Assembling the Team and the Draft

We came into the 2026 auction draft without any players on our roster.  We were the only team in this position.  This is both an opportunity and a challenge.  An opportunity in that we could build the team in any manner we like.  But a challenge because you never know how these things are going to go.  Case in point, nobody had the first player being auction off for well over $1 million on their bingo card!

Rick and Vinnie outlined a broad strategy for the team, then Vinnie and Adam went through, literally, every available player one by one to make sure all players were properly analyzed based on how they could fit on the team.  We knew we were not going to be the biggest spenders in the draft, we had a budget and we were going to stick to it.  But we also knew that we could put together a better draft list than everyone else given Adam and Vinnie’s connection to the Tour.

As seems to be the case each season, female players were going to be at a premium.  Our goal was to get two of our top ranked females.  We knew some were going to be out of our price range, but there were others that we thought would be available for us.  In particular, we really liked both Meghan Sheehan Dizon and Cailyn Campbell.  Meghan is an MLP veteran, and one of the top female players on the Tour.  Cailyn was with the team for 1/2 of the season last year, but we were not allowed to retain her as she was a midseason pickup.  

There were also a number of newer players who had just come onto the scene.  There tends to be a lot of hype around these newer players (often justified), as MLP owners/GM’s and fans are always looking to find the next breakout player.  So, we were curious as to the interest level in these players from other teams.

The bidding war for Anna and Jorja didn’t surprise us – but the amount certainly did!  

Proving our point that females were in high demand, the next four picks were also females.  We got involved in the bidding on a couple of the picks, but ceased our bidding around the $70k/$80k level because that was where we wanted to be for these picks.  

The next three teams went with the guys.  The Phoenix pick of Johnathon Truong made us nervous.  They had room for a female player, but the Truong pick was solid.  Still, that signaled to us that we needed to go and get our players.  We bid aggressively for the next spot, and secured Meghan Sheehan Dizon with that pick.  We were in a bit of a bidding war with Palm Beach for the next pick, but since they needed a guy we were not concerned about losing the pick – so once it reached a certain level we backed off.   

We then secured Cailyn Campbell with the next slot. We would have gone even higher for Cailyn had we needed to.  We think she’s a heckuva player.

It was now time to focus on the men, and two of the male players we were highly interested in were still available.  We got involved immediately, and we were quite happy that we were able to select Armaan Bhatia with that 14th pick.   We had now made three of the last four selections, we had one player we were highly interested in at this point – Will Mackinnon.  Will is a talent.  But he came into the year with a lot of hype, and he was partnered with one of the best players of all time.  They did not have success as a team, so we felt the “hype” around Will may have cooled a bit.  But he’s only 17, and all of that raw talent is going to express itself in time.  When the bidding concluded on the 17th selection, we had won – and we chose Will.  

We love our first four players.  We got the players we wanted – and when you leave an auction draft with the players you’re after, you feel really good about things.

We then could sit back and see how other teams assembled their rosters.  In addition, we could evaluate which teams were going to be spending money, and which teams were not.

We had several players on our list for our final male and female roster spots, but two “SoCal” players were very high on our list, and it was our hope that they were not on other teams’ radar.

Our final selections were Rafa Lenhard and Naomi Nguyen.  Rafa was definitely a known player, but at the time of the draft, he was considered more of a singles specialist than a doubles player.   We did not consider him in this light, but other teams clearly did.  We think Rafa immediately helps the team in Dreambreakers as he is a top singles player on the PPA Tour, and we think Rafa’s work ethic and skill set make him a valuable option in dubs as well.

Naomi was our final selection.  She was probably only on a few teams’ radar as she had recently signed with the Tour.  But we knew about her because she was making a name for herself in the SoCal Pro tournament scene.

In these last few rounds, you often find a lot of “regional” picks from teams, i.e., local players who recently signed where the local team has a little insider knowledge on the player.  That was certainly the case for us.

You also see a lot of “up and coming” picks – because these players are significantly less expensive in the auction format, yet they can be retained for three years under current MLP rules.  In addition, as we said earlier, folks are always seeking the “next big” player.

What was interesting is that a lot of veterans were not selected in these rounds.  A lot of very good players were not chosen.  For us, it came down to contracts.  While the public is not aware of these numbers, as teams we are privy to this information.  For example, if a player is no longer going to be under contract with the PPA/MLP following this season, you run the risk that they will no longer be on your team.  For us, that meant we wanted players who were going to be on tour for the long run.  You’re “investing” in their potential vs. the experience of a veteran player.

This has been a long post, but I wanted to share some insight into the Auction Draft process – and some of what goes on in the minds of ownership/coaches when selecting players and building a roster.

For us, we LOVE OUR TEAM!  We could not be happier with the way things went at the draft.  MLP is such a unique format that you never know what can happen – and that’s what we love about our team.  Yes, on paper, there are several other teams rated higher than us.  However, we believe our team can beat any other team at any given time, especially with the one game to 11 format.  And we like our team in DreamBreakers a lot.

And we think we have a great squad for the next two years as well.

We’re playing the Long Game here.   We think we’re off to a great start!