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Spend Your Cash Putting Together The Best Team Possible

The most common type of draft you’ll see used in weekly and daily fantasy sports contests is the salary cap. It gives you a chance to play the role of a general manager. You’re given a certain amount of money to build your lineup, and you can’t go over budget.

It sounds simple, but there’s a lot of strategy to doing it right. You need to figure out where to spend your money to put together the best team possible for that day’s games. If you’re new to salary caps in daily fantasy sports, you’re in the right place. Below, we’ll explain everything you need to know to have confidence during your next draft. You’ll learn how salary caps work, the types of contests they’re used in, and how to leverage them to your advantage.

In this tutorial, we’ll refer several times to a daily fantasy basketball freeroll contest at FanDuel. We’re using it as an example of drafting with a budget. We strongly recommend following along by choosing a freeroll within your own FanDuel account. That way, you’ll get some hands-on experience with salary caps without putting your money at risk.

With that out of the way, let’s get started with a quick definition of a salary cap.

What Is A Salary Cap In Daily Fantasy Sports?

A salary cap is a predetermined budget. You get to use that budget to draft players. Each player comes with a salary, which you need to pay if you want to add him to your lineup. The goal is to put together the best team possible given your limited funds.

The standard salary cap at FanDuel.com is $60,000. If you want, you can filter the list of contests to only display those with an “expert” cap of $55,000. (The less money you have at your disposal, the more difficult it is to build a high-performing team.)

It’s important to learn how to work within a tight budget because it’s an integral part of competing in daily fantasy sports contests. The contests only last a day – or in the case of weekly contests, 7 days. That means you won’t be doing a lot of trading and benching players. Your ability to win will come down largely to knowing how to identify undervalued commodities.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s take a quick look at the types of daily and weekly fantasy sports contests that use a salary cap.

Types Of Daily Fantasy Sports Contests With Salary Cap

Nearly all of the contests you’ll find at FanDuel use salary caps. They’re used in head-to-head match-ups where you square off against a single competitor. They’re used in guaranteed prize pool tournaments where the number of entrants can reach into the thousands. They’re used in private leagues that are set up to accommodate friends. At DraftKings, salary caps are used in 50/50 leagues where the prize pool is divided amongst the top 50% of the player pool.

Here’s the bottom line: salary caps are used practically everywhere in daily fantasy sports. That being the case, it’s definitely worth taking the time to learn how to leverage them to your advantage.

Basics Of Using Salary Caps In Daily Fantasy Sports

Let’s fire up a freeroll daily fantasy basketball contest at FanDuel. Here’s how to find one quickly:

1. Filter the list of contests to display only NBA games (click the “NBA” button on the left side of your screen).
2. Sort the results by entry fee (click the top of the “Entry” column).
3. Choose a contest that has a $0 entry fee (click the green “Enter” button at the end of the row).

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Once you hit the “Enter” button, you’ll be directed to a page on which you can start selecting players. You’ll see a list of players on the left side who are scheduled to play today. You’ll see your lineup – the fields will be empty at this point – on the right side.

Take a look at the player list on the left side of your screen. Notice that each player has a specific salary. That salary changes each day according to the player’s performance in the recent past. For example, if Kobe has been putting everything through the hoop over the last few weeks, he’ll command a higher salary. If he’s been choking, his salary will drop.

Also, notice the field on the right side that says “Salary Remaining: $60,000” (it’s directly above your lineup). Keep your eyes on that field. That’s your cap. Each time you draft a player, the dollar figure posted in that field will drop by the amount of his salary.

Let’s draft a team so you can see this in action…

Salary Cap Strategy: How To Work Within Your Budget

For daily fantasy basketball, you need to draft 2 point guards (PGs), 2 shooting guards (SGs), 2 small forwards (SFs), 2 power forwards (PFs), and a center (C). The simplest way to do it is to click the position tabs displayed above the player list from left to right. The tabs are labeled with the initials of each position.

A quick note…

I’m not actually trying to win this particular freeroll since I’m only entering it to show you how a salary cap works. I’m going to fill positions without giving it too much thought, taking note of each player’s salary along the way. The key is to make sure I don’t run out of money before drafting my entire team.

