Howdy. Hoping for some thoughts and suggestions for this team. Standard 12-team 9-cat drafted at 11. Players are not necessarily listed by draft order. Thanks ahead of time

1. Trae Young

2. Devin Booker

3. Demar Derozan

4. Donovan Mitchell

5. Jordan Poole

6. Klay Thompson (acquired from trading away Giddey)

7. Draymond Green

8. Jusuf Nurkic (IR as of 11/14)

9. Devin Vassell (acquired from trading away Kuzma and Hart)

10. Bobby Portis

11. Benedict Mathurin

12. Max Strus (3, point stream)

13. Jalen Suggs (sort of redundant cat without any significant volume)

14*. Kevin Love (3s, rebound stream)

My strategy didnt really go as planned during the draft. I tried to go with punt FG% and turnovers due to Trae as first pick. I overestimated the defensive stats Draymond and Nurk would get me. I originally drafted Giddey but swapped him for Thompson to focus on more 3s (possible regret now as Giddey is producing well in his other cats now but oh well). I managed to get Vassell for Kuzma and Hart. Considering flipping Mathurin for Josh Green but their difference is minimal. Green has a few more peripheral stats and more consistent playing time is my hope. Derozan doesnt really fit the build with lack of 3s and decent FG% so considering fielding a trade for FVV (punt FG% but has 3s, points, assists, steals, fits build), Vucevic (can hit 3s, Center designation, bolster rebounds as i barely lose or win that cat each week), or Anunoby (scoring, 3s, steals as i need a defensive cat). I didn't do as much research as i usually do this year to my regret. 

I have another team with the same core of Trae, Booker, Derozan but i have more bigs (Valanciunas but ew as of recent, Collins, Zion) and defensives (Royce, Marcus Smart, Vanderbilt) and this team is doing better than the one above. 

@dballball never got your reply but here is my new team. 
lamelo ball

kyrie irving

jrue holiday

alpren sengun

kevin Porter jr

marcus smart

jalen green

lu dort

saddiq bey

keldon johnson

royce O’Neal 

monte morris

bojan bogdanovic 

Hi all. Due to some technical difficulties, I have been unable to respond. Keep the posts coming and I will try to keep up as best I can! Don't hesitate to re-post if I missed you. 

@kevinh Hey pal sorry I missed you.

I feel like you're a fan of the D'Antoni-era Rockets. In other words: where are the big men? For positional eligibility reasons alone, I think rounding out your center rotation should be a priority.

You're locked and loaded with shooters at all levels, so I'm fairly confident that 3PT will consistently be one of your most reliable categories. 

FG% won't (can't) be reliable if you don't have any real post presence. With players like Ball, Bey, Dort and Smart, I don't think you can realistically expect to compete here anyway. Excepting Ball, none of these players are essential to your team, so you could either consider some trades or simply punt this category moving forward. FT% will be the reverse for similar reasons: your perimeter-oriented squad should naturally have higher percentages from the charity stripe and I expect you to win there regularly.

In terms of defense, STL should be a reliable winner, whereas you have fully locked yourself into a punt BLK build due to no post presence. This is the closest I've come to certainty that a team will never win a certain category. 

PTS should be a mid-level strength. Irving is your only truly elite scorer, but there's not much high-end production here. What I like about this squad from a PTS perspective is that your low-scoring players are still fairly consistent with their ~10-15 PPG. You'll probably need to stream in some help here if you want to beat the competitive squads.

AST is going to be a strength thanks to your abundance of playmakers. There's not much to say here, but it's a good omen for your competitiveness that Morris and Smart are probably your fifth and sixth-best in this area.

There is no way that you can have a perimeter-oriented team that is competitive in AST and PTS while also staying strong in TO. Considering that Porter and Sengun are key players on this team, it's extra unlikely that you'll do anything noteworthy here. It's a punt, if you ask me.

As with BLK, it's near-impossible to win REB without having bigs. Unlike BLK, REB specialists are typically easier to find on the wire and there are more high-level REB producers in general. You're below-average here, so it's one of those categories that you'll need to decide sooner than later if you want to make a run at. If yes, you probably need to make some trades to recover those losses. I don't think this is fixable simply by streaming. 

