Will Emeka Okafor land on one of your many teams? (Kent Smith/NBAE/Getty Images)

Hi. I don’t want to be rude, but we have seven months to get to know each other a lot better, so I’ll skip most of the song and dance. After all, you’re not reading this to learn about me, you’re reading it to get some tips on how to succeed in the three fantasy games offered on NBA.com. I will, however, give you a little bit about myself so you’ll know why you should trust me, or at least think about trusting me.

I’ve been playing fantasy basketball for more than a decade, so I’ve picked up some effective strategies along the way. However, I’ve only played in a keeper rotisserie league that has used pretty much the same rules since the league was founded, so even though I have fantasy experience, NBA.com’s three different fantasy games will challenge me as well. I will be forced to learn on the fly as I try to guide my teams, and maybe even help guide yours, through the season. Let’s get into these games as the season is close already.

Ultimate Fantasy Commissioner

I’ve joined a ten-team head-to-head league where my team will be drafted for me. I’ve never been in a league like this. Even though my longtime league experimented with head-to-head for one year, it was a long time ago. It was so long ago, in fact, I couldn’t get a date then, but now I’m married. That last sentence was depressing, so let’s get back to the league.

My longtime league is a keeper league with a live draft, so instead of my usual handpicked roster, I’ll be playing the hand I’m dealt. Trades and free agent pick-ups will have more of an effect on my team than what I’m used to dealing with. I suspect I’ll be busy when I get my roster in a couple weeks, tweaking my team to build a combination that will hopefully take me to a championship. On the bright side, I know I’ll get some good building blocks to work with… or at least some names to dangle as trade bait.

In this head-to-head league, I’ll field a team with a nine-player lineup and five bench spots. However, this head-to-head league is points-based, so different stats have different values and the most points for the week determines whether or not you win. The hard part is it’s not points like “Michael Redd scored 28 points last night.” In this league, players will get five points for each three-pointer, block, and steal, but each point that players score for their NBA team is only worth a half of a point for my team.

Salary Cap Challenge

If you’re looking for something a little less demanding than a regular fantasy league, Salary Cap Challenge should fit the bill, as the game only requires a six-man roster and lasts until February 15, which coincides with the All-Star Break.

You create a six-man team (two guards, two forwards, a center, and a sixth-man of whichever position you desire) based on salaries with a maximum cap of $35,000,000 at the start. I think I can do that. You can make unlimited roster moves before the season starts, but once the season is underway, you get two trades per week. You want to buy low and sell high, increasing your team’s value and becoming able to buy better players.

How far will my 35 million bucks go? Sadly, my money will not stretch too far if I snap up superstar and all-around fantasy monster LeBron James. The King carries huge stats and a huge salary - $12,000,000! That’s more than a third of my starting cap. In this cap game, just more than $5.8 million is the average player. Kenny Thomas of the Sacramento Kings comes closest to being an “average” player, and he’s about the 90th most expensive player available.

As a result of those superstars’ max contracts, my first thought is to search for bargain players to fill four spots, then pick up whatever young superstars I can. Usually, these bargain buys will be younger players who are likely to improve for various reasons, such as an increase in playing time, moving to a new team, or a guy who played well at the end of the season who should take another step up in the new season. Hopefully, I can use a young, improving player to make some more cap space to improve my squad by getting another superstar.

Pick One Challenge

Seems kind of simple, right? You pick a player each day and get points for every point, rebound, and assist that player piles up, and you get double points for each when you use a rookie. The catch (oh, there had to be a catch) is that you can only use each player once during the course of the season. That means you will use almost half the players in the NBA during the course of the season. You will get some off days: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, four days at the All-Star break and April 2. It’s not that much of a time demand, though. You can do a whole week of picks at once, and the Web site keeps track of who you’ve already used so you won’t re-use a player.

I have a couple quick thoughts here, too.

Use injury-prone players at the start the season. Someone like Marcus Camby, who spends more time than he’d like on the injured list, is a good player to use while he’s healthy. He’s a great rebounder and is a surprisingly good scorer, averaging almost 13 points per contest last season. But Camby missed 26 games last year and 16 the year before that. The longer you wait to use him, the more likely you are to waste the opportunity to use him at all.

Similarly, go to veteran players in the early months of the year. For this example, I’ll use one of the greats of the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal. Ready to start his 15th season, Shaq is still a talented player who can produce big numbers. However, the “biggest big man” has to slow down some time, and he has the last three years. While Miami is now Dwyane Wade’s team, O’Neal still will put up good numbers, but he is likely to slow down during the long season, as the pounding from running up and down the floor takes its toll on his knees, and he saves himself for the playoffs. I’d use him early when the Heat face a team without a strong center because Shaq is likely to put up 25 points and grab 12 rebounds.

Wait out the rookies. While Adam Morrison and Brandon Roy are supposed to contend for Rookie of the Year honors, we don’t know how their games will translate at the next level. Will Morrison have problems getting his shot off? Is it going to take Roy time before becoming the all-around threat he was as a senior in college? When will they, and all the rookies for that matter, get substantial playing time or hit the dreaded “rookie wall?” The safe thing to do is see how these young pups adjust to the NBA. I probably wouldn’t use a rook until December and only then if my options that day are limited, like less than three games that day where the player pool is limited.

Who likes to run? Several NBA teams that play up-tempo, including the Phoenix Suns. They’re not the only team, though, with the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors looking to speed up the pace. Their players and, just as importantly, their opponents’ players, will get the chance to pile up more points, rebounds, and assists based solely on the fact that there will be more possessions in the game. A player like Ricky Davis, who is a good player and even better athlete, becomes more valuable when he has the opportunity to get out and get easy scores in an up-tempo game.

I know this first effort was a little light on the insight, but as the season gets going and I get my teams together, there will be more advice as I deal with my own problems. By next week, I’ll have these things accomplished: 1.) I’ll prep for my fantasy season so I know whom to target in trades based on the league’s point system, 2.) I’ll have my salary cap team filled out and fill you in on some of the things I saw, including some of the players who should pay dividends for you, and 3.) I’ll try to spot some players to save for those thin days on the NBA schedule (like Christmas, where there is only game on the schedule).

The views expressed by TalentedMrRoto.com represent only the views of the writers; they do not represent the views of the NBA or any NBA team.