I had my fantasy bball draft a couple of nights ago. Now keep in mind, there are only 8 dudes in the league this year, so the squads should look a little better than usual. Nonetheless, I think my team \"Ticket Truth Jesus\" is SICK. Here is how it went down for me, in order by round...

1. L. James (3rd overall, behind KG & Kobe)
2. T. Duncan (I actually lost my internet for a minute, & the comp autopicked it for me, but its alrite)
3. T. McGrady (Yahoo had him ranked 37th?!?)
4. C. Boozer (who's to say his #'s won't be as good as Amare or Yao, who were top 10 picks?)
5. D. Williams (if his improvement last year & his playoff performance are any indicator, he's gonna have a huge year)
6. L. Odom (I have a soft spot for him for some reason. I draft him every year. When healthy, he is such an awesomely well-rounded fantasy player)
7. L. Aldridge (From everything I have heard, he's gonna blow up this year, especially with no Oden now)
8. M. Ginoboli (Not a big fan, but I couldn't believe he was still around & had to take him)
9. A. Miller (Put up big #'s in Philly after the trade last year, top of the league in steals, assists, & FT%)
10. A. Bogut (I needed another big guy, & he seemed a lot better to me than the other bigs around him - Dalembert, Bynum, Biedrins)
11. R. Gay (He has a huge March/April last year. I expect big things numbers-wise from him this year)
12. S. Marbury (He's crazy and averaged 20 & 8 lifetime. Still capable of putting up big #'s)
13. E. Curry (Yahoo has him pre-ranked in the 300's?? I guess its cuz of his high TO's & low FT% I guess. He averaged 20 pts & 8 rebounds last year, and shot over 60%. He was good for me last year, I'll roll with big EC again, especially in the 13th round)
14. L. Hughes (why not in the 14th round. He has good years a few years back. Maybe if he stays healthy, he will put up dece #'s).

Haha it helps that only 3 of the 8 people actually showed up to draft. Stupid \"free\" league... very lame. My team is equally as pimp. Here it is if anyone cares:


Gilbert Arenas
Chris Bosh
Paul Pierce
Al Jefferson
Luol Deng
Joe Johnson
Tony Parker
Tyson Chandler
Zach Randolph
TJ Ford
GOMES!
Rajon Rondo
Charlie Bell
Chris Kaman

I pretty much had to take that stupid oaf Kaman cuz of my team name: \"Chris Kaman (your mouth)\"

5 outta 8 were there live. Lets bet some $$ on it...

BonK wrote:

Hahaha no dude. It was us three. One guy came after his first four picks were already made. The other came halfway through and was watching the Office the entire time.

To be fair, I'll say that there were 3.5 people live drafting, certainly not 5.

And no, I'm not gonna bet in a \"free\" league where half the people won't set their lineups and that kinda crap. Maybe in the other league if it is actually a go.

It's the same disadvantage to both of us...

Let's at least bet when we play each other head to head...?

BonK wrote:
That's possible. Still, I'd rather just save it and bet in the good league if it actually happens.

Here is my draft results... I like my team, especially with the 3 rookie drafts
Currently trying to trade Tayshaun for Ricky Davis...or should I try Rip for RD?

12 person league

1. (11) Tim Duncan PF,C
2. (14) Josh Smith SG,SF
3. (35) Brandon Roy PG,SG
4. (38) Dwight Howard C
5. (59) Zach Randolph PF
6. (62) Richard Hamilton SG
7. (83) Tayshaun Prince SF
8. (86) T.J. Ford PG
9. (107) Al Thornton SF,PF
10. (110) Yi Jianlian PF
11. (131) Kendrick Perkins C
12. (134) Marco Belinelli PG,SG

The Perkins pick - he should do decent alongside his all star team mates...I was stuck for another center.

Thornton - exploding in preseason, very consistent

7sixes wrote:

Wow, that's a really, really great team for a 12 person league. Well done. I love your last two picks, they are steals. I agree that Thornton is going to be a stud.

As for trading for RD, if it's something you really want to do I don't think it matters if you give up Rip or TP. Rip will get more points but TP will probably have better all around stats. Both will be more consistent than RD though. I'd probably let the other guy choose which of the two he wants.

