Official League Rules
Official League Rules
SLN Collective Bargaining Agreement
Sim League Nirvana (SLN) is a basketball simulation league using the 20-year-old (!) sim engine, Fast Break Basketball (FBB). FBB is a beautiful, simple, text-based sim engine that a small group of basketball nerds love dearly. It is very flawed but it has CHARACTER. We learn to love it. If you are new to Sim Leagues, here is the sell: imagine playing NBA2K creator mode against 28 other people and simmming to the end. It's your chance to be a fake General Manager.
The league was started by 6 friends who know each other from college. All have been corrupted by their love of this game, but were in another league with strangers, and wanted to create a better version of what they had previously experienced.
They wanted a hyper-competitive, drama-free sim league that would:
A) maintain the magic & simplicity of an FBB sim league,
B) ratchet up the competitiveness of the league, by filling it with smart/competitive people and;
C) do away with all the unnecessary negativity that comes when strangers interact on an internet forum.
SO: we curated a selective GM-list of people we know in real life and are bought into the idea.
Before we get to the minutiae, the only important rule is as follows:
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME CLAUSE: DON’T BE A DICK.
A. This going to be competitive. No ruining relationships! Things may get tense, but always remember: we do it for the fun.
B. Don't be sketchy. We may not have spelled out every single rule or situation that could potentially arise. Have some common sense and don't step over the line. The commish has full discretion to penalize your team if you do sketchy/shady stuff that may not be explicitly mentioned in the league rules.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
How this is going to work:
-We start in the year 1997, right after the famous 1996 NBA draft class that brought us Kobe, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Marbury, etc. All 450 players that were in the NBA at that time will be thrown into the creation draft. We will have a 29-team, 12-round snake draft to fill-out our initial rosters.
-Once the inaugural Creation Draft occurs, we will go right into our first season.
-An FBB regular season is comprised of 120 days in which 82 regular season games are played. The simmer will sim between 5-10 regular season "days" everyday during the season.
-The playoffs has the same format of the regular NBA. 16 teams advance. All series are 7 games. Each series will be simmed over 1-2 days.
-The draft has the same format as the NBA draft, with a draft lottery. The draft will take part on the message boards and typically take around 2 days to complete.
-FBB Free Agency is comprised of 5 "sim days" where players are allowed to sign. Free Agency will be run over the course of three sims: Day 1, where most tier-1 Free Agents sign; Days 2-3, which are typically the slower days of Free Agency, and Days 4+5 - where most teams fill out their rosters with role players.
-After Free Agency, the game "simulates" the annual progression and regression of players with "training camp." Young players tend to get better. Older players tend to get worse. During this time, teams can use their hard-earned Reward Points (our currency) to selectively improve certain players on their team.
-The loose goal is to finish one full season and off-season in just over one month of the calendar year. Baking in some vacation time and leeway for the commish, we’d expect 8-10 seasons to be simmed per year. Given this cadence, we will make it to "present day" in 2-3 years real-time. Once we hit present-day, we can decide whether to introduce retro players, fake players, or a mix. Those of us who have been in sim leagues before have gone all the way to the 2090s (!) -- so it isn't problem sustaining this beyond present-day players.
GM Responsibilities:
If you want to participate in this embarrassing? amazing hobby, only commit if you think you will enjoy spending time doing this. The time commitment is more significant than even a serious fantasy sports league, so know that going in. You can do this by spending a small amount of time everyday checking-in and responding to incoming trade offers and maintaining your team's rotation, but it's not unusual to spend a hell of a lot more time...once you get the "bug." GM's are responsible for:
-Being generally accessible on the message boards to respond to trade offers. It is expected that all GM's respond to texts / DMs / trades in a timely manner.
-Making your team's rotations and depth charts
-Being accessible for the draft every ~5-6 weeks [these are not "live" and happen over 24-48 hrs so as long as you can be reached by text, it's not like a fantasy draft where you have to actively plan to be available]
-Being accessible every ~4-5 weeks to send Free Agent bids
-Engaging with the league. Send trade offers, post on the forum, post a player ranking, try to improve your team, love the life!
Sim Schedule:
Costs, Incentives and Winning:
Dues: We ask that every member pays our Sim God, Ashes, $10 at the start of each season for allowing all of us to enjoy this hobby. Sim duties include making the draft files, simming on a daily basis, and moderating the league.
For now, we are playing for the love of the game
. A number of us have expressed interest in potentially playing for money - where every member of the group puts in an allotted amount each season, and the pot is distributed to the champion, finalist and playoff teams - but we want to gauge interest over time in this idea. Since a lot of this group has never been in a sim league, we will reintroduce this idea after 3-4 seasons...once everyone gets their respective bearings and there is a feeling that we are all on a level playing field.
The Salary Cap
1. Fast Break Basketball uses a Salary Cap on team salaries. The purpose of a salary cap is to prevent certain teams from signing every player that they want with no regard to salary. The SLN Salary Cap is set at $50,000,000.
There are some exceptions to the salary cap:
*A team can always offer a player who played for their team the previous season a contract via coring rights starting with at up to 120% of the salary the player made the previous season. The player may receive up to a 10% raise each year in the contract, and the contract can be up to 6 years.
*Each team has a mid-exception and a low-level exception that it can offer players. The mid-exception is a one-season contract for $4,500,000. The low exception is a one-season contract for $1,200,000.
*If a player has gone three full seasons without changing teams via free agency, they are considered to have Bird Rights. A player with Bird Rights may be resigned by his previous team without any restriction from the salary cap. The number of seasons a player has gone without changing teams via free agency is reflected in their Bird Years.
The Hard Cap
1. The Hard Cap is $85,000,000. You cannot go over the Hard Cap during the season, which technically begins as soon as "Training Camp" is simmed. If you do go over the Hard Cap during the season, you have 48-hours to get under. If you do not get under, you must forfeit your next 2 first round picks (If there are multiple picks, the commish will decide), and you will also lose a player to waivers. You will also lose your MLE and LLE, and all FA privileges (even Bird rights) over the next 2 years. If you go over at the trade deadline the penalty is automatically incurred.
