Casual Fantasy Basketball?(Live Auction Draft, ESPN, 9PM EST 10/26)

[stevew]

Never to early to start thinking about it. Normally fantasy basketball pisses me off, but I was thinking i'd like to give it one more shot. Anyone interested?

I don't know which type of game to play, either head to head, or rotisserie?

To keep it simple, track the following categories
Points, Rebounds, Assists, 3pm, blocks, steals

No percentages or anything, just raw stats.

Each team maybe has 7 starters, 3 bench? So we don't have to fight over Yinka Dare, something simple like you play 4 G/F's, and then 3 F/C's? No individual positions, if you want 4 PG's, be my guest.

Anyways, these sort of things always die midseason, so I'm hoping to keep it simple and fun enough, so that it could maybe be interesting the whole season.

With only 10 players per team, I'd think we could easily make 16-20 teams. If you're interested, sign up, and we'll go from there. Most likely will be ESPN based. We could even forum draft here, or live or auto draft at ESPN.

I guess we'd have to also put some sort of limit on games played per team per 7 day week. Something like 21 player games, max, seems about right.

Interested
1. stevew
2. Lathum
3. JeeberD
4. wademoore(?)
5. heybrad
6. ajaxab
7. ronniedobbs
8. chief rum
9. CMP
10.Lychjm
11. VEX
12. TroyF
13. Qwikshot
14.

[Lathum]

I'm game.

do they do an auction style league? That was a good time.

[wade moore]

I might be in. I haven't done basketball in YEARS and I'm paying more attention to the NBA than I have in a long time, but it's still not that heavy - so something casual would be good.

[Lathum]

am I allowed to play if I live in Seattle or am I shuned?

[molson]

So we don't have to fight over Yinka Dare,

If I were you, I wouldn't draft Dare in any format (RIP)

[JeeberD]

I would join...

[Lathum]

bump

[stevew]

Yeah, I was going to bump the other day.

[heybrad]

I'd be interested.

[Ajaxab]

I'd be interested as well.

[Lathum]

Steve, you can set up an auction league on ESPN.com.

[Chief Rum]

I'm down. Never played through ESPN, though. Always Yahoo. So I don't know if there are differences there I need to be aware of.

[stevew]

Sorry, was away all weekend. Anyways, I'm going to check out ESPN tomorrow and see about setting up something. Auction league sounds good to me.

[stevew]

Shameless update and bump...

Okay, was looking at the auction format. If anyone else is still interested, we should probably get the draft started on this Wednesday or Thursday.

Would like to get 12 or so, with smaller rosters, we won't be using a ton of players, so it could be open to a lot of people.

[cmp]

I'd be interested.

[lynchjm24]

I broke my foot, ankle and leg. Seems like a good time to play Fantasy Basketball

[Lathum]

were you thinking of doing a live draft on a particular day?

ESPN has auction leagues.

[stevew]

Alright, setting it up for a 12 team league.

League set up will be head to head points based. That means each week you will have an opponent, and your players will compete against his/her.

The following Scoring will be used(this is open for discussion)
1 point-Each Point a player scores, each three pointer a player makes, each defensive rebound
2 points-Each offensive rebound, assist, steal, block
-1 point-Each Turnover

5 point bonus-each double double
10 point bonus-each triple double(unless a triple double counts as a "double double" as well.....then it will be 5 points, for a max bonus of 10 points)

And to "stay classy FOFC"
2 points-Each Technical foul, Each flagrant foul.

7 Starters each week
4 G/F's
3 F/C's

3 Bench Players
1 person IR

Weekly Roster locks

3 day waivers

18 week season
4 teams in playoffs
1 week playoffs

I went ahead and reserved OCT 25 at 9 PM EST for the auction draft. This can easily change, although I personally can't make a draft not on a sunday night.

[stevew]

From ESPN.

