How Season Desk and the draft boards work, what they support, and what's coming. Anything not covered here: support@draftdesk.live.
Season Desk is the in-season half of DraftDesk, at draftdesk.live/season: your team against your league, every day of the season. My team shows where you stand in every category and what each player is worth to you; This week plans your matchup night by night; Streams finds the free agents who help most this week; Waivers ranks every free agent for your roster; Trades checks any trade for both sides and suggests ones the other manager is likely to accept; Players lists everyone with this season's stats and what we expect from here; News covers injuries and last night's best and worst.
Every number is about your league: your rosters, your categories, your scoring and your opponents, not a generic ranking.
Open the League tab and pick whichever is easiest. Screenshots (best on a phone): screenshot each team's roster in your league's app and add them all; they're read on your device and never uploaded. Copy and paste (best on a computer): select everything on your league's Rosters page on Yahoo, ESPN, Fantrax, CBS or Sleeper, copy and paste. Your league's link (Sleeper, ESPN or Fantrax): paste it, or type your Sleeper username, and every team loads. Yahoo and CBS leagues use screenshots or copy and paste. Invite your league: Share / back up makes a link that opens the league for the others in it, and each of them picks their own team. Send to DraftDesk (ESPN, private leagues too): add the bookmark once from the League tab, then tap it on your ESPN league page while you're signed in to ESPN and every team loads, with no codes or password.
You always see a preview before anything is saved, so you can fix a name, add a missing player or rename a team. Sleeper, ESPN and Fantrax leagues keep themselves up to date: Season Desk re-reads every roster while it's open (every 15 to 30 minutes at most, and once after the overnight waiver run) and lists what changed, and it reads your league's scoring type, categories and weekly add limit too, and Refresh rosters does it straight away (private ESPN leagues need their two codes remembered, or tap Send to DraftDesk on ESPN again). For other leagues, after trades and pickups use Make move, Add or Make this trade, or open a player's card and set who has him (Taken by, Move to, Drop). Every change can be undone. You can also read the page again or edit rosters in the League tab.
Head-to-head each category, head-to-head most categories, rotisserie, head-to-head points and season points, in 8-cat, 9-cat and 11-cat (+3P%, double-doubles), with any number of teams. Lineups follow your league's positions and starting slots, and daily or weekly lineups, games caps and a weekly moves limit can be set in League settings.
Points leagues use your league's own scoring: Sleeper, ESPN and Fantrax leagues bring it in by themselves, and for other leagues you set the points per stat once in League settings.
Value is about the player alone and is the same for every team: what he's worth against an average top-130 player. It's the number behind his DraftDesk rank (or his Season rank in Season so far).
Worth is about your team: the categories a week he adds for the rest of the season. For your own players it's against swapping him for the best free agent; for anyone else, it's what he'd add in place of whichever of your players costs least to lose.
Gain is about one move. Season gain (Waivers) is what adding him and dropping the player shown does for your categories a week, rest of season; Week gain is the same swap scored against this week's opponent; If kept (Streams) is what a stream does if you never swap back. On This week, the This week column adds up a player's category boxes: what he does for his team in this matchup. Hover over any column heading for the full explanation.
Each box is one category, and the number is hundredths of a category won: +12 means the player raises your chance of winning that category by about 12 points, −3 lowers it by about 3. Green helps, red hurts, and the stronger the colour, the bigger the effect. The boxes use the same scale on every table and on the draft boards, so you can compare them anywhere.
DraftDesk rank looks forward: his value from here on, from our projection blended with his stats this season as games are played (the Rest of season line). Season rank is what he's actually done so far, on totals or per game. Preseason rank is where he started on the draft board. The Players tab sorts by any of them.
Season Desk starts from 2026-27 season projections with news adjustments, then reads real box scores every morning. Each player's Rest of season line blends the projection with this season's stats, leaning on the real numbers as his games add up. Injuries and role news update by themselves every day.
To use your own projections, import a spreadsheet (Excel or CSV) on the Players tab, or open a player's card and tap Edit projection. Your own numbers are used as they are, without blending in this season's stats.
Yes, by default: a player who is out, or who misses games, counts for the games he's expected to play. If you'd rather see everyone at full health (for example, in a league where you can stash injured players), set Games played to Full health in League settings. Players already ruled out for tonight or this week are still left out of This week and Streams.
Yes. In Season Desk, tick the categories under Punting in League settings. Your pickups, streams, lineup and your side of every trade then ignore them; other teams and your matchup are still shown as they are.
On either draft board, tap the categories under Punt in Setup. The board stops paying for them: rankings, max bids and your plan all ignore them. Standings, grades and the category tiles still count them, because your league does. You can punt up to four. The board won't choose a punt for you: in simulated drafts, drafting for all nine categories finished ahead of every punt strategy.
