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 fill the gaps with cheap role players.Heres 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. Adrian Dantley Jersey . LOUIS -- Lance Lynn was one of the more enthusiastic participants as the St. Seth Curry Jersey . Hey!" The lower tier of the School End of Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road was packed solid with a very festive-sounding Chelsea choral section in this particular part of South Africa Road London, W12. https://www.cheapmavericks.com/ . Andreas Johnson had a goal and two assists while Jacob de la Rose also scored for Sweden (2-0-0). Esa Lindell and Rasmus Ristolainen replied for Finland (1-1-0) Lindell opened the scoring for Finland just 41 seconds into the game, but the hosts quickly regained their composure and tied the score less than four minutes later on Wennbergs first of the game. Mavericks Jerseys China . With the short-handed Warriors needing help from someone -- anyone -- to stop a three-game skid, ONeal returned from right knee and groin injuries that had sidelined him for four games and put up season highs with 18 points and eight rebounds. It was just enough to help lift Golden State to a 102-101 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. Dallas Mavericks Shirts .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Fans get a chance to celebrate NASCARs past this weekend at Darlington Raceway as teams roll out throwback paint schemes for the second consecutive year.They will debate about who has the best paint scheme, the most authentic.To say the least, it has put the pressure on teams to come up with something cool. Some companies have tried to capitalize on the marketing aspect of it while also trying to keep it historical enough that they can accomplish their goal of selling product as well as celebrating the sport.Back in the days when drivers had one primary sponsor throughout an entire season, drivers were associated with certain colors, sponsors and schemes. Now with drivers having three or more sponsors, their paint schemes can change week to week.The cars are so ... cluttered up with so much stuff on them these days that the paint job is almost insignificant, NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip said. The paint job is what made these cars.Waltrip has four cars this weekend -- Matt Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Denny Hamlin and Blake Koch?-- that have similar paint schemes to cars he drove in the past.Tide, a former Waltrip sponsor, will return to the sport for a one-race deal with Kenseth. The company had been out of the sport for 10 years and is using this weekend to promote its new pod product.In the last five or six years, particularly in 2009 and 2010, when the economy went to hell, companies had to cut their expenses because the bottom line was getting crushed, said Ricky Craven, a former Tide-sponsored driver who is now an ESPN analyst. They couldnt increase revenue, they were losing revenue, and they had to cut expenses.NASCAR was a very obvious casualty of that. ... A lot of them didnt find their way back or havent. With the economy getting better, hopefully this is an example of that changing but theres no question in my mind the effects of the recession hit NASCAR harder than other sports companies or sports venues.Tide hopes its paint scheme brings back memories of Waltrip, Craven and Ricky Rudd. It uses some of the same shades and colors of its past paint scheme but only current Tide branding on Kenseths car. The color and logo are a little bit off to what Waltrip drove.When it was introduced, though, few fans noticed and celebrated the return of a company that has been out of the sport for 10 years. The company, since it is promoting a current product, wanted to keep its current colors than a little bit different shade of orange-red that Waltrip drove.It was one the best partnerships weve ever had, so even though weve been out of the sport for 10 years, we still kept in tune to the overwhelming fan chatter asking us to bring back the Tide ride and continued the discussion over the years about returning, Tide brand manager Amy Krehbiel said.The same voices likely were heard by Hooters, which is using Greg Biffles car to promote awareness of a campaign to get a holiday for first responders. Like Tide, there are no guarantees Hooters will do more races, although Tide is in talks with Joe Gibbs Racing for more races in the future.Any time youre working with a sponsor with the way our sport works, your goal and your intention is to over-deliver and surprise and delight so they feel like this motorsports marketing platform is something effective for them, Roush Fenway Racing President Steve Newmark said about working with Hooters.These companies run a slippery slope. If they come in and leave, fans could turn on them quickly. And should they really be celebrated as much as companies that have been in the sport the last several years? Jamie McMurray is running an old McDonalds ppaint scheme but it doesnt have that same historic feel.ddddddddddddIn reality, few companies can land a scheme with the same number and same sponsor that they had 20 or 30 years ago. Among the exceptions: STP with Petty Enterprises on the Aric Almirola No. 43 car and Interstate Batteries with Joe Gibbs Racing on the Kyle Busch No. 18 car.Coca-Cola has an authentic paint scheme with Tony Stewart. Coke has been a longtime sponsor of Stewart, so even though it is a remake of a No. 12 car driven by Bobby Allison, the feel is so right now on a No. 14 car.This is one that means a lot to me, Stewart said. I got to see Bobby run this paint scheme on a dirt late model. ... To see it come back is something Im very proud of.Some teams have even extra pressure. The Wood Brothers and Petty Enterprises have such a deep history in the sport, they cant throw a smokescreen on anyone.The Wood Brothers got special permission from NASCAR to use foil numbers, something that is normally outlawed. Like many other teams, it is using its current sponsor with an old paint scheme of another sponsor to commemorate the 1996 car driven by David Pearson.I wish our car was like this every week, Blaney said. I think it is really cool. Everyone appreciates history.Last year, Blaney had a car that had old Wood Brothers photos on it, something that attracted many onlookers but something felt a little bit off.We did a mosaic of all Wood Brothers pictures, which was really neat, Blaney said. But it was not a genuine car. Its nice to be able to pick a year out, a driver and a car. It was really special to them.Most teams, if they cant get the sponsor from days of old, try to honor a point in their history or something that they admire from the sports past.Dale Earnhardt Jr. wanted to run the gray ghost scheme of Buddy Baker, and was able to recreate it by changing some of the Nationwide colors.Richard Childress Racing will recreate a scheme used by Ricky Rudd in the first car that won a race at RCR.Carl Edwards will do a tribute to Stewart -- the driver is retiring from Sprint Cup racing after this year after a Cup career that started at JGR -- with a scheme that looks like the one he drove at JGR. The colors are the only thing thats the same -- the sponsor and the number are different.Teams can opt to go with colors of old sponsors but pair them with new ones. Tommy Baldwin Racings No. 7 car will carry an orange-and-brown look that will resemble Hooters colors, but the company is with a team that has a much better performance record.Trevor Bayne is using the old No. 6 paint scheme of Mark Martin. Casey Mears is going to draw a lot of eyes with a paint scheme that will stir memories of Smokey Yunick. Jeffrey Earnhardt has blue and gold colors to honor his grandfather, Dale Earnhardt Sr.Landon Cassill has J.D. McDuffies old sponsor -- Rumple Furniture Co. -- on his car.He was just an old-school, blue-collar racer who made the most of what he had and did most of the work himself, Cassill said. And even though he didnt have all the resources that the bigger teams had, he had a lot of success on track. We identify with that kind of mentality.And the hope is that fans identify with these cars, too.One thing is for sure -- drivers could have a hard time identifying who is driving them.You dont know whose car you are racing around. ... When youre on the track in practice, you have to kind of learn who is who, Stewart said.Its something we all looking forward to and seeing what each others cars look like. ' ' '