Rules: Auction Draft Overview


FBA09 Rules Index | Mock Auction Lobby
NOTE: For Fantasy Basketball 2009, the "Auction" draft option is available to all leagues types (Standard, Prize-Eligible and Custom). The option for "Live Auction Draft" will appear on the DRAFT SETTINGS page only after all teams have been joined by their respective owners (see instructions below).

AUCTION OVERVIEW

Click to view demo screenshot
Auction Drafts are based on a bidding format and differ considerably from standard drafts. In standard Online and Autopick drafts, Team Owners take turns picking players from an available pool. In an Auction draft, Team Owners have a fixed budget (200 fantasy dollars) to spend on a set number of players (a roster of 13 NBA players - 10 active and 3 bench).

The players to be auctioned are ranked (highest to lowest) by predicted dollar value (based on past performance) on a predetermined list. Instead of selecting a player outright, each Team Owner will take turns selecting a player to go up for auction.

Once the player is nominated for auction, the bidding begins. Team Owners are free to bid however much they feel that particular player is worth (predicted value is only a guide). Bidding continues until there is a single remaining high bid. At that point the player is awarded to the team of the highest bidder, and the bid amount is deducted from the Team Owner's funds. This process repeats until every team's roster is filled.

During an Auction draft, the system will display the nominated player's name and allow each Team Owner to bid or pass on that player. Warning, the bidding can be fast and furious for top quality players! Once the highest bidder acquires that player the system moves on to the next player on the list. What makes an Auction draft so unique, fun and challenging is that each Team Owner must juggle player talent consideration, competitive bidding strategy and solid accounting to ensure every roster slot is filled without exceeding one's budget.

Let's look at some of the recommended parameters of the ESPN FBA09 Auction draft.

PRE-DRAFT
Leagues fitting the following parameters make for a good starting point for an Auction draft type:

Teams = 10
Roster = 13 player slots (1PG, 1SG, 1SF, 1PF, 1C, 1G, 1F, 3UTIL and 3 Bench)
Scoring = 8 total categories (FG%, FT%, 3PM, REB, AST, STL, BLK, PTS)
Scoring Type options available to an Auction draft league are:

Rotisserie (Roto)
Points-Based
Head-to-Head Points
Head-to-Head: Each Category
Head-to-Head; Most Categories
Other specific Custom league settings such as multiple Team Owners, Keepers, Waiver Rules, etc. will also be supported.

Each team in an Auction draft league will have an "Edit Auction Draft Values" link available on the top-right of their main My Team page. On this page each NBA player has a predetermined value (based on projected performance), which can be customized and saved. If no values are submitted pre-draft, the system recognizes the default ESPN Experts Auction Values. When the draft begins, the values are imported into the draft application.

NOTE: If you have set your values and are NOT online when the Auction is in progress, the system will bid up to that approximate value on every player. If you have NOT set your values, the default value will be used. In both cases, these values will only be used if you are on Autobid, in which case, the system will randomly vary between 50% and 110% of the set/default values.

Auction draft leagues MUST have all teams with owners (who have joined) or the league(s) will not convert into draft mode. All teams in your league MUST have an owner a minimum of 1-hour (60 minutes) prior to the scheduled Auction Draft. Unfilled leagues will not convert into draft mode and the League Manager will have to reschedule another draft time. This does not mean all owners must be online 1-hour prior to the draft; rather, they just have to have joined their league prior to that time.

IN-DRAFT (Convert to Draft Mode)
A "Launch Auction Draft" link will be available to access off your "My Team" page 1-hour (60 minutes) prior to the scheduled start time.

Each team is given a fixed amount of $200 to fill all 13 roster slots (including bench).

A countdown clock will appear displaying the time until the first player is open for bidding.

Teams are randomly assigned in the nomination order (1-10). Nomination means when each Team Owner is required to select and submit a player to be openly bid on. Note that unlike traditional snake drafts, the nomination order will work in a straight, left-to-right (1-10, 1-10, 1-10, etc.) order.

While there are some minor strategies in player nomination, the order is mostly irrelevant in Auction drafts (since all teams can bid on any player).