Hard Cap Penalties only become enforceable during the start of each season. What this means: If you are over the Hard Cap at any point during the off-season (e.g., from the time the lottery is run until TC), you have until 24-hours after Training Camp is posted to officially get under. Because of this additional leeway, transactions that are intended to cause a team to duck under the Hard Cap must be FULLY EXECUTED by this deadline, with no exceptions (for example: a team trading an MLE on day-30 to get under the HC doesn’t suffice.... a transaction waiting on other trades that haven’t been executed would not suffice). Additionally, contract buyouts that occur between TC and regular season sim #1 will still count for the OLD LEAGUE YEAR. This is to prevent a team from circumventing the rules and buying out 4 players - two before tc, two right after - to duck the cap. YOU MAY ONLY BUYOUT 2 PLAYERS PER SEASON. During season, the Hard Cap rules remain the same: a team has the same 48-hours to duck the cap before the penalties are enforced.
The Minimum Cap
1. The Minimum Cap will be $35,000,000. All teams must be over the Minimum Cap at the start of the season and must not drop below the Minimum Cap during the season. If you are below the minimum cap at any point after Free Agency is run, you have 24 hours from the time TC is posted to get over the minimum cap. Any teams not satisfying this rule will be charged with 15 mill in cut salary for the current year, and the following 2 years.
Reward Points
Reward Points (RP's) serve as the league’s currency. RP's are needed to do certain league activities. RP's are earned for league participation and achievement. RP's can be used to help your team. They are integral to a team's success.
Here is a list of ways to earn RP's:
-Writing articles, doing statistical studies or doing podcasts [articles/pods can range from 250 RPs to 1,000 RPs depending on depth, and will be graded by a moderator]
-Making the playoffs [400 make playoffs, 600 round 2, 800 round cf, 1,000 finalist, 1500 champ]
-Trades
-GM of the Year [1,000]
-Pickem
-RFA signings
-League participation (e.g., voting on stuff)
-Doing things that help the league run (e.g., commish, grading articles)
Here is a list of ways to spend or use RP's
-Reward Camps
-Trades
-RFA
-Pre-Draft Scouting
-MLE Extensions
All GMs are responsible for maintaining up-to-date RPs in their Team Thread. You may not go negative. You may only trade up to the amount of RPs you currently have in the bank. Trades will be void if they do not account for this rule.
Reward point totals stay with the team, not the GM.
Reward Camp Rules:
Reward Camps take place right before Training Camp to simulate conscious improvements over the summer.
• A player who goes through normal camp progression (e.g., not supercamped) may be upgraded by up to 24 total points in his career, across all categories. No player is allowed to be upgraded by more than 8 total points in one singular category during his career.
• Players are limited to +8 in total upgrade points during each of their first four off-seasons (experience level: 0,1,2,3); they are limited to +6 in upgrade points in all off-seasons thereafter. In any individual off-season, you can distribute these points how you wish as long as you abide by all other guidelines!
• For players showing experience level 0,1,2 or 3 on their player page, upgrades cost 100 RPs per rating increase
• For players with 4 years of experience or more, upgrades cost 200 RPs per rating increase
• Once a player reaches 30-years-old, or 10+ years of experience, whichever comes first, he may not be eligible for upgrades.
Super Camps
--A Super Camp costs 3,200 RP's.
--Players can only be super camped after their 2nd or 3rd years. Players in the creation draft may not be super camped. The clock starts after the 1997 sln draft.
--Player must be on your active roster and once supercamped, the player is no longer eligible for the Development League.
--Players cannot ever have been upgraded prior to the super camp
--You can distribute +26 "upgrades" in as many attributes as you like, with the max in any one attribute being +10.
--A supercamp costs 800 more RPs than it would to camp a player on a year-to-year basis. For your patience, you are rewarded with 2 extra upgrade points and a bigger rating ceiling. Bigger upgrades are also “safer” in some ways too.
--Once a player is supercamped, he may not be camped ever again.
Pick 'Em Camps
--You must use during the season in which you are awarded the camp.
Governing All Camps
-Attributes that have already reached the 85+ threshold in a rating may not be camped. When posting camps, all GMs must include a "backup" attribute should a player have an 85+ rating in a given category. If a player is close to this threshold, he will still receive his full camp (e.g., if you give a player with 83 jump shot a +6, he will be pushed to an 89 and not limited by the threshold itself).
-A team may not spend more than 6,400 RPs TOTAL on Reward Camps for players across both their SLN and NDL teams. Note that this is a CAP and not a recommendation. In order to maintain solvency, we recommend spending ~3-4K per year on camps. If you are rebuilding, you may want to spend more. If you are contending, you might want to save up for a potential rebuild.
Free Agency
FA Rules
--Teams that are under the soft cap may sign non-Bird Rights players to as much money as they have under the soft cap. Maximum length is 6 years. (You are not allowed to offer MLE OR LLE until you get over the soft cap, or under 4.5 or 1.2 Million of cap).
--Teams that are over the 50 Million soft cap can use the Mid-Level Exception (1 year / 4.5 Million) and the Low-Level Exception (1 year / 1.2 Million), as well as unlimited minimum level exceptions.
--Teams can resign their own players they do not own Bird Rights on for 120% of their previous salary for up to 6 years. This is called the coring rule and is used mostly with re-signing MLE and LLE players.
--If a player has 3 or more years of consecutive service without not being under contract, they are Bird Rights players. Teams can re-sign players with Bird Rights regardless of cap space.
--Bird Rights contracts can be up to 7 years and have 12.5% increase.
--Non-Bird rights contracts are max 6 years, 10% increase.
--The maximum amount per year a player can sign for depends on the experience level of that player. It goes up with playing experience.
--Minimum level exception bids cannot exceed 2-years in length
-Players signed to the Mid-Level Exception (MLE) may not be traded until day 30. Since these are only 1-year contracts and we want to incentivize smart signings, they can be EXTENDED (for up to 3-years) during any time up to day-60. Any team who signs a player to an MLE OR trades for a player on an MLE (between day 30 and 60) may do this. This costs 1,000 RPs. You are allowed only 1 extension per season.