Dort is superfluous on this team and arguably not hold-worthy in standard leagues. I think you should move on from him sooner than later. Trade him if you can but I would drop. You also have six point guards and there's no way you need that many in any circumstance. Ball, Holiday and Smart are the most predictable in terms of final outcomes, so I would prefer to trade one or two of the Irving-Morris-Porter trio. With the type of press he's getting, it's unlikely you get any fair offers for Irving, so it's possible to swap him out for Smart in this scenario. 

I'm sure I've indicated this enough by now, but you need bigs. Assume that every change I have discussed above is all in reference to forward-centers. With this in mind, I think these bigs are the best targets for low-level trades or free agency: Aleksej Pokusevski, Chris Boucher, Jarred Vanderbilt, Kelly Olynyk, Kevin Love, Marcus Morris and PJ Washington. You could take some home-run swings for players like Al Horford, Bam Adebayo, Draymond Green, John Collins, Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Vucevic. 

To review, you're definitely going to have to win AST, FT%, PTS, STL and 3PT, because you're definitely not winning BLK, FG%, REB and TO with this roster construction. I recommend that you try to tackle your problems with FG% and REB in order to level out your team a bit. 

I hope this helps!

@dballbball Hey Derek! I’m reposting again so it’s easier for you to find! Here is my current team, Im in a 12 team, 9-cat league. I’m looking to improve my team as I’m 9th in my league at the moment, although each H2H has been close (usually 4-5). I’m in a punt 3PM, FT% and a soft punt on points (mainly because if my injury prone stars go down I’m not competing there anyway). 

Current Roster:

Guards: Killian Hayes

Forwards: Hart, Bridges, Barnes, Butler, Patrick Williams, Lebron

Centers: Vandey, AD, Poeltl, Horford, Adams

Im at 11 roster spots because I just traded 2 for 1 and am picking up off the wire right now. 

So I am still in desperate need of a PG so I am not limited by that position on busy NBA nights. I really just need like 2 solid guards in my build, and would love the rest to be bigs and wings. 

Anyone you aren’t so high on that you think I should trade for better pieces? I’m not super high on Poeltl right now, even though he is great for my build. I feel the production isn’t quite there right now, and I fear his value drops if he gets traded from the rebuilding Spurs. Also worried about Barnes, the minutes are there, but even with players out he isn’t taking as much of a leap as I thought he would. Should I hold these guys or look to trade? Ben Simmons was recently dropped by another team and I would love him for my build, but the production and durability just isn’t there right now for him. Should I still pursue?

What do you think are my current strengths and weaknesses and how could I improve my team?

Thanks in advance!

@jocab Ready to rock and roll with thoughts and suggestions!

I'd do that DeRozan-VanVleet trade 100% of the time with this roster. The others are solid backup options, with Vucevic being the better of the two in general and Anunoby being well-suited to your team composition. 

Hindsight has already shown you this, but the Giddey-Thompson trade isn't as strong.

That Mathurin-Hart trade is only interesting to me because of the categories I will later recommend that you address. At face value, I could take it or leave it, but I'm leaning towards retaining Mathurin.

You're definitely punting FG% and TO with this squad. No worries there.

FT% will be strong and even your negatives in this area aren't particularly bad. I'd be amazed if anyone can outweigh the positive contributions of your top-six.

PTS is strong and should remain that way. You're punting FG% and TO, so you might as well keep on streaming in extra produers here. Ditto for potential trade acquisitions.

REB is probably in the middle. You skipped all the major producers in the early-to-mid rounds but recovered nicely with later moves. The players that you get in the 50-to-125 range of drafts aren't going to be consistent enough to push you past the true elites in this category, but you'll have your moments. Stream away.

You're never going to be bad in AST as long as Young is healthy, but losing Giddey was a major blow here. You should win this category more often than you lose it but I can't be sure how much more. Without any concern for TO, I think this is another category worth topping-up. 

3PT should be easy to predict with Nurkic being your only non-shooter. The volume from your regular roster should be enough to carry you, so I'm not as enthusiastic about the Strus stream as others might be. Love fits under this umbrella as well, but he rounds out your center rotation while boosting FG%, FT% and REB. 

