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If youre reading this, its because youve joined the high-flying ranks of auction league ownership. Perhaps youve even endeavored to throw your arms around that most noble king of all fantasy sports; the auction keeper hoops league.Congratulations on choosing the high life!Lets get busy.The basicsIn ESPNs standard auction format, your reign as owner will commence with a wad of cash, and an empty roster to fill.You start with $200.You have 13 roster spots.You start 10 players at the following positions: PG, SG, SF, PF, C, G, F, 3 UTIL and 3 BenchYou can pick any categories you like, but we like: FG%, FT%, 3PM, REB, AST, STL, BLK, PTSThis is still America, so youre still free to chose the scoring system that suits your league best, be it Head to Head, traditional Rotisserie, Categories, Points and so on.How to winAbove all else, make a plan. I dont have a plan for retirement, but I sure as hell have a plan for my fantasy basketball auction draft. Dont judge me.What is my recommended plan? Spoiler; it involves using your calculator app. But because I care, Im about to do the calculating for you.Step 1: When bidding on a top 5 player, calm yourselfIm jump-starting this with a warning. Before performing all of the other tasks and functions Im about to recommend, remember one thing: first round snake-draft players are going to require a 150 percent over-investment of your imaginary money.Youre paying a premium for statistical peace of mind. Youre paying for name value, for the sense of odd identification that occurs when your superstar shows up on SportsCenter. Just know going into this that overpaying for stars may not be the way to go.Step 2: Pre-draft homework1. Properly valuate your player pool into an easy to remember ratioThis is an eggheady way of saying figure out how much money your league has to spend on the amount of available value.I write for ESPN, so Im trying to figure out how many dollars I have to spend per Player Rater point. How do I do this? Its a similar calculation to determining auction keeper league inflation.First (stick with me), determine the depth of your leagues player pool. Lets say youre in a 10-team league with 13 man rosters. Thats 130 players.Second, I determine aggregate production. Again, because I write for ESPN, I use Player Rater points as units of production.And because I have no life, I know that 130 players produce an aggregate 900 Player Rater points. So, we are spending for 900 points of available production.Third (stick with me), I determine how much money my league has to spend. A 10-team league with $200 budget per team has $2,000 to spend.So our equation looks like this -$2,000 for 900 Player Rater points of production.$2.22 per Player Rater point.When you have this ratio in mind, its a good way to calibrate what a player is actually worth on the fly... especially in the mid-to-late stages of your draft when owners have overspent on big names.(Going back to my Calm Yourself missive: in 2015-16 Stephen Curry had one of the great fantasy seasons in the history of everything, producing 23.6 Player Rater points. Going by our $2.22 per point valuation, that means Currys pure production was worth $52.39. As I write this, Curry is going for $74 in ESPN auction drafts... and thats 2016-17-with-Durant Steph Curry.)2. Downgrade certain players if your league counts turnoversThis is a subtle tactic that gets ignored far too often.Turnover leagues penalize players who tend to rely on volume (points, assists) to produce their fantasy value. When turnovers are factored in, certain players can lose 10-25 percent of their value.Heres a quick list of players to downgrade in rough order of importance (in terms of how much turnovers ding their overall value); DeMarcus Cousins, Dennis Schroder, DAngelo Russell, Reggie Jackson, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, Rajon Rondo, Damian Lillard, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, Goran Dragic, Elfrid Payton, Tyreke Evans, Victor Oladipo, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Rose, Nicholas Batum, Dwyane Wade, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.Alternately, big name big men like Anthony Davis, Hassan Whiteside, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Karl-Anthony Towns get upgraded. All big men this side of DeMarcus Cousins gets at least a small bump up.So do efficient wings that play more catch and shoot like Kawai Leonard, Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson.But point guards with high assist-to-turnover ratios like Chris Paul, Mike Conley and George Hill get the biggest bump. This is because theyre