iLMAR-hit | home integration technologies

If youre reading this, its because youve joined the high-flying ranks of auction league ownership. Perhaps youve even endeavored to throw your arms around that most noble king of all fantasy sports; the auction keeper hoops league.Congratulations on choosing the high life!Lets get busy.The basicsIn ESPNs standard auction format, your reign as owner will commence with a wad of cash, and an empty roster to fill.You start with $200.You have 13 roster spots.You start 10 players at the following positions: PG, SG, SF, PF, C, G, F, 3 UTIL and 3 BenchYou can pick any categories you like, but we like: FG%, FT%, 3PM, REB, AST, STL, BLK, PTSThis is still America, so youre still free to chose the scoring system that suits your league best, be it Head to Head, traditional Rotisserie, Categories, Points and so on.How to winAbove all else, make a plan. I dont have a plan for retirement, but I sure as hell have a plan for my fantasy basketball auction draft. Dont judge me.What is my recommended plan? Spoiler; it involves using your calculator app. But because I care, Im about to do the calculating for you.Step 1: When bidding on a top 5 player, calm yourselfIm jump-starting this with a warning. Before performing all of the other tasks and functions Im about to recommend, remember one thing: first round snake-draft players are going to require a 150 percent over-investment of your imaginary money.Youre paying a premium for statistical peace of mind. Youre paying for name value, for the sense of odd identification that occurs when your superstar shows up on SportsCenter. Just know going into this that overpaying for stars may not be the way to go.Step 2: Pre-draft homework1. Properly valuate your player pool into an easy to remember ratioThis is an eggheady way of saying figure out how much money your league has to spend on the amount of available value.I write for ESPN, so Im trying to figure out how many dollars I have to spend per Player Rater point. How do I do this? Its a similar calculation to determining auction keeper league inflation.First (stick with me), determine the depth of your leagues player pool. Lets say youre in a 10-team league with 13 man rosters. Thats 130 players.Second, I determine aggregate production. Again, because I write for ESPN, I use Player Rater points as units of production.And because I have no life, I know that 130 players produce an aggregate 900 Player Rater points. So, we are spending for 900 points of available production.Third (stick with me), I determine how much money my league has to spend. A 10-team league with $200 budget per team has $2,000 to spend.So our equation looks like this -$2,000 for 900 Player Rater points of production.$2.22 per Player Rater point.When you have this ratio in mind, its a good way to calibrate what a player is actually worth on the fly... especially in the mid-to-late stages of your draft when owners have overspent on big names.(Going back to my Calm Yourself missive: in 2015-16 Stephen Curry had one of the great fantasy seasons in the history of everything, producing 23.6 Player Rater points. Going by our $2.22 per point valuation, that means Currys pure production was worth $52.39. As I write this, Curry is going for $74 in ESPN auction drafts... and thats 2016-17-with-Durant Steph Curry.)2. Downgrade certain players if your league counts turnoversThis is a subtle tactic that gets ignored far too often.Turnover leagues penalize players who tend to rely on volume (points, assists) to produce their fantasy value. When turnovers are factored in, certain players can lose 10-25 percent of their value.Heres a quick list of players to downgrade in rough order of importance (in terms of how much turnovers ding their overall value); DeMarcus Cousins, Dennis Schroder, DAngelo Russell, Reggie Jackson, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, Rajon Rondo, Damian Lillard, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, Goran Dragic, Elfrid Payton, Tyreke Evans, Victor Oladipo, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Rose, Nicholas Batum, Dwyane Wade, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.Alternately, big name big men like Anthony Davis, Hassan Whiteside, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Karl-Anthony Towns get upgraded. All big men this side of DeMarcus Cousins gets at least a small bump up.So do efficient wings that play more catch and shoot like Kawai Leonard, Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson.But point guards with high assist-to-turnover ratios like Chris Paul, Mike Conley and George Hill get the biggest bump. This is because theyre producing in assists without hurting you like a Wall or Westbrook.Paul -- the rare (only) PG who racks up elite usage and assists without turning the ball over at a high rate -- gets the single largest boost in valuation.3. Break down your player pool