Game Rotation and Inactive List

[Eaglerock562]

I noticed something tonight when I was setting my game rotations for the opening night games and that is that you are only going to be allowed to play 13 players while the rest will be inactive. This should not be the case as there should be 15 active slots in a teams rotation. I think what 2K should do is on the rotation screen give users a drop down menu option to either make a player active or inactive for the game. Thoughts?

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

I noticed something tonight when I was setting my game rotations for the opening night games and that is that you are only going to be allowed to play 13 players while the rest will be inactive. This should not be the case as there should be 15 active slots in a teams rotation. I think what 2K should do is on the rotation screen give users a drop down menu option to either make a player active or inactive for the game. Thoughts?

Isn’t that how it works in the NBA though? Unless I missed a change? 17 total roster spots, 15 max for guaranteed contracts and two for two way players and 13 active for the game.

[PhlliesPhan6]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

Isn’t that how it works in the NBA though? Unless I missed a change? 17 total roster spots, 15 max for guaranteed contracts and two for two way players and 13 active for the game.

I believe they can actually have 3 Two Way players starting this year. I don't know if there is a limit to how many can suit up. I understand what the OP is saying. I've definitely seen Box Scores with more than 13 players listed. The Nuggets had 15 players listed on the Box Score last night. 3 were DNP though but I thought if they were on the Box Score they were dressed and on the bench. Could be wrong though.

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

I believe they can actually have 3 Two Way players starting this year. I don't know if there is a limit to how many can suit up. I understand what the OP is saying. I've definitely seen Box Scores with more than 13 players listed. The Nuggets had 15 players listed on the Box Score last night. 3 were DNP though but I thought if they were on the Box Score they were dressed and on the bench. Could be wrong though.

Yea you are right on the up to three two way players. Still trying to find active/inactive rules.

[ShamWowNY]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

Yea you are right on the up to three two way players. Still trying to find active/inactive rules.

From CBAfaq.com (emphasis mine):

79. What roster size limits exist? What is the Inactive List? What is Injured Reserve? Do any other such lists exist?

Normally an NBA team can have a maximum of 15 players on its roster during a season (and up to 201 during the offseason, starting on the day after the team's season ends). A team normally has 12 or 13 players on its Active List, who are eligible to play in games, and can have as few as 11 for up to two weeks at a time. Any remaining players must be on the team's Inactive List, and are ineligible to play in games.

[Eaglerock562]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

From CBAfaq.com (emphasis mine):

79. What roster size limits exist? What is the Inactive List? What is Injured Reserve? Do any other such lists exist?

Normally an NBA team can have a maximum of 15 players on its roster during a season (and up to 201 during the offseason, starting on the day after the team's season ends). A team normally has 12 or 13 players on its Active List, who are eligible to play in games, and can have as few as 11 for up to two weeks at a time. Any remaining players must be on the team's Inactive List, and are ineligible to play in games.

That question and answer is from the previous CBA. I thought Larry Coon would've updated his site by now with the new CBA, but not yet. As one of the previous reponses noted that last night the Nuggets had 15 active players in the box score, but 2K only allows 13 active players and a maximum 5 inactive players.

If you look at the Lakers rotation you'll notice number 1-13 followed by 4 inactive slots (for a team with 17 players) and 1-13 followed by 5 inactive slots (for a team with 18 players)

When the NBA had the injured list (where any player put on the injured list had to miss the next 5 games before coming off) there was a rule on how many players could suit up. Once the NBA got rid of the injury list and when to the inactive/active current list I know that teams need to dress a minimum 8 players, but still have not yet found the maximum amount which I'm assuming is 15.

[ShamWowNY]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

That question and answer is from the previous CBA. I thought Larry Coon would've updated his site by now with the new CBA, but not yet. As one of the previous reponses noted that last night the Nuggets had 15 active players in the box score, but 2K only allows 13 active players and a maximum 5 inactive players.

If you look at the Lakers rotation you'll notice number 1-13 followed by 4 inactive slots (for a team with 17 players) and 1-13 followed by 5 inactive slots (for a team with 18 players)

When the NBA had the injured list (where any player put on the injured list had to miss the next 5 games before coming off) there was a rule on how many players could suit up. Once the NBA got rid of the injury list and when to the inactive/active current list I know that teams need to dress a minimum 8 players, but still have not yet found the maximum amount which I'm assuming is 15.

Good shout - I did not know this was something that changed in the latest CBA, but it seems like it did! From the text of the current CBA (accessible on the NBPA website):

Section 1. Active List.
Each Team agrees to have at least twelve (12) and no more than fifteen (15) players on its Active List and to have a minimum of eight (8) players on the bench for all Regular Season games.

