The NBA Is Back! Discussion Thread

[Karmaloop]

Keep all discussion with regards to the game in here. Questions or concerns can be posted here, but if they're important questions feel free to shoot me an AIM message or e-mail to get a hold of me. This OP will be updated once we have the final kinks worked out, hopefully by Wednesday.

Here's the tentative deadline. Feel free to post your thoughts and suggestions about it.

Wednesday, November 30th (3 PM EST): Team Announcements
Thursday, December 1st (5 PM EST): Rosters Must Be Posted (ROSTERS FROZEN)
Friday, December 2nd: Free Agency Begins
Friday, December 2nd: Trading Begins
Friday, December 9th: Free Agency Ends
Saturday, December 17th (5 PM EST): Trading Ends
Monday, December 19th: Rosters Must Be Updated
Tuesday, December 20th: Rankings Due
Wednesday, December 21st: Winners Announced

I know that seems like a really, really short game but after looking at the schedule a couple of times, this appears to be the best schedule that doesn't get distorted. I know some people might not be really happy with this being a short game, but my arms twisted with the '11 FA period.

Onto the CBA issues, if anyone is curious this is the link, which I'm using as my feeler to what the new CBA is going to look like. Larry Coon hasn't updated his CBA website that I'm aware of, so this is pretty rough. If anyone sees anything wrong, post a link trying to fix what I've set as the rule. I'll take it up until when rosters are due.


Salary Cap
The salary cap will be set at 60 million, with the luxury tax level being at 75 million. With the new luxury cap rules don't apply until 2013 season, I'm setting the hard cap at 100 million for this game. I believe the Lakers are the only ones that are even close to that level.


Amnesty Clause
Every team is allowed to amnesty one player off of their roster. All they have to do in order to make this happen is post in the FA thread, which will be posted sometime later today. You are allowed to use this clause at any point in this game, but if you do it anytime AFTER free agency occurs, you must shoot me an e-mail OR hit me up through AIM and let me know that you've amnestied the player AND you must post in the FA thread. Any players amnestied AFTER FA will be on a waiver claim process of sorts. Your claim must not be beaten for 24 hours. The order is based on the 2011 NBA Draft order.


Free Agency
I'm looking to do free agency fast and furious

First off, for any teams that are below the salary cap are free to sign players as they wish provided they're legal contracts. Here are the legalities involved.

* Contract lengths: All the same as in the previous proposal. Bird free agents can get five-year deals with their own teams, with other deals being capped at four years. Each team can designate one player eligible for a five-year extension of his rookie contract with his own team. A team can have only one player so designated on the roster at a time. The owners had been pushing for four- and three-year contract lengths until recently.

* Annual increases: 7.5 percent for Bird players, 4.5 percent for others. This is up from 6.5 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, in the owners' prior proposal.

For any teams that are above the salary cap, but below the luxury tax level are allowed to offer up to four-year deals starting at $5 million in the first two years, with the starting point increasing by 3 percent in subsequent years (four years, 20.5 million will be the maximum contract allowed to be offered).

For any teams above the luxury tax level, you are allowed to offer at most three years starting at $3 million in the first two years, with the starting point increasing 3 percent in subsequent years (three years, 9.1 million is the maximum contract allowed).

Bird right players are allowed a maximum of five years, while non-Bird right players are allowed a maximum of four years in their deal.


Sign & Trades
I'm doing things a bit differently than in the past. The only players I will allow to be part of S&T will be RFA as well as Nene, David West, and Tyson Chandler. Those are the only three UFA I will allow to be S&T. I believe in some of the past games I've participated, this was a shortcut to get around trade restrictions and people were using them as trading chips. Not to mention, S&T aren't overly common in the NBA either.


Trade Rules
These are new so make sure you are familiar with them.

Taxpaying teams can acquire no more than 125 percent plus $100,000 of the salaries they trade away (same as 2005 CBA). Non-taxpaying teams (based on their post-trade salary level) can acquire up to the lesser of 150 percent plus $100,000, or 100 percent plus $5 million of the salaries they trade away. The cash a team pays or receives in trade is limited to $3 million annually.

