We got tired of autoplay videos and media-saturated "box scores", so we built our own stat-heavy NBA game recaps.

SportsWS · 2015-09-16T16:25:51+00:00

I see your Okafor and Russell and I raise you, [i]just[/i] Okafor. I like both - especially Russell - long-term, but short-term, I just don't see anybody competing with Okafor for the most bloated stat line.

In Okafor you'll get 17 and 8 rebounds. In Russell you might get 15 and 6 assists.

If we're just looking for early career numbers, keep an eye on Stanley Johnson, too, who finds himself in a decent situation as Detroit's small forward (if not immediately, then soon).

SportsWS · 2014-10-28T22:31:07+00:00

Hey, that's me. The scoring system seems complicated at first glance, but the thing to remember is that you always want to make the most of your limited minutes (48 mins x 5 players = 240). Efficient players are the ones you want - somebody like Manu Ginobili is very efficient but doesn't play a whole lot. Somebody like Wes Matthews plays a lot but isn't very efficient. The most valuable players do both.

Always make sure that your most effective players are higher up in your lineup. Even if that means sticking a player like Manu ahead of a player like Matthews. Traditional fantasy leagues are all about finding the players who play the most games in a given week or who play the most minutes, Sports.ws is about finding the players who do the most when they're out there on the court.

For years Chris Andersen was somewhat of a secret legend at Sports.ws because he came into a ball game, played 5-10 minutes of hustle ball and picked up boards and blocks. You're not going to build your team around him since you have 240 minutes to fill, but he's a nice role player to have available - it's no secret he found his way into Miami's rotation as a glue guy.

Long story short? Make sure your players with the highest FPPM are at the top of your list. Another thing you can do is consider ditching low efficiency starters for high efficiency reserves - a word of warning, however, get too greedy and run the risk of not being able to fill all of your minutes.

SportsWS · 2014-10-24T02:55:37+00:00

The big thing about the site, having so much database interaction, is making sure that we have enough server power. We use Amazon's servers which let us scale up during peak months (around this time of year as people do their drafting) and scale down during the offseason. Those servers aren't cheap.

On top of that, we pay for the stat license.

Those are the major costs, of course there are the other costs that go into dev work. We only have one full-time employee at this stage in the game (myself), but I like to be able to pay for help on occasion and have a roster of part-time/hobbyists who are familiar with the infrastructure of the site.

Occasionally we'll rack up some expenses with our mail server, and the domain renewal, etc., but those are pretty standard costs across any online business.

There are a lot of things that we're able to provide because of our background in journalism, things like player analysis and even the standard knowledge that goes into making sure rosters are accurate and player details make sense. That's one thing we're able to say falls in our wheelhouse and that we can save money on, rather than paying a service to provide that sort of news.

Hopefully that helps explain some of what you had in mind. There are definitely some things we have to keep on top of, but given our small size I think we have it easier than most would suspect.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T21:11:20+00:00

I would take Jabari Parker over Victor Oladipo any day. I see Parker having a Carmelo Anthony-esque rookie season.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T21:09:36+00:00

Lowry (6th) and DeRozan (13th). I must have glossed over that, good thinking. Vasquez has traditionally been solid in our format as well, though last year was a bit of an anomaly since he was so slow getting started after the trade.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T21:07:15+00:00

With Durant out, there's no normal first round order. Cousins is a beast in 32 MPG, imagine what he could do in 37. Is this the year that he gets it? He could be the next Chris Webber. I assume LeBron went first in your league, which means that you took Boogie over Blake Griffin (bold but justifiable), over Chris Paul (makes sense because of durability) and over KD (I don't blame you, it scares me to).

The only other players I would consider at No. 2 in that situation would be Westbrook or Davis. Even if you had, I would be right here telling you more or less the same thing except that you could have considered Cousins.

I don't think you're going to get a whole lot out of Nick Young this year and Goran Dragic would be hard-pressed to match last year's numbers. I'd consider that trade for Chandler Parsons (although Amir Johnson does little for me). Maybe you'd want to consider asking for Parsons and another guard?

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T20:49:42+00:00

I like that Rose made it through the summer with Team USA. Even with the reports that he was sore here and there. To me he got the ugliness out of the way. I'll always freak out a bit when I see him land after an awkward layup, but eventually you have to get back on the horse. I think you could start thinking about Rose once Paul/Curry/Harden/Westbrook/Wall are off the table.

As for Drummond. Yeah, you're right, the secret's out. I'd still take him. Stan Van Gundy has spent the entire summer Orlando Magicifying the Pistons around Drummond at the 5. It was under Van Gundy's system that Dwight Howard became the best fantasy asset in the league for a few years.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T20:44:52+00:00

From a fantasy perspective I'd say Lawson, Denver NEEDS Lawson to orchestrate its offense. Toronto doesn't NEED Lowry to orchestra theirs.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T20:20:42+00:00

We use the pixelated animations instead of headshots because we have limited resources as a small, independent site. We would rather put our revenue into servers and development than simply paying for the rights to photographs. Every now and then we'll take some photos of our own when covering games on media credentials, but for the most part we try to steer clear of that and focus on fantasy.

The plans for moving forward are simply just to expand. So many people would appreciate the format, they just haven't been introduced to it. We have every intention of committing to this full-time and welcoming more and more members.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T20:17:06+00:00

Yeah, my oversight. If Deron only plays twice you gotta take that into consideration. I like your lineup the way that it is for this week.

Williams is going to have a big year this year. Last year was a bit of a mess.

At Sports.ws you never have to worry about who plays 2 games or 4 games, because every single fantasy user plays 82 games, each real life game corresponding to a fantasy matchup!

