FSP NBA Fantasy League Official Rules

[timvp]

The FSP NBA Fantasy League will be modeled after the NBA salary cap rules. This fantasy league will not only serve as this year’s game, but will continue next year and beyond. Each year’s FSP NBAFL Champion will win a prize pack that includes Spurs playoff tickets.

Team Owners:

IcemanCometh -- Philadelphia 76ers
timvp -- Cleveland Cavaliers
Guru of Nothing -- Boston Celtics
fsp Kris Rivenburgh -- Miami Heat
exstatic -- Chicago Bulls
Little General -- Milwaukee Bucks
KoriEllis -- Detroit Pistons
Spurminator -- Orlando Magic
NBADan -- New Orleans Hornets
Patrick Davis -- Atlanta Hawks
TheCat5 -- Toronto Raptors
T Park Num 9 -- New Jersey Nets
Spurswoman -- Washington Wizards



Rules:
--Only players on an Eastern Conference teams will be used. However, if a player on your team is traded to a Western Conference team, you still retain that player.
--Each team can have up to 13 players. That includes two point guards, two shooting guards, two small forwards, two power forwards, two centers and two utility players. You are also allowed to keep one player on IR.
--We will use Yahoo’s standard scoring rules. Field Goals Made, Field Goal Percentage, Free Throws Made, Free Throw Percentage, 3-point Shots Made, Points Scored, Offensive Rebounds, Total Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocked Shots, and Turnovers will be used to judge the winner.
--Teams will play head-to-head for 21 weeks. Following that, there will be a 3 week playoff schedule. The top eight teams make the playoffs, with the Champion crowned on the final week of the season.

Contracts and Salary Cap:
--FSP NBAFL will be similar to NBA salary cap rules with the major difference being that we will use months in place of years.
--Contracts can be up to 6 months. Players whose salary starts at greater than 25% of the cap can have 7 month contracts.
--The salary cap for this year is $43.8 million. Next year, this will go up or down depending on next year’s NBA salary cap number.
--There will be no max contract limit. The only rule is that you have to stay below the cap.
--Max raises are 15%. All other raises have to be 10%, 5% or no raise.
--Min contracts are 1% of the cap. If you are over the cap, you can sign a player to a one-year min contract.
--All contracts are guaranteed.
--You get the Bird Rights for players who have been on your team for at least three months. That means that when their contract is over, you can go over the cap to re-sign the player and also match any offer.
--If you have a player with Bird Rights, you have to sign him to a contract starting at least at what his previous contract average was. If you do not wish to do so, you must place the player on waivers.
--If a player is placed on waivers, any team may match the previous contract and pick up that player. If no team matches that contract, bidding starts over again.
--The min team salary is 50% of the cap (AKA the Donald Sterling rule).
--Trades are allowed. If both teams are over the cap, the salaries in the trade need to be the same +/-10% + $500K.
--If a player is traded into the Eastern Conference, he is a free agent at the end of the next month. At that point, he’ll be available to the highest bidder.
--Even though there is a salary cap, you can go over the cap to re-sign your players if you have their Bird Rights. Also, it is okay if your team’s salary goes over the cap due to the monthly raises.

Team selection:
Each team in our league will represent one of the Eastern Conference teams. We will do this as a tie-breaker in regards to player contracts. For example, if you are representing the Indiana Pacers and you have offered Jonathan Bender a contract that exactly matches someone else’s offer … your offer would supercede because Bender is on the Pacers. This can be useful in the Expansion Signing Period. The team selections will go on a first come, first serve basis. If you know what team you’d like to represent, either post it in this thread or email it to us.

Player Movement:
Players will go to the team that offers the most money. The tiebreaker will be the team that offers the least amount of years. The tiebreaker during the season is the team who is lower in the standings. (However, the “representing team tiebreakers” override all other tiebreakers)

Expansion Signing Period:
During preseason basketball, teams will be able to bid on all available players. However, you must have enough cap space available to bid on a player (in other words, you can’t bid $20M for a player and have only $10M in cap room). If a team offers a deal higher than any other team to a player, that player will join the team after a three-day waiting period. During those three days, other teams can match or raise the offer.

Signup in Yahoo:
Once you inform us of what team you’d like to represent, you can go ahead and sign up in the Yahoo league. The league is ID# 23300 and the password is manu. When signing up, please use the team you are representing as your “team name” in the registration form.

Draft:
There will be no draft before the season. Teams will need to fill their roster during the expansion signing period. However, each year from now on there will be a draft following the actual NBA draft. Each team in our league will have a first round and a second round pick. Those picks will be used to select any player in the NBA draft that was drafted by an Eastern Conference team. The order for the FSP NBAFL draft will be in the order of worst record to best record in the previous year.

