Fansided

NBA releases official fantasy basketball scoring system

By Charlie Zegers

OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 12: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers defends Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 12, 2017 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 12: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers defends Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 12, 2017 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The NBA has released a new “official” scoring system for fantasy games, but is the NFL-style scoring format too simple?

The National Basketball Association has released a new, official scoring system for fantasy games, ESPN’s Kieran Darcy reports.

"“We felt like it really needed to be simple and easy to understand,” Scott Kaufman-Ross, NBA associate vice president, fantasy sports said of the scoring system. “Especially since the new [fantasy] players for basketball — if we’re looking to increase participation, they’ll likely be casual fans, so we wanted to make sure it was as simple as possible.”"

Under the new system, points will be awarded as follows:

  • Point: 1
  • Rebound: 1.2
  • Assist: 1.5
  • Steal: 3
  • Block: 3
  • Turnover: -1

The league will also divide the season schedule into 26 clearly-delineated weeks, also in the hopes of streamlining and clarifying fantasy discussion. The new scoring model will be integrated into NBA.com’s stat pages and used in official fantasy NBA games on Yahoo!, FanDuel, NBA InPlay, PlayON and Dream11.

The changes will make playing fantasy NBA games more like fantasy NFL games, which could help boost popularity. NBA games are regarded as an area of potential growth for the fantasy industry and have already surpassed the NFL in some areas. FanDuel’s NBA games generated more revenue than NFL contests last year, and DraftKings expects a similar shift this season.

GET DRAFT HELP: Fantasy Pros Draft Wizard and Fantasy Football Tools

That said, the over-simplification of scoring may not sit well with the league’s biggest fans. The six-category fantasy point model completely ignores the idea of player efficiency, eliminating traditional categories like shooting percentage and free-throw percentage. That change may “flatten” fantasy values for top players; Kevin Durant’s 53.7 field goal percentage won’t give him an advantage over Russell Westbrook (42.5) or James Harden (44.0) in this format, and DeAndre Jordan’s hideous free-throw shooting won’t be a disadvantage.

In response to that concern, Kaufman-Ross notes that fantasy NFL games don’t reward efficiency in their scoring systems — that “a quarterback being 12-of-30 is no different than a quarterback being 12-of-15.”

It will be interesting to see if the league’s new focus on fantasy games extends to other matters that make fantasy NBA games more difficult than weekly or season-long NFL games — the schedule itself, for one. Splitting the season into clearly-labeled weeks will help, but different teams will still play different numbers of games each week, and players with more games will have an even more-pronounced advantage with efficiency stats out of the mix.

Next: 25-under-25 -- The best young players in the NBA

A league-wide focus on fantasy games could also become a factor in the ongoing discussion about players skipping games for rest. (And who wouldn’t enjoy Gregg Popovich’s reaction, the first time he’s told he can’t sit Kawhi Leonard in the second game of a back-to-back because it would inconvenience fantasy owners?)

Home/Fantasy Basketball