Minimum Salary Scale
If you offer or sign a player the Minimum salary, it will correspond to the dollar value below - based on years of experience:
years experience= salary
0= 332,817
1=465,850
2=540,850
3=565,850
4=590,850
5=653,350
6=715,850
7=778,350
8=840,850
9=965,850
10+ =1,000,000
MAX BIDS:
1-6 years experience- starting # is 12.5 mil
7+ years- starting # 15 mil
10+ years- starting # 17.5 mil,
Submitting FA Bids
--Please use alphabetical order by first name.
--Include starting amount, length, and percent increase per year (For example: Allan Houston, $10,5000,000 -- 4 years -- 10% increases)
--You are limited to a maximum of 10 total MLE and LLE offers per year
Restricted Free Agency
Restricted Free Agency will be introduced in year 2000: when our first non-creation draftees (1997 - Tim Duncan) hit Free Agency. No one in the Creation Draft will be eligible for RFA.
Teams are allowed to designate one player per season coming off their rookie contract as a Restricted Free Agent and they would then have the ability to match any contract that player signs in free agency. This promotes drafting well, as teams are guaranteed to keep a player for their first 2 contracts if they so wish.
Restricted Free Agency (RFA) is part of the real NBA, but not part of FBB. We add the feature in to the season process. Teams bidding on RFA's must consider the risk of an Offer Sheet getting matched, just as they would in the real NBA.
RFA Rules: (2003 Change)
--RFA tag costs 1500 RP
--There is no distinction between 1st and 2nd Rounders.
--RFA tags need to be declared before the previous season is turned over and decisions will be made at the same time as Resignings.
--Teams can only use 1 RFA tag every 3 years.
--MLE and LLE bids on RFA's are not allowed.
--If a team that has RFA rights to someone chooses not to match the contract the player signed with an outside team, the incumbent team is refunded 750 RP's (so the net loss would be 750 RP's for a FRP).
--If a team signs a player to an RFA contract, but the incumbent team matches, that OG signing team gets 750 RPs if the offer sheet is matched.
--Using the RFA tag on a player locks them into a 1 year Qualifying Offer of 250% their last year salary for 1st rounders and 350% of their last year salary for 2nd rounders (4th year for 1st rounders, 3rd for 2nd rounders). In the RFA process, obviously, you still bid on them, but if for whatever reason you don't send in a bid, a 1 year bid worth 250% of their salary will be used and if he accepts it, that player will be an Unrestricted Free Agent the following year.
--For the teams holding restricted free agent rights, the QO is the minimum amount you can bid in the 1st year contract offer. The implementation will actually be as follows. If the team is bidding no percent increase in the contract, the 1st year minimum is the 250% QO rounded up to nearest 100K. If the teams is using a percent increase, then they can bid 1st year minimum amount of the exact 250% QO amount.
Old rule grandfathering (This applies to the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Draftees)
--You may still use 1 RFA tag each year for the draftees prior to the 2003 Draft.
--However, there will be no distinction between 1st and 2nd Rounders.
--The first RFA tag will cost 1000 RP. The second will cost 1500 RP. The third will cost 2000 RP.
Trades
--If you are over the soft salary cap, the contracts from both sides of a deal need to be within 15% to work in the game. To ensure you are doing this properly, take the aggregated salary from the team giving less salary and multiply it by 1.15. That team's incoming salary needs to fit beneath that number. Do not post a trade unless you are certain it works. If you consistently post trades that do not work, you will be docked RPs.
--The maximum is 5 players or picks to be dealt from each side in one transaction. FBB does not allow more, so if there are more then 5 players dealt from one side please split the trades up in to 2 separate trades.
--Commish has sole discretion to VETO trades that seem to violate the integrity of the league
--MLE and LLE players can be traded after day 30.
--You may not trade draft picks farther than 6 seasons in advance. For example, if we are going into the 1997 season, you cannot send out a future draft pick later than 2002.
--A trade is only official only after it is formally agreed upon by both parties in the trade thread. Both parties must accept in the Trade Thread for a trade to be enforced. However, backing out of trades - via text, DM, or otherwise - is highly discouraged and will be frowned upon. If a GM backs out of multiple trades, a penalty could be enforced.
--Since FBB trade rules are even more onerous than those belonging to the NBA, tradebacks are allowed – but within reason. Commish has sole discretion to VETO trades that require absurd of work and violate the spirit of the rule. This is subjective but a “you know it when you see it” type of rule.
--RPs may be sent as currency in trades. Teams may spend a maximum of 1,500 RPs per season via trade.
Contract Buyouts
GM's can buy out contracts of players so that when waived, the player's salary no longer counts towards TEAM SALARY. They can do this by paying 250 RP's for each million left on the life of the contract, down to the dollar. To add realism:
-A GM may not buyout a contract of longer than 2-years if that player's annual salary is greater than $4.5M per season.
-A team cannot buyout more than 2 players in a single season.
-A team cannot buyout a player until 24-hours after the start of Training Camp (to prevent teams from "double-dipping" by effectively buying out 4 guys to duck the Hard Cap)
-A team's maximum spend on contract buyouts in a single season is 5,000 RPs. So, in other words, a team can only buyout the first $20M remaining on a player's contract.
Positional Eligibility
--All players are allowed to "play up" positions and start at a "bigger" position than they are currently listed at. That means a player listed at PG may start at SG, a player listed at SF may start at C, etc. Unlimited small-ball!
--All Bigs (players listed at Power Forward and Center) are interchangeable and may start at either position.
--Unless otherwise specified, all players listed at Power Forward and Center may additionally be able to start at Small Forward, provided the player has "B+" or worse rebounding AND "C" or better outside. No player listed at Power Forward or Center may start at Shooting Guard. You may not move a player from PF/C to SF unless he meets the SF criteria above.
--All players listed at Shooting Guard and Small Forward are interchangeable and may start at either position, provided the player has "B-" or worse rebounding. If the player has B rebounding or better, he may not be able to start at Shooting Guard unless otherwise specified.
