Could someone help me with my fantasy team please?

[Spurs Biggest Fan]

I'm fairly new to this fantasy team stuff so the basics to start off will do...

I have a team on a Public Yahoo league.

First of all, I have a few questions:

How do you play? :)

Really...

I have 13 players

7 are active and 6 are either "UTIL" or "Bench"

So now what do I do?

Do I have to change the lineup everyday as to the players playing for that day or is it for the week? I don't get it.

I tried reading the rules but they are very confusing.

Also what is a "UTIL" player mean?

Do I have to have a full team active at all times (meaning I can't have 3 centers or anytihg like that) right?

HOw do I know if one of my players is on the IL or not and will that count against the team?

I know they have the scoring based on all sorts of stats and such so does that mean those points accumulate every day?

Ok I have Tim Duncan on my team (yea) so say he plays 3 times in a given week. What do I do with him the days that he doesn't play? Do I bench him?

How do I know the other players on my team's schedule?



I know these sound like very silly and simple questions that I should know -- but I don't. So any help you can muster for a fellow Spurs fan who wants to enjoy playing fantasy NBA would be greatly appreciated :elephant

Thanks.

And Go Spurs Go

OH BTW

These are the players on my team:

Tim Duncan
Stephon Marbury
Quentin Richardson
Mike Bibby
Jalen Rose (Is he still in the league?)
Rasheed Wallace
Dikembe Mutumbo

Reserves:

Drew Gooden
Tyson Chandler
Jayson Williams (miami)
Brent Barry :spin
Eddie Griffin
Brian Cardinal


Thanks again all.

[sickdsm]

It depends on if your playing head to head (H2H) or rotissiere? (roto). I'll just give a brief summary, post what kind of leauge and then i'll go more indepth.

Roto you get to play each position 82 times. The positions vary. A lot of times you will have a PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util. These are all active positions. This is a much harder, time consuming league IMO. You can't really set it and forget about it for a week because if a guy gets injured, you'll be wasting a game if you play him. Scoring is based on the curve. Meaning if your in a twelve team league and your right in the middle for total rebounds, you're scored is based on where the first and last place guys are at. Some people use there roster spots too fast and halfway through the season it looks like there way out in front but its because they've played much more games. This type of leauge i think you have to look at matchups alot more indepth. For instance, Tim Duncan playing a back to back on the road at detroit after tweaking his ankle in the 4th qtr might not be good idea to start over a Drew gooden going against Milwaukee when he's hot and Zydrunas is out.

H2H is a lot more fun IMO. You have new opponent each week. Depending on how the scoring is set up, 9 or 11 categorys, at the end of the week it will be like you won or lost a combination of 9 or 11 games. If you beat him in 6 but lost 3 other categories, your record at the end of the week is 6 wins, 3 losses. This type of leauge you want to fill every active position as much as you can. There's much more trades and free agent pickups in this type of leugue because the bench players are so much more important because they actually contribute instead of Brian Cardinal being your third insurance option behind Tim Duncan. One stretegy I usually use for this leauge is after the draft trying to do a multiple player for a star trade and using one or two spots on my roster for FA's. I'll drop and pick up FA alot until i can find one that blows up. Every year theres guys like Bobby Simmons or Damon Jones that are just waiting for someone to notice them before everyone else does.


Utility means that player can play any position. For example, KG will probably be the consensus number one overall fantasy pick again this year. But last year, Amare was so valuable not only because his numbers but he was center-elgible. Behind each players name is there listed yahoo position. If you play enough at a certain position or start a game there, you earn that position. Rip hamilton last year i believe was SG, that's it. So the only spots in the lineup he can play is SG, G, and utility. A guy like Joe Johnson however will likely be listed as PG, SG, SF. He would be available for PG,SG, G, SF, F, and utility. Finley is a GF, these are less valuble because swingmen are a dime a dozen. He's only available for SG, SF, G, F, Utility.

To put a player on IL, they have to actually be on their NBA teams IL. It usually is a day or so behind so if Tim Duncan gets put on the IL, a red IL will apear in superscript right after his name. On your roster you select the IL spot on his position and that opens up a new spot on your roster to add a FA or whatever you need to do. Obviously when he's healthy your going to have to make a spot available by dropping or doing a trade. Now if Eddie griffen gets on the IL and you add a guy, when he comes off you might not want to activate him. If he gets on a ten day IL at he beginning of the season, you can keep him on as long as you want, but your not able to pick up ANY free agents as long as you have him there. This a really good strategy for example, Grant Hill, Antonio McDyess or Troy hudson two years ago. Allan Houston has always been one of these players you'll see in the FA pool because he's hurt but you can pick him up, stash him away for the entire season and if he comes back, activate him.

Its kinda like using your IL as a minor leuge, retaining the exclusive rights to him.