Across the top of the draft app each team is represented with an icon. Your team is highlighted and the $ dollar amount displayed below each icon is the team's current balance. You can mouse over each team to get more information about them (i.e. team & owner name, maximum bid).

At any time in the draft, players can be added to the "Nominate Player" panel by highlighting that player in the PLAYERS tab and dragging/dropping them into the Nominate Player panel to right.

IN-DRAFT (The Auction Begins)
Teams have 30 seconds to nominate a player to be put up for auction. Players are nominated by selecting them in the main PLAYERS table (doing this will display the player's image and name in the Nominate Player area) and then clicking the "Nominate Player" submit button. Alternatively, you may drag a player to the "Player Queue" box. When it is your turn to nominate a player, the system will take your top player from the Player Queue instead of the main list.

If no player is selected within the 30-second time frame the system will automatically nominate a player in the following order of priority 1) the top player in the Player Queue module (if any) and 2) the highest priced player still available.

The default for all player nominations is $1. This amount can be raised by the nominating team before submitting if they want.

A successfully nominated player appears (with profile and stats) in the "On the Block" area, and the auction clock commences. The auction clock will countdown from 30 seconds. Once the clock shows 10 seconds or less remaining, any bids inside of 10 seconds remaining will reset the clock back to 10 seconds, until a bid is won.

Bids can be made on a "+1" basis (default), or by manually entering a dollar amount. There are two buttons in the application to submit a bid. The "Bid History" module displays a running log of all active bids made on the current player.

Teams can only bid to a dollar amount which allows them at least $1 for any remaining roster slots. So when the draft first begins, the maximum bid is $187 ($200 - 13 other roster slots). A team's maximum bid is viewable by hovering over the team jerseys. Once the bid max has been reached, the draft app will no longer let you submit a bid; the bid buttons will be grayed out.

Teams must draft a player to all 10 Active or "starting" roster slots. If all bench slots are full, the only players available to bid on are from unfilled active roster slots. Likewise, if any position maximum has been reached you can not bid on a player from that position (the system will not allow it).

IN-DRAFT: AUTO-BIDDING (Absentee Team Owners)
Due to the interactive nature of the Auction draft, it is highly recommended that ALL Team Owners are present when the draft begins. If you're missing 1 or 2 owners at the beginning of the draft, we recommend the LM pauses the draft until all owners can be contacted and connected. If more than 3 or 4 owners are missing, we recommend you reset the draft time to a time when all owners are available.

Each team whose owner is not present will be considered on "Autobid" and the system will actively draft for them.

The Autobid system will bid up to a randomly determined % of the player's pre-set value. As stated earlier, the bidding range for this is 50% to 110% of the set/default value. This means if a player's preset draft value is $40 the autopilot system could bid up to $44, or only just to $20. This feature was built into to allow for bargains to still be obtained in a draft with absent owners, yet still field each one a competitive team.

NOTE: At anytime during the draft, if a team is disconnected, they will automatically go on Autobid.

LEAGUE MANAGER TOOLS
League Managers have the ability to pause the draft at anytime during the draft. If this happens, the bidding clock will stop and the draft will display a "Draft is Paused" message. Once the draft begins again, the clock will reset to 30 seconds for the current bid.

League Managers have the ability to "Undo" draft picks at anytime during the draft. If this happens, the draft pick will be reversed, the player returned to the pool and bid refunded.

NOTE: If a single pick is "undone", all picks AFTER the undone pick will be undone as well. For example, if after 10 picks, the 5th pick is undone, picks 6-10 will also be undone.

League Managers also have the ability to "Reset" the draft at anytime during the draft. If this happens, all previous draft picks will be reset, all players released, and all bids refunded. The Auction draft will start over from scratch.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For the best possible performance, we recommend using a direct connection to the Internet. Users connecting from behind a firewall and/or through a proxy (such as a corporate network) should be able to participate in the auction but may experience some performance issues.

