Now that you know from tip #1 that you need to make sure you draft players who aren’t likely to get injured, and from tip #2 that you need to understand how your league is scored, you are ready to make sure that you draft the right players in the right order.

Unlike other Fantasy Sports, it isn’t quite as necessary in Fantasy Basketball to target certain positions in the beginning.  That’s because in Fantasy Basketball all of the positions can get you all of the stats and all of them could potentially yield the best player in the game.

Let’s look a little at why that is so you can make a judgment on who you should pick up.

A lot of people will try to draft a center towards the top of the draft because they know they need a center and really good stats on centers are hard to come by.  They will draft centers unnaturally high just to get good production out of that position.

If you have 10 players that play and 2 people that ride the bench, which isn’t too atypical, you only have to pick up one or two centers in that group (depending on if your league requires one or two centers).  If you can find 8 really good players and have to suffer picking up 2 mediocre centers at positions 9 and 10 (or even at positions 11 and 12), you should do that rather than overpicking a center.  The stats that the forwards and guards can get you at the other positions are more likely much better than what you can expect out of a center.

Make sure you go for points at the top of the draft.  There are very few players that can get you 30+ points per game.  There are more that can get you 25+ points per game.  There are quite a few that can get you 20+ points per game.  But none of those players will be available after about the 70th pick in the draft.  If you have 10 teams in your league, that means that you won’t have any more of those players available in the 8th round of the draft.

When you go for points, make sure that you get players that fulfill a lot of requirements and don’t hurt you much.  If your league uses three-pointers, field goal percentage, and free throw percentage, make sure that you get guys that help you in those categories as well — really help you, if you can manage it.  Guys like Lebron James, Ray Allen, and Dirk Nowitzki will do you proud in a lot of categories.  Guys like Shawn Marion and Kevin Garnett will make you lose out on possible points in exchange for the other categories.  If you go for one of those two in the first round, make sure you pick up monster scorers in the second and third rounds or you will regret it.  They’ll be gone after that.

Make sure you figure out what you are going to do to handle little used categories like blocks and steals.  Being at the top of blocks or steals is just as good as being at the top of points scored. Don’t forget about those categories when you draft.  Most likely you’ll be drafting players that help you out a little in each, rather than all at once.  If you do find a player that can get you 4 blocks a game or 3 steals a game, sometimes it is worth it to grab them early so you don’t have to worry about it later in the draft.  Of course, then you have to make sure you try extra hard to grab points scored, so make sure you remember that.

The last note that needs to be made is on turnovers.  Make sure that the turnovers of your top few picks can be mitigated by later picks.  Sometimes that means picking up a few guys that don’t have the ball a whole lot just so you don’t drop to the very bottom of the turnovers pile.  That’s a tricky category to plan for, but just keep an eye on it.

Remember, if you don’t draft well, there is no way to make it up in free agency in Fantasy Basketball, so do the extra research it takes to Draft Well.