"POISON PILL" LEAGUE
This is an idea that has generated plenty of interest in the past but has never quite filled a league. There's more encouraging momentum in WISNBA theme leagues than I've seen for a while, so it's time to give this one a push.
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: $47 million
Waiver wire, rookies, clones: Not allowed
Poison pill specifications: Minimum $6 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 sim owner 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. eleibowitz
3. ncmusician_7
4. bluenote 75
5. malone9975 (poison pills needed)
6. scudmissle
7. logain
POISON PILLS:
George McGinnis 74-75
Maurice Stokes 55-56
Allen Iverson 01-02
George Mikan 51-52
Larry Foust 52-53
Bob Cousy 52-53
Dominique Wilkins 84-85 (under debate)
Jerry Stackhouse 00-01
Marvin Barnes 74-75
Elvin Hayes 70-71
Brook Lopez 10-11
John Starks 98-99
Joe Graboski 52-53
3/11/2012 11:09 AM (edited)