League Rules

Commissioner: Potholes
Vice Commissioner: bhicks42
Trade Committee:
All-Star Game Director: Potholes

The goal of this league is to rewrite history starting with the 1984-1985 season. The league will consist of 24 NBA teams will continue to the 2024-2025 season and beyond. The pace of the league will be one (1) decade a year. League progression will be real life and there will be no expansion teams. The season will be an 82-game season taking place over 82 days. Each team will have 41 Home and 41 Away games. Teams will play each team three or four times a season. The league will include a draft lottery which is based upon a combination of the April 1986 and October 1989 NBA Lottery rules.

*The league office reserves the right to execute with discretion in any event to ensure fair play, and a fun experience for all. If all goes well this will be very few and far between but as GM much of this in your hands to work with good intentions.

1. Draft Class: After the playoffs each season, we will import the rookies who came into the league for that season. They will be added to Free Agency, and we will have a slow draft to place the players. 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 three 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 fourth, the team with the second-worst record no worse than fifth and so on.

The lottery is based upon a weighted system and the twelve (12) non-playoff teams will participate. The team with the worst regular-season record receives 12 chances at the top pick (out of a total of 78), 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 three 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)
12 (15.4%)
11 (14.1%)
10 (12.8%)
9 (11.5%)
8 (10.3%)
7 (9.0%)
6 (7.7%)
5 (6.4%)
4 (5.1%)
3 (3.8%)
2 (2.6%)
1 (1.3%)

3. Draft Order (1st Round): The Draft Lottery determines the order of selection for the first three 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 fourth, the team with the second worst record no worse than fifth and so on.

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.

4. Trades: You can only trade draft picks for the next 2 seasons out. Ex: 1984-85 season you can trade the picks from 1985 & 1986 drafts. Two-part trades and protected lottery picks are not allowed.

5. Trading Deadline: The Trade Center will close after Day 60 has been simulated. Simulations will be paused for 24 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

6. Post Season: At the conclusion of the regular season, teams will be granted 3 days off and a 12-team playoff will be played. The division winners will be ranked 1 & 2 (best record as the 1) teams ranked 3-6 will fall in according to rank. Division winners will have a 1st round bye. All series are best-of-seven in the 2-3-2 format. In any tie situation, we go to the tiebreaker rules.

7. Tiebreaker Rules: We will settle a tie using 1. Head-to-Head 2. Points For 3. Points Against

8. 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 several 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 - Loss of first round draft pick
3rd 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. If all goes well this will be very few and far between but as GM much of this in your hands to work with good intentions.

Examples of NBA teams tanking are:

2005-06 Minnesota Timberwolves

The 2005-06 Timberwolves famously tanked the final game of the season to keep its own pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Minnesota had dealt a pick to the Clippers that was top 10 protected, meaning that the pick would go to Los Angeles should the Wolves win too many games. As the season’s end approached, the Timberwolves were clearly losing games intentionally and the last game of the season was the most flagrant example.

Aside from sitting both Kevin Garnett and Ricky Davis, coach Dwane Casey utilized forward Mark Madsen as his main perimeter threat. The only problem with this was the fact that Madsen was no sharpshooter and the only threat he represented was to the game’s integrity. Despite having previously shot 1-for-9 over the course of his six-year career, Madsen fired away from deep seven times, making none. The ploy worked and the Wolves kept their 2006 pick, ultimately drafting and trading Brandon Roy on draft night.

2002-03 Cleveland Cavaliers

Everyone who paid even the slightest bit of attention to basketball in 2002 knew about the hype surrounding then-high schooler LeBron James, and the Cavaliers were aware of how their franchise could benefit from landing the homegrown future superstar. While the owner of the team at the time, Gordon Gund, denied that the team was intentionally losing, head coach John Lucas knew exactly what was going on, telling AOL Fanhouse back in 2010, “They trade all our guys away and we go young, and the goal was to get LeBron and also to sell the team. You can't fault the Cavaliers for wanting to get LeBron. It was hard to get free agents to come there."

The Cavs did indeed trade their three best scorers – Andre Miller, Wesley Person and Lamond Murray – without getting much value in return. As a result, the team turned to the oft-maligned Ricky Davis to lead the Cavaliers, resulting in a record of 17-65 and the top pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. The Cavs happily took LeBron James with the first pick, and LeBron's arrival turned the franchise around and helped them to the NBA Finals in 2007.

9. 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 lose your 1st round draft pick. A third offense will result in removal 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.

10. Trade Committee: The Trade Committee will automatically review any trade involving all-star caliber players. 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 is made up of three (3) members and 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!

11. All Star Game: The All-Star Game will be played on Day 60. Simulations will be paused for 24 hours to allow the Commissioner to complete the All-Star Activities. 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 detail. All Star Game will be simulated at www.whatifsports.com.

12. Simulations: Simulations will be based upon Pacific Standard Time (PST) and take place at 6-hour intervals starting at 6 AM PST.

Sim 1 - 6 AM PST
Sim 2 - 12 PM PST
Sim 3 - 6 PM PST
Sim 4 - 12 AM PST

13. 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. 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 you must message the commissioner before you leave and try to at least estimate how long, you will be gone.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Training: Random training options will be available. A player may remain in training for 10 days (team off days count).

18. 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	1974 - 2026
Roster Size	13
Min Active Players	8
Max Active Players	13
Keepers	(13 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Injuries	(10 games max)
Player Training	(1unlimited schedule days)
User Sims