As the real-world economy continues to spiral downward, many of us are tightening our purse strings and hoarding our pennies.  In order to win Fantazzle’s Salary Cap Challenge, you need to bring that same thriftiness to your desktop when you are crafting your roster.  Fantazzle’s brain trust assigned a dollar value to each fantasy-relevant NBA player, and in order to win your tournament, you must be able to sift through the aisles and figure out which players are being offered at a discount.  And as is often the case this time of year, we have many, many bargains out there for the taking. 

Now, I won’t do your job for you and give you all of the gems, but I will give you a head start on your holiday shopping by identifying a group of players that are currently being undercompensated by the powers that be here at Fantazzle.  Let’s take it from the top, shall we?

1. Spencer Hawes, C, Sacramento Kings.

This rookie has quietly put together the most surprising rookie performance of the season thus far.  Despite collecting fewer than 30 minutes per game, Hawes has averaged 12 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and nearly 1 steal per game.  As unassuming as those statistics may seem, they are enough to rank him 23rd in overall points and 7th among centers according to the Fantazzle scoring system.  Put this together with his ridiculously low $38,000 salary, and what you have here is the most valuable player in Fantazzle Salary Cap Basketball.  If you haven’t had him in your lineup this season, you simply just aren’t paying attention.

2. O.J. Mayo, G, Memphis Grizzlies.

Mayo has been playing with the kind of composure that is hard to find in a rookie, and he is paying handsome dividends to those clever owners who snatched him up in the later rounds of fantasy drafts this fall.  Not only is he the only rookie to crack the top 20 in Fantazzle points this year, he has also been the 7th most productive guard in the game, ahead of stars such as Jason Kidd, Brandon Roy and Allen Iverson.  The former high school and college prodigy is only commanding a salary of $61,000 in the Fantazzle game, which makes him just the 35th highest paid player at the position and $50,000 cheaper than Iverson, $40,000 cheaper than Kidd and $30,000 cheaper than Roy.   He is a must-own during any cycle in which he plays 2 games or more.

3. Andris Biedrins, Center, Golden State Warriors. 

This 22 year old Latvian’s numbers have been up across the board this year, as his scoring has jumped from 10.5 to 15.4 per, his rebounds have jumped from 9.8 to 12.0 and his steals have gone from 0.7 to 1.2.  Due to his statistical versatility (and the fact that his .609 free throw percentage is being ignored) Biedrins actually ranks 7th in Fantazzle points for the season.  With a sticker price of just $80,000, Biedrins is just the fifth highest paid center in the Fantazzle game, and he will cost you nearly $50,000 less than the biggest kahuna, Dwight Howard.  If you can explain to me why you aren’t signing this guy every week, I’d love to hear it.

4. Zach Randolph, Forward, Los Angeles Clippers.

Debo seems to be on a mission this season, doesn’t he?  And as much flack as we’ve all given Isiah Thomas for assembling such a misshapen roster in New York, the deal for Randolph doesn’t seem nearly as dumb these days, does it?  Look, I’m not saying that Randolph is an all-star, or that he is anything but a liability on the defensive end.  But anyone who has watched him play this year knows that he has been absolutely unstoppable offensivily, and in the fantasy realm, that is kind of a big deal.  Sure, he won’t give you many steals or blocks, but what he will do is collect more double-doubles than nearly anyone else in the league.  He is averaging 22.4 points, 11.2 boards and 1 steal per game for the season, which puts him right there along side Biedrins in the top 10 in Fantazzle fantasy points.  Signing Randolph will only cost you the small pittance of $78,000 right now, which qualifies him as one of the biggest bargains in our game.  When Chris Kaman cames back from injury, Randolph may very well collect fewer points and boards, but the big fella isn’t due back any time in the near future, so ride this gravy train for as long as possible.

