Tag Archives: fantasy owner

Apr 12 3:17 PM EDT

How to Define Injury Prone in Fantasy Basketball

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What is the amount of time a player would have to miss, on average, to bear the description, “injury prone”,  in a fantasy owner’s mind?  What does “injury prone” really mean, and how often is it assigned ACCURATELY to NBA players?

As an ACTIVE fantasy owner, your NOT only concentrated on drafting players, but monitoring them and their injuries during the season and/ or playoffs, because injuries are a common fact in the NBA.

Definition: “injury-prone” /in·ju·ry/ (in´jer-e) (prn) having a tendency or being more susceptible to trauma and/ or harm.

Ultimately, injury prone is subject to perception and easily becomes a popular social stigma or even a myth for reference.  It’s often misused to label players in fantasy basketball as players to avoid when recruiting for team rosters, but injuries can be a result of poor conditioning, body breakdown,  and/or just bad luck.

In order to tag a player with the “injury-prone” label, the injury history and severity of injuries sustained must be evaluated over a period of time, therefore taking the course of rehab in consideration.  There are scenario’s where players have actually performed better coming of injury i.e. Kobe Bryant’s (avulsion fracture of index finger) injury while STILL getting “Western Conference Player of the Month” in December and “MVP”of the NBA Finals last year.  Also, there exist certain cases in which the injury-prone label does makes sense.  For example, when a player is perpetually bothered by the same ailment (Yao Ming comes to mind quickly i.e.  left foot stress fracture).  In addition, it has been proven — and makes sense — that players are more susceptible to injury as they age i.e.  Tracy McGrady’s (knee & back) injuries that have plagued his career and as a result, he was forced to to contemplate”early” retirement.

To begin to quantify which type of injuries should make players more wary than others will NOT predict player performance in your leagues, but when drafting injury prone players, a fantasy owner can take cumulative value and the ranking of players into consideration i.e. Roto leagues, because you still have the opportunity to raise their cumulative value with a good back-up player.  In H2H leagues without an IL, if a fantasy owner fails to drop an injured player and leave him on the bench, there is NOT an option for a back-up player as a replacement.

Just because a player is injured does NOT mean a player can’t play injured, therefore to dismiss a player without evaluation is based largely on bias at best.  If your an ACTIVE fantasy owner, then scouting for your team roster make-up has to include evaluating   player stats which will include factors i.e. age, performance, and even injury, etc.

Apr 06 9:59 PM EDT

How injuries Impact Fantasy Basketball Teams

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Injuries CAN and WILL happen, and the top notch fantasy basketball owner has to be prepared for this fact.  These injuries can have a devastating effect if your draft strategy or your psyche revolves around a few players leading your roster, so you need apply “succession planning”.

The effect of injuries is that it removes a player from your selection pool to fill your rosters.  If this player is one of your “regular” starters that you put in on a daily or weekly basis, then obviously they score big for you.   If the injury occurs to one of your reserve players, this can still have a profound effect as well.   In some cases, instead of being able to put in a player you drafted, you might be really desperate and have to rely on a waiver wire selection, which usually does not lend itself to producing high scoring players anyways at the moment.

The other effect that injuries can have on a fantasy GM is a MENTAL one.  Yes, a MENTAL one.  What tends to happen is fantasy owners make their early round selection(s) and consider their selection to be i.e franchise player(s) of their fantasy team.   Then, “the fantasy GM” thinks that the core of his or her:) team is exactly what they want and can’t lose. NOT!!!!  Then,  the season starts; the ball bounces, and the injury happens to one of their best players:(  Suddenly the plans to WIN are no longer existent, and with it, the hopes of competing or so they think.  Instead of pursuing a trade, or perhaps picking on a serviceable free agent, the fantasy owner begins to lose interest and figures why bother because my best player is gone.   Essentially, managing a fantasy roster by being an ACTIVE fantasy team manager is HOW to compete, therefore injuries should NOT cause a dramatic demise.

Th effects that injuries can have on a fantasy team are obvious, but what can be done to minimize these problems should one occur?  Well first off, rank EVERY player BEFORE the draft happens.  Value each and EVERY selection in your draft.  Too many times players will get through their first six or seven picks in a fantasy draft, then tend to lose interest and just pick up whomever to fill out the other spots on a roster.-WRONG! Every pick should be looked at as a value pick because you never know when that late round selection could get called into have to play on your team in a given week.  Examine the names left in the draft pool and do a little research before and during your draft.  It can be the difference between winning and losing.  Most are drawn to athletic studs, but the stature of a player and the team he plays for are virtually irrelevant.  You never know when that person will turn out to be a star!  Rajon Rondo, was drafted from Kentucky, and NO ONE, heard of him or predicted his potential as a PG, and look at his numbers now with the Boston Celtics!  Rajon Rondo, was NOT awarded “Rookie of the year”, but was selected to the All-Rookie 2nd team along with Paul Millsap, Adam Morrison, Tyrus Thomas, Craig Smith, Walter Herrmann and Marcus Williams.

Finally, be sure to use the waiver wire process.  Sure,  fantasy owners assume that everyone is looking on the wire for replacement.  That is NOT always true, because most don’t monitor the wire.  A lot of fantasy owner’s only turn to the wire when an injury occurs and they are in need of a player, or they drafted and forgot to get a backup at a position when desperate for points in their leagues. The SMART fantasy GM begins scanning the wire as soon as shortly after the draft or at the very least several times during the week.  Don’t wait till something bad happens before trying to improve your roster!  Build your depth throughout your season, so when the inevitable injury occurs, you will have a somewhat capable backup to put in and at least get you some of the points back you lost.

Injuries are part of sports, and NO team is immune to having them take place.  To the fantasy owner, injuries can definitely create some anxious moments.  However they do not have to be a season ending injury for the entire fantasy team. With the combination of adept drafting, along with shrewd wire waiver and trade management, a fantasy team can easily be resurrected!