Dwight Howard and Fantasy Basketball

robertjanssen007 · Post #1 » by **robertjanssen007** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 8:58 am

First off, I play in Head-to-Head leagues--I think Rotisserie leagues focus too much on totals and if a team has a "rough start", might as well call it a season and don't even try afterwards. Anyway, I understand that Dwight Howard would be detrimental on a Rotisserie league but would he really be that bad in Head-to-Head? I think he should be a first round pick in my eyes.

Granted his FT% and TOs are terrible--but aren't a majority of big men pretty similar? Hedo Turkoglu has a terrible turnover rate for a forward but everywhere else, he's pretty outstanding--would you not draft him solely because of a single category? Now let's look at Caron Butler--arguably the safest "high" pick in the draft as he literally has no flaws anywhere. The problem I see with him, besides maybe steals, is that he isn't spectacular anywhere but is, granted, very solid everywhere else. Wouldn't you rather gamble on a Dwight Howard who is more far dominant in other categories but will bring you down in just a few categories than a player who is consistently strong in every category?

KalElen · Post #2 » by **KalElen** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 11:33 am

i was going to respond, but after 2nd sentence i stopped. i've argued why d-how isn't top 25 fantasy players countless times and i can't do it any more. i'll just point out that turk is being taken around 50th so comparison to him is a bad argument and that caron butler is far from being consensus 1st round pick or safe pick

realsniper09 · Post #3 » by **realsniper09** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 12:11 pm

sigh... dwight howard just polarizes opinions everywhere. he must be by far the most talked about player by a long way. he ranges anywhere from top 4 to top 100 on people's list.

robertjanssen007 wrote:Granted his FT% and TOs are terrible--but aren't a majority of big men pretty similar?

Yes and no. Most big men are around 70% (some even 85%), but no one shoots the amount howard does.

as for your argument about hedo & butler.
its just different strategies. some like to have dominators (howard), whilst others like players to contribute a solid line everywhere without really hurting, not caring about the 'spectacular'

first time i picked howard was this year in kal's league. i still can't believe it, but its a bit exciting having him, though i know i'll lose that ft% category.

lastly, howard is definitely not a 1st rounder if you are considering his 9-cat production, but if you exclude that ft%, then he sure is.

there's so much dwight howard stuff around, i don't think you'll have to search very hard to get a thread with hundreds of replies with arguments for/against dwight being ranked high/low :lol:

Pedro Pistolas · Post #4 » by **Pedro Pistolas** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 1:12 pm

realsniper09 wrote:sigh... dwight howard just polarizes opinions everywhere. he must be by far the most talked about player by a long way. he ranges anywhere from top 4 to top 100 on people's list.

robertjanssen007 wrote:Granted his FT% and TOs are terrible--but aren't a majority of big men pretty similar?

Yes and no. Most big men are around 70% (some even 85%), but no one shoots the amount howard does.

as for your argument about hedo & butler.
its just different strategies. some like to have dominators (howard), whilst others like players to contribute a solid line everywhere without really hurting, not caring about the 'spectacular'

first time i picked howard was this year in kal's league. i still can't believe it, but its a bit exciting having him, though i know i'll lose that ft% category.

lastly, howard is definitely not a 1st rounder if you are considering his 9-cat production, but if you exclude that ft%, then he sure is.

there's so much dwight howard stuff around, i don't think you'll have to search very hard to get a thread with hundreds of replies with arguments for/against dwight being ranked high/low

I'm salivating the thought of getting Josh Smith/ D-Howard on the same team because I have some players in mind to build around those two..

KalElen · Post #5 » by **KalElen** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 1:22 pm

and imagine lbj+smoove+d-how combo. the key is howard as your 3rd pick. there's no way smoove drops to 3rd, nut howard could often had there

robertjanssen007 · Post #6 » by **robertjanssen007** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 8:27 pm

KalElen wrote:i was going to respond, but after 2nd sentence i stopped. i've argued why d-how isn't top 25 fantasy players countless times and i can't do it any more. i'll just point out that turk is being taken around 50th so comparison to him is a bad argument and that caron butler is far from being consensus 1st round pick or safe pick

How is being compared to Turk a bad argument if he's "taken around 50th" for you? Howard is not even a second round pick in your rankings. So how far would you take Howard ahead of Turkoglu? As for Caron, I said "high" pick. High can be anywhere from the first round to the third round. I meant that he is a safe pick if you want consistent stats across the board without having a liability somewhere. Obviously, a LeBron James with his free throw deficiencies is still a "safer pick" than a Caron Butler.

Death Knight · Post #7 » by **Death Knight** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 9:41 pm

KalElen wrote:and imagine lbj+smoove+d-how combo. the key is howard as your 3rd pick. there's no way smoove drops to 3rd, nut howard could often had there

LBJ and Smoove would be pretty hard to get already....assuming a standard 12 team league. A top 4 pick is a must to even have a chance at LBJ, which means you draft late in the 2nd round (21-24). Smoove has been going around the 'teens' in mock drafts that I have been at. Maybe if you are in a league with people who like to draft players based on name recognition and reputation, then Smoove might drop to you.

