As the fantasy basketball playoffs approach, managers may believe all they have to do is rely on their best players to score the most fantasy points and then hope for the best. Well, that is one way to look at things.
The other, more productive way, of course, is to plan and strategize just a little bit. Nobody knows for sure what will happen when NBA players hit the court -- and which players will not -- but you did some degree of work to boast a relevant fantasy team in mid-March, so let's try to win it all.
This isn't fantasy football. In fantasy basketball, there are far different factors to consider. Here are the ones to help you on your way.
Know your rules and how to exploit them
OK, so this seems obvious, and one may wonder how a manager cannot know the rules four-plus months into the season, but listen, I could tell you some stories. The ESPN standard has the top four teams qualifying for the playoffs, the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds meet (and the Nos. 2 versus 3) over two weeks, and then the final teams meet for a fortnight. Simple. Make daily moves, but limit seven acquisitions per period. For points formats, it all adds into one number. Have fun.