Rookie Moves: My First Fantasy Basketball Season
My first year of playing fantasy basketball is officially in the books. I was a rookie and made a rookie mistake right off the bat. Sadly, I missed the draft and had my team auto-picked. Even though I didn't get to pick my team, I still ended up with a pretty solid team with Giannis Antetokounmpo (I may be biased but he the MVP), Jalen Brunson, Ja Morant, Bam Adebayo, Jaylen Brown, Josh Hart, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jarrett Allen, Walker Kessler, Desmond Bane, D'Angelo Russell, Tobias Harris, and Keegan Murray. It could have been worse.
Even though it was my first season, I wasn't walking in blind. I had a plan. I knew the trades I wanted to make, the players I was targeting, and even which managers I could get a good deal from. I had a strategy, especially when it came to stacking big men on my team. Grabbing guys who get consistent rebounds and rack up fantasy points quickly was at the top of my checklist.
Making Moves
One of my first big moves was trading Josh Hart for LaMelo Ball. It looked like a solid upgrade at the time. But I kind of forgot about LaMelo's injury history, which came back to bite me. While LaMelo sat on injured reserve, Hart started putting up solid numbers. I ended up losing my first matchup by only 100 points, and that was with five of my players out. It was just bad luck early on.
But things started to turn when I decided to trade Ball. Part of the reason I even got him was because I knew another manager in the league wanted him. So, I used that to my advantage, sending a trade offer I didn't think would go through Ball and Kessler for the three-time MVP, one-time NBA Champion, and seven-time All-Star. If you don't know who that is, it is Nikola Jokic. The best player in the league.
Now, I won't lie—it felt like robbery. But fantasy basketball is a game of strategy, and sometimes, you have to take advantage of situations. The guy I sent the offer to was also a rookie, more of a fantasy football guy. I was banking on his love for Ball being stronger than his drive to win. It may have been a rookie-on-rookie crime, but hey, I wasn't in this to make friends; I was in it to win.
Turning Heel
Landing the MVP and pairing him with Antetokounmpo instantly made my team elite. I started winning. A winning streak that shot my squad up the standings to third place. One earlier loss kept me from overtaking second or even first overall, but from where I started, this was a huge comeback. After that trade, people in the league began calling me a scammer. I didn't care; you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. I'm not going to lie; I enjoyed embracing the villain role. The goal was to win in my rookie year, and I was going to make it happen
I kept improving the team, focusing on guys who brought in steals and rebounds. I picked up Dyson Daniels, who was leading the league in steals at the time. Unfortunately, that didn't last long; he went out for the season. That was a tough loss, but I didn't let it stop me. I kept pushing, kept winning, and kept making moves.
My last trade of the season was a feather in the cap. I landed one of the best centers in the league, Domantas Sabonis. Honestly, the trade was pretty fair. I only gave up Tobias Harris and D'Angelo Russell for him, so I was more than happy with it. I stacked another solid center on my team, and everything was starting to fall into place.
With all these trades, it was important not to overlook the waiver wire. Here, I pulled off one of the biggest steals of the season. There, on the wire, was Darius Garland. It was one of those double-take moments. It was weird, but hey, who was I to question it? I stayed locked into third place for the rest of the regular season.
Playoff Push
Then came the playoffs. The first round was super close the whole way. But one day, I logged in and saw that seven of my players were injured. Just like that, my dreams of fantasy success disappeared. The team I was facing pulled ahead and destroyed me. My shot at the finals was gone. But I still had a chance to fight for third place, and in league with your buddies, bragging rights are a form of currency.
In the second round, with my players finally healthy again, I won by a considerable margin, propelling me into the third-place game against the fourth-seed team in a rematch. The last time we played, I barely squeaked out a win.
I was nervous. My opponent's team had the makings of a perennial powerhouse with the likes of Shai Gilgeous Alexander, LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, Pascal Siakam, Karl Anthony Towns, CJ McCollum, Mikal Bridges, Austin Reaves, Myles Turner, Zion Williamson, Josh Giddey, Bradley Beal, and Ivica Zubac—a solid team, no doubt.
The matchup stayed close for a while, too close for my liking, but my team finally went off. Everyone on the roster played a vital role as my team outscored my opponent by 2,460 points to 1,713, a win of over 747 points. That victory secured my spot as the third-best team in the league.
Season In Review
Thanks to some in-season management, I created a powerhouse in just my rookie season from an auto-drafted team. If not for an early injury-plagued playoff performance, who knows what could have been? That 2,460-point third-place output was 122 points more than what the so-called champion could produce in the league's fantasy finale.
They say you can never learn if you don't make mistakes. It is not how often you make a mistake, falter, or get knocked down. It's how many times you pick yourself off the canvas and get back up. You never fail unless you learn nothing from your experience, and I am all about learning. The hunger for that first championship remains.