League Rules

🎖️ The Modern Era NBA
BIG thank you to ‘dgtedford’ and 'gs93' for the inspiration for this league.

🏀 Inaugural 1996 Season 🎖️
-This league will start in the year 1996 with the 1996-97 rosters loaded to each franchise. When joining the league, you are able to select any available franchise to begin. Please send the commish a message with your choice.
-It is up to you to sign your players with a 15 roster max -- Inaugural 1996 Player Signing info to follow****

🏀 Inaugural 1996 Player Signing Period💰
-Salary Cap is $150
-Players' Contract Demands are LESS during this period to ensure that team's do not have issues with the Salary Cap to start the the Modern Era NBA
-Player's Contract Demands will increase after this period
*This is important to note when filling out initial rosters
-Rookie Rate Contracts -- players 23 y/o and younger can be signed for up to 4 / $6
*To do so, send a message to the commissioner with the name of the player and the length you'd like to sign him

🏀 Inaugural 1996 Player Stat Change📈
-To start the Modern Era, each franchise has the option to select one (1) player and change his stats to any year in his career, while keeping his current age
-To make this selection, send a message to the commissioner with the name of the player and the year you'd like to change his stats to

🎖️ LEAGUE OVERVIEW:
The Modern Era NBA begins in 1996 and all rosters, coaches, logos and arenas are up to date as of of the 1996 season, with a couple of early updates from the new Commissioner's Office. When joining this league, you are tin the driver's seat of the franchise and are taking control of the organization's relocations, logo updates, coaches, arena, and financials. Team owners will receive a message/notification about a logo update or city relocation if it is relevant to your franchise and their real-life changes, but if and when owners would like to change their Head Coach, Arena name, or have questions about relocation just send a commissioner a message

🗓️ LEAGUE CALENDAR
-Roster Deadline (Day 1)
-Regular Season (82 games - 3 Sims Daily at every 8 hr. 26 Division Games & 2 Games vs every non-division opponent)
-Trade Deadline (Day 50 - deadline for FA adds/trades)
-All-Star Weekend (Day 60 - 5 days rest, NBA All-Stars selected)
-End of Regular Season - MVP & DPOY Awards announced
-Playoffs (16 teams - Every round will be best of 7. Division Winners granted #1 & #2 Seeds)
-Finals MVP announced
-Deadline to Sign Extensions
-Progressions
-Trades Turned On for Upcoming Season
-Draft
-Top 3 Draftees' Stat Changes
-Bottom 10 Teams' Stat Changes
-Sign Rookie Contracts
(Owners have the option to NOT sign their newly drafted player to a Rookie Contract by sending message to the commish)
-Unrestricted Free Agency (Players that did not get re signed or drafted will enter Free Agency for bidding)
-FA Adds allowed again
-End of offseason

🏟️ ROSTERS:

-Each team will have 15 roster spots, and all may be active active players. Minimum roster size at all times is 8 players
-Owners may not exceed roster limits during the regular season or post season
(Owners may exceed the roster limit during the offseason as long as they are compliant by the Roster Deadline)

💰 SALARY CAP:

-Each team will start with a salary cap of $150 for the year. Teams may not exceed the salary cap during the regular season
-Owners may not exceed salary cap during the regular season or post season
-During the offseason, a team may temporarily exceed the cap, but must be compliant by the Roster Deadline

💰 CONTRACTS/CONTRACT EXTENSIONS:

-A standard contract maximum length is 4 years in length
-Rookie Contracts are all 4/2 years in length (unless player is NOT SIGNED after draft)
-Max Extension is 4 years in length at player's asking price
-Unrestricted Free Agency will be a blind bidding process. You may bid as often as you’d like, within your cap space and roster limit (more info below)
-Unsigned Free Agents can be added at the veteran minimum of $1/1 year AFTER the Unrestricted Free Agency period ends
**Newly signed players cannot be traded until Day 20 of the regular season

-Rookie Contracts are available to any player drafted by a team in the 1st or 2nd Round
(If a team decides to not sign a Rookie that they drafted, the player will be released to the Unrestricted Free Agent pool.)

