACO's, the disrespect level this year has not been fun. Sorry not Sorry.

 

[HakAttack]

I’m absolutely not sorry to call this league a Taco league, because it is. The majority of folks that play every year either have a limited knowledge of the NBA or make rookie fantasy mistakes.

If you think Bojan and Siakam are remotely close to the same value, I would question your fantasy acumen.

I also find it ironic that as commissioner you didn’t know you can edit teams rosters and manually add/drop players yourself. Come on man. That’s literally the baseline level of control any commish has over a league.

This is not a competitive league, period. It’s a casual league. And it’s frustrating to those of us who treat it seriously when people make “casual level” trades like the one we’re discussing and brain scratching waiver drops like Walker Kessler (blocks god) and Devin Vassell (top 60 guy), etc.

It’s a basic tenet of any fantasy sports league. If one of your players is > 80% owned, think long and hard before dropping them.

I actually find this league a lot of fun. But it’s also wild at some of the crazy trades and drops that happen here that would never happen in any of the more competitive fantasy basketball leagues that I’m also in.

 

[HakAttack]

And if you want to hand the reins over, I’d be happy to serve as commish. I’ve run my own yahoo fantasy basketball league for almost 20 years that we recently turned into a keeper league. I have zero problem with taking over next year.

 

[HakAttack]

Also, the value in fantasy sports between a top 5 vs. top 20 guy is not the same as the difference between a top 60 and a top 75 guy, although both have a 15 point difference in the rankings scale.

The lower you go, the more the difference in rankings matter.

 

[HakAttack]

Wagner is having a very good season, however his 32 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals vs the Knicks the other night were season highs in all three categories. Meanwhile the same night, Brogdan and Hardaway had huge games and my big gun, Tatum, shot 11/31 for his worst shooting night of the year. Woof. 31 shots.

But, it's fun. Learning and watching guys you might not know or normally watch. My guy Daniel Gafford has been pretty consistent on a bad team. And I'm starting to warm up a little bit to Paolo Banchero.

My goal is to make the playoffs. Not really sure how it works, but if my top players can be healthy, then anything can happen.

I made a major mistake dropping Gafford.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

I made a major mistake dropping Gafford.

Gafford was a good FA pickup for me, as was Grayson Allen, Collin Sexton and Deni Avdija.

 

[gbo]

Fantasy basketball is more fun than football and the passion shown in this thread is why...

 

[jncuse]

If you think Bojan and Siakam are remotely close to the same value, I would question your fantasy acumen.

Let's cut out the rest of the nonsense crap that's going on here. We had some drama, decent part of it on me, and move on. And to remain clear, If I continue to remain cranky at times as commissioner I will pass it on to someone else at year-end so it can continue -- I'm not going to sacrifice the league because I'm not on board about certain things. We have different definitions of what is fair, but at least we both work with concepts of fairness in mind which is a good thing (as we did with the Lavine move) I also want to make it clear I don't view this as an "expert" league or myself as an experienced player or commissioner. This is meant as a fun and casual league, which is why I don't talk down regarding the moves of some newbies or more casual players. Its just a different perspective - glad you find the league fun, so do I.

Let's just focus on the quoted point, because its pure fantasy basketball talk, which is what we want this thread to be about.

When i first saw the Giannis/Curry trade I was shocked and thought man this is really one sided. But I also know GuyFawkes has done well in our baseball and basketball league, so being an analytical and number guy I looked deeper at it.

My point was not that Bojan = Siakam, He does not. He in fact is a fair bit lesser player than Siakam. My point was that Giannis could potentially have quite a bit more impact than Curry (although you need to be wary of that FT% and how he fits) . You can choose to disagree, but as a numbers guy, which makes sense in Fantasy, well I ran the numbers.

And I backed it up my assessment by combining the AVG stats of (Giannis+Bojan) vs (Curry+Siakam). The Giannis+Bojan combo have close to the same impact.

We can agree to a disagree, but I didn't base my analysis on some crazy notion that Bojan=Siakam.

 

[jncuse]

Also, the value in fantasy sports between a top 5 vs. top 20 guy is not the same as the difference between a top 60 and a top 75 guy, although both have a 15 point difference in the rankings scale.

The lower you go, the more the difference in rankings matter.

EDIT - I'll leave my long post below (as it has some good observational data), but reading your point again did you mean that the gap between player #5-#20 is larger than the gap between player #61-#75, which is indeed the case. I may have misinterpreted what you implied when you said "lower you go"

-----------

I'm assuming you are cutting your observation at around 75? Because once you get into the 100's, the difference between #110 vs #125 is pretty indistinguishable at times and these are often the waiver in and outs

But I'll focus on the point that the gap between top 5 vs top 20 is smaller than the difference than #60 vs #75. I ran the numbers below. The variances are bigger between 5 vs 20 as compared to 61 vs 75. (consistent with most ranking that will have standard distribution elements as things get closer to the mean (Be it KP. Fantasy Basketball Rankings, Test Scores)

Player #1-5 AVG vs Player #16-20 AVG
FG% .551 vs .469
FT% .855 vs .839
3's 1.2 vs 2.5
PPG 28.4 vs 21.0
REB 9.5 vs 5.7
AST 5.7 vs 6.1
ST 1.5 vs 1.1
BLK 1.4 vs 1.1
TO 2.5 vs 2.2

Player #56-60 vs Player #71-75
FG% .542 vs .503
FT% .752 vs .761
3's 1.1 vs 1.5
PPG 15,3 vs 18.2
RPG 7.1 vs 6.5
AST 3.1 vs 3.5
ST 0.8 vs 0.9
BLK 1.2 vs 0.6
TO 1.4 vs 1.9

I'll also add that I would never consider trading SGA at #1, for anybody from #11-20 its not that close. There's no "fit" that would make sense.

But I would certainly consider trading a player in the 60 for 75, depending on the fit.

 

[jncuse]

Getting back to Giannis.

Giannis can be a very impactful player ... IMO potentially more than most of the guys in the top 10 (even though he is ranked #21 in Yahoo), but you have to be aware that he is potentially sabotaging one of the 9 categories due to his high FTA and low FT%. So his value really becomes a "fit" assessment.

The impact of that is hard to measure in a ranking system. It really comes down to understanding where your team stands up... can you absorb that FT% because you are really strong in it. If not, its OK, but you need to ensure that Giannis is really going to fix some of the categories that he is really strong in and bring you W's in those.

I can't say I have delved into GuyFawkes roster in that regard. Hopefully he has.

 

[jncuse]

Gafford was a good FA pickup for me, as was Grayson Allen, Collin Sexton and Deni Avdija.

Thankfully I got Vince Williams who has been my 2nd best player rankings wise the last 2 weeks. Partially making up for my loss of Bane and Morant.

I had Sexton at some point. But back when I was fully healthy it came down to Sexton or Clarkson who were both on my roster, and I went with Clarkson because he got more assists. Pretty much a draw to now, although Clarkson is fading though, so chances are good that Sexton would work out more towards the end.

Just couldn't really get my bigs moving this year, and instead of trying to solve it via Waivers where the gap could not be closed against the top teams, I'm trying to focus on what I'm good at hopefully locking up 3 categories. The Morant injury really hurts though.