The Second Tier of American Basketball

Young Drachma · 06-22-2014, 06:26 PM

Driving home was thinking about all of the 2nd tier leagues out there and how some of them in promotion and relegation countries, manage to have fans and there's hope and all that.

I'm not entirely sure I want to create a promotion & relegation NBA, because in my world, a 2nd tier league would technically get a smaller piece of the TV contract and media rights, but would belong to the same club and not manage to dilute the brand. Can you imagine, for a second, how lucrative minor league clubs would be if you could buy on and have a semi-realistic chance to make the majors if your team was worth a damn?

Anyway, driving home yesterday my thinking was "you could probably do okay for yourself with a 2nd tier league so long as your teams weren't in overlapping markets by and large and you could manage to get a few recognizable players."

In my current Fast Break Pro Basketball 3 save, the same one I've used for the previous ODDCs, we're heading into the year 2000-01. There are still 27 teams in the NBA, but rather than bring in a 28th team just yet -- I'd like to wait -- I'd prefer to see what a 2nd tier US based league could do.

So here's the backdrop:

12 ownership groups who want to own NBA teams but aren't able to get the league to expand, decide to put teams in markets without NBA and to attempt to start a rival league. Except, not really. The league would run in the summer, though since FBPB3 doesn't simulate that, we'll run it at the same time.

My interest is to see what sorts of players would stay at home if there was a league that could afford to pay them to do so. The first thing would be, we'd need salaries that could be competitive to what they'd make overseas so you could effectively make the 2nd best league in the world. They always say that's the D-league in real life, but I'm not interested in a feeder league for this game and I haven't decided if the NBA will ever take this league on in some other scheme, but if you take all of their expansion markets away by giving the fans a solid product, maybe it works?

Ok so, the salary caps of my other active leagues are: (I had to rig the numbers a certain way to get the sort of result I wanted in terms of local kids staying in their home countries, while also making sure stars weren't going to Europe, so the numbers are artificially low. Also there are some things I did on purpose like in my world, Finland likes basketball.)

SPAIN: $1.495m
GERMANY: $30k
AUSTRALIA: $50k
UK: $44.951k
PUERTO RICO: $47.5k
EGYPT: $9k
FINLAND: $12.75k
GREECE: $1.184m
IRAN: $975k
ISRAEL: $125k
JAPAN: $35k
KOREA: $5k
ITALY: $1m
ARGENTINA: $500k
NBA: $58.79m
FRANCE: $695k
TURKEY: $1m
RUSSIA/VTB UNITED LEAGUE: $717k

So I debated the league's salary cap of our new U.S. league and at first, I thought 1% and then 10%, so decided to split the difference and go with 5% or (2.9395 million salary cap for the league) Our owners are deep pocketed guys who wanted to own NBA teams, so this is a bargain for them. Plus it ensures they can compete for the best guys and entice some guys on the bench of NBA teams to consider jumping ship, plus being able to entice one or two of the best foreign guys over, as well.

So now, let's look at our markets. Rather than add fewer and add more later, just going to go ahead and shock the system immediately with a ~~sixteen~~ eighteen team league. There needs to be enough of a critical mass to make it worthwhile and for the NBA teams to feel it, after all. Plus 168 teams would give them a viable enough product to get a TV deal from somebody.

We'll initially only go to markets where there are no NBA teams, but realize my NBA reality here is slightly different than real life, so there will be a few markets that confuse you when I put them here. If the league manages to expand, teams 17-20 would be teams in "1st markets" or in suburbs next to major markets that might have NBA teams already. But not initially.

I used this list, coupled with the cities that lacked teams & tv markets to come up with the teams for the initial sixteen.

Spoiler

To keep it interesting, four NBA owners fearing the loss of quality expansion markets decide to move their teams. Hence the things crossed out as original places I was considering.

Minneapolis Lakers to Riverside, CA (Los Angeles Lakers)
St. Louis Hawks to Atlanta, GA (Atlanta Hawks)
New Orleans Jazz to Montreal (Montreal Jazz)
Cleveland Cavaliers to Las Vegas (Las Vegas Cavaliers)

The NBA ends up adding a 28th team to keep us out of Chicago, too. The Milwaukee Bucks who were folded a few decades ago, are brought back as the Chicago Stags.

So this complicates things somewhat slightly and forces me to move some teams that were originally going to be in other markets, but I went straight with places that can afford a team and hoping the tv thing can take care of itself.

Young Drachma · 06-22-2014, 08:22 PM

In a time that'll take me way more than a night to do, I'm going to act as all 16 teams in this league during free agency. The idea here is, I can see what types of players want to come, can target them appropriately and then try to craft a league that people might, in theory, want to see. I'm already thinking the salary cap is too low, but I don't have soft cap enabled and don't really plan to.

I like the challenge of the league having a tough time filling rosters with the sorts of players they want.

After making signings, I'll turn things over to the computer to do what it needs to, but for the first season I'm just curious to see what kind of league we can make happen and whether or not there will be any decent or more than decent guys who'll show up. Probably can hit the international leagues hard, for sure. Whereas getting NBA-ready guys will be more difficult.

Young Drachma · 06-22-2014, 10:59 PM

To make it easier, I'm purchasing the contracts of Americans and select foreigners from other leagues, under the impression they'd want to come back home if they make similar cash, etc.

Average ticket price in the NBA is around $55 or so, average ticket price in Major League Basketball? Around $9, which puts the league right where the Spanish league is for 2nd highest ticket prices in the world after the NBA. I imagine if things go well, we could increase the cap and the league would eventually be able to recruit NBA guys, but...not initially.

