TWA: Auction Draft Review
Great draft everyone! For many of us, this will be our first WNBA fantasy league, and for some, our first ever auction league! The action was fast and furious and hopefully fun for all. Shout out to Chris of Toronto Tempo for coming to the draft despite suffering a flat tire right beforehand!
[ Auction Draft Value Comparison ]
I did a quick comparison between our draft results and ESPN’s projected auction numbers. As we know, once the draft is over, it doesn’t matter what you paid for a player as long as you’ve got a great team. Still, we’ll use projections to do some analysis because it’s fun!
For actual preseason ratings, I’ll have to lean on someone with some actual WNBA expertise to take a look at the rosters as I actually know nothing. Here are some draft notes and numbers analysis. If you remember anything particularly exciting or interesting, feel free to add on!
What happened at the top of the draft?
The big three of A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, and Breanna Stewart went for $353 altogether, which was just one dollar away from what ESPN projected. Both Clark and Stewart were scooped up at $112—by Lava Bulls and Stay at Home Moms, respectively—and came in a few dollars under their projections. Technically, Wilson cost Karla’s Queens eight more dollars than projected, but that’s a pretty small increase for the absolute best bet in the draft.
Looking at the top ten players drafted, our league used $828 on those players while ESPN projected $861. I don’t know what that means…
Out of ESPN’s projected top twenty, there was only one discrepancy: Satou Sabally snuck into our top twenty, taking over Rhyne Howard’s spot.
Which players were the best and and worst values?
Of the higher ranking players, Alyssa Thomas was the best value at +19, as she went for $50 after being projected at $69. The top five in the value category were Thomas, Rhyne Howard (+12), Angel Reese (+10), Kahleah Copper (+10), and Kelsey Plum (+10).
The worst value? ESPN had Cameron Brink projected at $1 and yet Taipei Terrors paid a whopping $15 for her. That's some Los Angeles inflation! The top five players in this worst value category were: Brink (-14), Kayla McBride (-9), A'ja Wilson (-8), Satou Sabally (-8), and Alanna Smith. Kelsey Mitchell, Marina Mabrey, and Teaira McCowan were all tied at -7 value differential.
Who had the best value draft?
Maybe auto-draft is the way to go! Chunky Monkeys emerged with a +18 value for their roster, as they got all four of their main players at lower dollar amounts—we’ll ignore the other half of their auto-drafted roster… Monkeys saved a whopping ten dollars on Kahleah Copper alone.
Chunky Monkeys was the only team to get such a high plus value number, ranking way above the next best team, which was Taipei Terror at only plus-four.
On the other end of the spectrum, Queen Rockets overpaid the most for their team, with a -24 value rating. They went $2-7 dollars over on every player except franchise star Arike Ogunbowale, whom Queen Rockets saved three dollars on. Note: Skylar Diggins went for exactly her projected value.
Three other teams had negative value drafts: Wxxrth (-10), Toronto Tempo (-9), and Screamin’ Sheagles (-7)
Who was doing funky stuff with the bidding?
LavaBulls put Marina Mabrey up for bidding fast, at number five, before Arike Ogunbowale, Sabrina Ionescu, and ostensibly twenty players who should have been in the queue before her. (Mabrey ended up going to Queen Rockets for $24, and her projection was $17.)
So what did LavaBulls know that we don’t? How to work an auction draft apparently! LavaBulls then put up Kayla McBride at bid number thirteen, which was also much higher than her ranking. LavaBulls got their player this time, paying $18 for McBride.
Someone really wanted to put up Kelsey Mitchell too, as she was the seventeenth bid by Karla’s Queens. And then Karla’s Queens won Mitchell for $25 (projected $18).
Brittney Griner and Tina Charles were also put up for bid pretty early, respective to their projected ESPN dollar value. Did someone just like them or did they want to get some centers off the board? Hum…🤔
The latest ESPN top twenty player to be put up for bid was DeWanna Bonner, who went up for auction at twenty-eight.
Looking at bid number is always interesting, as sometimes it can reveal some grander strategy…or if an owner is just going chalk and nominating the best player available. Based on early bidding analysis, it’s clear LavaBulls know The W better than most!
Who were the ESPN $0 players?
In all, sixty-four players were drafted, while ESPN had fifty-three players projected costing at least one dollar. All of those fifty-three players were selected during our draft, leaving eleven $0 dollar players who were scooped up.
Natasha Mack, rookie Kiki Iriafen, Tiffany Hayes, and Courtney Vandersloot cost three dollars apiece, while two other rookies—Hailey Van Lith and Dominique Malonga—plus Temi Fagbenle were acquired for one dollar each. Note: We’re overlooking Chunky Monkeys’ four bargain bin wonders, who were auto-drafted. Shout out to Han Xu!!!
Who’s the preseason favorite to win it all?
You tell me! Based on the total ESPN projected scoring of the top six players from each team, the power rankings would look like this:
- Karla's Queens
- Toronto Tempo
- Stay at Home Moms
- Queen Rockets
- Taipei Terror
- LavaBulls
- Screamin' Sheagles
- Chunky Monkeys