5. Derrick Rose, G, Chicago Bulls.

After limping through the summer league and underwhelming prognosticators in the preseason, Rose has been nothing short of brilliant in the early going this year.  His 278 Fantazzle points are good for 32nd overall in the game and 13th best among guards, while he commands just a $65,000 salary.  Although he does not qualify as the ultra-bargain that Hawes does, Rose carries the potential of a top-10 fantasy player this year.  No. 1 overall picks tend to have that kind of upside, especially point guards that come out of the gate firing as Rose has.  Although Kirk Hinrich will return at some point this season, my money is on someone else’s numbers taking a hit (sorry, Ben Gordon).

Happy shopping, and may the force be with you. 

–Dr. Quez (aka Dr. Dreidel)

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Welcome to Fantazzle Fantasy Basketball, a truly one-of-a-kind fantasy gaming experience. Fantazzle will begin its offering with the Fantasy Basketball Salary Cap game and look to add more games as the season bounces along. You will be asked to select 3 Centers, 5 Forwards, 5 Guards, and 3 “Utility” players. The players you select for the Utility slots can play any of the 3 positions – the choice is yours. In the Salary Cap Challenge, each player is assigned a dollar value, and you must select a combination of players that fit within your $1,000,000 budget.

The scoring system is simple, and similar to standard fantasy basketball scoring. You receive one point for each assist and rebound that your players compile, as well as two points for each block and steal. You also receive one point for every actual point that each player notches, meaning that you will receive two points for a field goal, one point for a free throw, and three points for a three-point field goal. Please note that, unlike most fantasy basketball scoring systems, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and turnovers are not categories.

This leads us to our first strategic observation: certain players will have drastically different values in Fantazzle’s game than in your typical fantasy league, so you must adjust your player rankings accordingly. The most obvious example of this anomaly is Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. In standard fantasy leagues Howard is noticeably less valuable than superstars such as Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul and Amare Stoudemire, because unlike these other players, Howard essentially causes you to forfeit a whole category (in this case, free throw percentage). Meanwhile, in Fantazzle’s format, Howard is just as valuable as any of these players, and by season’s end could quite possibly end up being the most valuable player in the game.

Fantazzle’s Fantasy Basketball games run twice a week. The first batch of games run Monday through Thursday, and the second batch of games run Friday through Sunday. This leads us to our second strategic observation, which is that not all players will play the same amount of games in any given cycle. Most players play two games per cycle, but some players play just one game, and others play three. Therefore, it will behoove you to avoid one-game players and load up on as many three-game players as possible when selecting your roster. Fantazzle goes to the trouble of telling you how many games are on each player’s schedule for that cycle, so it is very easy to implement this strategy.

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There you have it – an introduction to the game itself. Now please allow me to introduce myself, your trusty fantasy basketball blogger, analyst and bonafide hoops enthusiast, Dr. Quez. I joined my first fantasy basketball league in 1993, at the age of 13. At this time, I did not even own a computer, or even know how to use the internet. My father noticed that every morning I would race to the kitchen table, annihilate the sports section in what seemed like mere moments, and then sit there studying box scores for the next half hour. One day he saw an ad in the newspaper for a “rotisserie basketball league” and signed me up. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in some dude’s living room with 11 other strangers, drafting my first fantasy basketball team. We negotiated trades over the phone and submitted our weekly lineups and waiver moves via regular mail. I will never forget the surge of excitement that I felt when I got home from school and saw that envelope with the updated standings and rosters waiting for me in my mailbox.

In hindsight, it was probably the best training conceivable to become a good fantasy player. I was nearly half the age of the next youngest player – a fellow whose name escapes me now, but who named his team “F.U.B.A.R.” – and found myself calling grown men to negotiate blockbuster deals. Their wives must have been perplexed when out of nowhere, some squeaky-voiced twerp was suddenly calling her husband on a regular basis to discuss that big Latrelle Sprewell for Karl Malone trade.

