Snake or Auction: which is the better fantasy basketball draft format?

(A harmonious fantasy-lovin' family. Illustration courtesy of Jason Solo)

Laura and Timmy are having relationship problems. Things were going okay until Timmy got that promotion at work. Now he's hardly ever at home anymore. For weeks, Laura has been voicing her displeasure, and Timmy knows that unless he smooths things over with her pronto, their relationship might come to an unceremonious end. But Timmy has come up with a great idea. He's going to invite Laura to be in his fantasy basketball league, which is the last thing he'd ordinarily ever want to do. To him, fantasy basketball exists as a refuge from his horribly mundane existence. There's no part of him that wants to corrupt that brief reprieve of depression by dragging his wife into it. He loves his wife, but with her involved, the exercise will become just another chore, just another piece of his independence that has slowly been stripped from him since the beginning of their tumultuous marriage.

Still, he does this because he doesn't want to be a statistic. He doesn't want to be like his dad, who walked out on him when he was eight years old. He's going to make this relationship work, damn it. And if that means having to get pestered with incredibly easy advice questions and one-star trade offers from Laura, then so be it.

Timmy presents this olive branch one day as Laura is watching a rerun of Numbers Never Lie. Laura immediately appreciates the gesture.

"Do... do you mean it?" she asks, a tear trickling down her face.

Timmy nods.

"You just need to check your email to get the invite," he says. "I mean, I think I sent it to the right one. You've got like three email addresses. I dunno, it's hard to keep track of. You still use Yahoo!, right? Okay, then yeah. You should check your email whenever you get the chance."

Laura smiles. Timmy smiles back. At first, it looks like everything is going to be okay. In one fell swoop, Timmy has eradicated the friction that existed between them. Or at least, that's what he thought...

"So honey, what kind of a draft is it going to be?" Laura asks.

"What kind?" Timmy says in bewilderment.

"Yeah. Like, which format is it?" Laura asks carefully. "Snake or auction?"

Suddenly Timmy freezes. He knows he's supposed to come up with an answer here. He's supposed to say something to show that this has been a carefully-crafted plan of his, otherwise the whole gesture might go unappreciated. And if that happens, that may be the straw that broke the camel's back, which would be bye-bye marriage. The problem is that Timmy doesn't know what to say. Snake? Auction? He hadn't given either format a split second of consideration, and now that he's on the spot, he can't for the life of him decide which he more prefers.

So, let's pause the story here and try to help Timmy out, shall we? I mean, we don't want him to get divorced and all, and this issue is clearly very important to him. So which is the superior format for a fantasy basketball draft: the standard take-your-turn format -- better known as snake -- or auction, where you get to bid on players one at a time?

The snake format has always been the industry standard in fantasy sports; if you describe a player as having 4th round value, everyone understands what that means, whereas describing a player as being worth $40 will often leave people confused as to its significance. The biggest benefit of the snake format is that it's very easy to settle into. It's as simple as taking your turn, choosing from a list of players, taking whoever you want, waiting, and repeating the process until you have a full team. The problem is that because the snake format is so rigidly based on the players' rankings, some players are only available to those lucky enough to get a certain order in the draft. For instance, only one guy gets the opportunity to draft Kevin Durant with the No. 1 pick, and if you're not that incredibly fortunate guy, you're automatically ineligible from having him on your team.

This is where the snake format loses its appeal to many fantasy veterans. In theory, the guy with the most skill should be the guy who winds up with the best team, but that's rarely the case with snake. Often times, a guy will come away with a killer team solely because he lucked into having a great draft spot. It's outcome by complete randomness, and the same way that having an overtime NFL game decided by a coin flip was ultimately unsatisfying, it's hard to fully endorse a draft format where the players are going to certain owners strictly because of a predetermined, arbitrary draft order.

It was because of that intrinsic flaw that the auction format was developed. With auction, everyone has a fair chance to get anyone they want, and unlike with snake, where owners are more or less mandated to take players in the order they appear in the rankings, auction is much more conducive to strategy. An owner could grab Kevin Durant and LeBron James if he wanted to, only to have a bunch of $1-players balance out the rest of his roster. Or, he could choose to be patient and field a team of $20 and $12 players who, top to bottom, give him a contender, even if his best players aren't as elite as another guy's best players.

