Mock Drafting: Not Just for the Experts

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Strategy
Posted on: September 23rd, 2009

As I may have said before, it’s all the fun with none of the commitment: Yahoo has opened the doors on its fantasy mock draft lobby. Here you can join an open-to-the-public mock draft every 5 minutes and practice drafting using Yahoo’s draft interface. Anyone with a Yahoo account can join and draft against other people who like fantasy basketball way too much. I tried it out the other day and here’s my two and a half cents on the experience:

Pros

• Like I mentioned, leagues start every 5 minutes and it’s extremely easy to get into one. Literally press and button and you’re in the draft queue. The leagues have some variety, ranging from 8 to 14 teams. They also have a scoring system associated with the league (roto or H2H) but I’m not sure what difference that makes unless you play it out.
• Unlike most real leagues you can select your draft position, which is great for trying out different drafting strategies and scenarios.
• If you play in a Yahoo league, there is no better way to get closely acquainted with their draft application then to use it a few times. Trust me, after not using that Yahoo draft thing for a year, it’s always a little confusing when you get in there for the first time.
• They email the results of the draft to you immediately after it finishes so you can take a close look at your work and possibly frame it to hang at work.

Cons

• While there is a chance I’m being a complete moron about this, I did not see a way to create your own league with your own rules and your own friends. Sure, you could have all your friends log into the lobby at the same time and jump into the same mock, but that requires a level of coordination far above the level of my friends. MockDraftCentral is still a better choice if you really want to customize your mock draft.
• The draft I participated was about 2/3 full, which wasn’t bad, but having the computer auto select players for the missing teams is an unfortunate, if necessary, evil. I know they have to select players for these teams somehow, but nothing sucks the air out of a mock draft faster than having a computer autopick right down the Yahoo O-List.
• On the other hand, I appreciated that my fellow human draftees took things seriously, please don’t take the entire 90 seconds to make your mock draft pick EVERY SINGLE TIME. Dude, it’s a mock draft. Speed it up a little.

Overall, I highly recommend it to people at least once or twice if you play in Yahoo leagues (provided you can get into a draft mostly full of humans – bail if you are drafting against too many automated teams). It’ll give you some experience, let you practice some drafting strategy and get you familiar with Yahoo’s draft application all at the same time.

While it’s in the early stages of discussion, some of the Four Fingers Draft Guide writers may be hanging out in the mock draft lobby this Sunday (Sept. 27th) probably starting around 1 PM EST if you want to join us for some mocks. Trust me, it’ll be worth it just to see if Nels drafts a team made up completely of current and former Bulls’ players (My money is on yes). And I promise I won’t take 90 seconds to make every pick, just most of them.

Other Stuff Like This:

• GMTR Mock Draft (3)
• GMTR Mock Draft Analysis: Round Six (9)
• GMTR Mock Draft Analysis: Round Five (11)
• GMTR Mock Draft Analysis: Round One (17)

Tags: Mock Draft, Yahoo