#129 | SimFBA & SimBBA | Offseason Free Agency Update

[TuscanSota]

Hi everyone,

 

I realize that I haven't done an update on Free Agency but here is what I can confirm for both this season's SimNBA off-season free agency cycle AND for SimFBA's offseason Free Agency cycle.

 

High Level Overview

• Off-season FA period has been shortened to 8 weeks from 10 weeks.
• Once a player enters the negotiation phase, competing teams will have one week to update their existing offers.
• Players in the negotiation phase will NOT display the dollar value of their current offers, nor will the official list be visible.
• Players that would enter the negotiation phase but DON'T have any offers on them will instead remain open to receiving any offers. Once an offer is placed and the next sync occurs, will they then enter negotiations.
• Players minimum values will have a base minimum of $1M and will adjust based on the contracts they sign 

 

The Details

Taking in feedback from previous cycles, we're making a few changes in order to expedite Free Agency and make a more competitive and fair experience. To start, we're shortening the off-season FA period from 10 weeks to 8 weeks. The accepting offers period will remain the same, the biggest change will be to the negotiation phase.

Once a player goes from accepting offers to the negotiation phase, they will only look at the current offers that are on the table. ALONG WITH THIS, all existing offers on the player will not be visible from the FA screen. Teams will still be able to view their current offer on the player and update their offer as needed; they will not be able to view any of their opponent's existing offers. Additionally, teams will only have one week to make any changes on their existing offer in negotiation.

On the next FA sync, the player will look at their existing offers and then make a decision. Negotiation phase will no longer be on the player's set schedule as it was in previous cycles and will now be an expedited process.

Once a player makes a decision, they will sign with the team that they choose.

 

Minimum Value

Due to last off-season where a number of very talented UDFA players signed for the base minimum of 0.7 and lower, we're adjusting the rules on base minimum.

To start, there were a number of invalid contracts where teams were able to offer players for less than the base minimum required for a contract in the league. To resolve this, all invalid contracts were updated to have a yearly value of at least 0.7 if the corresponding salary of that year was less than 0.7.

 

Moving forward, how we treat minimum value will be based on a new set of criteria which will be added to the dev diary once the team has made an agreement.

 

Additionally, along with base minimum, a player's minimum value will update to the offer's contract value and a multiplier based on the age of the player. This is intended to keep FA competitive and ensure that players that re-enter free agency or go into negotiations will not be stuck with the base minimum value which for the past two seasons has been 0.7.

Here is what the formula will look like

Minimum Value = Contract Value * (Age / Base Age)

The Base Age for the current season will be set to 30. We will look into adjusting this based on how FA goes this season.

Regarding players asking for Max and Super-Max contracts, their minimum value will still be based on a percentage of the current year salary cap, and not their minimum value. So, the above formula will not apply to these players.

 

G-League rosters

Each team is allowed up to 10 players on their team's respective G-League team. This is taken from this source on the NBA's official website.

https://www.nba.com/wizards/nba-g-league-faqs

 

In order for a player to be placed in the G-League for a team, the following must be true:

• The player is in the league for 3 or less seasons
• The player has two years or less remaining on their contract
• The player has a year total less than or equal to $2M

 

When will FA begin?

The Free Agency cycle begins next week. We are currently still ironing out some details regarding the minimum value of players in the current FA period.

 

 

Thanks,

Tuscan

[TuscanSota]

Due to internal discussions with the SimBBA team, we are pushing back the start of FA to next week in order to work out some issues with minimum contract value and provide balancing to this cycle. Thank you for understanding.