I changed my mind on controlling all of the teams though, just gonna sim through free agency and see who ends up where, since that was sort of the point because I know I can sign guys, but see where the computer puts guys relative to the other leagues in the world and seeing who'll be the first "name" player to break ranks. Probably not at the cap # the league has now, but if they could double it, that'd surely be likely to entice someone.

Young Drachma · 06-22-2014, 11:19 PM

We'll see after training camp and pre-season who gets cut and I think MLB will end up picking up NBA guys that way, since almost all of the teams have cap space. It'd be basically 15th guys/end of bench dudes who they could bring in, save for a team that's penny pinching on everyone else and then brings in a NBA rotation guy for a starting job and basically his NBA salary to do so. But most guys would always opt for the NBA in that scenario, so...

Young Drachma · 06-22-2014, 11:40 PM

I turned on hard + soft cap, because I felt like too many good players were going on unsigned because there was truly nowhere for them to play relative to the salary they'd demand.

Young Drachma · 07-04-2014, 01:55 AM

We're back to just a soft cap. And we're in the off-season of the 2009-10 season upcoming. In the NBA, the Pittsburgh Condors have just won their NINTH straight NBA championship. I'm guessing because they had a lot of cap space early in their existence, two of the league's best stars who just happened to play in the Finnish league on different teams signed and a la LeBron and company managed to dominate the league.

Which is nuts.

Average NBA salary right now is $5,894,367.77 which is only a few 100k more than the current real-life NBA average salary across the league based on how they calculate it. Obviously because of FBPB constraints and also the salary structure in my league, dudes can get paid a hell of a lot more in our league, but it works a lot better that way.

It's a lot like baseball to me in terms of how I've tried to structure it. Average team payroll is $94.3 million

In the 2nd tier MLB, the average salary is $732,642.88 & average payroll is $10.9 million.

If you look at MLS as the model for the 2nd tier basketball league in this case, I'm going to attempt to create a Designated player type setup, by keeping the cap in the MLB wherever it is right now and then just increasing the mid-level exception to artificially create an exception where teams will be able to keep the kinds of guys that already come to this league, while also having a pool of cash to entice that next level of player to the league.

In this universe, LeBron isn't LeBron but he's only 24 and my thinking is, he abandons the NBA to become the face and star of this upstart league that it entices other players to come over and then there's a pool of cash to do that.

We'll do it as a pilot and if it doesn't work, we'll nuke the exception or severely lower it, but curious if bringing better talent will increase attendance in this league or help revenues.

I'll shut it down if the experience produces more negative profits than positive ones and I turned off revenue sharing in this league, so I can test out the model and see.

Under this storyline, LeBron signs with a franchise that gives him an ownership stake and we see if he can become "the man" in a 2nd tier league. Not even sure, under this scenario if he'll be enticed to sign in this league or if he can get a bigger NBA deal (he's never been an all-star) than whatever this league has to offer, but we're going to se.

Young Drachma · 07-06-2014, 12:31 AM

League has 25 teams. Operating it as a faux online league.

Here's the alignment:

CHAMBERLAIN
---
Colorado 14ers
Tulsa 66ers
Arizona Sidewinders
Albuquerque Thunderbirds
Austin Toros

CULBREATH
-----
Erie Bayhawks
Columbus Bobcats
Kentucky Colonels
Minnesota Muskies
Omaha Rustlers

JORDAN
-----
Baltimore Claws
Tampa Bay Energy
Jacksonville Floridians
Nashville Sounds
Virginia Squires

MIKAN
----
Reno Bighorns
San Diego Conquistadors
Riverside Sparks
Portland Trailblazers
Sacramento Kings

STOCKTON
--------
Newark Express
New York Rens
Rochester Royals
Puerto Rico Sky
Atlantic City Vandals

I've spent more time than makes any sense stewing over the best salary cap scheme for this league, which is legit the 2nd best league in the world.

Using the attribute report, can assess the overall ratings of each league.

NBA: 104.7
Finnish league: 54.4
Israel: 62.6
Japan: 54.3
Turkey: 64.6
Spain: 70.0
Russia/VTB: 61.5
Australia: 58.8
Argentina: 59.1
Greece: 60.3
Germany: 55.3
Korea: 53.0
France: 64.2
Egypt: 52.7
Italy: 57.9
UK: 59.0
Iran: 61.3
America2: 80.9
India: 54.9
China: 57.8
Brazil: 49.6

Operating on a cap that is now up to $15 million, the highest paid players in the league are largely guys who played overseas and now came to the states or NBA dudes who are in their 30s and getting ready to hang it up. League ownership wanted to attempt to score star players in their prime in the league, so long as owners wanted to pay them.

So I might spin this story off, I might not since no one cares but...decided to add a "DESIGNATED PLAYER" rule which works a lot like my old franchise player exemption in SLOP which enabled a team to sign a guy to an uncapped ten year deal.

The DP rule in this league will be nothing like that, it'll look more like MLS where a team can sign up to 2 DPs so long as they have the cap space to meet the demand of their actual desired salary during free agency.

If so, then you can sign him to the DP contract and only 10% of the deal's value gets cap charged. The incentive to get the league's owners to pony up for guys who'll move the needle.

Young Drachma · 07-06-2014, 08:25 PM

My original play was to have LeBron & Chris Paul come to the league and join the New York Rens and dominate. But to keep shit realistic, the $15m cap means that they're not coming here unless we can make a plausible story out of them sacrificing money to come here -- though I'd love to give them ownership.