[-Kees-]

I would have a bit of trading before/during FA. I'm ok only doing 2011, but maybe have us a bit more time at the beginning, and in the middle (lengthen the middle trading period to 10 days or 2 weeks?) Then we can just casually go past Christmas, and finish writeups after that.

EDIT: Adding the draft would be a good part too. Then people have a reason to collect 2012 picks, while if we don't, then they aren't valued very high.

So Rosters/Trading/FA/Trading/Draft/Trading/Writeups/End

[Crispy]

Why not 2012 FA? I thought it made the game a lot more interesting. Yeah people are gonna get mad if they lose their player, but so what? Happens in real life. As long as the agents are smart and make sure they sign a player to the team that gives them the best situation, I think it'll work out.

I think it adds a different dimension to the game too, since you'll have teams making trades strictly to free up cap space. Could help, but could really hurt too. That's what makes it interesting though.

[crazybranman360]

i like the idea of doing trading before FA then a draft

[-Kees-]

Yeah I guess it could work, but at the very least, add the 2012 draft.

I think that there should be a panel, like last game, for the top three. It seemed to work. I also think the panel should look up the type of player they are, and what they want. Like Dwight has said he wants to stay in Orlando if Otis Smith can get him some better players. Deron wants to compete, and likes NJ, so he is likely to stay. If they get traded, it'll be on their mindset (or what we think of it). Again, even though I won last games FA, I think that if there is even 1 All-Star, or a very good supporting cast, that the star should stay.

The schedule needs a bit of adjustment.

Rosters announced - Fri Dec 2
Rosters posted/trading starts - Sat Dec 3
2011 FA begins - Fri Dec 9
2011 FA ends - Thu Dec 15
2012 Draft - sometime during/near/before Christmas
Then let the draft play through Christmas, maybe take a day break or 2 from it
2012 FA begins - Dec 30
Slow FA and let it go through New Years
2012 FA ends - Around the 10th or 12th of JAN
Writeups - Jan 20th

This way, we can always move things up, its harder to move stuff back. It also allows for a slow holiday season, because the draft is usually the slowest part of the game anyways. We may even just stop the clock on the draft from Dec 25-30 or whatever, idk, I've never been on RealGM over this main holiday season

I'm just excited to get this game going lol. Signups are going very quickly.

[Crispy]

^I like that schedule. Works for me.

[-Kees-]

Ok, I think we should role with that if we can.

I may be going out of town between Christmas and New Years (not sure yet), but I can still probably run the draft either before that, or I might not even be going (can deal with that when it comes).

We might also be able to move the start date up one day if we can get enough signups. My guess is that we will have enough by tomorrow, take a day to figure out the teams (lotto and such) and we could have our teams on Thursday.

[Karmaloop]

Ok, I think we should role with that if we can.

Well then someone else is going to have to throw their hat into the commish ring because I'm going to be going out of town on that Saturday, so I'm going to have limited time. Not to mention, I think a game actively going on during the Holiday times is going to be disastrous. There will be limited participation as it is. Not to mention, it gives us a chance to figure out how the new CBA rules work.

[Warriorfan]

Speed game before we really have to know CBA works. Since there is no draft I hope amnesty is allowed to improve so so FA crop

[-Kees-]

Maybe I'm wrong, I've never seen the major holidays on RealGM or this game because I joined in mid January this year.

I do know that I would like to go through the full draft/FA, and the signups are going quickly. Because we tried something different last game, I think people (and myself) are excited for a normal game, and that might keep interest better.

I understand if we have to keep it shorter, you've been along longer than me and you're commish, but if possible, I think a longer game would be more fun. Maybe we can just suspend the game from Dec 24-Jan 1? That way everyone has off Christmas, half of Hanukkah this year, and New Years. Idk, it's up to you

[lukekarts]

I won't be joining this game but may be able to offer my services in FA or to take over any drop-outs mid game.

I agree the game dies at Xmas, I've been around for one before and roughly 50% of players disappear for a few days... and such is the way with these things that when activity drops it never recovers.

I'm curious as to how FA will play out as it will be running alongside real life FA... a quick game could be interesting as it forces activity.