--A player must be listed at PG to start at PG. This means his position on your roster page must be PG in order for him to start at PG.
--If a player is not listed at PG on your roster, and you insist on starting him, you must move him to PG in the transactions thread. However, players must meet all of the below conditions to be eligible to move to PG.
a. The player's handle rating must be a "B" or higher.
b. The player must have 65 or higher handling.
c. The player must not be taller than 6-5, and must not weigh more than 200 pounds.
--Any player moved to PG from another position loses 20 points to his handling upon the move. This is done because star PGs are cheat codes and players at other positions typically have higher strength/inside.
--If you post a DC with a starting PG who is not eligible to start there, your DC will be auto'ed.
--If your starting PG is injured and your backup is not listed as PG on your roster, Ashes will fix your DC accordingly. If you have no other listed PGs on your roster, Ashes will sign one regardless of Hard Cap implications.
--Some draftees with special considerations will be allowed to start at PG without being listed as a PG (think: Luka). That information will be stated in that players draft notes.
--Our "backup" rules are intentionally loose. Of course, all backups can "play up" at any position. Additionally, there are far fewer limitations for teams who wish to "go big" with backups. All players listed at SG and SF may backup PG. All PF's and C's are technically eligible to backup the wing spots, too. Our only backup rule: players listed at PF/C may not backup Point Guard unless specified otherwise or in draft notes.
Depth Charts
You must submit your depth chart using the format below. To use a real-life, 2022 example, here is how a Bulls depth chart could look:
C - Nikola Vucevic / Andre Drummond / Tony Bradley
PF - Patrick Williams / Derrick Jones Jr. / Tony Bradley
SF - DeMar Derozan / Alex Caruso / Javonte Green
SG - Zach LaVine / Alex Caruso / Coby White
PG - Lonzo Ball / Alex Caruso / Ayo Dosunmu
IR:
1. Marko Simonovic
2. Goran Dragic
3. Dalen Terry
Player Options:
1. DeMar DeRozan
2. Zach LaVine
3. Nikola Vucevic
Tactics (pick one option)
Pace Very Fast/Fast/Normal/Slow/Very Slow
Trap - Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never
Pressure Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never
Offense Focus Inside/Outside/Balanced
1. One thread for every team.
2. Don't edit. I notice new posts to change your DC. If you edit, I may miss it.
3. Bold changes.
4. Don't post in other teams threads. Posts from non-GMs will be deleted.
5. Playoff DC threads can be started by anyone. Each playoff sim has its own thread.
6. Playoff DCs can be PMd to me.
8. Please always do a full DC because it makes it much easier for me. If for any reason your DC has a blank spot I will auto it. So if you make a trade or release a player that was in your DC and don't re do a DC, Ill auto you because its easier then trying to manually do a DC before I sim.
Team Strategy
1. Pace: Pace is the overall speed at which your team plays the game. Teams running a faster pace will be more likely to take the first good shot that they can find. Teams with a slow pace will be more patient and will spend more time looking for a good shot. (Very Fast-Fast-Normal-Slow-Very Slow)
2. Trap Frequency: This is how often your team will apply extra defensive pressure in a half-court setting. The benefit is that you will be more likely to get steals. However, it also will cause your players to become tired faster and can also lead to increased fouls. (Always-Often-Normal-Sometimes-Never)
3. Press Frequency: This is how often your team will apply extra defensive pressure in backcourt. The benefit is that you will be more likely to get steals. However, it also will cause your players to become tired faster and can also lead to increased fouls. (Always-Often-Normal-Sometimes-Never)
4. Offense Focus: Players will be more likely to attempt shots in the area you set for the offensive focus. A balanced focus will not give special attention to any locations. (Outside-Balanced-Inside)
5. Key Players: Your team will give extra effort to get the ball into the hands of your key players. These players are more likely to handle the ball when your team is on offense. It is usually best to set either your better ball handlers or better scorers as key players. You must list three separate key players.
Tanking
1. You must start the best players you have and use your best scorers as options. I will allow some leeway for experimentation, but only for small amounts of time, and only with reasoning in the DC thread.
2. You cannot sign bad players on purpose unless they are big expirings.
3. You cannot cut solid or good players.
4. If you want to lose, trade your good players.
5. You cannot intentionally "loan" your good players to a contending team -- with tradeback rights -- while you are tanking.
6. Don't play dumb. We all know overt tanking when we see it. Anything not fully covered in rules 1-5 here, but still appears to the entire league pool as abject/egregious tanking, can still be penalized by the commish at his discretion.
Pickem
Questions about SLN or real life sports will be posted. RP's are earned by guessing correctly.
Teams win the amount of RP's equal to their point total in the final pickem tally that season. There will be a floor of 50 RP's and most seasons a ceiling of 225 (that can be flexible).
Top 2 in the Final standings wins their choice of the following prizes...winner picks his choice, and 2nd place is given other one.
--Athletic Camp for any player not on a rookie contract (+5 jumping, + 3 Quickness, +3 Strength)
--Shooting Camp for any player not on a rookie contract (+4 three, +4 jumpshot)
--Defense Camp for any player not an on a rookie contract (+3 Steals, +3 Blocks, +2 Post D, +2 Per D)
These upgrades do not count towards a player’s “24”
Additional Prizes:
GMOTY - The winner can take off or add a year to an existing contract after the season in which they win. The GMOTY must make his decision BEFORE the playoffs/resignings of the next season.
Jobs
Commissioner / Simmer (1) – He gets paid with real $. No RPs for him!
RP God (1) - Charts every team's RPs throughout the year
Article Grader (1) – Grades articles and podcasts (1,000 RPs)
Reward Camp Tracker (1) – Tracks Camps each year (600 RPs)
Pick Em Tracker (1) - Tracks Pick Em each year (500 RPs)
Depth Chart Tracker and Tank Mod (1) - Tracks Depth Charts each year (500 RPs)
Draft Moderator (2) - Czar of the draft (500 RPs)
Future:
Treasurer – - Hold onto pot and distributes winnings after year-end. (1,000 RPs)
Sim League Nirvana (SLN) is a basketball simulation league using the 20-year-old (!) sim engine, Fast Break Basketball (FBB). FBB is a beautiful, simple, text-based sim engine that a small group of basketball nerds love dearly. It is very flawed but it has CHARACTER. We learn to love it. If you are new to Sim Leagues, here is the sell: imagine playing NBA2K creator mode against 28 other people and simmming to the end. It's your chance to be a fake General Manager.
