Fantasy Basketball Primer

The NBA Lockout is over and I'm able to take up my fantasy addiction again. I'll be following the same format I did last season, with the addition of being in Winners Leagues after long last...here's to actually winning them :)

These are some of the things I've learned from playing fantasy basketball for the past six years (based on Yahoo leagues).

1. Balance your player positions. Draft so that you can play all players of a given position on a given night. There's no pain like the pain of seeing an empty space on your active list and seeing an active player sitting on the bench because you can't find a slot for his position. You shouldn't have more than 4 PGs/SGs/SFs/PFs/Cs, more than 5 combo forwards or guards (SF-PF, PG-SG) and you shouldn't have more than 6 swingmen or PF/Cs.

2. High draft picks are overrated. Yay, you got Kevin Durant or Lebron James! Wooo! Now you have 14 turns to wait and while you got the best player, you're also stuck with less options for complementary players. So far this season, the highest I've drafted was 3rd and those high picks don't really offer a lot of strategy drafting. I basically had to decide if I was going to go with Chris Paul or Kevin Love, and let that choice dictate the rest of the draft. I think the best place is mid-pick, anywhere between position 6-9 and you might be a little better off drafting last than first. It's definitely less pressure...but the psychological benefit of saying "I got KD, bitch!" is still strong. Resist it!

3. Point Guards and Centers determine your fate. I don't know if I can prove it conclusively, but I strongly feel that those are the most important positions that you need to fill in the draft. Quality PGs and Centers are not plentiful, and since Yahoo uses two center positions, you need to really fill it up. It's best to get a center who also has PF eligibility, but don't let that stop you from getting Dwight Howard or Andrew Bogut. You can't compete with less than three PG-eligible players, and I recommend getting four. Whenever I draft, I tend to try and get the top-tier PGs and/or PF/Cs. I generally avoid most of the star SF/PF/SG types unless they are unquestionably the best players left on the board, and even then...For example, Paul Pierce is definitely a great player, but I didn't draft him on any of my teams last year because he's a swingman (SG-SF position). I was able to pick up Nick Young and various other streaking players last season off the waiver wire, because those SG/SF positions are the most common ones where unknown players get a chance to break out. It's rare that you find a PG or center on the wire that breaks out. Kyle Lowry was the great exception to that rule but generally speaking if you rely on the waiver wire for PGs/PF-Cs, you are toast. Anchor your point-guard and your centers quickly in the draft, and then fill in the rest later on. Swingmen and shooting guards are a dime a dozen and combo forwards are flashy but not necessarily more important than the PF/Cs. I pretty much never draft Rudy Gay or Gerald Wallace or those type of guys if there's a top level PG or C on the board.

3. Work the wire! Some guys take pride in drafting their team and riding it all the way to the end without changing any players. They got skills if they can predict all that. I don't claim to do that, I'm not afraid to cut my losses and give a hot player a chance. You have to develop a sense of knowing whether that guy at the top of the waiver list is sizzle or steak. If you move too quickly, you may have dropped a good guy from your team for some flash-in-the-pan who had a hot night but flops overall; if you move too slowly, someone else will snatch your opportunity away. My strategy is to watch a guy's average performance over at least four games, and if it's good all around for the past four games and I have a need for his position, I'll pull the trigger. Last year, I was able to snatch Nick Young and Kyle Lowry in nearly all of my leagues, the only places where I didn't pick them up was because the person I had to drop was definitely better than either one of them. Additionally, I picked up Marcus Thornton everywhere I could in the latter part of last year and I know that helped me make the playoffs in all my leagues and helped me win too. Be alert and follow the stats daily. Caveat: don't make a move just for making a move's sake! If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

4. Don't get hung up on trades. I don't know what it is with me and trades, but I've never had anyone accept any of the trades I've sent, and I send fair and equitable trades. Maybe that's why; some guys don't think it's a good trade if they aren't ripping off someone else. Anyways, make them if you need to, send requests if you want to, but I'm not counting on them to improve more than the waiver wire.

The above strategies work best for H2H. Roto is a different kettle of fish that I'm still trying to figure out how to win. I won my first roto league last year and it was completely by accident. Will try to repeat the feat this year on purpose :)

Which is better, "The Wire" or "Breaking Bad"?

I haven't forgotten about my series countdowns, just trying to figure out what I want to say about the rest of them. In the meantime, I did have some thoughts I wanted to share about two great TV shows I've watched/am watching; The Wire and Breaking Bad.

