The Player He Used To Love

In my last post I spoke about Selling High on Andrei Kirilenko. That brought to mind another trading strategy for targeting that I'll often use, and I'm sure you'll find useful too. We've often highlighted through this blog the incidence of owners 'falling in love' with their players. Indeed, most people that play fantasy sports exhibit the same phenomenon of 'I love all my players, and I hate all of yours'. It's frustrating, I know.

But now I'm going to add an extension to that. These same people also tend to exhibit an 'I love players I owned in prior seasons, that treated me well. I also hate players I owned in prior seasons who treated me poorly'. Some clear examples of this would be the guy who still likes Shawn Marion, and the guy who still hates Josh Smith.

In order to really own the competition, to have each of your opponents 'in your back pocket', it's imperative to follow the players they love this season as well as in seasons past. This is a unique way to estimate a premium or discount that a trading partner will place on certain players.

In my league, I know 'most' of the players that fall into this category. I know the guy that loves John Salmons, because he owned him since Salmons became relevant, and Salmons was forever kind to him. If I still owned Salmons, this would surely be the first team I tried to sell him high too. I also know the guy who owned Andris Biedrins last season, while he was playing at a top notch level. My hands are tied with Noah going down, however once he's back, you can expect I'll be shopping ole Biedrins to this guy first and foremost.

In a similar vein, I know each of my opponents favorite NBA teams. This is another great avenue to exploit. One of the most coveted guys in my league is Rajon Rondo, doesn't take a genius to see why. But we've also got an LA fan who'll do anything to get Kobe (he actually did pay dearly for him in a trade this year) as well as many others.

Key insights into your opponents behavior and emotions can often times be the X factor in a deal that swings values in your favor and increase the chances of inking that deal.