The league was started by 6 friends who know each other from college. All have been corrupted by their love of this game, but were in another league with strangers, and wanted to create a better version of what they had previously experienced.
They wanted a hyper-competitive, drama-free sim league that would:
A) maintain the magic & simplicity of an FBB sim league,
B) ratchet up the competitiveness of the league, by filling it with smart/competitive people and;
C) do away with all the unnecessary negativity that comes when strangers interact on an internet forum.
SO: we curated a selective GM-list of people we know in real life and are bought into the idea.
Before we get to the minutiae, the only important rule is as follows:
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME CLAUSE: DON’T BE A DICK.
A. This going to be competitive. No ruining relationships! Things may get tense, but always remember: we do it for the fun.
B. Don't be sketchy. We may not have spelled out every single rule or situation that could potentially arise. Have some common sense and don't step over the line. The commish has full discretion to penalize your team if you do sketchy/shady stuff that may not be explicitly mentioned in the league rules.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
How this is going to work:
-We start in the year 1997, right after the famous 1996 NBA draft class that brought us Kobe, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Marbury, etc. All 450 players that were in the NBA at that time will be thrown into the creation draft. We will have a 29-team, 12-round snake draft to fill-out our initial rosters.
-Once the inaugural Creation Draft occurs, we will go right into our first season.
-An FBB regular season is comprised of 120 days in which 82 regular season games are played. The simmer will sim between 5-10 regular season "days" everyday during the season.
-The playoffs has the same format of the regular NBA. 16 teams advance. All series are 7 games. Each series will be simmed over 1-2 days.
-The draft has the same format as the NBA draft, with a draft lottery. The draft will take part on the message boards and typically take around 2 days to complete.
-FBB Free Agency is comprised of 5 "sim days" where players are allowed to sign. Free Agency will be run over the course of three sims: Day 1, where most tier-1 Free Agents sign; Days 2-3, which are typically the slower days of Free Agency, and Days 4+5 - where most teams fill out their rosters with role players.
-After Free Agency, the game "simulates" the annual progression and regression of players with "training camp." Young players tend to get better. Older players tend to get worse. During this time, teams can use their hard-earned Reward Points (our currency) to selectively improve certain players on their team.
-The loose goal is to finish one full season and off-season in just over one month of the calendar year. Baking in some vacation time and leeway for the commish, we’d expect 8-10 seasons to be simmed per year. Given this cadence, we will make it to "present day" in 2-3 years real-time. Once we hit present-day, we can decide whether to introduce retro players, fake players, or a mix. Those of us who have been in sim leagues before have gone all the way to the 2090s (!) -- so it isn't problem sustaining this beyond present-day players.
GM Responsibilities:
If you want to participate in this embarrassing? amazing hobby, only commit if you think you will enjoy spending time doing this. The time commitment is more significant than even a serious fantasy sports league, so know that going in. You can do this by spending a small amount of time everyday checking-in and responding to incoming trade offers and maintaining your team's rotation, but it's not unusual to spend a hell of a lot more time...once you get the "bug." GM's are responsible for:
-Being generally accessible on the message boards to respond to trade offers. It is expected that all GM's respond to texts / DMs / trades in a timely manner.
-Making your team's rotations and depth charts
-Being accessible for the draft every ~5-6 weeks [these are not "live" and happen over 24-48 hrs so as long as you can be reached by text, it's not like a fantasy draft where you have to actively plan to be available]
-Being accessible every ~4-5 weeks to send Free Agent bids
-Engaging with the league. Send trade offers, post on the forum, post a player ranking, try to improve your team, love the life!
Sim Schedule:
Costs, Incentives and Winning:
Dues: We ask that every member pays our Sim God, Ashes, $10 at the start of each season for allowing all of us to enjoy this hobby. Sim duties include making the draft files, simming on a daily basis, and moderating the league.
For now, we are playing for the love of the game
. A number of us have expressed interest in potentially playing for money - where every member of the group puts in an allotted amount each season, and the pot is distributed to the champion, finalist and playoff teams - but we want to gauge interest over time in this idea. Since a lot of this group has never been in a sim league, we will reintroduce this idea after 3-4 seasons...once everyone gets their respective bearings and there is a feeling that we are all on a level playing field.The Salary Cap
1. Fast Break Basketball uses a Salary Cap on team salaries. The purpose of a salary cap is to prevent certain teams from signing every player that they want with no regard to salary. The SLN Salary Cap is set at $50,000,000.
There are some exceptions to the salary cap:
*A team can always offer a player who played for their team the previous season a contract via coring rights starting with at up to 120% of the salary the player made the previous season. The player may receive up to a 10% raise each year in the contract, and the contract can be up to 6 years.
*Each team has a mid-exception and a low-level exception that it can offer players. The mid-exception is a one-season contract for $4,500,000. The low exception is a one-season contract for $1,200,000.
*If a player has gone three full seasons without changing teams via free agency, they are considered to have Bird Rights. A player with Bird Rights may be resigned by his previous team without any restriction from the salary cap. The number of seasons a player has gone without changing teams via free agency is reflected in their Bird Years.
The Hard Cap
1. The Hard Cap is $85,000,000. You cannot go over the Hard Cap during the season, which technically begins as soon as "Training Camp" is simmed. If you do go over the Hard Cap during the season, you have 48-hours to get under. If you do not get under, you must forfeit your next 2 first round picks (If there are multiple picks, the commish will decide), and you will also lose a player to waivers. You will also lose your MLE and LLE, and all FA privileges (even Bird rights) over the next 2 years. If you go over at the trade deadline the penalty is automatically incurred.
