There’s no one way to build your fantasy basketball roster. There is, however, one mission: Balance! Balance leads to depth, depth leads protection of the foundation and the foundation protects against injuries and keeps you high in the league standings. The object of the game is to maintain a constant stream of depth because it allows you the opportunity to upgrade in trades. Just like in any fantasy sport, while second and third tier players have a lot more in common, there’s often a vast difference between a first tier player and a lower tier one. Having depth allows you to turn two second tier players into a strong first tier player. You need that balance in order to outlast and defeat your opponents.

EARLY IN-DRAFT ROSTER BUILDING STRATEGIES: Fantasy players often stress over who their first round pick should be and that’ll depend on which stat categories you want to address first. Scoring is a flashy statistic, but remember, it’s the NBA, everyone’s looking to score. If you’re in that middle area of the first round, you may have a shot at drafting LeBron James and he’s a great balance player and while people hate on him from the NBA standpoint, we in the fantasy community should be embracing him for all of the stat categories he fills. It’s extremely hard to predict injuries (except for Anthony Davis). If you address the Forward spot in the first round, you can and should still go best player available and a lot of high impact players will have multi-positional eligibility. Let’s say you start out your draft by grabbing Giannis Antetokounmpo, ignoring forwards is not the way to go. Remember, he will likely qualify at a guard spot before long and that should put your minds at ease for addressing the guard spot. Be mindful of elite assists going off the board early and make sure you respond. It’s a lot easier finding those players who average six assists per game, but finding a guard who can average close to double digits will secure your squad and keep you at least halfway up the standings in this category, Let’s say you target heavy assists early, within the first three rounds of your draft, you can leave them alone for a bit. DON’T CHASE SCORING! One run you don’t necessarily have to respond too is a Shooting Guard run. Points are simple to find on the waiver wire and at the tail end of drafts. You can often find good value on scoring from poorer teams overall. Let everyone else load up on flashy scoring while YOU focus on the other categories. Don’t get turned off by a player early who has a high turnover rate. Be worried if you draft a team with half being most suspect to turnovers. You’ll balance out turnovers throughout the draft.

MIDDLE IN-DRAFT ROSTER BUILDING STRATEGIES: Prior to your draft, look at team depth charts because that’s where you’ll find your mid-draft gems. Remember, every team brings a ton of opportunity. This isn’t fantasy football in which there are certain teams you should look to avoid like the plague. You can find top-scoring opportunity from team’s such as the Kings and Hawks in the middle of your draft. It’s often the middle of the draft when Rookies start to fly off the board. Remember, you don’t have to respond to a rookie run unless you’re sure that they are securely in the rotation. Yes, rookies such as Lonzo Ball and Markelle Fultz will start and play a ton of minutes, but not all of the rookies (even lottery picks) have that guarantee. This is why looking at depth charts is important. It’s hard telling how much players such as Malik Monk or De’Aaron Fox will play at least for the first quarter of the season. Looking at a rookie like John Collins, who you can draft later has hardly any depth around him in Atlanta would be ideal because he will be getting a lot of playing time early on.  The middle of your drafts also give you the chance to start drafting specialists. Towards the end of the middle rounds, start addressing certain categories one at a time with scoring not being a top priority unless desperate. Look at the players who average six to seven rebounds per game and four to six assists to help balance out your rosters. You can especially find mid-court talent who will average a steal and/or a block per game in these areas. With the amount of multi-position eligibility, keep the focus on the categories rather than position depth.

END OF DRAFT ROSTER BUILDING STRATEGIES: This is where you get your scoring fix. Looking at the lesser-known teams that people will look to blow off in their drafts will work in your favor. We already mentioned the Hawks frontcourt as a team to take advantage of, but also teams like the Suns and Nets frontcourts will be addressed at the end and while those situations aren’t clear cut or appetizing, there’s a lot of playing time opportunities with those frontcourts and you need to look to take advantage. Looking for scoring late? The Blazers mid-court will be available as Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu will have to get fed when the opposition doubles on the perimeter closing off Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum’s paths to the basket. Harkless has a good mid-range game and Aminu can slash and drive and both will be playing a good amount of minutes throughout the season. Suns Forward T.J. Warren will be around on the later side of drafts and he’ll mainly help with scoring. Going after 8th, 9th or even 10th men in a rotation doesn’t bring much of a ceiling when it comes to opportunities compared to those 3rd or 4th options on struggling teams. At that point, you’re hoping for an injury on the front-line and you can’t predict injuries nor prepare for them properly during your draft. Focus on playing time and depth. The end of drafts are where you can literally steal steals because as stated in other articles, some of the team’s rotation is out there simply to play defense and set screens and it’s the tail end of drafts where you can find the Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s of the world who will help at least a little in multiple categories. Remember, defense wins not only NBA Championships, but Fantasy Championships as well.

POST DRAFT ROSTER BUILDING STRATEGIES: Remember, the NBA is an 82 game season and I caution you not to trade a player because they didn’t live up to your fantasy basketball expectations in week 1 of the season. Immediately start making a watch list for yourself on the waiver wire. Some fantasy websites allow you to put available players on a said watch list and look for consistency over the first couple of weeks of the season. Need scoring? Look for that playing time to be around the 20-minute mark and look for at least 10 points per game over a 2-week period and then add that player. Looking for boards? Check out and see if a player plays around 20-minutes per game while averaging six to eight rebounds when debating on adding that player. Six rebounds and 20 minutes are a great indicator of a true defensive rotation commitment from the Coaches. Need assists? Look for guards who play around 20 minutes per game and dish 4 to 6 assists over that 2-week period. Blocks and steals should be added when the average is at least one. Keep those players at the start averaging 0.5 steals and/or blocks per game on your watch lists because that’s showing an every other game defensive commitment and consistency in stats and playing time can rise as can those statistics. Watch for those steals and blocks category improvements because it’s harder to see unless your leaguemates really look into the trends. Be a Coach and do what it takes to build that foundation and WIN THAT RING!