by projected dollar value and position into tiersJoe Kaiser has already done most of the work for you. And Joe Kaiser knows his tiers.4. Figure out which positions suffer from positional scarcityBecause ESPN is generous with its PF/C classification, centers arent as scarce as youd believe. Value at the small forward position is available in abundance.On the other hand... both backcourt positions are looking a little thin. Kaiser has an excellent piece in our draft kit underscoring the need to lock up star PGs early. I would add that once you get past the DeMar DeRozan (who will be overrated in your draft)/Evan Fournier (underrated) tier, shooting guard dries up with swift and sudden force.5. While considering positional scarcity, make sure to prioritize players with multi-positional eligibilityMulti-positional eligibility is the single most underrated boost of a players fantasy value. Giannis Antetokounmpo, already a fast-rising fantasy darling, gets even more of my auction dollar due to his qualifying at three positions.6. Make a list of players who carry and alternately destroy certain categoriesDeAndre Jordan can help dominate blocks. He will help dominate field goal percentage. But Jordan will absolutely kneecap your free throw percentage.In a non-points league, I dont even think about rostering Jordan. Instead, I make a list of players that force owners to throw out an entire category. Then, I make sure to bid those guys up (Jordan and Andre Drummond top my list this preseason).Prioritize players like Whiteside who can carry teams in blocks and field goal percentage without hurting his teams anywhere else. Jonas Valanciunas subtly adds positive weight to a teams field goal percentage, while not dragging said team down anywhere else.And again, if youre prepping to draft in a turnover league, make sure to fold in which players produce drag.7. Make a list of players youre going to target at different stages of your draftIf you want to go stars and scrubs, build a plan around the stars you want. The single best aspect of an auction draft is that every player is available. You cant get snaked out of a targeted player.If you want Durant, you can have him. You just may not have a lot of depth at other positions. If you want to follow Joes advice and lock in an elite PG early, you can do it.But also list backup options if the price gets too high. An auction draft, like life, is all about options.If you want to forgo $60-plus players and go more for across-the-board depth, you can get a little more precise in your planning up and down the roster.8. Make a list of end-game sleepersGuys who might be worth an extra buck or two at the end of a draft when everyones punchy.Heres a quick look at some of my favorite end-game picks so far; Jusuf Nurkic, Rodney Hood, Markieff Morris, Robert Covington, Otto Porter, Stephen Adams, Dario Saric and Nikola Mirotic.9. Make a list of players to ultimately avoid, but bid upAuction drafts allow you the flexibility to also pinpoint players you definitely dont want.This is more important than youd think. In the heat of a draft, Ive gotten sucked into drafting a player who was off my brand because I couldnt believe he was going for so cheap. I still get night sweats thinking about the time I paid $12 for Evan Turner.At the same time, keep the same players in mind for bidding up. When you know a player you want to avoid is lingering $10-$20 below what hell eventually go for, jump in and raise the ante.Every dollar you can bleed out of a fellow owner for one of his or her targets means theres aggregate value being left on the table. It will really come in handy late in your draft when youre hoarding players in the $2-$9 range.10. Make a list of your fellow owners favorite teamsKnow that owners tend to overpay for players from their favorite NBA squads, because they want to see their players in the games they watch.Also know that Knicks and Lakers fans tend to really suffer in this area. (Dont believe me? Lakers Exceptionalism is now an accepted term in the NBA lexicon.)Again, this helps when figuring out which players to bid up.11. Dont puntI cant stress this enough. Dont go into your draft thinking you can ignore a single category. You win by building depth across all positions and categories.Step 3: Making your actual planYou can probably tell Im not a fan of Stars and Scrubs.Stars and Scrubs is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Here, you focus big bucks on three to four ringers, then fill the gaps with cheap role players.Heres a typical Stars and Scrubs roster for a 13-man, $200 budget. Im using actual current average auction value. Note that $174, or 87% of the budget, is spent on three players:PG: Chris Paul $53 SG: James Harden $73 SF: Marvin Williams $1 PF: Ryan Anderson $4 C: DeMarcus Cousins $59 G: Wesley Matthews $1 F: Markieff Morris $1 UTIL: George Hill $2 UTIL: Alex Len $2 UTIL: Otto Porter $1 BENCH: