Commisioner's Corner : Rule Breaking Edition
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:36 am
Word Count: 2009
Commisioner’s Corner
The inner workings of the league have changed yet again. Obviously, it was a big loss when Josh decided to step down, he did a lot for the league and it likely would not have continued if he had not kept pushing forward as commissioner for as long as he did. When he needed to step down, I remember thinking that may be the end of things because I had no interest in trying to take over and I could not think of anyone that I felt would want to step in. Ryan would come to me soon after I had that internal debate and asked if I wanted to be a co-commissioner. I still had reservations. Honestly, I did not want to turn a hobby into a chore and I really don’t care about being in charge. As a team, the league moved along just fine and I got more comfortable in the aspects that I did not think I’d grab a hold of right away. Unfortunately for me, Ryan’s life also became more hectic and he also had to step away. As hesitant as I had been about wanting all the responsibility on my shoulders for things, I also did not want Ryan (or anyone) to feel like they HAD to take on more of a role than they could. This whole thing should be fun, or at least resembling fun. I genuinely had no idea how it would all work out (still don’t) but here we are, with me being the primary figure head around here. Thankfully Ryan, Andy and Josh still have my back to help with things whenever they can, so I am not a solo act.
So, why the long introduction? Just as a primer before stating that to this point I had not even considered rocking the boat too much. Josh had things running smoothly, and I have been comfortable with the status quo. I also still don’t feel in-charge, if I’m perfectly honest. Hell, sometimes I still feel like the new guy around here even though it’s been well over 2 years since I first joined. Where the Frye did the time go!? Anyways, the recent 5-on-5 (or 7-on-5?) that I was involved with had a question about things everyone would like to see implemented. When I first answered the 5-on-5 questions, I didn’t even bother much with that, instead just making a joke of it. Reading the genuine responses from people made me consider their thoughts and my own.
In this article I am going to talk about several possible rule changes which we could put into effect. I’ll give the pros and cons of them, as I see it. I will propose the exact format of these changes if I have them, or just general thoughts if I do not have them nailed down just yet. Plus, whatever other things pop into my head as I am writing.
I encourage everyone to read this and I invite conversation/discussion either below here in the comments or in a PM if you’d rather talk about these things privately. If any possible rule change(s) get real traction and support from folks, I am finally ready to either put them up for a vote or simply implement them if it appears to be unanimous.
Let’s begin!
1. Elimination of Restricted Free Agency
RFA is an event that is not naturally in the off-season steps of the computer program that we use to create our results for the league. It takes some work by the commissioner(s) to get it right and input into the game. So, not having to do all of that would take one task away from the folks (Oh, I guess that’s me) having to run things. RFA also is the primary home of the dreaded poison pill contracts. People will put in max bids or close to it, on players they may not necessarily LOVE just to make other GMs make a decision, and oftentimes aren’t even interested in engaging in sign-and-trade scenarios. So, obviously cutting RFA would do a lot to cut down on this issue. Obviously, a major drawback on cutting RFA out is that we lose full control over players after year 4, because we are allowing them to hit the open market. The counter-balance to that is that GMs would have that player’s bird rights and can offer 5-year extensions without needing to also give them a max contract if you wanted to do so. There is another method that can be used to help with the idea of losing full control over your player after year 4, but that will be explored further in my next potential rule change, so, more on that later!
2. In-season Re-signings
I have seen this topic come up several times in recent seasons and I think it is one that I am very interested in finding an acceptable way to implement. I assume the reason that these are not currently in-play in the league is that it makes UFA far less exciting because often the best players, especially the younger ones, just will not hit the open-market anymore. That’s fair and there is no way around that problem area if we implement this rule change. However, I also think that if GMs have done well to draft and develop players, they very much should get first crack at re-signing them long-term. This is what I was referring to as a counter-balance to eliminating RFA in the first topic up above. You may lose RFA rights, but if this were put in-place at the same time, now you have a shot at keeping your player before that happens.
Now, I do feel like there need to be ground rules in place here. For one, I think we should only be allowed to re-sign ONE player in-season, per season. I also think that you only get one attempt at the bid. So, if you try to low ball your player and they decline your offer, well, that’s it and that player will then go on to hit the open market. You would still can bid on them that off-season as well, for sure. I’d be open to further suggestion on how to make this one work, but I am all for it.
