Another concept to consider:
What do you all think about lagging behind in games cap leagues? How do you budget games? Do you adjust positions to leave certain spots ahead or behind?
This was addressed on today's podcast, but Adam King from the forums asked about it and I thought it was worth discussing as a group.
I don't think you should ever lag behind games played. It's too risky if the league is close and you need to make up games late. I always try to have +2-5 by Jan, then hold that the rest of the year, in all positions except the Utility spots where you can have -Ve projected games cause you can rotate and make up the difference quickly. Also try and have spots available for your early picks, ie if you go KAT/Turner early then having neutral projected C/PF spots is a good idea. If you go CP3/lillard have neutral PG/G spots.
Players always get rested, stars prep for playoffs and mid range players in scrub teams get rested and there's a massive risk you:
A. Don't play all 820 games
B. Your playing scrubs to get to 820.
Nothing worse than trying to make up cats and you need a 4 block week from Demarcus Cousins and he gets suspended for the last game.
I lagged late in the year and found that with players getting rested, especially your stars, you have to rely on waivers and scrubs to get you over the line.
The flip of that is if your team is up and running and you've burnt all your games early in the year on JR Smith and Bazemore, then you end up resting guys like JRich and JLin when they're heating up (this is last year).
It's a fine line, one you need to keep an eye on as much as who is floating around on the wire.
So the way I addressed the ability to catch up was by lagging a handful of games back at every position early. By midseason I had an idea of where I'd need to make up ground, and I adjusted my lag appropriately. Then, with about a month left, I made a hard push in a few key categories, and was able to do some pretty nifty rotating.
I actually benched some top-40 guards because I needed rebounds. Picked up guards that grabbed more boards per game and started them instead. All of this is indeed walking a fine line, but if you do it right you can win a league you weren't meant to win, which is exactly what I did last year. I should have been 2nd or 3rd, and I won that sucker because I used my games better than the other 2 teams.
