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Version 5.11 -- April 9, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 BASICS
1.1 Overview
1.2 Charges
1.3 Communications
1.3.1 E-mail
1.3.2 OBA Forum
1.3.3 Instant messaging
1.3.4 IRC
1.4 Cheating
1.5 Bugs and errors
1.6 Loopholes and issues not covered by the rules
2 MEMBERS
2.1 Commissioner
2.2 General Managers
2.2.1 Responsibilities
2.2.2 Press Releases
2.2.3 Quotes in articles
2.3 Assistant General Managers
2.4 WWBA General Managers
2.5 Participation bonuses
2.6 GM Checks
2.7 GM Tools
3 COMPETITIONS
3.1 OBA
3.1.1 OBA Season
3.2 OCAA
3.2.1 Players
3.2.2 Declaring for OBA draft
3.2.3 Draft promises
3.3 WWBA
3.3.1 Players
3.3.2 Rosters
3.3.3 OBA Development Players
3.3.4 Roster Freeze
3.4 Summer League
3.4.1 Players
3.5 World Cup
3.5.1 Player Eligibility
3.5.2 General Managers
3.6 All-Star Weekend
3.7 Lowdown Showdown
3.7.1 Team Competition
3.8 Awards
3.9 Hall of Fame
4 SIMULATION
4.1 Players
4.1.1 Statistics
4.1.2 Ratings
4.1.3 Health, injuries and suspensions
4.1.4 Contract Factors
4.1.5 Hidden attributes
4.1.6 Development
4.1.7 Retirements
4.2 Head coaches
4.2.1 Player development ratings
4.2.2 Game coaching ratings
4.2.3 Hidden personality ratings
4.2.4 Coach hirings and firings
4.3 League Scout
4.4 Game plans
4.4.1 Depth Chart
4.4.2 Game plan
4.4.3 Single-game plans
4.5 Cities
4.6 Finances
4.6.1 Team Budgets
4.6.2 Expenses
4.6.3 Revenues
4.6.4 Attendance
4.6.5 Team Details
4.6.6 Ticket Prices
4.7 Arena proposals
4.7.1 Poll round
4.7.2 Final round
4.8 Draft
4.8.1 Draftees
4.8.2 Draft lottery
4.8.3 Draft in practice
5 CBA
5.1 Salary Cap
5.1.1 Salary Cap Floor
5.2 Luxury Tax
5.3 Player Contracts
5.3.1 Term and Raises
5.3.2 Maximum Salaries
5.3.2 Minimum Salaries
5.3.4 Rookie Salary Scale
5.3.5 Contract Extensions
5.3.6 Rookie Salary Scale Extensions
5.4 Salary Cap Exceptions
5.4.1 Bird Exception
5.4.2 Early Bird Exception
5.4.3 Non-Bird Exception
5.4.4 Mid-Level Exception
5.4.5 Bi-Annual Exception
5.4.6 Minimum Salary Exception
5.4.7 Rookie Exceptions
5.4.8 Injured Player Exception
5.4.9 Summary of Exceptions
5.5 Free Agents
5.5.1 Unrestricted Free Agents
5.5.2 Restricted Free Agents
5.6 Team Salary
5.6.1 Impending Free Agents and Team Salary
5.6.2 Renouncing FAs
5.7 Off-Season Free Agency in Practice
5.8 In-Season Free Agency
5.9 Trades
5.9.1 Commissioner review
5.9.2 Rookie GM Trade Restrictions
5.9.3 Trading First Round Picks
5.9.4 Factoring salaries
5.9.5 Traded Player Exception
5.9.6 Base Year Compensation
5.9.7 60-day rule
5.9.8 Re-acquiring traded players
5.9.9 Trading impending free agents
5.9.10 Trading players on one-year contracts
5.9.11 Sign-and-trades
5.9.12 Three-Way Trades
5.9.13 Salaries in Off-Season Trades
5.9.14 Roster holdovers
5.9.15 Median salary FA signings
6 MISCELLANEOUS
6.1 Team Logos
1 BASICS
The Online Basketball Association is a fantasy basketball league established on May 31st, 2001. After being around for three and a half years, it is the oldest continuously running Jump Shot Basketball league in the world.
1.1 OVERVIEW
The primary goals of the game are to have fun and, of course, win the league championship trophy; the Tobias Cup donated by the late great basketball philanthropist P. T. Tobias. But only one team can win the championship each season -- and being as competitive a league as the OBA is, going all the way will not be easy! -- so making sure you're having fun is probably at least as important as winning.
Thus, all actions that make the league more fun are encouraged, all actions that make the league less fun, such as profanity and immature behavior, are strictly prohibited. Most of our members are adults, so it is expected that you'll act like an adult.
The games are simulated on Jump Shot Basketball software. All possible events (player and coach development and retirements, processing bids free agent biddings, draft lottery etc...) are controlled by the software. The OBA financial rules are based on the rules in the newest available version of JSB along with some modifications based on real-life NBA rules.
The first human-controlled OBA season was 2001. The stats from seasons 1996-2000 are called the OBA Pre-History and those five seasons were completely computer-run. However, all OBA records, player career stats etc. are tracked from the first pre-historic season onwards.
1.2 CHARGES
The OBA has been a free league to participate from the very beginning and that will never change. No money will be charged from the participants.
1.3 COMMUNICATIONS
1.3.1 E-MAIL
When sending OBA-related e-mail to any of the league members, it is advised to use [OBA] prefix in the subject field of messages, in order to make filtering e-mails easier.
The league mailing lists are meant for league announcements and press releases. OBA Forum is a better place for free-form discussions and you should not send unnecessary messages to league mailing lists.
1.3.2 OBA FORUM
OBA Forum is the league message board on the OBA website at www.obahoops.com. All members must register a Forum account and read the messages regularly in order to keep up with miscellaneous league discussions and debates.
This is also the recommended medium for announcing trade blocks rather than e-mailing them to the league mailing lists.
Also, GMs must keep their contact information in their Forum profiles accurate and up to date, because that's where fellow GMs can find how to contact you.
1.3.3 INSTANT MESSAGING
While not mandatory, members are recommended to have instant messaging programs, such as ICQ or AIM.
1.3.4 IRC
The OBA also has it's own IRC channel, which is used for many official events such as Rookie Drafts, Expansion Drafts and occasionally there will be "live games", too. Usually we'll have chat sessions at trade deadline as well. OBA members can also enter the channel for unofficial chats any time.
1.4 CHEATING
Naturally, we expect our members to refrain from any kind of actions that are considered cheating in the game. If someone is found guilty of actions that can be considered cheating, appropriate sanctions will follow.
The two perhaps most fundamental no-no's in the OBA are using fake identities and running two teams simultaneously. OBA members are required to use their real names. If someone is found pretending he's someone he isn't, he'll lose his position in the league. After a violation like that, a re-installment is not a likely possibility.
Also, one person is allowed to control one and only one OBA team. If a person is found guilty of running multiple teams, he'll be sacked from the league for life.
1.5 BUGS AND ERRORS
The OBA site is nowadays almost completely database-driven and it is a reasonably big entity running on numerous online scripts. If a GM finds a bug or misinformation on the site data, his responsibility is to report it immediately to the commissioner.
JSB is not a bug-free software, either, so sometimes we'll encounter problems caused by the software itself. The nature of such errors is unpredictable, so it's difficult to plan the exact actions that'll take place in a situation like that. Then we'll just do whatever is needed to do in order to continue the game with as little damage as possible to all parties involved.
And while the commissioner will at all times try to be as careful as possible when running the league and processing various events, quite a bit of manual work is involved and it is possible that human errors take place and a team may suffer from them.
In case there are errors on the data listed online, the rule book overrides the misinformation. For example, if a player's contract values that may affect transactions -- such as Base Year Compensation or Bird Years -- are listed incorrectly, the online misinformation does not make a transaction valid if it would be illegal according to the league rules.
As unfortunate as those incidents are, usually there events are not re-run unless it's a major issue concerning many teams or causing completely unreasonable trouble for a single team. For example, things such as wrong game plan being used for a set of games almost never results as re-simulation of the games in question.
In a perfect world of perfect people such things would never happen, but in reality they happen. We'll just have to accept it as a part of the game like an injury to your starting point guard early in Game 7 of the championship final...
1.6 LOOPHOLES AND ISSUES NOT COVERED BY THE RULES
While this publication, the OBA Rule Book, is a quite large document, it is possible, even likely that not every possible incident is covered. If there's a case that's not explicitly, accurately or specifically covered by the rules, the commissioner will try to solve the situation according to the spirit of the rules.
Sometimes GMs also may find a loophole in the rules and take advantage of it. Even trying to abuse a loophole is prohibited and in such cases, again, the situation will be handled according to the spirit of the rules and the loophole will be closed immediately.
Also, while the rules are being constantly updated, some conventions, a kind of standard procedures and policies may develop that, for some reason or another, haven't found their way to the rulebook yet. In such situations, the commissioner understandably doesn't really have other option except to do as always has been done -- simply because that's what has always been done. That's not the strongest argument, but inconsistent decisions are not any better course of action. Of course, such "unwritten rules" will eventually be added to the rulebook.
2 MEMBERS
As far as titles, ranks and statuses go, there are four kinds of people among the OBA members: the commissioner, the general managers, the assistant general managers and the WWBA general managers (with the possibility of holding both of the latter two titles). There are no other formal titles, or official organs. The free-form approach in terms of organization has worked well for us this far and there's no reason to believe it would change in the foreseeable future.
2.1 COMMISSIONER
"Educated dictatorship" is a pretty good term to describe the decision-making system in the OBA. The league is run by the commissioner who has final say in all decisions concerning the league rules and operations. However, he'll ask the GMs opinions in most major issues and GMs are also encouraged to express their ideas and suggestions for improving the league.
The commissioner is also responsible for simulating the games and other events as well as maintaining the league site.
2.2 GENERAL MANAGERS
Each team is controlled by one general manager. If a GM fails to meet the standards of participation and mature behavior, he may be fired and lose his team.
2.2.1 RESPONSIBILITIES
General managers are required to:
a) Have an e-mail address and he should check his mail regularly, once a day.
b) Maintain a legal roster. During the season, a legal roster consists of at least 12 players, maximum 14. Also, all teams must carry at least 10 healthy players at all times.
c) Send in game plans for games and always try to field the best possible lineup. Intentional mismanagement of a team in order to lose games may result as sanctions as heavy as forfeiting first round draft picks.
d) Respond to all trade offers in a reasonable time. Even a simple "yes" or "no" is enough, but even bad offers must be answered.
e) Participate in rookie drafts and free agency periods.
f) Write a reasonable amount of press releases over the course of season.
g) Read league mails, OBA Forum and rules. "I didn't know", is not an explanation.
2.2.2 PRESS RELEASES
As stated above, it is recommended that each GM writes a reasonable amount of press releases for their team every season. What's "a reasonable amount"? Well, one article per season is not.
The articles must be sent to the OBA press list by using PREd, the press release editor. Using basic HTML formatting in press releases is possible and allowed, but do not use anything advanced. The editor has not been designed for that kind of stuff and there's basically no error handling, so messing up your HTML code could mess up bigger things on the site or the press release archive database.
There is also constant need for all kind of general league articles to the site front page -- Cover Stories. If you feel you'd like to write one but can't come up with a subject, just e-mail the commissioner for an assignment; he usually has more ideas than time.
2.2.3 QUOTES IN ARTICLES
You are allowed to quote yourself, the GM, players and -- beginning from season 2009 -- head coaches in press releases.
For player quotes, which is a new feature added by popular demand at the beginning of season 2008, you should remember a few guidelines:
1) You are only allowed to quote your own players. In case a player is changing team in a transaction (trade, FA signing), you are considered the owner of the player as long as he appears on your roster page (and for arrivals, you become the owner when he shows up on your roster). For trades, this means the time the trade is processed and the rosters are updated, not necessarily the time when the trade is officially approved. For Off-Season Free Agency, the owner changes when the FA period ends and rosters are updated.