The salary scale for Rookie Contracts is based on draft position for the player, as follows:

LOTTERY Pick (Top 13): 4 Years x $8 per Year
1st Round, Picks 13-29: 4 Years x $6 per Year
2nd Round (All 2nd Rd): 2 Years x $2 per Year

**At the end of their rookie contracts players are able to resign at their asking price. It is up to the team's GM/Owner to sign them before they hit Free Agency

📊 PROGRESSIONS:

-This league will use random progressions performed during the offseason
-Player progression will peak at 28, and start to decline at age 32
**Players imported for the inaugural 1996 season and every draft class will all have a C (Classic) Progression
**Players will improve to A (All Star) and then S (Superstar) Progression, respectively, once earning All-Star honors, MVP, Finals MVP or DPOY but CANNOT progress straight from C -> S. Players can only improve one progression rank per season

❇️ ROOKIE DRAFT:

-The draft will consist of two rounds with real draft classes for that year being imported

The draft lottery format and draft order will look like the following:

Teams that make the NBA Playoffs will draft 14th - 29th base off of regular season record (worst to best)
Teams that finish with a bottom 13 record in the league will be given a Lottery Ball(s) in the NBA Lottery

🎰 LOTTERY:
-Teams that finish with a bottom 13 record in the league
-The Lottery will be a 91 Ping-Pong Ball Lottery with odds as following:

Worst Record in the League - 13 Ping-Pong Balls (14.3%)
2nd Worst Record in the League - 12 Ping-Pong Balls (13.2%)
3rd Worst Record in the League - 11 Ping-Pong Balls (12.1%)
4th Worst Record in the League - 10 Ping-Pong Balls (11.0%)
5th Worst Record in the League - 9 Ping-Pong Balls (9.9%)
6th Worst Record in the League - 8 Ping-Pong Balls (8.8%)
7th Worst Record in the League - 7 Ping-Pong Balls (7.7%)
8th Worst Record in the League - 6 Ping-Pong Balls (6.6%)
9th Worst Record in the League - 5 Ping-Pong Balls(5.5%)
10th Worst Record in the League - 4 Ping-Pong Balls (4.4%)
11th Worst Record in the League - 3 Ping-Pong Balls (3.3%)
12th Worst Record in the League - 2 Ping-Pong Balls (2.2%)
13th Worst Record in the League - 1 Ping-Pong Balls(1.1%)

The Commissioner will draw for the winner of the #1 Pick, the #2 Pick, and the #3 Pick. The remaining picks (4-13) are decided by regular season record of the remaining teams outside of the Top 3 (from worst to best)

📈 ROOKIE STAT CHANGES:

-Players drafted in the TOP 3 have the opportunity to change their current stat year to ANY stat year of the career, while not changing in age

EX: If you have a TOP 3 Pick, you have the opportunity to change the stat year of whoever you draft. This can dramatically change the trajectory of a franchise


📈 STAT CHANGES:

-During the offseason, the bottom 10 random teams, according to regular season standings, will be allowed to make a stat change for one player. The change must be to the current year's stats only.

EX: If we have ended the 2003 season and you have a bottom 10 record going into the 2004 season, you are allowed to change one player's stats from his current year to his 2004 season (the current season/year that we are going into)

🤝🏽 TRADE FAIRNESS:

-Trades may include players and picks (up to 3 years ahead), and are subject to commish approval for fairness. If a trade is deemed unfair, it will be vetoed. This will only come into play with extremely lop-sided cases, which would usually be a player trying to take advantage of another player
**If needed, we will vote by league poll regarding the fairness and execution of the trade
-Traded picks CANNOT be protected - meaning that if you trade your 1st Round Pick, you are giving up your 1st Round Pick regardless if it ends up between picks 20-29 or even Top 3
**Salary Cap and Stat Changes are not allowed to be included in trades

