Post by Preston Barclay on Aug 20, 2009 16:41:04 GMT -5
Free Agency
A player not listed on any franchise’s 15-Man Roster will be declared a free agent. A free agent can be any professional basketball player, whether on an NBA team, developmental team, or player a team has the draft rights to.
When you decide there is a player you wish to add to your 15-Man Roster from free agency, you will need to sign that player to a contract. The league’s minimum salary requirement is $500,000 per year for players who have completed up to three years in the league (in other words, first, second, or third year players), while $1,000,000 for players who have played more than three years. The longest you may sign a player to contract at the league minimum is two years. The longest you can sign a player to a contract with an average annual salary of less than or equal to $500,000 above the two minimums (below or equal to $1,000,000 and $1,500,000, respectively) is three years. The longest you can offer ANY contract is 7 years.
Retirement
If you sign a player to a contract and he retires, you are responsible for that contract. The only way you will not be penalized is if a player retires due to a CAREER ENDING INJURY. If that is the case, you are able to release that player and will only have to pay half of his contract for that year and that year only. Be careful when making bids for older players, especially with high Average Annual Salaries. Please note; getting old, aching, or losing skills is NOT defined as a career ending injury.
As in real-life, sometimes players receive numerous contract offers. The player will ultimately choose the team that has offered them the most lucrative contract. The Average Annual Salary (AAS) of a contract will determine the most lucrative contract.
AAS is determined as follows: You simply take the average of the contract.
For example:
10: $1,000,000
11: $2,000,000
AAS = $1,500,000
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE bid per player in which they are interested. These bids will be submitted via PM directed to the "Free Agency" account. Only the Commissioner can open this PM and will not do so until it is time to reveal the winning bid. This bid must include the following to be considered valid:
Number of years of the contract offer
Total amount of the contract offer
Average Annual Salary (AAS)
A breakdown of the contract per year
Example:
Celtics offer C Bill Russell
5-year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2009 - $7M
2010 - $9M
2011 - $11M
2012 - $11M
2013 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the four criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he/she submits a proper bid.
Free Agent Rulings
There may be instances in which free agents receive several offers from multiple teams. Questions arise as to which franchise will be declared the winner and awarded the right to sign said player to their team. Whoever has a higher AAS, wins said player. In the rare event two bids have the same AAS, below are the tie-breakers that will be utilized in determining which team will win the right to sign that player. Only proceed to the second tie-breaker in cases where the first tie-breaker ends in a tie.
Tie-Breaker #1:
If the AAS for two contract offers is the same, then the GM who offered the contract with the most number of years shall win the right to sign said player.
Tie-Breaker #2:
The only way this second tie-breaker can be utilized is if there is two contracts offers with the same AAS over the life of the contract AND the two contract offers are to pay the player over the same period of time. In this particular case, the tie-breaker will go to the GM who made their offer FIRST.
Contract Signing Rules
A contract offer will not be valid if any single year salary is MORE or LESS then 50% of the AAS of a contract. The highest single year salary of a contract may not exceed 1.5 x AAS, and the lowest single year salary of a contract my not be below .5 x AAS for any one year.
Example: If a player's annual average salary is $5,000,000 per season, the lowest salary that can be offered is $2,500,000 and the highest salary that can be offered is $7,500,000. This rule was created to avoid back loading of contracts. This is a very important rule. If you fail to meet these criteria, your bid will be voided.
The formula for tabulating +/- 50% would be:
AAS 5,000,000 x .50 = 2,500,000
AAS 5,000,000 x 1.5 = 7,500,000
50% of $5M = $2.5M therefore it is $5M +/- $2.5M
Important Note
A bid submitted is permanent, however, you do have the option of sending a PM to "Free Agency" before the bidding ends to cancel your bid. You MUST send the PM before bidding ends for that week.
Priority Lists
In some situations there may be more players up for bid in which your roster/cap allows you to have, but you would like to take a stab at all of them in hopes of landing one or two. If this is the case you may send a priority list to the Free Agency account.
Example:
You want 1 of Players A, B and C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 of these players. Send a priority list in the order you want to win them, and this will allow you to avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A
Free Agent Bidding Schedule
Monday 12:00 AM Eastern-Wednesday 11:59 PM Eastern - To put a player up for bidding, simply post his name in the Contract Offers Section. This may be done at the times mentioned above, and no later. You do not need to state your intent to bid on this player. This gives each GM some degree of secrecy as to your bidding each week. If you want to place a bid for a player that has been named up for bid, please PM the Free Agency account with your offer.
Friday 11:59 PM Eastern – This is the deadline for bidding each week. The submitted bid via PM is date and time sensitive and it dictates if the bid is on time or late. Late bids will be invalidated. No exceptions.
Friday Midnight Eastern - The winning bids will be posted in the section entitled “Winning Free Agent Bids”. It is your responsibility to monitor the board and add any player you won to your roster. Keep in mind that your 15-Man Roster may not exceed 15 players, and you may not exceed your salary cap. If this is the case your transaction will be voided, and the free agent will be awarded to the next highest bidder. As a penalty, you will not be able to participate in the following week’s FA bidding.
