You love basketball. You watch the NBA, cheer for your favorite team and can’t believe those plays. Victor Wembanyama was established last season in San Antonio as a rookie.
There’s never been a better time to get into this fantasy game.
Imagine having Stephen Curry on your team when he hits a 3-pointer and leads you to victory. Or how it feels to have Paolo Banchero on your team as he scores big and takes his game to the next level in his third year.
In fact, many people who have played fantasy basketball for years can recall specific games that certain players have had for them. One epic scoring night by Jayson Tatumother Tyrese Haliburton gem or a terrible effort of Anthony Davis.
What fun. What, what fun!
If you’re not an expert, don’t worry — we’ve got everything you need to know about joining a league and picking a winning team. Even if you’re a beginner, you’ll still have the tools to experience the joy of fantasy basketball like millions of others do every year.
Every fantasy basketball league is different. While there are basic rules and settings that apply across the board (you’ll learn about those below), each league has its own unique identity based on settings like roster size, injury status, statistical categories, and other specifics.
We recommend joining or starting a league that fits what you’re looking for. If you want to be more relaxed and set your roster once a week, look for a league that uses weekly roster swaps. If you’re a little stubborn about all of this and want to be able to add and remove players and create new rosters on a daily basis, that’s the kind of league you should be joining.
The bottom line is do what makes you happy. Find a league that makes you watch your players every night.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled ESPN Fantasy Basketball 101 to give you an overview of how to get started, how to prepare for the draft, and how to play throughout the season.
Now it’s time for you to sign up and join the fun!
Begin
Click here for quick reference to basic game-related questions.
How to Sign Up on the ESPN Fantasy App
Have you been invited to join an ESPN Fantasy Basketball league? Want to create your own league as a League Manager? We have the complete guide for you right here.
Whether you are invited to join an existing tournament or want to create your own as a Tournament Manager, you will find everything you need to do it. right here.
If you create your own league, you’ll need to make sure all of the league’s rules and settings — including roster size, scoring, regular-season schedule, and playoff schedule — are to your liking. We’ve got all the details on how to do that. right here.
You’ve signed up, now what?
Check your league and team page
It’s time to learn more about your league and team page, so you know where everything is. We’ll give you a detailed tour right here.
This may seem extremely basic, but even veteran basketball players often assume they know the rules of their league when they don’t. The consequences of ignoring a rule can be costly, so make sure you know the rules before the draft.
Go to your fantasy basketball league page, click League, then Settings. Here you’ll be able to find all of the current rules for your league this season. This includes roster construction, scoring, schedules, playoff structure, and more.
Take the time to review each section carefully. To make sure you understand the thinking behind each rule, Check out our League Settings overview.
Prepare the manuscript
A good draft will set you up for a successful season and taking the time to prepare beforehand is important. This includes developing a strategy and printing out a leaderboard that reflects your league’s scoring format.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with custom expert rankings and draft strategies in the ESPN Fantasy Basketball draft kit.
Automated manuscript preparation
If you don’t intend to participate in the draft directly, that’s okay. Our system will automatically draft it for you.
However, you still have the option to instruct our system how to draft your team. Go to your Team page and click “Edit Auto-Pick Strategy”. Here, you can decide which position players you want to pick in which part of the draft and how many total players in each position you want to pick.
Mock drafts are just practice drafts with no value. They’re a great way to get familiar with the ESPN draft software, make sure you know how everything works, and test out different strategies. For example, this might mean drafting a point guard in the first round versus drafting a small forward in Round 1 and waiting for the point guard until the fourth round.
These practice drafts also tell you which players are going further than expected and which players are consistently falling by a round or two (or more). This is extremely useful knowledge that you can take with you into your practice drafts and use to your advantage, avoiding “slipping” players until later rounds when you know for sure they’re still available.
For an overview of how things work in ESPN’s draft room, click this link.
Draft Day is the most exciting day of the season, because it’s when your team moves from plan to reality. It’s when you finally get the chance to assemble the group of players you’ve been rooting for all season. Of course, you can always add and drop players throughout the year, but the draft is still the most fundamental part of your roster, and you want to make sure you don’t miss out on top players.
If you’ve prepared for your draft by reading about players and strategies, and by participating in some mock drafts, you’re well on your way to success. Trust your instincts and don’t look back.
To keep things running as smoothly as possible, be sure to follow these handy rules.
The season has begun, let the fun begin!
Transaction
In most leagues, there are at least a few managers who enjoy the art of trading. If you’re one of those people, trading is one of the most exciting aspects of fantasy basketball. When done well, it’s a great opportunity to improve your roster while getting rid of someone you probably don’t want or need anymore.
There are a few important factors to keep in mind. You should look at the roster of the team you are trading for and understand which players, if any, the manager might be willing to part with. For example, it would be unwise to make a trade offer for a point guard on a team that is struggling with injuries and only has one healthy point guard. Also, while you may never want to submit your best trade offer along with your first offer, be careful not to make an offer that is too small. That could annoy the other manager and cause him to not only reject your offer but also end any future trade negotiations with you.
In-season strategy
In addition to trading, there are other factors to consider throughout the season like how to manage your games in roto leagues, how to approach the playoffs, and how best to use the waiver wire. Check out In-season strategy part of our manuscript.
Fantasy Basketball Etiquette
Every few years, no matter what kind of tournament you play, you’re going to run into someone who’s causing trouble. Sometimes it’s through message board name-calling and bullying. Sometimes it’s a constant stream of ridiculous trade offers and questionable deals. Whether you’re in a hyper-competitive tournament or just having a little fun, you want to avoid being that person or having other people in your tournament act like that.
In general, it simply means following the golden rule: Treat others the way you would like to be treated in the same field.
