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First the team, then the story. It's a 12-team, 8-category (no turnovers) roto league, with $200 auction budget for 10 starters (2C, 4F, FG) and 6 bench players. Here's my squad (no keepers for me this year):
G J.Harden 56
G J.Butler 30
G B.Beal 29
G J.Lamb 1
F J.Randle 11
F K.Anderson 7
F J.Parker 6
F C.Osman 2
C D.Ayton 37
C J.Valanciunas 15
Bench: P.Siakam, F.VanVleet, M.Harkless, W.Hernangomez, N.Bjelica, J.Hart (all $1)
So while my budget was around what I planned, including being in dollar days for the bench, the players are different as I reacted to pricing in draft.
I was targeting either Davis or Harden, both of whom I had around $10 more valuable than everybody else for our roto format at $74 and $71. Since no one in the history of our league had ever spent more than $66 on a player, I figured I'd be guaranteed a discount. I planned to toss out Westbrook early, as he was the one "first rounder" I didn't want to touch, because of injury risk and FG%. It seemed like no one else wanted him much either, as he went for only $43 (I had him valued at $48 and figured other owners would have him closer to $60 which was his price last year.) John Wall (another guy I didn't really want) also went too cheap at $33 (valued at $40), so I figured folks were saving their big money for big men and I'd be going Harden rather than Davis. So when Harden was tossed I nabbed him at $56, so a $15 "savings". (The first-round bigs all went higher - Davis for $62, KAT for $60 and Giannis for $58. LeBron was 55, Durant 53, Jokic 51, Curry 50, George 50 - I think Harden is the best priced of all of them, unless you prefer Westbrook.)
Then the guards continued to fall below value, so my next two purchases were Beal at $29 (valued at $37) and Butler at $30 (valued at $41 even with an assumption of 11 games missed due to trade drama). Meanwhile, the non-kept bigs were going above my values, so I realized I'd need to overpay, but had trouble pulling the trigger. Embiid , Drummond and Capela were kept. Gobert went for $35 (in retrospect, I should have bid $36, but had him valued at $30), Draymond for $37 (valued at $24), Aldridge for $27 (valued at $23), Vucevic for $17, M.Gasol for $21 (didn't want b/c FG%). So suddenly I'm looking at a draft board where Deandre Ayton was the only C left who I really wanted, and as a result, I ended up in a bidding war and acquired him at $37 (valued at $26). Not great to risk that much on a rookie, but his preseason has been awesome, the Suns don't have any reason not to feature him, he doesn't kill FT%, and if he turns out to be anywhere close to as good as he's looked in preseason, he'd still potentially be a keeper next year at $47.
So I was still obviously chasing bigs, but got a few lucky lands (IMO) because other owners are afraid of paying for non-starters. I think Julius Randle was a good buy at $11 and Jabari Parker potentially a great buy at $6. I paid full center value for Valanciunas $15 (but again wanted center stats without tanking FT% - I won't go anywhere near DeAndre Jordan or Dwight Howard, and it's largely why I couldn't pull the trigger on Gobert). I was very, very pleased to snag Lamb at $1 - he just has a great game for roto formats - worth $16 on my board. And then finished up with Kyle Anderson and Cedi Osman.
I hedged against Valanciunas with the Siakam bench pick, but he's looked so good in preseason I may have no problem playing both guys together. The rest of my bench is pretty lame, unless Cody Zeller gets hurt (as he often does), in which case Hernangomez will be gold.
In retrospect, I assumed with Harden and Beal that I didn't have to chase 3PM and am probably weak there with little contribution from my Fs and Cs. And I may be a bit weak on assists with no pure PG. But I think overall I'm in pretty solid shape.
G J.Harden 56
G J.Butler 30
G B.Beal 29
G J.Lamb 1
F J.Randle 11
F K.Anderson 7
F J.Parker 6
F C.Osman 2
C D.Ayton 37
C J.Valanciunas 15
Bench: P.Siakam, F.VanVleet, M.Harkless, W.Hernangomez, N.Bjelica, J.Hart (all $1)
So while my budget was around what I planned, including being in dollar days for the bench, the players are different as I reacted to pricing in draft.
I was targeting either Davis or Harden, both of whom I had around $10 more valuable than everybody else for our roto format at $74 and $71. Since no one in the history of our league had ever spent more than $66 on a player, I figured I'd be guaranteed a discount. I planned to toss out Westbrook early, as he was the one "first rounder" I didn't want to touch, because of injury risk and FG%. It seemed like no one else wanted him much either, as he went for only $43 (I had him valued at $48 and figured other owners would have him closer to $60 which was his price last year.) John Wall (another guy I didn't really want) also went too cheap at $33 (valued at $40), so I figured folks were saving their big money for big men and I'd be going Harden rather than Davis. So when Harden was tossed I nabbed him at $56, so a $15 "savings". (The first-round bigs all went higher - Davis for $62, KAT for $60 and Giannis for $58. LeBron was 55, Durant 53, Jokic 51, Curry 50, George 50 - I think Harden is the best priced of all of them, unless you prefer Westbrook.)
Then the guards continued to fall below value, so my next two purchases were Beal at $29 (valued at $37) and Butler at $30 (valued at $41 even with an assumption of 11 games missed due to trade drama). Meanwhile, the non-kept bigs were going above my values, so I realized I'd need to overpay, but had trouble pulling the trigger. Embiid , Drummond and Capela were kept. Gobert went for $35 (in retrospect, I should have bid $36, but had him valued at $30), Draymond for $37 (valued at $24), Aldridge for $27 (valued at $23), Vucevic for $17, M.Gasol for $21 (didn't want b/c FG%). So suddenly I'm looking at a draft board where Deandre Ayton was the only C left who I really wanted, and as a result, I ended up in a bidding war and acquired him at $37 (valued at $26). Not great to risk that much on a rookie, but his preseason has been awesome, the Suns don't have any reason not to feature him, he doesn't kill FT%, and if he turns out to be anywhere close to as good as he's looked in preseason, he'd still potentially be a keeper next year at $47.
So I was still obviously chasing bigs, but got a few lucky lands (IMO) because other owners are afraid of paying for non-starters. I think Julius Randle was a good buy at $11 and Jabari Parker potentially a great buy at $6. I paid full center value for Valanciunas $15 (but again wanted center stats without tanking FT% - I won't go anywhere near DeAndre Jordan or Dwight Howard, and it's largely why I couldn't pull the trigger on Gobert). I was very, very pleased to snag Lamb at $1 - he just has a great game for roto formats - worth $16 on my board. And then finished up with Kyle Anderson and Cedi Osman.
I hedged against Valanciunas with the Siakam bench pick, but he's looked so good in preseason I may have no problem playing both guys together. The rest of my bench is pretty lame, unless Cody Zeller gets hurt (as he often does), in which case Hernangomez will be gold.
In retrospect, I assumed with Harden and Beal that I didn't have to chase 3PM and am probably weak there with little contribution from my Fs and Cs. And I may be a bit weak on assists with no pure PG. But I think overall I'm in pretty solid shape.
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