NBA the Draft Mode on Dunkest

Dunkest is the coolest NBA Fantasy, a game that entertains thousands of fantasy coaches every season.

What is Dunkest

Born in 2013, Dunkest has rapidly won the affection of all basketball fans. Today it counts more than 200.000 fantasy coaches that use it in two game modes:

• Fantasy mode: 95 credits to choose 10 players. Fantasy teams have non-exclusive rosters, meaning that each player can belong to multiple fantasy coaches (read our guide How to Play Fantasy Mode)

• Draft mode: private leagues with exclusive rosters, where each player can simultaneously belong to only one team .

With this guide we explain how to play Dunkest Draft Mode and unveil some basic and advanced strategies.

How to Play the Draft Mode

1. Difference between Draft and Fantasy mode

In the Dunkest Draft Mode, the selection of players for each team should be decided by the participants (eg: an auction around a table, a call via Zoom, etc). At the end of the selection, the Draft Commissioner (the one who created the League) manually enters the players in each roster.

The Draft Mode is the same as the Fantasy Mode, except for the following points:

• The registered team does not participate in the Classic Mode
• Rosters are exclusive: each player can only be chosen by one team
• The only advantages that the user can buy are: Season Pass and No advertising
• It is not possible to purchase game advantages, such as Extra Credits or Wildcards
• Trades do not generate any penalties in points
• Trades can be opened and closed by the Commissioner only in the windows provided by the Dunkest schedule, which remains identical to the Classic Mode
• There’s a grandstand with 3 players’ slots: the players in that position will not obtain any score and during a Matchday they can’t be moved into the court
• There is no head coach
• The values of players do not change based on their performances

Discover how to set up a draft league, allocate your budget correctly, manage trades and free agents, and deal with the inactives: here’s the guide for the Dunkest NBA Fantasy Basketball Draft.

2. Draft Creation

During the creation of the Draft League, the Commissioner shall set the following parameters:

• League name
• Participants
• Player selection mode: with or without credits
• Budget: available to each user to buy free agent or propose trades to other teams (it can also be 0). If the credit mode was chosen, it is necessary to establish a budget for the auction
• Extra Budget for the Trades: there is the possibility to allocate (in addition to the roster creation credits) extra credits to be used during the season for the Free Agents market.
• Competition mode: classic ranking or Head-to-Head (H2H) mode
• Starting Matchday: The Commissioner can choose whether to start the League the upcoming Matchday, or on a different Matchday;
• Trades deadlines: the Commissioner can choose whether to let the trades open automatically between one Dunkest Matchday and another, or maintain direct control and decide independently when to open and when to close the trades (always within the time window established by the Dunkest schedule and NEVER with a matchday in progress).
• Roster creation

3. Roster Creation

Keep in mind that Dunkest NBA Fantasy Basketball only allows you to insert the rosters, but the type of draft and how the bids are done is something that the users are free to do as they prefer and that the game does not manage.

Here are some ideas on how to do your Draft:

• Classic Draft: the most popular draft format. Participants take turns selecting players to start the draft, either following a free order or by position, and the highest bidder wins the call (e.g.: Jokic is called and a bid between participants assigns the player to the participant who bids more).

• Closed Envelope Draft: the dynamics in this situation are more random. Fantasy managers place the 12 names of the roster in sealed envelopes along with the credits they are willing to bid for them, without knowing the moves of other participants. When the envelopes are opened simultaneously, the participant who bid the most wins the player. However, be cautious with this type of draft, as you might end up bidding too much or too little, resulting in imbalanced rosters.

• Serpentine Draft: a very interesting and balanced choice that doesn’t require credits. Participants decide on a selection order (e.g., A-B-C) and call out the player they want for their roster. In this case, other managers cannot raise the bid, and the player is automatically assigned to A. Then, B takes their turn, and finally, C. At the end of the first round, instead of starting over with A, it will be C’s turn to call first, ensuring balance in player selection.

4. Trades

Free Agents are players who do not belong to any team participating in the League and can be acquired during the trades time window according to the following procedure:How to acquire a free agent:

• Select within your roster a player you wish to waive and among the Free Agents choose a player of the same position of the released player.
• If you have enough budget, decide how many credits to offer
• After confirming the offer, the offer will appear in the “Offer list” below the “Team” page and can be changed at any time.
• 3 hours before the Trades close, the participant who offered the highest bid will automatically see the new player appear in the roster in the same position as the one substituted. The traded player will be placed in the free agent list and therefore will be available starting from the next trades time window.
• When the trade fails, the credits offered are credited back and the waived player will remain on the team.

Special cases:

• In the event of a tie, the auction is won by the player ranking the lowest in the League ranking.
• In the event of multiple offers made by always cutting the same player, if all the offers are successful, the system will attribute to the user the player whose offer was made first in chronological order.

It is also possible to offer a trade with a player belonging to another League participant. The rules are the same as for the Free Agent trades, with the difference that it will not be necessary to wait until the end of the market time window to make the trade. The participant may decide at any time whether to accept or reject the offer received.

5. Inactive Players

The roster of your Fantasy Draft team will consist of 13 players:

• 5 Starters
• 5 Substitutes (bench)
• 3 Inactives (one per position).

Unlike the bench, which awards half points in the Round, the Inactives do not get any points during the Matchday. It’s just a position that allows you to keep the players on your team but without the possibility of scoring points in a specific Round.

Furthermore, once the Matchday begins, Inactive players cannot be inserted into the roster. After the Matchday ends, these players will become available again and can replace some elements of your team.

Is everything clear?

Do you have any other doubts? Write us on our Contact Page and we will be happy to add them to this guide!