TL;DR? Make it more like today's NBA. More like; not exactly like. System starts in 1984 season, when all creation draft contracts have expired.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
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Teams must start the preseason with salary at equal to 90% or more of the salary cap, and must finish the regular season with salary at 120% (was 110% in the PBSL) or less of the salary cap , or they will be subject to Luxury Tax penalties.
Teams that are under the salary cap (provided they were above the salary floor) will split 50% of luxury tax payments remitted by teams over the tax threshold.
IMPORTANT TIMING NOTE: All considerations for luxury tax rules below will not be applied until the start of the 1984 preseason (when all "creation draft contracts" have expired and been replaced with GM-negotiated contracts).
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SECTION 1 NEW LUXURY TAX SYSTEM BACKGROUND:
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Luxury tax is a penalty for going above the cap. This is necessary for the health of the league since winning teams gain several advantages (e.g., free agents are more likely to sign with a winner) and having "the rich always get richer" hurts the long-term health of the league - the luxury tax is the mechanism that counteracts some of winning's natural advantages so there is a tension instead of a "virtuous spiral." Since we don't have real money we use points instead. Basically, the luxury tax is a tool to be used to help ensure people do not abuse the soft cap.
We will be using as a baseline model the NBA's salary cap rules (see http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm) as they have already tried to "solve" many of the problems a soft cap leads to; we will make adjustments as needed to make things fit into our "points" system rather than a "money" system.
Like the real NBA (and like the PBSL), the luxury tax will be based on percentages to hopefully make it predictable. We don't want to tie league points values to a specific *dollar* value since the cap tends to go up every year, meaning if we put a certain dollar value in points would become "worth less" over time - for those of you that recall the PBSL, the salary cap began at $11.9 million in Season 1 but was $311.8 million in Season 72 - that's over 26 times bigger (meaning if we had used dollar values and tied points to those dollar values in Season 1, you would have needed over 26 times as many points in Season 72 to do the same thing)!
The NBA's latest CBA was negotiated in 2017, with the cap set at $99.093 million and (see point #12 in the salary cap FAQ: http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm) The luxury tax steps were set in increments of $5 million and started at $119.266 million (see point #18 in the same document). That's really close to $100 million for the cap, $120 million for the luxury tax level, and exactly $5 million for each increment, so to make our lives easier, the NPBSL will assume that the luxury tax should start at 120% of the salary cap (the PBSL started at 10%) and "step rates" come into play in increments of 5% of the salary cap (the PBSL used 3% and 2% steps).
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BASE LUXURY TAX RATES:
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The luxury tax threshold starts at 120% of the salary cap. (In the PBSL, this was referred to as the "apron" - the term "apron" now has a vastly different meaning in the NBA and since we'd like being GM in the NPBSL to improve your understanding of NBA GM's, not muddle it, we're deliberately changing the terminology here to avoid confusion.)
First 5% over the tax threshold - taxed at 1 league point for each 1% of cap over the threshold.
The next 5% over the threshold (e.g., between 5.01 and 10%) - taxed at 2 league points for each 1% of cap over the threshold.
Each additional 5% over the threshold adds another 0.5 league points per 1% of cap over the threshold (i.e., 2.5 points, then 3, then 3.5 points, etc.).
Calculating taxes is done for each "step" - i.e., if your team salary is 138% of the cap, you are 38% over the cap (and thus 18% over the tax threshold), so you pay 1 league points for each percentage point in the first 5% over the tax line (i.e., between 120% and 125% of the cap), 2 points for each percentage point in the next 5%, (takes you up to 130% of the cap), 2.5 points for each percentage point of the third 5% (takes you to 135%), and then 3 points per percentage point on the last 3% (to reach 138% of the cap). This makes the calculation as follows:
5% at (1 points per %) plus 5% at (2 points per %) plus 5% at (2.5 points per %) plus 3% at (3 points per %)
or
5 plus 10 plus 12.5 plus 9 = 36.5 points, rounded up to 37.
