Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2025: Glossary

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  • By Timothy Woodson

    Last Updated on August 23, 2025 5:41 pm by Keston Paul | Published: August 23, 2025

    Fantasy basketball is mostly straightforward, but every now and then you’ll come across a term that’s new to you. We’ve defined a bunch of key terms, phrases and jargon that can help you get a grip on things as leagues fire up and drafts get underway. Sometimes it can feel like fantasy requires a whole separate language, and we’re here to translate that for you.

    League Types

    Points Leagues: A fantasy basketball league format where fantasy managers must accumulate the most points in a week in order to win. The standard settings are 1.0 fantasy points (FPs) per point, 1.2 FPs per rebound, 1.5 FPs per assist, 3.0 FPs per steal, 3.0 FPs per block and -1.0 FPs per turnover. Points League scoring settings may vary on different platforms, as ESPN has their own scoring settings. They are also entirely customizable, with each stat category assigned a point value (e.g., one point for a rebound, two points for a steal, three points for a block, and so on). Percentages are typically disregarded in Points Leagues, though some leagues are set up where missed field goals and free throws count for negative points. ESPN’s default settings include punishments for missed shots. 

    Head-to-Head or H2H Leagues: A fantasy basketball format where fantasy managers go up against one another in weekly matchups. Players who win the most categories in that week win the matchup. There are Head-to-Head Leagues where a win or loss is credited for each individual category; if your league has nine categories and you win seven of them in your matchup, a 7-2 record will go onto the books. Other Head-to-Head Leagues may only credit one overall win for the week; you could win five of the nine categories or seven of the nine, and you’ll be given a 1-0 record. Head-to-Head Leagues can be constructed for either category scoring or points scoring.

    Rotisserie or Roto Leagues: A fantasy basketball league format where managers go up against the entire league at once, with total performance across all stat categories determining the winner at the end of the entire season. There is no head-to-head component, no weekly matchup and no fantasy playoffs. Managers gain points through their performance in each statistical category. In a 10-team league, the top performer in each category is awarded 10 points, the second-place finisher gets nine, the third-place team receives eight, and so on. The Roto points for each category is added up and the fantasy manager that has the highest number of Roto points across all categories wins the season.

    Keeper Leagues: A type of fantasy league that allows you to keep some or most players on your team from a previous year, but not all. The amount of players that can be kept may vary. These leagues can be Points, Head-to-Head or Roto leagues.  

    Dynasty Leagues: A type of league where fantasy managers draft a team and manage that same fantasy team over a long period of time. Fantasy managers’ yearly drafts will consist of drafting the new rookie class for the year. Aside from trades and drops, typically your entire roster is carried over from year to year.

    Best Ball: This is a draft-only league on platforms like Underdog, Yahoo, etc. It automatically fills your lineup with the performers based on fantasy points. Quick, and easy. 

    Redraft Leagues:  Where the entire draft is complete on a year-to-year basis. Unlike Dynasty and Keeper Leagues, conduct a draft at the beginning of each season, allowing you to configure an entirely new team to start the year. This draft style can apply to Category, Roto and Points Leagues. 

    Sleeper “Lock-In” League: A league exclusively on Sleeper. Only one game per week from each player will count towards your final weekly score. After their game is completed, you have the ability to “lock-in” that game to be added to your points total. The caveat here is that a player’s game must be locked in before the start of their next contest, so choose wisely. 

    Daily Changes: Lineups are set and adjusted each day. This is the most typical league type.

    Weekly Changes: Lineups are set and adjusted on a weekly basis. Typically, the lock-off time to set your roster for the week is when the first game of that week tips off.

    Drafts 


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    August 23, 2025, 5:41 pm