It is not recommended to use the Auction Draft on a dialup connection. Broadband access is preferred for a better user experience.

If you open the draft application and take no action, your team will NOT automatically go on Autobid. Rather the draft system thinks you are currently connected and will not make any bids (or nominations) for you. The end result of this will be that your team is completely filled with $1 players (not good!).

The entire frame of the Auction draft app can be resized, but has minimum settings to ensure proper spacing. Certain panels/windows within the draft app can be expanded and minimized.

The draft application is only supported on IE6, IE7, Firefox 2+ and Safari 3+ browsers.

NOTE: Due to internet connectivity, it is not a wise strategy to wait until there is only 1 or 2 seconds left on the clock to try to "snipe" a player. Any bid made with less than 10 seconds will reset the clock to 10 seconds remaining. More importantly, it is possible that a bid with one second left on the clock will not register due to latency on the internet, and you will lose that auction. So a word to the wise - bid for players you want but don't wait until the last second to do it.

It is not recommended, but is possible for two owners to use the same computer to participate in the Auction draft. In order to do this, both users would have to be signed in with different accounts and using different browsers to launch the draft application.

For example, one owner could be logged into a team on IE and the other on Firefox, and both could alternate nominating/bidding. Likewise, it is possible for the League Manager to make picks for another team if logged in with the absent owner's account and using a different browser to click the Nominate/Bid buttons.

[stevew]

I guess you can pm me your emails, and I will send out invites.

If by some chance, the live auction draft won't work for everyone, I guess we could try to do a forum based one?

[Lathum]

we did the draft for a football league and it was great.

my email is

[email protected]

[JeeberD]

JeeberD AT Hotmail dot com

Won't be able to make the live draft, though...

[Chief Rum]

[email protected]

[lynchjm24]

jml2424 @ yahoo.com

[Ajaxab]

I guess you can pm me your emails, and I will send out invites.

If by some chance, the live auction draft won't work for everyone, I guess we could try to do a forum based one?

I just can't make an auction draft so the forum one would work better for me.

[wade moore]

live auction draft would be tough at minimum for me, forum would definitely be better for me.

I've only played NBA fantasy once and that was liek 10 years ago - so this shoudl be interesting ;).

E-mail - wademoore AT gmail.com

[stevew]

I will send out more invites when I get home.
I also think I have a pretty solid idea for a forum auction draft if too many peeps will miss it. I will elaborate later

[Qwikshot]

pm sent

[cmp]

[email protected]

[heybrad]

heybrad at gmail.com

[stevew]

I'm seeing 11 joined, I'd say we should have 1-3 more spots available(if we go to 14).

Okay, it's apparent that at least 4 people out of 12-14 will miss a live auction draft. That kind of will make it not so much fun.

Anyways, if we do a straight forum auction here, it will take way too long, and will be a major pain in the ass to moderate.

The season starts in 14 days. Anyways, here is my proposal for a 10-12 day forum auction type draft.

Each team will get 200 points to start off with.

There will be 5 stages.

Minimum bid for each stage
stage 1-60 points
stage 2-40 points
stage 3-20 points
stage 4-10 points
stage 5-1 points


You must always have enough points left in order to fill your roster of 10 players at 1 points per player. So, for instance, the max bid would be 191 points for any single player.

You do not have to bet for every stage, and if you bet high in certain stages, you may not be able to bid for the next few stages.

So, starting Thursday morning, you will PM any bids for stage 1 to a user account I will have to use exclusively for this purpose, It will be checked once per day to determine bid winners. When I get home around 1am, I will post a list of winning bids for the next day, and we will draft it out on the forum.

You will be allowed to skip your pick and bank your points at any point in the draft. For example, if you bid 110 points in the first round hoping to get Lebron, wade, amare or kobe, and they are all gone, you can elect to bank the points and save them for later stages. But you will need to make this known, otherwise you will get the highest ranked remaining player

If you fail to post a pick, or PM a list in, you will get the highest ranked undrafted player by ESPN.