Expiring contracts:
This is when the contracts expire in the league. You have until the beginning of the next month to set your roster again.
1 month contract – November 20th
2 month contract – December 20th
3 month contract – January 20th
4 month contract – February 20th
5 month contract – March 20th
6 month contract – April 20th
7 month contract – November 20th, 2004


League Commissioners:
If there is ever any need for a rule change or a dispute, it will go before a vote of the 5 league commissioners. The five commissioners for this year are: Guru of Nothing, FSP Kris Rivenburgh, exstatic, KoriEllis and Marcus Bryant. If a rule change or a dispute goes before the commissioners, three out of five “yes” votes are needed to pass.

[Guru of Nothing]

If a team offers a deal higher than any other team to a player, that player will join the team after a three-day waiting period. During those three days, other teams can match or raise the offer.

3 days??? ... as in 72 hours on the dot, or 72 hours and the remainder of the day (up to midnight)?

[timvp]

It is 72 hours on the dot.

[exstatic]

Higher offer? Is that starting salary? In other words, If someone offers 4 years $8M and I offer 2 years $6M (higher annual and starting salary, more of a cap hit), do I get him? Just asking....

[timvp]

The total value of the contract supercedes the per month totals. So 2 month $6M would lose out to 4 month $8M.

[exstatic]

Thanks, timvp. I thought that was only a tie breaker.

[timvp]

Ex, have you picked the team you are going to represent?

[Spurminator]

Question:

What if a player is traded FROM the Eastern Conference?

[T Park Num 9]

I was wondering if I could be Charlotte.

if not,

Ill be New Orleans.

[timvp]

Charlotte isn't a team yet. New Orleans is taken.

Your choices are:

New Jersey Nets
Washington Wizards

[T Park Num 9]

New Jersey Nets it is.

[LittleGeneral]

Another question...

From the rules:

--Each team can have up to 13 players. That includes two point guards, two shooting guards, two small forwards, two power forwards, two centers and two utility players. You are also allowed to keep one player on IR.

This means that you need to have two of each position, right?

How flexible is this? For example, can AI be a PG? Or could Glenn Robinson play PF?

[timvp]

1) Correct.

2) Very flexible. For example ... Odom can play 1-4, Gooden can play 3-5 and Larry Hughes can play 1-3.

[Nbadan]

I hate to say this, but contradictory rules and a lack of any real hard cap or luxury tax has made this years tournament too unrealistic. Every team can't be the Lakers, Mavericks, or New York Knicks when it comes to overspending for players. It undermines the league. Afterall, It doesn't take too much skill to overpay every star player.

As the rules stand now, all contracts should only be structured at 6 or 7 years and 15% raises, otherwise, your not taking full advantage of this seemingly small but very important exception to the rules...


Even though there is a salary cap, you can go over the cap to re-sign your players if you have their Bird Rights. Also, it is okay if your team’s salary goes over the cap due to the monthly raises.

However, this exception directly undermines what should be one of the most important aspects of this contest..


There will be no max contract limit. The only rule is that you have to stay below the cap

What cap? The 43.5 million dollar cap in year 1 or the > $73 million dollar estimated ceiling of year 6 due to %15 raises to every player? If we are going to play that way, then why not just have a > $73 million dollar cap in the first place so that everyone playing starts with a equal understanding and implementation of the salary limits?

This league needs a hard cap or luxury penalty threshold in order to bring long-term salaries back into line with reality. Otherwise, any real ability to combine skilled players to form a team in this fantasy league, the way it really should be, is quickly being nullified to simply being the highest bidder for as many star players as you can afford.

[Spurminator]

I think we should revisit the 150% hard cap amendment after the draft. It's a good idea, but implementing it during the draft would have created some chaos.

[Nbadan]

think we should revisit the 150% hard cap amendment after the draft. It's a good idea, but implementing it during the draft would have created some chaos.

Your right that would have been a nightmare. However, all bids over $1 million dollars and 5 years can still be changed to 15% raises, or a flat 15% raise in salary cap per month can be implemented to even things out with minimumm impact

[timvp]

We will probably institute some form of hard cap after the draft. However, I think that there might be enough incentive to stay below the cap to keep things in check naturally.

Because during the season, players will be traded to the Eastern Conference. The few teams who are under the cap will be able to bid on them. That will allow them to pick up potentially very good players for cheap. If you can continue doing that, eventually you will be able to have stars and keep a flexible cap.

Also, even though the contracts are sky-high on the sixth month ... I don't think all the team will automatically keep all their players. If someone decides to simply sign who they have, they will miss out on all the free agents next year. So by renouncing your players you not only may be able to sign them at a cheaper price, you may be able to pick up other players without paying as much as this initial expansion draft.

I think this league will work out over time where the teams who have the best strategy and use their cap space the best will win on a consistent basis. I don't think it will be dominated by teams who are astronomically above the cap space.

We'll see how everyone feels after the expansion draft and then we'll tweak a couple rules here and there to make this league as competitive as possible.