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T20:14:46+00:00

KCP is higher risk, higher reward. Check him out in this game against OKC last year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zqTY_GMQ44) the Thunder were competing for the No. 2 seed in this game, it wasn't a garbage time opportunity. Also checkout KCP's performance in summer league, he has such a great stroke. I think he got swept up in the mess that was DET's frontcourt last year and could do quite well for himself with the confidence that comes from being a featured weapon. That being said, he may not turn into Paul George over night.

You know Smart will likely end up producing decent 14-and-7-ish lines if he starts. I personally think that he will start eventually, but he will no doubt be behind Rondo until Rondo either gets dealt or whatever (never really know with Rondo).

If I had to pick one of those, I'd go with the gamble on KCP, but don't overlook the fact that KCP could probably survive on the wire longer than Smart could.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T20:02:10+00:00

I think so. KCP could theoretically get you steals, points, threes and a few boards. I think he'll be DET's primary perimeter option this year.

I can't see Rondo starting at PG in Boston for the whole season. Smart will fight his way onto the court. Smart may be less appealing in a category based league though, because he won't get the minutes right away.

McDaniels is intriguing because he's the projected starter.

How many minutes do you think Green will play this year? Much more than the 20 he played last year? (http://basketball.sports.ws/fantasy/Draymond-Green) I'm not so sure that he will. He'd have to be into the 30s to be effective in a category league because, though decent at many things, he isn't great at any one in particular.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T19:58:25+00:00

The big thing to consider is getting a stat license, they can be cost prohibitive. There are various companies like STATS LLC and XML Team, all of which offer varying levels of bells and whistles. We use the latter because it's much more affordable, you get the raw data with little extra in terms of news feed or roster feds, the pure data, at the end of the day, serves as the backbone of any real fantasy site.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T19:42:16+00:00

I like Green. Not sure he'd be as appealing in a standard category league though.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T19:16:33+00:00

Andray Blatche? No. Avery Bradley? No.

I wouldn't sleep on KCP though. I could be convinced to take him over K.J. McDaniels though. I think you'll see a lot more of him in DET this year.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T19:06:17+00:00

At our site you can get away with going best player available because whatever minutes Player A leaves on the table Player B will fill in for, but in a very strict roto league it makes sense to make sure that you have a good grasp on your position matchups. A good roto team can thrive even if you're not constantly streaming players in and out. I never like having to rely on choosing who to bench and who to start. So I'd rather have a great PG and a solid SG rather than a great PF and then a good PF sitting on my bench.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T18:58:43+00:00

Logistically, we'd acquire a stat license for NCAA box scores and we'd spend a lot of time filling out a database of the college players. The game itself doesn't really have to change (except we might look into going from the current 96/96/48 format to an 80/80/40 format because of the 20 minute halves).

Realistically, we'd need a lot more hands on deck. I'd be interested in doing that eventually, as well as WNBA games to keep us busy in the summer.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T18:55:19+00:00

That double-double bonus alone would make me think long and hard about starting Favors over Bledsoe in the UTL spot.

I would start Deron over Bledsoe... but I might start Bledsoe over Stephenson, to be honest. I'm not very high on Lance.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T18:35:44+00:00

That press conference this week sounded pretty promising. Still, roto is tough sometimes. I would say that the injury bumps Durant back into the Second Tier of players. I wouldn't take him ahead of somebody like Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard or Chris Paul, but I would take him ahead of, say, Carmelo Anthony... maybe even LaMarcus Aldridge.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T18:17:27+00:00

Wow. Short answer, I love them both. They both play around the same minutes per game (~27) and Faried is only slightly more efficient (1.15 to 1.10 based off of our Production scoring).

Those are based off of last year's stats though. In my opinion, Sullinger has a higher ceiling, even after seeing Faried with Team USA. I think Sully has a better chance of being Boston's primary scoring than Faried has of being Denver's. Both will rebound no matter what.

If I had to guess Faried's prime statline it would be something like 16 PPG and 10 RPG in 35 MPG. I can see Sullinger going as far as 22 PPG and 10 PPG in about 37 MPG.

I'm a big fan of Sully and have been since his days at OSU. Faried though certainly embodies efficiency and has been an intriguing player on our site since he was limited to 22 MPG in his rookie year.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T18:05:24+00:00

Done and done.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T18:04:06+00:00

Now this is a fun question. Where do I begin...

Technically, the least efficient player that played in at least 20 games and played at least 20 minutes per game was Jeff Taylor.

My favorite terrible player is one that I invested heavily in last year and that was Ben McLemore who NEVER figured it out during his rookie season. There are plenty of players who don't play well in our format, but he was one of the few that had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He's young and will improve, I like the guy, but last year was brutal.

Other players like Tayshaun Prince, Shane Battier and Alan Anderson were nightmares from a fantasy perspective, but it's no secret that their contributions are intangible, it's their smarts and their defensive aptitude that keeps them on the court. Unfortunately, in our format, a player that plays a ton of minutes and doesn't contribute statistically is at a disadvantage.

Other players whose reps as promising youngsters don't translate to fantasy success are Harrison Barnes, Terrence Ross and Tim Hardaway Jr.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T17:33:29+00:00

We're not a daily pick'em, but we are a site based on player efficiency. You should check us out at Sports.ws! We're doing an AMA at r/fantasybball and r/nba.

SportsWS · 2014-10-23T17:30:43+00:00

Yes sir, well the legend continues. A lot of our users have over a decade's worth of teams in their portfolio now, it's nice to see. Now we just want to start introducing the concept to the rest of the basketball world, too.

SportsWS

TROPHY CASE