Tiebreaker Order-
I will pull names from a hat, and post the list. In event of 2 of the same bids, whomever has a higher position on the list will win the tiebreaker and move to the end of the tiebreaker order.

So if the tiebreaker list is

1.stevew
2.lathum
3. wademoore
4. etc
and me and wade bid the same for a stage, I would win the tiebreaker, and drop down to the end of the order.

I forsee that stage 5 will take a few days to draft out, as there will be a boatload of selections most likely. I will attempt to split it up into 2 days.

Schedule(subject to change)-

Thursday 16th-Bids for stage 1 due by 11:59 EST-you may also submit a list of players at this point as well.

Friday 17th-Draft stage one. Forum draft over @ 11:59EST. in the event of someone becoming a slowsy, we'll work out time limits with a more ridgid schedule the next draft day

Saturday 18th-All bids for stage 2 due by 11:59 EST

Sunday 19th-Stage 2 selections due by 11:59 EST

Monday 20th-all bids for stage 3 due by 11:59est

Tuesday 21st-stage 3 selections due by 11:59 EST

Wednesday 22nd-Stage 4 bids due by 11:59est

Thursday 23rd-stage 4 selections due by 11:59est

Friday 24th-stage 5 bids due by 11:59est

Saturday 25th-stage 5, first 1/2 due
Sunday 26th-stage 5, second half due

Monday-set rosters for game week 1
tuesday-week 1 starts.


Does that seem clear to everyone? I understand it, but I'm not sure if everyone will. Please post any and all questions.

[TroyF]

[email protected]

[vex]

[email protected]

[stevew]

Okay, i have 13 down, need an email for Ajaxab, and one more owner. We'll cap it at 14.

[lynchjm24]

I'd have to bail if it's a forum auction, I don't have consistent enough access to have you guys get tied up on me.

I'll follow and see what the outcome is.

[JeeberD]

I'd have to bail if it's a forum auction, I don't have consistent enough access to have you guys get tied up on me.

I'll follow and see what the outcome is.

Ditto

My schedule is all over the place...

[stevew]

The ESPN site is flexible where you can set values. If you miss the auction draft if its live it probably wouldn't be the end of the world

I'm torn cause I would like as many people to play as we can

Live ESPN auction would end up being so much easier

I'd like to get a headcount over the next day as to a preference cause any kind of forum draft needs to start soon

A live draft has to be on Sunday night for me

[Chief Rum]

The ESPN site is flexible where you can set values. If you miss the auction draft if its live it probably wouldn't be the end of the world

I'm torn cause if like as many people to play as we can

Live ESPN auction would end up being so much easier

I'd like to get a headcount over the next day as to a preference cause any kind of live needs to start soon

A live draft has to be on Sunday night for me

Sundays are my best day for this.

[Lathum]

i vote live draft

[stevew]

I spend about 6 hours a night in a car. So if I appear to be indecisive, it's cause I'm bored and have a ton of time to think things over. If my posts don't make sense, it's cause I typed them out on my Blackberry one handed, probably going 70mph on cruise control.

[stevew]

Alright, ive been busy as shit, so I'm sorry i didn't update this.

There will be a live draft through ESPN this sunday night. Tomorrow I'm going to go through and purge whomever can't/doesnt want to be in, or hasn't confirmed.

I got a couple PM's, but if you're still interested drop me a line. you don't have to attend the Auction draft, but it will be better for you if you do I'm sure. It will automatically enter up until your top limit on a player.

I'm probably going to go in and tweak the lineup rules a bit. Chances are that someone with 7PF's could roll everyone else under the current rules. I'll probably just define the positions a tad better, something like 2 PG/SG, 2, SG/SF 2 SF/PF, 2 PF/C. 3 bench. That's 8 guys instead of 7, but should be a bit more delicate balance.

[JeeberD]

I'll be out of town all next week without computer access, so I guess you better count me out...