Another thing I envy you for. With all my buddies being interested only in soccer, I never played one of this fantasy league games. To be honest, I not even know how they work, although I think everybody starts with a fantasy draft to pick the players they like (if still available) to form their roster. And each game the player plays in reality, the respective fantasy GM that has him on his lineup gets points for whatever statistics the player produces right?

I have been playing in a soccer-predicition-whatever league with my pals, where we try to predict the results of the weekly games of the German first division and get rewarded points for being as close as possible to the result (the closer the more). I have now won this league three years in a row, but it is definitely not the same, because you create no roster of your own, but only try to guess how the normal games will turn out. I think it's pretty boring !

Sanyarin wrote:

I'm sorry to hear that you don't really have a chance to participate... Fantasy sports are very awesome!

You've got the gist of it correct. You form a league with friends or random people (if you want to just have your own team you can get free leagues on Yahoo.com or espn.com) Then, after the league is set you have your draft. It can either be live (where everyone is online and chooses their own players) or an autodraft (where you rank your guys and then the computer drafts for everyone.)

Each week you set your lineup with the players you want to play. You don't play all your guys every week, so that is where you have to decide who you want to play based on: 1) How good your player is 2) his team's weekly matchups and 3) how many games they play that week. Some leagues you are able to set your lineupes every day, but that takes much more time and energy since you have to constantly check it. The scoring is based on different categories of statistics, as you said above. So, the results get tallied from the players you played and whoever your heads up opponent played.

If you want to check it out and get your feet wet, I HIGHLY suggest going to Yahoo sports and joining a free league with a bunch of random people. It would still be fun. The only downside is that you probably won't be able to have a Live draft, so you'll have to do a good job of ranking the players!

Hope that helps... let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you very much, that helps indeed. I will see if I can get into some free league at Yahoo.

Fun / Embarsassing note:
I have just learned from a friend of mine that obviously there are similar games available for European soccer leagues as well: You don't draft, but instead start with a specific amount of money with which you buy the players you like (it is left to the player to choose if in their league, player can play for more than one fantasy team) and build a squad similar like in those NBA games, with the difference that - much like in real life - you don't trade players, but sell them to or buy them from other players as long as your finances allow that. I'm still not sure how the points are handed out within those leagues, but I was suprised to know that there are. Shame on me!

Nontheless, I will try to get into a NBA fantasy league.

Sanyarin wrote:

You might as well go for it! They can be really fun.

I'm actually in a Fantasy EPL league. It's my second year. Here's the website:

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html

1. (3) Shawn Marion SF,PF
2. (22) Dwight Howard C
3. (27) Paul Pierce SG,SF
4. (46) Emeka Okafor PF,C
5. (51) David West PF
6. (70) Raymond Felton PG,SG
7. (75) Jamaal Tinsley PG
8. (94) Nenad Krstic PF,C
9. (99) Mike Dunleavy SG,SF
10. (118) Jose Calderon PG
11. (123) Jameer Nelson PG
12. (142) Linas Kleiza SG,SF
13. (147) Jorge Garbajosa PF,C

Linas Kleiza is the result of doing a draft during the work day and getting interrupted.

I passed on LeBron for Shawn Marion after bitter disappointment in LeBron last season (see his 60 something percent free throw shooting during a long stretch in the middle of the year). His first game did nothing to make me feel like I'd made the wrong decision.

This is a 12 team league.

pants wrote:

I really dislike Shawn Marion, but he's a great fantasy basketball guy. I love your first 6 picks. Dwight Howard is one of my top 5 favorite players in the league. Also like Calderon and Garbajosa as late round picks. Well done for a 12 team league!

I'm with you on Marion. That guy is the NBA's answer to Manny Ramirez. I was terrified when I heard his name brought up in the early KG trade talk. He is a guy who would be terrible to have around A) on a bad team and mentoring players. Fortunately I trust Steve Nash to keep that team playing their butts off and hopefully Marion continuing to stuff the stat sheet.

I grabbed both Garbajosa and Calderon as free agents last season and they suited me well.

side note: Yahoo's new drag and drop technology for managing your roster is @#$%ing money for basketball. I can't tell you how many times I've been pissed off after spending 15-20 minutes setting up a weeks line up then decided to add a free agent and redoing it from scratch. Now I can set a days lineup in like 30 seconds.