I've seen all five seasons of "The Wire" and I've seen all current seasons of "Breaking Bad" up to and including S4E11 "Crawl Space" which is the most recent episode aired at time of this posting.

"The Wire" is the greatest TV show ever created, thus far. It's probable that no other TV series will be able to reach its level. I have no disagreement with that.

However, it can be argued that it's not necessarily BETTER than "Breaking Bad." I personally wouldn't agree with that argument, but I acknowledge that the argument can be made, and I wouldn't ridicule the one who made the argument, as long as he/she gives "The Wire" its props. It reminds me of a review I once read that compared "Huck Finn" to "Tom Sawyer", saying that "Huck Finn" was a greater book than "Tom Sawyer" (deeper themes, more pointed commentary on social issues) but not necessarily a better book (more entertaining, vibrant, etc). "The Wire" = "Huck Finn" , "BB" = "Tom Sawyer."

I would not compare what "The Wire" is trying to be to what "Breaking Bad" is trying to be. "The Wire" set out to show what was broken in the American city systems. This is a very ambitious and encompassing goal, and David Simon's genius was able to accomplish most of that (newspaper angle in S5 wasn't really all that). "Breaking Bad" has a very simple goal: Take Mr. Chibs, and turn him into Scarface. On the surface it sounds simple, but the beauty of that trip is in the journey, and the crazy turns and twists that Vince Gilligan has taken in that journey thus far are mind-blowing and tension-inducing. I would not denigrate any of the lead acting on "Breaking Bad"; Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul deserve the Emmys they've gotten, and all of the other actors are exceedingly good as well. As evidence, I post this clip of the end of "Crawl Space." It can be considered a spoiler, but the scene doesn't talk about the events that lead up to it. I think you can view it even if you've never seen BB before; just be sure to watch the entire season to find out what leads up to this scene :D



I admit that it took me a while to get into BB, as I started watching the first season and paused my watching sometime into S1 episode 3 when I realized that I would like the series but wasn't in the frame of mind to continue at that point. Once I was able to start watching again and go up to episode 5 and 6, I got sucked in, especially once Heisenberg appeared :-D Season 2 was really good, and from Season 3 till now, I've been convinced that this show has earned its place on the pantheon just below The Wire, and alongside Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica. In the same way that you have to get through the first three episodes of "The Wire" Season 1 to get hooked, it's similar to this.

If you love "The Wire" you owe it to yourself to watch "Breaking Bad." You're totally missing out if you don't.

Twitter address update

I changed my twitter ID from @marshallgeoff to @geoffmarsh.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #12:Star Trek: Deep Space 9

First off, I'm not a Trekkie/Trekker/whatever you want to call it. I have to state that from the outset, lest people think I'm prone to attending conventions, speaking Klingon, and kneeling at the shrine of Roddenberry. I will admit that am a Star Trek fan, I'm familiar with the Star Trek universe and I watched most of the shows and movies, but I'm not a hard-core fanatic. My Star-Trek viewing is selective; I've never watched an episode of the original Star Trek, and I doubt I ever will. I've seen all of the modern movies, some of the older ones, and I watched some of Voyager and very little of Enterprise. The two main Star Trek shows I really watched were The Next Generation (TNG), and Deep Space Nine (DS9), and for my money, Deep Space Nine was/is the best Star Trek series ever produced. TNG admittedly has the more iconic crew (thanks mostly to Captain Picard, Worf and Data) but DS9 had more interesting characters and situations and was a much more interesting show for it.

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas #13: Boomtown

There aren't many "mainstream" cop shows on my list; you won't see any of the CSI's or L&O's. Its not because I actively hate those shows, but in my experience those shows are mostly about catching and cooking the bad guys, with very little room for overarching stories or character growth. I watched Law and Order reruns religiously in my sophomore year, but only because they came on at lunchtime so I could eat and watch 'em. I like NCIS a lot, yet I don't follow it or watch it often because I know it will be in re-runs perpetually; its more of a guilty pleasure that I'd watch more if I had a TV and more time. So, the normal cop shows don't really do much for my critical TV watching mood.

