NBA Fantasy Basketball League: The Eliminator Vol 1

A few weeks back I saw a post on b/r attracting people to play in a special type of fantasy basketball league, The Eliminator.  The Eliminator is a 20 team fantasy basketball league made up of "bleacher creators" and Yahoo players. 

Here is the way the league works from the commissioner's note:

"Two weeks into the season the team in last is elimination. Those players are redrafted onto the remaining teams. The team in 19th gets first pick and so on. You post the players in order you want them on the message board. You also select one player from your team for me to drop. I then change the rosters to accommodate the new additions to each team. Two weeks later we repeat the process with the 19th place team being eliminated. When we get to a certain point depending on the schedule, we'll go to an elimination every week. Once we are down to five teams we stop eliminating teams. Once you are eliminated you are done for the year in this league. The draft as of now is an auto draft, we can draft live, but at least 15 managers would have to approve of a time. If we can't get that many for a specific time, we'll auto-draft. This league is all about strategy, not necessarily about the players you have. Any players not re-drafted from an eliminated team will be place on waivers, as will the players dropped from the remaining teams to make room for the drafted players. There's no max moves, just a max games of 90 so be aware of that."

So I have decided to write a running diary for the league (well, for as long as I last in it).  The Eliminator drafted this week; it was an auto-pick draft so I had my fingers crossed.

Before the draft I ranked hundreds of players, from the best of the best, to the deep sleepers.  20 teams X 13 roster spots = 260 players picked; there are 150 starters in the NBA. 

I lucked out huge and the Seattle SuperSonics won the lottery, earning the 1st pick of the draft.

Here is how my draft shook down:

1 (1) Chris Paul
2 (40) Jason Kidd
3 (41) Brandon Roy
4 (80) Richard Jefferson
5 (81) Richard Hamilton
6 (100) Ricky Davis
7 (101) Al Thornton
8 (120) Michael Finley
9 (121) Jason Maxiell
10 (140) Craig Smith
11 (141) Sasha Vujacic
12 (160) Brandan Wright
13 (161) Antoine Walker

I am very happy with how my draft went.  With Paul and Kidd I get last years first and fourth best passers, and first and seventh best stealers.  I have lots of good scorers, and guys who shoot the three ball.

I was happy to get Davis and Thornton, they will share time and play at the same time.  I think Thornton is a shining young player and Davis is a vet who is a triple double threat. 

The only mistake I see in my draft was picking Maxiell over Ben Wallace, but I will live.

The obvious hole in my team is big men.  I dropped Walker, and picked up Joel Przybilla, who I inserted in the starting lineup over Craig Smith.  Pryz hits the glass harder and blocks more shots than Smith.

I hope to do well from the start, but not so well that I don't get a chance to pick players from teams who get voted off.

I will give you my next entry as the season is about to kickoff.  Let me know what you guys think!