I first got into fantasy basketball years ago after I joined a startup points league on a whim with a few guys from a sports group I was in on Facebook (good times indeed). It was only through listening to fantasy basketball content that I realized that it was not even the most popular format and that eventually led me to exploring category leagues as well. My aim here is to help individuals on a similar path that I was on before, allowing you to close the gap on your more experienced peers and make your transition smoother to this awesome format. If you have not played in points leagues but you are new to fantasy basketball anyway, this will also be a helpful guide although you will still have some extra work to do. 

The first thing you need to do after joining a category league is to look at the settings. Points leagues utilize an accumulation of stats, combining them into one overall number called fantasy points. Category leagues separate stats into 8 or 9 categories (hence the name) and this is usually referred to as 8-cat or 9-cat. In basic terms, you want to accumulate superior stats in more categories than your opponent (at least 5 of the 8 or 9 options). 

You would be familiar with a points league matchup looking like this (as a crude example): 

          Team A FPTS | Team B FPTS 

Best player – 50 | 55 – GOAT 

Give me more points – 33 | 27 – Be more helpful 

Random player I picked up – 26 | 29 – Clutch pickup for a win 

     Team A Total – 109 | 111 – Team B Total 

Team B wins 

While a category league would look like this: 

Team A | Statistics | Team B 

622 | points | 701 

.497 | FG% | .464 

.781 | FT% | .801 

43 | 3PM | 64 

177 | rebounds | 115 

97 | assists | 109 

44 | steals | 33 

49 | blocks | 29 

73 | turnovers | 98 

 Team A secured 5 categories (FG%, rebounds, steals, blocks, turnovers) 

Team B secured 4 categories (points, FT%, 3PM, assists) 

Team A wins this matchup 5-4 

You will need to understand how player values change in category leagues versus points leagues (see example below) but we will dig deeper into stuff like that later. 

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