During the draft, how do you balance player value with roster construction. Dan preaches a lot about taking the player we think will outperform their draft spot, which makes total sense, in a vacuum. What happens when that player is a PG, but you need a C, and the last guy in a tier is on the board, but you'd have to reach for him. Do you take the player who fell in the draft, or go for the player that fits your team better?
For the record, that's not a knock on Dan at all. I listen to the pod almost daily, and respect Dan's takes. I'm just more of team context drafter, sotrying to get more insight into the value based drafting.
This is the great question of drafting IMO and why fantasy basketball is so great! If you really try and identify which statistics are in demand for a given season and see if you can throw some grass in the air to figure out which way the draft winds are blowing -- you can go for a team build that's cheap but powerful. At the same time, if your league allows trades and you can roster valuable players at the expense of a given build -- or balance -- you can exchange that excess value for production you need. Formats matter, of course, but I'm always going to trend toward BPA unless I have a serious deficiency that I need to address in either category or position. There are too many ways, especially early in the year, to address deficiencies but the draft is a one-time pop that's worth something like 50-75% of your season. Also, folks that subscribe to the draft guide should use the RotoBalance App we made. It's SIMPLE and you can lay it next to your computer on your Android device while you draft. It's built with the B150 projections and it'll allow you to see your balance and if you're strong in a category. We built it as a complement to your other tools and we wanted it to be simple so you wouldn't have any learning curve to use it. https://sportsethos.com/fantasy-basketball-draft-guide/the-rotobalance-app-by-hoop-ball/
Thanks for the response Bru.
One of the many things I love about this game is the variety of ways there are to build a winner. I fully get what you're saying about taking the BPA, and stockpiling assets to move to address weaknesses. That's a solid strategy for wheelers and dealers, but then there are people like me, who aren't big traders. If someone comes to me wanting a player I'll try and work something out, but generally I wanna come out of the draft with a balanced team(with a slight tilt towards D stats and FG%) I think is top tier and just work the FA pool, since I know I'll find a couple gems. To that end, I'll draft whatever player I think fits what I'm trying to build, even if I end up taking a guy early.
I also started playing in the NFBKC satellites last season(won my lg), which don't allow trading, so coming out of the draft with a well balanced team is even more important. That's just my style though, and it's been working for me for about a decade, but I definitely see the merit in trying to incorporate making value picks into my strategy, as long as they fit my team build 🙂
Thanks again for the feedback.
Just seeing this now. I find I generally end up with the positions I need, eventually, and I only look to position eligibility later in the draft if I'm missing guys.
That being said, don't draft 4 straight point guards to start. Hah! 🙂