KalElen · Post #8 » by **KalElen** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 10:38 pm

robertjanssen007 wrote:Now let's look at Caron Butler--arguably the safest "high" pick in the draft as he literally has no flaws anywhere.

your words, no? safe doesn't mean what you meant. safe means with no risk involved. caron is not consensus top 9 pick by any means and he is not safe pick, many people see him as injury liability. his ft% is outstanding though so there's the 2nd outstanding cat. he contributes in 5 more cats. while you can say that d-how is outstanding in 3 cats, he drags you down in one, murders you in one and gives you next to nothing in 3.

as for being compared to turk here's why it's bad argument, turk is being taken around 50th, but you are not trying to sell d-how there, you are trying to sell him in the 1st round. turk can have a bad cat and be drafted 50th, he can't cave 2 bad cats and be drafted 5th, or 10th overall

realsniper09 · Post #9 » by **realsniper09** » Thu Oct 2, 2008 11:16 pm

i think he's trying to argue why most of would pick hedo in front of dwight, even though hedo has one bad cat and howard only has one extra bad cat, but so many more strengths.

well howard's bad cat is horrible. the worst individual negative impact in the league. you are basically giving up one whole category by drafting him, so as i said, in a 9-cat ranking, there is no way he can be considered a 1st/2nd rounder. guaranteeing 21 (maybe 19ish because you may win a couple against a ft% tanker) losses without starting already is pretty tough, considering you only have 189 'games' to work with throughout the season.

and 'safe' to me means that you know what you are going to get. players like lebron, dirk, billups who have proven year-in-year out they will garner consistent stats and play 75+ games.

Pinot love · Post #10 » by **Pinot love** » Fri Oct 3, 2008 9:09 am

All based on 12 x 13 nine cat roto: Over the last three years Howard's cumulative value is roughly 60th. Turkoglu's is 50th. By average, Turk 60th and Dwight 95th. The fact is in roto Dwight is no better than a a good 5th round pick and significant risk in the 4th.

Post #11 » by **Curtis Lemansky** » Sat Oct 4, 2008 11:37 am

For a H2H league,I'd argue he is a 2nd round pick(ie whoever drafts Bron in 1st round;should draft Howard in second round and punt ft%;taking out ft from equation Howard becomes a top-6 player in BBM rankings.

tkunit · Post #12 » by **tkunit** » Sat Oct 4, 2008 3:37 pm

I stay away always

Post #13 » by **Stanford** » Sat Oct 4, 2008 4:03 pm

The only time I'd draft Dwight in a roto league is if I knew that I could get more value in return for him than I would have got at that pick, had I not picked him.

H2H? You've got got punt some cats sometimes. If you're taking Dwight though, know this is what you're trying to do and don't try to change it halfway through the draft,

G35 · Post #14 » by **G35** » Sun Oct 5, 2008 1:00 am

Dwight is like the current gen's version of Shaq but not as scoring dominant. And from all the experts I've heard you can't win with Shaq in a roto league. I never tried.......

SonicMcMahon · Post #15 » by **SonicMcMahon** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 8:52 pm

To me this represents what is wrong with the standard ways of playing fantasy basketball. Dwight Howard is the 50th best player in the league? ...

The fact that rebounds and points are weighted the same way as 3pts made and steals is ridiculous. I haven't figured out why weighting categories hasn't caught on yet, but it's the only way to establish a closer connection between fantasy impact and real life impact.

My league has points, rebounds and assists weighted as 2 categories each, while FG, FT, 3pt, TO/game, steals and blocks are worth 1. And Dwight Howard was drafted 4th overall, where he belongs. I can't stand that a guy like Dwight can grab 25 boards in a game, and yet it's worth as much as some dude getting 4 steals... yea that's a comparable impact on the game...

Death Knight · Post #16 » by **Death Knight** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 10:38 pm

SonicMcMahon wrote:To me this represents what is wrong with the standard ways of playing fantasy basketball. Dwight Howard is the 50th best player in the league? ...

The fact that rebounds and points are weighted the same way as 3pts made and steals is ridiculous. I haven't figured out why weighting categories hasn't caught on yet, but it's the only way to establish a closer connection between fantasy impact and real life impact.

My league has points, rebounds and assists weighted as 2 categories each, while FG, FT, 3pt, TO/game, steals and blocks are worth 1. And Dwight Howard was drafted 4th overall, where he belongs. I can't stand that a guy like Dwight can grab 25 boards in a game, and yet it's worth as much as some dude getting 4 steals... yea that's a comparable impact on the game...

It is fantasy basketball.........fantasy........get over it. There is also more strategy involved with its current system and standards of fantasy basketball. If fantasy reflected reality too much, it would be way too easy to draft and play. Boring!