The Bad Basketball League - Opening Night/Starting Over
The Bad Basketball League is the inverse of a regular fantasy league: players get rewarded for doing bad things. We love to watch people suffer and it’s about time we get rewarded for it. Find out how the league scoring system works here, get league updates on NBAmmkay.tumblr.com, and snoop around the actual Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Basketball league here.
Opening night was very revealing… that our scoring system sucks.
Eric, who didn’t set his pre-draft rankings, had a team of all-stars and got the most points of the night. Kobe got him something like 118 fantasy points, which clearly shouldn’t be.
As a reminder, here’s the scoring categories that I posted in the first post in this series:
Where I think we went wrong was not punishing players enough for missed shots. If a guy takes 30 shots and makes 15 of them, under this system, he’d get 22.5 fantasy points just from FGA and FGM. Last time I checked, 50% is a solid field goal percentage and not bad at all.
What I did to fix this is a made a made field goal a bigger detriment, and I give players 1 point for every minute they’re in. With this, a player gets -37.5 fantasy points from FGA and FGM, but if they play 35 minutes and do that, that earns them -2.5 fantasy points. I also gave them -1 fantasy point for every point they score, so assuming this player scored 30 points, they’d have earned -32.5 points for their scoring. Not only is 30 points on 50% shooting not bad, it’s hella good, so the punishment makes sense here.
There were a few other changes made as well. Here’s the new/improved Bad Basketball scoring system:
After adjusting the scoring, I cut all the numbers in half so there wouldn’t be people scoring in the 100s on particularly bad/good nights, and I tinkered with a few other things.
Under the new system, Lamar Odom was last night’s most profitable player with an astounding 55.25 fantasy points, due to his two technicals, one ejection, 1-6 shooting, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls. Steph Curry’s 2-12 shooting at 5 turnovers haunted him as well, giving him 31.5 fantasy points.
Brendan Haywood got 34 fantasy points in 14 minutes, on 0-2 shooting, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers and 4 fouls. This is the kind of night I had in mind when I conceived this league.
On the other end of the spectrum, LeBron was the night’s worst player, his monster night getting him -86 fantasy points. Rondo earned himself -85 and Luol Deng got -54.25.
Unfortunately, nobody gets credit for the poor performances of Lamar or Haywood because of the faulty scoring system. What this league is going to do is start over: we’re resetting the draft, changing the scoring system from the nonsensical old one to the vastly improved new one, giving everybody a few days to set their pre-draft rankings and starting the league over again on the dawn of the new year, January 1.
A night of games gave me to opportunity to see how the scoring would work out and what needed to be adjusted, to this resetting of the league was almost expected… well, no: I was still surprised/disappointed in myself when I saw Kobe’s 100+ fantasy points. This league was designed so I could watch him suffer in the free agent pool.
Check back here on January 1 for draft results and details of Opening Night Vol. 2.
The Bad Basketball League - The Draft
The Bad Basketball League is the inverse of a regular fantasy league: players get rewarded for doing bad things. We love to watch people suffer and it’s about time we get rewarded for it. Find out how the league scoring system works here, get league updates on NBAmmkay.tumblr.com, and snoop around the actual Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Basketball league here.
So like I said, the league drafted last night, and here are the results:
- Team Pick. (Overall Pick) Player (Team - Position)
Kwame Brown AllStars (my team)
1. (1) Andris Biedrins (GS - C) 2. (12) Kwame Brown (GS - C)
3. (13) Travis Outlaw (Sac - SF,PF) 4. (24) Ben Wallace (Det - PF,C)
5. (25) Hasheem Thabeet (Hou - C) 6. (36) Juwan Howard (Mia - PF,C)
7. (37) Luke Harangody (Cle - PF) 8. (48) Chris Duhon (Orl - PG)
9. (49) Derek Fisher (LAL - PG) 10. (60) Rasual Butler (Tor - SG,SF)
11. (61) Brian Cardinal (Dal - SF,PF) 12. (72) Luke Walton (LAL - SF)
13. (73) Brian Scalabrine (Chi - PF,C)
- I was pleased to get Biedrins and his -%73 foul shooting. I’m pleased with the rest of my picks, although Walton and Scal will probably have to go, considering both play less than 10 minutes a game.
Put on the warmups (Sports Editor at my college newspaper Jesse)
1. (2) David Lee (GS - PF,C) 2. (11) Dorell Wright (GS - SG,SF)
3. (14) Rajon Rondo (Bos - PG) 4. (23) Paul Millsap (Uta - PF)
5. (26) Serge Ibaka (OKC - PF,C) 6. (35) Paul Pierce (Bos - SG,SF)
7. (38) Manu Ginobili (SA - SG,SF) 8. (47) Nene Hilario (Den - C)
9. (50) Steve Nash (Pho - PG) 10. (59) Kevin Martin (Hou - SG)
11. (62) Zach Randolph (Mem - PF,C) 12. (71) John Wall (Was - PG)
13. (74) Andre Iguodala (Phi - SG,SF)
- Poor guy forgot to set his pre-draft rankings. He dipped into the free agents, though, so his team is better/worse now. I’ll write about that in a post summarizing the first day later. Also, this series will probably see weekly updates unless something interesting happens between regular posts.
