Forum Rules, Resources, and Contact Info

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In the event that you need to contact a moderator of the forum, please Private Message the specific moderator that you feel you need to communicate with. This feature was disabled for many months, but has been repaired recently.

Thanks guys. Enjoy the forums!

[Scoot McGroot]

A reminder of the Forum rules you agreed to abide by when you signed up for RealGM:

1. Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. This applies to ALL users, regardless of post count, forum rank or perceived status at RealGM. Flaming, trolling or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.
2. Members who disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ ability to engage in real-time exchanges may be warned.
3. Members are asked to not act as "back seat moderators". If members note an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a Moderator. You can do so by clicking on the “Report” button which looks like the “!” (exclamation point) in the top right corner of the offending post, or you can PM us. Only do this if a moderator has not replied within 6 hours. Members who consistently "act" as moderators may be warned.
4. Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or colored text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.
5. The administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to Moderators and not users.
For any articles you link, you are only allowed to paste 3 paragraphs, and the link must be included. All credit must be given to the author and the source.


Signatures
Signatures may contain up to five lines of text (of small or normal size) or one image, valid combinations include; a single image of no more than 90px high, 400px wide and 50KB in size. Signatures containing an image this large may also include one line of small size text. Signatures containing an image of 60px high may include up to three lines of small size text or two lines of normal size text. Images of 15px height or less may allow up to four lines of normal size text or four lines of small size text.

a. Text sizes should be between 9 and 12 (small and normal).
b. Text in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, warez, emoticons, and so forth.
c. Links in signatures are permitted. Linked sites may be commercial in nature. You may not link to warez, porn or political, racist or other similar hate sites. Links are included in signature size limits.
d. Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their signature privileges

If you have any other questions, feel free to PM Miller4ever, PR07, or, in the meantime, kyphi and myself. However, all of the above rules are not up for debate. They are set in stone. If you feel any of the above rules are unfair, please, take it up with the RealGM administrators, as they chose the above rules. We were chosen to enforce them as we best see fit.

[Scoot McGroot]

Hopefully, this little section of information and links can be beneficial to the board as posters. It is here to help you more easily articulate your ideas and understand the happenings of the NBA. If you’d like to see anything else added to this, feel free to PM me.

Draft Picks Owed To Other Teams:

Nil

Draft Picks Owned:

All Future Picks

Salary Information

Salary Cap
The NBA has a soft cap, which means that a team can go over the cap limit to retain its own free agents, unlike the NFL which has a hard cap which cannot be exceeded at any time.

Will be updated when information on the new CBA is agreed upon.


Luxury Tax

The Luxury Tax is a dollar for dollar penalty that is charged for teams that are vastly over the salary cap. Any collected money is split 30 ways amongst all the teams under the luxury tax. Any money that is left over, such as a share that is owed to a team that was over the luxury tax limit, is pooled and split 30 ways again; this time, all 30 teams receive their share of leftover money whether or not they had to pay the luxury tax. For example, the New York Knicks owe roughly $60 million in luxury tax payments. That $60 million is split 30 ways into $2 million payments, and given to all the teams that are under the luxury tax limit. 19 teams were under the luxury tax, meaning $38 million is paid out, and $22 million is left. That $22 million is then split 30 ways again (roughly $730,000 payments), this time, all 30 teams receive that money. Thus, an under the luxury tax team would receive $2.73 million while an over the tax team would receive only $730,000.

Previous Luxury Tax Information

2005-06 - $61.7 million
2006-07 – $65.42 million
2007-08 - $67.865 million
2008-09 - $71.15 million
2009-10 - $69.92 million

Important Links

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/index.jsp - One of the most accurate sources of salary from around the NBA, and also a pretty humorous NBA related site. Sham (who posts on RealGM under the same name) also does a great job of keeping up on players that have signed in Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific

http://www.hoopshype.com - Good source of current NBA related news articles

http://www.basketball-reference.com - Great source for all Stats and Historic information

http://prosportstransactions.com/basket ... Search.php - Search engine for all previous Trades and Transactions throughout the NBA

http://www.dfw.net/%7Epatricia/index.html - Patricia Bender’s Website – Another good source of salary information, including past years salaries, contract lengths, etc.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm - Larry Coon’s Collective Bargaining Agreement Frequently Asked Questions – A great start for anyone looking to find out an answer to a question like “What’s the most that Danny Granger could re-sign for and when could he sign a new contract?” Or, “What is Base Year Compensation?”