It is extremely likely that a luxury tax calculator will be added to the Cap Tools page at Enhanced/check.htm
These levels are tuned to be a little more forgiving at lower tax levels than the PBSL system but match (or exceed it) at very high levels of taxation (see the table at the end of the post).
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REPEAT OFFENDERS
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We will use the NBA definition of "repeat offender" (defined as "taxpayers in at least 3 of the last 4 seasons") - repeat offenders must pay 150% of what is listed above (so a repeat offender at 138% of the cap would have to pay 54.75 points rounded up to 55 instead of 37 points). This means the earliest repeater tax will kick in during the 1987 season (for taxpayers in all three of the 1984, 1985, and 1986 seasons).
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PENALTIES FOR HAVING UNPAID TAX BILLS:
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1. During Free Agency
- The team may not make offers to Restricted Free Agents nor exercise matching rights on their own Restricted Free Agents
- The team's Free Agent offers are restricted to one-year veteran minimum deals only
2. During Training Periods
- The team may not train players via the points system.
3. While trading
- The team may not send out points during trades (they may receive points)
4. Other
- The team may not use points for any function besides paying the tax (this includes Sim Vegas)
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APPENDIX: PBSL TAX LEVELS VS. NPBSL
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Note: values below reflect 1980 salary cap (which all teams were under in 1980) and the "NBPSL" values reflect exactly the top salary (rightmost number) in the bracket and are given for comparison. Actual calculation will be based on exact salary and not based on a table and there will be a spectrum of all values possible rather than just "steps."
| Amount over Cap | Pct | Tax | NPBSL | 2 Yr | 3 Yr | 4+ Yr | NPBSL Repeater |
| $1 - $190,000 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| $190,001 - $228,000 | 0.12 | 10 | 0 | 15 | 23 | 31 | 0 |
| $228,001 - $285,000 | 0.15 | 13 | 0 | 19 | 29 | 39 | 0 |
| $285,001 - $342,000 | 0.18 | 16 | 0 | 23 | 35 | 47 | 0 |
| $342,001 - $399,000 | 0.21 | 19 | 1 | 27 | 41 | 55 | 2 |
| $399,001 - $456,000 | 0.24 | 23 | 4 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 6 |
| $456,001 - $513,000 | 0.27 | 27 | 9 | 37 | 55 | 73 | 14 |
| $513,001 - $570,000 | 0.3 | 31 | 15 | 42 | 62 | 82 | 23 |
| $570,001 - $627,000 | 0.33 | 36 | 23 | 48 | 70 | 92 | 34 |
| $627,001 - $684,000 | 0.36 | 41 | 31 | 54 | 78 | 102 | 46 |
| $684,001 - $741,000 | 0.39 | 46 | 40 | 60 | 86 | 112 | 60 |
| $741,001 - $798,000 | 0.42 | 51 | 50 | 66 | 94 | 122 | 75 |
| $798,001 - $855,000 | 0.45 | 57 | 60 | 73 | 103 | 133 | 90 |
| $855,001 - $912,000 | 0.48 | 63 | 72 | 80 | 112 | 144 | 108 |
| $912,001 - $969,000 | 0.51 | 69 | 85 | 87 | 121 | 155 | 127 |
| $969,001 - $1,007,000 | 0.53 | 76 | 94 | 95 | 131 | 167 | 141 |
| $1,007,001 - $1,045,000 | 0.55 | 83 | 103 | 103 | 141 | 179 | 154 |
| $1,045,001 - $1,083,000 | 0.57 | 90 | 113 | 111 | 151 | 191 | 169 |
| $1,083,001 - $1,121,000 | 0.59 | 97 | 123 | 119 | 161 | 203 | 184 |
| $1,121,001 - $1,159,000 | 0.61 | 104 | 133 | 127 | 171 | 215 | 200 |
| $1,159,001 - $1,197,000 | 0.63 | 112 | 144 | 136 | 182 | 228 | 216 |
| $1,197,001 - $1,235,000 | 0.65 | 120 | 155 | 145 | 193 | 241 | 233 |
| $1,235,001 - $1,273,000 | 0.67 | 128 | 167 | 154 | 204 | 254 | 251 |
| $1,273,001 - $1,311,000 | 0.69 | 136 | 179 | 163 | 215 | 267 | 269 |
| $1,311,001 - $1,349,000 | 0.71 | 144 | 192 | 172 | 226 | 280 | 288 |
| $1,349,001 - $1,387,000 | 0.73 | 153 | 205 | 182 | 238 | 294 | 307 |
| $1,387,001 - $1,425,000 | 0.75 | 162 | 218 | 192 | 250 | 308 | 327 |
| $1,425,001 - $1,463,000 | 0.77 | 171 | 232 | 202 | 262 | 322 | 348 |
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SECTION 2: TAX REDISTRUBITION AND SALARY FLOOR BACKGROUND
