Some friends pulled me into a fantasy basketball league last year. In my rookie season, I placed second in my league. I attribute that success to pure dumb luck. There is an element of skill involved but pure dumb luck can be an equal factor in success.

I had some good fantasy players on my team last year. My  1st pick, DWade, carried my team for most of the year and my 2nd pick, Y Ming,helped my team surge to the top during the second half of the season.The rest of my team was fairly unbalanced. I’ve been told that’s wherefantasy success lies. Everybody picks studs during the first 2 - 4rounds. It’s the middle rounds where a season can be won or lost. Theproblem with the Rabbit’s last year was an early season deficiency inrebounds and steals (we were playing a fairly standard yahoo rotisserieleague). A midseason trade for D Howard and R Artest proved to semidisaster with Artest being on the bench for large parts of the season.D Howard helped in rebounds but caused other categories to startdropping e.g. FT%. With the return of Y Ming from injury and himplaying the best basketball of his career helped propel the Rabbits towithin striking distance of  the championship.

This year the Rabbits have re-drafted a new team. I have one seasonunder my belt but that won’t necessarily translate to same amount ofsuccess (remember the blurb about pure dumb luck!)

The care I took with who I drafted this year had some thoughtfulanalysis put into it. In fantasy sports, thoughtful analysis can beyour own worst enemy. My strategy was to put together a team withplayers that I liked and had decent fantasy value. Enough of thisrhetorical thinking, time to dissect my draft results.

My starting five will look somewhat like this:
PF   Nowitzki
SF   R Jefferson
C    Diaw
SG  G Wallace
PG  Nash

After not watching basketball for a couple of years and starting upagain last year (because of fantasy basketball), the 3 players I reallyliked and hoped to draft this year was Nowitzki, Nash and Diaw. Ididn’t like them in that order but that was how they fell to me in mydraft. After the draft, I felt I might have taken Diaw a round earlybut I don’t think he would have been available in the 4th round. Ishould have balanced that thinking out with who was still available…TMac, Carter, AK47 and D Howard. This is definitely a pick I hope Idon’t regret. On the other hand, Diaw is center eligible. Howard mightget center eligibility but I didn’t want his FT% tanking my team thoughhis FG%, rebounds and blocks sure are nice. We’ll see how it turns out.

I was happy with G Wallace in the 4th and got lucky with R Jefferson beingavailable in the sixth round. That’s my starting five. Other players onmy team: Boozer, Iguodala, Bell, TJ Ford, T Murphy, D Gooden, Krstic,Delonte West, R Gay and Korver.

On first impression, my team might come up a little short on points andblocks during the season. I don’t think we’ll do badly but that looksto be my weakest categories statistically. I think we’ll be strong inFG%, 3ptm, assists, steals and assist to turnover ratio and we’llcompete fairly well in rebounds.

I think the sleepers for my team are going to be Diaw, Wallace andIguodala. Diaw emerged last season and seems to have great chemistrywith Nash. I hope with Amare back that doesn’t cut too deeply intoDiaw’s development. Having Diaw is also sort of an insurance policy forNash, I envision him being the secondary playmaker for the Suns if Nashis injured (knock on wood) or resting. Wallace might have a breakout yearif he doesn’t get injured (knock on wood). Iguodala might also have abreakout year depending on how well Webber plays.

Anyway there you have it, the Killer Rabbits Deux!