League Rules

ATG PC - 1989

Commish: tjmoss86

The goal of this league is to enjoy the last 35 years of the NBA starting with the 1988-89 season. We will be using real stat progression with no contracts. Starting with 28 teams in the 1989 season and no plans for expansion. We will be using an 82 game schedule played over 82 days with each team playing each other around 3-4 times. 15 Man Rosters. Injuries will be capped at ten games. There will be a draft lottery at the end of each season to determine draft order.

Rules:

1. Draft Class: After the playoffs, rookies will be imported who came into the league for that season. They will be added to Free Agency, and we will conduct a slow live draft. The draft will consist of two (2) rounds. The 1st Round will have an 8-hour time limit followed by a 4-hour time limit for the 2nd Round. Owners are encouraged to pre-rank.

2. Draft Lottery: To help prevent tanking we will implement a draft lottery. The draft lottery determines the order of selection for the first seven teams only or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded. The remaining non-playoff teams would select in inverse order of their regular-season records. Therefore, the team with the worst record would be assured of a selection no worse than eight, the team with the second-worst record no worse than ninth and so on. Tiebreakers will be split upon positive H2H record and if still split upon power rankings.

The lottery is based upon a weighted system and the 12 non-playoff teams will participate. The team with the worst regular-season record receives 12 chances at the top pick , the second-worst team gets 11 chances, and the team with the best record among the non-playoff teams will be given one chance. The twelve (12) non-playoff teams will be ranked on Draftpicklottery.com and the results will be posted to the league home page. The draft lottery determines the order of selection for the first seven teams only or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded.

The Draft Lottery will be a weighted lottery and odds will look like this:
Team 1 (last place team) -12 balls
Team 2- 11 balls
Team 3 - 10 balls
Team 4 - 9 balls
Team 5 - 8 balls
Team 6 - 7 balls
and so on, down to Team 12 which has 1 ball

Chances (Odds)
1. 15.4%
2. 14.1%
3. 12.8%
4. 11.5%
5. 10.3%
6. 9%
7. 7.7%
8. 6.4%
9. 5.1%
10. 3.8%
11. 2.6%
12. 1.3%


3. Draft Order (1st Round): The Draft Lottery determines the order of selection for the first seven teams only or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded. The remaining non-playoff teams are selected in inverse order of the win–loss record for the remaining teams, or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded. Therefore, the team with the worst record in the league is assured of a selection no worse than eighth, the team with the second worst record no worse than ninth and so on. Tiebreakers will be split upon positive H2H record and if still split upon power rankings.

*Notice how this is different than most lottery systems - the best pick you are guaranteed will be 8th in the lottery system - this is to deter teams from fully tearing teams down or "pseudo tanking" during years where there are stacked draft classes and add a consistent element of luck*


4. Draft Order (2nd Round): Teams pick in inverse order of their records in the second round, or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded. In any tie situation, we go to the tiebreaker rules.

5. Trades: You can trade draft picks for the next 3 seasons out. Ex: 1988-89 season you can trade the picks from 1989/90/91 drafts. Two-part trades and protected lottery picks are allowed.

6. Trading Deadline: The Trade Center will close after Day 60 has been simulated. Simulations will be paused for 48 hours to allow owners time to finalize trade agreements. The Trade Center will open back up at the conclusion of the season.

Trade Center Open – End of season to Day 60
Trade Center Closed – Day 60 to end of season

7, Post Season: At the conclusion of the regular season, teams will be granted 4 days off and a 16-team playoff will be played. The division winners will be ranked 1 & 2 (best record as the 1) teams ranked 3-8 will fall in according to rank. All series are best-of-seven in the 2-3-2 format. Teams with the better seed will be the home team. In any tie situation, we go to the tiebreaker rules.

8.. Tiebreaker Rules: We will settle a tie using 1. Head-to-Head 2. Power Rankings 3. Points For.