2) When creating quotes, you should take into account the players "JSB personality" -- the player characteristics under Contract Factors and his Happiness rating.
3) If you're quoting a player that has previously played for some other team(s), you should try to respect the character created by his previous GM(s).. This doesn't mean that a player's personality can't evolve over time, but a man probably doesn't become a completely different person overnight. You can find the past quotes from players by going to player profile page and choosing Media Search. It'll list all articles where the player in question is mentioned and if there's a quotation mark beside the link to the article, it means he has said something in the story.
4) Which brings us to a practical issue that must be followed. If you quote a player in your article, for example a guy named John Doe, the article must include one of the following strings, so that Media Search is able to recognize that the player has been quoted in an article:
said John Doe
John Doe said
John Doe: "
For head coach quotes, please try to look at his attributes, too, when creating the personality. For example, a very offensive-minded coach will probably look at his team like an offensive-minded coach does and it is probably safe to assume that a coach not good at teaching is more concerned about instant success than any patient long-term plans. And of course, respecting the character created by the coach's previous GM is a must.
2.3 ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGERS
There can also be up to four assistant general managers in the OBA. They'll be hired from the league waiting list by teams willing to take an AGM.
Of course, the main purpose of the AGM system is to make it easier for interested people to start GMing in the OBA. During the AGM period, one will receive all league mails and -- hopefully -- has time to learn the league. So, when we've got a free team, we'll also have educated people who are ready to step in.
For the people on the waiting list, it is not mandatory to accept an offer to join the league as an AGM and anyone can choose to wait until there's a free team and an opportunity to start as a GM. However, when there's a free team in the OBA, the GM position will be offered to AGMs first, even if he sent his application to join the league later than someone on the waiting list who did not accept an AGM gig.
Assistant GMs also receive all league e-mails and have full access to OBA Forum and IRC events.
While it's understandable that being an AGM is not quite as exciting as controlling a team of one's own, being active in the league as an AGM will be rewarded. When a team needs a GM and we have an AGM who has not done anything and has spent his AGM period silently spectating and another AGM who's contributed to the league, it's obvious that the latter will get the open GM position. It's difficult to determine exactly what the "contribution" could be, but there are a lot of possibilities for an AGM to make other members notice he actually is one of us. When the promotions are decided, the list of things that are monitored starts (but does not end) with game planning for the WWBA team, press releases and forum discussions. And AGM should be active at least in these three areas to unquestionably earn his promotion.
And since the AGM is in his position to learn how to play the game, his boss -- the GM -- has his responsibilities, too. The veteran GM a tutor for the newcomer and he must keep in regular contact with his AGM, reply all questions the AGM has about the OBA and also help the AGM to get started when he gets a team of his own.
The GM also must give something to do for his assistant. It's up to the GM and the AGM to design what kind of duties the AGM has in the organization, but there must be something. Otherwise the AGM period will be very boring and we won't achieve the goals we're trying to achieve by the arrangement.
A political support point will be awarded to everyone who takes an AGM under his wing, but if it is found out that the GM is not taking care of his duties as a tutor, his team will be ineligible for all bonus points during the season in question.
2.4 WWBA GENERAL MANAGERS
Beginning from season 2009, AGMs also have an opportunity to learn the tricks of game plan editing by taking over a WWBA team. In season 2010, this feature is expanded on a one-season trial basis. Everyone on the waiting list can get a WWBA team under his control.
There are no transactions in WWBA, except when an OBA team signs a free agent or releases a player. The teams are populated strictly based on positional needs and -- to some extent -- player nationality (with most players signing for the team in their native country or area). For example, if a player is released by an OBA team, WWBA GMs can not make any wishes about getting player to his WWBA team.
All WWBA GMs will receive all league e-mails and have full access to all league events and the OBA Forum.
As for getting a position as an AGM, the WWBA gig is not necessarily. AGMs will still be recruited from the waiting list, with the ones who sent their application first getting the first vacant AGM positions.
2.5 PARTICIPATION BONUSES
League participation -- press releases, helping the commissioner in league tasks and Cover Stories etc. -- is not only required (to a minimum degree), but also rewarded. Active GMs will earn bonus points, which are added to their city attributes. Generally, you can earn two bonus points for each season: one for articles (or team website maintenance), one for helping with league tasks.
The bonus point for team related activity is either added to fan support or reduced from competition (less competition -> better). The league task participation bonus point is added to either political support or interest. GMs may also be penalized for poor team activity. The penalties, however, are progressive: for example, a team whose GM doesn't write more than one articles during a season, can not have fan support of 4 to 7 (but can have as high as three).
A team may lose only one fan support point per season due to lack of articles.
Also, improving attributes already high requires more activity than improving low attributes. That is, relatively low activity may earn you a bonus point if your team has fan support of 1 or 2, but significant activity -- whether it's press releases or maintaining team website -- is required in order to earn a bonus point if your team already has fan support of 6 or 7.
Correspondingly, very little activity can keep a low fan support team non-penalized, but very little activity may not be enough to keep a high value in fan support unchanged.
Beginning from season 2010, a team that doesn't produce at least one general league article, a Cover Story, will be considered a zero-team press release team and handled accordingly when the bonus points and -- in this case, more importantly -- penalties are handed out.
Also, when you promise you'll write a Cover Story, it's a commitment. In case someone repeatedly fails to deliver the articles he has promised, a participation penalty is possible regardless of other activity.
2.6 GM CHECKS
To make sure all teams have active GMs in crucial off-season time, commissioner will perform a league-wide GM check close to the end of each season. All GMs and AGMs must reply to the e-mail and confirm they'll continue in the OBA in the upcoming season.
Also, team activity -- for example, press releases and sending updated game plans during the season -- will be monitored closely. In case your team is not meeting the standards in that area, just replying to the GM check will not guarantee you'll be allowed to keep your team.
Occasionally, an individual in-season GM check may take place if a GM is completely passive for a long period of time.
2.7 GM TOOLS
The GMs are required to use the password-protected online tools when sending in team orders: Press Release Editor (PREd), Game Plan Editor (GPEd), Free Agent Editor (FAEd) and GM Editor (GMEd). The names of the former three tools should tell their use, and GMEd is a new multi-purpose tool -- which is under construction beginning of season 2009 -- which is used for the rest of team orders.
When sending team orders using either FAEd, GPEd or GMEd, any new set of orders will always override previous set of the same command. For example, if you send in offers to Free Agents and have second thoughts about them before the deadline, you can simply re-send your bids and they'll overwrite the old ones. The same for game plans and all other commands handled via online tools.
For FAEd, it is important to note that you must send all your offers for one Stage in the same set. If you first send an offer to Player A and later send in a set of offers containing Player B and Player C, your offer to Player A is discarded.
3 COMPETITIONS
Actually, there's more than just one fantasy basketball league in the OBA universe! In addition to the major pro league there's a college league, a minor-pro league and a summer league for rookies, along with some other competitions.
3.1 OBA
The OBA is, of course, the main competition where you run the operations of a pro basketball franchise.
3.1.1 OBA SEASON
The OBA season consists of the events below. This is just an overview, all events are explained in detail in other parts of the rulebook.
Off-Season initialization
- Player contracts expire and those with expiring contracts become Free Agents
- Players age one year
- Roster freeze is off -- players can be traded and released again (but not signed or picked up from the FA List)
Coach hirings
- Coaches retire and resign -- and are fired and replaced.
Rookie Draft
- New players enter OBA player pool via two-round draft.
- Roster freeze is on again shortly after the draft is completed. You can not release or trade players anymore (except for sign-and-trades)
- The season "number" also changes after the draft. Meaning that the 2010 Rookie Draft takes place after season 2010, but the upcoming Free Agency is the 2011 FAs.
Free Agency
- Players whose contracts have expired are available for all teams to sign in an 11-stage Free Agency period.
Ticket Prices
- Teams set their ticket prices for upcoming season.
Arena Proposals
- Teams may try to get the city to agree to construct a new arena, or propose relocation to another city.
Training Camps
- Player attributes are re-rated based on age, potential and their coaches' teaching skills.
Pre-season
- Trade freeze is off. All signings, releases and trades allowed, and up to 14 players can be on roster again.
- Each team plays a short exhibition game schedule against intra-conference opponents.
- Team Options on second-year players' contracts must be declined by the end of preseason.
- Team Options on third-year players' contracts must be picked up by the end of preseason.
- Contracts of fourth-year players' on team option years must be extended by the end of pre-season.
Regular season
- Each team plays an 80-game schedule.
- Contract extensions of impending Free Agents can be signed.
Playoffs
- Top eight teams from each conference advance to playoffs. All playoff rounds are played in best of seven format.
3.2 OCAA
The OCAA (Online Collegiate Athletic Association) is a fully computer-controlled 32-team, four-conference feeder league where future OBAers play at college/university level. As in real life, some of the players end up playing professionally, some of them don't.
The OCAA season consists of a 29-game regular season plus conference championship tournaments and the OCAA championship tournament, the "January Jubilee".
3.2.1 PLAYERS
After the players are entered into the OBA player database -- first on the draft list, then to the actual player pool -- the player attributes may have changed radically compared to the ones shown on OCAA listings. However, most of the time the player that has better attributes and better performance in college will also be better in the pro league.
All players enter the OCAA at the same age. The freshmen are 18 year-olds while non-redshirt seniors are 21 year-olds.
3.2.2 DECLARING FOR OBA DRAFT
A player's standard college career lasts four seasons, although sometimes a player may gain a fifth year of eligibility if he's "redshirted" ie. doesn't play a game during a season. If a player has been redshirted in the past, he will be listed with "RS" abbreviation in front of his class, and he'll be a year older than a non-redshirted player of the same class.
At the start of each season, there will be a list of pro prospects, the best players in the OCAA according to the rankings by the league scout. Most of the players declare themselves eligible for the OBA draft after they've graduated, but if a player is close to the top of the prospect rankings, he might decide to leave his school early for pro career.
For college players, their draft status may vary. If a player is listed as "Yes", it means he'll declare himself eligible for the upcoming draft and he'll appear on next draft list (if his skills are good enough to make the list of 96 draftees). This group includes all college seniors. A player listed as "No" is someone who has college eligibility left and has decided not to leave school early.
The third group, the "Undecided", only appears during the season. Obviously, such a player has not made his decision, yet. All college freshmen are listed as undecided until the end of OCAA season, but top sophomores and juniors may make their decision (which can be either "Yes" or "No") already at the start of the season. The better the player, the more likely he is to declare early.
The "Undecided" will make their final decision shortly after the OCAA championship tournament is over. Again, the odds of such a player declaring for the OBA draft are higher if the player is close to the top of the Pro Prospects list.
3.2.3 DRAFT PROMISES
Before the college prospects make their final decisions about declaring for the OBA draft, the OBA teams can influence a player's decision by promising him a high draft position.
An OBA team may make three kinds of promises for the players who haven't made up their minds yet: Top Five, Lottery and First Round. A promise that the player will be picked in top five has the biggest impact, a lottery pick (top 16) will be a little lesser factor in his decision-making and a low first round pick carries only a little weight.
Of course, a team making the promise must own the kind of pick attached to the promise and after making the promise the team can not cancel it under any circumstances (meaning that such a pick also becomes untradeable).
3.3 WWBA
The WWBA (World Wide Basketball Association) consists of two 16-team leagues -- the ABL (American Basketball League) and the WBL (World Basketball League). There's no interleague play in regular season, but the winners of the two leagues play against each other in the Global Cup Final for the WWBA title.
The WWBA is mostly computer controlled, but assistant GMs and people on the waiting list may choose to learn the tricks of setting team game plans with a WWBA team.
3.3.1 PLAYERS
There are two kinds of players in the WWBA: OBA free agents and some international prospects who have chosen to play minor pro basketball instead of college game.