Whatever, we're not doing that right now.

So here are the free agents on the market that won't fit under the cap

Code:

2009 Free Agents

          Player               Pos  Years  Desired Salary    Desired Total    Years  Offered Salary    Offered Total  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Chris Paul            PG      7     $18,250,000     $166,075,000                                            
          LeBron James          SF      6     $18,250,000     $123,187,500                                            
          Reg Page              SG      6     $18,250,000     $123,187,500                                            
          Max Chen              PG      5     $15,738,800      $86,563,400                                            
          Mikey Mendel          PF      6     $15,622,000     $105,448,500                                            
          Michele Kell          PF      5     $15,008,800      $82,548,400                                            
          Vince Carter          SF      4     $14,243,760      $61,248,168                                            
          Da'vion Pham          SG      4     $12,001,200      $51,605,160                                            
          Nick France           SF      5     $11,979,300      $71,875,800                                            
          Adrian Ash            SG      4     $11,541,300      $49,627,590                                            
          Raymond Felton        PG      5     $11,388,000      $62,634,000                                            
          F.Garcia              SF      4     $10,884,300      $50,067,780                                            
          Cletis Navarro        PF      4     $10,796,700      $46,425,810                                            
          Danny Granger         SF      4     $10,731,000      $49,362,600                                            
          Leopold Albert        PF      4     $10,687,200      $45,954,960                                            
          Lamar Odom            PF      4     $10,643,400      $45,766,620                                            
          Keyon Dooling         PG      4     $10,336,800      $44,448,240                                            
          Farzan Akhtar         SG      4     $10,336,800      $47,549,280

Here are the top free agents. Anyone over $15m can't be offered a DP contract obviously. Here's a question someone asked:

Quote:

What if a team offers someone a DP deal for say $14.5m, so the cap hit is for $1.45m and now they wanna offer another guy at $14.5m can they do that?

No. They'd only be able to acquire the 2nd DP at a max of $13.55m, assuming they had no one else under contract.

Quote:

Can teams trade DP slots?

What owners didn't want is the DP slot to be a "overpaid NBA guy who isn't as good anymore" slot, but a way to entice guys who are in their prime to come to the league, because the league already gets those veteran NBA types who are over the hill and at the end of their rope.

Instead, this enables teams to be competitive.

Quote:

What about a DP exception for salaries over $15m

Was thinking about this here's the idea. If a team wants to sign a guy to a deal that's over $15m to a DP contract (or whatever the cap is) they can, but the cap hit is for $5m per contract, meaning two DPs is $10m or 66% of your cap space.

If nothing else, it puts teams in a better spot to acquire a certain level of talent and to position the league to have a legit claim at being a league people are clamoring to see and after this being the 10th season in league history, they're going to need something to differentiate.

So we'll see how it plays out with these new changes and if it means a change on the court or not.

bbgunn · 07-06-2014, 09:04 PM

Interesting concept!

Young Drachma · 07-09-2014, 05:48 PM

I was thinking more about this last night about this concept and pondering whether a 2nd division would work. Right now, I envision that the league basically gets its TV deal from a network trying to compete with summer inventory -- and that this league works because it's a summer to fall league -- rather than operating during the NBA year because people are starved for the sport and there's even a Winter Classic-like outdoor game that happens.

With the DP rule, the Condors dominance of the NBA and lack of big market success, there seems to be an opening for the imagination of putting teams on the periphery of NBA markets in the hopes of capturing even more media attention and rabid basketball fans.

Young Drachma · 07-09-2014, 06:01 PM

Apparently back in the day you could get a D-league for about $400k, now the latest franchise in the D League went for $4.5m in a sale, expansion fees are around $6m.

Detroit Pistons have big plans for integrating Grand Rapids NBA D-League team | MLive.com

Young Drachma · 07-26-2014, 05:28 PM

I have created a 3rd division to go with the 2nd division, because again just curious to see what sort of talent you need to get up from the 3rd tier to the 1st. After one successful season running a 3rd, gonna add a 4th tier and then plant a team at the bottom and see how long it takes to rise up.

Meanwhile, in my NBA in this league Pittsburgh Condors won their 11th straight NBA title. I even went in this year and tried to put together some teams in the west that might be able to take them. The problem? The Condors are an offensive force and defensive strong club and no one can match them for whatever reason. It's sort of fascinating since I had no hand in putting the team together, the AI put the two stars on the team and they've managed to just dominate with different role players over time no matter who else I try to get to topple them.

This year though, they won the series 4-2, rather than just sweeping, so maybe there's a distant chance that someone can take them next year, but it'd almost take a concerted effort by a team to topple them or extreme rules changes like forcing the team to breakup that'd manage to get us different teams in the league.

Code:

NBA Champs

 Season   Champ            Wins Runner-up      Wins MVP                   Team           
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2010     Condors             4 Thunder           2 Jan Hørby             Condors        
 2009     Condors             4 Thunder           0 Harvey Crabb          Condors        
 2008     Condors             4 Thunder           0 Jan Hørby             Condors        
 2007     Condors             4 Thunder           2 Harvey Crabb          Condors        
 2006     Condors             4 Thunder           1 Harvey Crabb          Condors        
 2005     Condors             4 Thunder           0 Eero Ahonen           Condors        
 2004     Condors             4 Raptors           1 Eero Ahonen           Condors        
 2003     Condors             4 Raptors           0 Eero Ahonen           Condors        
 2002     Condors             4 Thunder           0 Harvey Crabb          Condors        
 2001     Condors             4 Raptors           0 Eero Ahonen           Condors        
 2000     Condors             4 Raptors           0 Eero Ahonen           Condors        
 1999     Raptors             4 Whalers           2 Harikishan Vishnavi   Raptors        
 1998     Jazz                4 Whalers           3 Fabricio Alada        Jazz           
 1997     Trail Blazers       4 Celtics           1 Tim Hardaway          Trail Blazers  
 1996     Whalers             4 Jazz              2 Chuma Afiba           Whalers        
 1995     Hornets             4 Spurs             0 Scottie Pippen        Hornets        
 1994     Hornets             4 Stars             3 Temur Rotan           Hornets        
 1993     Pacers              4 Hornets           2 Michael Jordan        Pacers         
 1992     Nuggets             4 Royals            1 Doc Rivers            Nuggets        
 1991     Nuggets             4 Hornets           3 Doc Rivers            Nuggets        
 1990     Nuggets             4 Knicks            1 Doc Rivers            Nuggets        
 1989     Royals              4 SuperSonics       3 Mark Price            Royals         
 1988     Pistons             4 SuperSonics       3 John Stockton         Pistons        
 1987     SuperSonics         4 Pistons           3 Hakeem Olajuwon       SuperSonics    
 1986     Pistons             4 Spurs             3 John Stockton         Pistons        
 1985     Lakers              4 Hornets           2 Larry Bird            Lakers         
 1984     Lakers              4 Celtics           0 Larry Bird            Lakers         
 1983     Spurs               4 Bulls             2 Magic Johnson         Spurs          
 1982     Hornets             4 Lakers            0 Billy Knight          Hornets        
 1981     Spurs               4 Hornets           2 Magic Johnson         Spurs          
 1980     Nuggets             4 Royals            1 Artis Gilmore         Nuggets        
 1979     76ers               4 Suns              3 Julius Erving         76ers          
 1978     SuperSonics         4 Bulls             2 Fred Brown            SuperSonics    
 1977     SuperSonics         4 Royals            3 Neal Walk             SuperSonics    
 1976     SuperSonics         4 Hornets           1 George Gervin         SuperSonics    
 1975     76ers               4 Rockets           1 Julius Erving         76ers          
 1974     76ers               4 Lakers            0 Julius Erving         76ers          
 1973     Wizards             4 Lakers            3 Rick Barry            Wizards        
 1972     Lakers              4 Royals            0 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar   Lakers         

 Season   Champ            Wins Runner-up      Wins MVP                   Team           
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1971     Lakers              4 Heat              1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar   Lakers         
 1970     Hornets             4 Lakers            2 Terry Dischinger      Hornets        
 1969     Pistons             4 Suns              0 Connie Hawkins        Pistons        
 1968     Wizards             4 Suns              3 Rick Barry            Wizards        
 1967     Suns                4 Wizards           3 Zelmo Beaty           Suns           
 1966     Jazz                4 Royals            3 Wilt Chamberlain      Jazz           
 1965     Cavaliers           4 Suns              3 Walt Bellamy          Cavaliers      
 1964     Jazz                4 Cavaliers         1 Wilt Chamberlain      Jazz           
 1963     Jazz                4 Cavaliers         2 Wilt Chamberlain      Jazz           
 1962     Jazz                4 Raptors           0 Wilt Chamberlain      Jazz           
 1961     Bucks               4 Jazz              1 Bob Pettit            Bucks          
 1960     Clippers            4 Celtics           2 Cliff Hagan           Clippers       
 1959     Jazz                4 Bucks             2 Wilt Chamberlain      Jazz           
 1958     Bucks               4 Clippers          3 Bob Pettit            Bucks          
 1957     Bucks               4 Lakers            0 Bob Pettit            Bucks          
 1956     Clippers            4 Bucks             3 Bob Cousy             Clippers

Young Drachma · 07-26-2014, 05:32 PM

The NBA cap at present is $73m. Not sure if raising it severely or lowering it would help the parity issue.

In the ABC1, it's $15m, ABC2, the cap is $900k and ABC3, the cap is $90k. The 4th division will have a cap of $10,000. I'm thinking those teams will almost all be in major cities or high population centers to justify their existence with maybe a small market club or two. Not sure yet, though.

bbgunn · 07-27-2014, 01:50 AM

Not only the Condors but the Thunder were dominating, too. Wow!

Young Drachma · 07-27-2014, 02:08 PM

Okay, so I got the idea that some of the NBA teams are pissed that the Condors are ruining basketball and so rather than keep playing in this 32-team league we're gonna have 12 of them split off and form their own league and this new league will be the top division of a new 4-tier structure with the clubs from the ABC 1/2/3.

Here are the teams that are leaving the NBA:

Quote:

Toronto Huskies
Montreal Jazz
Houston Rockets
Las Vegas Cavaliers
Orlando Magic
Kansas City Roadrunners
Chicago Stags
Hartford Whalers

They'll partner up with 4 teams from the top of the ABC to form their new division.

Young Drachma · 07-27-2014, 10:34 PM

Atlantic City Vandals
Los Angeles
New York Rens
Philadelphia Five all left the ABC to join the newly formed BAA top division with the 8 NBA exiles. Salary cap in this new league is $58 million.

For what will now be the 5th division, it'll be a small league of 6 teams with a cap of $19k. After a year or so, will add a team to that league and work on seeing how long it takes to get that team from the bottom of the league to the top in a stats-only setup.