You indicated that you want a defensive category, so I'll recommend that you focus on STL. It's probably on the wrong side of average right now, but it's arguably farther along than BLK. The typical stats of a STL producer versus a BLK producer tend to favor your roster construction as well, so this is probably the better direction to move in. This is an area that you could potentially boost via trade (ex. Anunoby, VanVleet), but STL is typically easy to stream and this is a viable option as well. Without any need for extra scoring or shooting, you can target the defensive specialists more easily than other managers. If you end up competing in BLK, it's probably because you made a trade and then started streaming in extra help. 

There are no glaring positional needs on this squad, so take a best player available approach when streaming. I'd try to use my streamers to top up AST, REB and STL with future moves. Given the type of players you're likely to find on a standard league waiver wire, I think it's going to be easiest to address REB and STL. You have the sort of roster that should be able to accommodate specialists like Alex Caruso, Andre Drummond, Killian Hayes and Matisse Thybulle. Outside of those players, I like the potential fits of guys like Bruce Brown, Caleb Martin, Grant Williams, Jae'Sean Tate, Jalen McDaniels, Jeremy Sochan, Jevon Carter, Obi Toppin, Tari Eason and Torrey Craig. This is far from an all-inclusive list and not necessarily featuring the top waiver wire options in a standard league, but I hope this suggests to you the sort of player profile that should be targeted with streaming moves.

Let me know if you have questions. Good luck!

@marcmaliswag Hey! Sorry for my super-delayed reply. I typed up a response for you days ago but was unable to post. See below...

That Irving pick has got to be giving you some grief right now. You recovered well with safe choices of Adebayo and Holiday. Jaden McDaniels was a steal at 145! Great call to swap Duarte for Murphy.

The Jackson picks will pay dividends in BLK later. Hopefully Smith has sorted out his rookie woes by then because he's one of my favorite producers in this category already. It's probably a mid-level category until then. It's smooth sailing once you're at full strength.

I think this is probably a mid-level REB team. Adebayo and Jokic are a solid core but there's not a lot to prop them up. If you compete here it will probably be the result of a trade. The waiver wire can only do so much, and I think that's only going to be enough against a few teams. 

I'm undecided on AST. You're somewhere between good and great. It's one of those categories that I like to pad whenever possible if I'm trying to win there, so you can definitely try to stream for success here.

Can you top up STL? You started well with Adebayo and Holiday. I'm less convinced about your potential past that point. It's easy to address this category on the wire but I think you could try to bring in another top-tier producer by trade. It's probably not going to be a reliable winner but it's not a punt. 

You're probably not going to do well in PTS with this squad. That makes me less enthusiastic about a player like Simons, whose primary attribute in fantasy is PTS. As your third-string point guard, I see him as one of the most tradeable players on this team. Irving is another player that I'm unsure about, but I don't think you're going to find a market for him, so you're basically stuck there. You just lose too much ground with players like the Jacksons, Olynyk, Duarte, McDaniels and probably Williams. The inconsistency of Smith won't help you much and Adebayo is not a good scorer relative to his peers at that draft position. 

3PT should be fairly reliable for you. It's somewhere in the average to above-average range. This is what makes Simons valuable on your squad, but not so much that I think he's worth keeping out of trade talks, since he's historically a limited-category contributor. Adding Murphy was a great way to shore up this category and I think you should continue to stream this one or seek more permanent assets to really make this a reliable strength. Whether you pursue a Simons deal or simply stream players to help here, I hope you will try to find players that can give you 2+ 3PM whenever possible.

Your FG% would be a lot more reliable if you didn't have that Smith-Porter-Simons trio in the middle of your draft. They're all twice as bad as Jackson (IND) or McDaniels are good, and they all take more shots. The other two offer clearer benefits while still adding average or better PTS and 3PT, with Porter being an AST asset and Smith being a BLK asset. With apologies to Simons, who I am now unabashedly picking on, he is the easiest way to attack this category from an "addition by subtraction" perspective. Hopefully his replacement is somewhere above 46 FG%. 

Adebayo, Jackson (IND) and Porter are likely to drag your FT% down to average levels. Unlike FG%, I think this category is winnable without any action. You probably should find a way to supplement this with future moves, but if one player has to go it's Jackson. As you said, his game is nice when the minutes are there, but will they be there? Turner is still in the way and Smith is still the better prospect. Bitadze is looming too. With or without major playing time, Jackson is already in the limited-category contributor club with Simons. I think there's a trade market for him, so it's worth seeing what's out there.

