For basket-ball amateurs especially those who have already played the Yahoo! fantasy league before I have set up a custom league this year for ourselves, the format is head-to-head and the number of required players is 12. Even for complete beginners it is easy to play and it will allow you to really follow the NBA season while managing your team, trading, signing or releasing players etc. You can also invite your friends to join. If you have any question you can just ask it as a reply to this thread or visit the league home page.
The official league page is:
http://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/afroshanghai ; PM me for the league ID and password if you want to sign up.
My team name on the league is First Africa. Waiting for challengers to join!
Pat
P.S. The league will be starting at the same time as the NBA league therefore there is still over one month and a half to go. A Yahoo! ID is required to sign up.