The fantasy basketball rankings are based upon my season-long projections from the almost 400 potentially rotation players in the NBA for the upcoming season. Category-based fantasy hoops rankings are different than points-based, with less emphasis on pure volume, more benefit to specialized counting categories like blocks, steals and 3-pointers, and more punishment for inefficient shooting from either the field or the line.
The value of a contribution in a given category is going to differ based on the scarcity of the contribution. For example, there are far fewer steals than there are assists, so the weighting of each steal a player averages will contribute more to their category rankings than each assist.
Make sense?
The category with the most volume is points, so each individual point scored counts least toward these rankings. And the category with the least volume is blocked shots, so each blocked shot is worth quite a bit of weight in the rankings.
You’ll see that phenomenon played out in both the Top 150 category rankings, as well as here in the category tiers. It’s easy to see that shot blockers as a whole rank significantly better in the category tiers than in the points-based tiers.
And, generally speaking, you’ll notice that defensive specialists or 3-point shooters will fare relatively better and players that generate volume in points, rebounds and/or assists fare relatively worse in category rankings than in points-based.
The following is my breakdown of players into tiers, by position, based upon my preseason projections.
It’s worthwhile for you to see how I break things down, but ultimately you’ll get the most benefit out of taking a few minutes for yourself and breaking down the players into your own tiers based upon your own valuation. You would be shocked how much a little exercise like that can do to prepare you for your draft, and how much this 20-minute exercise could set you apart from the other team managers in your league.
Thoughts on PGs:
Thoughts on SGs:
Thoughts on SFs:
Thoughts on PFs:
Thoughts on Cs: