Fantasy NBA League Forming

[Gary Gorski]

Just thought I would throw this out there but I've been a part of a basketball league the past few seasons and it has been really well run and been alot of fun. So much so that I'm going to start one up based on the rule set and system that has worked so well in that league.

Its a 16 team keeper league on CBS with a per season fee ($30 min - up to $100 or so if you decide to totally obliterate the cap and it pays for the site and then all of the rest distributed to the 8 playoff teams weighted for how they do of course). Head to head play - 9 category scoring, NBA like salary/contract rules which provide for a very fun league. Brand new league so you get to draft your team (going to be a summer long email draft starting as soon as we fill the league). Set lineups once a week. Rosters consist of 12 active players, 4 reserves, 3 "d-league" guys and 2 injured spots so its more than just the NBA stars that are needed for teams. Salary rules allow for easy ability to turn your team around even if you had a bad season or sign players to bad contracts. Like I said, the rules aren't mine - they're taken from a league that's been very successful and has run for the past 6 years now.

If you want the full details I will be happy to email the rules document to you - just PM me with your email addy and I'll send you the document. Prior experience not needed in fantasy hoops - there will be at least one owner in the league new to it. All I ask is that you're willing to make the committment to keeping up with your team and being competitive in the league.

[Gary Gorski]

BTW I wanted to point out that with the NBA season still months away and fantasy football leagues ready to start first this may seem like an odd time to get the league together but since it is a keeper league I want teams to be able to draft their entire roster and it has to be done by email since its impossible to get 16 people to be able to block off a bunch of hours for a huge draft. So drafting 250-275 players is going to take quite some time by email.

We've already got some spots filled so let me know soon if you do have interest.

[Comey]

As said elsewhere, I am interested.

[Gary Gorski]

One last bump for this from me - we only need 4 more guys and we've got 4 guys who frequent the FOFC in already. (5 counting me)

[Sublime 2]

Count me as interested, PM sent.

[Schmidty]

So this costs between $30 and $100? I'm a bit confused. What's the difference in cost?

[Gary Gorski]

The difference in cost is in how much you spend. Basically its breaks down into three sections of cost based on a $60 million salary cap and a $120 million hard cap.

1. Salary cost - you pay 50 cents for every $1M of salary on your team (a minimum of $30 regardless so if you are under the cap you pay $30 - generally nobody operates under the cap during a season and the initial draft is set to start you with a salary right around the cap)

2. Luxury tax - for every $1M over the cap you go up to 1.5x the cap ($90M) you owe an additional 50 cents. So if your salary was $90M then you owe $45 for salaries (90*.50) and $15 for luxury taxes ([90-60]*.50) so $60

3. Double luxury tax - if you exceed $90M up to $120M you pay $1 per $1M at that point so if you go all the way to $120M you owe 60 for salaries, 15 from the first portion of luxury tax and 30 from the double tax for a total of $105

Basically its a method of trying to keep the league balanced yet allow you to keep your team if you're willing to pay extra. Its a keeper league and salaries increase every season - so you can keep most of your team together but you have to contribute something extra to the pot to do it. Otherwise you're able to release players each offseason with no penalty so you're perfectly free to be a fiscally sound franchise and operate with maybe a couple of stars and the rest marginal and/or rookie players or you can spend big (to a point at least - that's why the hard cap is there) and hope that it pays off by winning it all.

The full league constitution explains the salary increases and contract system. If you are interested I can email it to you - the system works very well and really allows you to build a team you like without being forced to dump X amount of players like some keeper leagues and it also allows you to be able to rebuild very quickly if things don't go very well.

[Schmidty]

I'm interested, but probably only for the $30 - $40 range. My big thing is can a person that has a $30 team even compete again the guys that shell out $80 - $100?

Originally Posted by Gary Gorski

The difference in cost is in how much you spend. Basically its breaks down into three sections of cost based on a $60 million salary cap and a $120 million hard cap.