The OBA Free Agents are listed on WWBA rosters with their OBA attributes, but only the last eight attributes are shown for international prospects in the league. Again, the attributes are likely to change when the players enter pro ranks, but most of the time the same applies as for the OCAA prospects: the better the WWBA prospects, the better the pro.
3.3.2 ROSTERS
There are no trades or other transactions in the WWBA. The rosters are set at the start of season, with as many players as possible returning to the same teams as in the previous season.
The WWBA rosters change only when players are cut or signed by OBA teams. In case players are released from the OBA, his WWBA team is based on WWBA roster sizes and WWBA teams' positional needs. This means that if a player is signed by an OBA team and released again, he doesn't necessarily return to the same WWBA team.
3.3.3 OBA DEVELOPMENT PLAYERS
All 32 OBA teams have a WWBA affiliate. OBA teams can assign up to two first- or second-year players to the WWBA affiliate. The development players will be inactive for the OBA team, but they will still reserve an OBA roster spot and will receive their full OBA salary.
OBA teams must carry at least 12 "non-development players", meaning that if you have 14 players on roster, you can assign two to the WWBA and if you have 13 players on roster, you can have only one development player.
An OBA player can be assigned to WWBA only two times each season and the first assignments can be made at the end of pre-season.
The WWBA teams have no obligation to play the development players provided by their OBA affiliates. WWBA GMs are allowed to use the players that they think will be the best ones to win games.
Time in WWBA as a development player does not have actual effect on the development of the player's skills. He'll develop the same way as he would if he was spending the season in the OBA, with the OBA coach's development ratings being factored in when the next off-season re-rates take place.
If a development player is traded in the OBA, he must be recalled before the trade can be processed.
3.3.4 ROSTER FREEZE
WWBA rosters are frozen at the start of Global Cup Playoffs. After the WWBA regular season is over, OBA cuts or signings will not affect WWBA rosters and development players can not be assigned to the WWBA anymore. Development players can be recalled during Global Cup Playoffs, but they'll continue playing for the WWBA team as well.
This certainly is not the most realistic setting, but taking a player out of a WWBA team's lineup in the middle of the playoffs would be a little harsh.
3.4 SUMMER LEAGUE
The OBA Draftees Summer League, or just Summer League, is played late in OBA postseason or early in off-season and the eight participating teams consist of players available in the upcoming draft. The top four teams will play in single-elimination playoffs to decide the Greenhorn Cup championship team.
The Summer League is fully computer-controlled.
3.4.1 PLAYERS
The players will appear on team rosters with their draft list ratings, which are reasonably close to their pro ratings. Some adjustment may take place, though, when they enter the actual OBA player pool.
3.5 WORLD CUP
The best of the best will also take part in international competition, the World Cup, which is played every three seasons. For now, the tournament consists of 12 national/regional teams managed by OBA general managers, and it'll take place after the off-season initialization.
The number of participating teams may change as the number of international players from different countries and regions change. A new country or a region can be added if a) it has enough good players for an entry of its own and b) taking its players out of their current World Cup team doesn't dilute that roster.
3.5.1 PLAYER ELIGIBILITY
All players have nationalities (USA unless stated otherwise) and everyone in the OBA player pool is eligible to play in the World Cup, along with all rookies from the draft list of the year of the tournament.
As those who follow international basketball know, it's fairly common for countries have players who have born in USA, but moved to play abroad and stayed long enough to acquire new (or dual) citizenship, which allows them to play in international competitions for their new country.
To simulate this, all players that have been out of the OBA since the previous tournament, three seasons -- not signed a contract, whether or not they've actually played a game is irrelevant -- are eligible for nationality change. They've listed at the end of WC Eligible Players page under title "*USA". All WC teams except Team USA can get one of those players to the World Cup.
Once a player plays in a WC tournament for a team, he can't play for another team in future WC's.
If more than one team wants a player eligible for nationality change, the decision is made randomly. And lastly, if a World Cup GM sends in a "Citizenship Application" for an *USA player, he's obliged to name the player to the team.
Non-OBA players will be eligible for new citizenship only for the country/region where they are playing in the WWBA.
3.5.2 GENERAL MANAGERS
The World Cup GM selection happens according to the OBA success. The GMs of top 12 teams in the OBA regular season standings in the season preceding the tournament. If not all GMs in the top dozen are interested in managing a WC team, then we'll move down the rankings until all WC teams have someone at the helm.
There's also another exception to the GM selection: The people who were managing medal teams in the previous tournament will return to the same teams if they choose to do so. For the U.S. team this is more strict, only the championship is good enough for Team USA, and its GM is eligible for return only if he delivered the gold medal.
If a medal GM decides not to take over his old WC team, he'll be treated as any other OBA GM in the selection process ie. he doesn't have a guaranteed WC spot unless his team is high enough in OBA rankings.
3.6 ALL-STAR WEEKEND
And the best of the best will also take part in the annual OBA All-Star competitions. The All-Star Weekend hosted by the reigning OBA championship team consists of six events: All-Star Game, Rookies vs. Sophomores Game, OCAA All-Star Game, WWBA All-Star Game, Slam Dunk Competition and Three-Point Shooting Competition.
The participants for the Rookie Game -- ten players for each team -- will be selected by the software.
All-Star teams are selected and managed by the General Managers whose teams lead their respective conferences at the half-way mark of the season (Regular Season Gameday January 27). The GMs will pick up 12 players (two from each natural position plus two "extras") from conference and also set their teams' game plans for the game.
The skills competitions participants are usually selected by a human GM. There's no particular criteria for this job. Most of the time it's the guy who replies first after the commissioner asks for someone to do it.
3.7 LOWDOWN SHOWDOWN
The LowdownShowdown is the annual OBA one-on-one championship tournament played during the OBA postseason. OBAers from non-playoff teams along with draftees and some OBA free agents are eligible to take part in the competition.
The competition starts with pool play stage, with best two players from each of the 32 eight-player pools advancing to the playoffs, which are played in best-of-three format.
3.7.1 TEAM COMPETITION
OBA teams not taking part in playoffs may select eight players from their end-of-season roster to take part in Lowdown Showdown. Teams are awarded one point for each playoff round won by their players. Three additional points are awarded to the team of the Lowdown Showdown Champion and one additional point to the runner-up.
The team with most points will get a prize of three million dollars, the second best team receives two million and the third best team one million. The prize money will be added to the OBA team's revenues for the season.
In case of a tie between top three teams, the tie breakers are: (1) games won - games lost differential in playoffs, (2) games won in playoffs, (3) games won in pool play.
3.8 AWARDS
After the OBA season is completed, it's time to reward those who excelled! Numerous awards will be handed out in the annual OBA Awards Gala.
Most of the winners are decided by the computer, but the GM Choice Player of the Year, GM Choice Team, Most Improved Player, Newcomer of the Year and GM of the Year awards will be voted by league members.
Players with less than 30 games of OBA experience prior to the season are eligible for Newcomer of the Year, regardless of age or pro seasons.
3.9 HALL OF FAME
The most legendary of the most legendary will be honored to the OBA Hall of Fame. There are three categories for inductees: Player, Coach and Builder.
Until season 2011, the inductions were handled by the software, after that the process involves league members.
The induction process takes place during playoffs and off-season. Players who have retired in previous off-season or earlier are eligible for the Hall of Fame. Coaches are eligible any time, even active coaches. At least for now, the eligibility never ends, so if a player doesn't get through one season, he's eligible again the following year.
Beginning from the end of regular season, any league member can nominate a player, a coach or a builder to the Hall, by posting the nomination to the OBA Forum (to the board HALL OF FAME: Nominations). He also must submit arguments for the induction, the reasons why the nominee should get in.
After at least four league members have seconded the nomination, an open discussion will start (in Forum's board HALL OF FAME: Discussion) and last throughout the playoffs. A poll is opened for the player (in HALL OF FAME: Ballots) at the start of off-season and if at least 3/4 league members vote for the induction, the player gets into the Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame will not accept more than four new members each season. If more than four nominees reach the 3/4 limit, only the foursome with most "Yes" votes will get in. There are no tie-breakers. If six players get enough votes and #3, #4 and #5 are tied, none of them get in.
Sometimes a player may start coaching after his retirement. In such a case, it is possible that he gets into the Hall of Fame as a player and is later on re-inducted in the coach category.
4 SIMULATION
A complete OBA season usually takes from three to four calendar months. During regular season we'll most of the time run three gamedays each day and playoffs advance one gameday each day. Preseason games are simulated a little faster, four gamedays per day, and there are also two periods of slower simming in regular season: prior to trade deadline and in last ten gamedays or so, we'll switch to the pace of two gamedays per day.
There is no fixed time for when the games take place, but there will always be at least 16 hours between each set of sims. If for some reason there's less time, the commissioner will send a note about it in advance.
The order of events in a set of sims is: games, cuts, trades, signings. In practice this means, for example, that if a team is making a trade that would put them over the maximum roster size, they can make the necessary cuts during the same set of sims when the trade takes place -- but they can not release any of the players they're acquiring in the trade until the next set of sims.
4.1 PLAYERS
4.1.1 STATISTICS
On statistics pages, the following stat categories are shown
pos -- Player main position
g -- Games played
gs -- Games started
min -- Minutes played per game
fgm -- Field goals made
fga -- Field goals attempted
ftm -- Free throws made
fta -- Free throws attempted
tgm -- 3 point shots made
tga -- 3 point shots attempted
opg -- Offensive rebounds per game
rpg -- Total rebounds per game
apg -- Assists per game
spg -- Steals made per game
tpg -- Turnovers per game
bpg-- Blocked shots per game
fpg -- Personal fouls per game
ppg -- Points per game
min -- Total minutes
orb -- Total offensive rebounds
reb -- Total rebounds
ast -- Total assists
stl -- Total steals
to -- Total turnovers
blk -- Total blocks
pts -- Total points
pf -- Total personal fouls
dq -- Ejections
a/to -- Assists to turnovers ratio
s/to -- Steals to turnovers ratio
s/f -- Steals to fouls ratio
b/f -- Blocks to fouls ratio
dd -- Double-doubles
td -- Triple-doubles
MgM -- Total Magic Metric rating
MgM/g -- Magig Metric per game
MgM/min -- Magic Metric per minutes
4.1.2 RATINGS
The following player ratings range from 1 to 99 and they are determined by taking the league best and giving that player the highest rating. All other players are rated proportionately to the league best.
The visible attributes, however, are not necessarily 100-percent correct. The players are scouted each season and those values will be shown on online pages. The margin for error for the league scout is around five percent, with bigger errors possible in very rare occasions.
Note that because the players are "re-scouted" each season, it is possible that a player's visible attribute in a certain skill has gone down, but his "real attribute" in the skill has actually improved. Keep your eye on the stats in order to find the sleepers and the underachievers!
2ga - Players ability to get 2 point shots
2g% - Players percentage of 2 point shots made
fta - Players ability to get to the free throw line
ft% - Players percentage of free throws made
3ga - Players ability to get 3 point shots
3g% - Players percentage of 3 point shots made
orb - offensive rebounding
drb - defensive rebounding
ast - passing
stl - stealing
to - avoiding turnovers
blk blocking
The following player ratings range from 1 to 9:
Outside Offense (O-O) -- Usually excellent jump shooters. These players fight through screens, move without the ball and in some cases their height allows them to shoot over people
Driving Offense (D-O) -- Ability to both dribble and drive for scoring tries. Point guards usually are the best at this.
Post Offense (P-O) -- Measures the inside game of a player. Usually higher for power forwards and centers.
Transition Offense (T-O) -- Measures the ability of a player to run the floor and finish on the first break.
Outside Defense (O-D) -- Fight screens, prevent shooters by denying them the ball and have the size to distract shots.
Driving Defense (D-D) -- Stops drives by not getting beat off the dribble.
Post Defense (P-D) -- Ability to deny the ball down low and to stop the other players inside game.
Transition Defense (T-D) -- Measures the ability of a player to get back on defense and to either stop or slow down the fast break.