Cobb County
Asheville
Chattanooga
Roanoke
Springfield (MO)
Huntsville

Young Drachma · 08-01-2014, 08:56 PM

So after a year of seeing of the five-tier structure would work without crashing (it did) I decided to add two expansion teams to the 5th divisions, putting teams in the Quad Cities (IL/IA) area and another team Wichita Falls, TX. (Lexington KY and Montgomery, AL missed out on their bids...)

The Rustlers are gonna be my team. The goal? See how far up the chain I can get them and see how long it takes. I won't do any coaching, just gonna play GM during the off-season, there's no draft in this league and do scouting. Then we'll see how the team does every season and go from there.

It's strictly an off-season dynasty in that way. This is a stats-only league, so I'm only going to scout players around the country using stats and with a cap of only 19k, there's not a lot of flexibility, but I won't be using any exemptions to get anyone on the team either, we'll only sign who'll sign with us through traditional means to make it more challenging.

I have a feeling that there are enough foreign guys out there, coupled with US talent to manage to get a team up the ranks, so that's the theory I'm entering this whole pyramid with...we'll see if that's true or not, though.

Young Drachma · 08-01-2014, 11:18 PM

Here's the thing about trying to sign guys in a league where you only have a few $k, you have to be judicious and smart. Since you can't turn off colors, that's helping me scout a little bit, but there's some merit to actually looking at stats since, the goal here is to get out of the 5th division, so a guy could be a worthless player in a higher level, but could be just what you need to get out of that level.

All of the rosters in the 5th division are cleared, so we're all starting from scratch again this year since most guys only sign one year deals down here, though I just increased that so teams can sign dudes to deals beyond 1 year, because it seemed silly to have all of the rosters clear out year after year.

The nice thing about the scrubs at this level, is when you look at stats you can see guys who might have gotten some decent run time at the 4th division that you think might be able to do even more at the 5th division.

I haven't decided on a strategy for how we'll spend most of our cap, though thinking about it now, I'm thinking if I can assemble a mini-big 3 of some size for under 11k, then I can spend a 1-2k on a scoring guard and then the rest is what I've filled out with.

Young Drachma · 08-02-2014, 12:18 AM

The 5th division is a weird world for the AI, who go out and try to sign too many stars from the outset leaving them with only min sal cap space to fill out their rosters. I spread the love a bit more, got what I think is decent talent including a scrap heap purchase of the league's block leader last year and 1st team all defense player.

Does it mean anything? Hard to say at this level. I'll just recap the season once it's simmed, because the players won't matter until I go through the year and can determine whether it's worked or not. In this league, there's a single game between the top two teams to determine who gets to move up. So that's our goal.

Let's see how it goes in year 1 for the Rustlers.

Young Drachma · 08-02-2014, 12:09 PM

The 5th division only plays a 28 game season. The Rustlers finished the year 15-13, 2 games out of a playoff spot. Not bad for my first year flying blind in this tough league, but it means we'll be back next year to try our hand at it again.

Code:

Wichita Falls Rustlers Efficiency

 Player                 Pos   TS%  AstR   ToR   Usg  ORR   DRR    RR   PER     VA   EWA  O Eff  D Efftest  test  test  test  test  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Chetan Minakshi         SF  .549  10.2  11.1  20.6  4.4  11.4   8.1  20.3  127.1   4.2   97.6   98.9                              
 Tuma Maahir             SG  .569   9.2  11.0  20.0  5.0   9.5   7.5  20.3  105.1   3.5  101.2   95.0                              
 Harold Marasco           C  .583   8.8  11.7  13.6  5.0  10.4   7.9  17.8   81.7   2.7   98.5   95.4                              
 Wojciech Blaszczyk      PG  .522  11.9  10.2  20.4  3.8   6.8   5.3  17.9   77.2   2.6   96.7   95.0                              
 Hernando Matutes        SG  .500  10.9  11.8  19.0  4.7   6.5   5.7  15.4   59.8   2.0   97.1  100.5                              
 Eero Koskinen           SF  .454   9.1  10.5  16.9  2.7   9.5   6.3  11.0    5.8   0.2  100.9   97.9                              
 Akkiliç Kimyacioglu     PF  .512  13.6  15.3  10.7  7.0  16.1  11.9  11.8    2.4   0.1  102.4  101.5                              
 Hadad Abdul-Samee'       C  .600  10.1  22.8   8.7  5.0  27.5  16.8  10.7    1.4   0.0   99.5   99.6                              
 Hakan Dogan             PF  .500   0.0  20.0  13.4  6.3  28.6  16.7  13.9    0.5   0.0   65.4   84.0                              
 Qin Tang                PG  .000   0.0   0.0   0.0  0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    0.0   0.0    0.0    0.0                              
 Tiomoid Athanas         PG  .000   0.0   0.0   0.0  0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    0.0   0.0    0.0    0.0                              
 Kirk Giguere             C  .000   0.0   0.0   0.0  0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    0.0   0.0    0.0    0.0                              
 Tom Rukon               SG  .000   0.0   0.0   0.0  0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    0.0   0.0    0.0    0.0                              
 Shadid Wajeeh           PF  .508  13.0  18.7  10.8  5.5  31.4  19.3  11.1   -4.2  -0.1   95.4   93.9                              
 Eligio Ortiz            SG  .222   9.1   9.1  12.5  0.0  16.0   9.3  -0.1   -5.2  -0.2  100.0  109.4

It seems pretty clear to me that the problem with this team wasn't that I built a balanced team that had solid players -- I did that well -- we just went on a losing streak that I think was caused by a lack of depth that ended up tanking the year. Which is/was a bummer.