producing in assists without hurting you like a Wall or Westbrook.Paul -- the rare (only) PG who racks up elite usage and assists without turning the ball over at a high rate -- gets the single largest boost in valuation.3. Break down your player pool by projected dollar value and position into tiersJoe Kaiser has already done most of the work for you. And Joe Kaiser knows his tiers.4. Figure out which positions suffer from positional scarcityBecause ESPN is generous with its PF/C classification, centers arent as scarce as youd believe. Value at the small forward position is available in abundance.On the other hand... both backcourt positions are looking a little thin. Kaiser has an excellent piece in our draft kit underscoring the need to lock up star PGs early. I would add that once you get past the DeMar DeRozan (who will be overrated in your draft)/Evan Fournier (underrated) tier, shooting guard dries up with swift and sudden force.5. While considering positional scarcity, make sure to prioritize players with multi-positional eligibilityMulti-positional eligibility is the single most underrated boost of a players fantasy value. Giannis Antetokounmpo, already a fast-rising fantasy darling, gets even more of my auction dollar due to his qualifying at three positions.6. Make a list of players who carry and alternately destroy certain categoriesDeAndre Jordan can help dominate blocks. He will help dominate field goal percentage. But Jordan will absolutely kneecap your free throw percentage.In a non-points league, I dont even think about rostering Jordan. Instead, I make a list of players that force owners to throw out an entire category. Then, I make sure to bid those guys up (Jordan and Andre Drummond top my list this preseason).Prioritize players like Whiteside who can carry teams in blocks and field goal percentage without hurting his teams anywhere else. Jonas Valanciunas subtly adds positive weight to a teams field goal percentage, while not dragging said team down anywhere else.And again, if youre prepping to draft in a turnover league, make sure to fold in which players produce drag.7. Make a list of players youre going to target at different stages of your draftIf you want to go stars and scrubs, build a plan around the stars you want. The single best aspect of an auction draft is that every player is available. You cant get snaked out of a targeted player.If you want Durant, you can have him. You just may not have a lot of depth at other positions. If you want to follow Joes advice and lock in an elite PG early, you can do it.But also list backup options if the price gets too high. An auction draft, like life, is all about options.If you want to forgo $60-plus players and go more for across-the-board depth, you can get a little more precise in your planning up and down the roster.8. Make a list of end-game sleepersGuys who might be worth an extra buck or two at the end of a draft when everyones punchy.Heres a quick look at some of my favorite end-game picks so far; Jusuf Nurkic, Rodney Hood, Markieff Morris, Robert Covington, Otto Porter, Stephen Adams, Dario Saric and Nikola Mirotic.9. Make a list of players to ultimately avoid, but bid upAuction drafts allow you the flexibility to also pinpoint players you definitely dont want.This is more important than youd think. In the heat of a draft, Ive gotten sucked into drafting a player who was off my brand because I couldnt believe he was going for so cheap. I still get night sweats thinking about the time I paid $12 for Evan Turner.At the same time, keep the same players in mind for bidding up. When you know a player you want to avoid is lingering $10-$20 below what hell eventually go for, jump in and raise the ante.Every dollar you can bleed out of a fellow owner for one of his or her targets means theres aggregate value being left on the table. It will really come in handy late in your draft when youre hoarding players in the $2-$9 range.10. Make a list of your fellow owners favorite teamsKnow that owners tend to overpay for players from their favorite NBA squads, because they want to see their players in the games they watch.Also know that Knicks and Lakers fans tend to really suffer in this area. (Dont believe me? Lakers Exceptionalism is now an accepted term in the NBA lexicon.)Again, this helps when figuring out which players to bid up.11. Dont puntI cant stress this enough. Dont go into your draft thinking you can ignore a single category. You win by building depth across all positions and categories.Step 3: Making your actual planYou can probably tell Im not a fan of Stars and Scrubs.Stars and Scrubs is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Here, you