Additionally, all players have a happiness rating, which can range from Mad to Grateful. A player's happiness will have some impact on his effectiveness on court.
4.1.3 HEALTH, INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS
Players also have a health rating, which is 100 if fully healthy. Sometimes a player's health can drop below maximum, but he'll still be able to play.
Obviously, players can suffer injuries during the season. They can occur both in games or on off-days. A long-term injury may permanently damage the player, causing his ratings to drop. The ratings hit won't be shown in the player's visible attributes until after the training camp next season.
So keep an eye on the effectiveness of a player returning from a major injury -- he might not be the man he used to be!
The exact healing time of an injury is not known. The scale for injury length is:
IN -- Indefinitely, more than two months
2M -- Around two months
1M -- Around a month
3W -- Around three weeks
2W -- Around two weeks
1W -- Around a week
DD -- Day to day.
These are the evaluations by the team medical staff, so occasionally you may see, for example, a player being listed as a "2W" but then going to "3W" in the next set of sims.
Note that all pre-season injuries as well as the possible attribute hits are resetted at the start of regular season.
The game results e-mails sent by the commissioner after each set of sims will contain announcements of injuries and players returning from injuries. Note that the returning announcements are not 100 percent correct and may occasionally be a day off. Also, JSB does not always list game injuries at all, so sometimes a player can be injured without a note about it.
In any case, the player health data shown online is always correct, so if there are any kind of inconsistencies, you should believe that. If a player is listed as injured, then he is injured for the following game day.
4.1.4 CONTRACT FACTORS
When evaluating contract offers, players make their decisions based on the following factors:
loyalty - Players loyalty to the team last played for.
winner - Importance of team success in the just completed season.
play time - Importance of getting quality playing time.
security - Importance of a long term deal versus a short deal that will allow the player to test the market more often.
coach - Importance of the quality of the coach and the personality of the coach.
tradition - Importance of the success of the franchise throughout its history. Also factors in the current value of the team.
4.1.5 HIDDEN ATTRIBUTES
In addition to the visible attributes and ratings, the OBA players have the following hidden attributes:
Career Play Projections
These projections effect the development curve of players. The players tend to improve until they reach their random prime year (usually 27-29) and steadily decline afterwards.
Talent - Stronger effect on scoring categories.
Skill - Stronger effect on passing and rebounding.
Intangibles - players work ethic and desire effecting individual and team performance. These players usually reach their prime later than most players.. Also, veterans with high intangibles are good leaders, making the team play better, especially in clutch situations.
Consistency
Ranging from 1 to 3, higher means better consistency. These players performance will not waver as much from game to game.
Clutch
Ranging from 1 to 3, higher means better performance in clutch situations.
4.1.6 DEVELOPMENT
Each season at the training camp, all players' ratings will change based on random factors along with their prime age, their actual age, the coaches development ratings and the career projections.
4.1.7 RETIREMENTS
Retirements are random and fairly rare. Better players tend to retire rather than play too long. Occasionally a player will unexpectedly retire before their prime because of personal circumstances. Some players will no longer be available because their poor play did not warrant an invite to training camp.
Retiring players will announce their decisions at the start of off-season free agency and their contracts stop counting against the team's salary at the start of the pre-season following their retirement.
Sometimes, if not almost every season, it can also be necessary to force some retirements in off-season. This may happen if there are more non-roster players than the JSB free agent list can carry or there's a need to make room for incoming rookies in the player database.
If retirements have to be forced, a player must meet the following conditions to be in danger of being removed from the database:
1) Has not an OBA contract for the previous season.
2) Is more than 30 years old.
3) Has not appeared in a World Cup tournament.
4) Has not played a full 44 game schedule in the previous WWBA season.
After that, the forced retirements will start from players who have never played in the OBA, continuing with players who haven't played in the OBA in past five seasons. Then, if still not enough players are gone, U.S. players who did play full WWBA schedule will be deleted first, beginning from the ones who have never appeared in the OBA, continuing with the ones whose most recent OBA appearance was more than five seasons ago.
In case even that's is not yet enough, more forced retirements will take place among international players who didn't appear in most recent World Cup, beginning from the players with less than 44 WWBA games.
4.2 HEAD COACHES
Each OBA team has a head coach, who is responsible for in-game decisions and player development.
4.2.1 PLAYER DEVELOPMENT RATINGS
Talent (ta) -- Coaches ability to maximize a players talent.
Skill (sk) -- Coaches ability to improve a players overall skill level.
Intangibles (in) -- Coaches ability to motivate a player.
Scoring (sc) -- Coaches ability to improve a players scoring ability.
Shooting (sh) -- Coaches ability to improve a players overall shooting.
Rebounding (re) -- Coaches ability to develop a players rebounding.
Ball Handling (bh) -- Coaches ability to improve a players passing and minimize turnovers.
Defense (de) -- Coaches ability to improve a players defense.
Conditioning (co) -- Affects player fatigue during games.
4.2.2 GAME COACHING RATINGS
Game coaching ratings improve effectiveness and chances of the proper play being executed when calling plays. The higher rated coaches will have players execute the called play more often.
Outside offense (o) -- Improved outside shooting.
Driving offense (d) -- Improved driving and penetration.
Post offense (p) -- Improved inside/post scoring.
Transition offense (t) -- Improved fast break chances.
Outside defense (od) -- Decreased opponent outside shooting.
Driving defense (dd) -- Decreased opponent driving/penetration.
Post defense (pd) -- Decreased opponent post/inside scoring.
Transition defense (td) -- Decreased opponent fast break chances.
4.2.3 HIDDEN PERSONALITY RATINGS
Loyalty -- Loyalty to current team, affects risk of resigning.
Personality -- Some players are more willing to sign for a team which has a coach of higher quality and personality.
4.2.4 COACH HIRINGS AND FIRINGS
The first thing to do once a new season begins, is to make the decision on your coach. A GM may go with the same coach or fire him and hire a new one. Coaches may also retire or resign, and finding a new coach is a must. Coaches cannot resign or retire at any other time than at the beginning of a new off-season, but a team can fire a coach during the season and hire a new one.
Off-Season
Coaches will resign at the end of the season if they are unhappy with the current status of their team. The better coaches are more likely to resign in hopes of landing a better job. The better a teams roster and record, the less likely a resignation.
The contracts of coaches end when the coach retires, quits the job or is fired. If none of those happen, the coach will stay with his current team. Before a team can hire a new coach, they must first fire their current coach. After firing the coach, they can offer the open position to any available coach (except the coach they fired). The software determines the contract values of coaches, teams can only send job offers and the coach decides if he wants to accept the offer (or which offer he accepts if multiple teams have contacted).
For coach hirings, teams with a coaching vacancy -- due to firing, retirement or resignment -- must submit a list of five coaches in the order of priority. There will be maximum of two days of coach hirings.
In-Season
Beginning from season 2008, a team can fire its head coach also during the regular season. The window from firing the coach is from Regular Season Gameday December 15 to Trade Deadline. Just like in off-season, the old coach must be fired before a new coach can be hired.
Most of the coaches not employed by OBA teams will work for WWBA and OCAA teams, but they all can be hired by OBA teams during the season.
After firing the coach, the team can hire any available coach except those who have been fired during the season. When firing the coach, the team must at the same time submit a list of at least three coaches who will be offered the vacant position, listed in the order of priority. If two teams teams happen to fire coaches at the same time and both have listed the same coach as the first option to be hired, the team lower at the standings will have priority and the team with better record gets their next option.
All coaches hired during the season have guaranteed contracts until the end of the following season, meaning that you can't fire him in the following off-season or the following season. The coach, however, can resign at the end of ongoing season.
4.3 LEAGUE SCOUT
The OBA league scout, whose evaluations are the basis for visible player ratings and scouting reports, is called Darrin Raggio and GMs may refer to him in press releases. A scout in JSB has the attributes below. Mr. Raggio has a 4 (out of 7) in each of these:
Talent (TA) -- Ability to evaluate a player's eventual talent level (talented players tend to become effective scorers and shooters).
Skill (SR) -- Ability to evaluate a player's eventual overall skill (skilled players tend to develop more of an all around game).
Intangibles (IN) -- Ability to evaluate a player's eventual work ethic (players with high intangibles tend to improve more dramatically and will improve consistently).
Scoring (SC) -- Ability to evaluate a player's ability to create shots and draw fouls.
Shooting (SH) -- Ability to evaluate a player's ability to make shots and free throws.
Rebounding (RE) -- Ability to evaluate a player's offensive and defensive rebounding.
Ball Handling (BH) -- Ability to evaluate a player's passing and turnovers.
Defense (DE) -- Ability to evaluate a players shot blocking and steals.
4.4 GAME PLANS
While coaches are responsible for all in-game decisions, GMs can set the guidelines via Game Plans. Game Plans consist of two parts: Depth Chart which sets the rotation and Game Plan.
All Game Plans must be sent to the commissioner via online game plan editor, the GPEd.
GPEd also shows the game plans used by the teams in the previous set of sims.
4.4.1 DEPTH CHART
Set the active players and rotation charts for your team in the current league.
You must have at least 10 and not more than 12 healthy active players. If you have injuries and are about to start a set of simulations with less than 10 healthy active players, you will be forced to activate more. In such occasion, the first healthy non-active player in your roster order as listed in the game plan will be activated. (And, if necessary, the second -- and if that's not enough, the third etc.)
In games, computer coaches the computer will use these depth charts and the actual minutes played to distribute minutes and assign starters. If a player is set as inactive, the player will not be used at all. Under each of the five possible positions you can select from the following for each player:
no - The player will only be used in an emergency
1st - Starter
2nd - Backup who will receive the majority of the minutes when the starter is not on the court
3rd - 3rd stringers usually will get some spot minutes off the bench each game
4th - Usually plays infrequently
none - Will be used only in emegency
A player can play at the positions "next" to his natural postition:
PG: PG or SG
SG: PG, SG or SF
SF: SG, SF or PF
PF: SF, PF or C
C: C or PF
This means that a player can be listed on two or three different positions in the depth charts. A player's slot on a position may be 1 (starter), 2, 3, 4, y or n. If listed as "y", the player will play only spot minutes -- for example late in a blowout game or in case of injuries -- and if he's listed as "n" he won't be used at the position in question.
Also, multiple players may be assigned in all slots except the starter (1). If that is done, two players play equal amount of minutes off the bench. And all slots except the starter slot may be left empty. You may want to do this for example if you feel your star starter is not getting enough minutes. Then you may list the starter as 1 and the reliever as 3 or 4.
4.4.2 GAME PLAN
min - minutes
Select the preferred amount of minutes per game you wish to designate the player. If set at auto, the coach decides the minutes.
of - offensive focus
Players preferred spot on the floor on offense, which will increase the number of that type of shot available, example: If a player focuses on the Post, the player will take more post shots than usual. Options: auto, outside, drive, post.
Outside - the player selected will look to get open for an outside shot.
Drive - the player selected will look to drive to the basket.
Post - the player selected will post up and look to score down low.
Auto - let the players decide the best shot type.
df - defensive focus
Players preferred spot on the floor on defense, this will increase the defense in the selected area. If you put a player in the post his post defense will improve but it can affect the defense in other areas. Options: auto, outside, drive, post.
Outside - is selected when you want a defender guarding a player close to take away outside shots.
Drive - gives a player space but can take away penetration. Post - allows a player to play strong and try to deny the player a post up inside shot.
oi - offensive intensity
The higher the number the more the player will look to score, this can have an effect on the players ability to make players better, fatigue, and defense. Options: -2, -1, 0, 1, 2.
+1 or +2 -- more shots, more fouls drawn, more turnovers, less good shots, less passing, less defense, less stamina)
-1 or -2 -- less shots, less fouls drawn, less passing, less turnovers, poorer offensive ratings
di - defensive intensity
The higher the number the more aggressive the player will be defensively, leading to more turnovers, but can impact the players defensive ratings, and lead to increased fouls. Options: -2, -1, 0, 1, 2.