Gary Harris $1 BENCH: Danny Green $1 BENCH: Al Jefferson $1This team is way too top heavy. Remember, the top player overall generally generates 20-24 Player Rater points. Which means a 24-Player Rater point player would only be worth about $52 in terms of hard value. Thats for an off-the-charts historic type of statistical performance, along the lines of... 2015-16 Steph Curry or 1974-75 Bob McAdoo.But the truth is that we pay more for the big names because A) were suckers for marquee value and we want piece of mind. Youre paying a markup because you know that Harden, Lillard and Cousins will anchor your team. And its also just fun to roster those guys.Just dont forget to keep in mind that using our $2.22 per Player Rater point ratio, 2015-16 Stephen Curry -- the number one player on the Player Rater -- produced only $52 in actual value.When youre paying that kind of markup across multiple players, youre left wide open to injuries, trades, slumps, and scheduling abnormalities. It also places a lot of pressure on an owner to be resourceful on the waiver wire, since you will undoubtedly be scouring for new scrubs to plug in when other scrubs dont pan out.Owners new to auction leagues tend to fall into this strategy by mistake. Many a time Ive seen new owners get bid happy and scarf up three of the first eight or nine superstars. Just like in the real NBA, the main issue with Stars and Scrubs is that if you whiff on one of your stars, its difficult to recover.This isnt fantasy football. In fantasy football, you can whiff on a pick or two in your draft and recover on the wire. Fantasy basketball doesnt offer a whole of free agent depth... especially after the first month of the season.With apologies to our Fantasyland pigskin-pushing brethren, a fantasy basketball draft holds a lot more season-long significance.Of course, there is another way to go about all of this. You can promise yourself you wont spend more than $28-32 on a single player.You have to weather the initial storm, napping comfortably while other owners go hog wild for Russell Westbrook at $77 (his current price on ESPN.com) and Durant at $68. Because youve done your homework that I previously assigned -- you will do that -- you will notice bargains starting to fall through the cracks. A team built with this approach might look like this:PG: Eric Bledsoe $21 SG: Jimmy Butler $31 SF: Rudy Gay $9 PF: LaMarcus Aldridge $24 C: Pau Gasol $28 G: Kemba Walker $27 F: Serge Ibaka $14 UTIL: Gorgui Dieng $5 UTIL: Nerlens Noel $11 UTIL: Goran Dragic $14 BENCH: Ricky Rubio $6 BENCH: Myles Turner $3 BENCH: Trevor Ariza $7I agree, this doesnt have the same sizzle as having Harden and DMC, but this is a winning roster that gives you tons of options.The benefits? You are guarding against a single injury destroying your teams prospects. You are building solid foundations across the board in every category. You have more flexibility when setting your lineups. And you have more flexibility when making trades.Step 4: Draft night1. Track how other owners are managing their moneyIf youre not using ESPN Fantasys snappy auction draft engine, I recommend a spreadsheet that tracks available money left by position, and even by category.2. Dont get sucked into bidding warsDont let draft over-ebullience suck you into a mano-y-mano, womano-y-mano or womano-y-womano test of mettle. Like DeNiro in Heat, dont get into a situation you cant walk away from at any time. Thats how people get shot near the airport.3. Bid up players you dont want and/or need.Again, even if its a player you disdain, dont be shy about jumping in early and bidding a player up a few bucks... as long as youre confident the price will keep soaring.Youll never forget the moments where the floor drops out from beneath youre feet and youre holding the bag. In 2009, I once ended up with J.J. Hickson... it was very embarrassing, trust me.4. Dont reach for hot sleepersThese are players who are referred to as sleepers in draft guides to the point where they reach a tipping point and become the existential opposite of hot sleeper, the Im trying to look smart post-draft regret malaise pick.Once players are touted? The sleeper prefix becomes an oxymoron. A true sleeper is a player who produces far more value than his price. Nothing more. Thats my kind of hot.5. Dont panic once established fantasy starters at a certain position are all almost off the boardThe last mid-round point guard, the last center that gets 2.0 blocks... these moments inspire overbidding.Thats why its important to note the second-to-last player in each tier. The second-to-last player in a tier usually ends up as the bargain.They show up in the lull. The hangover period before the panic that accompanies that oh, #*$@, this is the last good shooting guard left stage.6. Dont engage in craven attempts at Gordon Gekko/Post-Season-2 Walter Whiteian gamesmanshipDont say things designed to get into other