Our drafts are just around the corner, and the season begins not long after. Yes thats right - The NBA season is about to begin! It is official now Players were called into camp last Friday and they have been on the market since then too. Its been quite entertaining these last few days in regards to player movements - theres been a few trades, and FA signings signings already, and there will undoubtedly be many more. A lot of the focus has been on just a few players in CP3, DWill, the Gasol bros, Howard, Nene and Billups... But there are plenty of others in the spotlight too, including Odom (not turning up to practice after CP3 trade fell through and) getting traded to the Mavs for next to nothing, David West switching teams, and our very own Julian Kazzough getting picked up by the Warriors. But the big questions are still about CP3, Howard and DWill... I just hope we know where these 3 will be before our drafts begin. If you wanted to find out where all the players are moving, Steve posted <a href="http://www.nba.com/news/features/2011-player-movement/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1" target="_blank">this great link[/url] in the comments of last weeks post.

We have been sorting out quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, and we still have a couple of things we need to work out prior to the weekend - the main thing being, how many IR spots we each have on our roster. This needs to be set prior to the draft so we need to make a decision quickly. Last year we did not have any, and it was widely accepted that we have one this season. It has been proposed that we have 3 IR spots on each roster - some people have already supported this, although just as many (maybe more) have said that it should be left at just 1 spot each. Today, I changed it so that we have 2 each as its a bit of a compromise, and Im worried Ill run out of time to make changes before the weekend. But please discuss this in the comments, as we are fairly split atm on whether to have 1 or 3...

Over the break Ill outline some major decisions we have made of late; and ill post some links that may help some people with the draft on the weekend:::<!--more-->

Firstly, here are the league members again:

<a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/leagueoffice?leagueId=23530" target="_blank">Too Serious NBA PREMIER LEAGUE:[/url]
Owen, HEAVER, karlos &amp; Lethal, Mick, Jasmine, fudge, anthak, dabombers, chris88 &amp; smittys07, walesy, maggots, Ruddy.

<a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/leagueoffice?leagueId=10094" target="_blank">Div 1:[/url]
stowie, Fez, UnderAchievers &amp; ??, Steve, Doobs, Sainter, crossy, bgt2110 &amp; ??, LiQuiD_SiXx, costak, Rev, spm67.

<a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/leagueoffice?leagueId=10201" target="_blank">Div 2:[/url]
brettmarinovich, joellamerton, twoeyec, Don_Cottagers, maxweas, smokinjoemisiti, nicksnow, minis, Jet, Cobra_Magic, travyboy11, hawker.

The promotion/relegation format is as follows:
<div>Premier league – bottom 2 relegated
<div>Div 1 – top 2 promoted to Premier league, bottom 4 relegated to Div 2
<div>Div 2 – top 4 promoted to Div 1
[span style="color: #222222;font-family: Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;line-height: 21px">- The 4 going up from Div 2 to Div 1 will be the two grand final teams, and (excluding the two GF teams) the two best ranked teams at end of our regular season.The 2 teams going up from Div 1 to Premier will be the GF winning team, and the team with the best Reg season record (excluding GF winner of course). The teams being relegated from Premier and Division 1 will be the bottom 2 and 4 teams respectively at the end of the regular season.

But I would like to propose another clause. I am thinking if a team wins the minor premiership (the league splits into two finals systems like SuperCoach) they should be exempt from relegation. What do you all think about that?

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We have now decided the date and time of each draft, and unfortunately it looks like some people will not be able to make it live but most will be alright and it should be a heap of fun.

First up will be Division 1 on Saturday 17th at 10am AEDT. Then exactly 24 hours later, Division 2 will be at 10am AEDT on Sunday 18th. And finally the Premier League will draft at 11am AEDT on Sunday 18th.

We had a bit of discussion about whether to set the draft orders in advance or set them to randomize before the draft. I must say that I hoped it would be random right before the draft, but presetting them had overwhelming support and thats what we did.

