This concept generated a lot of interest a few weeks ago and I'd like to see if it's ready to fly.

"POISON PILL" LEAGUE

The general idea

The goal is to shake up WISNBA patterns and habits by forcing use of players we all (or most of us, anyway) avoid in this sim. They may be players whose real-life statistics (and therefore sim probabilities) are clearly radioactive, or players who are widely acknowledged to be bad luck - ya just can't win with 'em, whether or not the reason is clear.

The result should be interesting, rarely-seen lineups, innovative team-building strategies, and bigger-than-usual doses of uncertainty.

Selecting the "poisonous" players

Each owner selects two players for the Poison Pill pool. You must specify the season for each player (it doesn't matter which season as long as all the parameters are met).

The players are then dispersed through a serpentine draft so that each owner has two of the "pills" to build a team around. The drafting order for the first round is randomized.

The basic rules of the road

Salary cap: $37 million
Waiver wire, rookies, clones: Not allowed
Poison pill specifications: Minimum $5 mil salary, minimum 2700 minutes

What determines whether a player is sufficiently "poisonous"?

The first step is peer review, second step is reasoned debate, and third step is executive decision.

Anyone who's already signed up for the league can raise an objection to a particular player in the Poison Pill pool (shortly after the player is entered and long before the draft starts). The owner who listed that player can then offer an explanation to see if it's satisfactory and meets the straight face test. That should take care of most if not all issues. If a disagreement persists among owners, I will exercise the commissioner's prerogative and make a final judgment call.

The founding vision of this league is that players on the poison list should generally be players who rarely if ever get drafted in the current version of the sim. Either there's something obvious that prevents them from being a good fit on a competing team - terrible shooting percentages, horrible defense rating, high usage, high TOs/PFs, etc. - or they just seem plain unlucky.

However you approach the poison concept, remember that you are fundamentally trying to stick your fellow owners with piles of jersey-clad crap that no sensible hoops head would want as the centerpiece of an open league team. If we all steer toward that point on the compass, we should be fine.

And now, time to sign up if you have the stones, the vision, and either $9.99 or some credits burning a hole in your pocket.


In:

1) longtallbrad
2) dh555
3) empdenied
4) gdonley1
5) devizier
6) a_in_the_b
7) kstober

The Poison Pill Player Pool:

Elgin Baylor 60-61
Bob Cousy 52-53
Mel Daniels 67-68
John Havlicek 68-69
Allen Iverson 04-05
George McGinnis 73-74
George Mikan 51-52
Jermaine O'Neal 03-04
Andrew Phillip 51-52
Maurice Stokes 56-67
Jack Twyman 59-60
Kiki Vandeweghe 83-84


[Selections needed from dh555.]

My poisonous nominations are:

83-34 Kiki Vandeweghe - Provides lots of efficient scoring, but he is quantifiably the worst defender that meets the selection criteria.

73-74 George McGinnis - What's not to like about 4.9 TOs and 4.1 PFs per game? Add in his 46.9 efg%, and we have a great centerpiece. Sure, he scores and rebounds well, but that also means he's a stinkbomb who's actually eating up valuable cap space.

I'm totally in. Will have to come up with my Poison picks this evening. GREAT idea, ltb.

in

dont know when ill get the poison picks in....im sure ill have a lot of time tho....hope this gets filled

While Kiki can put some efficient points on the board, I decided to get guys who will shoot you OUT of a ballgame. They demand the right to throw the ball away!

51-52 George Mikan - 24 points per game. . .at 39.6% eFG. Nearly 3200 minutes of sub-40% eFG, with 31.2% usage. He brings average rebounding and above average assists/blocks for the C position, but he also pulls in nearly 4 turnovers and over 4 fouls per game. Oh, and he costs 7.9 million. . .


04-05 Allen Iverson - He bring 30 points and 8 assists to the table per game, but loses the ball 4.6 times a contest, while shooting 42.4 from the field and 30.8 from 3-land. Did I mention his 35% usage?

Welcome, dh and emp.

Mikan and Iverson are both excellent picks. Both give you scoring and Mikan tosses in some respectable rebounds, but they both take up enough room in an offense and enough salary space that you can only do so much to hide them.

OLD GRAMPS WANTS IN.....GOTTA FIND SOME TURDS

OLD GRAMPS WANTS IN.....GOTTA FIND SOME TURDS

OLD GRAMPS WANTS IN.....GOTTA FIND SOME TURDS

Welcome, Gramps. Glad to have you aboard.

Love this idea.

67-68 Mel Daniels: 1725 shots, 713 free throw attempts, and only 1820 points to show for it. He's a good rebounder and defender, but $7.3m is a steep price to pay for that.

03-04 Jermaine O'Neal: Surprisingly bad. Check out his rebounding.

Got you, devizier. Interesting choices. I never see Jermaine in this version of the sim. The better Daniels seasons make frequent appearances in draft leagues, but rarely open leagues.

00-01 Jerry Stackhouse: for 40 mins a game his 35.3% usgae demands he be your teams top scoring option....so enjoy that 40% from the field and 4.1 turnovers a game

99-00 Shawn Kemp: you get the washed up, overweight and totally coked out of his mind version...30.3% usage shooting 41.7% from the field and killing you with 3.5 turnovers and 4.5 fouls

I'd like to hear whether the specifications are working for folks as they look around for the poison pills. I found some particularly appealing players at around $4.5 mil, but let's see if there are enough stinkeroos at the higher level.