The draft assistant

Set up the room

1. 1
   Key in the room and you're done

   Yahoo: join your room (mock or real) and copy the number from its URL (…/draftclient/nba/<room id>/…). ESPN and Fantrax: the room is the league — use the league id from its URL (public leagues need no connection). Enter it in 'Mirror a live draft' on the draft page and open. The room's own settings set the team count, rounds, and your seat; it scores the way your imported league does (a Yahoo mock lobby is plain H2H, but if your league is one-win, your practice room is too); and picks are already streaming in when the room opens.

2. 2
   By hand: match the real draft's shape

   Teams, rounds, starters, your draft slot (1-based), snake or linear, and the draft platform. Get the team count right — for a Yahoo mock, join the room first and use its final size, since lobbies fill as they go.

3. 3
   Use your league's scoring

   Format, categories, and scoring default to your active league. League scoring is the one to check: H2H each category, H2H one win (most categories takes the week), roto, or points — a synced Yahoo or ESPN room sets it for you. It matters: under one-win scoring a punt build that takes five of nine wins the week outright, and the standings and the recommendation both know that. Toggle punt categories here only if you're committing to a build from pick one — the room suggests punts as your roster takes shape anyway.

4. 4
   Optional: names and keepers

   Paste team names one per line in draft order (a synced room overwrites these with the real names), and add keepers so the board knows what's already off it. Then Start draft room.

Mirror the live draft

On the clock

1. 1
   The recommendation strip

   Ranked candidates for your next pick, each with the factors behind the score — value over replacement, build fit, category scarcity, tier urgency, standings lift, punt fit — a plain-English reason, availability discounts, and 'makes it back' (the chance he's still there at your next pick). It updates on every pick, yours or anyone's.

2. 2
   The category scarcity strip

   The one question a category draft turns on: what do I need now that I can't get later? Each category gets a bar that blends how much elite production is left on the board with how short your roster already is, scarcest first, re-read on every pick. Amber means it's drying up and you're behind in it — those are the ones to act on. The number beside each label is your team's z in that category; punted cats are dimmed out.

3. 3
   The available board

   Every undrafted player with projected per-game stats and per-category value, our view flags (risk, watch, volatile, rookie, sleeper, breakout, regress), and positional eligibility from your platform. Sort, search, click a name for the full player card. P-Val carries a small +delta: in punt mode that's the arbitrage number — how much more he's worth to you than to a league still counting the categories you conceded, which is how far past his market price you can reach. Outside punt mode it's the same sum against his own worst category, tagged with which one.

4. 4
   Your team, live

   Your roster table with footer rows comparing you to the top of the pool and to what's already been drafted — the fastest read on which categories you're winning and which you've abandoned.

5. 5
   The tabs

   Grid is the whole draft board by round. Standings projects every team's record and per-category win % against the field, with open slots filled by simulating the rest of the draft. Teams shows each roster. Picks is the ticker. Punt paths ranks the builds that fit your roster right now, field-relative. Queue is your own ordered shortlist.