State of the Union

[Black Superman]

State of the Union

I have gathered you all here today, to give my recap and state of the votes. These votes were ballot items that were nominated by hard working GMs. They were big ticket items that you wanted to see. We put 6 things to a vote, and got 2 feeler questions squeezed in as well. I think it's time to recap the votes and ultimately decide how each one will play a factor in the future of our league….or not.


Playoff Expansion (17 Yes - 4 No’s)
The 8th placed team in each conference were under .500. Do we really need to add additional teams? No. However, this vote is very lopsided with the Yes’s winning by a large margin. Having a bye in the NBA is also not an actual concept. The NFL have even cut 1 of their bye teams in recent years. For me, it's not whether an 8 would ever beat a 1 seed. It's about more participation. The 2 representatives of this year's 8 seeds would be the Mavs and Trailblazers. Quick would be auditioning for a new team potentially, and the Mavs are a very active GM that the league benefits from. The ratings in the Sim League are at their best when a GM like Lazy is writing and involved. Starting this season there will be 8 teams in each playoffs. In previous seasons, the 1 seed received 3 points for winning the 1 seed and getting the bye in addition to making the playoffs. They have been exempt from getting the 4 points for winning a first Rd matchup. The give and take to this is, health. The 1 seed hasn't had any risk in round 1 for injuries, which we have seen take teams out. All point scenarios will stay the same, as the 1 seed will now have the option to win 4 points in round 1. If you get in the paint, you deserve the rewards. The 3 points for winning the conference is reward enough for that feat, given they also get 3 for making the playoffs.


6th man & most improved player (17 Yes - 5 No’s)
*Takes sip of water and waves at the crowd*. This is a very short and sweet ticket item folks. We are moving these rewards to both being worth 2 points. The recognition of player accolades should be rewarded. Especially when they are rewards given out from the software. Human voting is 1 thing, and while I do think peer recognition is huge. I believe the league recognizing player excellence is better. Starting this season, 6th man of the year, and Most Improved Player will receive 2 points instead of 1.


Rising Stars (16 Yes - 6 No’s)
Do you guys like points? *Motions a Hulk Hogan ear listening gesture*. Rising Stars are an item that's recorded and presented as part of all star weekend. We see the players listed, yet don't give them any rewards. In my early days I used to incorrectly count these points in my head. Then I would tally the points at the end of the season using the cheat sheet , only to be filled with heartbreak. It never made sense to me why players didn't receive points for this game. Now, I have been consistent with my notion that points are not the devil, BUT I'm also not completely crazy. The Bobcats had 5 players participating in the Rookie/Sophomore game. We're not going to be in the business of giving out handouts for this game. I want to help the American people, but not fully support them. Starting this season, if you have at least 1 player in the Rookie/Sophomore game. You can declare yourself a point. The participation in this entire game is worth 1 point only. The Bobcats for example, had 2 players on the rookie team and 3 players on the sophomore team. The Bobcats, if they have the same representation this upcoming season, would be able to earn 1 point. I don't want to hear any arguments or chatter on this. That ruling is final for the least interesting event of that weekend.


Trade Moolah (14 Yes - 8 No’s)
We finally get into some less easy decisions. This was not a resounding yes, but the yes’s were still victorious. The idea of this was because a troll message was stated by a former commissioner, “get rid of the trade cap on points”. Now, Josh's sarcasm is 1 that I'm still learning….or rather not learning. I never know when he's pulling my arm, or when he's actually making suggestions. It's pretty frustrating, and I've learned to just walk away from him for a day. That being said, he's getting the credit for this one trolling or not. Unlimited felt too drastic of a move. I want moves to feel like slight changes, that allow us to adjust while also not having to learn an entire new system/process/rules. This is one that will be easy to implement and I think will benefit trades. It will stimulate the trade game while not opening up the full flood gates. Effective this season, the point limit in trades will increase to 15. We will make the sim league great again. And in making the league great again, I am offering a (profit sharing/retention/I love you all for sticking around) 3 point bonus to go with the 7 points earned in voting. To ultimately give you all a grand total of 10 points. The 3 points will be granted to those reading this article. Please acknowledge you've read all these rules and claim your 3 points in a comment below by saying “I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.” Or something of that nature, feel free to paraphrase my quote.


