SK Ep.3: 2024-25 NBA Yahoo Fantasy Draft Strategy

     The start of the 2024-2025 NBA season is upon us. This means that the NBA Fantasy Draft is nearing as well. Before we can proceed with the game, the draft must first take place. 5 years of experience would make it seem that the draft and the whole process would be easier, but it is not. If you want to excel at anything, you must be up to date with the latest trends and have a lot of knowledge of the current situation in any area. Based on that, I'm writing about the thought process I've always thought about before this year's draft, but didn't have a proper structure, with the hope that I can learn more about my team composition identity through this.


What is FANTASY BASKETBALL
     The past leagues that I have participated in were 10-team league and 12-team league. This basically means that there were that many number of players in the league. Over a 24-week period, you match up with one opponent for a week to rack up stats produced by the players drafted by you and see who got the better of their opponent. The stat categories are field goal percentage (FG%), free throw percentage (FT%), 3-points made (3PTM), points (Pt), rebounds (Reb), assists (Ast), steals (Stl), block (Blk), and turnovers (TO). The 13 players on the team (consisting of point guard, shooting guard, guard, small forward, power forward, forward, 2 centers, 2 utility spots, and 3 bench sports) rack up stats in their real life games and those stats get accumulated for the team to compete for the week.


Rules of the DRAFT
     The pick order of the draft is randomly determined 30 minutes before the draft, from 1st to the 12th selection. The draft is done through a snake draft where the 12th picker gets to select in the 13th spot, the 11th picker gets the 14th spot and all the way until the 1st picker gets the 24th spot. From then on, it is a loop until the 13th round.


My THOUGHT PROCESS
Current Yahoo NBA Fantasy Average Draft Position (ADP) Top 12

1. Victor Wembenyama - 1.7
2. Nikola Jokic - 2.0
3. Luka Doncic - 3.5
4. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - 4.2
5. Giannis Antetokounmpo - 6.5
6. Anthony Davis - 7.5
7. Joel Embiid - 7.6
8. Tyrese Haliburton - 7.8
9. Jayson Tatum - 9.3
10. Anthony Edwards - 11.0
11. Stephen Curry - 12.0
12. Tray Young - 12.6
13. Domantas Sabonis - 14.1

     Since I don’t know where I will be assigned, I need to get my strategy ready beforehand for all possible scenarios. This meant determining the 5 stat categories of each of the top 12 players and ranking the projected player ranking in accordance with the categories to “build around” the 1st round pick.
     But TO is always a punt. The aim of the game is to rack up stats and games played is a key aspect as well. TO will always increase with more games, so I punt TO every year. I would also like the first-round selection to be a big man as good shooting big men are hard to come by and big men who are good shooters tend to be top players. Obviously, the first-round selection should be an MVP caliber player as well, as the top 3 players will be, I think. Wemby, Jokic, and Doncic are MVP caliber players. I will try to avoid injury prone players as well as too old players. That excludes Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Steph Curry. And Giannis Antetokounmpo has a glaring free throw % weakness, so he is out too.
     However, since my preference can only factor into a certain extent, I determined which stats to go for each of the top 12 players, determined by me.
1.Jokic: FG%, FT%, Pt, Reb, Ast
2.SGA: FG%, FT%, Pt, Ast, Stl
3.Wemby: Pt, Reb, Ast, Stl, Blk
4.Luka: 3PTM, Pt, Reb, Ast, Stl
5.Giannis: FG%, Pt, Reb, Ast, Blk
6.Anthony Davis & 7.Joel Embiid: FG%, FT%, Pt, Reb, Blk
8.Tatum: FT%, Pt, Reb, Stl, Blk
9.Trey Young & 10.Haliburton: FT%, 3PTM, Pt, Ast, Stl
11.Sabonis: FG%, Pt, Reb, Ast, Stl
12.Anthony Edwards: FT%, 3PTM, Pt, Reb, Stl
I set up the list of top 200 players accounting for each of those category’s combinations and will draft according to the list as I make my first pick.
I would like to select Tatum out of fandom (Boston Celtics fan here) If I fall outside of top 5 selections. Tatum and Brown have all the reasons to be motivated with the Olympics fiasco (no playing time and the snub).

Please,,,,,,,,,,,not asking for much,,,, just top 3 pick please~