[Racer]

If there's room or you need an even number, I'll join.

[stevew]

Okay, i went in and deleted Jeeber I think(Eckberg?). I also think ajaxab was out, so we're down to 12, but maybe 14. If racer can post or pm his email, i can add him to the list.

Lathum and HeyBrad! need to confirm, otherwise I'll have to delete you guys so we can live draft.


I have the following down, if you're not interested I'd appreciate if you let me know so i can add someone.

Sorry, some of you guys I'm having a hard time placing real name-FOFC name.

Me
Troy F
Vex
Wade
Rum
Craig P
Lynchjm
Quickshot
Matt W


Unconfirmed

Lathum
HeyBrad
Racer
Chris 3267

I think that's 13.

[stevew]

Settings-
8 players, 2 bench, I'll also open 2 IR slots after I figure out how they work.

2 Guards(PG or SG)
2 Forwards(SF or PF)
2 PF/C(duh)
2 UTIL(any position)

[stevew]

One final bump-

13 teams, the schedule should encorporate bye weeks. I'll have to glance over and make sure that everyone gets the same amount of games, shouldn't be hard.

Anyone not confirmed by 7pm tomorrow will get booted, the draft has to lock in by 8pm.

yet to confirm-
Racer
Lathum
heybrad
chris(some numbers)

[Lathum]

I never got the invite, can you resend?

[Lathum]

in

[chris3627]

Was fiddling around and noticed on the player projections as you switch between the espn scoring and fofc scoring, the small forwards disappear and you can't edit a dollar value for them. They're ranked in the system, they just don't show up.

[Racer]

in.

[stevew]

I would assume they will be.

[stevew]

I had to adjust positions to get lebron to appear.

I guess we're playing 1PG/SG/SF/PF/C 3 utility, cause otherwise it doesn't work.

8 active/2 bench. Dunno why LeBron, et al weren't there, but they should be there now.

Sorry, didn't realize their software was going to be so fucking stupid.

[Chief Rum]

I had to adjust positions to get lebron to appear.

I guess we're playing 1PG/SG/SF/PF/C 3 utility.

8 active/2 bench. Dunno why LeBron wasn't there, but he should be there now.

It wasn't just LeBron. It was all SFs. Glad if they all appear now, though.

[Chief Rum]

BTW, might be too late for people to do this with the draft in less than an hour, but if you're not used to this sort of draft, I highly recommend getting into one of the mock auctions. It showed me a lot of things that, I think, if I had gone in blind on, I would have been really hurting.

[stevew]

draft is now open.

[wade moore]

well shit. what happened to the forum draft?

ohwell.

[lynchjm24]

well shit. what happened to the forum draft?

ohwell.

You have to see your team. Well if it ever picks you one. 60 picks in and you have no one.

[Chief Rum]

You have some headcases, wade. Lemme know if you want to trade for Sheed and JHoward. ;)

[Chief Rum]

So how does adding/dropping players work, with the points and all? Never been in a league like this.

[stevew]

standard 3 day waiver
Lineups lock on the first player game of the week, you play all week Sunday to saturday I think.

[Chief Rum]

Well, I mean with the dollar amounts, though. Or does it just assess your pickups as $1? And do player values change?

Or is it now a straight league, values are done, we have our teams and can pickup and drop who we want?

[stevew]

yeah standard now

[wade moore]

Guess i might as well give up now.

This sucks.

[Qwikshot]

Guess i might as well give up now.

This sucks.

Sadly, I feel the same way...I couldn't put bids in for Lebron, and basically didn't get anyone decent.

I place the blame on me because I forgot about the draft with the World Series (I did have the spidey sense around 9 but ignored it).

I'll set my lineup faithfully, but that's about it for me, it's gonna be casual, because frankly, every week will be a beatdown on my team anyway.

[vex]

So sorry that I missed as well. Thought I would be around but didn't get online until 8:30.

[wade moore]

Wow - just looked at my week 1 matchup.

I'm fucked.