focus big bucks on three to four ringers, then filll the gaps with cheap role players.ddddddddddddHeres a typical Stars and Scrubs roster for a 13-man, $200 budget. Im using actual current average auction value. Note that $174, or 87% of the budget, is spent on three players:PG: Chris Paul $53 SG: James Harden $73 SF: Marvin Williams $1 PF: Ryan Anderson $4 C: DeMarcus Cousins $59 G: Wesley Matthews $1 F: Markieff Morris $1 UTIL: George Hill $2 UTIL: Alex Len $2 UTIL: Otto Porter $1 BENCH: Gary Harris $1 BENCH: Danny Green $1 BENCH: Al Jefferson $1This team is way too top heavy. Remember, the top player overall generally generates 20-24 Player Rater points. Which means a 24-Player Rater point player would only be worth about $52 in terms of hard value. Thats for an off-the-charts historic type of statistical performance, along the lines of... 2015-16 Steph Curry or 1974-75 Bob McAdoo.But the truth is that we pay more for the big names because A) were suckers for marquee value and B) we want piece of mind. Youre paying a markup because you know that Harden, Lillard and Cousins will anchor your team. And its also just fun to roster those guys.Just dont forget to keep in mind that using our $2.22 per Player Rater point ratio, 2015-16 Stephen Curry -- the number one player on the Player Rater -- produced only $52 in actual value.When youre paying that kind of markup across multiple players, youre left wide open to injuries, trades, slumps, and scheduling abnormalities. It also places a lot of pressure on an owner to be resourceful on the waiver wire, since you will undoubtedly be scouring for new scrubs to plug in when other scrubs dont pan out.Owners new to auction leagues tend to fall into this strategy by mistake. Many a time Ive seen new owners get bid happy and scarf up three of the first eight or nine superstars. Just like in the real NBA, the main issue with Stars and Scrubs is that if you whiff on one of your stars, its difficult to recover.This isnt fantasy football. In fantasy football, you can whiff on a pick or two in your draft and recover on the wire. Fantasy basketball doesnt offer a whole of free agent depth... especially after the first month of the season.With apologies to our Fantasyland pigskin-pushing brethren, a fantasy basketball draft holds a lot more season-long significance.Of course, there is another way to go about all of this. You can promise yourself you wont spend more than $28-32 on a single player.You have to weather the initial storm, napping comfortably while other owners go hog wild for Russell Westbrook at $77 (his current price on ESPN.com) and Durant at $68. Because youve done your homework that I previously assigned -- you will do that -- you will notice bargains starting to fall through the cracks. A team built with this approach might look like this:PG: Eric Bledsoe $21 SG: Jimmy Butler $31 SF: Rudy Gay $9 PF: LaMarcus Aldridge $24 C: Pau Gasol $28 G: Kemba Walker $27 F: Serge Ibaka $14 UTIL: Gorgui Dieng $5 UTIL: Nerlens Noel $11 UTIL: Goran Dragic $14 BENCH: Ricky Rubio $6 BENCH: Myles Turner $3 BENCH: Trevor Ariza $7I agree, this doesnt have the same sizzle as having Harden and DMC, but this is a winning roster that gives you tons of options.The benefits? You are guarding against a single injury destroying your teams prospects. You are building solid foundations across the board in every category. You have more flexibility when setting your lineups. And you have more flexibility when making trades.Step 4: Draft night1. Track how other owners are managing their moneyIf youre not using ESPN Fantasys snappy auction draft engine, I recommend a spreadsheet that tracks available money left by position, and even by category.2. Dont get sucked into bidding warsDont let draft over-ebullience suck you into a mano-y-mano, womano-y-mano or womano-y-womano test of mettle. Like DeNiro in Heat, dont get into a situation you cant walk away from at any time. Thats how people get shot near the airport.3. Bid up players you dont want and/or need.Again, even if its a player you disdain, dont be shy about jumping in early and bidding a player up a few bucks... as long as youre confident the price will keep soaring.Youll never forget the moments where the floor drops out from beneath youre feet and youre holding the bag. In 2009, I once ended up with J.J. Hickson... it was very embarrassing, trust me.4. Dont reach for hot sleepersThese are players who are referred to as sleepers in draft guides to the point where they reach a tipping point and become the existential opposite of hot sleeper, the Im trying to look smart post-draft regret malaise pick.Once players are touted? The sleeper prefix