After you sign up, you will be taken to the Team Draft Center. Your 12 draft picks can be of any position you'd like.
Each team owner is given cash based on the league salary cap to cover their payroll expenses. Open leagues will all have a $47 million cap. Theme leagues may have salary caps of $37 million, $42 million, $47 million, $52 million, or $57 million depending on what the league founder chooses.
This cash may be dispersed any way you see fit. For example, you can choose to spend most of it on just a couple of players or you may choose a more balanced spending approach. Once you add a player to your roster, the player may be replaced at any time until you join a league. Once you create your team, you can only replace a player by using the waiver wire.
Salaries for all players are not based on actual salary data, but instead calculated using formulas to quantify the value of a player to a SimLeague team. All players are priced using the same salary formula.
***You do NOT have to draft your entire team all at once. We save your draft picks, so if you want to come back and finish you draft, you can!
Since SimLeague competition is based on statistics (i.e. past performance), you may choose from any player, both current and past, who played at least 200 minutes.
Players are not listed by career numbers, but instead individual season statistics. So, you may have the same player on your roster multiple times, as long as the player is from different seasons, i.e. you can have '91 and '92 John Stockton on your roster, but you can not have 2 '92 John Stocktons on your roster. In addition, a player may be on more than one team in the league at the same time, i.e. 2 teams may both have '98 Patrick Ewing on their rosters.
Once the roster has been completed, you will be asked to give your team a name (the use of profanity is prohibited) and be asked to choose a home court. You have over 55 courts to choose from, ranging from historic to modern.
You will also be asked to either:
Your team must be under the salary cap of your chosen league to be placed in that league. Immediately after you save your team, you will be placed in a league. Once the league is full, each team owner will receive an email notifying them that their league has been set, games scheduled and the date league play will begin. The league schedule will vary based on the type of league you join - exhibition or full-season.
Once you have completed your roster and selected a home court, you will be taken to the Team Center. The Team Center is the center of your SimLeague universe. From the Team Center, you have access to different areas to help you manage your team:
This area allows you to view your team's schedule, view your team's standings, view stats for the other teams in your league, post messages to other team owners in your league, view boxscores from any day on your schedule, and view other league information.
This area allows you to view the status of your roster, set up a depth chart for each position, preview who you'll be playing in your next game, set your Coaching Style, and double team opposing players.
This area gives you access to the your Inactive List and the league Waiver Wire. The Inactive List is available if the league uses rookies. It allows you to move players back and forth to the active roster. Players on the Inactive List will NOT play in games.
The Waiver Wire shows players that are available to be claimed. You may claim a player if you don't already have that player on your roster (the same player from the same year can not be on your roster twice) and you have enough available cash to afford to claim the player.
You are required to maintain a full roster of 12 players
(or 15 if using rookies) so in order to claim someone, you must release an existing player.
The salary freed up by releasing a player combined with any available cash you had after
your draft equals your buying power - the maximum you can spend to claim a player on
waivers.
Players are claimed and released constantly as the same Waiver Wire is
used by all leagues. So if you release Vince Carter, he may be picked up by someone else
in another league or by someone in your league and vice versa.
Waiver Wire Limitations: For exhibition seasons, you are limited to one transaction. For full-season leagues, you are not limited to the number of transactions (release-claim) you can make per season. BUT, for both types of leagues, you must pay a 10% transaction charge for each player that you claim. For example, if you want to claim a 1 million player, you'll need to give up 1.1 million. All rosters must be final by the 66th game of your season, i.e. you will not be able to waive or claim players after that time.
For full-season leagues, teams play an 82 game season, with both inter-division and inter-conference games. Games will be simulated both overnight as well as each afternoon for a total of 41 days for the regular season.
For exhibition leagues, teams play a 10 game season, 1 home game and 1 road game against each team in your league. Games are played overnight with each team playing each night. The entire exhibition season lasts 10 days. There are no playoffs for the exhibition leagues.
As soon as the games for each day have been simulated, you can find the results, including complete boxscores in your Team Center. League standings are also automatically updated. For those leagues in which the winner of the league receives a prize, cash or otherwise, the tie-breaker is the head to head record between the teams in a tie. After that, total points scored is used as a tie-breaker. See the terms for more information.
At the end of the season, the top 6 teams in each conference will be seeded in a 4 round playoff, with each round being best of 7. The format will be as follows:
For each conference, the division winners will be determined based on overall record, head to head record, division record, conference record, and then total point differential (your points - opponent points). When determining division winners, head to head record is your record against any teams with the same overall record as you within your division.
The top 6 teams will be seeded based on division winner, overall record, head to head record, conference record and then total point differential (your points - opponent points). When determining division winners, head to head record is your record against any teams with the same overall record as you within your conference.
Teams 1 and 2 will receive first round byes.
Team 3 will play team 6 and team 4 will play team 5 in a best of 7 series, starting at the lower seed's homecourt and alternating locations in a 2-2-1-1-1 format.
The winner of the 4/5 game will play the number 1 seed and the winner of the 3/6 game will play the number 2 seed in a best of 7 series, starting at the lower seed's homecourt and alternating locations in a 2-2-1-1-1 format.
The winners of each of these series will meet in the conference finals for a best of 7 series, starting at the lower seed's homecourt and alternating locations in a 2-2-1-1-1 format.
The conference champions shall meet in the League Finals for a best of 7 series, starting at the team with the better overall record and alternating locations in a 2-3-2 format.
As if the glory and admiration of your defeated opponents wasn't enough, the League Champion also receives 3,000 reward points for use in the WhatIfSports Reward Center!
You can use your reward points towards free simleague teams, merchandise and other great prizes!
If you're not fortunate enough to win the whole thing, don't worry, you *may* get a parting gift! Depending on how far you go in the playoffs, you may get up to $4.00 off your next full-season basketball team:
| Round Reached | Credit |
|---|---|
| 1st Round | $1.00 |
| 2nd Round | $2.00 |
| 3rd Round | $3.00 |
| 4th Round | $4.00 |
(Note: Credits are valid for use on future SimLeague Basketball purchases only. Credits not used within 30 days will expire. Credits are not redeemable for cash.)
Please note that these rewards change for open leagues depending on the number of times an owner reaches the Championship Series in any league:
Remember, these limitations are for open leagues only -- theme leagues will ALWAYS yield 100% of the prize values!