Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Didn’t you read an article before the season began that stressed the importance of stocking up on SG’s and SF’s for the 2013-2014 fantasy season? Heck, I wrote one! My theory was very sound going into the draft, but with over 10 games played, let’s revisit the top 100 players’ positional breakdown according to Basketball Monster’s Player Rater. The reason the totals add up to more than 100 is because players qualify to play multiple positions.
My league is currently in a massive Yahoo vs. ESPN debate. We are using ESPN for the time being, so ESPN position eligibility is used in this article. Yahoo positions aren’t extremely different, so the same logic applies. Here’s what I discovered…
PG | SG | SF | PF | C | |
Top 50 | 12 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 13 |
51 – 100 | 12 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 14 |
TOTAL | 24 | 34 | 30 | 31 | 27 |
In a rather shocking revelation, it appears as though the PG position is in the shortest supply in the top 100 list. It was the most plentiful heading into the draft, so what happened? There are numerous explanations such as the exclusive nature of the position (players tend to be PG only), underperforming point guards, and liberal position gifts by ESPN and Yahoo. However, we need to examine how to use this to our advantage.
1. Assists and blocks are the rarest categories due to the limited number of players that tend to specialize in these categories. With the lack of high quality PG’s in the top 100, assists become an even hotter commodity. However, as I write here and here, more assists inflate a player’s value on the player rater, so buyer beware.
2. Trade for high quality PG’s. If you are stocked at the other positions, do not hesitate to acquire another PG. Fantasy basketball is a volatile display of supply and demand. Right now, point guards are in demand, but remain flexible if the trends change throughout the season. I’ll be here to keep you updated.
The same premise applies with centers (blocks and rebounds) because they finish in 2nd place by a narrow margin. We will review this list throughout the season, so keep checking FantasyCPR on a regular basis. Let me hear from you at alpinefantasy@yahoo.com. Twitter @fantasycpr