Top 10 tips to play and win ESPN fantasy women's basketball like the pros

It's almost that time again; ESPN Fantasy Women's Basketball is back for its fifth campaign!

Last season was wire-to-wire action, and the offseason provided even more fireworks. The WNBA and the player's union negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement that changed the entire face of the league and will have huge ramifications for this season and beyond. There is opportunity for unprecedented player movement during the free agency window, and any fantasy basketball draft strategy will require knowledge of who is now playing where and the way that effects their production outlook.

And that's where we should start our discussion on ways to win at fantasy hoops this season. Though the game always evolves, a lot of the same methods tend to lead to fantasy success in every iteration. Like the Notorious B.I.G. said back in the day about a different subject, "I wrote me a manual" how to do it. A collection of the tips I've learned through the years.

Playing fantasy basketball is fun. But like everything else, winning just makes the whole experience that much sweeter.

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Tip 1: Follow the WNBA offseason moves. The best preparation is to follow the offseason moves, because that is where the changes in fantasy value take place. That is especially true this season, when literally every veteran in the league became a free agent after the new CBA was agreed to. Once both free agency and the WNBA draft are completed, if you've missed any of the moves, rest assured we're paying attention to everything and can help you get caught up.

Tip 2: Understand what makes Fantasy Women's Basketball unique. The WNBA expanded to 15 teams this season, with the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire in their inaugural seasons after the Golden State Valkyries joined last season. Even with the expansion, the WNBA has exactly half of the 30 teams in the NBA. Thus, fantasy women's roster sizes and the free agency wire are both a bit smaller than in fantasy men's basketball leagues. A typical league will feature six fantasy teams with nine roster spots each, thus a nine-round fantasy draft.

You'll start six players: two forwards, two guards, one center and one utility that can be any position.

Each week, every fantasy team goes head-to-head against one other team, and the one that accumulates the most fantasy points gets a win while the other team gets a loss. The teams with the best win-loss records advance to the fantasy playoffs and face one another to determine a champion.

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Tip 3: Prepare for the draft.

It never fails. In every fantasy draft I've ever done, one of the people in the league will say, "Yo. Haven't had a chance to think about it much, yet, let me pull up the rankings real quick." And that's cool, because we fantasy basketball analysts put a lot of time and energy into making our fantasy rankings.

But keep in mind: A) these rankings lists are public, which means everyone in your league has access to that same information, and B) if you really know the subject matter yourself, you can make your own adjustments to my (or any public) rankings and come into the draft with clearer ideas about where you think the value is in the draft.

Tip 4: Know the different ways to pick your team.

The most important -- and for many, the most fun -- part of putting together a fantasy team is the draft. Snake drafts and salary cap drafts are the most popular of the four methods available, but choose the one that works best for you:

• Snake: Players are chosen in a set order in the first round and then the draft order is reversed for each round thereafter. (Example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 then 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1).
• Salary cap: Team managers use a fictional budget to nominate and sign players until their roster is filled. Suggested values are listed in the draft room, with $1 being the minimum.
• Autopick: The system automatically drafts players to each team in the league on a scheduled draft date so team managers don't have to be online during the draft.
• Offline: Team managers conduct their own draft without the use of ESPN's online draft system, then manually input the offline draft results into the system.

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Tip 5: Draft to the scoring system. It's important to know the scoring system you're playing to and draft to that system. The WNBA fantasy game is similar to others you might've played before: this is a points, head-to-head format that crowns a champion in an end-of-season playoffs.

Here is the scoring system for the game:

• Point = 1 Fantasy point (FP)
• Rebound = 1 FP
• Assist = 1 FP
• Made 3-pointer = 1 FP
• Steal = 2 FP
• Block = 2 FP

Points, rebounds and assists are all potentially high-volume categories, so they earn one fantasy point each. Steals and blocks are harder to come by, so they are worth twice as much. Made 3-pointers give you a bonus fantasy point in addition to the three FP you get for the points themselves. This also allows you to build your fantasy rosters with player types who contribute in different ways.

Tip 6: Draft management. My strategy on the type of players I pick changes as the draft goes along. In the first few rounds, I build around best player available more than team fit. For example, I'm not super worried if two of my first three picks happen to both play small forward. It's more important to maximize the fantasy scoring potential of your best few players, and if need be you can play one or more in flex positions. You can worry about team fit later.

In the middle rounds of the draft, I typically start paying more attention to team fit and making sure I have strong contributors across the board. If there's a clear best player available, then I'll certainly still keep that in mind, but by the middle rounds I'm also making sure I don't have any position holes that I don't think I can adequately fill in the later rounds.

By the later rounds of the draft, I already have my foundation in place with sufficient positional flexibility, so by then it's time to pull up from 40 feet like Caitlin Clark and go for the gamble. I'm going after my sleepers. I'm taking more chances. I'm leaning into more risk-reward type plays, instead of just going with steady contributors. Often, it's the players taken late in drafts that hit that end up being champion-making picks.

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Tip 7: Characteristics of winning fantasy hoops producers. Think about where your players of interest are in their careers and how that might affect their production. You want to draft younger veteran players that are trying to carry their teams into postseason consideration, as they tend to be more durable and play more minutes because they're younger but have their WNBA legs under them. And they have to do everything they can to get their teams to the promised land.

Tip 8: Be active, early, in fantasy basketball free agency. Be flexible and ready to make moves, right out the gate. One habit that I had to curb was relying too heavily on my "draft brilliance," even once the season began and the initial information was different than expectation. If my seventh-round sleeper starts off the season on the bench or playing poorly and there's an undrafted free agent that has scored 20 points in the first two games, I have to be willing to drop my drafted player to move on to the better prospect. I see those first couple of weeks as crucial, because many unlooked-for outperformers will make themselves known early. And you've got to be ready and willing to give them a try early before your competition does.

Tip 9: Trade to win. No matter how good your fantasy draft goes, and even if you're able to get some good free agents early, you are still going to need to make trades as the season goes along if you want to win. So make trade offers early and often. And I'm not talking lopsided, the-rest-of-your-league-hates-you type trade offers.

I mean legit, you know what your team needs but have also paid attention to what their team needs as well offers. Because here's the thing: if you make win-win trades, and you make them more often than everyone else in your league, then your team should have added more "wins" to the ledger than your opponents. Over time, those extra added trade wins often add up to league championship wins as well.

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Tip 10: Watch the games. Number 10 could have been number one to me, because it is really the "dirty secret" at the center of all fantasy sports success. Fantasy basketball is, at its core, just another way to enjoy basketball. So, if you want to be good at fantasy hoops, the best thing to do is dig into the WNBA and enjoy it.

Get the WNBA League Pass and watch a bunch of games. Have barber shop arguments about where A'ja Wilson ranks all time, or which of Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers or Angel Reese are the best young player in the league. Watch SportsCenter and pay attention when the analysts break down the plays. And yes, read your boy's articles here on ESPN Fantasy on the regular.

The more time you spend enjoying your sport, the more you'll realize that you are up on the latest developments without even trying to be. From there, it's just easier to have a feel for what players might be ready to step up and produce, as opposed to players you might want to trade because circumstances down the road suggest their opportunities might diminish. It's not homework, it's not work at all. It's just hoops. And if you enjoy hoops to the fullest, it makes it that much easier for your fantasy hoops teams to win.

Good luck this season and have a blast! Be sure to check back throughout the WNBA season for plenty of analysis to help you build a championship roster.