The Fantasy Assistant has finally arrived at FantasySP. The Fantasy Assistant is the ultimate fantasy tool to help analyze your synced teams and recommend waiver wire pickups. It was built to help newbies and veterans gain an edge in their league.
The Home Screen
The home screen shows each sync league that I have. As you can see each team has two separate rank and rating numbers assigned to it. We break up ratings into Full Roster and Starting Lineup. Each day teams are analyzed and a rating is collected to see where you rank in your league. Here is a link to my FantasySP basketball team. Feel free to browse around the league to see which team is the top ranked and their performance over time with the handy team graphs.
Team Selected
Once your team is selected you are presented with a new screen consisting of your complete lineup and a quick analysis of your players.
Each player is assigned an importance evaluation in relation to the team’s success as a whole. According to this, my most important player is Chris Paul at 12.70%. He is currently 1.50% more important than Greg Monroe. Interesting. So how is this helpful?
Clearly Chris Paul was my first round pick. Greg Monroe was drafted much later, more like the 4th round. So far it’s safe to say that was a solid 4th round pick. Let’s say a team in my league offered a trade for Greg Monroe. He is currently my second most important player on my team. A quick look at this indicates who I should trade, and an idea of what I should get in return if traded.
But let’s say we want more information on Mo Williams, who is currently on my bench.
Select Player
As you can see a new box pops up on the right side giving us loads of information.
Starting at the top we have Mo Williams’ stats. The black and gray box has two rows of his numbers. The first row indicates his stats on the season and the second row indicates how he performed at the exact same point last season. His numbers are more or less equal, expect for a big drop in assists per game. That might account for his lack of usefulness?
Waiver Wire Suggestions
Now we have waiver wire suggestions, which is broken down into two categories: High Risk & Low Risk. As you might have guessed, the high risk stat analysis focuses on a shorter time period than low risk. However, the high risk category may have some sleeper picks that others may have missed, so let’s check these out. The goal is to find a guy like Nickola Pekovic before everyone else does. (I actually picked him up based on the Fantasy Assistant’s recommendation.)
Anyway, back to the Waiver Wire Suggestions… first on the list is Jordan Crawford, who is currently a free agent and has better numbers in just about every category. Keep in mind these stats are averages from a specific time-frame and are NOT the entire season’s worth. We want to know who is hot right now. If I want to get his complete analysis then click on the green “View Analysis” button next to his name.
According to this, Crawford has been playing better as of late compared to his season’s numbers. It also showcases his complete stats and a comparison to the same point last season. We also see a detailed analysis of his performance and where he ranks in certain categories. Plus there is a fantasy graph and more to look through. Awesome? I think so.
Mousing over the gray icon next to Jordan Crawford’s name will tell me which league he is a free agent in and will provide a direct link to pick him up.
I could continue to check out the rest of the suggestions, or I could hop over to the Low Risk category to see what type of Low Risk options I have.
Wrap Up
As you can see there are many useful features in the Fantasy Assistant that will help you research and make more calculated moves. As of this blog post, some of these stats are already outdated, but the premise remains the same. As of today, the NBA section is 100% working. Later this week I will activate the NHL section’s Waiver Suggestions. Soon after that the MLB section will be activated. In the fall the NFL will go live.
The Fantasy Assistant will constantly be improving based on feedback. I already have plans to have enhanced features for Roto leagues. There are nuances that I did not touch on, but will be discovered as you use the Fantasy Assistant.
Long time users, this feature was made specifically for you. I truly appreciate your continued support and for believing in this site and my vision. Enjoy this new feature and, of course, be sure and email me if you have any questions or comments.
Get the Fantasy Assistant now!
UPDATE: You can find the latest updates on the fantasy assistant right here.
Did anyone notice the second waiver wire suggestion, Arron Afflalo? Well, I was just about to pick him up today in my league after last night’s game (as he is now recommended first). When I went to pick him up I noticed that he was taken about a half hour ago.
Bottom line: Its pretty darn accurate.
It looks like a great feature and might convert me into a paying customer. What do you guys recommend for comparing two teams to see which categories you might be better or worse at?
Hey again Keith! 🙂 Excellent idea to compare two teams by category rather than just players. Unfortunately FantasySP does not have that ability.
It’s a heck of an idea, and I just added it to my Feature List. It also led me to the idea of adding the ability to compare teams based on positions as well. It would also be cool to add the ability to highlight which guys are hurting you most for a specific category.
I’ll kick around these ideas and see what I come up with. 🙂
This is only my 1st time doing fantasy nba but I think comparing teams by category trumps by position since that’s usually what scoring is based off. One thing I also noticed is you don’t separate offensive and defensive rebounds. If possible, I’d see if you can understand the scoring settings of a particular league (in the sync/import) so you can display the categories a user actually cares about. And ideally, your own “ranking” algorithm would be based exclusively around those categories. To me, all the data seems to be right there, so what’s stopping some code from really telling you what the best options are? Insider does that a little bit but I’m just pulling up Gordon Hayward (SG, SF) on Insider and it’s suggesting only players with a lower ranking…and none include Carlos Delfino (SF, SG), who has been on a roll lately. I think something might be off.
The ranking algorithm takes into account more categories than just what is shown. What is shown is to give a general overview on a player.
Taking into account custom stat categories based on your specific league is something that is looking more and more important by the minute. 🙂 This feedback is great. Unfortunately, both of those guys are already owned in my fantasy basketball leagues, so it’s tough for me to see it in action.
Could you pass along your login name so I can take a closer look at what you see on your end?
I had every intention of paying for a long term membership next NFL season….but you just made me buy one now….I dont doubt for a second its a waste of my money. You’re doing a stellar job. Keep it up.
Hi once again Stephen! Thanks! Today has been a pretty crazy day with the official release of the Fantasy Assistant. It’s been awesome to see how much interest was generated so far. Now it’s my job to make sure I continue to improve it 🙂
Any chance that you can open it up for a few days to help convince me to pay for it next year? It looks like a great tool, but I already invest quite a bit of money into various leagues and want to make sure this is worth the additional investment…
Just like a 2 day trial or something for regular users would be perfect. If it is as great as this article makes it out to be, I feel that using it for a couple of days will definitely get anyone that is hesitant about it to commit to paying for the next year (or even the rest of the current year).
You make an excellent point Benjamin. Email me brant [at] fantasysp.com with your username, and I’ll hook you up with a special trial period so you can use the Fantasy Assistant.
Hey guys, just wanted to make mention of the latest changes to the Fantasy Assistant. Most of these changes were based off your feedback.
http://blog.fantasysp.com/category/site-news/fantasy-assistant/