The Specialist

In my early years of fantasy basketball I thought it was all about stacking my team with the top talent, and I’m not so much saying that isn’t the strategy, but you have to also realize that it’s impossible. You’re not going to end the season with a team of Tier 1, 2, 3 players, or if you do, please send me next years invite. But likely you’re in a league where it isn’t possible and I’m here to alert you to that. These Buy Low players we get are great and certainly help our squad, but there are only so many during a season. And to be honest, I wouldn’t advise carrying more than three or four at a time. It’s best to grab a few, let them bounce back, and then work for more. As an example, I started by grabbing Butler, Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace (there was a couple weeks that due to FG% he was a buy low), and I bought Antawn Jamison cheap while he was injured. OK, so this was it, and I waited until these guys showed me they were worth the investment (every single one was) and just now I’m sticking my head back out there for some more. Most recently I added Salmons and I’m looking into others too. I do not want to get caught at the end of the season with more than TWO buy low guys that don’t pan out. It’s rare that this will happen, but better to be SAFE than SORRY.
 
OK back to the post. So we can’t really have a 10 man roster and have 10 Tier 1, 2, 3 guys. If we focus too much on trying to do that we run the risk of having a bunch of ongoing trade offers, getting a bunch of rejections, and ignoring those last 3 guys on your roster than have an impact. Let’s talk about those players for a minute.
 
99% of the players in any fantasy league judge the viability of an add/drop player or a player traded for by their current rank, whether it be based on yahoo, ESPN or a third party system. The problem with Rankings is that, while working well for players 1-80, they don’t do much good past that. Here’s why: every category in fantasy basketball is equally weighted and ranking systems look more favorably on players that ‘fill out the stat sheet’. That is, it’s your contribution in a category, as well as the number of categories you fill up. Thus, a ranking system completely misses the value of The Specialist.
 
A Specialist is a player that gives uninspiring stats in all categories except one or two if they are related. He’s your PF that drops 8 points a game, but also pulls down 9 boards and 1.3 blocks. He’s your guard that drops 13 points a game, but snakes 2.1 steals and drops 1.3 treys. These guys will not be ranked very high, but have IMMENSE value to your team as those bottom starters. If you’re sittin here looking at your Sauce, and realizing your weak in steals, sure we can try to finagle a big trade for Rajon Rondo and move big parts around, OR we can grab a cheap specialist off the WW or through trade with another team, giving up a player who might ‘appear’ to have more value, but does your squad no good.
 
This was my number one reason for getting John salmons through trade. When Kevin Martin went down, I lost a significant number of treys. My team also has a generally low FG%, so I knew I needed a relatively high FG% three point shooter. Moreover, I had Courtney Lee on my team, who is a steals specialist and with Chris Paul, I have no need for more steals. My Sauce confirmed it all, down in treys and up in steals. Making that trade gave me a cheap guy who will sit in my UTIL slot earning me the treys I need. Sure, Courtney Lee is ranked higher right now, so it might look like I gave up too much, but his value to me is 0 and Salmons value to me is HIGH. This is how you complete the building of a well balanced team. This is the difference between a team of high rank players, and a team with High Sauce.
 
Over the course of the next three posts I’m going to point out four different Specialists that have a low cost, meaning they are either on your waiver wire or you could trade for them easily, and will help build the areas of your Sauce that need help. If one of these guys is a good match for you, feel free to either 1> Add them and drop someone else, 2> work a 1-1 trade to get them, 3> work a 2-1 trade to free up a roster spot and then add them, or even 4> work a 2-2 trade where they get thrown into the deal as an extra. An example of the last would be you dealing Steve Nash and a bench player for Chris Paul and a Specialist that is ranked LOWER than the bench player you gave up.
 
Stay tuned Ballaz, these posts will be released consecutively, and the players in them could be the difference between knowing your Sauce, and being Super Saucy!