For the 1st time ever, The Czar has arrived! I'm proud to say that participation over the years has stayed high in these threads has stayed high and this is easily my most enjoyable time not only of the sports year, but on TWW as well. I genuinely enjoy all of the nuances of fantasy basketball and hope to help with any questions that you have.

A little background on Slave Famous and where "The Czar" came from. I've been playing Fantasy Basketball since 1989 when me and some friends used to pick players on Saturdays and figure out a point system. We would determine the winner by looking at the Monday/Tuesday sports page and cut out the stats. This is how we kept track. One of my friends gave me the title "The Czar" when we were trying to name our teams in one of the first years. It stuck. Over the years, I've won over $10,000 in fantasy basketball prize money (over 20 years, not as much as it sounds) and consider myself pretty knowledgeable after playing in hundreds of leagues. I don't always get them right, but year after year I look at these threads and find that more often that not, I make pretty good picks.

My goal is to do my best to offer insightful advice on drafting techniques, who to avoid, who to pursue, and later on once games start...who to start, and who to bench, along with last minute injury reports.

Again, any question asked directly to me, I'll gladly offer insight...all other questions are fair game. This thread is all about opinions and updates, so if you've got em, give em.

Anyone can give and take insight, but please try to be respectful and always try to answer questions before posing new ones.

Now that that's out of the way, this year's draft, especially the 1st round, will be high drama. In most leagues, the top 4 are set in stone. Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Lebron James, and Dirk Nowitzki. After that, things get tricky. Do you go SG with Kobe Bryant or Wade?? SF with Smith or Granger? Or take a look at Williams, Curry, Gasol? All are valid picks.

What's your plan? How do you draft? Who are your Sleepers?

This year is the year! Use this thread to propel yourself to the title!

Good Luck!

- The Czar

10/13/2010 3:45:35 PM

10/13/2010 3:46:53 PM

someone offered me Primoz Brezec for Kobe...I'm a big Primoz fan...should I take it?

ps: its a rotisserie format league with 6 teams

10/13/2010 3:48:59 PM

Shaq or Darko?

10/13/2010 3:51:14 PM

That's a no brainer. Primoz has the clear advantage in rebounds, blocks, steals, FG%, points, rushing yards, batting average and RBI's, while Kobe only leads in technical fouls and GQ covers. Click accepts before he pulls the offer.

10/13/2010 3:51:37 PM

question unrelated to fantasy basketball. you say you've played since '89, but your user info lists you as being a spry 19, thus being born in 1991. can you explain this discrepancy?

10/13/2010 3:55:51 PM

blasphemy.

- The Guru

10/13/2010 3:56:36 PM

I'm just guessing so please don't shoot the messenger, but I'm guessing he is not really 19.

10/13/2010 3:57:13 PM

I dunno. I'd have to defer to him rather than listen to your hearsay.

[Edited on October 13, 2010 at 3:58 PM. Reason : what would he have to gain from lying about that?]

10/13/2010 3:58:12 PM

I'm 43 years old

Jaybee1200, gunzz and I all graduated the same year

10/13/2010 3:58:51 PM

oh. well, there we have it.

10/13/2010 4:02:08 PM

Truth be told, I'm 25

I'll change it to appease you

10/13/2010 4:03:26 PM

lol

i appreciate the gesture

10/13/2010 4:04:51 PM

The czar name story is bullshit... I had a thread on here using the name czar one year and Slave Famous beat me to it this year

10/13/2010 4:10:20 PM

10/13/2010 4:15:55 PM

anyone interested in getting a league together? I will create a league in yahoo if we get enough people interested. We can decide on the date/time of the draft in this thread (or if the league is comprised of only twwers we can make our own thread)

let me know as soon as you can, I'd like to do a draft sometime this week if possible

10/18/2010 10:07:09 AM

Don't bother making a free league

Participation will be 50% at best by December

10/18/2010 10:09:42 AM

I find that fantasy basketball is the only thing that keeps me remotely interested in regular season NBA games. The only regular season games I watch with any interest involve Kobe, LeBron, or any of the high scoring West teams (i.e. Thunder, Suns, Warriors, etc.) The playoffs are the only time I'm truly watching a lot of the NBA.

I'll probably join a public league this year just because my fantasy football teams suck so bad.





