Exceptions in Free Agency

[Gripni]

Almost every one of the 30 NBA teams are over the salary cap. It's very hard not to be. Not all of them are $50 million over it, like the Knicks, but there are only a few that aren't over the cap. But guess what? They still sign free agents. How do they do it? THE GOD DAMNED MID LEVEL EXCEPTION. Please. $5 mill a year EA. It would make the game so much better. Everyone is sick of not being able to sign free agents and watching players they should be using rot away in free agency because no team can sign them and they aren't good enough to be automatically zapped onto their old teams.

This should be a given. It's one of the most important parts of NBA transactions. Not having it makes the game so much worse. If NBA Live simulates 75% of the NBA accurately, adding this would make it 85% accurate. I think this is the most important thing they need to add to Dynasty mode easily. It's called free agency. Get it right.

[Metsis]

The mid-level exception is a big part of the free agent market... We should hear more rumours about the free agency to get more buzz into it... It is quite tepid at the moment... I'd like it hot and juicy...

Like you could receive mails on your pda about who's trying to get who in the off-season... And during the season maybe messages that 'Baron Davis is seriously thinking about free agency after another lousy season in New Orleans'... These kinds of things...

The players should come to you or you should get a message from their representative that this player would wish a change of scenery/would like to sign a contract extension/is happy that the team is doing so well/unhappy about his game time in the last couple of games... Darko was probably last season always telling the coach that he'd like to play more and do more etc... It isn't a neccesity, but it should be reflected on the players motivation and in extreme cases the team chemistry...

Something to make it more so that you have to manage the players too. We need tools for this... We need new stuff for this. I'd like to hear from the players...

Also the owner could be like 'We have lots of players in their last season of contracts, we should try to clear as much space as possible to rampage the free agent market...' or 'We are too much over the cap, try to cut the player budget' etc... All of these are real-life hypothetical situations that I believe are discussed within the team management constantly and it should be implemented.

One more thing about the free agency... There should be maximum caps for teams as well as the salary cap. So if you are portland you can't go over 85 million with player contracts... With the knicks it could be like 90 million. With Toronto it could be 60 million... A little different for different teams... It should also fluctuate a bit so with a highly successful Toronto team you could have a max-cap at 64 million in 5 years... Or with a bad success in New York could result in a 88 million max cap withing 5 years... But the direction should be generally up as player salaries tend raise year after year...


We need the midlevel exception... We need maximum cap too... We need some sort of a feed back cycle from the players and their agents... We need a feedback cycle from the owners regarding free agency/player salary budget.

These would effect the GM rating too so managing your team would amount points even if the team isn't having that much success.

[Goldberg]

I agree with the mid level exception. It is needed. A player at $3M might sign at $5M because of it... but you have to bring a maximum budget for player payroll.

I disagree with you Metsis on the owner statements. I would prefer to have him phased out. If I were a newbie, I would probably appreciate his dumb*** statements but frankly I consider him like an irritating assistant I can't fire... "need more training", "should use more dynasty points", "you doing a great job", shut up and let me manage, and just go back to buying real estate or whatever else you did to become a billionaire.

I like Metsis idea of a "maximum salary cap" but I think you meant a payroll budget not to be exceeded. Kinda like many games already have. I think its a good idea. This budget could move up and down by about 5% if its an extreme season (win or lose) and stay constant if its an average season of say (30 to 50 wins). Raise if above, lower if below. Slowly bring closer to origin if an average season, or remain constant if already at origin.

BUT I STRONGLY DISAGREE with the statement: "But the direction should be generally up as player salaries tend raise year after year..."

EA, don't even think about this one!!! EA did this with their NHL game. After about 5 season, the highest paid was over 30 million a year... after 7 seasons, one guy signed for over 50 millions, and we all knew that hockey salaries would never reach that size. It broke the entire spirit of the idea. If it is implemented, it should be VERY conservative raise... not the 10-15% a year that was in NHL 2004.

And with baseball and hockey making huge effort to cut these raising salaries, and with the NBA bargaining agreement up at season end... NBA will fall in line to cut any major raises as well. Inflation is a 2-3%... if salary raises... I think in the future, they will follow inflation...

[Metsis]

Only marginal changes to the salaries would be possible in the NBA... The hockey guys are on strike cause they don't want to have a salary cap system that the NBA already has...

So the NBA is already ahead of the rest with it's salary cap system... So don't worry. I don't think there will that many problems with getting the new CBA for the NBA and NBAPA next summer. I think it'll bring some changes, but they will be very minor ones. I haven't heard of anything majorly bad about it. I certainly don't want to miss a year of NBA action because of a strike.

Increases could be like now a maximum deal would be worth 20 million and in 20 years it could be 25 million...

The salary cap moves up every year a little bit to enable the small raises to the players salaries annually.

About the owner... Right now the owner is an annoying assistant, but he could well have more purpose and actually give something to work with. And you know Goldie... Not everyone knows everything about the league when they start to play and thus he could help out... Like if he wanted to clear out more space he should tell the player to try to get rid of some of the multi seasoned contracts for players that are in their last year etc.

Also if the trading block was implemented... The owner might do that. Like "We need a better inside presense and I hear the Portland Trailblazers put Shareef Abdur-Raheem on the trading block. You should see what they want for him." Stuff like this... This could also be in the NBA category where all the injuries shown.

But an option for turning off the "help" messages should be implemented if the owner was really implemented as a help tool...

One thing that they should do would be that the Players of the Month/Week notes could also come on PDA so that you could go see who's won them from the PDA.

[dsigns]

I like the idea about the trade exemption. I also think we should receive messages saying things like The New Orleans Hornets are shopping Baron Davis for a Small Forward, etc etc. Kinda like a rumor central area.

[Cee_em_bee]

What about contract extensions? e.g signing a rookie to a 5 year 60 million dollar deal on their last season.

And how about demand for expiring contracts for teams looking to under the cap? Real life E.g Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton for Dale Davis.

[Andrew]

Since Dynasty Mode has been rebuilt on a good foundation, I'd expect some of these extras to make their way into the game. Tweaking and expansion of features is the next step for that part of the game.

[killerht]

Hey
How about making it so there can be a lock-out because of salary issues.
That wold be fun.

Like at the end of the league's bargain agreement, in Live, all owners/GM and the players union have talks, and if there is no agreement, then there is a lock-out, or lock-out season(shortened season.)

[Andrew]

Make it optional so I can turn it off when I play, and I have no problem with the idea. In my opinion, the words "fun" and "lockout" don't belong in the same sentence...realistic as it may be.