3. Elimination of Player Training
I believe that there’s only one person really pushing for this, but I do think it is an interesting discussion to have. First of all, I have no interest in cutting out ALL training. I’d still want people to be able to do foul training and perhaps some of the athletic traits (QKN, STR, JMP, STA). I also think training potentials for players if more than fair, because in basketball, players can focus on their skills individually and get better. Cutting out the training of current attributes is more of what I’d be open to hearing an argument for. Let TC do it’s work there, and your player gets better or doesn’t, but allow GMs to spend their points on what the future might hold for those players. These are my personal feelings on this item though. I am perfectly happy with things staying as they are in regard to training, so I cannot go too detailed into what it would or wouldn’t look like. However, I am here to really listen to see if there is even a push for training reform and if you have specific ideas, drop them here or message me and let’s rap.
4. Insurance Adjustments
Another topic of discussion has been changing insurance. I do not believe I have seen anyone suggest that we do away with it all together, and I cannot think of an argument that would move me to do so, but I am open to a shift in how its done. Currently we have 3 insurance slots for TC which will restore potential ratings. If we cut back on allowing player training, I could see putting in a charge for insuring players. Perhaps 10 points for the first three players, and then 20 points for every player you chose to insure after that. This would obviously cut into point banks, but allow teams that wanted to, to insure more than 3. Right now, having a super young team can be problematic because of the volatile nature of TC and this would give people a chance to remedy that … if they can afford to. There is a version of this which could be implemented as well where you still get 3 free slots, but then must pay an even higher amount to keep anything beyond that. Say, 30 points to insure players 4+. I even toyed with the idea of paying a HIGHER amount (50? if someone chose) to also be able to restore CURRENTS for ONE player, but that might be getting too deep into the woods.
5. Trade Format
This one here should be relatively simple and there’s two of them that I am interested in possibly changing.
Re-instating the 5-asset limit on trades (besides points)!
Some of these deals do get a bit messy and counting roster spaces can get silly and annoying.
Launching the ability to do 4-Team trades!
The computer program allows them, and I think they MIGHT be fun. Could be weird that I just wrote that I may want to eliminate something that gets messy (5-asset limits) and then go right into how I wouldn’t mind letting teams do 4-team trades … but, hell, I don’t always have to be logical. This one would be more about engagement and fun. I don’t know, talk to me!
6. Debt Forgiveness
And lastly, the always entertaining debate about forgiving tax debt. It gets brought up but I never can tell if GMs are genuinely interested in creating guidelines for this or its just discussion for discussion’s sake. But here it is, let’s really decide if we need to explore it. If a team genuinely is working hard at cutting down its debt, I am willing to work with that team. I have no interest in helping teams who sit back and just wait for a timer to go off while their tax resets however. The issue becomes then, what are the parameters? Let me throw out an idea for the hell of it. What if there are milestones a team has to hit? Like, each season they have to hit a certain percentage of their debt in point collection and if they do hit those milestones for a set number of consecutive seasons, they can have their debt forgiven? And along the way, they can earn small things back as well. For instance:
10 Seasons of hitting all milestones and you can be tax forgiven.
After 5 seasons, you can bid on your own RFAs or perform in-season re-signings (if we implement it)
After 7 seasons, you can use MLE
After 10 seasons, slate clean and you can get back to normal but also have to give up your next 1st round pick.
I just came up with this idea on the fly, so I am sure there are ton of holes in it, but if there’s interest maybe we can actually hammer out the details together.
For now, that is all that I have in the ole brain to share with all of you. Like I said above, I am fine with not rocking the boat and we can certainly keep everything status quo if we’re all most comfortable with that. If not, and change could be a good thing, here is everyone’s opportunity to chime in and see if we need to put some things up for a vote! I know not a lot of folks actually read these articles but hopefully you can spare some of your time and get involved here. I’m still actively learning how best to do this job the most comfortably for ME, so please continue to bear with me. Look forward to seeing ya’ll in the comments!