[Edited on October 18, 2010 at 10:56 AM. Reason : hj]

10/18/2010 10:54:37 AM

I'm very high on Scalabrine this year, and I'm sure that you are as well.

10/18/2010 11:00:13 AM

I'd love to join a league for Heat fans only, to keep the riff raff out.

10/18/2010 11:03:53 AM

I've got two people interested in joining a tww fantasy basketball league (submitted via PM), if anyone else is interested let me know. Also, let me know what time works best for you (weekday/weekend, daytime/evening, etc.)

10/18/2010 12:16:20 PM

My draft is tonight. I need to start doing a little research. Are they any big injuries so far??

10/18/2010 12:34:23 PM

Quote :

"I've got two people interested in joining a tww fantasy basketball league (submitted via PM), if anyone else is interested let me know. Also, let me know what time works best for you (weekday/weekend, daytime/evening, etc.)"

I was in a league last year with some other TWWers and I think Slave is right. Participation was down a lot starting in January-ish. With that said, I'd be interested in joining.

10/18/2010 1:11:58 PM

would you like to do the draft during the day or in the evening? any preference on day?

I am able to do drafts while I'm in the office at work, so I might go ahead and sign us up for a draft on Wednesday or Thursday around 10am, let me know if thats a problem.

I'll send out the sign up info later after a few people chime in with their preferences

also I just did my first draft, 10 team and I had the 5th pick, heres the results:

PG - Russell Westbrook, John Wall
SG - Joe Johnson, Stephen Jackson
G - Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu
SF - Danilo Gallinari
PF - Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Smith
F -Carlos Boozer, JJ Hickson
C - Dwight Howard, Brendan Haywood
Util - Eric Gordon, Jose Calderon, Greg Oden
BN - Al Harrington, Mario Chalmers, Rasual Butler

I like this team, very well rounded

[Edited on October 18, 2010 at 1:36 PM. Reason : asdf]

10/18/2010 1:31:08 PM

^nice team. Also, i don't really have a preference on draft time. I'm unemployed and have no commitments right now so I'm pretty much free all day. As long as it's not before 10am then I'm good.

10/18/2010 1:44:31 PM

You have to dictate the scoring format, categories, etc.

Just listing your roster with no guidelines doesn't give us any insight into how your team fits into the framework of your league

It could be good, it could suck cock, it could be somewhere in between

10/18/2010 1:44:43 PM

its a rotisserie league with the following categories:

Field Goal Percentage (FG%), Free Throw Percentage (FT%), 3-point Shots Made (3PTM), Points Scored (PTS), Offensive Rebounds (OREB), Defensive Rebounds (DREB), Total Rebounds (REB), Assists (AST), Steals (ST), Blocked Shots (BLK), Assist/Turnover Ratio (A/T)

pretty standard

[Edited on October 18, 2010 at 1:47 PM. Reason : asdf]

10/18/2010 1:46:53 PM

So the league HEAVILY rewards big teams by making RBS 3 categories instead of 1.

You did a good job offsetting Howard's krynonite by having Dirk and Joe Johnson, but I feel you could use another big rebounder to try to place near the top in all three of those categories.

Overall, solid, probably 3-5 out of 10 in that league.

[Edited on October 18, 2010 at 1:55 PM. Reason : x]

10/18/2010 1:54:07 PM

Quote :

"would you like to do the draft during the day or in the evening? any preference on day?"

I definitely can't do during the day. I would prefer Mon-Thurs any time after 6:30 or maybe a late Sunday afternoon

10/18/2010 2:41:14 PM

I would be interested in a tww league...

anytime is pretty good for me during the day...Tuesday nights are about the only good weekday night...

10/18/2010 3:29:57 PM

I'd like to play. ^^ +1

10/18/2010 4:29:49 PM

Czar, should I wear a blazer while drafting, or just whatever I happen to have on?

10/18/2010 4:35:43 PM

I draft nude

Always have, always will

10/18/2010 4:40:42 PM

I'm interested in the league if its not filled up.

10/19/2010 10:16:38 AM

Who wants to do a draft at work?