In your own browser on your own device, like the boards. We don't have accounts yet, so your leagues aren't sent to us. To use a league on another phone or computer, or to keep a copy, use Share / back up: it gives you a code (or a file) that restores the league, and your watchlist, anywhere.
On iPhone, Safari can clear a site's saved data after about 7 days without a visit. Adding Season Desk to your Home Screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen) and opening it from there avoids that, and a backup code covers you either way.
Everything in Season Desk is free to use, with room for 2 leagues, and no account is needed. The core stays free for good. A Pro tier will add more advanced tools later; the features heading to Pro are marked "Pro preview" and stay free to use until then, so there are no surprises. Details and prices go to people on the email list first. Join the DraftDesk email list.
The draft boards are free and complete this season. Your drafts, leagues and settings are saved in your own browser on your own device; clearing your browser's data for this site deletes them.
Yes. On iPhone, tap Share then "Add to Home Screen"; on Android, use "Add to Home screen" or "Install app" in the browser menu, and it opens like an app.
The boards don't use a fixed list. After every pick (or sale), they look at your roster, forecast what every other team in your draft is likely to end up with, and rank each available player by how much he raises your chances of winning categories against them.
Each category is weighed by how far apart teams typically finish in it, so a lead in a close category counts for more than a lead in one where teams are spread out. In head-to-head modes the boards also allow for how much each category swings from week to week.
That's why the order changes as your draft goes on: once you're comfortably winning a category, players who mainly add to it drop, and players who fill what you're short of rise.
Tap Why next to any player. It shows the categories he helps and hurts (in real stats, like "2.4 threes a game"), a one-line verdict, and, where roto and head-to-head disagree about him, the reason they do.
On the auction board, Why also explains when the room's price is more than he's worth to your team.
Gain now: the extra categories you'd expect to win if you take him now, compared with a typical player at this pick. There at: his chance of still being available at your next pick. Lasts to: if he's there and you pass, his chance of lasting to the pick after.
Expected price is what the room is likely to pay for him, adjusted as your auction goes. Max bid is the most he's worth to your team given your budget and roster: go up to it in $1 steps, and let him go above it.
Your plan shows the players your money can realistically buy. Star players to build the plan around them.
Use Model pick order, the default. It ranks players by Gain now, then checks the top ten against your next pick: if a slightly better player is likely to still be there, it takes the one who won't be. The top row is its pick and the rows under it are your fallbacks in order.
The other orders answer narrower questions. Gain now ignores who will last to your next pick, Board value ignores your roster, Edge shows who is going later than his value says, and ADP is roughly what the room will do. Trust the "There at" chances: they come from where players are really being drafted and how your room drafts.
Star (☆) a player, or paste a list into My targets, to follow his max bid in one place. With "Build my plan around these players" ticked, your plan always includes your starred players and every other max bid works around buying them, so starring a player leaves less for everyone else. Untick it to use stars as a watch list only.
Type a number in My max next to a target to use your own limit instead of the board's. The plan only counts on him while your number covers his expected price, and the table marks the bid as yours.
In 9-cat every category counts, including the ones a player hurts. Giannis is elite in points, rebounds and field goal percentage, but his projection has him shooting about 64% from the line on high volume, with very few threes and a lot of turnovers. Those three costs take back most of what his strengths add, so he sits around 30th on the board against an ADP around 5th.
If you are deliberately punting free throws he is worth far more to you (pick FT% under Punt in Setup and the board values him that way), and once your roster is already well behind in a category, the board counts his cost there for less and he rises. The board doesn't punt on its own: in simulated drafts every punt strategy finished below drafting for all nine categories.
Late in drafts almost every player left hurts you somewhere. A player with no real weak spot, like Jaime Jaquez Jr. (efficient shooting, few turnovers, useful assists and steals), doesn't drag any category down, so he adds more to your chances than his raw numbers suggest. The board has him around 70th against an ADP around 130th.
8-cat, 9-cat and 11-cat (+3P%, double-doubles) and points leagues; roto, head-to-head each category and head-to-head most categories; 6 to 16 teams. Snake drafts (including third-round reversal and linear order) and auctions with any budget, with keepers on both. Your league's lineup slots, bench spots and games caps can be set in Setup, and Sleeper and ESPN drafts can follow live picks.
This season the boards use 2026-27 season projections for the top 300 players, plus average draft positions for who's likely to go when. You can switch on News adjustments in Setup to update players with dated injury or role news. Leave it off for mock drafts, which are scored on the unadjusted projections.