+1 or +2 -- more steals, more blocks, more fouls, less stamina, poorer defensive ratings.
-1 or -2 -- less steals, less blocks, less fouls, better defensive ratings.
bh - ball handler
The higher the number the more the player will look to run the offense, pass first and shoot second, but can impact the players ability to score overall. Options: -2, -1, 0, 1, 2.
4.4.3 SINGLE-GAME PLANS
GMs can not send single-game plans. The same game plan will be used for all games in the following set of sims.
4.5 CITIES
The OBA cities have the following ratings:
Fan -- Fan support (affects primarily attendance)
Pop -- Population base of city & arena (affects primarily attendance)
Int -- Interest in team (affects primarily radio & TV revenue)
Comp -- Competition for audience in the area
Eco -- Economy, the better the economy the more money fans will spend and the higher the likelihood of selling higher priced seats
Cost -- General cost of living (higher cost of living in relation to pricing will increase or decrease the impact prices make)
Pol -- Political support (very important when proposing new arenas)
All attributes of a city should be considered when setting ticket prices in addition to your evaluation of a team. For example, a strong economy & a good team should allow one to set prices a little higher than normal but poor fan support can offset this. It is up to the GM to determine the impact of all factors in determining a means to maximize profit and thereby allowing one to spend more money during the all important free agency period.
City attributes can change each year based on the results financially & on the court the previous season. For example, the more championships you win the more the fan loyalty should increase. And of course, OBA Participation Bonuses may change your city ratings.
4.6 FINANCES
Good financial management is one of the key ingredients in building a successful franchise. The revenues and expenses in the JSB finances are explained below.
4.6.1 TEAM BUDGETS
Each team has a team budget that limits spending. The budgets are different for each team and they change each year based on the success of the team and profit of the team.
The salaries of all players on a team cannot total more than the budget in any season. The budget is determined by both a team's current value and the owners spending rating (hidden). It is possible for the owners cap to be less than league salary cap.
Unlike league salary cap, the team budget is a hard cap and teams are not allowed to go over it in off-season free agency except by signing one-year minimum salary deals. It is possible to go over your budget during the season by acquiring more salaries in trades, but doing so is allowed only if the team also cuts future payroll.
To be more precise, a team over its budget is allowed to add salary, if the pro-rated salary addition for the remainder of the season in progress is at least equal to the salary savings for the following season. For example, if a team has played 40 games, half of the season, it can add two million to current payroll if the trade cuts at least one million from the payroll of the following season.
4.6.2 EXPENSES
Salary - Current salary amount to players
Scout* - Current scouting expenses (the better the scout, the higher the expense)
Coach - Current coach expenses (the better the coach, the higher the expense)
GM* - Current general manager expenses (the better the GM, the higher the expense)
Oper - Operating expenses, teams with a higher team value tend to spend more money during a season to maintain current value and arena
Arena - Arena expenses including general maintenance of arena. Teams that are currently in the process of building a new arena will spend to construct the new arena as well. The expense is broken down equally throughout the length of construction.
Mark - Marketing expenses
Exp - Total of all expenses
Profit - Money loss or earned to date
*) All teams will be assigned random scouts and GMs inside the software, but they do not effect actual OBA game play in any way.
4.6.3 REVENUES
Tick$ -- Average ticket price
Att Rev - Total revenue on general tickets
Ste$ -- Average suite price
Suite - Total suite revenue
Clb$ -- Average club seat price
Club - Total club seat revenue
Con$ -- Average concessions bought amount
Conc - Total concession revenue
Park$ -- Average parking spots revenue amount
Park - Total parking revenue
Rev* -- Total of all revenues
Arena - Current value of arena
Team - Current value of team
Profit - Money lost or earned to date
*) Revenues also include the following:
1. Network TV deal
2. Local TV & Radio deal
3. Arena advertising & sponsorship
These increase or decrease each season based on team success, value, profit & city attributes
4.6.4 ATTENDANCE
Cap - Total arena seating capacity
Attend - Average attendance
Att % -- Percentage of seats filled
# Ste - Total luxury suites
Suites - Average suites sold
Ste % -- Percentage of suites sold
# Clb - Club seats in arena
Club - Average club seats sold
Club % -- Percentage of club seats sold
# Park - Parking spots available
Park - Average parking spots used
Park % -- Percentage of parking spots filled
Attendance figures are based primarily on the following factors:
1. Current team roster.
2. Current team record.
3. Franchise value.
4. Prices.
5. Quality of opposition
6. Popularity & success of coach.
7. City Attributes
4.6.5 TEAM DETAILS
Expenditures for cities with teams accumulated so far into the season, the averages and percentages for different aspects of the arena, along with the revenues accumulated so far into the season and the projected season value of the following contracts:
1.Television
2.Radio
3.Arena Advertising
4.Arena Sponsorships
These contracts change each season based on profits, arena value and team value (also shown).
4.6.6 TICKET PRICES
Arena prices can only be set during the off season. Prices can be changed in the following categories:
Ticket Price - Average priced ticket in the arena (typically $40-$50 dollars)
Suite Price - Average price of luxury suites in the arena (typically $3,000 -$4,000 dollars)
Club Seat Price - Average price of club seats in the arena (typically $100-$200 dollars)
Concession Price - Average price of typical concession expenses of a fan including food, drink and program (typically $20-$30 dollars)
The cost of parking is determined automatically by the software.
4.7 ARENA PROPOSALS
Each team has a home arena and capacity and quality of the buildings may vary quite a lot from city to city. If you feel your arena doesn't satisfy your team's needs, you can try to get a new one under construction via arena proposals procedure in off-season.
There are two kinds of arena proposals -- constructing a new arena and moving the franchise to another city. Moving the franchise to new city has to be accepted by the league and new city must fit geographically into the team's current division.
Note: When proposing a city move you are required to submit an arena construction proposal as well.
The higher the quality of an arena the more cash flow your team generates, thereby increasing your teams chances of obtaining key players because of both franchise prestige and money available.
4.7.1 POLL ROUND
The arena construction is a two-step process. First, there is the Poll Round, where a GM can send in three different proposals. If it's a relocation attempt, the team can send poll proposals to two different cities -- one of them can be the team's current city -- three proposals per city.
The proposals consist of total capacity, amount of club seats, amount of suites and public contribution, which can range from 51-100% of the total cost. Suites are very expensive but impact revenue very positively. Club Seats also generate cost with the benefit of revenue. Capacity generates the most consistent revenue.
Then, the GM will receive a reply where all three proposals are rated in a scale of 0 to 5 according to the possibility of the city considering the offer along with total cost and team cost of each proposal. For relocation proposals, the poll reply will also include information for current arenas of new cities, and the city's political support value compressed in a scale from 1 to 3. No other attributes of new cities will not be available until after the team has moved.
4.7.2 FINAL ROUND
In the Final Round, GM sends in his final proposal for the arena. The final proposal may be different than any of the three poll proposals. Also, a GM is not committed to make the final proposal even if he made the poll proposals. Three outcomes are possible in the Final Round: the city rejects the proposal without consideration, the city considers but rejects the proposal, or the city accepts the proposal.
The Final decisions are based primarily on the following: The current value of the team, the success of the franchise, political support and the amount of money you request the city to spend. Also, the better the attributes of the city the more reluctant the city can be to accept.
The time of construction is automatically determined by the city and ranges from 3 to 5 years. The team cost will be spread out to each of the years evenly. If a relocation proposal is accepted, the team will play one more season in its current city, then moves to new city and plays in the city's current arena until new arena construction is finished.
If a proposal is accepted, a new one can't be submitted to the same city until after 20 seasons.
4.8 DRAFT
There are three ways to acquire players to your team. Trades, free agency and the annual rookie draft, where teams select amateur players.
4.8.1 DRAFTEES
Each season, new young players enter the OBA player pool via Rookie Draft. The official draft list will be released after the OCAA and WWBA seasons have been finalized and college players have made their final decisions on whether they're declaring for the draft or not.
All international prospects playing in the WWBA will be on the upcoming draft list.
4.8.2 DRAFT LOTTERY
The draft order is determined by the teams' success in the previous season with the top teams in regular season standings picking last. The order of the first three first round picks is determined by computer-run draft lottery. Only non-playoff teams take part in the lottery, with the last team in the standings having the highest probability of ending up with the first overall pick.
The lottery will take place soon after the postseason has started.
4.8.3 DRAFT IN PRACTICE
OBA Rookie Draft is a live event on IRC. There will be two channels, #OBA and #OBA2, an GMs should join both of them. The draft takes place in #OBA2. GMs will not be allowed to speak in here. Only the draft announcer will speak in there and when he does so, it will be to announce selections.In #OBA, GMs will be allowed to freely converse and comment on selections.
When GMs join the channels, they MUST use their team name as their IRC nickname. (For example, mine will be simply: Caesars)
Regarding your selection, please keep a copy of the draft order with you and track the status of the draft with each pick along with who is taken and who is left.When it is your turn to pick, the draft announcer will send you a PRIVATE MESSAGE (do no message him) and you will have 1 minute to give him your selection (in a private message). Once you have told him your selection, he will announce it in #OBA2.
GMs are allowed to negotiate and make trades whenever during the draft. If you make a trade in the draft, both GMs MUST confirm it to Commissioner in a private message so that it can be checked before making it official.Of course, GMs should take care of their trade negotiations in private messages, not in the chat channels.
If you cannot make the draft:
a) Let the commissioner know in advance.
b) Get a GM you trust to make selections for you. If you can't get anyone else, commissioner will take care of your picks. Provide him with a 'draft list' where you rank all the players from the ones you want the most to the ones you want the least. If you have someone else drafting for you, tell it to commissioner in advance.
c) If a team doesn't submit any kind of draft list and the GM isn't in the draft, the team will get the 10th best undrafted player available according to league scout's official rankings.
5 CBA
This chapter of the OBA rule book may come second to last, but it's certainly not the second to least. The "OBA Collective Bargaining Agreement" -- the CBA -- includes regulations related to rosters, contracts, finances and trades. Among others.
The content of this chapter may be difficult to understand at first, but learning it is truly important for a successful OBA general manager. And even if it can be tricky, it is certainly not impossible to learn.
5.1 SALARY CAP
The OBA salary cap is 45 millions until the end of season 2016. Beginning from off-season Free Agency 2017, the salary cap will be tied to league revenues, the "Basketball Related Income". The total BRI is simply the total of all teams' revenues -- including playoffs, but not including Luxury Tax money.
The cap is set at the start of each off-season at 51 percent of BRI. In practice, this means adding together all revenues and dividing it by 32. For example, in 2015 the BRI was 3298 million, which would have set the salary cap at 52.56 million (3298*0.51/32).
The salary cap will be announced at the end of Tobias Cup playoffs and it'll be effective at the start of off-season Free Agency.
The salary cap the same for all teams, but unlike team budgets, it is a soft cap; teams can operate above the cap by using the available cap exceptions, which are explained in detail below.
One important thing to understand about all the exceptions is that even if they allow teams that are over the cap to sign players, all the salaries will count against teams' salary cap just like any other contract immediately after the players have been signed.
5.1.1 SALARY CAP FLOOR
In addition to the maximum a team can spend in player salaries, there's also a minimum amount beginning from season 2017. The minimum is at 75 percent of the cap or 75 percent of team budget, whichever is lower.
If a team does not spend that amount during the regular season, it'll be surcharged at the end of season.
This rule is in place to prevent teams from tanking seasons and not using their resources to win games (or at least it makes such attempts less beneficial).
5.2 LUXURY TAX
Teams that have spent more than the Luxury Tax threshold in player salaries during the regular season will have to pay a dollar of Luxury Tax for each dollar they're over the threshold. The tax money goes to Tax Pool, which will be shared equally with all the teams not paying the Luxury Tax.
The tax threshold is at 57.5 million until the end of season 2016, but will be 61 percent the BRI in the following seasons. Again, if based on the BRI from season 2015, the threshold would be 62.87 million (3298*0.61/32).
