Ben, thank you for taking the time to engage with other users so openly and honestly. At the core, we love this game. So we could talk about things we love for hours. You have such a great speaking presence, meaning you have a highly effective communication skills. I don't think you get enough credit for adding value to the sim basketball product.

Thanks again and hope you and your family stay happy and safe.

Division Draft

benhoidal	jcred5	reeldeal01	dBKC
jethroeg	jethroeg	jethroeg	jethroeg
dakjd901	samuelyork93	dakjd901	rjk2781
rjk2781	PBandJ	PBandJ	PBandJ
samuelyork93	uptowngbv	cem6989	cem6989
NotoriousJ	rjk2781	rjk2781	dakjd901
uptowngbv	NotoriousJ	Notoriousj	samuelyork93
PBandJ	jhsukow	uptowngbv	berkelon
24kpyrite	24kpyrite	berkelon	uptowngbv
berkelon	cem6989	jhsukow	copernicus
cem6989	berkelon	copernicus	Notoriousj
copernicus	copernicus	samuelyok93	riftonapple
Midge	Midge	dh555	seapilots
seapilots	seapilots	Midge	dh555
jhsukow	jackedjamie	24kpyrite	jhsukow
dh555	dh555	seapilots	24kpyrite
jackedjamie	dakjd901	jackedjamie	Midge
ty84moss	riftonapple	raggedclaws	ty84moss
chewy3344	ty84moss	ty84moss	raggedclaws
riftonapple	chewy3344	chewy3344	jackedjamie
raggedclaws	raggedclaws	riftonapple	chewy3344

Atlantic	Midwest	Pacific	Central
benhoidal	jcred5	reeldeal01	dBKC
jethroeg	samuelyork93	dakjd901	rjk2781
NotoriousJ	PBandJ	cem6989	berkelon
uptowngbv	jhsukow	copernicus	riftonapple
24kpyrite	Midge	dh555	seapilots
jackedjamie	ty84moss	raggedclaws	chewy3344

https://youtu.be/-S22sNlnVt8

Notes:

- It's over 2 hours long. No edits, raw footage. Sorry!
- It's single frame only, so you guys are going to get awfully tired of my face.
- I didn't start recording right away so you're going to miss the best part of the night: 24k having a stock video filter of a Christmas tree and fireplace background and Midge thinking it was real. Midge kept complimenting 24 on his Christmas decor and 24 somehow kept the bit going. It was wonderful.
- I would love to answer any follow up questions you guys have so please comment here and I will answer the best that I can.

Thanks to all those who submitted questions and to those who showed up!

Jcred has a much higher opinion of my team than everybody else lol

Ben,

Thank you for the work on the video, I am sorry I was unable to attend. My wife and I always have something of a standing appointment on Sunday to talk about the week that was and what is upcoming this week just so we can be on the same page and then just have a little together time.

I have this question and observation:

1. Judging by the voting most people are very down on my team (which I am used to), what is the glaring issue with my team? I felt that I drafted better this time and I didn't shoot myself in the foot with a stupid pick. I am wondering if this was a referendum on my ownership prowess (or lack thereof) or just that my team sucked that bad.

2. What you said about the changes in the sim was especially prescient for me. I would never say I was a top player in the past but I was usually a middle-of-the-road player. I have had a tough time navigating the changes in the sim and I still find myself in some older mindsets. In this draft, I focused on solid defensive players who were not going to turn the ball over a ton. This is something I never did before. I used to roll out high efg% squads with rebounding and ignore to% and fouls. I felt that your comment about how you had to get used to how the sim operates now versus how it used to operate was just for me. I need to do a better job of navigating the tendencies of the sim over how I used to play the sim and what my general hoops knowledge tells me.

Thanks again, it was super informative and fun for a stats and hoops nerd like me.

(OH...and I drafted Gobert early because I never used him and I didn't want to play with other players that I have already used)

Posted by PBandJ on 12/12/2023 10:57:00 AM (view original):
Ben,

Thank you for the work on the video, I am sorry I was unable to attend. My wife and I always have something of a standing appointment on Sunday to talk about the week that was and what is upcoming this week just so we can be on the same page and then just have a little together time.

