The ill-advised, totally foolproof 4-punt B.I.G. strategy.

A disclaimer to start this all off: I don't recommend the strategy I'm about to lay out. It's the height of folly and hubris to think that a league can be won on a 4-punt strategy. To do so while focusing so narrowly on "bigs" and ignoring points, which correlates to so many other categories only amplifies the absurdity.

But then, warnings aside, what is the 4-punt B.I.G. strategy? Here goes:

1. Assume this is a 10 team league, with default starting positions (PG, SG, SF, PF, C, G, F, Util, Util).

2. We'll approximate an auction budget of $200. This strategy becomes incrementally harder for a snake draft, but could work for a team with a back end pick.

3. We're going to win by dominating 5 categories and punting (*deep breath*): Points, Assists, FT%, and 3PT.

And with those ground rules, our draft/auction/targets:

The foundational center: Gobert or Drummond $30-35

This bid is about grabbing the anchor, and in this punt build, Drummond and Gobert are the top two players. League wide. More valuable than Harden, more valuable than AD.

Point guard play: Ben Simmons $25

Simmons is the only top-50 point guard in this build. If you don't grab him here, it's a long way down.

The all important PF: Mitchell Robinson or Clint Capela $20-30

Robinson and Capela are both top 5 players in this punt build. Get one of them.

Small forward: Robert Covington $25

Covington is good in any build. But he's great here.

Shooting guard: Delon Wright, Danny Green, and Derrick White $5-10

I like all three of these SGs as top 100 players in this build. Grab the cheapest option.

Guards and Forwards: Jonathan Isaac, Derrick Favors, Kyle Anderson, Montrezl Harrell, Mikal Bridges, Andre Roberson. $5-15

These options are all top 100 players in this build. And many are going to come cheap. Bridges is a particularly helpful player here given his high steal rate.

Utility BIGs (2) : Hassan Whiteside, Steven Adams, Kevon Looney, Javale McGee $5-20

This is where the punt strategy really shines, as each of these options is a top 20 player for our purposes. Which makes these players fantastic value. Grab as many as you can.

At this point, filling out your starting lineup should come with a cost of around $150-170. Which means that the bench can be filled out with additionally players from above with relative ease. Other options to target on include Jacob Poelt, Nerlens, Noel, Larry Nance, Miles Bridges, Josh Richardson, and Gary Harris.

We can run the result of our good work through the draft assist tool to see how the team stacks up. Almost every permutation comes out with fantastically strong FG%, rebound, steal, block, and TO numbers. Pulling from the set of players above, mine came in a full 15 rebounds, 1.7 steals, 6.3 blocks, .050 FG%, and 3 TOs higher than the target. And despite punting points, that category looks somewhat competitive - call it a soft punt - only 28 points shy of my target.

This strategy has weaknesses. Punting 4 categories leaves little room for error. And Ben Simmons is a crucial target given how thin the other PG options are. But for teams looking to try something different, the 4 Punt B.I.G. strategy may be just the thing.

How to use the draft tool

Our draft tool is meant to help you keep track of your team's needs on draft day. But there's a lot going on, so let's break it down:

First, let's talk inputs. There will be four areas where you will enter data:

1. Total Players Field: Enter the TOTAL number of players in a league that will be rostered, minus IR spots. If, for example, there are 10 teams in a league, and each team has 12 players, the number you would enter here is 120.

2. Total Team Field: Enter the number of teams in a league. Using our example above, you would enter 10 (for the 10 teams in the league).

3. "My" Player drafted field: As you draft players, select the check mark in the drop down list to the left of the player's name (will turn green).

4. "Other Team" Player drafted field: As other teams draft players, select the check mark in the drop down list to the left of the player's name (will turn red).

As you enter data, outputs will automatically start to show up. Namely:

1. Your team Info: On the left side of the tool there are a number of outputs to pay attention to.The first line reflects your team's stats, first as totals and as averages. The second set of outputs populates rough category targets (based on league size) for your team as well as how you're doing in meeting those targets. The third set of outputs keeps track of which positions you've rostered thus far.

2. Other team info: On the right side of the tool, the middle two columns provides data on players other teams have drafted. This information mirrors that found in your own team info, showing totals and averages.

3. Players remaining info: On the right side of the tool, the top two columns provides data on players remaining. Again, this information is in totals and averages. The bottom the remaining players yet to be rostered, by position, are shown.

Lastly, the tool itself includes data from projections and our Rank of Rank guide, including our rank, projected stats, etc.

Good luck drafting!

What is this Rank of Ranks all about?

The Rank of Ranks is Dynastybball's attempt at redraft rankings. Like everything else on this website, the goal isn't to replicate what others do, but instead add our own unique thing. Hopefully that's a good thing, but it also can be a confusing thing. So blog posts like this one are meant to explain our tools, ranks, models, and analytics.

So Rank of Ranks. A name shamelessly inspired from Persian King of Kings from old, is meant to survey the vast landscape of basketball projections and provide a set of rankings based upon the best assessments of multiple experts. Our sources are linked in the top right of the document, should you want to know who we think of when we say 'expert'.

Based on that survey, we can generate (at least) five pieces of data. Running through them in turn:

1. A player's best case rank in a season

2. A player's worst case rank in a season

These are fairly straight-forward. Neither is a guarantee, but they represent the top and bottom of a player's expected range.

3. A player's median case rank in a season

This is actually more of an average than a median. This rank should be reflective of what I'd call the "consensus" opinion on a player. If you play fantasy basketball a lot, you should look at this number and think, "yeah...that's what most people are saying."

4. Our Preferred Rank

This is a weighted, blended average arrived at after looking at this historical accuracy of different predictions and predictors. This rank may look surprising in some cases, but it's our best guess of where players will place in a season. And if history is a guide, this rank will be more accurate than any other (based upon the testing described in the prior article).

5. Confidence Score

Some players elicit consensus opinion. Most think that Harden is a top 3 player, for example. Others are harder to place. Where should Klay go? What about Myles Turner? Confidence score reflects the standard deviation between predictions. The bigger the score, the larger the range of outcomes. The smaller, the more likely the rank is going to be accurate.

Think of it as a boom or bust predictor. Some players aren't likely to swing widely, others will. In early rounds, look to avoid players with a high score, as they could fizzle out and cost you dearly. In later rounds, swing on a few of the guys with higher ceilings (even if it means accepting lower floors).

And that's it!