Hard Cap Penalties only become enforceable during the start of each season. What this means: If you are over the Hard Cap at any point during the off-season (e.g., from the time the lottery is run until TC), you have until 24-hours after Training Camp is posted to officially get under. Because of this additional leeway, transactions that are intended to cause a team to duck under the Hard Cap must be FULLY EXECUTED by this deadline, with no exceptions (for example: a team trading an MLE on day-30 to get under the HC doesn’t suffice.... a transaction waiting on other trades that haven’t been executed would not suffice). Additionally, contract buyouts that occur between TC and regular season sim #1 will still count for the OLD LEAGUE YEAR. This is to prevent a team from circumventing the rules and buying out 4 players - two before tc, two right after - to duck the cap. YOU MAY ONLY BUYOUT 2 PLAYERS PER SEASON. During season, the Hard Cap rules remain the same: a team has the same 48-hours to duck the cap before the penalties are enforced.
The Minimum Cap
1. The Minimum Cap will be $35,000,000. All teams must be over the Minimum Cap at the start of the season and must not drop below the Minimum Cap during the season. If you are below the minimum cap at any point after Free Agency is run, you have 24 hours from the time TC is posted to get over the minimum cap. Any teams not satisfying this rule will be charged with 15 mill in cut salary for the current year, and the following 2 years.
Reward Points
Reward Points (RP's) serve as the league’s currency. RP's are needed to do certain league activities. RP's are earned for league participation and achievement. RP's can be used to help your team. They are integral to a team's success.
Here is a list of ways to earn RP's:
-Writing articles, doing statistical studies or doing podcasts [articles/pods can range from 250 RPs to 1,000 RPs depending on depth, and will be graded by a moderator]
-Making the playoffs [400 make playoffs, 600 round 2, 800 round cf, 1,000 finalist, 1500 champ]
-Trades
-GM of the Year [1,000]
-Pickem
-RFA signings
-League participation (e.g., voting on stuff)
-Doing things that help the league run (e.g., commish, grading articles)
Here is a list of ways to spend or use RP's
-Reward Camps
-Trades
-RFA
-Pre-Draft Scouting
-MLE Extensions
All GMs are responsible for maintaining up-to-date RPs in their Team Thread. You may not go negative. You may only trade up to the amount of RPs you currently have in the bank. Trades will be void if they do not account for this rule.
Reward point totals stay with the team, not the GM.
Reward Camp Rules:
Reward Camps take place right before Training Camp to simulate conscious improvements over the summer.
• A player who goes through normal camp progression (e.g., not supercamped) may be upgraded by up to 24 total points in his career, across all categories. No player is allowed to be upgraded by more than 8 total points in one singular category during his career.
• Players are limited to +8 in total upgrade points during each of their first four off-seasons (experience level: 0,1,2,3); they are limited to +6 in upgrade points in all off-seasons thereafter. In any individual off-season, you can distribute these points how you wish as long as you abide by all other guidelines!
• For players showing experience level 0,1,2 or 3 on their player page, upgrades cost 100 RPs per rating increase
• For players with 4 years of experience or more, upgrades cost 200 RPs per rating increase
• Once a player reaches 30-years-old, or 10+ years of experience, whichever comes first, he may not be eligible for upgrades.
Super Camps
--A Super Camp costs 3,200 RP's.
--Players can only be super camped after their 2nd or 3rd years. Players in the creation draft may not be super camped. The clock starts after the 1997 sln draft.
--Player must be on your active roster and once supercamped, the player is no longer eligible for the Development League.
--Players cannot ever have been upgraded prior to the super camp
--You can distribute +26 "upgrades" in as many attributes as you like, with the max in any one attribute being +10.
--A supercamp costs 800 more RPs than it would to camp a player on a year-to-year basis. For your patience, you are rewarded with 2 extra upgrade points and a bigger rating ceiling. Bigger upgrades are also “safer” in some ways too.
--Once a player is supercamped, he may not be camped ever again.
Pick 'Em Camps
--You must use during the season in which you are awarded the camp.
Governing All Camps
-Attributes that have already reached the 85+ threshold in a rating may not be camped. When posting camps, all GMs must include a "backup" attribute should a player have an 85+ rating in a given category. If a player is close to this threshold, he will still receive his full camp (e.g., if you give a player with 83 jump shot a +6, he will be pushed to an 89 and not limited by the threshold itself).
-A team may not spend more than 6,400 RPs TOTAL on Reward Camps for players across both their SLN and NDL teams. Note that this is a CAP and not a recommendation. In order to maintain solvency, we recommend spending ~3-4K per year on camps. If you are rebuilding, you may want to spend more. If you are contending, you might want to save up for a potential rebuild.
Free Agency
FA Rules
--Teams that are under the soft cap may sign non-Bird Rights players to as much money as they have under the soft cap. Maximum length is 6 years. (You are not allowed to offer MLE OR LLE until you get over the soft cap, or under 4.5 or 1.2 Million of cap).
--Teams that are over the 50 Million soft cap can use the Mid-Level Exception (1 year / 4.5 Million) and the Low-Level Exception (1 year / 1.2 Million), as well as unlimited minimum level exceptions.
--Teams can resign their own players they do not own Bird Rights on for 120% of their previous salary for up to 6 years. This is called the coring rule and is used mostly with re-signing MLE and LLE players.
--If a player has 3 or more years of consecutive service without not being under contract, they are Bird Rights players. Teams can re-sign players with Bird Rights regardless of cap space.
--Bird Rights contracts can be up to 7 years and have 12.5% increase.
--Non-Bird rights contracts are max 6 years, 10% increase.
--The maximum amount per year a player can sign for depends on the experience level of that player. It goes up with playing experience.
--Minimum level exception bids cannot exceed 2-years in length
-Players signed to the Mid-Level Exception (MLE) may not be traded until day 30. Since these are only 1-year contracts and we want to incentivize smart signings, they can be EXTENDED (for up to 3-years) during any time up to day-60. Any team who signs a player to an MLE OR trades for a player on an MLE (between day 30 and 60) may do this. This costs 1,000 RPs. You are allowed only 1 extension per season.