To use your own projections, import a spreadsheet (Excel or CSV) with Import projections under the News box. A Hashtag Basketball export works as it is. The board then ranks and prices those players on your numbers, and the same file is used in Season Desk. In Season Desk you can also change any player's projection: open his card and tap Edit projection.
DraftDesk's own projections, updated daily from real results, are in the works.
Over 150,000 simulated drafts and auctions. The snake board was run through 138,600 simulated drafts (8 to 14 teams, every draft slot) against drafting by ADP, plain z-score rankings and punting each category, and beat all of them. The auction board was run through more than 14,000 simulated auctions against five bidding styles, from bargain hunters to star chasers.
Scored on real NBA weeks (real box scores, schedules and absences, with daily lineups), drafting with the snake board won about 1.1 more categories a week than drafting by ADP and 24% more matchups, and the auction board about 1.4 more categories than bidding average auction values. Expected auction prices are fitted on two real league auctions (12 and 16 teams) plus five mock auctions.
v2.14 (25 Oct 2026): New Story of the week at the top of My team for two days after each week ends: how your matchup went against DraftDesk's projection, which categories went against projection and who swung them, and every player's week against his projection, in category and points leagues. Points leagues can now paste or type the real matchup score on This week. The trade analyser drops its grades and shows a clearer Player value swap number, and the any-player trade value tool has a Share button. Streams centres the Games column, and Hide streams that don't help now works in every sort. Players no longer shades your own players.
v2.13 (24 Oct 2026): Fixes across the site. Streams and Waivers fit a laptop screen without cut-off buttons, and on phones the category names sit over the boxes. Phone tables keep the slot and name pinned while you scroll sideways, the tab bar shows when more tabs are off-screen, and links and names are easier to tap. Light mode green and amber text is easier to read. Adding a league with + Add league keeps the site and name it reads, points leagues show one box, and the board player lists keep their headers in line on smaller screens. Tapping a name under Add a player on a League team card adds him again.
v2.12 (23 Oct 2026): Streams only count a stream when the drop is safe: a free agent who only helps by dropping a player worth keeping sits greyed out below the safe streams, and the Best stream card is always the top row. Trade ideas under All show Strong offers first, then Worth a shot, then Long shot, mixing teams at the top of each. Waivers shows GP (games played this season), like Players. On the League tab you can drag a player onto another on the same team card to swap their lineup slots.
v2.11 (23 Oct 2026): Drag and drop players between lineup slots on My team and This week, and position colours on every position tag (guards blue, forwards teal, centres purple). Every category box is now in hundredths of a category, the same scale on every screen. Players shows each player's own Value, with Last 7, 14 and 30 days views. Streams are judged as one-week rentals and never suggest dropping a player worth keeping. Strong trade offers show first, the Activity tab filters by team, and adding your league is quicker, with a "Your league is in" card and a guide for private ESPN leagues.
v2.10 (23 Oct 2026): Category boxes look the same everywhere: one colour scale on every table and board, so small numbers are clearly green or red, and the boxes sit evenly between the columns either side. Players: Rest of season now shows Preseason rank and Season rank, both views sort by Preseason rank and DraftDesk rank, and the tables fit a full-screen desktop, as do Streams and Waivers. Trades: the analyser is Team fit only, with a new Any-player trade value check underneath for any players on two sides, and the top trade ideas now mix teams. My team: Lineup spots under the roster, and rows grouped by lineup slot with a Lineup check for tonight on My team and This week. This week: edit a past night's lineup in So far this week. A perfect FG% or FT% shows as 1.00. News shows Your watchlist first. A note in Update rosters points to Refresh rosters for leagues that update themselves.
v2.9 (23 Oct 2026): Season Desk tables now share one layout: the same column order, stats in the same order as the category boxes, and one Rest of season / Season so far switch in the top right of each card. This week: pick a single night in So far this week, fold each team's players away, see past days faded in Day by day and today highlighted in Recommended lineup, and the score tile now says Leading, Behind or Level correctly. Worth on My team now compares each player with the best free agent who can fill his spot. Your league's real lineup slots are used for every roster. Paste your league's standings page to fill Standings, with a note under the table on how to fix empty standings. The News tab always shows Your team. Rename a league by tapping the pencil next to its name. Wk columns are now called Games and count games left from today.
v2.8 (22 Oct 2026): The draft boards now do points leagues, 11-cat, live picks from Sleeper and ESPN drafts, league import by link or Sleeper username, your league's own lineup slots, and Edit projection; when your draft ends, open your team in Season Desk in one tap. Season Desk: Streams shows the best stream this week, counts starts rather than games, folds away streams that aren't worth a drop, ranks by any category you tap and shows each player's averages so far; Waivers gets an Impact/Stats switch. Season-total points leagues, Fantrax schedules, standings and moves, and pending ESPN claims are in. Your league's real starting slots and positions are read from ESPN, Sleeper and Fantrax and used in every lineup sum. Roster paste is rebuilt and reads far more pages correctly. Drag your leagues into any order. Clearer labels: the blended line is now "Rest of season" everywhere.
