Draft Solution

Working 10 years in basketball leagues I have discovered that it isn't the draft necessarily that is important but what leads up to the draft that makes it as fair and balanced for everyone.

This is what we do in our league.
1. Players are evaluated by the coaches on dribbling, spot up shooting, lay-ups, and 3-on-3 play. Scores are given 1 through 10, with 10 being the highest, for each skill and then added up for a total score for that player. (Max is 40 points, minimum is 4 points)
2. Half of the coaches evaluations are selected randomly and the players total scores from each coach are added together to give the player an overall score for the draft and are ranked from highest score to the lowest score.
3. On draft day the coaches have a time limit (15 minutes) to argue any players that they believe are rated to high or too low, and a majority vote can only change a players position.

Finally the draft itself:
1. Coaches select out of a hat who picks first.
2. Coaches select their players and the players score is listed under the coaches name in that round.
3. After the end of each round the coach with the lowest score gets to select first in the next round.
4. Continue until all drafted players are selected.
5. Players that were not evaluated are pulled out of a hat, site unseen, to prevent an unknown player from being selected by a coach who knows them and just didn't mention it. (This encourages coaches to disclose their knowledge of non-evaluated players that they know and rank them accordingly. A better way to avoid this is to require every player to show up for evaluations or they cannot play.)

Our league went away from a serpentine draft due to major flaws in that system. Case in point: Coach "A" gets the first pick overall and selects the best player in the league. Coach "A" chooses last in Round 2 but it doesn't matter because he has to take his kid who incidentally is the best player in Round 2. In Round 3 Coach "A" gets the first pick again and selects the best kid in Round 3. PROBLEM: Using the serpentine method Coach "A" has gotten the best player in Round 1, 2, and 3. Keep in mind that generally the top 3 players of a team are going to score anywhere from 50% to 85% of the points depending on what level of competition in the league.

While in search of the "Perfect" draft system we will be doing it this way until we believe something else comes along that is fair to everyone.

I would be curious to find out what other leagues are doing.