5.3 PLAYER CONTRACTS
All players contracts are fully guaranteed, except for the rookie contracts signed by first-round draft picks, who have team option seasons in their Rookie Scale Contracts.
If a player is released while under contract, the contract continues to count towards the salary cap of the team until either (a) The end of the contract or (b) The player is signed by another team.
If a player retires, his contract will be included in Team Salary until the training camp following his retirement.
A player contract year starts at the start of off-season Free Agency period and ends at the end of Rookie Draft.
5.3.1 TERM AND RAISES
The contract term can not exceed 6 year and yearly raises can not exceed 10.5% of the contract's first year salary for players with Bird Rights. For players without Bird Rights, maximum term is five seasons and maximum raises 8 percent of the contract's first year salary.
5.3.2 MAXIMUM SALARIES
No player contract can exceed the maximum salary in the first year of a contract.
Until the end of season 2016, the maximum salary for a player with six years or less pro experience is 10.63 million. For players with 7-9 years of pro experience, the maximum is at 12.75 million, and a 10-year veteran's maximum is at 14.88 million.
Beginning from season 2017, the maximum salaries are tied to the league salary cap:
0-6 years of experience -- 23.4 percent of cap.
7-9 years of experience -- 28.1 percent of cap.
10+ years of experience -- 32.8 percent of cap.
(When using the 2015 BRI, the percentages above would mean respective dollar figures of 12.29 million, 14.77 million and 17.23 million.)
A player's maximum salary can never be less than 105 percent of his previous salary. So, if the last season of an expiring contract was 18 million, the maximum starting salary for the player's next contract would be 18.9 million.
5.3.2 MINIMUM SALARIES
No contract year can not be worth less than minimum salary. The maximum and minimum salaries are determined by years of service as listed below:
MINIMUM (Years pro -- Salary):
0 -- $350,000
1 -- $510,000
2 -- $590,000
3 -- $610,000
4 -- $640,000
5 -- $700,000
6 -- $760,000
7 -- $820,000
8 -- $890,000
9 -- $1,000,000
10+ -- $1,030,000
**** NOTE: For now, these figures will remain the same even after the cap rule changes of 2017. They may increase in the future, though.
5.3.4 ROOKIE SALARY SCALE
All players selected in the rookie draft are signed automatically to Rookie Salary Scale contracts. Second round picks are signed to two-year minimum salary contracts and first round picks have two or three guaranteed contract years and one or two years on team options.
If the player was drafted in 2010 or earlier, the contract type is 3+1, while players selected in 2011 or later have 2+1+1 type contracts.
The window for exercising the fourth option year is open during the pre-season following the player's second pro season. If all option years are exercised, the player will become a Restricted Free Agent after his fourth season. If the option years are not picked up, the player becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent when his contract ends.
For players selected in 2011 or later, the third option year will be exercised unless the team declines it during the pre-season following the player's first pro season.
If a player who has a team option year in his contract is released before the option is exercised, the team option year is waived.
The option year salary amounts are shown in team contract lists and the full rookie salary scale is presented in the rookie salary scale table below. Teams are allowed to pick up the option year regardless of their total salary commitment, salary cap room and budget space for the season of the option. Once the option is picked up, it'll count normally against the team's salary cap and budget.
The salary scale for players selected in 2010 or earlier:
| Pick | 1st Year | 2nd Year | 3rd Year | 4th Option | 5th Qualifying |
| 1 | 3.21 | 3.45 | 3.69 | 4.65 | 6.05 |
| 2 | 2.87 | 3.09 | 3.30 | 4.16 | 5.43 |
| 3 | 2.58 | 2.77 | 2.97 | 3.75 | 4.93 |
| 4 | 2.32 | 2.50 | 2.67 | 3.38 | 4.45 |
| 5 | 2.10 | 2.26 | 2.42 | 3.07 | 4.07 |
| 6 | 1.91 | 2.05 | 2.20 | 2.79 | 3.72 |
| 7 | 1.74 | 1.87 | 2.01 | 2.55 | 3.42 |
| 8 | 1.60 | 1.72 | 1.84 | 2.34 | 3.15 |
| 9 | 1.47 | 1.58 | 1.69 | 2.15 | 2.92 |
| 10 | 1.39 | 1.50 | 1.60 | 2.04 | 2.78 |
| 11 | 1.32 | 1.42 | 1.52 | 2.02 | 2.76 |
| 12 | 1.26 | 1.35 | 1.45 | 2.00 | 2.75 |
| 13 | 1.19 | 1.28 | 1.37 | 1.96 | 2.71 |
| 14 | 1.13 | 1.25 | 1.31 | 1.94 | 2.70 |
| 15 | 1.08 | 1.16 | 1.24 | 1.90 | 2.66 |
| 16 | 1.02 | 1.10 | 1.18 | 1.81 | 2.54 |
| 17 | 0.97 | 1.05 | 1.12 | 1.72 | 2.43 |
| 18 | 0.92 | 0.99 | 1.06 | 1.63 | 2.31 |
| 19 | 0.88 | 0.95 | 1.01 | 1.56 | 2.22 |
| 20 | 0.85 | 0.91 | 0.97 | 1.50 | 2.14 |
| 21 | 0.81 | 0.87 | 0.93 | 1.48 | 2.13 |
| 22 | 0.78 | 0.84 | 0.90 | 1.48 | 2.14 |
| 23 | 0.75 | 0.80 | 0.86 | 1.46 | 2.12 |
| 24 | 0.72 | 0.77 | 0.83 | 1.45 | 2.12 |
| 25 | 0.69 | 0.74 | 0.79 | 1.42 | 2.09 |
| 26 | 0.67 | 0.72 | 0.77 | 1.39 | 2.05 |
| 27 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.75 | 1.35 | 2.01 |
| 28 | 0.64 | 0.69 | 0.74 | 1.34 | 1.99 |
The salary scale for players selected in 2011 or later:
| Pick | 1st Year | 2nd Year | 3rd Option | 4th Option | 5th Qualifying |
| 1 | 3.21 | 3.45 | 3.69 | 4.65 | 6.05 |
| 2 | 3.21 | 3.45 | 3.69 | 4.45 | 5.90 |
| 3 | 2.87 | 3.09 | 3.30 | 4.17 | 5.47 |
| 4 | 2.58 | 2.77 | 2.97 | 3.76 | 4.96 |
| 5 | 2.32 | 2.50 | 2.67 | 3.38 | 4.49 |
| 6 | 2.10 | 2.26 | 2.42 | 3.07 | 4.09 |
| 7 | 1.91 | 2.05 | 2.20 | 2.79 | 3.75 |
| 8 | 1.74 | 1.87 | 2.01 | 2.56 | 3.45 |
| 9 | 1.60 | 1.72 | 1.84 | 2.34 | 3.18 |
| 10 | 1.47 | 1.58 | 1.69 | 2.24 | 3.07 |
| 11 | 1.47 | 1.58 | 1.69 | 2.22 | 3.04 |
| 12 | 1.39 | 1.50 | 1.60 | 2.20 | 3.03 |
| 13 | 1.32 | 1.42 | 1.52 | 2.17 | 3.00 |
| 14 | 1.26 | 1.35 | 1.45 | 2.15 | 2.99 |
| 15 | 1.19 | 1.28 | 1.37 | 2.10 | 2.94 |
| 16 | 1.13 | 1.25 | 1.31 | 2.01 | 2.82 |
| 17 | 1.08 | 1.16 | 1.24 | 1.90 | 2.69 |
| 18 | 1.02 | 1.10 | 1.18 | 1.81 | 2.58 |
| 19 | 0.97 | 1.05 | 1.12 | 1.72 | 2.46 |
| 20 | 0.92 | 0.99 | 1.06 | 1.69 | 2.43 |
| 21 | 0.88 | 0.95 | 1.01 | 1.67 | 2.42 |
| 22 | 0.88 | 0.95 | 1.01 | 1.64 | 2.41 |
| 23 | 0.85 | 0.91 | 0.97 | 1.65 | 2.40 |
| 24 | 0.81 | 0.87 | 0.93 | 1.63 | 2.38 |
| 25 | 0.78 | 0.84 | 0.90 | 1.62 | 2.38 |
| 26 | 0.75 | 0.80 | 0.86 | 1.55 | 2.29 |
| 27 | 0.72 | 0.77 | 0.83 | 1.50 | 2.22 |
| 28 | 0.69 | 0.74 | 0.79 | 1.43 | 2.12 |
| 29 | 0.67 | 0.72 | 0.77 | 1.39 | 2.08 |
| 30 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.75 | 1.35 | 2.03 |
| 31 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.74 | 1.34 | 2.00 |
| 32 | 0.64 | 0.69 | 0.74 | 1.34 | 2.00 |
**** NOTE: For now, these figures will remain the same even after the cap rule changes of 2017. The rookie salary scale will likely be raised in the future, though.
5.3.5 CONTRACT EXTENSIONS
From the start of regular season to the end of playoffs, teams can send contract extension offers to their own players, who are in the last year of their contracts -- excluding players on the fourth season of their Rookie Salary Scale contracts (see below). Each team can use three extension offers during a season. They do not have to be to three different players.
Each team can extend only one contract each season. Extensions are a maximum of 5 additional years. The salary of the first extension year can not exceed the last year salary of the original contract by more than 10.5%.
A contract can be extended after three seasons have passed from the signing of the contract. Which means that only contracts for four seasons or more can be extended. For contracts that have already been extended, it can be extended again if the extension signed was for at least three seasons.
Minimum and mid-level exceptions are not available for use in extensions and the offered salaries must fit into the off-season cap amounts. However, Bird exceptions do apply.
If a player receives a poor offer they will let it be known and if a player receives too many poor offers the player will no longer wish to negotiate.
5.3.6 ROOKIE SALARY SCALE EXTENSIONS
If the team option for the fourth season of Rookie Scale Contract has been exercised, the window for extending their contracts is open during the pre-season following the player's third pro season. For such contract extensions, the salary in the first extension year can be as high as the maximum salary.
If the contract of such a player is not extended by the start of the regular season in the player's fourth pro season, he'll become a Restricted Free Agent in the upcoming off-season.
There's no limit to how many Rookie Scale Extensions a team can sign in a season and signing such contract extension does not prevent a team from making any of its contract extension offers during regular season. However, each player eligible for Rookie Scale Extension will not listen to more than three offers during pre-season. If he doesn't sign the third offer, the talks are off and he'll be RFA in the following off-season.
5.4 SALARY CAP EXCEPTIONS
As mentioned earlier, the league salary cap is a soft cap and it is possible for teams to have payrolls higher than that. Even if a team is without cap space, it can still sign players using various salary cap exceptions. These apply mostly to contracts signed in Off-Season Free Agency.
5.4.1 BIRD EXCEPTION
Teams can use the Bird Rule Exception on Players with Bird Rights. This rule allows teams to go over the cap to sign their own free agents. Players eligible for Bird Rights have not left one team to sign with another team during the last three years.
Trades do not reset the "bird clock" but if a player is released, his bird years are resetted to zero, even if it's the same team that later on picks him up from the Available Players' list.
Also,if a free agent changes teams in a sign-and-trade, it is considered changing teams as a Free Agent and and reset the player's bird years.
The maximum yearly raises for Bird Exception contracts are 10.5 percent of the contract's first year salary and the maximum term is six seasons.
5.4.2 EARLY BIRD EXCEPTION
The Early Bird Exception is available for re-signing players who have two bird years. It works exactly the same as Bird Exception, except that the contract term must be between two and five seasons and the maximum salary is 175 percent of the player's previous salary or the Mid-Level Exception (see rule 5.4.4), whichever is higher.
The maximum yearly raises for Early Bird Exception contracts are 10.5 percent of the contract's first year salary.
5.4.3 NON-BIRD EXCEPTION
The Free Agents who don't qualify for Bird Exception or Early Bird Exception -- FAs with only 1 bird year or no bird years -- can be re-signed using the Non-Bird Exception. The maximum starting salary in a Non-Bird Exception contract is 120 percent of the player's previous salary or 120 percent of minimum salary, whichever is higher.
