Imagine...

Imagine what it'd be like to see every all-time NBA great progress through their careers at the same time.  Would Russell win 11 out of 13 rings in a league with Bird & Magic? 





Would Jordan win so many consecutive scoring titles win a league with Wilt? 





Would Shaq be as dominant when he's in a league with 23 other elite, all-time centers instead of just 2 or 3?






Would Duncan still be considered the greatest PF if he had to play against players like the Mailman, Barkley, McHale & Rodman night after night?




  How would the best two players in the world right now fare against the all-time greats?



It's time to find out.  And in a better representation to the NBA (and unlike any other progressive league currently running in WISNBA), teams will have to adhere to a salary cap.  Now you can't just stockpile talent forever; you have to make decisions every season as to who you can afford to keep (and who is worth holding onto).

Here's the particulars!

Cap:  TBD; somewhere in the $52M to $55M range
*no clones, all players are exclusive
*no waiver wire
*no rookies

Here's how this shizzle works:

DRAFT
*Initially we'll have a draft.  The draft order will be determined randomly using the New York Lottery.  Slymonium will be the man to set that up.  We use it to determine many things for themes and will use it each season to determine the lottery for draft picks.

*The draft will be snake style, going A B B A B A B A B A B A, meaning if you are the team with the first overall pick, you select 24th in rounds 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 while picking first in 1, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12.

*When you make your selection, please put the name of your player in bold and put the player's year (it will always be their rookie season for the initial draft, but it still is helpful to put the year).

*Always remember to sitemail the two owners after you that they are up and on deck to pick.  If you can't sitemail, please state it when you draft so someone else can do so.

*Proxies!  I will not require you to proxy, but if you know you're going to miss your slot or just want to be polite and keep the draft moving along at a reasonable pace, send proxies!  You should send them to the next two people that draft *after* you.  Also, I'm a good option for proxies as I'm around alot when at work.

*Time slots & skips.  If someone completely misses their time slot, once the next slot starts, it's free game.  So if player A is slotted from noon till 1pm, at 1:00pm, Player B can draft.  Once player B has drafted, Player C can draft.  He does not have to wait on player A to pick or till his (player C's) time slot comes up.  This is standard practice in draft leagues.

*An owner cannot be skipped twice, however.  If Player A misses his first round pick and has not picked by the time his time slot for round 2 has passed, the draft goes on hold until a reasonable solution can be found.  This has rarely occurred in draft leagues here, and I've never seen it happen in a prog league.

*Early rounds will have longer time slots on them than later rounds.  I want to get started as badly as everyone else does, but I'm going to make this as fair as possible.  More details to come on this facet.

How the League Progresses
*Every player drafted starts with their rookie year.  After the first season is over, all players progress to their second year.  After the second season, they progress to their third.  And so on.  So if I draft Michael Jordan, he starts with the 84-85 season.  The second year of the league, he'll be in his 85-86 season.  The third 86-87.  You get the picture.

*If a player missed out on a season completely, they go to the IR for that year (or years).  For example, if you owned Magic Johnson, he'd be available to you till the 90-91season.  After that, he'd have to be on the IR for the next four seasons but would be available to you again for his 95-96 season.

*Once a player runs out of seasons in the sim database, he is retired.  There will be no recycling of 2 or 3 year wonders.  This puts more emphasis on players who had longevity over their careers.

*After every season, there is a short offseason period.  During this period, you will do the following things for your roster:
1) progress everyone one season
2) decide what cuts you want to make as well as trades
3) post said moves in a single thread known as the keeper thread. 
4) After everyone's keepers have been posted, there will be a couple of days until keepers are locked.  Once keepers are locked, there will be a lottery drawing.
5) Draft.

*New season begins and everything starts allover again.

*Cut players progress just like players on squads.  They remain free agents until they retire or are drafted by another team, but they "get older" just like everyone else.

*New Players - aka players who are drafted that aren't considered free agents - always start with their rookie season.


Other League Rules:
*Your team can absolutely *not* ever be over the cap.  I don't care how much you love your squad, if your team progresses over the cap, you have to make cuts to get back under the cap.  Don't draft someone without seeing if they put you over the cap.  If you do this accidentally, the last player you drafted will be released and you'll be forced to accept a $239k scrub of my choosing.  So don't do it.

*Team Names.  Please stick to a City/State - Mascot theme (example: Memphis Manglers or Tennessee Tornadoes).  Neither the city nor the mascot have to be real NBA towns, but please stick to this format.  It will make everything easier in the long run.  Also, please don't be offensive with your team names.  We're all adults here.

*I will keep some historical things for this league.  I'm working on how much right now - and how to share it with you - but it will be quite extensive.  I'll at least share as much as I keep for my own personal teams.  I plan on talking to Zizzo to see how he does his and see if there's less headaches than the way I do it.  Once I have this stuff figured out, I'll share it with all of you.

*I will approach WIS about getting us a private forum.