Mamba-Commish, OUT!
Commisioner’s Corner
The inner workings of the league have changed yet again. Obviously, it was a big loss when Josh decided to step down, he did a lot for the league and it likely would not have continued if he had not kept pushing forward as commissioner for as long as he did. When he needed to step down, I remember thinking that may be the end of things because I had no interest in trying to take over and I could not think of anyone that I felt would want to step in. Ryan would come to me soon after I had that internal debate and asked if I wanted to be a co-commissioner. I still had reservations. Honestly, I did not want to turn a hobby into a chore and I really don’t care about being in charge. As a team, the league moved along just fine and I got more comfortable in the aspects that I did not think I’d grab a hold of right away. Unfortunately for me, Ryan’s life also became more hectic and he also had to step away. As hesitant as I had been about wanting all the responsibility on my shoulders for things, I also did not want Ryan (or anyone) to feel like they HAD to take on more of a role than they could. This whole thing should be fun, or at least resembling fun. I genuinely had no idea how it would all work out (still don’t) but here we are, with me being the primary figure head around here. Thankfully Ryan, Andy and Josh still have my back to help with things whenever they can, so I am not a solo act.
So, why the long introduction? Just as a primer before stating that to this point I had not even considered rocking the boat too much. Josh had things running smoothly, and I have been comfortable with the status quo. I also still don’t feel in-charge, if I’m perfectly honest. Hell, sometimes I still feel like the new guy around here even though it’s been well over 2 years since I first joined. Where the Frye did the time go!? Anyways, the recent 5-on-5 (or 7-on-5?) that I was involved with had a question about things everyone would like to see implemented. When I first answered the 5-on-5 questions, I didn’t even bother much with that, instead just making a joke of it. Reading the genuine responses from people made me consider their thoughts and my own.
In this article I am going to talk about several possible rule changes which we could put into effect. I’ll give the pros and cons of them, as I see it. I will propose the exact format of these changes if I have them, or just general thoughts if I do not have them nailed down just yet. Plus, whatever other things pop into my head as I am writing.
I encourage everyone to read this and I invite conversation/discussion either below here in the comments or in a PM if you’d rather talk about these things privately. If any possible rule change(s) get real traction and support from folks, I am finally ready to either put them up for a vote or simply implement them if it appears to be unanimous.
Let’s begin!
1. Elimination of Restricted Free Agency
RFA is an event that is not naturally in the off-season steps of the computer program that we use to create our results for the league. It takes some work by the commissioner(s) to get it right and input into the game. So, not having to do all of that would take one task away from the folks (Oh, I guess that’s me) having to run things. RFA also is the primary home of the dreaded poison pill contracts. People will put in max bids or close to it, on players they may not necessarily LOVE just to make other GMs make a decision, and oftentimes aren’t even interested in engaging in sign-and-trade scenarios. So, obviously cutting RFA would do a lot to cut down on this issue. Obviously, a major drawback on cutting RFA out is that we lose full control over players after year 4, because we are allowing them to hit the open market. The counter-balance to that is that GMs would have that player’s bird rights and can offer 5-year extensions without needing to also give them a max contract if you wanted to do so. There is another method that can be used to help with the idea of losing full control over your player after year 4, but that will be explored further in my next potential rule change, so, more on that later!
2. In-season Re-signings
I have seen this topic come up several times in recent seasons and I think it is one that I am very interested in finding an acceptable way to implement. I assume the reason that these are not currently in-play in the league is that it makes UFA far less exciting because often the best players, especially the younger ones, just will not hit the open-market anymore. That’s fair and there is no way around that problem area if we implement this rule change. However, I also think that if GMs have done well to draft and develop players, they very much should get first crack at re-signing them long-term. This is what I was referring to as a counter-balance to eliminating RFA in the first topic up above. You may lose RFA rights, but if this were put in-place at the same time, now you have a shot at keeping your player before that happens.
Now, I do feel like there need to be ground rules in place here. For one, I think we should only be allowed to re-sign ONE player in-season, per season. I also think that you only get one attempt at the bid. So, if you try to low ball your player and they decline your offer, well, that’s it and that player will then go on to hit the open market. You would still can bid on them that off-season as well, for sure. I’d be open to further suggestion on how to make this one work, but I am all for it.
