Constitution
Baseline Hoops Rules of Engagement for the 2008-09 Season
Updated June 24, 2008
 
I. Introduction
II. Requirements
III. Trading
IV. Team Management
V. Managing the Off-season
VI. Job Application
 
I. INTRODUCTION

 Welcome to Baseline Hoops, established in 2001. We are entering our 6th season and are continually searching for ways to improve the quality and enjoyment level of the league. Thus saying that, BLH has expanded to a 32 team league starting in the 2008-09 season. Our Constitution is basically a statement of the rules and regulations that we follow.
 
II. REQUIREMENTS

 All members of Baseline Hoops must provide the following information upon acceptance into the league:

1) Full name
2) E-mail address
3) AOL screen name
4) Date of birth

* All members must be at least 17 years of age.
 
III. TRADING
Upon completion of a trade, all parties involved must post on the trades forum for it to become official. The trade will be reviewed and responded to by the commissioners.

Trading Rules
   Teams under the cap may trade for any amount that would put them up to 100k over the cap.
  Any team over the cap can not receive more than 100k + 115% of the contracts they are getting.
 
IV. TEAM MANAGEMENT

 Team Data
(This section requires updates)
Jambolia now has an abundance of team information available on individual team pages, which serve as a gateway for many operational aspects of your franchise.

   General Information - This section includes basic information about your franchise, including the city name, arena name, arena capacity, city population and fan support.
 
  Owner Profile - The Owner Profile includes three characteristics of your team's owner - Willingness to Spend, Desire to Win and Patience. These characteristics are rated from Very Low to Very High.
 
  Head Coach Profile - The Head Coach Profile has everything you need to know about your team's current head coach. The General Information includes the coach's name, age, experience, career record and championships won. The profile also includes ratings (0-100 with 100 being the best) for Likeability and Strategy. The coach's offensive and defensive coaching abilities are also rated on a scale of 0-100. The Coach's preferred Offensive Pace and Defensive Press are also captured (low, normal, high). The preferred defensive style of the coach, such as Heavy Man-to-Man is indicated. The final section of the Head Coach Profile lists the coach's contract information, annual salary and level of ambition (very low to very high).

 Financial Info
Baseline Hoopshas a complex financial side, which makes financial management a key aspect to any team.

   Salary Cap - The salary cap for the 2008-09 season is set at $51,200,000. It is a soft cap.
 
  Luxury Tax - The luxury tax level for the 2008-09 season is set at $87,296,000. If your franchise's payroll exceeds that amount, you will be penalized an increasing amount  the higher you are above the tax threshold. 
 
  Ticket Prices - Each team has the ability to set ticket prices for various seating levels including Courtside, Lower Level, Upper Level, Discount Seats and Corporate Suites. But remember, the prices you set will have a direct effect on the finances of your franchise - set them too low and you may become cash poor, set them too high and you may price too many potential customers out of your market. Also note that prices cannot be raised mid-season.
 
  Promotions - Each team is allowed to schedule six different special events. The six different events are:
- 1/2 Price Night (cost = 50% gate revenue)
- Trading Card Night (cost = $5,000)
- Calendar Night (cost = $10,000)
- Mini-Basketball Night (cost = $20,000)
- Team T-Shirt Night (cost = $35,000)
- Bobblehead Night (cost = $50,000)

* The cost of each promotion is listed next to it and should always be a consideration when you are scheduling a special event or giveaway.

Roster
The Roster includes all the information you will ever need to know about your players - from contract and salary data to ratings and awards.

   General Info - Each team must have twelve active players at all times, with the option of having three extra players on injured reserve.
 
  Contracts - The ins and outs of BLH contract laws are listed below:
 
Salary Exceptions
   If a player has 3 or more bird years he can be resigned by his own team for his maximum salary in year 1 and then 10.5% raises for up to 5 years
  If a player has 2 bird years he can be resigned by his own team for 175% of his last salary and can get a max 4 year deal with 10.5% raises
  If a player has 1 bird year he can be resigned by his own team for 120% of this last salary, 4 year max, 8% max raise.

The mid cap exception is $5.9 million (up to 5 years).
The low exception is $1.9 million (up to 2 years).

Only teams OVER the cap (or under but under by less than the exception amount) can use an exception. IE if you have 4 mil in cap space you can use the mid cap but not the low exception.

Player contracts count against the salary cap until their rights are renounced or until they are signed by someone else.

With 3 or more bird years they count 150% of their last salary
2 bird years - 130%
1 bird year - 120%

If you are under the cap, the exceptions are factored into your cap space as well. If a team renounces the right to a player, the cap space is freed up but they lose bird rights.

Maximum Salary Scale
0-6 years exp - $12,000,000
7-9 years exp - $14,400,000
10+ years exp - $16,800,000

Extension Rules
   1-3 year contracts cannot get an extension
  Salary in 1st year is limited to 112% of last year but cannot exceed the max for his experience
  Raise limit is 10.5%  
   Rookie scale contracts are not eligible for an extension unless the option is picked up.
  All 1st round picks get 2-3 year contracts with a 3rd (4th) year option
   Owners must sign their own 2nd rounders if they want to since the contract is not guaranteed (1-2 years)
   All players cut count against the cap for the entire length of their contract
 
 
  Depth Chart - You must have twelve players on your depth chart - five starters and seven players on the bench. You must select which positions you want each player to be eligible to play at. The bench depth chart must also be arranged for positions six through twelve.  Players in positions 13 to 15 are inactive.
 
