How is position eligibility determined?

I saw that Fantasy Baseball has rules regarding positional eligibility, but I didn’t see anything about that for Fantasy Basketball. I know various hosting sites have different eligibility (ex. Beal being SG/SF on Yahoo and Fantrax, but just SG on ESPN), and some positions seem to be missing (ex. Richaun Holmes is only listed as F here, while other sites have him at F/C).

How does Ottoneu determine positional eligibility for Fantasy Basketball? And are we / will we be able to request position changes as the season goes on?

Ottoneu Fantasy Basketball will be launching with a 9-man starting lineup that will consist of 3 guards, 2 forwards, 1 center, 1 G/F spot, 1 F/C spot, and one Util spot that can be used by any player with position eligibility. Position eligibility will be set by our data provider and will be G, F, C, G-F, or F-C. Players will mostly have single eligibility, with about 31% of players having dual eligibility. I could see lineup options and position eligibility evolving over the next few seasons, but this is what we are going with for 2021-22.

We will not be making manual changes to positional eligibility this season.

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There’s some definite weirdness with some of the classifications (i.e., some guys qualify for something whereas others don’t who seem to have a better case).

But it all sort of evens out in terms of establishing replacement-level for the position and thus values, at least among G and F. I wound up doing projected values with a couple different sets of qualifications and it doesn’t really change values since replacement-level is basically the same for all positions. For example, a replacement-level G is worth about the same as a replacement-level F, so it doesn’t really matter if a guy is just a G or a G/F (or just a F rather than a G/F).

In the Ottoneu player universe, C eligibility increases projected values by about a $1 (rounded up). So a F/C is worth a little more than just a F. However, the data provider seems to be pretty liberal with the C designations (the weirdness is mostly with the G vs F classifications), so most players who have some sort of claim to C eligibility have it with a few exceptions (e.g., Draymond Green).

So all-in-all, I don’t think it really makes a difference in terms of projected values for the players. Given the flexibility of the roster slots and versatility of many of the players, I would think most teams will be able to find a way to hit the weekly caps.

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@walt526 answered this really well.

I haven’t found any issues filling my lineup this week, but that’s also because I have a full roster on all of my teams. I could see some teams having issues because they have such small rosters, which obviously has nothing to do with positional eligibility. The G/F and F/C slots really should help with this too.

I know the positions are set by the data provider, but anyone know the criteria. And it’s Rotowire right?

On his player page, Richaun Holmes is listed as a C, so that’s why I’m asking. He’s also started every game this year at C, so even if he came in as a F, he should gain eligibility by this point I would think. I’m just more curious if anyone has unearthed the criteria so I can figure what’s what as the season progresses.

https://www.rotowire.com/basketball/player.php?id=3755

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Rotowire does not determine it. Our data provider is Sportradar, they determine it. We are all in the exact same boat of being beholden to whatever Sportradar decides to do. There is no clarity on their criteria.

Okay thanks, I’ll see if I can figure out their criteria then. If anyone else knows or discovers, please share.

Gonna fold this into the other thread.

It took me a while, but I think that I figured it out.

  1. Open up a new spreadsheet in Excel.
  2. In Column A, type “=rand()” and drag down to populate a few hundred cells
  3. In Column B, type “=if(a1<0.2,“C”,if(a2<0.6,“F”,“G”))”
  4. Then merge in the playerids from the Ottoneu Player Universe and to assign players their position eligibilities.
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lol Richaun Holmes is who drove me here too

Is Sportradar making any positional changes or adjustments coming into the 22-23 season, or should we assume positions will stay the same?

I have no idea, honestly.

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It looks like Sportradar made some positional eligibility changes ahead of the 2022-23 season. Just a note for any of you who are tracking this stuff closely.

I just noticed that Bojan Bogdanovic added C, which is great he’s immediately my best Center! I doubt he actually plays a minute there in Detroit this season, they have supersized that roster.

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This one (and only this one) is so egregious that I might actually re-engage with Sportradar about what the heck they are actually doing.

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I asked Sportradar today why Bogdanovic had C eligibility. They didn’t explain why but they removed it. Be warned.

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Makes sense! I already have him slotted in for 3 games at C week 1 and it looks like its letting him stay there…

Wait til tmw.

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Just to be clear: if you play someone in a position they aren’t eligible for, they will not get stats at that position.

I apologize if this is beating a dead horse, but is there possibility of midseason losing of positional eligibility? I understand from reading here and a little on slack that it is somewhat a black box, and its possible the answer is just unknown, but wanted to clarify if that is the current state of things

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