http://www2.realgm.com/src_tradechecker/1/ - RealGM Trade Checker – If you come up with a trade idea, run it through here first to see if it could even work legally under the CBA.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/s ... y=SPORTS04 – The IndyStar’s online Pacers and NBA information and articles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Salary ... Luxury_Tax – Wikipedia’s article on the NBA Salary Cap. It is a much shortened version, but easier to handle if you have a very basic question. It takes much of its information from Larry Coon’s site as well.

http://twitter.com/#!/mikewellsnba - Twitter account of Pacers Beat Writer from the Indianapolis Star, Mike Wells.

http://twitter.com/#!/wojyahoonba - Twitter account of Yahoo! Sports Writer, Adrian Wojnarowski

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Trade Thread Policy

For the purposes of the Indiana Pacer board, we would like to outline our policies regarding trade threads. We have two overarching policies that dictate how trade threads & rumors will be handled here, depending on the time of year, and some policies that will hold true year-round. These may be different from the policies of other boards, but they were arrived at over the past year and have been accepted by this community at large.

The Standing Year-round Trade Rumor/Trade Checker/Waiver Wire Policy (includes "Rape" Rule)
Will be in effect at all times
- All trades proposed should be run through the RealGM Trade Checker or some other Trade Machine to be sure that it conforms to cap rules. I realize, from time to time, it's easy to propose a deal that's "So-and-so for Whathisname & filler", but the filler is often a crucial component. For example, the recent JO-to-Toronto trade included Maceo Baston as filler, but Jason Kapono could've been used as filler as well. This would make a huge difference, potentially from both a salary perspective and a talent-consideration perspective. It is important to help judge the whole deal, from a fairness perspective and a practicality perspective.
- You should post the reasoning as to why each team would benefit/be interested in doing the trade. These are the seeds for the discussion and help other posters understand your point of view (POV). The thread is more likely to be lively and interesting if the OP puts in good effort up front.
- The trade should be at least reasonably fair. I fully recognize that this is a difficult thing to define, so we'll be forced to paraphrase Potter Stewart's rule of thumb by saying "an obscenely unfair trade is hard to define, but I know it when I see it." Though this will only be invoked on rare occasion (very rare occasion), it could result in the thread being locked and possibly deleted, or (if it's in the big Trade Thread) the post could be deleted or edited. A gross example of this would be this:

Successful Trade Scenario
Congratulations on a successful trade.
Due to Indiana and Cleveland being over the cap, the 25% trade rule is invoked. Indiana and Cleveland had to be no more than 125% plus $100,000 of the salary given out for the trade to be accepted, which did happen here. This trade satisfies the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Trade ID #4709366

Indiana Trade Breakdown
Change in Team Outlook: 0.0 ppg, 0.0 rpg, and 0.0 apg.
Incoming Players
LeBron James
6-8 SG / SF from St. Vincent-St. Mary (HS)
No games yet played in 2007/08
Outgoing Players
Marquis Daniels
6-5 SG from Auburn
No games yet played in 2007/08
Jamaal Tinsley
6-1 PG from Iowa State
No games yet played in 2007/08

Such a deal is patently ridiculous and can only serve to incite a potential flame war. This will not be a warnable offense unless the poster shows a pattern that could indicate he's doing it intentionally to cause trouble.
- "Insider Information": Insider information will be subject to verification. We have not had much of it here, but we ask that all posters take a responsible, careful approach to presenting "insider info". If you post "insider info", we ask that you be prepared to be challenged to provide corroboration or proof of the validity of it. We have seen on other boards and sites instances where posters have fabricated insider info from whole cloth, and it creates significant problems within the community. I have also seen instances where bona fide insider info has created problems for the insider themself. We ask that you be very cautious with this. While we'd love to get the real inside scoop, my advice would be to err on the side of caution and avoid posting insider info entirely. Please note that intentionally posting false insider info is a bannable offense on RealGM.
- The "Rape" rule: It is the view of the moderators and members of this board that the users of the word "rape" to describe a trade is completely unacceptable. This will be edited out any post where it is made. Again, users are not subject to warning for this unless they demonstrate consistent intent to disregard this rule.

