Guide: NBA category auction
Contents
How the sheet works
Yellow cells are yours to fill. Gray cells are written by the add-on; don't type in them. Light-yellow cells accept your edits (projections). Every action is a checkbox: tick it, wait for it to untick, and read the result in the tab's status line on row 2. If a box stays ticked for an unusually long time, untick and tick it again. Create / Repair Algo Fantasy Tabs (Extensions menu, or Repair Algo Fantasy Tabs in the Control Panel's Setup layout) puts back any label, formula or color you broke, without touching your inputs.
Setup
- Sheet Status: whether Algo Fantasy is enabled and Yahoo is connected, Open Control Panel, your League ID, Sheet Tabs and Auto Daily Refresh.
- Sheet Updates: Update League Settings (roster slots, categories, budget, team count, lineup type from Yahoo), Update Draft Data (the player list, prices, projections and Z scores), Update Season Data (the three Season tabs).
- Categories: tick the categories that count; untick one to punt it. The multiplier next to each category (1 to start) weights that category in every Z score. These are the same values as Draft · My Team's Punt Variables and stay in sync whichever tab you edit.
- League Settings: read-only, straight from Yahoo.
- Sheet Tabs: Show All, Draft or Season, so you only see the tabs for the phase you're in.
- Auto Daily Refresh: On keeps the Season tabs refreshed every morning and evening without you opening the sheet. It stops on its own when the season ends.
- Support: this guide, Repair Algo Fantasy Tabs and Copy Diagnostics (it shows the add-on version and the sheet's state; paste its text into the contact form if something goes wrong).
Draft · My Team
- Run ALGO builds the best roster for your strategy. The status line shows the projection used, your punts and how many players were considered.
- Update Draft Results pulls every pick and price from Yahoo. In a live draft you don't need it: Live Draft Updates in the Control Panel do this for you.
- Algo Variables: Player Prices ($Avg or $Proj, the Yahoo price the Algo plans around), Budget Adjust and Opp $ Leftover (used during the draft to account for price inflation or deflation). There is no fourth row. Must Draft is always on, and two settings are fixed: the Algo gets up to 10 seconds per solve, and in daily-lineup leagues the roster keeps at least 2 players under $3 for streaming.
- Roster Settings: from Yahoo. Daily-lineup leagues get a full roster from the Algo; weekly-lineup leagues get the starting lineup, and you fill the bench by $Val or your own judgment.
- Punt Variables: untick the categories you want to punt. Z Score Target is the floor the Algo must reach in every category you keep; raise it for a more balanced team, lower it if the Algo can't find a roster.
- Do Not Draft: names to leave out, exactly as spelled in Player Data.
- Algo Outputs: Solution (whether a roster met the target), Algo Runtime and Inflation.
- The roster lists: My Team (yours so far), Must Draft (players the Algo can't replace; worth paying up for), Backup Team (a different roster that also works), $Max (the most the Algo would pay) and Algo Team (the recommended roster), with each player's prices, position, team and projected stats.
- Team Scores: Average is the sum of your team's category Z scores; Adjusted ignores the punted categories; Effective caps each category so a team that is huge in two categories and weak elsewhere doesn't look better than a balanced one. Lowest Category Score shows your weakest kept category.
Prices and values
- $Avg / $Proj: Yahoo's average and projected auction prices.
- $Val: what the player is worth to your strategy, from projected stats, your punts and multipliers, your league's size and a $200 budget scaled to your league's Auction Budget.
- $Adj: $Avg adjusted for the money left in the draft, so it tracks real prices as the draft inflates or deflates.
- $Paid: the real price from Yahoo once drafted.
Draft · Player Data
Every player with prices, position, team, Status (R = rookie), projections and Z scores. Projections are editable in the light-yellow columns; untick Use Algo Projections to keep your edits through later updates. Apply My Team Punts applies your punts to the Z scores and $Val on this tab. Drafted players are grayed; the Algo's picks are green.
Draft · League
Draft Results shows every team's roster and prices. Team Comparison: pick a team in Opp Team Name to see their roster, team scores and category strengths next to yours.
Control Panel and Live Draft
Open it from the Extensions menu or Setup. It shows the controls for whatever tab you're on. During the draft: turn Live Draft Updates on, choose the interval, and turn on auto-Algo to re-run the Algo after every pick. The list shows the latest picks with each player's Status. If nothing happens for 30 minutes the polling pauses; press Start. Set Values writes any punt or multiplier changes back to the sheet.
Season · Rankings, Matchup and League
- Rankings: every player's value for the period you choose (Show: all players, free agents, or My Team + FA), with Rost% change, Trend, Add Value and games this week and next. Include Out and Apply My Team Punts change the view.
- Matchup: this week's H2H matchup: current and projected totals per category, win %, status and gap, a day-by-day game grid, potential moves, streamers and trending players.
- League: standings, League Strength (each team's rank and Z per category), a schedule preview for the weeks ahead and recent transactions.
Each tab has its own Update Data; Update Season Data refreshes all three; Auto Daily Refresh does it for you.
Before the draft
Try punt combinations and Z Score Targets until the Algo returns a roster you like, note the Must Draft players, and run Update Draft Data again on draft day so prices are fresh. Mock drafts on Yahoo work exactly like real ones.
