How to plan a fantasy basketball auction, top-heavy, balanced or deep, with real prices
In a 12-team, $200 room the top 12 players take 32% of the money and everyone past the 96th costs a dollar, and at our prices a roster built on Jokić and Giannis buys more starting value than four $35 players or nine $20 ones.
By James · 4 min read
Nikola JokićGiannis AntetokounmpoVictor WembanyamaPhotos: NBAProAn auction is a budget problem before it is a player problem: every team has the same money, every roster spot needs at least a dollar, and the useful question is where your $200 should go across thirteen spots. Our auction values answer that by pricing every player for a given room so that the prices add up to the room's money to the dollar, and this guide uses those prices to compare three plans for a 12-team, $200 league with thirteen roster spots, under ESPN's default points scoring and on our 9-cat board.
- Nikola Jokić DEN1stvs 1st
- Giannis Antetokounmpo MIA9thvs 9th
- Victor Wembanyama SAS2ndvs 2nd
- Jamal Murray DEN10thvs 16th
- Darius Garland LAC43rdvs 48th
- Walker Kessler LAL51stvs 32nd
Our numbers say a plan built on two stars and cheap depth buys more starting value than a balanced or deep plan for the same money, because of how stars are priced. That edge depends on your room paying close to our prices for the stars, so the plan has to follow the first few sales rather than be fixed before the draft. The dollar figures below are our prices for this room as of mid-October, and they move nightly with the projections.
Every player in this story is on the fantasy basketball rankings and the 2026-27 projections, and the NBA depth charts show where each one stands in his team’s rotation tonight.
