Free agency will begin at Midnight on Saturday August 16th. We will be running FA similar to how we have done it in the past.
Teams will be free to place one bid on players at the designated time during each window. One bid/PM per team during each window. Teams can submit bids for as many players as they would like in their one PM. Each team is responsible for keeping track of their own cap space and for how many available roster spots they have. If a team submits a bid for multiple players, any part that violates the salary cap or puts the team over the 15 player roster limit will be voided. Be careful submitting your bids. You don't want to miss on top targets but hit on lower targets which will occupy cap/roster space for you leaving you unable to rebid on your top targets. No bids can be rescinded once they are offered and are the leading bid. A sample bid can be found below. It is up to each team to account for both their salary cap and available roster spaces.
If a team does place a bid on multiple players that would put them over the roster limit, they can stipulate in the PM, how they will free up the roster space, if they have the leading bids on their players. But at no time, can a team violate the salary cap.
The soft cap for 2025-26 is $1080. Teams can go over the soft cap by $108 to resign Bird right free agents. There is a hard cap of $1188 for all teams. Please keep $1 cap holds for all open roster spaces in mind when you submit your bids.
Teams can place their one initial offer at anytime between 12AM-6PM on Saturday. I will not be opening any PM's until 6PM. Once I open and figure out all legal leading bids for any players who have offers, I will respond to each GM who leads on a player. I will also respond to any GM who placed a legal bid that was within 25% of the leading bid (or its equivalent if the years offered are different) and let them know the number that they need to take the leading bid on that specific player at that time. Teams will not be able to inquire about a player without placing a legal bid on him. Window #2 will be open between 12AM-9AM on Sunday. Teams will be able to see where they stand after the initial window and adjust accordingly during following bidding periods. The bidding process will repeat throughout the first week of FA. Players will sign only after they have been on the board for three consecutive bidding windows without getting bid up by another team. So if you lead on a player after window #1 and no team beats your bid over the next three windows, that player will sign after window #4 is completed. No player will sign before 10PM on Sunday, after four full bidding windows have been completed.
As we've done in past years, if a team resigns a Bird FA, they will still be able to use their full cap space. This means that the Bird FA will sign last for that team allowing them to use up their soft cap first.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Considering the weight of this FA as well as the wait we've had since the draft, I'd like to perform a quick check in with all GMs prior to Saturday. Please let me know via And1 or quoting of this message that you are active and aware of the timing for FA before Thursday.
Spoiler:
Free agency schedule is subject to change based on my work schedule. I was planning on being off of work Sunday-Tuesday and have already been called in on Monday morning. I'm hoping that this schedule will be final but please be prepared to adjust based on my changing work schedule. This schedule allows for 18 hours on Saturday to submit your initial bid and then nine additional hours on Sunday morning just in case you are not available Saturday at all to get into the free agency pool. Considering no one will sign before window #4, and GMs do not need to sit and wait all day for updates but have specific times that they need to be online, everyone should have a fair shot at FA. Be strategic with your bids.
Free agency will officially begin at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning. At that point, no one is allowed to "name drop" any player who is still on the FA board. The official FA page will be the final post in the mega thread. Use that last post with all available FA's for all news on who has been bid on and who is available.
Finally, please label all PM submissions. "Team A Free Agency window #x bid". Or "Team A trade with Team B". Each team only gets one FA bid per window and I do not want to miss anything based on multiple PMs so please keep things as organized and clutter free as possible. This is obviously our largest and best FA class probably since our initial draft and I expect the early bidding periods to be difficult to manage. Please have patience and do not submit bids outside of the bidding window or before I post in the discussion thread that the next window is open.
Most GMs have participated in FA in the past but there are a couple of new GM's who have not gone through this process. If anyone has any questions, ask them this week, before FA hits. Once we start, I will not have a lot of time to respond to process questions.
Good luck to all teams!
