Is this Collusion?

[Dino-Might]

I'm in the first year of a keeper rotisserie league. Instead of a draft, we had an auction with a salary cap of $100. Just to give an idea of values, highest paid players were Lebron and KG at $30. Guys in the top 20-30 went for somewhere around $15. Before the season began, the owners had the option of giving players a contract from 1-5 years at the same price in each year.

I am currently in first and have been for much of the year with my lead staying in the 10-15 points range. The third place team is even farther behind and likely has no choice to catch up.

Just at the trade deadline, the team in 2nd place made a trade with the 2nd last team.

2nd place team traded:

Dwayne Wade (at $25 for 5 years)
Ben Wallace (contract ends at end of season)
Jameer Nelson (small contract)

For:

Paul Pierce ($15 for 3 years)
Tracy McGrady ($13 for 2 years)
Jianlian Yi ($4 for 5 years)
1st round pick next year (top two protected)

In my view, the bottom team essentially traded away two top 20 players, one promising young player and his draft pick next year for absolutely nothing.

Wade is on a horrible contract, considering his injury problems and his production this year. Wallace is gone at season's end. And Jameer Nelson isn't really anything much.

I should mention, we do have an "Allan Houston" rule that allows a team to cut one player each year without any salary cap consequences. There have been suggestions the bottom team is planning to us it to cut Wade to get a fresh start. He could then use the extra cap space to bid for any free agents for next year. Still, this just reinforces the idea that this was a bunch of valuable pieces for nothing. He could have just used the Allan Houston rule to cut another player (possibly Tmac) to free up some space without giving up valuable future assets as well.

In order to veto a trade, our league requires the vote of 6 out of the 11 teams not involved in the trade. I got 3 other teams to veto (4 total), but most of the other teams did not vote either way, either because they did not check or did not care. In fact, the two people running the league chose not to vote either way in order to "stay neutral." However, what this means is that I had to get 6 out of 9 teams to veto in order to overturn the trade.

Further, the usual procedure for trades is that there is a two day period before a trade is approved where teams can vote. However, because this trade was made on the day of the trade deadline, the commish pushed the deal through and then asked for comments afterwards.

Because Wade's season was done, the second place guy didn't have a very good chance of catching me prior to the deal. But with this infusion of new players, he's now got a decent shot. The difference now is 9 points and he has 7 games on me.

Am I being paranoid or does this seem like clear cut collusion to anyone else? There is a not-significant amount of money involved here and the difference between first and second is roughly $500. I can't prove anything, but this deal doesn't make any sense to the botton feeder team in the short or long term. If I lose this league as a result of this trade, I'm gonna be PISSED.

[OldNo7]

But its a keeper league. He is trading two aging stars, for one of the best young players in the game. Wade is having an injury riddled season, and with rest, and a good summer, he should be back to top-5 form next season. I dont think its collusion.

[Dino-Might]

But its a keeper league. He is trading two aging stars, for one of the best young players in the game. Wade is having an injury riddled season, and with rest, and a good summer, he should be back to top-5 form next season. I dont think its collusion.

As I mention above, we are on a salary cap. Unless Wade is guaranteed to be top 5 next year, he is greatly overpriced at $25 and the person acquiring him has indicated he only made the move to CUT Wade's contract at the end of the season. Essentially, the guy is giving all that those assets away for free.

[OldNo7]

Then he is probably the worst fantasy owner of all time.

[Dutch]

It easily is veto and that is why I will not enter any league again that does not allow vetos or needs a ridiculous number of votes to get a trade vetoed. (unless I know the quality of the managers in the league)

You should wonder that if a commish does not vote on a matter because he wants to "stay neutral" if you would want to be in a league like that. Trust me it will be almost impossible to veto any deal in the future.

[AshyLarrysDiaper]

I agree that it's a veto-worthy trade for the reasons stated above.

Also, that is a really interesting league format you guys have.

[hamncheese]

Collusion would be hard to prove, but with the format you described, I can sort of see what the manager getting Wade is doing. One question is could he drop Wade and then resign him to a cheaper contract? If no one else has salary cap room and there is a decent free agent pool, then this could make a lot of sense for a team wanting a restart. Freeing up the McGrady money is a pretty good deal since he is not at all a top 20 player, and really the biggest loss is Pierce.

If it's possible to drop Wade and then resign to something like $15-$20 then it's a good move, because Wade once back is still a 1st rounder.