My advice:
1. Find a theme that seems fun. This can be the right theme mixed with the right people.
2. Find a theme the breeds creativity. These stupid themes that have caps over 57 Mil are useless. I prefer themes that are 52 Mil and lower. A guy who has since left the site used to complain that every cap was too high and we came up with an idea for a 20 mil cap league. I think we did like 5 seasons or more of this league.
3. Draft about 19300 minutes and a good amount of threes. I will let you figure out that number.
4. Get more assists and rebounds (look at 70% assist 40% oreb and 100% dreb is good for the low end) than you think are reasonable and target 12.5-16.5 points of usage. Especially when caps in the 48 Mil range and over.
5. Do not ignore the bench, and look to have a team that is reasonably 8 deep.
6. Draft the 12-13 LeBron and 66-67 Wilt when ever the theme allows.
7. Defense is important, but make it a part of the premium players you draft.
8. Fouls can wreck your team more than almost everything. Drafting a 3200 minute Olajuwon may only give you 3000 minutes due to the world of foul trouble you experience. If you are in an exclusive theme and you have Olajuwon that likely means you will have to deal with competitors that have Wilt, Robinson, Shaq, Howard, Mcadoo, and Moses and Karl Malone that will draw huge amounts of fouls against a hack happy Dream. Account for the lost minutes somewhere.
9. There are people in these leagues that can be irritating, but most people are pretty cool. Ignore or jab the hell out of those you don't like (your choice), but it is still worth it. Most people are pretty awesome, and since themes where the best players are (and the most competitive too) this is where you come to get the most out of the sim. OL players typically play the same crap time after time and talk about having a great rating. Rating is BS. I have taken over more dead in the water teams in progressive leagues than I can count, and I tend to try stupid experiments, but ultimately I have fun.
10. Again, have fun and have thick skin. Oh and prepare to lose some. I was in the top 10 on the list of most wins, no championships. I took some time to learn what the best players were doing and the type of team I like to run. I love high rebounding, good assists, solid efg teams. My teams usually run high on fouls and turnovers and I can often over shoot usage by a little. I also have teams with a poor foul draw rate compared to many others, and when our draw rates are good our free throw percentages are poor.