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In the PBSL the luxury tax was simply "removed from the economy." In the NBA, up to 50% of the tax money may be given to non-taxpaying teams (see point #19 in http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm). Because the best players normally command high salaries, and therefore the best teams are often the ones paying the luxury tax, a tax redistribution provides a method for the worst teams to "catch up" to the best teams.
One tactic bad teams have used in the past is leaving a large amount of salary cap space unused on their books in hopes a team threatened with paying the tax will send them some sort of incentive (e.g., draft capital and/or points) to take on a bad contract. It is possible that no team will be disincentivized enough by the luxury tax to send them a bad contract and they will finish with "nothing" for their trouble, but on the maneuver is low-risk with a small probability of a substantial reward. Introducing a tax redistribution system, however, means that if someone trades into your empty cap space, you get an incentive from that team; if nobody will trade with you... well, you still get tax redistribution money - it takes the maneuver from "low risk, low chance of high reward" to "zero risk, guarantee of high reward" for you as a GM - which is an undesirable and unsatisfying state of play. In order to counterbalance this, the NPBSL will implement a Salary Floor that must be reached in the preseason to prevent this "zero risk, reward guaranteed" play. Yes, you can still choose to stay under the cap to reap Tax Redistribution benefits, but you can no longer hold open a huge salary slot to do so past the preseason in the hopes a team will send you an incentive to take on a massive salary at the trade deadline. Also, it's just generally good practice for a game with a salary cap to also have a salary floor for the sake of verisimilitude.
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TAX REDISTRIBUTION
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50% (rounded down) of the points of luxury tax collected from all tax-paying teams (i.e., all teams over the cap) will be disbursed among the non-taxpaying teams (again, rounded down). For example, if 17 teams were in the tax and contributed a total of 197 points in tax payments, the non-tax-paying teams (those under the cap) would split 98 points among them (50% of 197, rounded down) and if there were 6 such teams, each team would receive 16 points (98 divided by 6, rounded down).
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SALARY FLOOR
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The NPBSL will also implement a salary cap floor beginning in the 1984 preseason. Like the NBA, this floor will be set at 90% of the salary cap and like the NBA began requiring in 2023-2024, teams must meet the floor by the start of the preseason (NOT the end of the regular season). (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_salar ... ite_note-7)
Important: Note that when signing Waiver players, it *is* possible to offer a larger salary than their (usually minimum) demands. This means if you need to add salary between the end of Free Agency and the start of the Preseason in order to reach the 90% floor, you can (and probably should) offer large one-year contracts to scrubs.
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PENALTY FOR NOT REACHING THE SALARY FLOOR BY THE START OF THE PRESEASON:
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A team that did not meet the salary floor is automatically treated as a taxpaying team that is OVER the cap for that season. The minimum amount of luxury tax they owe at the end of the season is calculated as though they were OVER the salary cap by the same cap percentage that they were UNDER the salary floor (so a team that only carried salary equal to 78% of the salary cap - 12% short of the 90% requirement - as of the start of the preseason will be taxed as a team that was 12% OVER the salary cap). This includes consideration as a "repeater" in future seasons.