Feeler 1 Athletic training (6 Yes - 16 No’s)
Feeler 2 Reduce training to 1 period (10 in favor - 12 opposed)
And now onto the good stuff! These two questions were marketed as feeler questions. And they were included as a part 1 and part 2 scenario of questions. Including these questions was a favor I owed a GM who shall not be named. They have been very adamant to me behind closed doors about these items. The frustration they have with training is very boisterous. I felt like 6 items were enough to vote on, in one off-season. But I felt I owed this person, at least a peek into how the rest of the league feels on these topics. Well, the feelers like the other questions. Always had a chance to be implemented. Folks are not ready at all to get rid of athleticism training. I understand this, because I feel the same way and voted as such. Ultimately, we had another voting topic about training that could limit purple potential training(more on this later). So basically 3 training topics that all went hand in hand in hand. I don't expect people to give up everything. There's a lot of theories that could be made here in how the 3 voting items played a part together. People were closer to a split on reducing training to 1 time a year. The limiting of training was a dual initiative. First benefit was limiting training overall, and the second was to limit my job duties. Without further Ado I will read off the changes that ARE happening surrounding these feeler questions #PlotTwist. Starting in the 71st season of Sim league aka this upcoming season. Athletic training will be reduced to 1 time a year. That 1 period will be the beginning of the season. I've talked a lot about realism, and I've always felt training should stay. I do think that mimics the real life NBA. Players spend the summer and their money on workouts, and camps. However, the idea that a player is, “doing laps around the arena and getting faster” in February is very unrealistic. Training currents and potentials will stay as put and be eligible for training during both periods. This means your strategy for athletic training must be built around the beginning of the season.



Stop Purple Training (12 Yes - 10 No’s)
Another nail-biting close finish. I'd like to get into my thoughts on this topic and then I'll deliver a verdict. I am not one who feels the league is drowning in purple players. I do think sometimes the focus on it can be a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to goals and trades. Even that doesn't feel as overblown as folks have made it out to be. For example, the Celtics, Grizz, and Pelicans all have players they could have trained purple. Each team held initial restraint. My Phoenix Suns, also slow played Antonio Gates and Maxwell Lewis. Neither player was rushed into purple status. Lewis was held off a season, and Gates went purple on his own. The votes were 12-10 in favor of restricting the ability to train a player into purple. So my verdict is….. Effective immediately GMs will no longer be able to train a player into purple. It is your job to ask or inquire with the commissioner about the effects of your training on a player. If your training pushes your player into purple, the training will be declined and the commissioner will communicate the details or any alternatives if possible. *Wipes sweat away from forehead as the booes deafen the arena*


RFA into UFA (7 yes - 15 No’s)
*CRACKS KNUCKLES* This one is complicated. There were obviously a lot of No’s. I do want to dive into some of the desires of changing this rule. If you haven't seen my responses in the town hall, in other media articles, or listen to me on the podcast. The following may be new to you, but it's a stance I've been very vocal about for a while. Some people may not understand the lift that is RFA. It is not something within the sim software. The software designates all of those players as unrestricted free agents. The steps we have to take for RFA are a lot. It involves spreadsheets which I have 0 experience with. The formulas within the spreadsheets help to do the math required for some of the steps in RFA. The rest of the math is done as busy work and just basic subtraction. The table process within the forum is…..yeah it's a lot. That is why, you noticed, I did everything in Excel and posted a screenshot that I had to go in and update. We also manipulate software twice within the RFA period. It's exhausting. I've done it once and I never want to do it again. It is the type of task that could be pawned off as a job for points. So if anyone is interested in taking over the job, I'm all for paying you 5 points to do that brunt work in the forum for RFA. As it stands, in its current makeup. RFA is the type of unnecessary work that would burn me out into quitting and very quickly. So again, if someone wants to step up then be my guest. Josh has written the steps in a forum. The job is yours... otherwise I am moving forward with my thoughts. The next thought is about the trade restriction on trading RFA players. There are a lot of people who want it removed. They hate waiting a year to trade these players as sim league is a fast moving league. Some have said, there's nothing more annoying than wanting to trade a player to make a deal work and not being able to. Too many people want RFA to stand for me to completely veto the votes and do what I want but I am King Turner…..Therefore effective THIS Season(S71), we will be adopting some of the NBA’s take on RFA’s. Any player that is re-signed to their original team will be eligible to trade right away. If a player chooses to sign elsewhere, and you instead bring the player back via match. You will not be eligible to sign and trade that player. You will be eligible to trade that player as if they were a UFA signing, so on day 60 or after sim 3. This will be a short lived strategy of S&T as the current format of RFA will be going away in 2 seasons. At the start of off-season 73 RFA will be merged with UFA as 1 free agency period. This gives teams 2 years to figure out new strategies and decide how they want to build their teams. To recap
S71 RFA’s can be traded immediately if they resign with their incumbent team. Must way until day 60 if the incumbent team had to match.
S73- RFA and UFA will merge into one period. That is UNLESS someone is willing to do the work in the forum. That work is linked here… viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13771


