ICAATS

Fantasy basketball has been growing in popularity over the past few years. There’s less luck involved than in fantasy football and its not nearly as long a season as fantasy baseball. For these reasons, fantasy basketball has become my favorite fantasy sport to play.

That’s not to say luck isn’t involved in fantasy basketball. There are always surprise injuries to big name stars and when some players get traded, their stock shoots way up or down. You can’t account for luck though so you better be prepared to have a great draft.

The hardest stats to get someone good at are blocks and assists. There are a few players who do either of these things exceptionally well. The only one who truly does both is Lebron James.

For the record, if you have first pick, you pick Lebron James. No question about it. If you have second pick and he is somehow available, congratulations.

When it comes to assists, the players that do it better than the rest are Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo and Steve Nash. If you can get any of these players on your team assists suddenly won’t be such a concern.

When it comes to blocks, some of the better options out there include Dwight Howard, Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby. While Camby doesn’t score much, he does everything else well and there’s a reason he’s been a top 15 fantasy player for the past 5 years.

Rebounding is also very important, but you want to be careful not to get someone who will tank your free throw percentage. Big men who rebound a lot tend to be mediocre at the line (ahem..Dwight Howard). So if you can get someone like David Lee or Pau Gasol, you will be in good shape.

Last but not least, if your league counts turnovers as a stat, you’ll want to avoid guys like Brandon Jennings or Steven Jackson.