Ok, so here are all 3 draft orders:

TS Premier League

Pick #1: Mick,- Westside Hardcore
#2: karlos &amp; Lethal,- Kings of Karlos
#3: Jasmine,- Jasmine’s Mob
#4: HEAVER,- Team HEAVER!
#5: chris88 &amp; smittys07,- David Sarver’s Handbag
#6: Ruddy,- Ruddy’s Cavaliers
#7: fudge,- Fudge’s Sixers
#8: dabombers,- Wade Machine
#9: anthak,- Team anthak
#10: walesy,- Too Seriouseses
#11: maggots,- Adelaide Maggotz
#12: Owen,- Run TMC

Division 1:
Pick #1: Fez – Team Collins
#2: Doobs – Doobia Dominators
#3: LiQuiD_SiXx - Get Knicked
#4: crossy – Crossy Crusaders
#5: stowie – Team Stowie
#6: costak – CK Nicks
#7: UnderAchievers &amp; ?? – Under Achievers
#8: Sainter – Brutal Deluxe
#9: spm67 - Team Bucks Fizz
#10: Steve – Stevos Nuggets
#11: Rev – Liverpool SJ149
#12: bgt2110 &amp; ?? – Albert Park Rangers

Division 2:
Pick #1: Cobra_Magic – Hawthorn OKC Magic
#2: brettmarinovich – DROPPING BOMBS
#3: hawker – Team Hawker
#4: Don_Cottagers – The Hinrich Manoeuvre
#5: maxweas – Team Maxwell
#6: twoeyec – Six Ten Two Forty
#7: nicksnow – Broady Broncos
#8: minis – Team 726
#9: smokinjoemisiti – hAir Jordan
#10: Jet – Team Farken White
#11: travyboy11 – Team Travysboys
#12: joellamerton – Team Ring Ticklers

Remember that <a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/resources/help/faq?name=can-i-trade-draft-picks" target="_blank">we can trade individual draft picks[/url] as well, and there have already been 2 trades completed. If you do a trade that doesnt look like it will finalise in time for the draft, just flick me an email or post a comment in here and Ill go in and manually push it through for you

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Probably the biggest decision we had to make was whether to use the whole NBA season or not. This was a very contentious issue, with the views of people that gave input on the decision being quite polarised. We ended up deciding to not use the final 2 matchup weeks of the NBA season. Various reasons were given for this being more suitable - primarily that we may avoid the General that is bound to hit at that time of the year.

So our fantasy regular season will go for 11 Matchups, where we play each other only once each; and then our playoffs/finals will go for 3 Matchups in total.

The format of the finals is as follows: Top 6 make it, with the winner of each conference having a bye in the first round; The two winners in Matchup 1 progress to play the two teams that had the bye; and then the winners of that week go through to the Grand Final week.

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Only other things i can think of that we sorted out recently, have been the conferences and the Waiver time limit. Firstly, everyone seems happy to have the Waivers set for 2 days instead of 3 so i have changed that over. And on the conferences, I have left everyone in Premier League in the same conferences as last season, except for maggots. I moved maggots to even up numbers, and he was the lowest ranked of the possible movers. For the other two divisions, i did the same as last season: We have a “Too” conference and a “Serious” conference. We split the teams based on the draft order. like seeding… picks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 &amp; 12 in Too; and picks 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 &amp; 11 in Serious.

We need a bit more input on the amount of IRs we each get, but apart from that everything that needs to be worked out now is done. Later on, we need to work out some other things such as our trade deadline, but they can be left til much later down the track.

Next week Ill outline the rules and scoring systems we will be using, but for now I want to focus on the draft as they are only a few days off. Here are some links to FAQs and the like that may help some of you with the drafts if its your first time on ESPN.

Firstly, there is heaps here in the <a href="http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/fbadraftkit" target="_blank">ESPN Draft Kit[/url] that will surely help all of us.

Here is a link to the <a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/mockdraftlobby" target="_blank">Mock Draft Lobby[/url] where you can go and practice.

<a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/resources/help/content?name=Drafts-Live-Online" target="_blank">This is a description[/url] of the type of draft we are doing.

And important instructions on <a href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/resources/help/faq?name=how-do-i-update-my-draft-list" target="_blank">how to set up your pre-draft list[/url].

That should be a good start for those that are unfamiliar with the ESPN drafts, and also helpful for those that are.