I think the biggest factor in changes is to make sure they work with other changes. I think to accomplish this, we need to make some changes slowly. This gives us time to find any exploits, any negatives, or anything that needs polishing up. It also gives us an avenue to back out of the changes quickly if we need to. This voting period was very fun and spun up a lot of conversation. I love it.

[K-100]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[garbageman]

I wasn't trolling about the trade points. It's no limit hold em vs pot limit, and the former is my preferred version of poker. Also, the thing at the end of that section, I'm doing that (to paraphrase).

[MexicanMamba]

I like profit sharing in this case

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[AngryBanana]

“I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.”

[pennpanther1]

Read and cleared. Claiming 3 points.

[Mike Lowry]

State of the Union
S73- RFA and UFA will merge into one period. That is UNLESS someone is willing to do the work in the forum. That work is linked here… viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13771

Effective S73 I'll take the job and the money.
Zelle my account.

I just don't see how we can go so harshly against the will of the league.
Why did we vote on this if it wasn't gonna influence the outcome?
You could have just said you ain't willing to do the shit.

phpBB [video]

Point Seen - Money Gone

[IamQuailman]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[RPF]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

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[jlmarines]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

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[Black Superman]

State of the Union
S73- RFA and UFA will merge into one period. That is UNLESS someone is willing to do the work in the forum. That work is linked here… viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13771

Effective S73 I'll take the job and the money.
Zelle my account.

I just don't see how we can go so harshly against the will of the league.
Why did we vote on this if it wasn't gonna influence the outcome?
You could have just said you ain't willing to do the shit.

phpBB [video]

Point Seen - Money Gone

"If you haven't seen my responses in the town hall, in other media articles, or listen to me on the podcast. The following may be new to you, but it's a stance I've been very vocal about for a while."

We know who didn't read the article....

[Black Superman]

@Mike Lowry

[Mike Lowry]

State of the Union
S73- RFA and UFA will merge into one period. That is UNLESS someone is willing to do the work in the forum. That work is linked here… viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13771

Effective S73 I'll take the job and the money.
Zelle my account.

I just don't see how we can go so harshly against the will of the league.
Why did we vote on this if it wasn't gonna influence the outcome?
You could have just said you ain't willing to do the shit.

phpBB [video]

Point Seen - Money Gone

"If you haven't seen my responses in the town hall, in other media articles, or listen to me on the podcast. The following may be new to you, but it's a stance I've been very vocal about for a while."

We know who didn't read the article....

You mean you tried to waste my time twice????
Good thing I passed the first time.

[drkavarga]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[logpmess]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[Eazy P]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[NickMalone77]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[Mike Lowry]

Case they Goofy where you from, or someone feels like shenanigans later
Point Seen - Money Gone
Means:
I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[PaulyP]

Read and Understood! +3

[LazyTitanSmash]

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

[greepleairport]

I have read and understood the rule changes and I claim my 3 points.


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[cashcab]

Hawks/Cashcab

I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.

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[greepleairport]

~2250 words, +7pts
(pod points count toward separate media cap, up to 15pts)

[Jedihero]

Nuggets read and understand the rule changes and claim my 3 points

[tbone963]

“I have read and understand the rule changes, and I claim my 3 points.”

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