TO is somewhere in the middle but leaning towards bad. That's not a concern for a squad that should probably be pushing for AST. Take your wins when you get them but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this category.

You're definitely solid in four categories: AST, BLK, FT% and 3PT. I think you can get there in FG% and STL, but I'm not so enthusiastic about REB, PTS or TO. Try to acquire some of these players if you can: Alex Caruso, Brandon Clarke, Bruce Brown, Chris Boucher, Derrick White, Dennis Smith Jr., Jae'Sean Tate, Jalen McDaniels, Jose Alvarado, Josh Richardson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Anderson, Marcus Morris, Patrick Williams, PJ Tucker and Santi Aldama. Martin is a somewhere between hold and streamer, so I think you're fine to retain him unless something better comes along.

Good luck! Let me know if you have questions.

@brandonbourassa Hey Brandon! I'll type up a longer reply soon but you should absolutely grab Simmons right away. He's perfect for your team. I'd drop Williams, but it would be Hayes if not for your point guard situation.

@dballbball

I just wanted your opinion on my 10t 9 cat espn squad. I want to see if you recommend any trades or pieces to move around to make my team better.

- Ja Morant

- Lebron James

- Paul George

- Julius Randle

- Jakob Poeltl

- Vassell

- Rudy Gobert

-Sengun

- Jamal Murray

- Keegan Murray

- Anfernee Simons

- Vanderbilt

- Al Horford

My FT% is kind of down, but my build is kind of punting that. Any help would be appreciated on who I should trade for, or acquire. Assists and 3pm lacking a little.

Available players on waiver: Poku Hartenstein, Olynnk, Tre Jones

Hi Dan,

My team is in 14 team 9 cats h2h.

Jayson Tatum
Desmond Bane
Demar Derozan
Mikal Bridges
John Collins
Tyler Herro
Al Horford
Jabari Smith
Robert Williams
De'Anthony Melton
Jeremy Sochan
Obi Toppin
Charles Bassey

It is a team with asist punt and not good at rebaund and steal. 
What do you think about this team? Especially in play-offs, do you think the team structure is well for match-up?

Thank you so much.

Head 2 head points league,10 teams

D.Fox

K.Huerter

R.O’Neale

K.Johnson

C.Capela

T.Jones

K.Oubre Jr

C.Bassey

J.Jackson

N.Jokic

A.Davis

A.Edwards

J.Green

Z.Williamson

Should i try to trade somebody like Edwrds and Green for O.G Anunoby or Bane ? Also is K.Thomphson worth adding ? 

Needing a bit of help with my team. 12 team, 9 cat

Started off with 2 wins but have been easily handled the last two weeks. Could potentially be put down to Kyrie being out and few guys being off to a slow start. 

not sure what to do with Gobert, McCollum or Jalen but generally need some guidance about where to take this team? How do I build around Steph here?

Steph

kyrie

gobert

J.Allen

mccollum 

Poeltl 

Trent jnr

Oneal

I.Jackson

Clarkson

Hart

jalen smith

payne

IR - RWIII

@dballbball just posted the derozan FVV trade. also to clarify, do you mean Mathurin-Green trade or the kuzma/hart-Vassell trade?

@brandonbourassa Hi again Brandon. I hope you were able to grab Simmons.

I'm going to continue to advise that you don't let NBA storylines influence your fantasy decisions too much. I understand where the impulse for your Barnes and Poeltl questions came from, but I don't agree that either should be shopped for any reason other than their statistical production. You rightly noted that they are both well-suited to your team, so why fix what's not broken? Again, the only acceptable trades for players that exactly match your needs are for other players that exactly match your needs. With that in mind, the only acceptable options for trading either player would be a point guard that boosts you in efficiency stats and defense. 

Your strengths and weaknesses remain generally the same. If acquired, Simmons equates to a boost in AST, FG%, REB and STL with a big step back in FT%, PTS, TO and 3PT. He is neither good nor bad at BLK. This is almost exactly how I identified your team's weaknesses in my last post, so Simmons only amplifies the good and the bad. The losses in TO would be worth the potential gains in other areas, and you're already pretty far down the punt FT%, PTS and 3PT path. 

