Dynasty Mind: Are You Contending or Rebuilding?

Kevin White Posted On October 13, 2023

Successful dynasty management is all about effective roster evaluation, understanding how your team matches up with the competition, and incorporating your dynasty plan to the maximum effect. The end goal of each season should be to finish first on a contending team or to finish last on a rebuilding team. Far too often dynasty managers struggle with implementing the correct strategy to help them achieve their goal and end up stuck in the middle of dynasty leagues - where they never truly contend for a title or end up too far away from the premium elite rookie draft picks which make a huge impact on dynasty rosters.

The ‘Dynasty Mind Series’ is a trio of articles to support making the right decisions to succeed in dynasty - aiding you with the optimal philosophy, process, and game theory to help you implement an effective dynasty plan towards achieving your goal of being the best, or worst, team in your dynasty league.

GAME THEORY

This series outlines the key moves to make in your dynasty leagues - focusing on the thought process that can be applied successfully to any league or situation. The idea behind the article series is to focus on strategy, plans, and moves to make without necessarily mentioning which players are buys and sells - we have plenty of excellent content here at DLF to identify assets to covet. At this stage of the season, you should be in a position to make the decision of what your end goal is for 2023 - rebuild, aim for the highest rookie draft pick or contend, and build a roster to win a championship this year.

One of the key factors to consider before implementing your strategy is league settings and league economy - understanding how the standings work, which teams make the playoffs, who gets the bye week, when the playoffs start, etc. From a league economy point of view, understand every league is different, every league has its own economy - where dynasty managers act in ways that aren’t uniform across your league portfolio. A player’s price in one league is different in another league. A certain position could be harder to obtain in one league and the flip side where another position is readily available to acquire in another. Also, there could be a player on waivers in one league and a starter in another (Hunter Henry early in 2023).

League economies differ - Hunter Henry’s usage varied from starter, to bench player, to on waivers early in the 2023 season.

In my view, the single biggest factor in an effective dynasty strategy is accurate roster analysis. Naturally, we have bias in all facets of life, where we often overvalue what we have and undervalue what we could have. Completing an accurate assessment of your dynasty rosters it gives you the clearest picture of where your team currently sits versus the competition. Overvaluing a contending team can lead to major disappointment - remember it is always better to be a year late in implementing the attack phase trying to win a dynasty title. If you make the moves too soon with a weaker competing roster you are reducing your chances of winning a championship and increasing the chances of a longer-scale rebuild.