White Guys (my high school friend Eric)
1. (3) Kevin Durant (OKC - SF) 2. (10) Kevin Love (Min - PF,C)
3. (15) Dwyane Wade (Mia - PG,SG) 4. (22) Pau Gasol (LAL - PF,C)
5. (27) Dirk Nowitzki (Dal - PF) 6. (34) Deron Williams (NJ - PG)
7. (39) Carmelo Anthony (NY - SF,PF) 8. (46) Al Horford (Atl - PF,C)
9. (51) Amar’e Stoudemire (NY - PF,C) 10. (58) Kobe Bryant (LAL - SG)
11. (63) Rudy Gay (Mem - SF,PF) 12. (70) Blake Griffin (LAC - PF,C)
13. (75) Eric Gordon (NO - SG)
- Again, forgot about the rankings. He managed to score 2 total white guys, though (counting Love as one and Blake and Gasol as .5 each).
In Scal we trust (my current college roommate Logan)
1. (4) Darko Milicic (Min - C) 2. (9) Luke Ridnour (Min - PG)
3. (16) Nazr Mohammed (OKC - C) 4. (21) Tracy McGrady (Atl - PG,SG)
5. (28) Metta World Peace (LAL - SG,SF,PF) 6. (33) Kendrick Perkins (OKC - C)
7. (40) Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (Mil - SF,PF) 8. (45) Zaza Pachulia (Atl - C)
9. (52) DeMarcus Cousins (Sac - PF,C) 10. (57) Beno Udrih (Mil - PG)
11. (64) Antonio McDyess (SA - PF,C) 12. (69) Hakim Warrick (Pho - PF)
13. (76) Nikola Pekovic (Min - C)
- I’m not quite sure about some of his picks. Darko almost led the league in blocks last year, Ridnour was a valuable fantasy option, as were Cousins and Udrih at times. But hey, this is a new format, so I could be completely wrong. Well, at least he got Metta (and I got his team’s namesake).
‘73 Sixers (my brother Dom)
1. (5) Shelden Williams (NJ - PF,C) 2. (8) Keith Bogans (Chi - SG,SF)
3. (17) Aaron Gray (Tor - C) 4. (20) Johan Petro (NJ - C)
5. (29) Byron Mullens (Cha - C) 6. (32) Kosta Koufos (Den - PF,C)
7. (41) Lavoy Allen (Phi - SF,PF) 8. (44) Stephen Graham (NJ - SG,SF)
9. (53) Raja Bell (Uta - SG) 10. (56) Wayne Ellington (Min - SG)
11. (65) Jason Collins (Atl - C) 12. (68) Tanguy Ngombo (Min - SF)
13. (77) Yi Jianlian (Was - PF)
- Named after the 9-73 worst team in NBA history, Dom might have the best team. I’m thinking he and I are early favorites. Depending on how much he plays, Shelden should be fantastic, and I’m infinitely jealous of the Aaron Gray pick.
Rossignol24 (my cousin Jarryd)
1. (6) LeBron James (Mia - SF,PF) 2. (7) Chris Paul (LAC - PG)
3. (18) Derrick Rose (Chi - PG) 4. (19) Dwight Howard (Orl - C)
5. (30) Al Jefferson (Uta - PF,C) 6. (31) Russell Westbrook (OKC - PG)
7. (42) Monta Ellis (GS - PG,SG) 8. (43) Stephen Curry (GS - PG)
9. (54) LaMarcus Aldridge (Por - PF,C) 10. (55) Josh Smith (Atl - SF,PF)
11. (66) Gerald Wallace (Por - SF,PF) 12. (67) Danny Granger (Ind - SF,PF)
13. (78) Chris Bosh (Mia - PF,C)
- My league needs to get its act together. Hopefully the ones who haven’t will crapify their teams and be competitive.
So that’s the draft, and I’ll post an update tomorrow about opening day.
NBAmmkay: The "Bad Basketball" Fantasy League
In case y’all missed this when I posted it this morning:
I was growing tired of the standard fantasy basketball league. Checking for the top performers available in free agents and working out trades to get the league’s best was getting old, so, very much inspired by Grantland.com’s Bad QB Fantasy League, I came up with the Bad Basketball…
The “Bad Basketball” Fantasy League
I was growing tired of the standard fantasy basketball league. Checking for the top performers available in free agents and working out trades to get the league’s best was getting old, so, very much inspired by Grantland.com’s Bad QB Fantasy League, I came up with the Bad Basketball Fantasy League.
The Bad Basketball League is the inverse of a regular fantasy league: players get rewarded for doing bad things. We love to watch people suffer and it’s about time we get rewarded for it. Look, here are the scoring categories:
This is a league where the meek shine. I tested a few sample games from last season with this scoring system, and a subpar Andris Biedrins performance was worth about 18 points, while an assist-heavy Rajon Rondo game got him about -80 points, so it seems like this should work decently. The challenge will be finding players who strike the right balance between significant playing time and performing actions that are detrimental to their team’s welfare while they’re on the court. Yes, Metta World Peace will be an asset.
I bailed on simulating missed lockout games on NBA 2K12 and writing about it, so I’m going to give weekly-or-so updates about the Bad Basketball Fantasy League here, and that’ll be a good time.
I’ll set the league to auto-draft tonight (Friday), so I’ll post the teams and rosters soon. It’s a 6-team league — small, but with an experimental thing like this, it’s probably best not to spread the lack-of-talent too thin.
If anything I’ve said sounds like you wouldn’t mind reading about it every few days and making a deep emotional investment, follow this page and I’ll have a link to the special tag that I’ll label all these posts with, badballfanleague, on my page.
