Trading can be very intimidating to dynasty managers, both new and old. It is even more intimidating when you’re joining a new league. Here are some tips I provide to managers who reach out for help. There are many ways to trade and many ways to have fun with your league, but these are the general principles I go by to try to help make my team as good as possible as often as I can. Here is fantasy football dynasty startup draft pick trade advice with a focus on maximizing your return on investment (ROI).
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Dynasty Startup Draft Pick Trade Advice: Maximizing ROI
Trading Activity Will Dictate Your Path
If this dynasty startup league is a league with people you don’t know, you might have a hard time deciding what the best plan of attack is. Ultimately, being able to trade up or trade back will depend on how active your specific league is. Whether you want to trade or not, you need a partner to trade with. Better yet, all 12 of you are active and want to trade around the board, but that may not always be the case.
The best way to determine how active a league is going to be is to pay attention to the group chat. Ideally, you would post in the chat as often as possible and keep checking in on the conversation as the league gets going. You want to make sure everyone knows you’re open and engaging, and someone that they want to talk to. If you’re not already familiar with your league mates, getting them to know you more will help you greatly as you head into the draft room.
Trading Should be Based on Tiers
The best way to attack your draft is to have a ranking of players from best to worst. This can either be a sheet someone else created you use as a guide or you can create the list yourself. Once you have the list, you need to break them into tiers. These tiers should be based on groups of players you value closely depending on the league settings as well as your general value of each player.
When it comes to the tiers, size doesn’t matter. Some tiers may be smaller, with only two or three players and other tiers may be larger, with as many players as you want in them. As you go through your list, wherever you find a value gap, that’s a tier break. Mark that on your sheet so you know where to make moves that will benefit you the most.
As the draft gets closer to your pick, take a look at the players available and the tiers you have them ranked in. If you only see one or two players left in the best tier remaining, it might make sense to stay put and draft one of those. If you find yourself at the start of a new tier, you might consider trading draft picks.
Trading Back to Gain Value
There are two main types of trades in dynasty startups: Trading back or trading up. The more important of the two is the ability to trade back and gain extra value. If you have three players left in a tier you value similarly, you could trade back two spots to take one of those players and add value later on, kind of for free. This may not always be possible, but that’s the goal.
If your tier has a lot of players left in it, that means you can move even further back and still add value to your team. If you can move back 10 spots now and still take a player in that same tier, while moving up 10 spots a round later, that’s a win-win. You get a guy you would’ve taken anyway and a chance at a better player later.
Trading Up to Get Your Guy
When you start making these kinds of draft pick trades, you also give yourself more options to trade up to draft someone you really want. If you see a player on the board you value highly, perhaps at the end of a specific tier, you can try to trade up to take him and give back some of the value you added by trading back. This will transfer that value from the pick to the player you like. You’re not losing the value, just transforming it.
In many cases, you might see a player you want falling in a draft. He may be the last player in a tier of yours or someone you value more than others. Making a trade-up for that player will make your team better overall and make the trade worthwhile. This is why you need to pay attention to as much of the draft as you can, to try to capitalize on these kinds of value gains.
Trading Should be Fun
Overall, trading in your draft is a great way to maximize your return on investment (ROI) and make your team better. On top of that, trading is fun and one of the best ways to get to know your league mates. If you send offers and start conversations frequently then your league will feel more comfortable sending you offers and starting conversations with you. Trading is fun and a great way to pass the time and it doesn’t have to wait until after the draft is over.
Active leagues tend to have a better competitive balance and fall apart less often. As long as the trades are fair and balanced, there should be as many of them as possible. The best trades are where both sides walk away happy. Everyone will value players differently. Getting a bad offer shouldn’t be taken as an insult but as just one more data point. In the end, a good league is an active league. It starts with you. So have fun.
Dynasty Draft Advice
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- DBro’s Dynasty Rookie Draft Primers
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