Owner List:
ashamael
malone9975
seapilots
sappy
bluenote75
theyard2
mikee1
jt111583
tkcronin
abfball60
bfhendricks
Ginandjuice
snydpie
slymonium
omegax
logain
onubears4656
tricky24
dh555
Husker75
jcred5
deathproof
onslaught
ncih

Waitlist:
calcutta

Cap would add an interesting component.  I'm not in the UPL so does a UPL provide a larger pool of players than a normal prog?
Still relatively new to these season to season drafts leagues but it seems some of these players fluctuate pretty dramatically
yr. to yr. with mins & salary.  Would there be a min. floor (ex. 19K) and a $ cap? 
Count me in Ash I've aquired a good deal of knowledge from your posts and I enjoy the exclusive draft more than OL. 
thnx again for your insight.

yes

How do you monitor it as the seasons go on though...seems like a lot of work for a little reward

I wish someone would explain what a progressive league is.  I see it mentioned quite a bit but have no idea how it works.  Anyone want to describe it for me?  Thanks in advance.

A progressive league is one where your players advance season to season just like they do in real life.

Season one Magic 79-80
Season two Magic 80-81
Season three Magic 81-82

This continues until Magic runs ouf ot seasons or you cut him.

I'd jump in.   I like the idea that some players may need to be "cut" for salary cap purposes.

Would the cap stay the same season to season or would it change?

hell yes

I really like the idea but I don't necessarily like the repetative use of the same superstar players over and over again. Blacklisting players that have been retired would make it more realistic. Forcing owners to use the following season for each player that has been cut would also make it more realistic rather than drafting a player and starting him in his rookie season again. The same seasons of the same players will be repeated over and over again. It would be extra work but you don't have to post an available players list for this league so having to post blacklisted players and the available season for players who have been cut wouldn't really be that hard to keep up with. What would be the cap? 

I tried to run a league like this only using any players who played in 1980- the present season with each player starting in their rookie season with the blacklist rule but sometimes I think I've been blacklisted. If you drafted Jabbar you would start him in his rookie season even though it was before 1980. Wilt wouldn't be allowed to be used in this league cuz he never played in the 80's-present season. Anyways I just thought I would throw it out there. I may join if interest grows and I can go along with the repetition. Good luck, blacklisted snydpie LOL

Cap would add an interesting component.  I'm not in the UPL so does a UPL provide a larger pool of players than a normal prog?
Still relatively new to these season to season drafts leagues but it seems some of these players fluctuate pretty dramatically
yr. to yr. with mins & salary.  Would there be a min. floor (ex. 19K) and a $ cap? 

Yes, the UPL provides the largest pool of players (all of them).  You draft your team and everyone starts as a rookie.  As the league progresses, so do your players.  I don't think there wold need to be a minute floor as tanking in the UPL has never been a problem... since everybody is available to start, there's no seasons coming up where you would compete in a negative manner to have a chance at drafting Wilt, Jordan or Lebron (for example).  Yes, there would be a salary cap, as this is the whole idea behind this league.

How do you monitor it as the seasons go on though...seems like a lot of work for a little reward

I'm not sure what you mean.  Planning ahead is what progressives are all about.  If you can't keep track of it, then this league is not for you (note that I'm meaning you in a general sense here, not you specifically).

*ncih answered tadmand already

I'd jump in.   I like the idea that some players may need to be "cut" for salary cap purposes.

Would the cap stay the same season to season or would it change?

The cap would not increase over time.  It'd be high enough that you could keep some guys that you really wouldn't use all that much but low enough to force you to make some tough decisions. (Do I keep this guy making $3M this year for his season coming up in 2 years that's really good or do I go ahead and cut him to be better THIS season and hope nobody signs him before I get the chance to).

I really like the idea but I don't necessarily like the repetative use of the same superstar players over and over again.

Then you miss pretty much the entire point of the UPL:  To see all of the NBA's greatest duke it out in a progressive league.  See Jordan, Wilt & Lebron progress through their careers simultaneously from rookies to legends.  What if Bird & Magic didn't have their elite teammates full of hall-of-famers in a league where 18 of the other teams had none?  The entire point of the UPL is to watch the superstars;  the point of a cap is to have more realistic support around said stars - and to have to make tough decisions about who to keep around and who to let go!

Blacklisting players that have been retired would make it more realistic.

Not blacklisting anybody.  Misses the point.  This isn't a once-and-done league.  Progressives with blacklisted players are lame and never seem to last.

Forcing owners to use the following season for each player that has been cut would also make it more realistic rather than drafting a player and starting him in his rookie season again.

My idea was that once a player was cut, he is considered a free agent until the league ends.  No recycling of Charlie Edge like I've done in the UPL.  No 'get the useful out of Pooh Richardson, cut him, wait a year, and use him again.'  None of that.  You cut a guy, he progresses like everyone else - as a free agent.  But undrafted guys will still start as rookies.  Also, when a player runs out of seasons in the sim, he's retired.  No re-entering the pool.  No IR until he gets another season... he's just done.

Your league used blacklisting (which is just not cool in progressives), and yes, you are somewhat blacklisted.  I wouldn't keep you out of my league, but I sure wouldn't join your league after some of the stuff you've said over the years.  I know of other owners who feel the same.




Bottom line is that this is a feeling-out of sorts.  I don't think anything like this has been done before in sim league basketball... so I need to see if the interest is even out there before recruiting to fill it.  If it does fill, this will be my baby, and I'll put a lot of effort into it and its history.  But after being let down on the Over The Hump league which took off like a jet and then crashed after 3 seasons, I want to be sure before I exert that effort.

I'm in, this sounds like fun.

I'd play.

I'm in

the baseball SIM has grown quite stale . . . I'm in