The maximum contract term is five seasons and yearly raises can not exceed eight percent of the salary in the first year of the contract.
5.4.4 MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION
Each year a team can sign a player to a Mid-Level Exception. The first year of the MLE contract is league average salary. The formula to determine the average salary is: total player salaries (not including playoff salaries) / 13.2 / the number of teams.
For example, in 2015 the total player salaries were 2009 million, which means the average salary was 4.75 million.
The MLE salary for the upcoming off-season free agency will be announced at the end of Tobias Cup playoffs.
This mid-level exception is a contract that can be one to five years long. The money amounts are fixed and the yearly raises are always eight percent of the first year salary.
The mid-level exception can also be split and given to multiple players. Even if split, the annual raises are always fixed at eight percent.
5.4.5 BI-ANNUAL EXCEPTION
Each team can also use the Bi-Annual Exception to sign one free agent. The salary is set at one third of the MLE. This exception may not be used two years in a row, but it can be a two-year deal with 8-percent raise.
5.4.6 MINIMUM SALARY EXCEPTION
Teams can sign players to league minimum contracts regardless of cap situation. The contracts can be up to two years in length. The minimum is determined by a players years of service. For two-year contracts in off-season free agency, the salary for the latter season is the minimum salary for that season; if a player with four years of experience signs a two year minimum salary contract, the contract amounts are 0.64 and 0.70 million.
Unlike the exceptions mentioned above, this exception is available also outside the off-season free agency. If a player without OBA contract is picked up from the available players' list, he's always signed to a one-year minimum salary deal.
5.4.7 ROOKIE EXCEPTIONS
First round draft pick rookies are automatically signed to contracts at the start of off-season. Their contracts defined by the rookie salary scale with the 1st overall pick in round 1 having the largest salary. The scale changes depending upon the number of teams in the league. Second round picks receive 2 year contracts.
All drafted rookies can and will be signed to contracts regardless of the team's cap and budget situation.
5.4.8 INJURED PLAYER EXCEPTION
A team which is over the cap is allowed to acquire a replacement for an injured player who will be out for the remainder of the season -- including playoffs. This exception can only be used to acquire one player and the team will continue paying the injured player's salary as well.
The maximum salary for the replacement player is 50% of the injured player's salary, or the MLE salary, whichever is less. The team must acquire the replacement player within 45 gamedays but before the trade deadline. The player can be acquired via trade or picking up someone from the available players' list.
5.4.9 SUMMARY OF EXCEPTIONS
To sum up the salary cap exceptions in off-season free agency:
BIRD EXCEPTION:
Who: Own FA with at least three bird years
Term: 1-6 seasons
Max. salary: Maximum (see above)
Raises: 10.5 percent
EARLY BIRD EXCEPTION:
Who: Own FA with two bird years
Term: 2-5 seasons
Max. salary: 175 percent of previous salary or league average salary, whichever is higher
Raises: 10.5 percent
NON-BIRD EXCEPTION:
Who: Own FA with less than two bird years
Term: 1-5 seasons
Max. salary: 120 percent of previous salary
Raises: 8 percent
MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION:
Who: Any FA
Term: 1-5 seasons
Max. salary: League average salary
Raises: 8 percent (fixed)
Other: Can be split for multiple players
BI-ANNUAL EXCEPTION
Who: Any FA
Term: 1-2 seasons
Salary: One third of MLE, 8-percent raise for the second season
Other: Available only every other year
MINIMUM SALARY EXCEPTION
Who: Any FA
Term: 1-2 seasons
Salary: Minimum salary for all contract years
ROOKIE EXCEPTION
Who: Drafted Rookies
Term: Four seasons, including two team option seasons
Salary: As defined in Rookie Salary Scale
Other: Signed automatically at the start of Free Agency
5.5 FREE AGENTS
Once a player's contract ends, he becomes a free agent and he'll be available for all teams to sign in the off-season. Players available for off-season FA bids are listed on the OBA website on the free agency preview list.
There are two types of FAs in the OBA: restricted and unrestricted.
5.5.1 UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS
Players with at least four years of pro experience are unrestriced free agents -- except for first round picks off from the fourth option year in their Rookie Scale Contracts. If such a player changes teams in off-season free agency, his original team gets no compensation or right to match the contract.
5.5.2 RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS
All players with three years or less pro experience and first round picks off their fourth season of rookie scale contract are restricted free agents. A RFA is free to sign with any team, too, but his original team has the right to match any contract he signs with another team.
In order to make their free agent a restricted free agent after the option season, the team must submit a qualifying offer to the player in Stage 1 of off-season free agency.
If the player accepts the qualifying offer it'll count normally against the team's salary cap and budget. A team can submit a different kind of offer, but the player will become an unrestricted free agent.
All qualifying offers will stay on the table unless the team withdraws it. If the qualifying offer is withdrawn (or changed to an offer with different money or longer term) in Stage 2 or later, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.
Qualifying Offer Amounts
For first-round picks off the rookie scale contract, the amount of the qualifying offer is based on the player's draft position and is listed in team contract pages and the rookie salary scale table above. The team automatically gets an exception for this kind of qualifying offers and can send them in regardless of their salary cap room and budget space.
The teams also have the possibility to submit the maximum qualifying offer to a first round draft pick off the fourth season of his rookie salary scale contract. The maximum qualifying offer is a six-year contract starting from maximum salary with 10.5 percent yearly raises. Making such an offer requires having enough budget space.
For other players the qualifying offer is always a one-year offer at 125 percent of his previous salary or minimum salary plus 0.2 million, whichever is higher.
Offers to Other Teams' RFAs
If another team wants to sign a restricted free agent, they can send offers to them beginning from FA Stage 2. The offers must be for at least two seasons, but if the maximum qualifying offer was submitted, the offers must be for at least three seasons.
If the RFA has only one or two seasons of pro experience, the starting salary in the offers for him can not exceed the league average salary, which leaves his original team the possibility to match the offer using mid-level exception (if available) or early bird exception.
Matching
If the player accepts the offer from another team, his original team has 24 hours to match the offer.
If the original team doesn't match, the player goes to the team whose offer he accepted and the original team gets no compensation.
The original team can not match if the player's new salary would take them over their player budget.
5.6 TEAM SALARY
Team Salary includes both the players on roster and all released players whose contracts have not ran out or who haven't been picked up by other teams.
Also, the team salary during off-season Free Agency is a figure different from the team's current payroll. In addition to current contracts, the following amounts are counting against the salary cap:
- Unrenounced Free Agents (see rule 5.6.1 for more)
- Traded Player Exceptions, which can be renouced as well.
5.6.1 IMPENDING FREE AGENTS AND TEAM SALARY
All free agents continue to count against the team salary cap in off-season free agency. The amount of cap space a free agent eats depends on what kind of free agent he is:
RFA off from the fourth year of his rookie scale contract -- 250 percent of previous salary
Bird: 150 percent
Early Bird: 130 percent
Non-Bird: 120 percent
Of course, a player won't count more against the salary cap than his maximum salary would be.
5.6.2 RENOUNCING FAS
Free agents as stop counting against team salary cap once they are renounced. A team can renounce a player at any time during the free agency.
If you renounce a FA, you can not anymore re-sign him using the Bird, Early Bird or Non-Bird Exceptions and, of course, a renounced player no longer counts against the team salary cap. You can still sign a renounced player with mid-level and minimum exceptions. Basically, a renounced player is not your "own FA" anymore. But renouncing a player does not reset his bird years, you're only giving up his bird rights for one free agency period.
In a Restricted Free Agent is renounced, he becomes UFA and his original team does not have the right to match if he signs with another team.
However, renounced FAs can be traded in a trade-and-sign scenario (see rule 5.8.8), where bird rights do apply.
5.7 OFF-SEASON FREE AGENCY IN PRACTICE
The off-season free agency period consists of 11 stages. Each stage allows teams to offer players a contract as long as the total of the offered salaries adhere to the cap rules.
Also the number of offers is limited to the amount of roster slots available. Each team has 14 roster spots, including the players drafted in rookie draft.
If a team doesn't have legal roster (at least 12 players under contract) after 11 stages, the roster will be filled by forcing the necessary amount of random minimum salary signings.
Teams must use FAEd for designing and sending their bids to commissioner.
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Example: You are 20 million under the cap and then offer 2 players, 10 million dollars a season, bringing you to the cap amount. You can no longer offer contracts to any more players unless the rules allow you to go over the cap. In this case you may have players with bird rights and then you could offer those players money and exceed the cap, also if you have an exception available you can still offer one player the exception amount (not more than one because both players can not sign). You can always offer players the minimum amounts.
Again, remember that all contracts will count the same way against team salary cap immediately after they've been signed, whether or not an exception was used.
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In Stage 1, teams may only offer contracts to their own free agents. From Stage 2 onwards, all teams can bid on all players.
An offer made in a previous stage of free agency will stay on the table until a) the player signs a contract (either the offer in question or an offer from another team), b) the team makes a revised offer or c) the team withdraws the offer. Withdrawing an offer means that the team sends in a set of offers that does not contain the offer that's withdrawn.
Once a team reaches the salary cap or budget limit and has used all their exceptions, they can sign players only using the Minimum Salary Exceptions.
Minimum offer amounts for early stages
Also, in first four stages of Free Agency, the average salary in offers must meet certain portion of the average salary requested by the player. This restriction is in place only to reduce the amount of time the commissioner must spend in typing unrealistic offers -- no superstar will sign for minimum salary in early stages and very low offers are ignored by all players 99 percent of the time.
In Stage 1 the average salary in offers must be at least 35 percent of what the player is seeking for. For Stage 2, the minimum is 30 percent, going down to 25, 20, 15 and 10 percent for Stages 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. Beginning from Stage 7, all offers are valid.
The minimum requirement does not apply to qualifying offers to Restricted Free Agents.
Explanations of FA Preview columns
Pos - Players Primary Position
Yrs Pro - Players years of service (used to determine minimum and maximum salaries)
Bird - Years player has not moved from one team to another-via free agency. (Minimum of 3 years is necessary for Bird Rights).
Contract Yrs - Total years of current contract
Yrs Left - Years remaining on contract. Years Left is determined by years left on contract during the current season. This means players with 1 year left are considered free agents during the signing period.
Amount - Total Salary remaining on contract.
Yrs Sought - Estimate of contract years a player seeks.
Amount - Estimate of salary a player seeks
Yrs Agreed - Years of contract for a player signed during the Free Agency Period.
Amount - Total salary of a player signed during the Free Agency Period.
Status - Team Name: Team who signed the player. Unsigned: Player remains a Free Agent .
From - If player has left via free agency the team that the player left is shown here.
5.8 IN-SEASON FREE AGENCY
The players who weren't signed in the off-season free agency or have been released by their clubs will be placed on the available players list. Any team can pick up the player and his contract at any time of the preseason or regular season until Gameday February 21. After that, signings are allowed only in case of emergency, for example if injuries reduce a team's healthy roster below 10 players.
Unsigned free agents will also be on the available players list and can be signed at any time by any team to one-year minimum contracts. The players will sign for the team that sends its offer first and will be on roster for the next set of sims.
A team can not pick up a player whose contract would take them over the league salary cap and if a team with financial problems is about the pick up an expensive contract, the transaction may be blocked by the commissioner. (NOTE: But picking up players earning the league minimum is allowed regardless of financial circumstances.)
If two or more teams offer contract for the same player between the same two sets of sims, the player will sign for the team lower in the standings -- or, if in preseason or less than 10 games into the regular season, the team lower in the standings in the previous season.
In pre-season 2012 and before all teams have played at least 10 regular season games, the priority order for expansion teams is the rookie draft order and they're in spots 4-7 in the priority order behind the worst three teams in 2011 standings.
Teams have to have 10-14 healthy players on roster all the time and carry at least 12 players at all times.
