Just wanted to post this here. A proposal I got from someone via PM. Obviously took a lot of thought and time coming up with it so it deserves to be looked at and discussed.
Hi Bish,
Free Agency Proposal
My approach would be a bit different. Free agency would last a bit longer and run in 2 stages.
Stage 1, you would go through each team and pick out their best players that are free agents, you can
make this choice by perhaps going with the SIM Rating. (Or you can choose top 30 players overall and
ignore going 1 per team)
On day 1 of free agency, 1 player from each team would be put on the free agent list and be up for
bidding. Each team will be allowed to send ONLY 1 message on day 1. In that message they would have
the bid for its bird rights player (should they want to bid on them) and in preference any other bids they
want to make staying under the cap after taking into account its bird right player bid. If at the end of day
1 the team with bird rights has the best offer for their player, they would automatically re-sign at the
end of day 1. Should there be an offer higher than what the bird right team put forth then in day 2 the
bird right team and the team with the highest offer would battle it out. I see this playing out as a series
of 3 rounds of bids between the 2 teams. If the team with bird rights did not submit an offer the top 2
teams with the highest offers would move onto day 2 with 3 rounds of bidding.
During the 3 rounds of bidding on day 2, if the team with bird rights has the highest bid after any round,
they would re-sign its player. This would be done so the non-bird right team does not play games with
the first 2 rounds of bids and then comes out with a much different offer in round 3. Both teams should
be putting forth competitive bids each round (with the team with bird rights incentivized to have the
highest bid at the conclusion of each round of bids). At no point can an offer be less than what they had
bid the prior round, offer must be equal to or be greater than the previous offer it made. At any time,
the team with bird rights can bow out and indicate it cannot beat the offer and the non-bird right team
would win the player. The bird right team can do this at the end of day 1 or at the conclusion of any of
the rounds of bids on day 2. If the battle is between 2 non bird right teams the team with the highest
offer at the conclusion of round 3 or has the highest offer in back to back rounds wins the player.
Ties on day 1 and day 2 between non bird right teams would go to the team with the higher free agency
ranking.
Ties on day 1 and 2 between non bird right teams and bird rights team would go to the team with bird
rights (you can change this to the team with higher free agency ranking)
I see the above removing the long drawn out process of teams nickel and diming its players, all teams
putting forth its best offers, and make it a bit more realistic with a player choosing between 2 teams as
opposed to 30.
Lets take the below 30 players as being the day 1 list
Patrick McCaw Steph Curry Clint Capela
Joel Embiid Brandon Ingram Kyrie Irving
Rudy Gobert James Harden Avery Bradley
John Collins Andrew Wiggins Buddy Hield
Lebron James Fred Vanvleet Kemba Walker
Kawhi Leonard Kristaps Porzingis Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jason Tatum Otto Porter De’Aaron Fox
Brandon Goodwin Ben Simmons Klay Thompson
Karl Antony Towns Kevin Durant Antony Davis
Jimmy Butler Bradley Beal Frank Ntilikina
Example 1 (cap space listed are estimates)
Boston- Player with Bird Rights Patrick McCaw, Cap Space: $975
Brooklyn- Player with Bird Rights Joel Embiid, Cap Space: $985
Cleveland: Player with Bird Rights Jason Tatum, Cap Space: $895
Suppose you are Boston you may not want to offer McCaw a contract so it could list its preference of
offers like:
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo $500/4
2. Kevin Durant $500/4
3. Lebron James $500/4
4. Jason Tatum $350/4
5. Kawhi Leonard $500/4
6. Brandon Ingram $350/4
7. Bradley Beal $350/4
8. Steph Curry $500/4
9. Joel Embiid $350/4
10. Karl Antony Towns $200/4
11. Fred Vanvleet $125/4
12. Buddy Hield $100/4
13. John Collins $350/4
Lets say Dallas or another team offered $520/4 to Giannis so Boston would not have a higher offer. Let
us say Boston offered the best contract to Durant including Portland. Boston would than go into day 2 to
face off with Portland in up to 3 rounds of bidding if Portland submitted an offer, lets say for this
example Portland did submit an offer to Durant. Boston’s offer to Lebron now would be void as it would
not have enough cap space as it was low on Durant. Boston’s offer to Tatum would be valid but lets say
it did not have the highest offer. Kawhi offer would be void since it would put it over the cap. Offers to
Ingram or Beal would be valid but let us say it did not have the highest offer. Offer to Curry would be
void as it would put it over the cap. Offers to Embiid and Karl Antony Towns would be valid but let us say
they were not high. Now let us say Boston did have the highest offer to Fred VanVleet and Buddy Hield,
and since it does have the necessary cap space both offers would be valid and it would now also go into
a head to head battle for those 2 players as well. Offer to John Collins would be void as it no longer has
sufficient cap space after being low on Durant, Fred VanVleet, and Buddy Hield.
Boston’s total remaining cap space for the duration of its 3 battles would be $975-500-125-100= $250.
For this example, let us say the Washington Wizards decided at the end of day 1 after being informed
that the high offer on VanVleet was $125/4 that it no longer was interested in re-signing him. At this
point in the beginning of day 2 Boston would be notified that it secured Fred VanVleet and it would only
now have 2 battles, Durant and Hield.