Even if you're "allowed", it seems like no fun

10/19/2010 10:19:53 AM

I dont see what wouldnt be "fun" about wasting an hour or two doing a draft, while getting paid for it

10/19/2010 11:26:44 AM

anyone who is interested in being in a tww league, here is the info:

Its an 8 team, rotisserie league right now. The draft is set for Thursday, October 21st at 10:30am. I made the rosters pretty big because of the relatively low number of teams

Here is the league URL: http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/twwleague

the name of the league is: TWW League
and the password is: wilson

I changed the draft to thursday night at 7pm. Let me know if that works. I also changed it to a head-to-head league

[Edited on October 19, 2010 at 11:33 AM. Reason : asdf]

10/19/2010 11:29:11 AM

Pretty sure you have to give the league ID number for people to sign up

10/19/2010 11:36:30 AM

^The league ID# is 90598 for anyone that wants to sign up.

10/19/2010 11:39:30 AM

word, thanks for posting that

10/19/2010 11:43:30 AM

how many spots are taken already?

10/19/2010 11:44:23 AM

I'll play till everyone else doesn't

Make Ejections a positive stat...more fun that way

[Edited on October 19, 2010 at 11:48 AM. Reason : x]

10/19/2010 11:48:47 AM

In our 7 year league history, I think this is the third time I've done this....

Our league has 10 positions (PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util)...so after I've made my 10th pick, I close my laptop...usually because I have something else going on (this time gf was cooking dinner and I had two friends laughing their asses off to Scare Tactics in the den). I always forget that I have three more draft slots to fill up my bench. So I automatically draft two fucking centers (when I already have several solid ones in Amare, Bogut, and B. Lopez). Centers I automatically drafted were fucking Greg Oden and Okur (both injured, Okur best possibly scenario to return mid to late november). Other guy I automatically drafted was Demar Derozan.

So I've already switched out Oden for Ramon Sessions. I'm looking for another guard or forward to trade out Okur for. Should I keep Derozan?? Here's a list of some decent available players for me to pick up:

Francisco Garcia, Richard Hamilton, James Harden, Josh Childress, Mike Dunleavy, Tayshaun Prince, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Martrell Webster...etc. Not much to choose from. I'm thinking Garcia...maybe Harden.

Also...my league has nine categories (Pts, Rebs, Stls, Assts, Blks, 3pts, FG%, FT%, and TOs).

10/19/2010 11:49:38 AM

Seems like you're inviting such mishaps by having people over and distractions during your draft. I have complete isolation for any online drafts, and this never happens to me.

10/19/2010 11:52:06 AM

^Yeah...I was peeling shrimp in between picks. But would you mind suggesting what I do with my team situation, Czar.

10/19/2010 11:57:29 AM

Of those listed, I like Derozan, mainly because SOMEONE has to score for Toronto, and the only somewhat proven guy there is Bargani. I like Derozan to make steady improvents from his rookie season.

Garcia, Williams, Dunleavy, Childress, etc...these guy all do a little bit of everything, but nothing well. In a ten teamer, most of these guys will get picked up and dropped several times over the course of a season due to hot steaks, injuries, and just the general ebb and flow of the season. No one is worth getting excited about at this point.

10/19/2010 12:06:43 PM

It looks like 7 of the 8 slots are filled. If we get enough people interested I can bump it up to a 10 or 12 team league.

I cant make ejections into a positive or negative category. I could get rid of it altogether, but I kinda like having a wild card stat category

10/19/2010 12:15:11 PM

If your guy gets ejected, you're already getting screwed out of whatever stats he would've gotten...shouldn't get another penalty on top of that.

I'm also against turnovers, because the best players generally have the most turnovers, so its kind of difficult to control.

But whatever is fine.

10/19/2010 12:17:04 PM

I'm going to keep Derozan. Still look to swap Okur for one of those listed because he's going to be useless to me for at least a month, maybe two. Probably going to go for Garcia or Dunleavy because at least they are interchangeable for a few positions (both guys can do guard and forward spots).

10/19/2010 12:17:19 PM

I got rid of turnovers, but kept ejections

they also have assist/turnover ratio, flagrant fouls, technical fouls, personal fouls, and times fouled out as stat categories. I'm not really a fan of any of them, so I'll just keep it like it is. If enough people are opposed to ejections, I'll get rid of it

10/19/2010 12:22:07 PM