After a minute of blind picking, here’s my initial lineup:

• PGs – Chris Paul (expensive at $10,600!) and Shelvin Mack (only $4,200. I need to save some money to fill the other positions.)
• SGs – Kevin Martin ($6,000) and Jason Richardson ($3,900)
• SFs – Corey Brewer ($4,300) and Maurice Harkless ($3,500)
• PFs – Paul Millsap ($8,900) and Glen Davis ($5,700)
• C – Al Horford ($8,200)

As it turns out, the lineup above only cost me $55,300. I still have $4,700 left in my budget. Since FanDuel isn’t going to cut me a check for that amount, I might as well spend it. So, let’s do some savvy shopping in the shooting guard position. I’m going to switch out Jason Richardson for Jamal Crawford ($5,900).

That leaves me with $2,700 to play with. My shooting forwards are looking a little weak. So, I’m going to chuck Maurice Harkless and put Paul Pierce ($5,400) in the slot. I still have $800. Let’s go back to our power forwards. I’m going to get rid of Paul Millsap and replace him with Blake Griffin ($9,400).

I have $300 left, but I’m good with the team I have. Here’s the end result:

• PGs – Chris Paul and Shelvin Mack
• SGs – Kevin Martin and Jamal Crawford
• SFs – Corey Brewer and Maurice Harkless
• PFs – Blake Griffin and Glen Davis
• C – Al Horford

Not too bad of a lineup. The point of this exercise was to show you how to work within a budget. You’ll inevitably end up making changes to your lineup throughout the draft. You’ll either spend too much money upfront or have a ton of cash left over (like I did in the example above). Be prepared to make adjustments.

Now that you’re a salary cap pro, let’s talk about picking sleepers…

The Value Of Picking Sleepers With A Salary Cap

Sleepers are undervalued players. They’re guys who are expected (by some) to have a phenomenal season. Sometimes, they’re rookies. Most times, however, they have a lot of years on the court. Either way, they’re rarely household names. Lebron James isn’t likely to be considered a “sleeper” at any point in his career.

While some people think certain players are going to exceed expectations and have a breakout season, other folks continue to dismiss them. That tepid response is reflected in the players’ salaries. That makes those players much less expensive than superstars, such as Kobe and Lebron.

Because you’re on a tight budget, it’s definitely to your advantage to pick up a few sleepers for your lineup. How do you identify them? Well, that’s the challenge. A lot of folks rely on hard data, such as a player’s recent points, assists, and RBs, to uncover hidden values. Others focus on “softer” criteria, such as whether a player has made every game after recovering from knee surgery.

The process of picking sleepers is part art and part science. It goes beyond the scope of what we’re covering on this page. However, because there’s a lot of interest in it, we’ll put together a “how to” guide on the subject in the near future. For now, realize that finding undervalued players is a great way to leverage a salary cap.

When You’re Just Getting Started With Daily Fantasy Sports…

Don’t let salary caps intimidate you. They’re easy to use, fun to play with, and if you know what you’re doing, can give you a huge advantage over other owners.

We focused on the basics here. In future daily fantasy sports tutorials, we’ll show you how to use cheat sheets and player rankings to find hidden value for your teams. Let everyone else overpay for Lebron. You’ll learn how to get the most bang for your daily fantasy sports buck, and build a lineup that wins.

In the meantime, log into your Fan Duel account, and enter a few contests. Get used to working with a salary cap. With experience, you’ll gradually develop a feeling – almost a sixth sense – for the players on whom you should spend your cash.

So you've decided to take the big leap to immerse yourself in the richly rewarding, existentially satisfying and entirely imaginary world of fantasy basketball. Congratulations!

For the uninitiated -- fantasy sports, distilled to its simplicity, is this: You draft real-life NBA players for your fantasy team. How well those players do statistically in real-life NBA games is how they also do for your fantasy team. Your goal is to assemble a collection of players who perform better in a variety of statistical categories than your opponents' collection. That simple.

Say you draft LeBron James, and LeBron goes for 30 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals against the Celtics. Well, those 30 points he scores count not only for the Cavaliers but also for you. See how easy that is? The appeal is that by either owning or competing against every significant player in the NBA, every single game has interest to you. You think you love the NBA now? Wait 'til you play fantasy basketball.

If you have played other fantasy sports before but not basketball, allow me to welcome you with a few tidbits that may help point you toward the league that will best work for you.

If you have played before yet still yearn for more satisfaction in your roto existence, read on.

