H2H Road Map

As an H2H newbie, I fully expect this season to be an ongoing learning experience.  The biggest challenge will probably be figuring out how to adjust and improve my team after the seasons begins and my team's strengths and weaknesses become clearer.  My league has 12 teams and each team has five bench spots so the waiver wire is going to be pretty thin throughout the year.  Since I'm playing with a bunch of new people, I'm not sure how easy it'll be to make trades.  I've got a few question marks on my roster so for now I'm just going to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

Despite being new to H2H, I do have some specific strategies that I will employ that I believe will lead to success:

Understand Your Opponent

This is probably the biggest difference between H2H and roto.  Most teams you face throughout the season will have some sort of team profile: Big Ball, Small Ball, Efficiency, etc.  While you hopefully have your own team profile, it is beneficial to assess your opponent's strengths and weaknesses in deciding which players on your team to play.  Quick example: if your opponent is a classic Big Ball squad and you have a Small Ball team, then you just play your best players and hope to win the x-factor categories (in this case, probably PTS).  However, let's say you and your opponent both have Big Ball teams.  In that case, I might focus on trying to exploit your opponent's weaknesses and start a few guys who can help you win 3's and AST.  It all depends on the makeup of your team and how it matches up with your opponent's team.

Load Up the Lineup 

My league has daily transactions so my plan is to never leave anyone on the bench unless their position eligibilities forces me to do so (e.g. I have a center on the bench and both C and Util spots are already filled).  Even though I am trying to win via the efficiency strategy, the benefits still outweigh the drawbacks in having as many players generating numbers as possible.  Bear in mind that this means you'll need to check your team on a daily basis, which I think shouldn't be asking too much if you're a serious fantasy basketball player.

Ready to Contribute

In order to successfully load up the lineup, I'm going to need to have a bench that can contribute right away.  This means not unloading from the bench any guys who are injured (e.g. Manu, Ellis, Arenas) or who may not get substantial minutes early on (e.g. Eric Gordon, Jerryd Bayless, Wilson Chandler).  In roto, you're afforded the luxury of keeping guys on your bench and waiting for them to blow up since game caps limit how often you can run your players out on the court.  In H2H, stashing guys on your bench is a risky bet because it essentially eats up a spot that could be used by someone else who can add value to your team right now.

Flexible When Possible

Due to the frequent lineup adjustments, it is to your advantage to have players with flexible position eligibilities (e.g. PF/C's, SG/SF's).  This will help you play as many guys each day as possible.  Unfortunately, my team is not very flexible, as I seem to have a crap load of PG's and PF/C's (doesn't help me with SG and SF).  Now this is not to say you wouldn't go after a guy who isn't eligible for multiple positions; I'm not going to ding Deron Williams because he only plays PG.  But if you're deciding between two players who offer fairly equal value, there's something to be said about going with the one who can play the most positions.

Ride the Hot Hand (aka "the Ramon Sessions Phenomenon")

Invariably, there will be a couple random guys that come out of nowhere and go off for a few games.  In roto, I might dismiss that as flukey and not worth my time.  But in H2H, I'm going to grab that guy and run him out on the court as long as he's hot.  Once he fizzles out -- which we know he will -- then you can move on to the next flavor of the week.  The key is to always have one spot on your bench that you can quickly swap guys in and out on a whim.  Utilizing this strategy, I'm expecting to squeak out a couple cheap victories during the season.