I have this question and observation:

1. Judging by the voting most people are very down on my team (which I am used to), what is the glaring issue with my team? I felt that I drafted better this time and I didn't shoot myself in the foot with a stupid pick. I am wondering if this was a referendum on my ownership prowess (or lack thereof) or just that my team sucked that bad.

2. What you said about the changes in the sim was especially prescient for me. I would never say I was a top player in the past but I was usually a middle-of-the-road player. I have had a tough time navigating the changes in the sim and I still find myself in some older mindsets. In this draft, I focused on solid defensive players who were not going to turn the ball over a ton. This is something I never did before. I used to roll out high efg% squads with rebounding and ignore to% and fouls. I felt that your comment about how you had to get used to how the sim operates now versus how it used to operate was just for me. I need to do a better job of navigating the tendencies of the sim over how I used to play the sim and what my general hoops knowledge tells me.

Thanks again, it was super informative and fun for a stats and hoops nerd like me.

(OH...and I drafted Gobert early because I never used him and I didn't want to play with other players that I have already used)

1. They way I do division drafts is that I put people in tiers based on their ODL history and then I move people around in their tier based on a number of things. Right now, you have an ODL win average of 36.2 which puts you in the second worst tier. I actually remember liking your team when I was looking at it and even moved you to the top of your tier for my draft. I think you have a good chance to exceed your average this season (Although I haven't actually had a chance to look at your team you submitted yet).

2. I was definitely in the same boat 5-7 years ago where I would try to spam efg and rebounding, get enough defense and assists and call it a day without looking at the other stuff. Other users have just gotten way too good and to be competitive you have to look at everything now. Having to adapt because of greater competition is fun for me, but it certainly makes things more difficult!

Thanks for the response!

Thanks again, Ben. Great content! Have you ever considered having the ODL be a 12 round draft? If not, why not?

edit to add: I mean, I understand the tradition and why you don't want to mess with something that isn't broken, but I've always wondered why we don't draft whole teams...

I would love to do a simple 12 round draft with no salary cap if there is enough interest.

I would love a 12 round draft with a salary cap, too. I'm just trying to understand why we only draft 7 players, as opposed to 12. Maybe the belief that the users wouldn't be able to do it well, so too many teams would stink it up or draft over the cap number?

Posted by berkelon on 12/12/2023 3:20:00 PM (view original):
Thanks again, Ben. Great content! Have you ever considered having the ODL be a 12 round draft? If not, why not?

edit to add: I mean, I understand the tradition and why you don't want to mess with something that isn't broken, but I've always wondered why we don't draft whole teams...

I think I joined the ODL for the first time sometime in the 50s and became commissioner sometime in the 70s, so things were already pretty set by the time I had any control.

I like the league as is right now. I think once you get past 7, there really isn’t a need to keep drafting. On the chat we debated whether rounds 6 and 7 were even necessary. I think past 7 just makes the draft go way longer and at the end players like Bill Garner or John Duren anyways.

Just my two cents.

Posted by benhoidal on 12/12/2023 5:21:00 PM (view original):

Posted by berkelon on 12/12/2023 3:20:00 PM (view original):
Thanks again, Ben. Great content! Have you ever considered having the ODL be a 12 round draft? If not, why not?

edit to add: I mean, I understand the tradition and why you don't want to mess with something that isn't broken, but I've always wondered why we don't draft whole teams...

I think I joined the ODL for the first time sometime in the 50s and became commissioner sometime in the 70s, so things were already pretty set by the time I had any control.

I like the league as is right now. I think once you get past 7, there really isn’t a need to keep drafting. On the chat we debated whether rounds 6 and 7 were even necessary. I think past 7 just makes the draft go way longer and at the end players like Bill Garner or John Duren anyways.

Just my two cents.

Agreed

Posted by Midge on 12/12/2023 3:58:00 PM (view original):
I would love to do a simple 12 round draft with no salary cap if there is enough interest.

I have interest.

Didn't mean to derail the league convo, just got inspired by the youtube! I could draft every day and be happy. That's my favorite part of WIS and it's not even close.

Apologies everyone, I'll have my team in tomorrow night. Hopefully I'm not the last in; I'm pretty good at being the third to last.

I still have a little money to spend and don't want to get it wrong. If this team doesn't turn out I may need to take a break from Harden for a while.