becomes an oxymoron. A true sleeper is a player who produces far more value than his price. Nothing more. Thats my kind of hot.5. Dont panic once established fantasy starters at a certain position are all almost off the boardThe last mid-round point guard, the last center that gets 2.0 blocks... these moments inspire overbidding.Thats why its important to note the second-to-last player in each tier. The second-to-last player in a tier usually ends up as the bargain.They show up in the lull. The hangover period before the panic that accompanies that oh, #*$@, this is the last good shooting guard left stage.6. Dont engage in craven attempts at Gordon Gekko/Post-Season-2 Walter Whiteian gamesmanshipDont say things designed to get into other owners minds. We see you coming from a mile away. Dont draft like a boss. Youre not a boss. R.C. Buford is a boss. Pat Riley is the boss of bosses. You are, at best, a James Dolan; a guy who fell upwards into an ownership situation and celebrates blues music with a disquieting intensity.7. Dont offer stupid trades during the draftDont be That Guy. That Guy is the guy who offers you DeMar DeRozan and Jarrett Jack for Kawhi Leonard. (Coincidentally, That Guy tends to drive a BMW 3-series, or rides a bike.)8. Identify when your draft is entering what I call hangover periodsThese are the pockets of relative inactivity after owners have hit hot-spots where theyve spent a large amount of their budget.Hot-spots of overspending usually occur with the top 12 players, so-called hot sleepers, and when the final surefire starters at certain positions (especially center and point guard) are almost off the board.After these frenzies, lulls appear. Thats the hangover period. Theres less money available for larger projected value.Thats when you sneak in and get those players in the $5-$25 range at a discount. And thats how you win a league.9. Just as the top 25 players go for too much money, players 26-130 go for too littleLets look at the median. The 65th-best player in fantasy last year was Andrew Wiggins. He produced 5.54 Player Rater points. Using our ratio, he produced $12 of value.This year, the 65th-highest salary in ESPN auctions (Marcin Gortat) is going for $8. So in 65th-pick territory, you could be getting $12 of value for just $8. Thats a savings of fifty percent.Last season, the players who finished in the 110-120 range on the Player Rater still averaged about 3 Player Rater points in production. Which means that those players are actually worth $6 to $7 dollars. 110-120 is $1 territory in our Live Results.10. Gear up for the end gameThe end-game is often the most important part of your auction draft. Its definitely the part of the draft that produces the highest ratio of aggregate profanity per pick.The profanity is produced by your fellow owners, swearing at the heavens that a valuable producer just went for a couple of bucks. (Per example, Jonas Valanciunas for $2? @*#&, dude!)I like to sit on just enough money to have the ability to go to $3 on a couple of end-game guys. I dont like to save too much more than that though, because theres nothing more lacking in Roto Honor than being the guy or girl that leaves...11. Money on the TableDont leave money on the table. Dont leave any more than a buck at the absolute most. Any more than that, and your fellow owners should free to mock you to their hearts content.Leaving money on the table meant you thought you could get a little cute. And trust me, if you were even a little cute, youd be doing more interesting things than participating in an auction basketball draft.One final noteDeep breaths before the first throw, green tea at the halfway mark, then cold brew for the endgame.Before the draft? Exhale. Mediate. Medicate. Have a Manhattan. A Matcha. A Manhattan with Matcha. Stretch. Whatever you can do to relax, do it. An overabundance of adrenaline is going to fuel the first half hour. Players are going to go for way too much. Keep your cool.Halfway through, get up and walk around the table. Start ramping up your energy intake as the other owners begin to flag.When youre at the precipice of $1 territory?Jumping jacks. Cold brew. Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Whatever you need to do to make sure youre not as punchy as your fellow owners. This is where you sneakily bring your A game, friend.Because in the end? The very end of the end game is where imaginary champions are forged.And that, fellow fake basketball enthusiasts, is as profound as I get. Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys Cheap NFL Autographed Jerseys Jerseys NFL Cheap Wholesale Jerseys From China Jerseys From China Cheap Jerseys Online ' ' '