Boomtown (NBC, 2002-2003) was not a normal cop show.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #14: ED

ED (NBC) was a dramedy that ran from 2000 to 2004, just before the Internet TV critic craze broke out. The premise behind this show is that the titular Ed Stevens(played by Tom Cavanaugh), a lawyer in New York gets a double whammy in losing his job at a law firm, and coming home to find his wife banging a mailman in his bed. He decides to return home to Stuckeyville, Ohio (admittedly the squarest name one could ever imagine) where he meets his high school crush Carol Vessey (the lovely Julie Bowen) who is now a teacher at the Stuckeyville High School. For some reason, he decides that he’s going to win her heart now, so he decides to return home for good, buys a bowling alley and sets up a law practice. He runs a bowling alley, and he’s a lawyer. Two separate things. Other characters include his best friend Josh and Josh’s wife Nancy, Carol’s best friend Molly (also a teacher), the bowling alley employees Phil, Shirley and Kenny, plus Warren (Justin Long’s breakout role) who’s a high school student.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #15: CHUCK

SPOILERS BELOW.

Chuck (NBC) will go down in history as "the little show that could, and did persevere". On paper, it looks as the type of show that wouldn't garner much ratings (it hasn't), that has a limited appeal (I wouldn't agree but I admit that its audience is pretty set at this point), and that would be canceled after its first season. Yet, from its premiere in 2007, at the end of each season, this show has stared cancellation in the face. Each time, cancellation blinked.

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 2: Almost made its...

Welcome back. This post series looks at my fave TV shows and why I like 'em. This particular post is the last one before i actually start the countdown, and focuses on the shows that just missed out on making the list. Many of the shows in this post are shows I followed regularly and liked/still like, but for one reason or another just didn't make the cut. These include:

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 1: Honorable (and dishonorable) Mentions

Welcome back to my analysis of the top 15 TV dramas I've watched. If you want to know the background behind this series, take a look at the post previous to this one. In this post, I will do a brief analysis of shows I watch (or used to watch) that for some reason don't make the top 15. These can be grouped into three groups: Guilty Pleasures, Used to Love 'Em, and Almost but Not Quite.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas: the beginning

To jumpstart my attempt at regular blogging about various things that interest me, I decided to examine the various TV shows I've watched and followed. I usually read other persons reviews (like Alan Sepinwall, Mo Ryan, the AV Club, TWOP, etc etc) and enjoy their thoughts but never got into looking at my own views/thoughts on these shows. Thus, I've decided to list the top 15 dramas I've seen and rank them up to #1. I won't be doing them all at once, probably one per day.

This list will cover only 1-hour dramas that I have actually seen and can comment on. Thus, there are shows like "Treme", "Mad Men", "Boardwalk Empire", "Men of a Certain Age" and "Dr. Who" that I am confident will find a place on the list, replacing other contenders...however, since I haven't been able to watch those shows for one reason or another, I can't place them. Yet. Edited July 24 to add The Good Wife to this list, I'm pretty sure I will like it, once I start following it more.

I've also left off sitcoms and comedies. I find that I don't really watch the live-action ones anymore, but I lean more towards the animated ones like "Archer", "South Park", Fox Sunday Nights, and others. "Archer" is one of the best shows on TV though, and I'll give it it's own analysis one day. Maybe I will get back into the live action comedies like "Parks and Recreation", "Cougar Town" and others, but at the moment they just don't really grab me like the dramas and animated comedies do.

There are also shows I watch regularly and like, but I know that they are either guilty pleasures, or they aren't deep enough to be on a ranked list of TV dramas, as well as shows that were ALMOST good enough to make the list but didn't, for one reason or another. This category will be the first detailed blog posting, and I'll post it up soon.

So, here goes something! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my views.

Blogging...

Why don't I blog more? I have a lot to say and the skill to say it, yet I don't. Why not?

Laziness and procrastination are the main ones, but I can change that. I do believe I will change that.

But, what to blog about?

Whatever's on my mind :)

Watch this space...

Hoffman Enviromental Research Institute from Daniel Houghton on Vimeo.

Trusted Unlock

If you want to get your blackberry unlocked, go to www.TrustedUnlock.com and check 'em out!

Fantasy Basketball results

This was a pretty good year for me in Fantasy Basketball, at least in my public leagues. I went hog-wild and maxed out all three of my yahoo IDs with eight teams each, but I only paid attention to two of the IDs and I think I will follow that same format next year. I learned that I really don't care for roto ball, so that means next year I will make a concerted effort to really win one of the roto leagues on purpose and not by accident.

