Build-Your-Own NBA Draft Kit, Part 2: Setup

Last time, I listed several excellent reasons why building your own NBA draft kit is a stellar idea. Now we can move on to the actual doing of stuff. If you don't like actually doing stuff, you should probably check back in a few months after the NBA season has started and I'm posting more timely things. But seriously, who doesn't like doing stuff? I sure as hell do. Let's get started.

First, go to Doug Steele's excellent NBA and MLB stats page. You can find it at http://dougstats.com/. Under "Past NBA Seasons," click on "07-08 Stats." Then, on the next page, click on "All Player's Raw Data." This will open up a page with a veritable sea of data. Right click on the page and choose "select all," which of course will highlight all the data. Paste that data in a notepad file on your computer desktop (If you are using Linux, well, I don't even know where to begin. Then again, if you're using Linux, you're probably not playing fantasy basketball in the first place). If you're seriously computer illiterate, go to your desktop, right-click -> new -> text document, then rename that document "markdashrules.txt" or something similarly appropriate. Enter this text document, then paste the data into it using control+v. Save and close the document.

Now fire up Microsoft Excel. If you don't have Excel, well, you probably have Linux or a Mac, in which case this post isn't for you. If you have Microsoft Windows but not Excel, you should probably buy it, or, you know, find someone who has it. It's great not only for fantasy basketball draft kits but all sorts of other useful purposes. Close the document that automatically opened, go to file->open, change "type of file" to "all files," change the path to desktop (or wherever you decided to put the raw data text document), and select your raw data text file. Something called a "text import wizard" will then open up, which helps you convert your text file into a manipulatable Excel spreadsheet. Click "next" twice and then "finish."

One quick tip--SAVE FREQUENTLY. I have had several instances of heavy data manipulation where Excel randomly shuts down and you lose all your progress. Annoying. First, click file-save as, choose your path (Jedi or Sith, err, I mean desktop or My Documents or wherever it is you put your dirty, dirty spreadsheets), change "save as type" to "Microsoft Office Excel Workbook" (which is at the top), then name it something appropriate like Markdashisawesome.xls (new file extensions are "xlsx," which should work fine).

After saving, you can re-size the columns to show the players' entire names (blame Dikembe Mutombo, but hey, at least we don't have to use his middle names) and to cut down on the size given to the rest of the columns. This helps you view as much data as possible at any one time. Double click on the column border (at the top, where it says A, B, C, etc.) to resize. This also works for rows, by the way. For example, click the right edge of column D header to reduce its size.

The first thing you want to actually change on the spreadsheet (and the last thing I will go over in this particular entry of BYONDK) is to delete columns that have no importance to your fantasy league. For most of us, categories such as PF (personal fouls), DQ (disqualifications) and the like are completely superfluous. Right click on the columns, then go to "delete" to delete them forever more. For reference, here are what the columns stand for, and their importance:

team = the last team that player played for that season (unnecessary)
PS = positions (I usually get rid of this one because every fantasy site has different position info)
GP = games played (vital)
Min = minutes played (unimportant, unless you draft based on PER or the like)
FGM = field goals made (vital)
FGA = field goals attempted (vital)
3M = three pointers made (most likely vital)
3A = three pointers attempted (depends on your league settings)
FTM = free throws made (vital)
FTA = free throws attempted (vital)
OR = offensive rebounds (most likely unimportant)
TR = total rebounds (vital)
AS = assists (vital)
ST = steals (vital)
TO = turnovers (most likely vital)
BK = blocks (vital)
PF = personal fouls (unimportant)
DQ = disqualifications (unimportant)
PTS = points (vital)
TC = technical fouls (unimportant)
EJ = ejections (unimportant)
FF = flagrant fouls (unimportant)
Sta = starts (unimportant)

Of course, the importance of the above categories all depends on your individual league and its settings. If you are in a no-percentages league, you can get rid of stuff like makes/attempts, and I have heard of some barbarians who actually use offensive rebounds as a category (yikes!). This is the best thing about making your own draft kit--you are not bound by "standard" ranking systems which will quite often not conform to your own personalized league settings.

Next time, the real fun begins--discussing the relative merits of Pops Mensah-Bonsu versus Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje. Oh, and I might also begin calculating per-game averages for everyone in the NBA and begin discussing some metrics for player comparison.

Until then,
-M