#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Off-Season:
Takes about approximately 2 weeks to complete a full offseason (from retirements to pre-season sim). Specific schedules will come out for the draft, free agency, and all other off-season components each season.

Regular Season:
Takes roughly 4 weeks to run a complete regular season. Sims encompass half a month in the game (1st through 15th and 16th through end of month except February which is 1st through 14th, then 15th through end of month) - usually ranging from 3-9 games - and will occur regularly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the evening (shoot for 5pm CST Depth Chart deadline). One of the forum moderators will then (assuming someone is available) run the sim soon after. The only exception to Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule is for the regular season sims in the month of April (since playoffs begin between April 17 and April 23), where the month is split in half and each seam covers fewer than 15 days.

Post Season:
Can take about 1-2 weeks to run complete post-season. Sims encompass 2 games (i.e. Game 1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc) and will occur everyday, Monday through Saturday. Since it's the playoffs, the depth chart deadlines are pushed back to 8pm CST to allow more time for DC submission. It is encouraged (but not required) to get your DCs in sooner, as an earlier sim could happen if all DCs are received prior to the DC submission deadline. More details will be explained in the actual DC submission threads.

Trade/Cut Deadline:
Sim 8's sim is delayed until 8 pm (instead of 5 pm) for the Trade Deadline. Trades posted after 8 pm are not valid. Roster cuts made after 8 pm will still be processed, but do not reduce a team's salary for luxury tax calculation purposes. DCs are due at 8:15 pm (to allow teams that made a last minute trade time to post a DC).

Off-Season Detailed Schedule

1. "End Season" is clicked in game.

2. Any off-season changes that were voted on are implemented (e.g., Expansion/Contraction, realignment, addition of MLE). Other off-season cleanup (archiving) takes place. (Usually takes a day or two)

3. HTML outputs from FBB are run and posted except for the rookie draft order, which is not posted until after the lottery results are posted.

4. The draft lottery show occurs. The draft unofficially starts immediately and officially starts the following day.

5. The draft occurs. This takes between 1 and 3 days to complete. Trades may occur during this time. Restricted Free Agents' (players coming off their rookie contracts) rights must be exercised during the draft of they become unrestricted free agents. Team rosters expand to 20 slots.

6. The Restricted Free Agency trade moratorium begins - until it is lifted the only allowed trades are sign-and-trades involving a restricted free agent. Teams have 24 hours to submit bids on the list of Restricted Free Agents only. Teams that have exercised RFA rights have an artificial cap hold in place during this period that may limit their maximum offer (depending on how much cap space they had).

7. Restricted Free Agency (RFA) bids are processed in game as though they were the only free agents (a parallel save file is made with the RFA results). Teams have 24 hours to decide to match bids on their free agents, decline to match, or work out a sign-and-trade. When 24 hours have passed or all RFAs have been decided upon, the Trade Moratorium ends.

8. The RFA contracts are entered into the main save file and we return to that. RFAs have a # sign placed in front of their names to indicate they may not be traded for a season. Unrestricted Free Agency (UFA) begins.

9. UFA has three phases. Bids are usually due every 24 or 48 hours (depending on what days of the week they fall on).

Phase one passes through days 1 through 6 in game - this sees most players offered a reasonable contract sign and a few surprise lowball signings. Phase two passes on days 7 through 13 - almost any reasonable contract is accepted. Phase three passes through days 14 through 30 (end of FA) - only completely unreasonable deals will be refused.

10. Teams must cut their roster to 15 players prior to training camp. Training Camp is processed. Players can get better (or worse) in Training Camp ("TC").

11. Pre-season is processed with default lineups (teams may not customize preseason lineups) and injuries disabled.

At this point the off-season is over and the regular season begins.