I find that best way to approach the draft is to realize that it really is not something you should be thinking to do every season. Even spending 40k/wk to get 4 points, you will only have 56 at the end of a single season, and that really isn't enough to get a lot of information for the draft. You could do all five drills to learn all of the draftees' skills, but you wouldn't know anything about their age (well, you could tell some are 19 if they have a "strong" skill), height, star rating, grade rating, position, etc.
But if you think about only doing the draft every 3-5 seasons, or only in seasons when you have a high pick, and then invest $10k/wk, you can get a decent return out of that investment. I say $10k/wk rather than $5k/wk because you are spending the same per point but acquiring them twice as fast.
In terms of using the points, it costs 135 points to scout (do the group combine and then individually scout the remaining 29) and interview all 48 players. You likely won't actually want to interview all the players after doing the scouting, so perhaps you'd only interview half, reducing the cost to 87. If you are interviewing players, there is no need to do the combine, since the interview will provide age and height. Additionally the there are the five drill sets, costing 10 points each, so that's another 50. Now how much information you want or need is an individual decision, but to really put together a good draft list certainly costs more points than a team can get in a single season.
However, if you invest in $10k/wk, you will have 28 points each season. If you then only spend those points every third season, you'd have 84 to spend; every fourth season, 112; every fifth season, 140. With that many points to use, you should be able to get a lot of information on the draftees and put together a good personal ranking for what you want. And since most teams (even if all teams followed this same approach, that would mean most teams not spending any points each season) don't have a lot of information to make their rankings, you'd have a good shot at getting one of your top picks even if you aren't drafting early. Take a look at most draft histories and you'll see that normally everyone gets one of their top three or four choices in the first round.
Now, one thing you can never get going into the draft is the exact potential of a draftee, but you do at least get a range from the interview. If you only draft every third season, using all 84 points, you'd have spent $420k and should have enough information on the draftees to be able to put highly skilled, high potential players at the top of your list. But there aren't always all-time greats and hall of famers in every draft class. Is an 18 year-old perennial allstar with over 50 TSP worth $420k? Or a 19 year-old allstar with over 55 TSP? What if you drafted both in one class?
Last edited by Alec Burke at 4/28/2015 5:02:09 PM