owners minds. We see you coming from a mile away. Dont draft like a boss. Youre not a boss. R.C. Buford is a boss. Pat Riley is the boss of bosses. You are, at best, a James Dolan; a guy who fell upwards into an ownership situation and celebrates blues music with a disquieting intensity.7. Dont offer stupid trades during the draftDont be That Guy. That Guy is the guy who offers you DeMar DeRozan and Jarrett Jack for Kawhi Leonard. (Coincidentally, That Guy tends to drive a BMW 3-series, or rides a bike.)8. Identify when your draft is entering what I call hangover periodsThese are the pockets of relative inactivity after owners have hit hot-spots where theyve spent a large amount of their budget.Hot-spots of overspending usually occur with the top 12 players, so-called hot sleepers, and when the final surefire starters at certain positions (especially center and point guard) are almost off the board.After these frenzies, lulls appear. Thats the hangover period. Theres less money available for larger projected value.Thats when you sneak in and get those players in the $5-$25 range at a discount. And thats how you win a league.9. Just as the top 25 players go for too much money, players 26-130 go for too littleLets look at the median. The 65th-best player in fantasy last year was Andrew Wiggins. He produced 5.54 Player Rater points. Using our ratio, he produced $12 of value.This year, the 65th-highest salary in ESPN auctions (Marcin Gortat) is going for $8. So in 65th-pick territory, you could be getting $12 of value for just $8. Thats a savings of fifty percent.Last season, the players who finished in the 110-120 range on the Player Rater still averaged about 3 Player Rater points in production. Which means that those players are actually worth $6 to $7 dollars. 110-120 is $1 territory in our Live Results.10. Gear up for the end gameThe end-game is often the most important part of your auction draft. Its definitely the part of the draft that produces the highest ratio of aggregate profanity per pick.The profanity is produced by your fellow owners, swearing at the heavens that a valuable producer just went for a couple of bucks. (Per example, Jonas Valanciunas for $2? @*#&, dude!)I like to sit on just enough money to have the ability to go to $3 on a couple of end-game guys. I dont like to save too much more than that though, because theres nothing more lacking in Roto Honor than being the guy or girl that leaves...11. Money on the TableDont leave money on the table. Dont leave any more than a buck at the absolute most. Any more than that, and your fellow owners should free to mock you to their hearts content.Leaving money on the table meant you thought you could get a little cute. And trust me, if you were even a little cute, youd be doing more interesting things than participating in an auction basketball draft.One final noteDeep breaths before the first throw, green tea at the halfway mark, then cold brew for the endgame.Before the draft? Exhale. Mediate. Medicate. Have a Manhattan. A Matcha. A Manhattan with Matcha. Stretch. Whatever you can do to relax, do it. An overabundance of adrenaline is going to fuel the first half hour. Players are going to go for way too much. Keep your cool.Halfway through, get up and walk around the table. Start ramping up your energy intake as the other owners begin to flag.When youre at the precipice of $1 territory?Jumping jacks. Cold brew. Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Whatever you need to do to make sure youre not as punchy as your fellow owners. This is where you sneakily bring your A game, friend.Because in the end? The very end of the end game is where imaginary champions are forged.And that, fellow fake basketball enthusiasts, is as profound as I get. Adidas Gazelle Negras Baratas . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. Adidas EQT Support ADV Blancas . Pierce was ejected in the third quarter of Indianas 103-86 win Monday. George Hill stole a bad pass and was going in for a layup, and Pierce hustled back and appeared to be trying to wrap him up. www.zapatillasgazellebaratas.es/adidas-n...as-nmd-r1-mujer.html . The formidable trio of Canadian receivers -- individually known as Chris Getzlaf, Rob Bagg and Andy Fantuz -- will share the field at Mosaic Stadium one more time on Sunday. Zapatillas Adidas Gazelle Cuero Rojo Universidad/Blancas|Hombre/Mujer . "Trying to breathe," he said with a grin. Bernier stopped 42 of 43 shots on Monday night, including all 22 in a hectic middle frame, his heroic performance propelling the Leafs toward an undue point in their final game before the Christmas break. Adidas Gazelle Blancas Hombre . