I'll give you a bump.

I have the same question - going into my first auction draft too, but for a 12 team 9 cat h2h league.

what's the consensus on hoopball for spending vs being frugal

you gotta know your league

generally, smaller the league, top heavy you want to be, bc you can still get pretty good players off wire

my strategy tends to be get one or two elite guys (1-2 round) then save for 4-6th round and have few bucks left for late round guys i really want

I think in an Auction-Category league you make your lists based on the cats you want. 

For instance I tend to lean on a guard heavy team with bigs who can shoot.  So you are targeting Pts, Asts, 3's, Stls guards.  Naturally most guards are high FT (Simmons, Fox go pound sand).... That should win you every week.  

Now layer #2 is to draft guards that also have high FG.  (Steph, Booker, Kawhi types).  I like a floor around 45%.. that way on a hot week you might be able to win 6 cats

For bigs- absolutely can not have a FT killer.  Preferably find a guys who can hit a three/Stl.  (Roco is actually qualified in Yahoo as a C).   

So find your guys who fill out those categories and then price them out.  Make tiers- 

Ok Steph/Booker/Kawhi are tier 1- I'll pay X amount for any of them

Tier 2, Tier 3, etc. Then have a couple $1 flyers at the end. 

Then when you get into your draft you have your guys that fill your specific categories.  You know what you are willing to pay for each of them and bc you have tiers, you have options.  Maybe you get Kawhi for $8 cheaper... that allows you to over spend in a lower tier now. 

sorry for being wordy... hopefully that helps. good luck !