Releasing a Player to Free Agency
A GM has the right to waive any player to free agency. To waive a player and drop him to free agency, you must post the player's name that you are releasing in a new thread in the board titled "Player Releases". This will make permanent the decision to waive a player to free agency. Once posted, there is no turning back. A GM will still be responsible for half of that player’s salary for the duration of the contract UNLESS that player is signed to a contract by another franchise; in which case, continued responsibility for that player's salary could be negated in full or reduced. If the players new contracts AAS is equal, or higher then the previous contract then your responsibility will be negated in full and that player will no longer count against your salary cap. If the AAS is lower, then you will still be responsible to pay half of that player's salary over the life of the previous contract. If said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count half of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.
Can I release a player and then re-sign him?
If a GM waives a player to free agency, you must wait a 14-day period before re-signing him. At which time, if you do resign said player, you are still responsible for half of his previous contract in terms of both salary and term, as well as the new contract handed out UNLESS the players new contract exceeds the AAS of his previous one; in which case you are only responsible for the new contract handed out. If a player is released by one team and is picked up the following season by the same team, then the rule applies only if the player's contract at the time of his waiver was a multi-year contract.
Contract Expiration
Each offseason, there are always a number of players who have had their contracts expire. These players naturally become free agents and, as such, are available to accept contract offers being made by other GMs.
There are essentially three types of contracts for purposes in PB's Fantasy Baseball:
- a real life contract transacted on or before Opening Day of 2010 (October 28th, 2010); or a real life contract resulting from a franchised player
- a contract won in the free agent bidding process
- a "rookie contract", which is a form of protection for drafted players, though it reflects their real life contracts as well.
Options
In real life, teams and players agree on options in which the player or the team have the right after several years to decide if the player will remain with the team.
In PB's Fantasy Basketball, we give GMs the option to decide at the beginning of the franchise to decide whether or not they want to exercise team options. Player options, on the other hand, are not accepted, and are not considered part of the contract, which means the player is likely a free agent. Team options are not involved in contract offers after the franchise begins.
For rookies in the NBA, they often receive a two year base contract with a two year option, followed by a "qualifying offer". In PB's Fantasy Basketball, GMs have the option of either accepting the two year option and qualifying option (so a three year option in other words), or declining the options and allowing the player to become a free agent after two seasons. Teams have from the moment they draft the player to the beginning of the season to decide whether or not they want to accept the three year option.
To find the real life contracts, PB's Fantasy Basketball has to decided to use the Hoopsworld database. These contracts are monumental in the beginning of the franchise when assembling your roster and determining market value when offering free agents.
Hoopsworld - www.hoopsworld.com/NBASalaries.asp
To protect against the loss of all free agents in a particular calendar year, a GM will be granted the ability to try and keep a player via a Restricted Tag and a Franchise Tag. Each franchise has one of each tag each season to be used on impending free agents on their roster.
What are franchise tags?
If owned, you will have the ability at the end of the year to name a “franchise player(s)”. This player, although having his contract expire will not be eligible for free agency within our league, and will be forced to sign with the same team. In this specific case ONLY, the franchise player will have to assume the real life contract he receives (including 1 year deals or holdouts). In this case, "real-life" acts as an arbitrator of sorts in determining a fair market value for the player. This can either improve or hinder your team depending on how much the player signs for. If the new "real-life" contract puts a franchise over the salary cap maximum, the GM will receive a notice from the Commissioner’s Office after which time he/she will have 72-hours to correct the problem. Keep in mind, this is the only case in which a team may go over the salary cap, and the reason being, the salary for your current franchised player is yet to be determined.
What are restricted players?
A team will also have the ability to name at least one restricted player each season. Restricted players will, in effect, be treated just like free agents with one BIG difference. In the beginning of the offseason, restricted players can be made contract offers like every other free agent. However, at the end of the contract offering period, the team who restricted the player will have 72 hours to match the winning offer. If a GM chooses to match the winning contract offer, then he/she will be allowed to restructure the "matching" contract so that it best fits their team's salary structure and then re-sign the player. The "restructured" contract must, however, still have the same average annual salary; but may not add additional years to the contract. If a GM fails to respond or chooses not to match the best contract offer made to their player, then the auctioned player will be required to sign with the highest bidder, whose bid then becomes that team's obligation. Also, if matching the highest offer puts you over the salary cap, then you will not be afforded that player and he will go the next highest bidder. Plan accordingly.
Note: If you lose a restricted free agent, you will receive a supplemental draft pick following the first (and only) round of our annual NBA Rookie Draft.
Restricting a player provides a semi protective measure to help a GM retain that player, while not assuring it. In order to provide some, but not absolute assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that the offer must cover in order to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
AAS = up to $3M, then MINIMUM 1 yr deal
AAS = $3M+ to $6M, then MINIMUM 2 yr deal (total min contract = $6,000,001 to $12M)
AAS = $6M+ to $9M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal (total min contract = $18,000,001 to $27M)
AAS = $9M+ to $12M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal (total min contract = $36,000,001 to $48M)
AAS = $12M+ to $15M, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal
AAS = $15M+, then MINIMUM 6 yr deal
Any bid not meeting the correct minimum term offered will be voided. The bidder can always make a contract term LONGER than the minimum number of years since the AAS only determines the MINIMUM term.