2011-2012 NBA Values

With training camps set to open next week, I wanted to do a recap of top players in the 2011-2012 NBA fantasy season.
I’m using the RotoValue pricing model, assuming a 10 team league with a roster of 13 players, 10 who start (4 guards, 4 forwards, and 2 centers).  Each team has a $200 salary cap. Here are the top 20 players in an 8 category league (FG%, FT, points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and 3 point FG, all equally weighted):

Kevin Durant was the most valuable player in fantasy basketball, by a fairly healthy margin over LeBron James. The two are quite similar in headline stats, with scoring and rebounding averages quite close, and they each have relative strengths: James shoots better from the floor, gets many more assists, and gets more steals, while Durant shoots better from the line, hits lots more 3s, and blocks more shots. Overall, the two are close on a per-game basis, but since Durant played all 66 games, he is clearly ahead. They should be the top two picks in fantasy drafts – which to me is one major reason to prefer doing an auction instead of a draft.
Next, after a huge gap, comes Chris Paul, the league leader in steals and the top point guard, followed by Kevin Love, and Andrew Bynum rounding out the top 5. Interestingly, no shooting guards made the top 20, with the best being Kobe Bryant at #24.
All these numbers are based on cumulative stats, so Bryant’s missing 8 games drops him behind other players who played more. On a per-game basis, the list looks like this:

Note the gap between Durant and James closes, and other players who missed more time rise (Kevin Love and Dwight Howard) or join the top 10 (Deron Williams, Dwyane Wade, and Bryant). Comparing these two is a good reminder that staying healthy and simply playing is quite important in fantasy basketball: when your stars go down with injury, you simply can’t replace them. Lots of fantasy were undone by Stephen Curry’s or Derrick Rose’s injuries.
If you’d like to tinker with the lists, click on the images to go to the demo league search page. There you can sort by different categories, filter by position or team, or see data for different date ranges (with values and rankings recomputed based on the statistics over that time frame).
RotoValue prices take into account league settings (scoring categories, roster sizes, and positional requirements), and the rankings under different rules would differ. Under pretty much any system, Durant and James would be the top two players. But under different rules, rankings will vary. Consider a 9-category league (the 8 noted above, plus turnovers as a negative category, i.e. fewer is better):
The top 3 are still the same as 8 category, but now Al Jefferson moves up from 10th overall to 4th, because he committed just 62 turnovers, much fewer than higher-ranking 8-category centers Andrew Bynum, Greg Monroe, and Marc Gasol. Ryan Anderson (just 57 turnovers) rises into the top 10.
Rankings and cheat sheets are good, but it’s better to have rankings customized to your league’s rules than to rely on a generic list. Among very top players it may not make much difference, but as you look deeper in the league to fill out your roster, it helps to know what players do better with the categories your league uses.