If you have an unpaid luxury tax bill due to being under the salary floor, you are subject to the same restrictions any other team with an unpaid luxury tax bill.
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SECTION 3 APRONS (does not impact league points like the previous sections):
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Trade and Free Agency restrictions come into play once a team's total salary crosses a point known as "the apron." In the NBA, this is was set at 6 million dollars above the tax level in 2017, and added a "second apron" at $11 million above the first apron in 2024 (when the cap was about $140 million; for ease of calculation we will call this 8% - see https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-offseason- ... 07328.html).
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THE FIRST APRON - 126% OF THE CAP
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Teams whose salaries are ABOVE the first apron are subject to the following restrictions regardless of their "tax paid or not" status (note that "above the apron" is calculated AFTER the transaction is complete, so a team cannot make any of the following moves if doing so would push their salary above the apron):
1. During Free Agency
- Teams above the first apron may not use the Low-Level Exception (LLE) (note in the NBA, this is the "Bi-Annual exception, which replaced the old Low-Level Exception, but FBB's programming still has the LLE, so we will use that instead)
- Teams above the first apron may not offer annual raises when using the Mid-Level Exception (MLE) and are limited to 3 years instead of four (the NBA restricts teams to a smaller MLE limited to 3 years, we are using the same years limitation and using "no raises" to simulate the slightly smaller MLE).
2. Sign-and-Trades
- Teams cannot receive a player in a sign-and-trade transaction
3. Salaries in Trades
- Teams may not take in more money than they are trading out.
4. Waiver signings
- Teams may not sign a player waived during the regular season if his salary exceeded the year's MLE.
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THE SECOND APRON - 134% OF THE CAP
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1. During Free Agency
- Teams above the second apron may not use the MLE at all.
2. Trades
- Teams may not combine multiple players' salaries in trades for salary matching (they may RECEIVE multiple players)
- Teams may not trade away their own first-round draft picks while over the second apron.
3. Draft picks
- If a team has been above the second apron for three of the previous four seasons, its first-round picks are automatically moved to the end of the first round.
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BECOMING HARD-CAPPED
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A team that uses the LLE, an MLE with raises, a 4-year MLE, or a sign-and-trade during Free Agency that later uses another transaction in the same season to rise above the first apron (e.g., first signs a 4-year MLE, then signs another player to a veteran minimum deal that pushes them above the apron) becomes "Hard Capped" at the first apron.
Similarly, a team that uses an MLE or combines multiple players' salaries in a trade and later executes a transaction in the same season that causes the team to rises above the second apron becomes "Hard Capped" at the second apron.
If a team's salary rises above one of the aprons but the team did NOT use one of the noted ways during the same season, the team is NOT hard-capped (e.g., if a team's pre-existing contracts contain raises that push the team over the apron due to the cap not jumping much between seasons, the team is NOT hard-capped).
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HARD-CAPPED PENALTIES
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A hard-capped team is required to bring its salary back under the appropriate apron by the end of the regular season (either by trading for lesser salary, cutting players, etc.). Should the team fail to do so, the team is subject to the below penalties the entirety of following season:
Draft Picks
1 - All draft picks the team owns are automatically moved to the end of the appropriate round of the draft.
Free Agency
2 - The team may not make offers to ANY free agents (including RFAs, including their own players) during the Free Agency period, nor may they match offers on their own RFAs. (They make make waiver signings following the end of Free Agency to fill their roster).
Trades
3 - The team may not make any trade that increases their total salary.
Remaining Hard Capped
4 - The team remains "Hard Capped" with all restrictions above the following season (and if they have not reduced salary below the appropriate apron by the end of the following season they will be subject to these same penalties the following season; eventually enough seasons will pass that their own players' contracts will expire off the books and since they can only sign waiver players they will no longer be over the apron).