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem.NEW YORK -- Tim Hudson took a shutout into the eighth inning before getting spiked at first base and carted off the field with a broken ankle during the Atlanta Braves 8-2 victory over the New York Mets on Wednesday night. Evan Gattis, Dan Uggla and Andrelton Simmons all homered off an ineffective Jeremy Hefner to help the Braves bats break loose after scoring only four runs in their previous three games. But the nasty-looking injury to Hudson is a huge concern, leaving the NL East leaders without a veteran winner who was on a roll. Hudson (8-7) was working on a four-hitter when Eric Young Jr. hit a grounder that was knocked down by Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman. Hudson took Freemans toss at the bag just before Young arrived, and the speedy outfielder stepped on the back of Hudsons lower right leg, near his Achilles, driving the pitchers right ankle awkwardly into the ground. Hudson immediately went down in obvious pain, and Young rushed over to check on him. The crowd at Citi Field groaned when the replay was shown on the big video board. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez and a trainer rushed out to aid Hudson, who took off his cap and held his shaved head in his hands. EMS workers finally strapped the right-hander to a backboard and drove him off the field on a cart as fans applauded. Young remained nearby throughout the entire delay, which lasted almost 10 minutes, and shook Hudsons hand before he was carted away. Hudson nodded back at him. The 38-year-old Hudson won his fourth straight start, striking out nine in 7 2-3 innings. Luis Avilan replaced him and gave up a two-run double to Daniel Murphy, who made two errors at second base. Hudson had X-rays at Citi Field, and the Braves say he will undergo surgery in Atlanta once the swelling goes down. Its unclear how long Hudson will be out or whether hell be able to pitch again this season. Hefner (4- compiled a 1.76 ERA in his final eight starts before the All-Star break, the best mark in the majors during that span. But he was tagged for a career-worst eight runs and 10 hits in two-plus innings last Friday against Philadelphia, a personal nemesis throughout his two-year career. The right-hander wasnt much better against Atlanta, allowing a career-high three homers in 4 1-3 innings. All of them were no-doubters, too. Gattis hit a solo shot into the second deck in left field in the second inning, his first home run since June 10 in San Diego. Despite spending 24 games on the disabled list witth a strained muscle on his right side, he leads major league rookies -- by a wide margin -- with 15 homers and 39 RBIs.dddddddddddd Brian McCann reached on an error to start the fifth when Murphy, playing deep on the outfield grass, bobbled an attempted backhand. Gattis singled and Uggla drove the next pitch to left for his 20th home run. Chris Johnson singled and, one out later, Simmons teed off on a 2-2 breaking ball to make it 6-0. Simmons also hit a leadoff homer Tuesday night for Atlantas only run. Wearing orange jerseys with Los Mets written across the chest, the Mets could hardly get out of their own way. When star slugger David Wright broke his bat on a double-play grounder in the fourth, the barrel buggy-whipped around on his follow through and hit him in the back of the neck. Wright barely got out of the box before stopping in his tracks and bending over in pain. New York manager Terry Collins and a trainer came out to check on Wright in a moment of genuine concern, but he cracked a sheepish smile while rubbing his head as he walked back to the dugout. NOTES: Braves RHP Brandon Beachy, recovering from Tommy John surgery in June 2012, was set to make another rehab start Wednesday night for Triple-A Gwinnett. With LHP Paul Maholm (bruised left wrist) about to go on the 15-day disabled list Thursday, Beachy could be back in the rotation soon. ... Rookie left-hander Alex Wood will be called up to start the series finale Thursday in Maholms place. The 22-year-old Wood (0-2, 2.45 ERA) has made 16 major league appearances but only one start, when he lasted three innings in a June 18 loss to the Mets. He has since been stretched out in the minors, and manager Gonzalez said Wood could be pushed to about 90 pitches Thursday. ... Gonzalez said Maholm will make a minor league rehab start before returning from the DL. ... RHP Zack Wheeler (3-1, 3.58) pitches for New York on Thursday. The prized rookie threw six shutout innings at Atlanta to win his big league debut June 18. ... Mets OF Lucas Duda (ribcage) and catching prospect Travis dArnaud (foot) began their rehab assignments in the rookie level Gulf Coast League. Duda will play left field and first base during his rehab stint, Collins said. ... LHP Jonathon Niese (shoulder) should begin a rehab assignment in the GCL no later than next week, Collins said. ... Reserve infielder Justin Turner will make his first start Thursday since coming off the disabled list, Collins said. Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys NFL Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping Wholesale Jerseys China ' ' '