For my main Yahoo ID, I had five public leagues, two active private leagues (including one I'm commissioner of) and one private league that was locked due to commissioner error. All leagues were H2H. I won three of the public leagues, and came third and fourth in the other two. I got my ass kicked in my own league due to autodrafting, grrr...I had a good run in the other league but injuries towards the end of the year doomed me to a 5th place finish. If my guys were healthy, I could have won it all.

For my secondary yahoo ID, I had five public H2H leagues, two public roto leagues and one private H2H league. I won two of the H2Hs, came second in another and third in the last two. I came fourth in the public league, which was a kind of deep team league. I liked the format but I have some suggestions for the commissioner...I will either win or come second in one of the roto leagues, but that was by accident. I didn't even think that team was going to do well, but as the year progressed I saw that it was on top of the league so I started to pay attention to it. Ironically, the other roto league was where I thought I'd do better, and I didn't. I ended up ignoring that team.

My last yahoo ID, I just drafted roto teams for drafting sake and didn't pay attention to 'em afterwards. I'm not that crazy for fantasy. Thus, they sucked :-D

So, it was a pretty good year. I'm looking forward to playing in winner leagues next year, I haven't done well in those but I plan for that to change.

fantasy basketball update

By Jove, I think I'm getting the hang of this thing...

My performance this year is a whole lot better than last year's even with the three yahoo IDs I manage. I'm pretty sure I'll be in the playoffs for all of my head-to-head leagues except one...it's a bit embarassing that the exeception is my own league where I'm the commissioner but since I won it last year, I don't mind too much. My roto leagues have been much less successful...I'm leading in one league and crashing in all of the others. I'm still not sure whether that's because I can't monitor more than 2 Yahoo ids on a regular basis, or because I just am not a roto fan, but I have clearly defined my limits. Two ids, main one with all H2H, other ID will be six H2H and two roto, if I do the third ID, it's just all roto and no regular observation...

That's assuming that there will be NBA basketball next season :(

A new year

Every January 4, since 2006, I distinctly remember how the Lord directed me through His Spirit, and I've always remembered how important it is to wait on the Lord. From Dec 31 2005 until January 6, 2006, I was in Detroit, Michigan for a job opportunity. They had promised to provide me with visa sponsorship, they promised training and all I would have to do was work with them for one year. I thought it was too good to be true, I had heard it before; but at that time, I was pretty desperate and had nothing to lose...or so I thought.

I was blessed to get a ride to Michigan from Chatannooga, TN where General Youth Congress was held that year. I don't remember the dear sister's name, but I know that without her, I would have been so lost and spiritually sunk. She provided me with transport, food and encouragement when it became clear that the opportunity I was seeking was definately something fishy. That happened when I arrived at the apartment I was supposed to stay at, and found it to be bare of furniture, smelling of mould, and having signs of occupation but no-one else living there. Another guy arrived just after me, he didn't know what was going on either.

The first few days of my stay, I went to the workplace with the other guy and pretty much spent all day on the computer waiting for something to happen...nothing did. I felt that I had made a mistake in coming, but I couldn't bail out yet, what if I was wrong? What else was I to do? There were other people there as well, all of us were just sitting down waiting to hear what we should do, and the persons in charge weren't really speaking to us.

On January 4, 2006, I read a devotional from "My Utmost for His Highest" which spoke about waiting on God to show you what you need to do. Even if you have a clear impression on what you must do/need to do, wait for God to make it plain, rather than jumping the gun. That devotional had a major impact on my thinking, and it gave me peace of mind for the remainder of my stay. I waited, and I'm glad I did. On Thursday January 8, we got the details of what we would be expected to do, and it became clear that one of those details was for us to lie on our resumes about our years of experience so that we would be able to work for the companies that would be hiring us. That was all the incentive I needed to be back on a bus to Maryland that same weekend, and that led me to come back home and to everything that has happened in my life since.

I don't know what would have happened to me if I stayed, and I wonder at times what happened to the people who were in the program with me, whether they stayed, and how things ended up for them. Nonetheless, as I am here five years later to the day, making major changes in my life already in 2011, I'm thinking about that same devotional and wondering what I need to do in this coming month, these coming weeks, this coming year. I've made bold steps, waiting until I felt that it was time to move, feeling that if I lingered I would be in problems. Other moves, I know I have to make them but I am not sure when the time to make them would be. In all of this, I draw on the experience that God gave me, in telling me to wait on Him. He will show us when the time to act will be, if we simply put all our trust in Him.

So as I continue on to make changes in life for 2011, I pray that I will wait for God to show me when to make the moves, and what moves to make. I hope you do the same.