Nothing major has changed with your team since your last update, so I'll continue to recommend that you explore free agency and trade options to expand your guard rotation and reinforce your strengths. If you're talking about trading Barnes, Poeltl or any other player with a mid-round draft range/ranking (~40s-70s) then you should be getting players that are similarly-ranked or better in exchange. Point guards that might fit this criteria and work with your squad include: CJ McCollum, De'Aaron Fox, Jalen Brunson, Jrue Holiday, Tyler Herro and Tyrese Maxey. While I wouldn't trade the same caliber of player for them, I also like Ayo Dosunmu, Jaden Ivey, Marcus Smart, Mike Conley, Monte Morris, Russell Westbrook and Tre Jones. In the low-end or free agency pool, I think you could look at players like De'Anthony Melton, Derrick White, Delon Wright (once healthy), Immanuel Quickley, John Wall, Jordan Goodwin and Jose Alvarado.

Most of your roster is tailored to your strengths, so there's no real clear trade candidates anymore. You can trade whoever you like as long as they're returning comparable value and addressing a positional need. I think the trade rater part of the forum might be better-suited to help you there. Just keep in mind a few key things:

a) Fantasy trades are for stats not stories.

b) Positional eligibility is important.

c) Trades are an exchange of potential values. Any trade can be argued as worthwhile if your team improves its odds of winning one or more categories. If a player is drafted in the 20s and ranked in the 50s, then you're probably trying to exchange them for someone that has a ranking in the middle of those two numbers. Players trending down don't get good trade offers (ex. injuries or slumps) and players trending up will likely be priced higher than their actual value. You should be trading bad players trending up for good players trending down, if possible, in order to maximize your buy low/sell high opportunities.

Good luck! 

@kinginasall Eight teams? That's a top-heavy league!

You should basically only be holding players in the top-75 range. Boucher is obviously an injury replacement but he can be dropped when everyone is healthy. Claxton, Kuzma and McDaniels are all barely hanging on, in my opinion. 

You're invested pretty heavily in a guard stats build. That means you should be prioritizing AST, FT%, PTS, STL and 3PT with every move. You're already pretty strong in each category, so there's no major concerns to address, aside from simply staying as strong as possible. There's no way you're competing in TO, so that's a clear punt category, and FG% is pretty close behind. Given how shallow your league is, I'd be pretty impressed if you could win BLK with any regularity. By default, I should recommend that you focus on improving your competitiveness in REB in order to give yourself a bit more security. Addressing REB may make you more competitive in BLK, and I think that's a nice bonus, but if push comes to shove, I think REB should be the priority. 

From a forecasting future moves standpoint, it's actually very easy to recommend what you should do. You need to build REB and potentially BLK in a league with two starting center spots. There are four centers rostered, which is fine, but I've already indicated that you can probably move on from two of them. It would be natural to question why I think you should drop two players that help in those areas, but it's a matter of their ROS value estimate combined with their non-value or outright negative value in certain categories, with Claxton's horrendous FT% being the biggest red flag.

I think you can comfortably move on from Boucher whenever needed and I also think it probably won't be hard to find someone interested in Claxton. It could be fun to try packaging them together for one center on a team that is short-handed at that position, with you taking a better center in exchange. You could try similar 2-for-1 deals with Kuzma, Lowry or McDaniels as well. The point being that you should be trying to consolidate top-level talent and, if possible, make that a forward-center that compliments your guard stats build. In no specific order, the bigs that might fit well on your team are: Al Horford, Bobby Portis, Brook Lopez, Draymond Green, Evan Mobley, Jusuf Nurkic and Wendell Carter Jr. While I'm not prepared to put them in the same category as the above, I think both Bol Bol, Kelly Olynyk, Marcus Morris and Mo Bamba are worth watching very closely, and both could help you when they're rolling. 

If you end up streaming other positions, I think the best categories for you to prioritize are STL and 3PT. You're already remarkably strong in AST, so I don't think you need any specialized production there, and your team will probably consistently win FT% as soon as you get rid of your negative producers there, and potentially in spite of them. After your top picks, nobody should be safe on this roster. There is sure to be tons of talent on the waiver wire all year, so be bold if you see a strong free agent with good ROS potential. 

Good luck!