I made a smart trade picking up Tuma Maahir in a deal with Huntsville that involved six players total, but for whatever reason, couldn't dominate down here like I was hoping to and the fog of war with no ratings obviously hurts me relative to the AI, but it's a solid house rule to only have to view stats.

In terms of where this league ranks using the attribute report, overall the BAA5 is a 50.7 overall which among my 25 leagues ranks it 22nd (ahead of Japan, Germany & South Korea) and so, my goal this off-season is to spend some time scouting those leagues for 1) Americans and also 2) ways the top teams in those leagues are composed to see if there's a formula to it.

The salary cap in the BAA5 is higher than Germany, Egypt, Japan, Korea, Brazil which means I should check those leagues out to see if we can't repatriate some of the best Americans in those leagues since we can pay better.

Next year's cap will increase a few $k to 23,540, which will net teams in theory one more player who could be a difference maker.

I'm confident we can crack the formula next season and head up the ranks of the 2nd tier of US basketball.

Code:

2012 BAA5 Standings

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       W   L   PCT  HOME   DIV  CONF
----------------------------------------------------
 Chattanooga          18  10  .643  11-3 18-10 18-10
 Huntsville           17  11  .607   9-5 17-11 17-11
 Altitude             16  12  .571  10-4 16-12 16-12
 Rustlers             15  13  .536   9-5 15-13 15-13
 Flames               14  14  .500  10-4 14-14 14-14
 Rochester (MN)       13  15  .464   7-7 13-15 13-15
 Steamwheelers        11  17  .393   7-7 11-17 11-17
 Jobbers               8  20  .286   5-9  8-20  8-20

Young Drachma · 08-02-2014, 12:11 PM

I'm all for moving teams in the 5th division, it has to remain a small city league but a place big enough that it can support a team. Like if it's a place with an arena nearby and no major D1 college basketball, it's the perfect spot for a D5 club.

So feel free to suggest cities that should house teams and I'll either relocate a team or add expansion clubs to this level, as it's imagined as a cheap way for cities to get in on the pro basketball act and a chance at the possible big time.

Young Drachma · 08-02-2014, 12:19 PM

My new theory for season 2 goes like this. What if you could get one really elite player? Could he make the rest of the team better if you filled him with a bunch of min salary guys? Not in a top league, maybe in a league where he'd dominate the competition?

Rather than trying to split 20k around 3 or 4 solid guys and a bunch of scrubs and seeing how it works, going to attempt this off-season to sign the highest paid guy in the league and see if he can dominate when surrounded by other guys and having the ball basically in his hands all the time.

It's worth it from a fan perspective and for a team that has no identity and otherwise might struggle with too many dudes who don't gel, I'm curious to see if it can work.

Young Drachma · 08-02-2014, 05:22 PM

The 5th division will get more difficult next year. Four new teams are joining, but the playoffs will now feature the top 6 teams rather than just the top 2. Playoff series will be a best of 1-3-3 and regular season is now 34 games.

Akron (OH)
Jersey City (NJ)
Mobile (AL)
Newport News (VA)

Young Drachma · 08-02-2014, 11:49 PM

Team lost in the league semis after a 19-15 season and 4th overall. Having one dominant guy can help, but it's not enough to win it all apparently.

So year 3, we'll come up with a different strat which mostly involves scouting the foreign leagues for guys who'd come over.

06-22-2014, 10:59 PM	#3
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	To make it easier, I'm purchasing the contracts of Americans and select foreigners from other leagues, under the impression they'd want to come back home if they make similar cash, etc. Average ticket price in the NBA is around $55 or so, average ticket price in Major League Basketball? Around $9, which puts the league right where the Spanish league is for 2nd highest ticket prices in the world after the NBA. I imagine if things go well, we could increase the cap and the league would eventually be able to recruit NBA guys, but...not initially. I changed my mind on controlling all of the teams though, just gonna sim through free agency and see who ends up where, since that was sort of the point because I know I can sign guys, but see where the computer puts guys relative to the other leagues in the world and seeing who'll be the first "name" player to break ranks. Probably not at the cap # the league has now, but if they could double it, that'd surely be likely to entice someone. Last edited by Young Drachma : 06-22-2014 at 10:59 PM.

07-06-2014, 09:04 PM	#9
bbgunn College Benchwarmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Osaka, Japan via Honolulu, Hawaii via Birmingham, Alabama	Interesting concept! __________________ U of Hawaii \| U of Alabama \| Montreal Impact \| Montreal Canadiens \| West Ham \| West Indies cricket \| Portland Trail Blazers

07-27-2014, 01:50 AM	#14
bbgunn College Benchwarmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Osaka, Japan via Honolulu, Hawaii via Birmingham, Alabama	Not only the Condors but the Thunder were dominating, too. Wow! __________________ U of Hawaii \| U of Alabama \| Montreal Impact \| Montreal Canadiens \| West Ham \| West Indies cricket \| Portland Trail Blazers

07-27-2014, 10:34 PM	#16
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Atlantic City Vandals Los Angeles New York Rens Philadelphia Five all left the ABC to join the newly formed BAA top division with the 8 NBA exiles. Salary cap in this new league is $58 million. For what will now be the 5th division, it'll be a small league of 6 teams with a cap of $19k. After a year or so, will add a team to that league and work on seeing how long it takes to get that team from the bottom of the league to the top in a stats-only setup. Cobb County Asheville Chattanooga Roanoke Springfield (MO) Huntsville Last edited by Young Drachma : 07-27-2014 at 10:35 PM.