So, if you've got 14 players, you can not sign anyone until you've released somebody. Also, if you have 12 players on roster, you naturally can't sign more than two.
5.9 TRADES
Players can be traded can be submitted at all times except from gameday February 21 trade deadline to the end of finals AND from the end of rookie draft to start of preseason (with the exception of sign-and-trades). All teams involved must confirm a trade before it can be run. The confirmation must be sent via GMEd to the commissioner.
The rules do not recognize such thing as "future considerations" in any trades and it is strongly recommended to complete all transactions at once. Again, no transaction is official until all teams have submitted it properly to the commissioner and the commissioner has accepted it. In principle, from the commissioner's and the rule book's point of view, no deal exists until all of that has taken place.
Up to five players and draft picks of next three drafts can be traded in one transaction.
5.9.1 COMMISSIONER REVIEW
All trades will be reviewed and too lopsided will be blocked by commissioner. However, this doesn't mean that no bad deal will go through. Veteran GMs will be allowed to make their own mistakes -- but they'll be monitored closely for potential loophole abuse connotations! -- while trades involving rookie GMs will be looked at more closely (see rule 5.9.2 for more).
Commissioner may also block a trade if a team losing money is adding a significant amount of salaries to their payroll. In practice this means that a team with a shaky financial situation (ie. low owner cap) will find it difficult to add more expensive players early in the season when it is not yet known whether the team is going to make profit or not in the season.
And no matter if it's early or late in the season, the GM a team with financial problems is about to trade for more salaries (or pick up an expensive players from the available players list) should be prepared for some pretty eloquent rhetorics in order to convince the commissioner that the move is good for the team and it won't lead to an even worse financial situation.
5.9.2 ROOKIE GM TRADE RESTRICTIONS
Rookie GMs will not be allowed to trade their best players, top prospects or first round picks in future drafts. These restrictions are in place in order to protect both the newcomer and the league's continuity.
Usually the untradeables include the team's top three players and better prospects, such as lottery picks from past couple of drafts. This may vary a little bit, because someone's third-best player could be a scrub and having or not having him won't really make a difference. And a lower pick may have developed into a very good prospect, too. So, in general there may be 2-6 untradeables on a rookie GM's roster.
The decision about who's tradeable and who's not is based on the commissioner's judgement and he will rather try to put too many players on the untradeables list than letting the newcomer make mistakes and/or ruin the team -- both in terms of quality and continuity.
A first round pick in next draft can be traded if it is a likely non-lottery pick, but no first-rounder in second or third draft is tradeable during the "rookie season". A GM will be considered a rookie until he has had his GM position for a full season.
Returning GMs with previous OBA experience will also be subject to trade restrictions as described above until they've been back in a GM position for a full season.
5.9.3 TRADING FIRST ROUND PICKS
The teams can not trade away first round picks in future drafts in consecutive seasons. A pick in the upcoming draft is not considered a future pick, though, meaning that a team must have a first round pick in second or third draft.
Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be their own pick, so if a team acquires a first-rounder from another team in the second draft, they can trade their own pick even if they don't have a first-round pick in the third draft.
In a nutshell, this means all teams must own at least one first round pick in second or third draft at all times.
5.9.4 FACTORING SALARIES
The salaries are factored in trades. If a team is over the salary cap, it can not acquire more than 125 percent plus 0.1 million of the salaries it is sending away.
Minimum salary players can be traded without regard to the salary cap and salary matching. Minimum salary players are not included in incoming salaries in trades, but they are included in outgoing salary when traded away.
5.9.5 TRADED PLAYER EXCEPTION
If a team trades away one player and the incoming salaries in the trade are less than the salary going away, the team gets Traded Player Exception which can be used for acquiring players later on. The value of the Traded Player Exception is the salaries going out minus the incoming salaries. So, if you trade away a player who's earning eight million and the incoming salaries are worth only four million, you're getting a four-million Traded Player Exception.
Traded Player Exception can only be used for acquiring players via trade and it can only be used alone, you can't combine it with other salaries in a trade. However, the Traded Player Exception does not have to be used at once -- you could use a four-million exception to acquire two players earning two million each.
Traded Player Exception must be used in one full season. An exception from a seeason 2012, gameday December 25 trade must be used before gameday December 25, 2013. If a TPE is listed as expiring in off-season, it expires at the end of off-season, before the free agency period. If a TPE is listed expiring in pre-season, it expires at the end of pre-season.
Traded Player Exceptions are included in team salary during off-season free agency, but the team may renounce it.
5.9.6 BASE YEAR COMPENSATION
Usually the salary used for comparison is the players' actual salary. But beginning from season 2012, there are two special cases, a different number is used for factoring.
1. The team uses Bird exception to re-sign a player and the player receives a raise is greater than 20 percent.
2. A player is signed to a Rookie Scale Extension and receives a raise greater than 20 percent.
In these cases, the player is considered a base year player until the next off-season free agency. If such player is traded, the figure used when factoring salaries is his previous salary or 50 percent of the first-year salary in his new contract, whichever is greater. When comparing salaries, teams use their own player's BYC value and the incoming player's full salary, even if the other player also is a base year player.
For example, if a team is over the cap and is trading a base year player who earned three million before but signed a 10-million contract, the contract's trade value is five million. Meaning that the team can take back maximum 125 percent of 5 million plus $100,000, which is 6.35 million.
A player signed to Rookie Scale Extension becomes a base year player at the start of next off-season Free Agency. In case he's traded during the season following the signing of the extension, his trade value for the receiving team is the average of the "new" contract, including both the last year of the rookie scale contract and all the extension seasons.
5.9.7 60-DAY RULE
A player who is traded during off-season, pre-season or regular season must stay on his new team's roster for two regular season gamemonths before he can be traded again with other players.
In practice, you'll be able to send the trade restricted by the 60-day rule before the three-gameday set of sims that contains the deadline day. For example, if a player is free to be traded on January 6th, you can send the trade in after the January 1-3 set of sims, because the deadline is in the next set of sims. Then, the transaction will take place after the January 4-6 set of sims.
The 60-day rule also restricts trading of all pre-season and regular season free agent signings (including teams' "own FAs").
Drafted rookies can be traded at the draft before the off-season trade freeze is on and in preseason. They can not be included in sign-and-trades. Also, a drafted rookie traded at the draft can not be traded again until regular season gameday December 15.
If a player was traded or signed in off-season or pre-season, he can be traded again after Regular Season Gameday December 15.
5.9.8 RE-ACQUIRING TRADED PLAYERS
When a team trades a player, it is not allowed to re-aqcuire him via trade or free agency until the start of next Off-Season Free Agency period.
5.9.9 TRADING IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
You can not trade for the rights of free agents in off-season.
5.9.10 TRADING PLAYERS ON ONE-YEAR CONTRACTS
If a player is on a one-year contract and would have Bird or Early Bird rights at the end of season, he loses his Bird rights and is considered a Non-Bird Free Agent in the following Free Agency. This includes first round draft picks who accepted the qualifying offer for their fifth pro season.
5.9.11 SIGN-AND-TRADES
Impending free agents can be traded in a sign-and-trade scenario during off-season free agency. That is a situation which essentially takes three to tango: Of course, there are the two teams that must agree to a trade but also the player must agree to sign with the new team.
In practice:
1) You agree to a trade which will take place provided that the player accepts the contract offer from the team that acquires the player.
2) The team trading the player does not have to have the budget space for the contract and if it's a bird player, cap space is not relevant, either.
3) The trade must, of course, meet the rules regarding salaries in trades.
Sign-and-trades are only meant for making an offer the team acquiring the player couldn't otherwise make due to cap restrictions. So, the offer must be higher than their cap space and also higher than minimum salary (you don't need a sign-and-trade for a minimum salary contract).
Sign-and-trades will reset the bird clock for the Free Agent involved in the deal.
The teams involved in a sign and trade must send the trade to the commissioner via FAEd and once it has been confirmed, the team acquiring the FA is allowed to make a contract offer to him using the original team's bird rights or cap space. The team acquiring the FA must make an offer that would make the salaries in the trade match, meaning the offer must start at no higher than 125 percent plus 0.1 million of the total outgoing salaries.
If the player signs with the team trying to acquire him via sign-and-trade, then the trade will take place. If the player signs with another team, the trade is voided, too.
Once teams have agreed to a sign-and-trade and the transaction is pending, the FA's original team must reserve roster spots for both the FA and the incoming players in the trade. Meaning if a team has 12 players under contract and would be acquiring two players in the sign-and-trade, they can't make any FA offers while the sign-and-trade is waiting for the FA's decision to sign.
The team acquiring the FA also must have at least one vacant roster spot -- ie. they can't have more than 13 roster players including the player(s) potentially leaving in the sign-and-trades.
Also, when the team acquiring a FA in a sign-and-trade is making offers to the player, the salaries of the potentially outgoing players are not included to the team salary.
Drafted rookies can not be included in sign-and-trade deals.
5.9.12 THREE-WAY TRADES
For trades involving more than two teams, assets must move between all teams involved or it will be reviewed as separate two-way trades.
An example of a trade that's not three-way deal:
Team A receives: Player 1 (from Team B)
Team B receives: Player 2 (from Team A), Draft Pick (from Team C)
Team C receives: Player 3 (from Team B)
Instead, it's two separate two-way deals: Player 1 for Player 2, Draft Pick Player 3
No assets are moving between Team A and Team C, thus it would be reviewed as two two-way trades. However, add this to the deal above...
Team A receives: Draft pick (from Team C)
....and it becomes a legal three-way deal. Assets are moving between all teams. The rule does not mean that assets must move back and fort between all parties.
For trades involving more than three teams, not every team necessarily has to move assets to from every other team, but each team must move assets to or from at least two other teams.
5.9.13 SALARIES IN OFF-SEASON TRADES
For off-season trades made between off-season initialization and the start of Free Agency, the player salaries from previous season are considered when factoring the salaries. The previous season's salaries determine both a player's contract value in trades and total team salary. This means that an impending free agent player counts against team salary cap until his contract expires and he becomes a free agent at the start of Free Agency.
5.9.14 ROSTER HOLDOVERS
All teams must end the season with at least three holdover players from their previous end-of-season roster. All three "holdovers" must have appeared in a game in the previous season. Two of the holdovers must be "regulars" who have appeared in at least 40 games and averaged at least 10 minutes of playing time per game. One of them must be a "starter", someone who has started at least 40 games.
If a trade would put one of the teams involved below these limits, the trade can not be done.
It is possible to go below the limits in off-season free agency if enough contracts expire and aren't renewed, but in that case the team can not trade during the season.
While a player traded in off-season can be re-acquired after gameday December 15 in the following season, such player will not count as a holdover for the team re-acquiring him.
5.9.15 MEDIAN SALARY FA SIGNINGS
If a free agent is signed in off-season free agency to a contract which has starting salary of 2.50 million or more, he can not be traded in the season following the signing until he has appeared in at least 30 games. He can be traded normally in the following off-season, though, even if he has less than 30 appearances.
This restriction applies to all off-season free agent signings, including "own" FAs.
A trade involving a "median salary FA" can be submitted via GMEd after the set of sims when the player plays his 30th game and the trade can be processed after the following set of sims.
6 MISCELLANEOUS
6.1 TEAM LOGOS
Team logos can be changed, but there are a few guidelines you should bear in mind when considering a logo change.
1) You can not change logo every season, not every other season, or even every three seasons. As always, we like continuity in the OBA, but there are also practical reasons behind this restriction. Each time there's a logo change, it means that the commissioner must redo some other stuff beginning from -- but not ending with -- team uniforms and so on. And logo changes should take place in offseason, not in the middle of the season.
2) Original artwork is preferred, if not required. Taking a real life sports team logo, changing its texts and colors is not original.
3) Changing the color scheme is not allowed. You must use current team colors in your new logo, too.
Also, when you design your logo, make sure that it looks good in smaller size, too. It'll be 90 x 90 pixels in online use.
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