9. Tanking: Tanking is when a team deliberately loses games so that they can increase their chances of getting a high draft pick. The teams that do this are those that believe they don’t have a chance to get to the playoffs. Tanking can be defined in a number of ways such as:

Sandbagging players
Not setting lineups
Having lower tier players in the lineup
Assigning boosts to lower tier players
Trading a 21-year-old Lebron James for a 33-year-old Shaquille O'Neal
Trading away your best players for little in return

If the league office determines that a team is tanking that is detrimental to the league, they will be punished as followed:

1st offense - Warning
2nd offense - Removal from the league

*The league office reserves the right to execute with discretion in any event to ensure fair play, and a fun experience for all.

10. Trades: All Trades are subject to review by the league office. Almost all trades will be allowed unless it is clearly lopsided and provides absolutely no benefit to one of the teams. Make one trade like this and it will be vetoed, and you will be warned. If you make another trade like this after being warned, you will most likely be removed from the league. The league office reserves the right to refer any trade to the Trade Committee for review. This is to protect the integrity of the league.

11. Trade Committee: The Trade Committee will automatically review any trade. The Trade Committee is responsible for monitoring trades made in the league to assure the integrity of the league and to protect new owners who are still learning the ropes. The Trade Committee are tasked with protecting owners (especially new owners) from making grossly one-sided trades. If necessary, a league poll can be set up to vote on the fairness of a trade. Everyone here wants a competitive fair league! (if you would like to be part of the trade committee...Direct message tjmoss86)

12. All Stars: Each Conference will have 12 All-Stars which will be selected by the League Commissioner based upon MVP Points as determined by Pennant Chase. Please review the Awards and All-Stars tab for more details. All Star Game will be simulated at www.whatifsports.com.

13. Simulations:
Games 1-6: 8 hours
Games 7-15: 6 hours
Games 16-75: 4 hours (48 hour pause for trade deadline after game 60)
Games 76-82: 8 hours
-This is to give everyone time to look over rosters and tweak as the season begins and ends
(Subject to commish changing league settings on time)

14. Progressions/Stat Changes:
Progression will be Real Stat based

*Special* - in each offseason there will be 7 teams (25%) that will be selected via lottery that will be able to change ONE player's stats to one of the previous two seasons.

Example: During the 1988-89 season you are allowed to change one player's stats to either the 86-87 or 87-88 season

(When progression is run...player will revert back to the real stats of the current season meaning this is a one year change)

*Players that do not play for the current season but will return for future seasons after (I.e. Alonzo Mourning) will be returned to the original team and can be traded at any time*

15. Inactivity: Any owner who does not log into the game or read the league messages for more than 10 days will be dropped from the league if they do not give warning. Simply let the commissioner know beforehand if you will be away for 10 days or more, and your team will be held for you. If you are going to miss an extended period of time you must message the commissioner before you leave and try to at least estimate how long, you will be gone.

16. Conduct: Be respectful, in chat and even in private messages. Immature owners will eventually have to be let go. A little trash talk is fine, though personal attacks on another owner will not be permitted. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send the Commissioner a message. Stay active and have fun.

17. Player Health: Players can get injured; the maximum days of injury will be 10 games. Players may play injured but will be reduced to a minimum of 15%. You can see the percentages of your players likelihood of getting injured on your team roster.

18 Awards: MVP, DPOY, and Sixth Man will be determined by Pennant Chase. ROY, ALL NBA Team, ALL Rookie Team, and ALL Defensive Team will be determined by Pennant Chase points. All-Star MVP and Finals MVP will be determined by the commissioner. The Commissioner may put awards to a vote if there is not a clear-cut winner. Please review the Awards and All-Stars tab for more detail.

19. Training: Training will not be available

20. Inactive Players: These players are out for this season, they could be injured for the year or playing overseas. In any case, they will return to their previous team the year noted. These players can be traded if the team wants to do so.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1988 - 2025
Roster Size	14
Min Active Players	8
Max Active Players	12
Keepers	(15 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Injuries	(10 games max)
Player Training
User Sims