08-02-2014, 12:11 PM	#21
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I'm all for moving teams in the 5th division, it has to remain a small city league but a place big enough that it can support a team. Like if it's a place with an arena nearby and no major D1 college basketball, it's the perfect spot for a D5 club. So feel free to suggest cities that should house teams and I'll either relocate a team or add expansion clubs to this level, as it's imagined as a cheap way for cities to get in on the pro basketball act and a chance at the possible big time. Last edited by Young Drachma : 08-02-2014 at 12:12 PM.

06-22-2014, 08:22 PM	#2
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	In a time that'll take me way more than a night to do, I'm going to act as all 16 teams in this league during free agency. The idea here is, I can see what types of players want to come, can target them appropriately and then try to craft a league that people might, in theory, want to see. I'm already thinking the salary cap is too low, but I don't have soft cap enabled and don't really plan to. I like the challenge of the league having a tough time filling rosters with the sorts of players they want. After making signings, I'll turn things over to the computer to do what it needs to, but for the first season I'm just curious to see what kind of league we can make happen and whether or not there will be any decent or more than decent guys who'll show up. Probably can hit the international leagues hard, for sure. Whereas getting NBA-ready guys will be more difficult.

06-22-2014, 11:19 PM	#4
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	We'll see after training camp and pre-season who gets cut and I think MLB will end up picking up NBA guys that way, since almost all of the teams have cap space. It'd be basically 15th guys/end of bench dudes who they could bring in, save for a team that's penny pinching on everyone else and then brings in a NBA rotation guy for a starting job and basically his NBA salary to do so. But most guys would always opt for the NBA in that scenario, so...

06-22-2014, 11:40 PM	#5
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I turned on hard + soft cap, because I felt like too many good players were going on unsigned because there was truly nowhere for them to play relative to the salary they'd demand.

07-04-2014, 01:55 AM	#6
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	We're back to just a soft cap. And we're in the off-season of the 2009-10 season upcoming. In the NBA, the Pittsburgh Condors have just won their NINTH straight NBA championship. I'm guessing because they had a lot of cap space early in their existence, two of the league's best stars who just happened to play in the Finnish league on different teams signed and a la LeBron and company managed to dominate the league. Which is nuts. Average NBA salary right now is $5,894,367.77 which is only a few 100k more than the current real-life NBA average salary across the league based on how they calculate it. Obviously because of FBPB constraints and also the salary structure in my league, dudes can get paid a hell of a lot more in our league, but it works a lot better that way. It's a lot like baseball to me in terms of how I've tried to structure it. Average team payroll is $94.3 million In the 2nd tier MLB, the average salary is $732,642.88 & average payroll is $10.9 million. If you look at MLS as the model for the 2nd tier basketball league in this case, I'm going to attempt to create a Designated player type setup, by keeping the cap in the MLB wherever it is right now and then just increasing the mid-level exception to artificially create an exception where teams will be able to keep the kinds of guys that already come to this league, while also having a pool of cash to entice that next level of player to the league. In this universe, LeBron isn't LeBron but he's only 24 and my thinking is, he abandons the NBA to become the face and star of this upstart league that it entices other players to come over and then there's a pool of cash to do that. We'll do it as a pilot and if it doesn't work, we'll nuke the exception or severely lower it, but curious if bringing better talent will increase attendance in this league or help revenues. I'll shut it down if the experience produces more negative profits than positive ones and I turned off revenue sharing in this league, so I can test out the model and see. Under this storyline, LeBron signs with a franchise that gives him an ownership stake and we see if he can become "the man" in a 2nd tier league. Not even sure, under this scenario if he'll be enticed to sign in this league or if he can get a bigger NBA deal (he's never been an all-star) than whatever this league has to offer, but we're going to se.

07-06-2014, 12:31 AM	#7
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	League has 25 teams. Operating it as a faux online league. Here's the alignment: CHAMBERLAIN --- Colorado 14ers Tulsa 66ers Arizona Sidewinders Albuquerque Thunderbirds Austin Toros CULBREATH ----- Erie Bayhawks Columbus Bobcats Kentucky Colonels Minnesota Muskies Omaha Rustlers JORDAN ----- Baltimore Claws Tampa Bay Energy Jacksonville Floridians Nashville Sounds Virginia Squires MIKAN ---- Reno Bighorns San Diego Conquistadors Riverside Sparks Portland Trailblazers Sacramento Kings STOCKTON -------- Newark Express New York Rens Rochester Royals Puerto Rico Sky Atlantic City Vandals I've spent more time than makes any sense stewing over the best salary cap scheme for this league, which is legit the 2nd best league in the world. Using the attribute report, can assess the overall ratings of each league. NBA: 104.7 Finnish league: 54.4 Israel: 62.6 Japan: 54.3 Turkey: 64.6 Spain: 70.0 Russia/VTB: 61.5 Australia: 58.8 Argentina: 59.1 Greece: 60.3 Germany: 55.3 Korea: 53.0 France: 64.2 Egypt: 52.7 Italy: 57.9 UK: 59.0 Iran: 61.3 America2: 80.9 India: 54.9 China: 57.8 Brazil: 49.6 Operating on a cap that is now up to $15 million, the highest paid players in the league are largely guys who played overseas and now came to the states or NBA dudes who are in their 30s and getting ready to hang it up. League ownership wanted to attempt to score star players in their prime in the league, so long as owners wanted to pay them. So I might spin this story off, I might not since no one cares but...decided to add a "DESIGNATED PLAYER" rule which works a lot like my old franchise player exemption in SLOP which enabled a team to sign a guy to an uncapped ten year deal. The DP rule in this league will be nothing like that, it'll look more like MLS where a team can sign up to 2 DPs so long as they have the cap space to meet the demand of their actual desired salary during free agency. If so, then you can sign him to the DP contract and only 10% of the deal's value gets cap charged. The incentive to get the league's owners to pony up for guys who'll move the needle.

