We have been kicking this idea around for a while, and it's a format that works great in the baseball league. We talked about what this could look like for the NBA sim, and here's what we have so far. Comment if you're interested or have thoughts.

TLDR version:
12 man rosters. No clones.
Six consecutive season range defined by owner upon drafting the player.
Before every new WifS year, your players each get a random season from their range.
A player becomes a free agent when they reach 30m in cumulative salary. They sit out a year before being drafted again.
Players may not intentionally play out of position, even with 100% efficiency. (example, No Lebron at PG, no Rodman at SF) More specifics below.

Read all of the below if you’re planning to join.
League Rules:
No clones. 12 man rosters. No team salary cap. No partial seasons.

Drafting Players:
When you draft a player you will choose a consecutive six-year span from that player's career. That span can start as early as the first season that player appears on Whatifsports or as late as their last Whatifsports season but all six seasons must be within those two frames.

Any player with at least six years from their first season on Whatifsports to their last is eligible for the league. You can draft a player with missing seasons so long as those seasons are within their first and last year here. (For example, Bill Walton's career has some completely missed seasons due to injury. You could still choose a six year span like 1974-75 to 1979-80 if you wanted to, and if you draw the missing season you'll have to take a player from the replacement list.)

A player's six-year span can only be chosen when that player is drafted and is not reset at any other time, including trades.

Initial Draft:
The league will begin with a 12 round snake draft.

Position Locking:
When a player is drafted that player will be position-locked and can ONLY be played at the position they are locked into. This position is determined by the listed position that the majority of their seasons in the span you drafted them are.

For example, Shawn Marion has seasons listed in the sim as either SF or PF. If you draft him from 01-02 to 06-07 he has four seasons listed at SF and two at PF. He would be locked in at the draft as.a SF and would need to play there no matter which season he draws, even if that individual season is listed as a PF. If instead there is an equal amount of seasons at different positions, such as Marion from 02-03 to 07-08 where he has 3 SF and 3 PF seasons, the player can choose which position to lock him in at.

Assigning Seasons:
At the start of each season every player will be assigned a random season from within their six-year span. If that season is one they have missing or you are short on minutes at a specific position, you will be allowed to grab a replacement player from a small pool of serviceable but uninspiring replacement players. There will be no clones of replacement players. We will draft these FCFS after the season pulls are released.

Free Agents:
Each player will become a free agent the season after they have accumulated 30 million dollars worth of "service time" in the league. Service Time is defined as the salary cap value of a player's season, rounded down to the nearest million. So a player with a salary of 5.9 million will count as 5 million towards his service time. The season after a player reaches 30 mil they become a free agent. This number resets to zero for a player whenever that player is drafted.

In order to keep the league from looking the same every year, players who have reached the 30 ST limit and reach free agency this way will be required to take a season off before they can be drafted again. We don't really want to see peak Wilt EVERY season.

Trades do not reset service time. Different players will obviously accumulate service time at different rates...this is intended to be part of the value equation for each player. Wilt may give you way more value per season than others will, but you'll likely only be able to keep him for three seasons before he hits free agency again.

Prior to the draft order being set, there will be a period where owners can cut players. These players do not sit out a year and may be redrafted. Their service time also reverts back to zero.


Seasonal Drafts:
After each season we will draft from the free agent pool. Each team will get as many picks as they need to return to a 12 man roster. The draft order for the twelve teams that did not make the playoffs will be fully random, while the playoff teams will be randomized for picks 13-24.
Teams may cut players to obtain picks.

The number of draft picks will vary from season to season, so draft picks cannot be traded.


CONFIRMED:
1.jholme44
2.bfhendricks
3. poddy
4. dBKC
5. quaker128
6. jr2325
7. dmcclane
8. HDS1
9 strubros
10. masterdebate
11. berkelon

in!