1. Salary cost - you pay 50 cents for every $1M of salary on your team (a minimum of $30 regardless so if you are under the cap you pay $30 - generally nobody operates under the cap during a season and the initial draft is set to start you with a salary right around the cap)

2. Luxury tax - for every $1M over the cap you go up to 1.5x the cap ($90M) you owe an additional 50 cents. So if your salary was $90M then you owe $45 for salaries (90*.50) and $15 for luxury taxes ([90-60]*.50) so $60

3. Double luxury tax - if you exceed $90M up to $120M you pay $1 per $1M at that point so if you go all the way to $120M you owe 60 for salaries, 15 from the first portion of luxury tax and 30 from the double tax for a total of $105

Basically its a method of trying to keep the league balanced yet allow you to keep your team if you're willing to pay extra. Its a keeper league and salaries increase every season - so you can keep most of your team together but you have to contribute something extra to the pot to do it. Otherwise you're able to release players each offseason with no penalty so you're perfectly free to be a fiscally sound franchise and operate with maybe a couple of stars and the rest marginal and/or rookie players or you can spend big (to a point at least - that's why the hard cap is there) and hope that it pays off by winning it all.

The full league constitution explains the salary increases and contract system. If you are interested I can email it to you - the system works very well and really allows you to build a team you like without being forced to dump X amount of players like some keeper leagues and it also allows you to be able to rebuild very quickly if things don't go very well.

[Gary Gorski]

Well the answer is it depends - 8 teams make the playoffs and receive a portion of the pot for doing so (obviously its a small portion - the teams that go the farthest get the most). Is your $60M team going to beat a $100M team (assuming its $100M worth of good contracts and not lousy ones) - probably not week in and week out but it can happen. In fact the league I currently play in, the team who is overwhelmingly the most talented team by far in the league has only one the championship once in the past few seasons.

Things happen - players get injured, the playoffs are in the home stretch of the regular season so sometimes stars are playing less minutes - starting right off the bat all the teams should be on fairly equal footing because we're drafting teams. Where it goes from there is really up to how well people manage their teams.

The weekly lineups are 12 man lineups in a 16 team league - thats 192 players and there are only 150 NBA starters so having LeBron or any one star doesn't necessarily mean anything. If you fill your lineup with 16 Bruce Bowen's you'll suck and won't win anything but you could also look for more of the semi-stars and blossoming players and maybe have just one mega star.

You can be competitive for the $30-$40 fee range if you're disciplined. If you're willing to move that semi-star once he gets to be a little too expensive for your tastes, if you're willing to scour the league for inexpensive yet useful players and play young players (at least those starting with the incoming NBA rookie class and beyond since they will all be on cheap "rookie contracts") then sure, you can do it. Can you win the championship? That's not a guarantee even if you spend more than everyone else - but you certainly can be in the mix of the playoff race.

Generally the guys who spend like crazy (and that's usually a minority in the league) do have good teams, don't get me wrong. They probably will make the playoffs but aren't guaranteed to win it all. You have to think like a small market team though if you want to limit yourself to the very bottom of spending. You can't expect to have a team full of NBA stars for that but there will never be a shortage of people who will trade for stars either. It takes discipline, sometimes even just letting a player go for little or nothing if you've decided that's all you're going to spend but a well managed team at the cap can be just as good or better than a poorly managed team who spent alot. Like I said though, if one team somehow accumulates LeBron, Paul, Wade etc and that's what is making up their $100M roster then everyone's pretty much screwed regardless of what you spend

[Schmidty]

That makes sense. I'll think on it. If you fill up before me, that's ok, but if not, I'll get back to you soon.

[Gary Gorski]

FWIW the initial draft is structured for each team to take 18 players total (16 current NBA players and 2 from tonight's draft class). The salaries are slotted and team totals range from $63-$71M so even if you had the most expensive slot you would be paying just over $40 for the 1st season.

There are specific rules on trading to do contract matching like in the NBA so nobody can simply turn that into a $100M team from the start. Of course going into season 2 all the contracts will increase so you will have to make trades or just let players go or what not to keep your team salary where its at but right from the start everyone will go in with an equally drafted team for right in that range.