Oppa Auction Style

Heyyyyyy sexy Bron… Op, Op, Op….Oppa Auction Style.  Want to find proper punishments for people that miss the draft?  Want to really show how much knowledge of basketball you have?  Want to have a better than 1 out of 10 chance to get LeBron James?!  Then do an auction draft.  I guarantee that if someone does not attend an auction draft, it is nearly impossible to recover.  You end up with the most overpaid role players and no stars (You get to be pre-2011 David Kahn!).   You see, in a snake draft it is much harder to have a bad team because everyone is more or less directed on how to draft players based on the site’s projected rankings.  In an auction draft, the prices are driven by the managers.  This makes it much easier to get autodrafters to overpay for players.  Also, it is really really fun to drive people crazy by bidding players up.  Conversely, it is really really annoying to get stuck with a player you are trying to drive the price up on.  All in all, the strategy in an auction draft is much more compelling than in a snake draft.  One of the more challenging things facing owners in an auction draft, is how to allocate their money.  Stars and scrubs (Bron, Durant)?  Or many very good players (Melo, Rondo) to mitigate the risk?  The choice is yours.  Read that word again in bold.  Choice.  You have the power to get anyone you want.

Here is a comparison of 2 different teams that made the playoffs in a 14 team league last year ($200 budget):

Team 1:                                                 Team 2:

I will tell you right now that Team 1 finished #1 in the regular season standings while Team 2 finished #5 (6 teams make the playoffs in the 14 team H2H format).  So take that for whatever it’s worth. I’ve done several auctions in many different fantasy sports (baseball, football, and basketball) and there’s a couple universal rules:

1. Don’t get cheap on players you like.  Spend the extra couple bucks to buy a player you are really really high on.  For example, if you go into an auction thinking you’d like to pay $40 for Ty Lawson then don’t just stop at $40.  Go up to $45 if you have to.  MAKE SURE YOU ACTUALLY LIKE YOUR TEAM and don’t obsess over a couple bucks.
2. Projected auction values are 100% garbage because it’s all relative to the particular draft you are in.  You all should have tiers planned out for your draft so that you can figure out the market value for players you lump in a tier.  Let’s say you have Kyrie Irving, Ty Lawson, Deron Williams, and Rajon Rondo in a tier.  If Lawson, Williams, and Irving all go in the $40-45 range and Rondo is about to go for $30 then this is when you jump in and make a bid.  You can kind of see how it would relate in a snake draft… Oh Rondo is still here in round 4, it’d be great value to take him here considering he’s the last available in this tier.
3. Don’t overpay for a position that is getting “scarce”.  If the top 10 PG’s are taken and you’re sitting there without one, don’t get in a $30 bidding war for Raymond Felton.  Allocate your funds to get deals at other positions and take a bunch of cheap flyers on guys like Isaiah Thomas.  At worst you can work a trade when the season starts.  Plus, you never know what will turn up on the waiver wire (i.e. Jeremy Lin).
4. Don’t turn bidding wars into a personal vendetta.  In other words, do not spite bid.  “How dare you outbid me on my favorite breakout Brandon Jennings!  I’ll show you by paying $40 for Joe Johnson!  TAKE THAT! HA!”  The other dude will just be laughing at you because you paid $40 for Joe Johnson.  Just like the rest of the league laughed at the Hawks when that contract happened.
5. Patience is a virtue.  There are going to be more than a few guys that you will groan about because they go $10 cheaper than you think they are worth.  If you decide to go stars/scrubs… let’s say LeBron James for $80 and Josh Smith for $60… then sit there and wait.  It’s the hardest thing to do.  You see all this sexy talent on the board and you want to throw dollar bills at them like they’re strippers.  Dude, don’t waste the money.  You got your top two guys, so now wait for the bargains.  As a general rule, once I make a big purchase or two I wait until everyone’s money is around where mine is (unless the deal is SO ridiculous).
6. Mix it up.  Nominate guys you hate and guys you love.  Don’t let anyone get a read on you.  The last thing you want are managers driving up the price on players you are high on.  Also, when you nominate guys you hate, always nominate the one that will suck as much cash from other owners as possible.  Blake Griffin is my personal hoover vacuum.
7. At the end of the auction, make sure you wield the hammer.  This can be tied into rule #5.  You want to outbid most of the other managers on sleepers (the under $10 kind… not the $15-30 breakout players).  This will start to happen when the most money someone has is around $20-30 left.
8. Don’t be idle.  There’s more than just nominating and bidding.  If you are waiting around for bargains, start typing in the chat.  See if you can get people to drive up prices just by giving positive stats about the nominated player (that YOU won’t be bidding on, of course).  “Did you see Player X in that preseason game?  He was lighting it up.”  This quote is obviously pretty lame and cheesy.  I’m sure you can improvise better.
9. Have fun.  Man, that’s even more cheesy than the quote from #8.

If you want a more detailed post of the different strategies (the two I highlighted in the column), mention it in the comments and I’ll write-up another post this week to talk about them.  Feel free to mention any “rules” you abide by or if you disagree with any of mine.