The In-Season Trade Rumor/Trade Checker/Waiver Wire Policy
Will run from the start of the regular season through the end of the regular season or the Pacers' elimination from the playoffs, whichever comes later.

- In general, all trade proposals, trade checker ideas, and potential Waiver wire acquisitions must be posted and contained in the "Trade Proposal/Checker (& Waiver Wire) Thread" that will be stickied on the board all year long. This would include any speculation or spitballing done regarding trade ideas you've come up with or Waiver Wire/Free Agents that the Pacers should sign. When in doubt, put the post here.
- In order for either a trade rumor or a waiver discussion to merit its own thread during the season, it must have a documented source with a link. This would mean that a relatively reputable publication has made a report that specifically involves the Pacers. An example of this would've been last year when it was reported that the Jazz may be interested in Jeff Foster. This is an appropriate topic for it's own thread. With a rumor, you may post simply the rumor, along with a link to the source, or you may also suggest trade ideas. For waiver wire ideas, there must be a link that directly involves the Pacers. An example would've been reports that the Pacers were interested in Flip Murray.
- What is a "reputable" source? Well, it would basically include any recognized publication, including Newpapers, sites like ESPN/CNNSI, basketball blogs like RealGM, Hoopworld, Hoopshype, TV or Radio stations. A link must be provided. In the case of radio reports or TV reports, the stations will often post such things on their websites. However, rumors heard there can be reported and allowed to stand if others independently corroborate hearing/see the report. Besides, anything with real juice will get reported somewhere on the web within a reasonable amount of time. Any of these is sufficient to start a thread, and the validity of the rumor may be debated in the thread. Sam Smith and Peter Vecsey are full of ****, almost without exception, but they are considered sufficient sources for an in-season separate thread. Things that are not included uncorroborated word of mouth or forum posts from other boards similar to this one (that lack a qualifying link).
- To summarize, all trade/waiver ideas during the season should be put in the Trade Thread unless they have a documented rumor involving the Pacers. So, for trades, Mitch Laurence reporting the Jazz are interested in Foster qualifies for it's own thread, while speculation generated by the rumor that JJ Redick's agent told the Magic he would like to be traded, with no mention of the Pacers, does not. For waviers, reports of the Pacers talking to Flip Murray qualifies, but "Joe Blow got cut, let's sign him" goes in the big thread.
- As always, these are subject to the rules in section one

The Off-Season Trade Rumor/Trade Checker/Waiver Wire Policy
Will run from the end of the regular season or the Pacers' elimination from the playoffs, whichever comes later, until opening night of the following season.
- Trade threads may be created for any deal you wish to propose. A separate trade thread must have a fully certified deal (through RealGM or someone else's Trade Machine) and have the OP's reasoning for each team. If you do not wish to do this, then you must put the idea in the big Trade Thread. Again, these deals must follow the rules in section one. Also, you should look to see if there are any other threads discussing similar deals. (Earlier this summer, we had a half dozen different variations on the theme of Indy-Miami deals.) If the OP doesn't meet the Trade Checker/reasoning requirements, it will either be merged into the trade thread, or, more likely, locked. Multiple threads on the same topic will be merged into one.
- Waiver/Free Agent threads may be created without documentation, as long as you provide reasoning on why the Pacers should do it and how they will manage it under the cap rules. (Threads titled "Cory Maggette?", with an OP saying only "Let's sign him" will be locked out of hand.)
- As always, these are subject to the rules in section one

These are the policies for the Indiana Pacer board, and the Pacer board alone. We ask that you follow these, and while we will likely shape or direct posters towards following them through requests, with occasional merges and less frequent locks, we would prefer not to issue warnings for not following them. However, consistent and intentional disregard for these policies can and will result in the same types of warnings and disciplinary actions as other violations of TOS.

Thank your for helping us on these items.