The Fantasy Doctor is back. For those of you who are rookies to the Fantasy Doctor’s column, let me break down my credentials: The Dime Fantasy Hoops League is intense and is filled with some of the industry’s most knowledgeable hoop heads. Our league is a three-player keeper league. We just completed our 6th season. The Fantasy Doctor has four of the six chips, including the last three in a row.

In this column, I’ll not only be providing daily fantasy updates, but over the course of the next two weeks I’ll be dropping my rankings at each position, my sleepers list, players to avoid, a mock draft from an expert league with other fantasy dorks and a top fantasy player wish list. I will help you win your league and at the very least, remain competitive.

Before you even start doing your research though, you need to formulate a strategy. Yes, you need a strategy. More than in any other sport, fantasy basketball is a thinker’s game.

If you are in a rotisserie-style league – a league in which each category is weighted the same and your stats compile throughout the season – you can’t afford to be at the bottom in any category. If you’re in a head-to-head league where you win the week based on how many categories you take over seven days, you can afford to be weak in a category or two.

Examples of rotisserie vs. head-to-head.

Rotisserie – seven categories – Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, FG%, FT%, 3 pointers made. The league has 10 teams. If you have the most rebounds at the end of the season you get a score of “10″ for that category and the least rebounds you get a “1″ for that category. The team with the most points is the winner at the end of the year. There are no playoffs for this format.

Head to Head – Same amount of categories as above and the same amount of teams. In this case though, each week you are playing a different team and at the end of the week who whoever has won more categories wins the week.

There are hybrids of these two types of leagues but this is the gist:

Any way your league is run, you need to draft for categories. I want solid players who won’t kill me in any category. Even in some of his prime years, Shaq has been a fantasy disaster because he shoots so many free throws that you know you are going to lose the FT% category. I don’t care if I like the player or enjoy watching him play, I just care that he puts up the stats for the categories for which I draft him. I also like players who I know what I’m going to get when I take them. Of course I like projecting stats and picking sleepers as much as anyone, but there is a time and place for that and it isn’t with my first group of picks. If you strategize it right, there are always guys who you are going to value much much higher than do other teams. Get your star in the first few rounds and then find players who fit categories that you need, that don’t hurt you other places, and use those players to round out your roster and win the majority of categories, rather than dominate a few.

Some food for thought. Welcome back to the Fantasy Doctor’s Blog.