Is this Collusion?
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:20 pm
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.
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.