Minimum Salary Scale
If you offer or sign a player the Minimum salary, it will correspond to the dollar value below - based on years of experience:
years experience= salary
0= 332,817
1=465,850
2=540,850
3=565,850
4=590,850
5=653,350
6=715,850
7=778,350
8=840,850
9=965,850
10+ =1,000,000
MAX BIDS:
1-6 years experience- starting # is 12.5 mil
7+ years- starting # 15 mil
10+ years- starting # 17.5 mil,
Submitting FA Bids
--Please use alphabetical order by first name.
--Include starting amount, length, and percent increase per year (For example: Allan Houston, $10,5000,000 -- 4 years -- 10% increases)
--You are limited to a maximum of 10 total MLE and LLE offers per year
Restricted Free Agency
Restricted Free Agency will be introduced in year 2000: when our first non-creation draftees (1997 - Tim Duncan) hit Free Agency. No one in the Creation Draft will be eligible for RFA.
Teams are allowed to designate one player per season coming off their rookie contract as a Restricted Free Agent and they would then have the ability to match any contract that player signs in free agency. This promotes drafting well, as teams are guaranteed to keep a player for their first 2 contracts if they so wish.
Restricted Free Agency (RFA) is part of the real NBA, but not part of FBB. We add the feature in to the season process. Teams bidding on RFA's must consider the risk of an Offer Sheet getting matched, just as they would in the real NBA.
RFA Rules: (2003 Change)
--RFA tag costs 1500 RP
--There is no distinction between 1st and 2nd Rounders.
--RFA tags need to be declared before the previous season is turned over and decisions will be made at the same time as Resignings.
--Teams can only use 1 RFA tag every 3 years.
--MLE and LLE bids on RFA's are not allowed.
--If a team that has RFA rights to someone chooses not to match the contract the player signed with an outside team, the incumbent team is refunded 750 RP's (so the net loss would be 750 RP's for a FRP).
--If a team signs a player to an RFA contract, but the incumbent team matches, that OG signing team gets 750 RPs if the offer sheet is matched.
--Using the RFA tag on a player locks them into a 1 year Qualifying Offer of 250% their last year salary for 1st rounders and 350% of their last year salary for 2nd rounders (4th year for 1st rounders, 3rd for 2nd rounders). In the RFA process, obviously, you still bid on them, but if for whatever reason you don't send in a bid, a 1 year bid worth 250% of their salary will be used and if he accepts it, that player will be an Unrestricted Free Agent the following year.
--For the teams holding restricted free agent rights, the QO is the minimum amount you can bid in the 1st year contract offer. The implementation will actually be as follows. If the team is bidding no percent increase in the contract, the 1st year minimum is the 250% QO rounded up to nearest 100K. If the teams is using a percent increase, then they can bid 1st year minimum amount of the exact 250% QO amount.
Old rule grandfathering (This applies to the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Draftees)
--You may still use 1 RFA tag each year for the draftees prior to the 2003 Draft.
--However, there will be no distinction between 1st and 2nd Rounders.
--The first RFA tag will cost 1000 RP. The second will cost 1500 RP. The third will cost 2000 RP.
Trades
--If you are over the soft salary cap, the contracts from both sides of a deal need to be within 15% to work in the game. To ensure you are doing this properly, take the aggregated salary from the team giving less salary and multiply it by 1.15. That team's incoming salary needs to fit beneath that number. Do not post a trade unless you are certain it works. If you consistently post trades that do not work, you will be docked RPs.
--The maximum is 5 players or picks to be dealt from each side in one transaction. FBB does not allow more, so if there are more then 5 players dealt from one side please split the trades up in to 2 separate trades.
--Commish has sole discretion to VETO trades that seem to violate the integrity of the league
--MLE and LLE players can be traded after day 30.
--You may not trade draft picks farther than 6 seasons in advance. For example, if we are going into the 1997 season, you cannot send out a future draft pick later than 2002.
--A trade is only official only after it is formally agreed upon by both parties in the trade thread. Both parties must accept in the Trade Thread for a trade to be enforced. However, backing out of trades - via text, DM, or otherwise - is highly discouraged and will be frowned upon. If a GM backs out of multiple trades, a penalty could be enforced.
--Since FBB trade rules are even more onerous than those belonging to the NBA, tradebacks are allowed – but within reason. Commish has sole discretion to VETO trades that require absurd of work and violate the spirit of the rule. This is subjective but a “you know it when you see it” type of rule.
--RPs may be sent as currency in trades. Teams may spend a maximum of 1,500 RPs per season via trade.
Contract Buyouts
GM's can buy out contracts of players so that when waived, the player's salary no longer counts towards TEAM SALARY. They can do this by paying 250 RP's for each million left on the life of the contract, down to the dollar. To add realism:
-A GM may not buyout a contract of longer than 2-years if that player's annual salary is greater than $4.5M per season.
-A team cannot buyout more than 2 players in a single season.
-A team cannot buyout a player until 24-hours after the start of Training Camp (to prevent teams from "double-dipping" by effectively buying out 4 guys to duck the Hard Cap)
-A team's maximum spend on contract buyouts in a single season is 5,000 RPs. So, in other words, a team can only buyout the first $20M remaining on a player's contract.
Positional Eligibility
--All players are allowed to "play up" positions and start at a "bigger" position than they are currently listed at. That means a player listed at PG may start at SG, a player listed at SF may start at C, etc. Unlimited small-ball!
--All Bigs (players listed at Power Forward and Center) are interchangeable and may start at either position.
--Unless otherwise specified, all players listed at Power Forward and Center may additionally be able to start at Small Forward, provided the player has "B+" or worse rebounding AND "C" or better outside. No player listed at Power Forward or Center may start at Shooting Guard. You may not move a player from PF/C to SF unless he meets the SF criteria above.
--All players listed at Shooting Guard and Small Forward are interchangeable and may start at either position, provided the player has "B-" or worse rebounding. If the player has B rebounding or better, he may not be able to start at Shooting Guard unless otherwise specified.