The most important thing about any fantasy sport is to be able to talk smack to your friends. But you can't do that until you choose the right league for you. Let's pose a few essential questions:

League play is simply that: a league. You and your buddies/co-workers/Internet strangers form a league. The league almost always has an even number of teams; 10 or 12 is the norm. You hold a draft or auction (more on that later) and everyone forms his team, then you compete against one another in a variety of ways. (More on that later as well.)

A 'salary cap' game is just as it sounds. In this format, you are given an imaginary salary cap. Every player in the league has a set 'price.' And you have a standard lineup to fill in. Your job is to put together the best team that fits under the salary cap. Want to blow a big part of your budget on LeBron and CP3? Then you'll have to fill out the rest of the team with cheaper, second-tier players who may not consistently produce. Or, maybe you'll go with a bunch of solid producers who are not as expensive, maybe a bunch of more affordable Deron Williams types. In these leagues, you usually play against a large group of people from across the country. What's great about these leagues is that you get a shot at every player. Everyone gets a chance to buy Kobe Bryant or Steve Nash.

Salary-cap games are fun; you can play them by yourself, and they generally require less work than other fantasy games. In league play, you may get more of the camaraderie and fun of playing with your buddies. I like knowing that I am the only one in my league who has Antawn Jamison. Granted, ours is a special relationship, one that The Current Mrs. Cregan could not even begin to comprehend.

Salary-cap games have set rules and scoring systems, so the rest of this article discusses the various kinds of league play.

This is darned important. I would use stronger language, but this is a family Web site. Use too many, and you'll end up canceling out a lot of the categories. Use too few, and it gets boring. The standard categories for ESPN fantasy leagues are:

Points
Rebounds
Assists
Blocks
Steals
3-pointers
Field-goal percentage
Free-throw percentage

If categories were vowels, the '… and sometimes Y' would be turnovers. I don't like that category, as turnovers tend to be a 'bad vibes' statistic. But it's a perfectly valid category, and you're certainly well within your rights to use it. And now that leagues are fully customizable on ESPN.com, you can.

And that's just the beginning. You'll have the choice of using exotic categories such as double-doubles and even ejections, if you so choose. Now there's no reason to stray outside the confines of ESPN.com. In here, you'll always be safe. And free.

Categories versus points? Let me explain.

In a classic categorical roto league, it's very simple. You pick your categories, such as those discussed above. First place in a category in a 10-team league gets 10 points, second place gets nine, and so on.

So, say rebounds is one of your categories, and your team has the most rebounds in your 10-team league. You get 10 points. The team with the second-most rebounds gets nine points, etc. Then, you move on to assists. Say your team has the ninth-most assists, next to last in the category. You get two points for assists. Now, your team total is 12 points (10 for rebounds, plus two for assists). You keep doing this for all the categories your league uses. The team with the most points across all categories wins. It's that simple.

In a points league, you assign a certain point value for each statistic -- a field goal made, or a steal or block, for example. If you get three points for each steal and your team earns 10 steals in a night, that's 30 points. You do this for every category your league uses to come up with a total score.

Both systems are effective and will provide a fine representation of you and your co-owners' collective acumen.

The Mason-Dixon Line of the fantasy world. Now that you have defined your categories and your scoring system, you need to decide how you'll compete with one another in your league.

In head-to-head leagues, you'll play a different owner in your league every week. You need to outscore your opponent only the week you compete. How do you beat your opponent? You can use either a points-based scoring system or category scoring. I personally prefer a points-based system in a head-to-head situation.

Whichever way you keep score, you'll accrue wins and losses as the season goes on. So, say I beat Brian McKitish in the first week of the season. I'll be 1-0. Then, I take on The Talented Mr. Roto, Matthew Berry, and I beat him, too -- by a wide, wide margin. (Hey, it's my article, and it's a fantasy article. I can beat whomever the heck I want.) The next week, I play the former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. (His team has a decidedly international flavor.) I edge out Kofi after his starting small forward, Josh Childress, decides to quit the NBA that Wednesday to play for the Fighting Five-Year Plan of the Upper Northwest Slovenian League. Now I am 3-0 on the season and celebrate with a particularly tangy large cup of Pinkberry. Pinkberry. This is what my life has become. I'm not proud of it.

