@Tippy said…

Fantasy Basketball Game SuggestionThis season pretty much sucks with injuries. I’m getting nailed at least twice a week with surprise scratches and it’s really crushing any small margin of consistent profitability.Suggestion: Is it possible to create a game where you draft 10 players instead of 9 and simply use the highest 9 scores? Basically, draft 10 and you get to drop your lowest performer (usually the scratch of the night anyway).

nice idea… can we get am arms race for this concept between several sites?

@bobbyrogers46 said…

nice idea… can we get am arms race for this concept between several sites?

I’m on the fence with this.

Every night in the Fanduel chat room, someone is a late scratch, people get upset because they had them in their line-up (I fell victim to this a few weeks ago with Marshon Brooks). As much as it sucks, it’s part of the game I think. If you can avoid it, great.

I realize everyone doesn’t have access to information all day.

If it’s happening too much, then avoid players who may have gotten hurt the night before. I read in a variety of places yesterday about Morrow, and despite his performance the night before, and his price, his reported ankle injury scared me away.

I wouldn’t be opposed to something like this happening, though.

There are some possible solutions. I thought for sure that the Profanitysports model of being able to switch guys up until game time would gain a lot of steam and all sites would adopt it, but no such luck. That would not solve the problem totally because if you set your lineup at 6:30 last night and left for dinner you are still screwed when the Morrow call that rolled in at 6:45 last night. On the other side of the coin those of us who got screwed with the Caron Butler scratch would have been able to switch him out with the Profanitysports model.

I am on the fence with a extra guy, but I would like some kind of solution, because it is out of hand in the NBA this year.

Not to side track the discussion, but you have really seen a huge uptick in the NBA with coaches doing the Bill Belicheck style of not giving out info on injuries. Which to be honest in the NBA is asinine because anyone that has played the lowest level of organized basketball knows you can make adjustments in a timeout very easily and all your players will be fine. Many coaches are extremely guilty of this, Bulls coach, Heat coach, Memphis coach. My favorite story this year is Thibodeau in Chicago a few weeks back said in his PREGAME presser that he was hoping for Rose to go that night. A media member posted a picture of Rose in the arena walking around with a walking boot. Not earlier in the day at shoot around, but during pregame shoot around. Some one should inform these buffons that it is not the NFL and things can be adjusted in a millisecond in the NBA and the team gets it.

I’m on the fence as well. I like the idea, but what if you go with Duhon/Farmar last night, and they both post 18s, which is a win for both. Then your opponent has Morrow who is a scratch. It’s a huge benefit for the person that didn’t get Morrow out in time, and doesn’t really reward the player who picked 2 players that out-performed their price (but finished lowest on the team)

Here’s what would happen Tippy if a site used your suggestion.

If DS, for instance, made it optional that you could use your 100k for 9 players instead of 8, no one would spend their salary cap money on a player that they probably won’t even use. That’s dead money on the bench.

If DS bumped the cap to 110k (or even kept it the same) and forced you to take the extra 9th player, then everyone would take the lowest priced player on the board to use as their ‘extra’ player, and use the remaining salary for the rest of their team.

As sixburgh says, I think the best system is Profanity’s where you can sub for a player anytime before his game goes off (as long as the salary is equal or less of course). The only downside to this is not being able to see your opponents team until all his players games have started.

Good point Taximike. Maybe they could have a 9 player budget of 65k and give you $6500 for player number 10. If you wanted to go below 65k on your primary 9 man team, you then have the option to add that difference to your $6500 on alternate player 10.

Not exactly sure how to create it, was just thinking more about the underlying idea. I’m so sick of getting hit with surprise scratches that I’ve almost quit playing.

@Taximike said…

As sixburgh says, I think the best system is Profanity’s where you can sub for a player anytime before his game goes off (as long as the salary is equal or less of course). The only downside to this is not being able to see your opponents team until all his players games have started.

it is a good system.

The second you start giving people the benefit of the doubt then you shift alot of winnings to those who are lucky rather than good. If you want to win money then you gotta do your research and if someones a healthy scratch you just shake ur head and move on to the next day. giving an extra player takes alot of the skill out of the game

@haskele said…

The second you start giving people the benefit of the doubt then you shift alot of winnings to those who are lucky rather than good. If you want to win money then you gotta do your research and if someones a healthy scratch you just shake ur head and move on to the next day. giving an extra player takes alot of the skill out of the game

Very true, I almost thought I got stung by the news of Melo being out yesterday, and just figured if he’s out, he’s out, nothing I can do about it.

It’s part of the game…im a diehard bruins fan and earlier this season seguin got scratched for missing team breakfast. the fact that i played him and it slipped by me killed me, but it just happens.

@haskele said…

It’s part of the game…im a diehard bruins fan and earlier this season seguin got scratched for missing team breakfast. the fact that i played him and it slipped by me killed me, but it just happens.

It’s definitely part of the game. The injury bug hit me a few weeks back. It just happens. If it’s happening every night, play less, or avoid anyone you’ve heard of possibly being injured. Morrow missed last game, and is probable for tonight – thus, don’t play him, you know the risk in advance that you’re taking. That’s the best advice I can give to people that are having their line-ups killed nightly by injuries. If you know they’re possibly injured, don’t risk it. If it’s something you didn’t know about, well, move on.

EDIT: I wasn’t talking directly to you or anyone else btw. Just giving my thoughts on the subject in general. To me it’s just like a bad beat in poker. Nothing you can do — move on to the next hand. If you knew about an injury beforehand and still played a guy, well, you took the risk.

absolutely couldnt agree with you more. at the end of the day youre gambling. and when you gamble, you can get hurt by bad luck

I agree with you guys that it’s just part of the game. But is it possible to make the game better than what we have now?

One thing that should always be considered is that a lot of guys play games for fun and are casual players. I run a site and stay up pretty good on news and still get burned, so I can only imagine how often the casual player gets burned. Guys don’t mind losing if their team wasn’t good, but losing simply because you got screwed because one of your guys had a hangnail just turns people off to the game.

One of the goals the sites should keep in mind is to keep the casual players in the game for as long as possible. I wouldn’t say that the ‘safe’ game idea should be the only option, but rather it should be an additional option for the casual guys who don’t have the time to sit in front of the computer all day. At least give them a game with a little bit of a safety net since they don’t have as much info as the serious players.

I’d say the injury problem is by far the biggest complaint I’ve seen casual players have in the chat rooms. Might be worth having a site at least give the problem some attention if it keeps guys playing longer and keeps guys happier.

for the site it makes sense because you want to keep those casual players interested…it would have to be a separate style of game on the site that way it would only attract those casual guys and the big players can stay away from the lucky breaks that may come with it