07-09-2014, 05:48 PM	#10
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I was thinking more about this last night about this concept and pondering whether a 2nd division would work. Right now, I envision that the league basically gets its TV deal from a network trying to compete with summer inventory -- and that this league works because it's a summer to fall league -- rather than operating during the NBA year because people are starved for the sport and there's even a Winter Classic-like outdoor game that happens. With the DP rule, the Condors dominance of the NBA and lack of big market success, there seems to be an opening for the imagination of putting teams on the periphery of NBA markets in the hopes of capturing even more media attention and rabid basketball fans.

07-09-2014, 06:01 PM	#11
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Apparently back in the day you could get a D-league for about $400k, now the latest franchise in the D League went for $4.5m in a sale, expansion fees are around $6m. Detroit Pistons have big plans for integrating Grand Rapids NBA D-League team \| MLive.com

07-26-2014, 05:32 PM	#13
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	The NBA cap at present is $73m. Not sure if raising it severely or lowering it would help the parity issue. In the ABC1, it's $15m, ABC2, the cap is $900k and ABC3, the cap is $90k. The 4th division will have a cap of $10,000. I'm thinking those teams will almost all be in major cities or high population centers to justify their existence with maybe a small market club or two. Not sure yet, though.

08-01-2014, 08:56 PM	#17
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	So after a year of seeing of the five-tier structure would work without crashing (it did) I decided to add two expansion teams to the 5th divisions, putting teams in the Quad Cities (IL/IA) area and another team Wichita Falls, TX. (Lexington KY and Montgomery, AL missed out on their bids...) The Rustlers are gonna be my team. The goal? See how far up the chain I can get them and see how long it takes. I won't do any coaching, just gonna play GM during the off-season, there's no draft in this league and do scouting. Then we'll see how the team does every season and go from there. It's strictly an off-season dynasty in that way. This is a stats-only league, so I'm only going to scout players around the country using stats and with a cap of only 19k, there's not a lot of flexibility, but I won't be using any exemptions to get anyone on the team either, we'll only sign who'll sign with us through traditional means to make it more challenging. I have a feeling that there are enough foreign guys out there, coupled with US talent to manage to get a team up the ranks, so that's the theory I'm entering this whole pyramid with...we'll see if that's true or not, though.

08-01-2014, 11:18 PM	#18
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Here's the thing about trying to sign guys in a league where you only have a few $k, you have to be judicious and smart. Since you can't turn off colors, that's helping me scout a little bit, but there's some merit to actually looking at stats since, the goal here is to get out of the 5th division, so a guy could be a worthless player in a higher level, but could be just what you need to get out of that level. All of the rosters in the 5th division are cleared, so we're all starting from scratch again this year since most guys only sign one year deals down here, though I just increased that so teams can sign dudes to deals beyond 1 year, because it seemed silly to have all of the rosters clear out year after year. The nice thing about the scrubs at this level, is when you look at stats you can see guys who might have gotten some decent run time at the 4th division that you think might be able to do even more at the 5th division. I haven't decided on a strategy for how we'll spend most of our cap, though thinking about it now, I'm thinking if I can assemble a mini-big 3 of some size for under 11k, then I can spend a 1-2k on a scoring guard and then the rest is what I've filled out with.

08-02-2014, 12:18 AM	#19
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	The 5th division is a weird world for the AI, who go out and try to sign too many stars from the outset leaving them with only min sal cap space to fill out their rosters. I spread the love a bit more, got what I think is decent talent including a scrap heap purchase of the league's block leader last year and 1st team all defense player. Does it mean anything? Hard to say at this level. I'll just recap the season once it's simmed, because the players won't matter until I go through the year and can determine whether it's worked or not. In this league, there's a single game between the top two teams to determine who gets to move up. So that's our goal. Let's see how it goes in year 1 for the Rustlers.

08-02-2014, 12:19 PM	#22
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	My new theory for season 2 goes like this. What if you could get one really elite player? Could he make the rest of the team better if you filled him with a bunch of min salary guys? Not in a top league, maybe in a league where he'd dominate the competition? Rather than trying to split 20k around 3 or 4 solid guys and a bunch of scrubs and seeing how it works, going to attempt this off-season to sign the highest paid guy in the league and see if he can dominate when surrounded by other guys and having the ball basically in his hands all the time. It's worth it from a fan perspective and for a team that has no identity and otherwise might struggle with too many dudes who don't gel, I'm curious to see if it can work.

08-02-2014, 05:22 PM	#23
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	The 5th division will get more difficult next year. Four new teams are joining, but the playoffs will now feature the top 6 teams rather than just the top 2. Playoff series will be a best of 1-3-3 and regular season is now 34 games. Akron (OH) Jersey City (NJ) Mobile (AL) Newport News (VA) Last edited by Young Drachma : 08-02-2014 at 05:26 PM.

08-02-2014, 11:49 PM	#24
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Team lost in the league semis after a 19-15 season and 4th overall. Having one dominant guy can help, but it's not enough to win it all apparently. So year 3, we'll come up with a different strat which mostly involves scouting the foreign leagues for guys who'd come over. __________________ Current dynasty: OOTP25 Blitz: RTS meets Moneyball \| OOTP Mod: GM Excel Competitive Balance Tax/Revenue Sharing Calc \| FBCB Mods on Github

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