💸 FREE AGENCY:
IMPORTANT: In all stages of Free Agency, signings and bids are binding and final, and will not be deleted/retracted, so please be careful when you sign/bid

-In-season Free Agency is simple - sign any available player from the Free Agents tab on a 1 year/ $1 contract
(Meaning, they are yours for the rest of the season and into the following season to be up for Resigning/Contract Negotiation)
-The Free Agency pool will be populated by unsigned rookies/veterans and cut players on a yearly basis
(Cut players in Free Agency will have their previously signed contract rather than the 1 year/ $1)

In the offseason, Unrestricted Free Agency will take place:

Unrestricted Free Agency:

Unrestricted Free Agency will be a blind bidding process. You may bid as often as you’d like, within your cap space and roster limit. There is no maximum amount you can offer a Free Agent, but standard contract limits still apply - max of 4 years

As we are approaching Free Agency, we will determine either a 72 or 96 hour time period to submit Free Agency Bids by sending a message with your offer/bid to the Commissioner. The Commissioner will leave the received messages sealed and unread until the end of the 72 or 96 hours to determine the outcome of Free Agency

-Bids can have an increase or decrease of up to +/- 5 per season
-Minimum contract offer amount per year is $2
-Unsigned players will be dropped into the Free Agent pool
-If we have a tie, the two owners will be notified and will submit a second bid to break the tie
-Unsigned players will be dropped into the Free Agent pool

‼️ IMPORTANT: In all stages of Free Agency, bids are binding and final, and will not be deleted/retracted, so please be careful when you bid. Also, bids cannot be contingent on the failure or success of another active bid.


⛔️ CUTS:

-A Player may ONLY be cut to comply with the 15 man roster or the League Salary Cap and comes with a penalty of forfeiture of a future 1st Round Draft Pick(s) and/or Salary Cap Fines in a future season if repeated offenses occur
-When a player(s) is cut to comply with the 15 man roster or the League Salary Cap, that player(s) will go to Free Agency with their current contract . If another team would like to add the player from Free Agency, they’ll have to assume the remaining salary on the player’s contract
-A claiming team is NOT eligible to add a Cut Free Agent if the player's contract will cause the claiming team's salary to exceed the Salary Cap
-Neither the team placing the player on waivers, or the team who claims the player can back out once the moves have been made
-The team cutting the player CANNOT re-sign that particular player until the following offseason


🏥 INJURIES/DAYS OFF:

-Injuries will last for a maximum of 20 games. They will not carry over from season to season.

Days off will be given as follows:
5 days for All-Star Break
3 days between regular season and start of playoffs
1 day between playoff rounds


🌐 EXPANSION:

We will have a NBA league-wide GM/Owner's vote on expansion with the addition of a 30th & 31st franchise in 2004

-IF we will be including an expansion team(s) in 2004 and where/who it will be
(Expansion will occur during the same years that they occurred historically)
-There will NOT be an Expansion Draft -- the expansion team(s) will be given the #1 Pick in the 1st and 2nd Round and will be responsible for filling out the rest of their roster via Free Agency

🚫 OWNER INACTIVITY:

-If an owner is inactive for more than 30 days, the commish will remove them from the league, replacing them as quickly as possible. If this occurs during the season, the commish may manage the team minimally to keep the league running smoothly. If this occurs during the offseason, the commish may pause briefly to fill the spot.

🚫 TANKING/LOSING ON PURPOSE FOR IMPROVED DRAFT SPOTS, ETC.:

-Tanking will simply not be permitted. It’s your responsibility to field the best team possible, per your long term strategy. Please report concerns, and the commish will be monitoring the league for these situations. If it happens, the offending team (and any other teams involved) will be immediately removed.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1990 - 2025
Roster Size	15
Min Active Players	8
Max Active Players	15
Keepers	(15 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Injuries	(20 games max)
Player Training
User Sims	(every 8 hours)