3. Elimination of Player Training
I believe that there’s only one person really pushing for this, but I do think it is an interesting discussion to have. First of all, I have no interest in cutting out ALL training. I’d still want people to be able to do foul training and perhaps some of the athletic traits (QKN, STR, JMP, STA). I also think training potentials for players if more than fair, because in basketball, players can focus on their skills individually and get better. Cutting out the training of current attributes is more of what I’d be open to hearing an argument for. Let TC do it’s work there, and your player gets better or doesn’t, but allow GMs to spend their points on what the future might hold for those players. These are my personal feelings on this item though. I am perfectly happy with things staying as they are in regard to training, so I cannot go too detailed into what it would or wouldn’t look like. However, I am here to really listen to see if there is even a push for training reform and if you have specific ideas, drop them here or message me and let’s rap.
4. Insurance Adjustments
Another topic of discussion has been changing insurance. I do not believe I have seen anyone suggest that we do away with it all together, and I cannot think of an argument that would move me to do so, but I am open to a shift in how its done. Currently we have 3 insurance slots for TC which will restore potential ratings. If we cut back on allowing player training, I could see putting in a charge for insuring players. Perhaps 10 points for the first three players, and then 20 points for every player you chose to insure after that. This would obviously cut into point banks, but allow teams that wanted to, to insure more than 3. Right now, having a super young team can be problematic because of the volatile nature of TC and this would give people a chance to remedy that … if they can afford to. There is a version of this which could be implemented as well where you still get 3 free slots, but then must pay an even higher amount to keep anything beyond that. Say, 30 points to insure players 4+. I even toyed with the idea of paying a HIGHER amount (50? if someone chose) to also be able to restore CURRENTS for ONE player, but that might be getting too deep into the woods.
5. Trade Format
This one here should be relatively simple and there’s two of them that I am interested in possibly changing.
Re-instating the 5-asset limit on trades (besides points)!
Some of these deals do get a bit messy and counting roster spaces can get silly and annoying.
Launching the ability to do 4-Team trades!
The computer program allows them, and I think they MIGHT be fun. Could be weird that I just wrote that I may want to eliminate something that gets messy (5-asset limits) and then go right into how I wouldn’t mind letting teams do 4-team trades … but, hell, I don’t always have to be logical. This one would be more about engagement and fun. I don’t know, talk to me!
6. Debt Forgiveness
And lastly, the always entertaining debate about forgiving tax debt. It gets brought up but I never can tell if GMs are genuinely interested in creating guidelines for this or its just discussion for discussion’s sake. But here it is, let’s really decide if we need to explore it. If a team genuinely is working hard at cutting down its debt, I am willing to work with that team. I have no interest in helping teams who sit back and just wait for a timer to go off while their tax resets however. The issue becomes then, what are the parameters? Let me throw out an idea for the hell of it. What if there are milestones a team has to hit? Like, each season they have to hit a certain percentage of their debt in point collection and if they do hit those milestones for a set number of consecutive seasons, they can have their debt forgiven? And along the way, they can earn small things back as well. For instance:
10 Seasons of hitting all milestones and you can be tax forgiven.
After 5 seasons, you can bid on your own RFAs or perform in-season re-signings (if we implement it)
After 7 seasons, you can use MLE
After 10 seasons, slate clean and you can get back to normal but also have to give up your next 1st round pick.
I just came up with this idea on the fly, so I am sure there are ton of holes in it, but if there’s interest maybe we can actually hammer out the details together.
For now, that is all that I have in the ole brain to share with all of you. Like I said above, I am fine with not rocking the boat and we can certainly keep everything status quo if we’re all most comfortable with that. If not, and change could be a good thing, here is everyone’s opportunity to chime in and see if we need to put some things up for a vote! I know not a lot of folks actually read these articles but hopefully you can spare some of your time and get involved here. I’m still actively learning how best to do this job the most comfortably for ME, so please continue to bear with me. Look forward to seeing ya’ll in the comments!
Mamba-Commish, OUT!