Fantasy Basketball 2008: FG%, FT%

Great players will carry you in Fantasy NBA more than any other fantasy format. Why?

This article will explore FG% and FT%, two stats that can and will ultimately be determined by the player on your team who takes the most shots.

Here are the top 10 players in field goal and free throw attempts per game last year:

FG Attempts/Game
1. LeBron James, 21.9
2. Kobe Bryant, 20.6
3. Tracy McGrady, 19.8
4. Carmelo Anthony, 19.2
5. Allen Iverson, 19.0
6. Baron Davis, 18.6
7. Dwayne Wade, 18.4
8. Joe Johnson, 18.3
9(t). Richard Jefferson, Jason Richardson, 17.9

FT Attempts/Game
1. Dwight Howard, 10.9
2. LeBron James, 10.3
3(t). Corey Maggette, Allen Iverson, 9.7
5. Kevin Martin, 9.5
6. Dwayne Wade, 9.2
7. Kobe Bryant, 9.0
8. Amare Stoudamire, 8.7
9(t). Chris Bosh, Richard Jefferson, 8.3

Shot and Free Throw Attempts per game ultimately end up being the reason why your player who takes the most shots (who, hopefully, is your best player) will end up being the major determinant of your team FG and FT%. Unlike baseball, where most everyday players will end up with between 550-650 ABs during the season, not all NBA players will take the same total amount of shots. Dwayne Wade, at 9.2 FTA per game, will take more foul shots during one game than 350 NBA players take in one standard (3 game) week -- and no, not all of those 350 guys are the 10th-12th men in rotations.

How should you exploit this to your benefit? Whichever star player you end up building around needs to be surrounded with complimentary talent to reinforce or negate their shooting tendencies. If you have someone like Dwight Howard (~60% FG% on 12 attempts per game, 59% FT% on 11 attempts per game), you need to surround him with guys who, at the very least, are going to match his total number of FT attempts in a week (or year) and shoot ridiculously well while doing so. And you're going to need several of these guys to balance out that FT%. Also you'll need to look for guys that don't shoot too many field goals per game, unless you want to diminish one of D-Ho's greatest strengths (FG%).

If you do this successfully, you can essentially let one player carry you in either percentage (or 1/8-1/4 of the standard fantasy NBA categories).