I never did win a championship in that league, but I got awfully close. In 1995, I found myself in last place when Michael Jordan announced his comeback. According to our league’s waiver rules, this meant that I had the top waiver position, which also meant that I suddenly went from zero to hero. Next thing I knew, F.U.B.A.R. had me on the phone, offering me a rookie point guard by the name of Allen Iverson and his 1996 first round pick for my new best player. I can’t remember who I took with that extra first round pick in 1996, but it doesn’t really matter – no matter who it was, I got fleeced in that deal. F.U.B.A.R., indeed.

That league got me hooked, and I never looked back. Back in 2003, I couldn’t organize enough people to start my own fantasy basketball league, so I joined a random ESPN league that was full of deadbeat owners. You know the type – guys who miss the draft, end up with a crappy team, begrudgingly pay attention for the first few weeks, and then, once they realize their team totally blows, disappear forever. It was in this league that I bumped into a fellow by the name of Ryan Erb, who ended up taking over one of those deadbeat teams and surging past me into first place. We completed a few trades that season, and at the end of the year, Ryan invited me to join a fantasy sports league known as “Ricketts,” which is one of the most competitive leagues I’ve ever been a part of. This is where I really cut my teeth as a fantasy gamer, as guys like Ryan, Jared Hayes and Chris McCarthy won title after title, and I spent years figuring out what it takes to win against truly knowledgeable players.

Shortly after my initiation into the world of Ricketts, I began working at KFFL.com as a fantasy baseball analyst. There, I wrote impact reports on players, contributed to their annual Draft Guide by writing about undervalued players, and eventually ended up writing weekly positional analysis pieces. Although I didn’t always agree with their editorial decisions, I think I came of age as a fantasy sports writer during my tenure with the company.

I became involved with Fantazzle several months ago when Ryan Parr, an old college buddy (and the website’s founder), contacted me through Facebook and told me about the project. The rest, as they say, is history, and I am excited to be a part of the Fantazzle team. I will be posting a weekly blog entry where I will discuss fantasy basketball news and offer strategic suggestions for winning your weekly tournaments. Keep your eyes open for my next post, and I look forward to hearing your feedback!

–Dr. Quez

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As the season grows older we are identifying a couple of interesting trends around Fantazzle.  First of all, a lot more of you are playing because the harsh reality is about 75% of you have been eliminated from your other leagues and you’re looking for a place to crash for the rest of the season.  To those of you that I’m referring to, mi casa es su casa.  But there’s another trend going on at Fantazzle that has really caught my eye:  many of you are loving the Salary Cap Format (as most of you know, the salary cap format is similar to the Challenge format except that in the Salary Cap format you only get $1 million dollars to spend on your team).  So why is it so popular?  Well, for one, it really tests your fantasy football skills.  It allows you to pick up some sleepers that you wouldn’t otherwise consider in the Challenge format.  Here are some examples of some Salary Cap steals from the last few weeks:

WR – Lance Moore – $15,000.00
WR – Kevin Walter – $15,000.00
RB – Mewelde Moore – $10,000.00
RB – Matt Forte – $45,000.00
RB – Pierre Thomas – $15,000.00
RB – Warrick Dunn – $15,000.00
QB – Tyler Thigpen – $20,000.00
QB – Matt Cassell – $35,000.00
QB – Matt Ryan – $25,000.00
TE – Jerramy Stevens – $5,000.00
TE – Kevin Boss – $10,000.00

Some of these guys are absolute steals.  If you are able to spend low on guys like Mewelde, Pierre and Tyler it will give you serious cap room for your regular breadwinners like Adrian, Andre, Drew and Anquan (As you can see, I’m on a first name basis with most of these guys).  The point is, in the salary cap format, it doesn’t really matter how good your team looks on paper, what matters is how many points they put up on Sunday.  So take the Salary Cap format out for a spin.  Load up on Superstars and Sleepers and take down the pot like dcpitcher21 did in Week 12 with an impressive 295 point showing.

Happy Hunting.  PouringReign.

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