v2.7 (22 Oct 2026): Season Desk now handles points leagues (H2H points, with your league's scoring), rotisserie and 11-cat (+3P%, DD) leagues. Sort Streams, Waivers and Players by any category. Players outside our 297 who are playing real minutes now show up too. ESPN leagues now use ESPN's own position eligibility, and a "Send to DraftDesk" bookmark brings in an ESPN league, private ones included, with one tap. Live game scores in the Schedule box. My team gets Heating up, a fuller Standings table, and, next to Players so far, Around the league and Your close calls. You can now delete the example league (bring it back from Back up / move). Paste your league's link (Sleeper, ESPN or Fantrax) and it loads; find Sleeper leagues by username; Fantrax leagues keep themselves up to date; invite your league with one link; open a league on your phone with a QR code. This week's lineup and Day by day now sit side by side in matching cards.
v2.5 (20 Oct 2026, launch day): Season Desk is open to everyone. New: punting (tick the categories you're giving up on in League setup and every pick, stream and trade ignores them), compare any two players side by side, a moves-left count for leagues with a weekly limit, a "start tonight" line on This week, Refresh rosters for Sleeper and ESPN leagues, and player cards that show what a player is worth to your team, category by category.
v2.4 (20 Oct 2026): make moves right in Season Desk. Add a free agent from Waivers, Streams, the Players list or his player card (you pick who to drop), or make a recommended trade, and every tab updates to show your team after the move. Undo puts it back, up to 10 moves.
v2.3 (20 Oct 2026): player news and injuries now update by themselves every day on both draft boards and in Season Desk, with no new version needed. Trade ideas fit both teams better, and every team gets real Strong offers. You can edit any player's projection from his card in Season Desk, and This week's Day by day table is easier to read. The Import projections button sits on the right of its bar.
v2.2 (19 Oct 2026): Season Desk now reads real 2026-27 stats every morning. Player cards and tables show this season's per-game numbers and games played next to the projection, each player's line blends the two as games come in, injuries update daily, and This week counts the days already played in your matchup. Trade ideas are rebuilt to find many more trades the other manager is likely to accept. Streams has its own tab, with an "Any" option that drops whichever player helps most for each stream. News reads like a report, with last night's best and worst performer at the top. Gold, silver and bronze mark the top three in your league, and green and red mark strong and weak chances. Follow the DraftDesk team from the link at the top right of Season Desk. You can import your own projections from a spreadsheet or CSV in Season Desk and on both draft boards, and backup codes now carry your watchlist. Add your league's season schedule from a pasted page or screenshots (League tab), and This week picks the right opponent every week. This week also shows your starts day by day against your opponent.
v2.1 (19 Oct 2026): smarter snake picks at the turn: when you pick twice in a row, the board now weighs both picks together. Season Desk gets a News tab and a watchlist, a tap or hover on a news or out tag shows the note, and Best streams and Waivers explain why each player is there. On the auction board, a note when a player is going well under his usual price, and your plan shows any spare budget. Both boards show a one-line summary of your settings, 9-cat is the default on every platform, and every page now has the same width and margins.
v2.0 (19 Oct 2026): Season Desk is here, at draftdesk.live/season: My team, This week, Waivers, Trades and Players for your own league, with rosters read from screenshots, a pasted page or a Sleeper league ID. On the boards: a Punt picker for the categories you're giving up on; auction prices refitted on two real league auctions (12 and 16 teams); max bids that only move when something in your auction does; Load to put any past auction back on the board; Fantrax, Sleeper and CBS added to the platform list. Dark mode is now the default, with a switch for light mode.
v1.2 (17 Oct 2026): auction prices refitted on a real 16-team league auction; My max, your own max bid for any target; max bids averaged over twice as many price scenarios; an overall team grade on both review pages; Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson, Ben Simmons and Jaylen Wells added; the snake board's Paste results now reads keepers; team grades now weigh your projected finish as well as category strength; share images show projected standings, your best steal and the site address; new FAQ answers; both boards much faster on phones (the auction board works out max bids in the background, so logging a sale never freezes the page).
Yes, built with AI, and tested and decided by me. Every number on the board comes from the model and the projections, not from an AI guessing in the moment.
Email support@draftdesk.live (I reply within 48 hours) or post in r/DraftDesk. A lot of the boards' features came from feedback like yours.
Every Monday: our waiver pickups and calls for the week, plus how last week's did. Free, and your first month of Pro free when it launches.