FJ, a quick heads-up: you jumped the gun just a bit on the final standings. There was one more day's points (actually just two games) to count, and I think the rankings did change slightly because of it. For example, Ballin' Above All seems to have leapfrogged Skeptic Con Urquell into the #5 spot. You might want to update the opening image when you get a chance.

OK, onto some overall thoughts on the league ...

First off, thanks for setting the whole thing up, FJ. I'd never joined a fantasy league before and wasn't sure what to expect. It was a lot simpler and more fun than I expected. Simple because of the nice TSN user interface (logical trade system, clear graphic display, lots of research options, etc); and fun ... well, partly because I won, but also because it gave me 20-25 NBA games a week to care about, as opposed to just the 4 or 5 the Ws play.

Also: (sorry if this sounds like an Oscars speech, but I hardly ever win stuff) thanks to all the players, especially the ones in the top 10 who kept me constantly on my toes. I had to start following the league a lot more closely about halfway through (much to the chagrin of my wife!) to keep my closest pursuers out of the top spot. It might seem now like I ran away with the thing, but believe me, at certain points I was sweating. I have to say, FJ, you definitely called the fight way too early by announcing like two months ago that I was going to win. At that point I was only 280 points ahead; and Red Ape, my constant nemesis, went on to cut my lead under 200 points, with a couple more trades than me to boot. 200 points is not a big cushion: a couple of bad breaks and -- poof. Fortunately, for me, he was the one that got the bad breaks, and I was able to build up a more comfy lead, bank an insurance trade or two, and coast from there.

OK, onto my tips. I think I'll take your five, add a few comments, and then add a point or two of my own.

Agree 100%, and I would add to that: timing is critical. It's not always smart to use your trades the Wednesday you get them. Often you can maximize your total "games played" by pulling the trigger on the exact right day. Basically every week you can map out a "trade plan" of what players and on what days you're going to buy. My wife, who works as an investment banker, likened this process to hedge fund trading. (As a humble graphic designer, I wouldn't really know...)
Mostly agree, though I think holding onto 1 or 2 really undervalued guys who produce modestly but regularly and increase your team value isn't the worst strategy in the world. I made a huge amount of money on two players -- Andrew Bynum and Andris Biedrins -- by buying and "waiting for them to realize their potential." I did sell each of them once or twice, but in general didn't sell just because they had a "thin" week upcoming. I'm not sure it's that wise to burn your trades (which are very valuable things) just to upgrade from one $2M player to another.
Agreed. I love the research link, especially the Schedule Analyzer and Yesterday's Top Performers. I didn't pay much attention to the Best Value part, only because the guys there tend to be the really, really cheap guys, who are only "Best Values" 'cos they cost like ten bucks and produce 7 points a game. You get what you pay for...
Actually, I disagree with this ... or at least I don't see any particular value in it. I think it's always best to max out your point-performance, even if it means in your next trade you might have to buy marginally cheaper rather than marginally more expensive. I guess I'll be putting this to the test from the start in Season 2, since somehow I managed to buy five guys whose total value is exactly $35M.
You know it! Actually, I was going to say pick whoever Scott Ape picks. Almost every trade he made I was either jealous of or fearful of. A lot of times I wanted to buy the exact guys he had bought but avoided it 'cos I didn't think it was in the competitive spirit of the game. For the second season, I picked at least two players who were total sleepers for his team.

Okay, I don't want to reveal all my secrets, but here are a couple more:

6. Google your players. I never visited any of the million fantasy tip sites, 'cos it's just too much of a time drain. A simple "Google News" search of a guy you're considering buying will list info from all the big fantasy and news sites, including players' injury status (not only major injuries, but also little ouchies that can keep them out for a game and kill your team) and whether they're likely to be getting more (or less) playing time in the future.
7. Buy "blue chippers." As many of them as possible. This is one of the few ideas I had at the beginning of the league that didn't change as the season went on. I mean, it's cool to find diamonds in the rough, but you're not going to rack up tons of points by being cute. Guys like Kobe, Garnett, Gilbert, Kidd, Nash, Brand, Nowitzki et al. are expensive for a reason: they're almost guaranteed to get you 30+ points; and if you're lucky, they may go off for 70 or 80. Oh, and as a bonus special insider tip for anyone who's read this far I will add one corollary (call it #7b) to this: BUY DWYANE WADE AND KEVIN GARNETT. Seriously, they're in a class by themselves -- the bluest of the blue chippers. If you look at total TSNP, they're a good 6-7 points per game over the other NBA superstars. I bought Wade as much as I could (after his injury) but unfortunately I never had quite enough cash on hand to upgrade to Garnett.

Finally, I wanted to address this point...
Mightymadskillz brought the spectre of this earlier, and I have to say it bummed me out a little. Sort of like finding out your favorite baseball player is a juicer ... I mean, why would anyone cheat in a friggin' fantasy league? For the honor of being mentioned in this one diary, which, to date, has a grand total of zero responses? Seriously, at least if you cheat in the second season, you'll get a lovely GSoM t-shirt for your trouble.

As far as how to check if people are cheating, FJ: if you have a few minutes to do it, it seems like a simple enough matter. I would think all you have to do is (1) log onto the TSM site as us; and (2) click on our "Trade History." I believe we all got 32 trades total to start, right? And they're all recorded under "Trade History." If the total (trades remaining + trades made) is greater than 32, then clearly the player has cheated, and should be either kicked out of GSoM or forced to edit baumerworld's posts for the next year. If it's too much of a pain for you to check everyone, you could institute a "random testing" policy, whereby every few days you check a few people in the Top 10 to make sure they haven't been up to any shenanigans.

Anyway, that's my theory. Tell me if you think it'd work.

Lots more thoughts on the game, of course, but I think that's enough for now. If any players are still reading: I'd love to hear their comments, complaints, and war stories.

For some reason I thought when the website said "Season 1 is Over" that they had updated the standings to reflect last night's games.

Change has been made.

  How about -500 points to start?

A lot of people have requested some sort of message board to talk trash and share insights on the GSoM Fantasy League. I say throw up some more diaries (maybe a new one every week with updated standings?) about the fantasy league on GSoM. Everyone seems to be having a great time and loves to talk about it.

Post any other ideas you might have. Nice to see a bunch of people are enjoying it.