The problem with the auction format is that it demands fantasy owners to have a specific skill set besides simply being able to pick the best player available. Auction requires maintaining a strict budget (on both Yahoo! and ESPN, the standard draft budget is $200), which can be difficult since the guys at the top -- your Durant's, LeBron's and CP3's -- are often so expensive that they'll seriously cost you a third of your spending money. Unlike with the snake format, where it's forgivable to waltz into the draft without doing a lot of preparation, it's almost impossible to build a great team via auction without doing extensive research first. Knowing how much to spend on a player is predicated on knowing who's still available that's worth owning and how much they're expected to go for, and knowing those things is impossible without participating in at least a few mock drafts.

It essentially comes down to this. If you're hardcore about your fantasy basketball, if you really want to sleep at night knowing that your team is good or bad entirely because of how well your personnel decisions worked out, and that you had just as much of a chance to get your players as everybody else, then auction is undoubtedly for you. However, if you're either new to fantasy basketball or are just a casual fan of the NBA (i.e. you don't know all the players, how well they did a year ago, or how well they're projected to do), it's best to go with the snake format. My complaints aside, being in the snake format does not automatically preclude owners with an undesirable draft position from owning a good team; the bottom line is that if you know what you're doing, you should still be able to compete, regardless of where you are on the initial totem poll.

Now, when we last left Timmy, he was toiling between whether the league he and his wife are in should have a snake draft or an auction draft. Here's how this interaction would play out if Timmy elected to go with the snake format:

"I think we should have the standard snake draft format," Timmy says.

Laura smiles. She removes her clothes, throwing them on the ground.

"Do me," she says.

See? Timmy made the smart executive decision here, because he knows that his wife -- while a casual fan of basketball -- isn't the diehard fan he is, nor is she even that interested in having an uber-awesome fantasy team. She just wants to have fun sharing something with her hubby; the outcome honestly isn't that important to her, and had Timmy gone with auction, he'd have shown that his primary motivation, more than anything, was to win, and that if anything, he only wanted his wife to be in the league with him because he knew it'd make it easier for him to come away victorious.

If you don't believe me, here's how this scene would play out had Timmy gone with having an auction draft:

"Well, I think maybe we could do an auction," Timmy says.

"An auction?"

"Yeah. I mean, it'll require you doing extensive reading and doing a bunch of mock drafts to really get yourself prepared. But that shouldn't be a problem."

"You son of a bitch," Laura says. "Is that really your decision?"

"Oh god, here we go," Timmy says. "Nag, nag, nag. Hey everyone, hop on board, because the daily nag train just pulled into station!"

"You're such an ass."

"I'm an ass? You know what, Laura? Maybe I wouldn't be such an ass if you'd let me breathe for five goddamn seconds. You're tearing me apart!"

"Jesus Christ, it's always about you, isn't it? God's gift to the universe. What about me, huh? What about me!?!"

"What about you? What have you ever done for me? Nothing! You've always been holding me back, Laura! I could have gotten that promotion five years ago if I didn't have to worry about providing for you!"

"Then why don't you leave, Timmy? If that's how you feel, then get the hell out."

Timmy blinks. The rage dissipates from his face.

"Laura, I..."

"I think it's best if you leave."

"But Laura-"

"Just go! Damn it Timmy, get out of here!"

"Laura, I'm... I'm sorry. I got caught up in the moment. You and I, we're just going through a rough patch."

"Out!"

"Laura..."

"Out!"

Timmy, following his now ex-wife's wishes, exits the apartment. Laura slams the door shut behind him, to which Timmy slides down against the wall, his face erupting in tears. He angrily removes his wedding ring and throws it down the hall, producing muffled sobs as he presses his eyes into his hands.

End scene.

Tragic, isn't it? That all could have been avoided had Timmy been better acquainted with the different fantasy basketball draft formats. Hopefully, we can all learn a thing or two from Timmy's repeated blunders and really consider which format is best, rather than randomly choosing one at the last second. This has been a public service announcement from Broken Leagues. Don't let this happen to you!