In head-to-head play, the regular fantasy basketball season usually ends in late March or so to allow for a playoff between the top teams. The winner is decided in the final couple of weeks of the NBA's regular season, depending on whether your league goes one or two weeks per playoff game.

In roto leagues, you don't have a different opponent every week. You just follow your team's cumulative categorical totals as the season progresses as described above. There are no playoffs. Just a simple first, second and third place for whichever team has the most points across all the categories at the end of the season.

(A quick tip: In roto leagues, look to build a lead in the percentage categories early. They're the toughest categories to play catch-up in. It's easier to catch up in categories such as blocks and 3s. It's all about sample size.)

Which to do? Each has its pluses and minuses:

In head-to-head play, you get added interpersonal excitement, the thrill of competing against a different team every week, and the chance to play matchups versus your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. The playoffs are fun as well; there's nothing as fun in fantasy basketball as seeing one's team suddenly catch fire and stampede toward an imaginary yet utterly rewarding championship.

But it's not always the best representation of which team in your league was actually the best. Why? Here's an example:

Team A drafted well, made smart moves all season and compiled an impressive 18-6 record in the process. It earned the right to play lower-seeded Team B in Round 1 of the playoffs. However, because the weaker Team B had first dibs on the waiver wire, it got lucky and picked up a couple of hot players in the final week of the season. Team B's roster had an incredibly hot week and knocked off the far superior and better-put-together Team A. Team A's season ended abruptly. I am just speculating. This clearly has never happened to me, and I harbor no bitterness.

You also have to contend with the fact that the fantasy playoffs occur during the silly portion of the NBA season: the final 10 to 12 games of the regular season when many teams tank and others begin to rest their stars (and your stars) for the NBA playoffs. This also has never happened to me.

That's why I, personally, prefer roto to head-to-head. You're sacrificing a bit of excitement, but it's an inherently fairer way of determining the winner. Let me stress that this is just my opinion, but it's the correct opinion. But in the sense of full disclosure that has kept me married longer than most of my friends, I do play in both types of leagues every year.

For instance, one good argument for head-to-head is that it keeps more teams in contention late into the season. Let me add another wrinkle that will do the same thing. …

I generally will not join a league unless it has some sort of a keeper function. This means that teams will protect a certain number of players from one season to the next, usually with a cap on or a penalty for (loss of draft picks, higher cost of player) the kept players.

The cellar-dwelling teams can look forward to next season by trading for quality keepers. This way, everyone has something to look forward to. Good owners can build dynasties. Bad owners learn to hate the good owners. The system for determining how players are kept depends on how your league chooses its rosters, which brings me to my next section.

Above all things, when choosing a league, I recommend doing a real draft. Not one in which you submit a list and players are taken for you, but one in which you gather with your fellow owners in a conference room, a meeting room or in cyberspace. Doesn't matter where, just do a real draft.

Now, what kind of draft? In a straight-up 'snake' draft situation, teams will select one player per round, then flip the draft order for the following round. In other words, the picks go 1-10 in the first round, then 10 back down to 1 in the second round. It's a nice, neat, solid way to put together your team.

My favorite? Auction leagues. Now we are cooking with gas, my friend. Every team gets an imaginary budget with which to fill out a roster. In ESPN leagues, that budget is $200. Then, players are called out one by one, and owners go bonkers bidding them up.

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It's a system that favors the wise and well-prepared, because the big names generally go for overinflated prices. Some yahoo will blow his or her budget on a $48 Tim Duncan, a $44 Dirk Nowitzki, then have to contend with the cheaper table scraps for which the smarter owners are outmaneuvering him or her.

Auction leagues are common in baseball but a rarity in basketball. Why? It's hard to find reliable data on dollar values for players in fantasy basketball. But each auction is different anyway, and the best way to compile that data is to utilize the mock auction feature right here on ESPN.com. It's great practice to get you ready for the real thing.

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As I said, I always prefer an auction keeper league that uses either a points or categorical scoring system. But that's just me, and I'm a profoundly troubled person. The good thing about all of this is that you can find a league that's right for you. Because fantasy basketball is, at its heart, a democracy.

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And please, please don't take yourself or this game too seriously. It's a fine line between 'fantasy sports enthusiast' and 'obsessive compulsive' or 'recently divorced.'

Happy hunting!

John Cregan is a fantasy basketball analyst for ESPN.com.