[Blazer50]

It's amusing that people are concerned about the game over Christmas. While we all have family obligations - are home with friends - or whatever you do over the holidays, I think most find a lot of downtime during the break. With less school / job obligations, I would not be surprised if most spend more time looking at the game. Even if you are away from your PC for a time, most probably have other access (phones, tablets) that getting 20 minutes a day to make or reply to offers, draft, etc would be a welcome escape from the family. It looks like a good group of GMs have replied and I hope the game gets started.

[Karmaloop]

Well then someone else would need to step up as commish if you want a longer game.

[-Kees-]

Sorry to hear that. I wish you would've told us that during signups, because now we have no commish. Oh well, we all have other commitments.. I cant do it this time (busy, and i commished a few games ago and helped with last one), but as i mentioned, i can run the draft. All the commish needs to do is organize the threads, make sure people know the new CBA, and head FA (usually we have people who will volenteer to help with that). Its not a huge job, i just am in the middle of finals right now and dont have the time to do a lot of the prep-work.

Ive also thought about the schedual. Im thinking we can have a bit of trading, get through 2011 FA qucikly, a bit of trading, then the draft from like Dec 20-Dec 23 range. This way, the whole holiday season (from the 24th-Jan2nd range) can just be trading, and if people have family/friends ect, they dont miss anything huge, and if they have down time, they can trade. Then we start 2012 FA in the new year, then a bit more trading, then writeups. Its compact at the beginning, but then we can have all of the holidays pretty much relaxed, so if people have commitments, they arent missing anything huge.

[SamBone]

just my 2 cents....

1. karm offered to be commish, and set a schedule. If you wanna play by his schedule sign up. If not, don't. but trying to add things then getting on his case since he does not want to run a game under your new schedule is not fair to karm.

2. why would you need trading pre FA? real NBA will not have this, this game was supposed to be what you would do if you were the GM of the NBA team following the CBA rules.

3. game always is dead during holidays, it would not be smart to run a draft over holidays, you will get a ton of autopicks

4. even though I can not play, karm's schedule is the smartest idea. run a quick game for people to get their fix, then once NBA season is underway and new rosters are set, start a new 2012 game with the new CBA and rosters in mid January, then have 2012 draft and next summers FA included in that game.

again, just my 2 cents

[Blazer50]

Hope someone comes up with a current game. Looks like a good group of GMs have signed up.

[-Kees-]

Thanks for the feedback SB.

One thing I want to mention is no one knew what they were signing up for. All signs pointed to a normal game. Karma was asking for people to help run the Draft (only one is 2012) and FA (usually people need help with 2012 FA because its very deep). So had I actually known that this would be a very short game when I signed up, I might not have signed up. The reason I was posting about it was because it was pulled outta no where that we wouldnt do a normal game, so I was surprised.

Not having the draft effects the game a ton, because so many people dont care about future 1sts, and thats what 2012 firsts will be if we dont have a draft. It not only effects future teams, but now teams that are looking to win now, their picks wont hold as much value. But I'm sure you know this already.

I'm not gonna fight this anymore, I've done that before, and it has gone good and bad, and since I've never been here around the holidays, you guys may know better. I'll still be active, and stay in, for the sake of the game, but I just really question 1 person making the format for everyone, especially since the majority of people here that have posted are for a different format. But since we can't find another commish, and I don't have the time to, I guess we just have to take it and run.

Making a game once the teams are set in the regular season, I agree, will be fun. And maybe this will work itself out for the good.

EDIT: If we do the short game (which I just think we need to start one) we need to start as soon as possible. 5th Pick Sucks is the last one. We have 30 GMs now, we can start. If we are gonna do the short game, I think we should post rosters next time commish sees this, and start trading thursday at the latest. If we are doing the larger game, then we should also start soon, but not as much of an issue

[Warriorfan]

I think we should go with what we have since we have so much momentum . karm did a good job as commish short game is what can commit to so be in. I commished the last game til writeups and had to step away for serious matters and game totally flatlined which what a holiday break can do.

[RR9]

let's do short game. who wants to step and up and be commish/assign teams?

[RiotPunch]

Pretty sure karmaloop said he is game to GM if we are on the short schedule, and I am totally fine with that. Not every game needs to be drawn out, plus we will all want to start over with new rosters once real life FA and trades happen.

As far as assigning teams, we should get that taken care of soon. I agree with getting the wheels rolling while we have the momentum of the quick signups.