Lets say in round 1 of Day 2 Boston upped its offer to Durant to $550/4, that would mean it would only
have $200 additional to use on an offer on Hield and any subsequent offers on Durant in rounds 2 or 3 if
necessary. Let us say its offer to Hield was bumped up to $150/4 in round 1 vs Phoenix. Reducing total
cap space to $150. At the end of Round 1 lets say Portland bid $505/5 for Durant and Phoenix bid
$101/5 for Hield. Portland would be informed that the low bid for Durant is $550/4 and its next bid
would need to be $XXX/X to continue bidding. Phoenix would be informed that its next bid would need
to be $XXX/X to continue bidding. Let us say after being informed of what the 2 nd round bid required to
stay in the running for Hield, Phoenix bows out, Boston would be awarded Hield after 1 round of bidding
on day 2. For its second bid to Durant lets say Boston offered $560/4, leaving it with $140 in cap space,
and Portland offered $550/5. Portland being the team with bird rights and offering the better offer in
round 2 would automatically be awarded Durant. Boston would be left with a total of $700 in cap space
and awarded both Fred Vanvleet and Buddy Hield after day 1 and 2 of bidding.
Example 2
Suppose you are Brooklyn and you want to use your bird rights to re-sign Embiid, your list may look like
this then:
1. Joel Embiid $525/5
No offers can be higher than $460 as that is its remaining cap space after bird right offer ($985-525)
2. Kevin Durant $400/4
3. Bradley Beal $400/4
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo $450/4
5. Lebron James $400/4
6. Kyrie Irving $250/4
7. Kawhi Leonard $400/4
Let us say Brooklyn offered the highest contract to Embiid on day 1, Embiid automatically re-signs at the
conclusion of day 1 with the Nets. Brooklyn would be left with $985-525= $460 in cap space. Lets say
offers to Beal, Giannis, Lebron were all not low. Lets say offer to Irving was the highest and LAC also
extended a offer to Irving, Brooklyn and LAC would face off in day 2 in up to 3 rounds of bidding.
Brooklyn’s offer would be void on Kawhi as it no longer has sufficient cap space. In its day 2 battle for
Irving, Brooklyn would have an additional $210 to increase its offers ($985-525-250=$210) should they
want.
Example 3
Lets say you are the Cleveland Cavaliers who have numerous bird right free agents that they would like
to retain, and only 1 appears on day 1 list. It may just decide to only bid on Jason Tatum and not list any
other free agents so it does not tie up any additional cap space it may deem necessary for future bids.
***I could see a team like Cleveland having an issue with 1 player being selected to be on the initial
list. Given Cleveland has many top young players in this free agency class that it likely wants to re-sign
it may prefer a list of the top 30 players so just in case it cannot sign one of its players it can quickly
move on rather than missing out on numerous top end players. The counter argument would be that
it can still go over the cap to sign its other bird right players that appear on subsequent lists. The issue
with going over the cap is something that requires further thought when reviewing preference lists***
Structure
You could structure it that so all bids on day 1 have to be in by 9:00am so you would get the whole day
uninterrupted to go through the 30 messages as it could take some time to review and cross reference
offers on the same player. Given the different time zones you could maybe even allow for teams to
submit bids the day prior (and give yourself more time by getting a head start)
You could structure that bid 1 on day 2 has to be submitted between 6:00am-10:00am, bid 2 has to be
in between 1:00pm-5:00pm (giving you 3 hours to get back to the teams on what the new high bid is),
and bid 3 has to be in between 8:00pm-12:00am (giving you 3 hours to get back to the teams on what
the new high bid is)
You would then repeat the above day 1 on day 3 with the teams second best player from each team
added on the free agency list (or the top 31-60 players)
Day 4 would run similar to day 2 with the 3 rounds of bidding.
You could even stretch out free agency and have days 1 and 2 run on one Saturday & Sunday and then
have days 3 and 4 run on the following Saturday and Sunday (just so work is not getting in the way)
Day 5 we would revert to what we currently do with all the remaining free agents on the board. Days 1-4
would help remove 60 top tier players from the board and hopefully reduce the number of PMs and
aggravation all parties may have at having to constantly be at their computer. If you want you could
also amend this process and run lists for the remaining free agents and have days 5 and 6 etc.. run
similar to days 1 and 2 (probably better for you as reduces number of PMs).
This proposal would accomplish a few things. One a lot less PM’s for you. 2 nd eliminate numerous back
and forth offers that are frivolous in nature. 3 rd provide an incentive to teams with bird rights. 4 th if we go
with the method whereby the best players are going to be on the initial lists it would allow teams to
quickly pivot should they miss out on their player. 5 th it would lead to mid-tier players not getting way
below market value as teams maybe preoccupied in battles for top end talent, just like in real life the
mid-tier and lower tier players would sign once the bigger names are off the board.
If you believe 30 players on a list could be too time consuming to review, could always knock it down to
15 players. I do believe if this proposal were to move forward, that it be used in next year’s free agency
as well, as that would allow for the necessary tweaks should they be required for the all important year
5 free agency.
Appreciate you taking the time to review, let me know if you have any questions.