By Lakerlover

The art of drafting is in fact a combination of 70 percent luck and 30 percent skill. The luck is based on where you end up in the draft and the placement of all your picks. Now, depending on which picks you end up with, the real key is to write down a list of the players with the highest FPPM in the NBA. Then it reverts to skill, where you know the stats of every player and you have a real idea of who you want and how you want to build your team and your bench.

You should always take C/F players with the highest FPPM with a minimum of 32 minutes per game for your first pick, the exception to this would be if you have the first or second pick in which case you take the best player period. From there you build your team per position taking the best player with the highest FPPM picking the first 5 players to build your starting team.

Then you pick to fill the remaining minutes until you have filled all 240 minutes with the highest FPPM. Now, some owners feel the bench is a waste. I do not! A good bench will be there in case of injury or any other unforseen problem and if the bench is good enough you will have good players to fill the shoes of your great players and not lose too many games until your starters are back. I feel that you fill your contingency list with the players you absolutely want that meet your criteria and if the list runs out then you will just pick it live.

You can't care too much if your fellow owners have to wait a couple of hours, and I never leave the live draft longer than that unless it's a 12 hour draft. A high-level owner will always have a list of players they want and be ready to make a pick that's not nessessarily what others might do,but be preparred to make the daring pick, the unusual pick, because those are the picks that could make all the difference in getting to the play-offs and doing well or not!!