Landing guide
A Basketball Draft Game Built on History, Played in Fiction
Build A Hooper is a basketball draft game played across ten rounds. The boards are built from historical inputs through the 2021–22 season. The calls are yours. The season that follows is explicit fiction.
What makes this a historical draft sim?
The draft boards draw on historical player identities and source inputs through the 2021–22 season. Ratings, fit labels, and archetypes are original assessments created by the site, and every season outcome is fictional simulation — not a forecast of real players or games.
A ten-round draft with consequences
Each round presents three candidates, and you lock one per round. Every package adds a strength and a cost, so a board is a sequence of decisions, not a shopping list. Two refreshes let you replace a board you cannot work with — after that, the board is the board.
Same Board Duel
Finish a run and you can send a friend the same frozen board. Same board means the same versioned candidate contract — the same seed and the same ruleset version — not identical choices, identical results, or a promise of perfect fairness. After both runs finish, you compare where your reads split.
Randomness you can read
Season outcomes are produced by the published ruleset with bounded variance. Equal pinned inputs and the same engine build yield the same canonical output, and the result report shows which call moved the season and how.
What the outcome means — and does not
Season ranges, outcome labels, and the closing report are fictional simulation output. They are not forecasts of real players or games, and they are not betting, scouting, or coaching advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is the draft board the same for everyone?
A shared Same Board link freezes one board under one ruleset version, so two players can draft from the same candidates. Outside a shared link, each run gets its own board. Same board does not mean same outcome — your picks and calls decide the run.
Are season results predictions?
No. Every season is fictional simulation output with deliberately wide ranges. Results do not predict real players, teams, games, or seasons.
Is this affiliated with the NBA?
Independent & unofficial. Build A Hooper is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorized by the NBA, any NBA team, the NBPA, NBA 2K, Take-Two Interactive, or any player. Historical NBA inputs are used through the 2021–22 season; all ratings, fit labels, archetypes, and season outcomes are original site-created assessments and fictional simulation.
Read the full rules, check the published game rules, learn how the fictional season simulation works, or open the Same Board Duel guide.