--A player must be listed at PG to start at PG. This means his position on your roster page must be PG in order for him to start at PG.
--If a player is not listed at PG on your roster, and you insist on starting him, you must move him to PG in the transactions thread. However, players must meet all of the below conditions to be eligible to move to PG.
a. The player's handle rating must be a "B" or higher.
b. The player must have 65 or higher handling.
c. The player must not be taller than 6-5, and must not weigh more than 200 pounds.
--Any player moved to PG from another position loses 20 points to his handling upon the move. This is done because star PGs are cheat codes and players at other positions typically have higher strength/inside.
--If you post a DC with a starting PG who is not eligible to start there, your DC will be auto'ed.
--If your starting PG is injured and your backup is not listed as PG on your roster, Ashes will fix your DC accordingly. If you have no other listed PGs on your roster, Ashes will sign one regardless of Hard Cap implications.
--Some draftees with special considerations will be allowed to start at PG without being listed as a PG (think: Luka). That information will be stated in that players draft notes.
--Our "backup" rules are intentionally loose. Of course, all backups can "play up" at any position. Additionally, there are far fewer limitations for teams who wish to "go big" with backups. All players listed at SG and SF may backup PG. All PF's and C's are technically eligible to backup the wing spots, too. Our only backup rule: players listed at PF/C may not backup Point Guard unless specified otherwise or in draft notes.
Depth Charts
You must submit your depth chart using the format below. To use a real-life, 2022 example, here is how a Bulls depth chart could look:
C - Nikola Vucevic / Andre Drummond / Tony Bradley
PF - Patrick Williams / Derrick Jones Jr. / Tony Bradley
SF - DeMar Derozan / Alex Caruso / Javonte Green
SG - Zach LaVine / Alex Caruso / Coby White
PG - Lonzo Ball / Alex Caruso / Ayo Dosunmu
IR:
1. Marko Simonovic
2. Goran Dragic
3. Dalen Terry
Player Options:
1. DeMar DeRozan
2. Zach LaVine
3. Nikola Vucevic
Tactics (pick one option)
Pace Very Fast/Fast/Normal/Slow/Very Slow
Trap - Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never
Pressure Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never
Offense Focus Inside/Outside/Balanced
1. One thread for every team.
2. Don't edit. I notice new posts to change your DC. If you edit, I may miss it.
3. Bold changes.
4. Don't post in other teams threads. Posts from non-GMs will be deleted.
5. Playoff DC threads can be started by anyone. Each playoff sim has its own thread.
6. Playoff DCs can be PMd to me.
8. Please always do a full DC because it makes it much easier for me. If for any reason your DC has a blank spot I will auto it. So if you make a trade or release a player that was in your DC and don't re do a DC, Ill auto you because its easier then trying to manually do a DC before I sim.
Team Strategy
1. Pace: Pace is the overall speed at which your team plays the game. Teams running a faster pace will be more likely to take the first good shot that they can find. Teams with a slow pace will be more patient and will spend more time looking for a good shot. (Very Fast-Fast-Normal-Slow-Very Slow)
2. Trap Frequency: This is how often your team will apply extra defensive pressure in a half-court setting. The benefit is that you will be more likely to get steals. However, it also will cause your players to become tired faster and can also lead to increased fouls. (Always-Often-Normal-Sometimes-Never)
3. Press Frequency: This is how often your team will apply extra defensive pressure in backcourt. The benefit is that you will be more likely to get steals. However, it also will cause your players to become tired faster and can also lead to increased fouls. (Always-Often-Normal-Sometimes-Never)
4. Offense Focus: Players will be more likely to attempt shots in the area you set for the offensive focus. A balanced focus will not give special attention to any locations. (Outside-Balanced-Inside)
5. Key Players: Your team will give extra effort to get the ball into the hands of your key players. These players are more likely to handle the ball when your team is on offense. It is usually best to set either your better ball handlers or better scorers as key players. You must list three separate key players.
Tanking
1. You must start the best players you have and use your best scorers as options. I will allow some leeway for experimentation, but only for small amounts of time, and only with reasoning in the DC thread.
2. You cannot sign bad players on purpose unless they are big expirings.
3. You cannot cut solid or good players.
4. If you want to lose, trade your good players.
5. You cannot intentionally "loan" your good players to a contending team -- with tradeback rights -- while you are tanking.
6. Don't play dumb. We all know overt tanking when we see it. Anything not fully covered in rules 1-5 here, but still appears to the entire league pool as abject/egregious tanking, can still be penalized by the commish at his discretion.
Pickem
Questions about SLN or real life sports will be posted. RP's are earned by guessing correctly.
Teams win the amount of RP's equal to their point total in the final pickem tally that season. There will be a floor of 50 RP's and most seasons a ceiling of 225 (that can be flexible).
Top 2 in the Final standings wins their choice of the following prizes...winner picks his choice, and 2nd place is given other one.
--Athletic Camp for any player not on a rookie contract (+5 jumping, + 3 Quickness, +3 Strength)
--Shooting Camp for any player not on a rookie contract (+4 three, +4 jumpshot)
--Defense Camp for any player not an on a rookie contract (+3 Steals, +3 Blocks, +2 Post D, +2 Per D)
These upgrades do not count towards a player’s “24”
Additional Prizes:
GMOTY - The winner can take off or add a year to an existing contract after the season in which they win. The GMOTY must make his decision BEFORE the playoffs/resignings of the next season.
Jobs
Commissioner / Simmer (1) – He gets paid with real $. No RPs for him!
RP God (1) - Charts every team's RPs throughout the year
Article Grader (1) – Grades articles and podcasts (1,000 RPs)
Reward Camp Tracker (1) – Tracks Camps each year (600 RPs)
Pick Em Tracker (1) - Tracks Pick Em each year (500 RPs)
Depth Chart Tracker and Tank Mod (1) - Tracks Depth Charts each year (500 RPs)
Draft Moderator (2) - Czar of the draft (500 RPs)
Future:
Treasurer – - Hold onto pot and distributes winnings after year-end. (1,000 RPs)
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