Pikola

Yahoo fantasy basketball · Salary cap drafts

Pikola tells you what to bid.

It sits in Chrome's side panel next to your Yahoo salary cap (auction) draft room and reads every nomination, bid and sale as it happens. When a player is up, it shows the next bid to type and the most he's worth to your roster. You do the bidding.

Get Pikola for Chrome How it works

$5, one time. Not on the Chrome Web Store yet.

Pikola
Live Left$200 Spots13 Sold1/208

Nikola Jokić

Safe bet

C

Projected: 28.4 pts · 1.8 threes · 12.7 reb · 10.4 ast · 1.6 stl · 0.7 blk · 57.3% fg · 81.6% ft · 3.5 to

Bid $82
Bid up to$88
Now$81held by Michael
  • Helps you most in assists, rebounds and points.
  • Lots of other teams want him, and few like him are left.
  • Your league paid $88 and $80 for him the last two years.
The panel says to bid $82 on Nikola Jokić, with a limit of $88, and why.

Jokic goes up for auction.

Your limit is $88. This is what the bar tells you as the bidding climbs.

  1. Bid$82

    Michael bids $81

    Your move. Type the number.

  2. Bid$87

    Priya bids $86

    Still worth it, but you're close.

  3. You're
    winning

    You bid $87

    Sit tight. Don't bid against yourself.

  4. Stop

    Priya bids $89

    Past your limit. Let her have him.

How it works

It prices players for your team.

A rankings site will tell you a player is the 14th best in the pool. Pikola tells you he's worth $37 to you, given who you already have and what you have left to spend, and that at $38 you should let someone else take him.

A player's value is the best team you can still finish with if you buy him, minus the best team you can finish with if you don't.

Follows the draft room

It reads Yahoo's draft room as the auction runs: nominations, bids, sales, and each team's money and open spots. Open it late or reload mid-draft and it catches up.

Prices for your roster

It weighs all nine categories by how much each moves your weekly head-to-head matchups. Buy three centres and the next one is worth about a third of his usual value to you, while a point guard is worth more.

Says who to nominate

When it's your turn, it suggests who to put up and why: Buy him, Make rivals spend, Test the price or Not yet. Veterans the room overpays for go up before your own targets.

Plans the rest of your draft

Your plan lists who to buy next and what each is worth to you. It keeps $1 spots for streamers, spends leftover money when there's nowhere better to put it, and finds cheap upside picks late.

How you're shaping up

  • PointsStrong
  • ThreesBehind
  • ReboundsStrong
  • AssistsEven
  • StealsWeak
  • BlocksStrong
  • Field-goal %Good
  • Free-throw %Skipping
  • TurnoversEven

Who still has money

  • You$1127 spots
  • Jeremy$614 spots
  • Priya$1489 spots
  • Dave$241 spot

My team

Where you stand in each category, and who can still outbid you.

The My team tab rates each category from Strong to Weak, with your chance of winning it in a given week, and shows every team's money and open spots.

  • “Skipping” means the plan is giving that category up to win the others. If you want to punt from the first pick, choose a punt style in Setup.
  • Every team's money and open spots. A team with one spot and a pile of cash will pay anything for the last good centre, and his price already allows for that.
  • Once every roster is full, Results ranks all the teams in the order it expects them to finish.

Price

$5 one time

Pay once and Pikola works on any computer you sign in on. There's no subscription.

Coming soon to the Chrome Web Store

Payments go through Stripe. Sign in with Google or your email.

  1. Add Pikola to Chrome. It opens in Chrome's side panel.
  2. Open your Yahoo draft room and click the pickle icon in your toolbar.
  3. Sign in and pay $5. Pikola unlocks as soon as the payment goes through.

Questions

Which drafts does it work with?

Yahoo fantasy basketball salary cap (auction) drafts in head-to-head leagues with the standard nine categories, in Chrome on a computer. It reads the number of teams, the budget and the roster spots from the draft room, so there's nothing to type in. Yahoo's mock auctions work too, so you can try it before your real draft. Snake drafts aren't supported yet; they're coming.

Can I punt?

Yes. In Setup, pick a draft style: Punt free throws, Punt field-goal %, Punt assists, Punt threes, or Mega punt (win five, write off four). The others are Balanced (the default), Deep and steady, Stars and scrubs, Youth and upside, Win now, Healthy bodies, Bargain hunter and Churn the wire. On Balanced it never declares a punt up front. It falls out of what you buy, and My team marks the category Skipping when the plan has given it up.

Where do the numbers come from?

Hashtag Basketball's projections, Yahoo's player list, and Yahoo's own auction prices (Proj $ and Avg $). If you paste your league's past Draft Results pages into Setup, it learns what your league pays at each tier, and during the draft it adjusts to how your room is spending, sale by sale. By default it takes 5% off the limit for players 33 and over; turn off “Prefer younger players” in Setup if you'd rather it didn't.

Every player also has a short note with a risk tag (Safe bet, Steady, Hit or miss or Gamble) and a flag for his games in the fantasy playoff weeks. Those are there for your judgement. They don't change the number.

What doesn't it know?

Your keeper rules, a trade you've got lined up, and news since the projections were last updated. If a player got hurt this morning you'll see Yahoo's injury tag in the panel, but it isn't in the number. If you've got a reason it can't see, a dollar or two past the limit is about as far as it's worth going.

Does it place bids for me?

No. It tells you what to bid and who to nominate. You type the bids and the nominations into Yahoo's draft room yourself.

What if my internet cuts out during the draft?

Pikola won't lock you out. It doesn't need to reach our server during a draft, and it does its calculations in your browser.

What data do you collect?

Just your email address, so we know you've paid. Your league, draft and settings stay in your browser, and your card details go to Stripe, not us. More in the privacy policy.

How do I get help?

Email hello@pikola.app.