The previous version set a maximum of 12 or 13 players based on certain factors. I think this is a holdover from the 20/21 season when the Board of Governors allowed teams to have 15 active players as extra COVID precaution, and now it's codified in the CBA as the rule. Good catch!

[Eaglerock562]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

Good shout - I did not know this was something that changed in the latest CBA, but it seems like it did! From the text of the current CBA (accessible on the NBPA website):

Section 1. Active List.
Each Team agrees to have at least twelve (12) and no more than fifteen (15) players on its Active List and to have a minimum of eight (8) players on the bench for all Regular Season games.

The previous version set a maximum of 12 or 13 players based on certain factors. I think this is a holdover from the 20/21 season when the Board of Governors allowed teams to have 15 active players as extra COVID precaution, and now it's codified in the CBA as the rule. Good catch!

Thanks, good job searching for a more in depth reason. Anyone think this is something 2K could fix in a patch?

[Eaglerock562]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

It didn't take long for this to be an issue. 2nd day of the season, last night the Wizards had 14 players play and as I'm trying to set up the rotation for their game against the Pacers there are only 13 active spots which means one of the players who played last night I can't assign them any minutes to play. This has been a yearly problem in the rotations. 2K can we do something about this or are we SOL?

Actually both teams played 14 players last night, but you can only play 13 max in this game. That's a fix that needs to be addressed.

[PhlliesPhan6]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

It didn't take long for this to be an issue. 2nd day of the season, last night the Wizards had 14 players play and as I'm trying to set up the rotation for their game against the Pacers there are only 13 active spots which means one of the players who played last night I can't assign them any minutes to play. This has been a yearly problem in the rotations. 2K can we do something about this or are we SOL?

Actually both teams played 14 players last night, but you can only play 13 max in this game. That's a fix that needs to be addressed.

There's not really a way around it. But TBH, most of those guys were probably supposed to get zero minutes and only played because it was a blowout.

[Eaglerock562]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

There's not really a way around it. But TBH, most of those guys were probably supposed to get zero minutes and only played because it was a blowout.

Yeah it was 143-120, but now that this is being talked about the least they could do is look into it and if it's something that's an easy fix I don't see why not do it. As soeone who likes to use one of the MyERA slots to mirror the current season the my only way to work around that is if I run into this problem I look at the boxscore and whatever bench player didnt score in the game is the one that doesn't get the minutes lol.

[Real2KInsider]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

This is actually an interesting wrinkle as the inactive roster now mirrors the number of Two-Ways spots that teams have. It's probably to make things cleaner for Two-Way accounting for NBA teams. Anytime a Two-Way is active for a game now, it's an intentional decision. Teams aren't going to deactivate a player unless they want the Two-Way to accrue some time
The third Two-Way player also helps prevent teams from going over their games limit.

Ja Morant was technically an active player for MEM, even though he's Suspended (they had 3 other guys on the Inactive slots). The distinction here is that MEM had all three of their Two-Ways active.

The Pelicans on the other hand had their 3 injured players inactive but ALSO had Dereon Seabron inactive (four total) so that he wouldn't accrue a game. The Pelicans are also running with only 14 standard contracts, meaning the Pelicans intentionally decided to run w/ only 13 instead of 15.


What this ultimately means is 2K over the long-term will need to overhaul the way they handle the Inactive list (they currently treat it as slots 14-18 in their spreadsheet, while reality is becoming far more complex). They're already painfully out of date in the manner they handle Two-Ways and the G-League. They're in for a world of pain once every franchise has a G-League team and there's a true minor league system in place.

[Eaglerock562]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

This is from the Collective Bargaining Agreement in regards to roster size and active and inactive players.

A team may have a maximum of 15 players on its active roster, and at least eight active players must suit up for every game. Any remaining players are placed in the Inactive List, and cannot play in games. Teams may have a maximum of two players on the Inactive List; this can drop to zero for up to two weeks at a time, and additional, temporary inactive positions may be added with league approval in hardship cases. Players sent to the NBA G League will continue to count on a team’s inactive list. While individual teams must carry a minimum of 13 (12 active plus one inactive) players, the NBA guarantees a league-wide average of at least 14 players per team. The league is surcharged if they do not meet the average.

15 active players is the maximum with 12 being the minimum so we should have 15 slots set for active players for every team ... we only have 13.

[PhlliesPhan6]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

A bump to 15 active would have to involve graphics changes though because there's only enough seats and players on the bench for 13 total.

[Eaglerock562]

Re: Game Rotation and Inactive List

A bump to 15 active would have to involve graphics changes though because there's only enough seats and players on the bench for 13 total.

Gotcha, well then this should be on the their list of things to change in 2k25 because its not so much a game breaker for me but it would be nice to be able to have the additional 2 spots.