  Player Strategies (OUT-DATED)- Every team can set 3-Point Instructions and Substitution Logic for each individual player. There are four radio buttons for 3-Point Instructions, dictating how often you would like the player to take a 3-point shot: Rare, Some, Norm, Often. There are two ratings for Substitution Logic - Out and In. You can change these values by entering whole numbers. At the beginning of the game, all players have an endurance rating (EN) of 100. When a player reaches the EN level entered for Out, he will be subbed out of the game until he recovers to the value set for In. It should be noted that some players have a higher endurance rating and will take longer to reach a lower value than others.
 
  Team Strategies (OUT-DATED) - There are two options for setting the team's strategy. First, you may use the 'Use Coach Settings' option to enable the team's head coach profile to dictate the style. You can also set the team's strategy yourself. For Offensive Strategy, you can set the pace for the team's offense - ranging from very slow to very fast. There are two categories for defensive strategy - Defensive Sets and Defensive Pressure. Defensive Sets are broken down into four options - Half Court Man-to-Man, Full Court Man-to-Man, Half Court Zone and Full Court Zone. You then must decide how frequently to run each individual defensive style. You must assign each type of defense a number; these numbers represent percentages and should add up to 100 total. For example, if you want a balance of all four options, you could enter 25 into each box. This would translate into utilizing each strategy about 25% of the time. The other Defensive Strategy is Defensive Pressure and you can set one of five options, ranging from very slow to very fast.

Fire Coach
If your team is not playing up to your standards, you have the option to fire your head coach at any time. Note that you must still pay the remainder of his contract if you fire him.

When firing your coach, you must send a request to the commissioner's office so the termination can be finalized. At that time you will be sent a list of potential head coach candidates. Each coach has a profile that you can review. The 'Head Coach Profile' includes the following information about head coaching candidates: Name, Age, Experience, Career Record, Playoffs (number), Championships (number), Attitude, Likeability, Strategy (a rating from 0 - 100 with 100 being the highest), Offensive and Defensive Coaching Ratings (0 - 100 with 100 being the highest), Offensive Pace, Defensive Pressure and Defensive Style (ex. Heavy Man-to-Man). This section also lists the coach's contract length, annual salary and level of ambition (ex. very high).

* The same applies when firing an assistant coach.
 
V. MANAGING THE OFFSEASON

Draft Lottery
The BLH draft lottery is the first off-season event. The previous season's playoff teams receive selections 15-32, and are allotted those picks based on record (champion gets selection 32 regardless of record). Selections 1-14 are called the 'lottery' picks, which go to the fourteen non-playoff teams. Each team has a certain percentage chance of getting a top three selection, based on record. Worst record has greatest chance, best record has least chance, etc. Any of the fourteen teams could end up with one of the top three picks, depending on how the numbers fall. After the top three picks have been determined, picks 4-14 are decided by record.

Hiring Coaches
Think you’re 15-67 record is you’re coach's fault? Well if you did, and punished him by firing him, this is for you.  Without a coach, your team won’t know if you’re in a game or practice. So just picture a season that is even more embarrassing than 15-67!  After realizing that a miracle isn’t going to make you win it all next year, let’s move onto picking a coach for you.

The coach hiring period spans five days, during which time you can make offers to prospective coaches (head coaches, plus three assistant coaches). However, you can only have an offer on the table for one coach at each position at a time. Once you feel you have made an offer that he can't turn down, and that won't break that piggy bank, you sit and wait.

Now it’s all up to the coach. He can chose to join your team, and try to turn you guys around, or he can accept that deal of a lifetime from LA.  After you make your offer, the first day of signings is simulated.  Now you wait to see if your dream coach signed with LA, forcing you to make a desperation order.  If the coach signed nowhere, you can either keep the offer on the table and run the risk of missing out on other quality coaches, or go for one of those other quality guys right away.

Well now that you have re-signed last years' coach since he was the only one who would take your group of guys you call a “team”, you must prepare to continue on to the next part of the off-season, the College Draft.

The College Draft
So you think some youth will put you into the playoffs next season? Before you even get to the draft, there are some other business matters to take care of, such as scouting players and viewing mock drafts.
 
   SCOUTING PLAYERS
This is the place to go to see who you should take with your 7th overall pick that was given to you by the Lottery after your 15-67 record. The draft pool will contain all the guys looking to be drafted into your league. In there you can see what position a guy plays, his weight/height, and his college. Also in this grid are the ratings that the four scouts give. The current column shows a scout’s current rating on a player. The potential column shows how good a scout thinks a player might become. The more stars a player has, the better he is, or might be in the future.

   MOCK DRAFT
The computer will create a mock draft so you can view how the computer thinks each pick will go. This is in the same order as the real draft will be, but this just fills in players for each pick based on how the computer thinks they will go. You also have the ability to view the top 15 players in the draft for a particular position, as the computer sees it.

  COLLEGE DRAFT
For the first round of the draft, each team on the clock has five minutes to make their selection. When the second round comes along, the time allotted decreases to two minutes per pick.
 
VI. JOB APPLICATION

 To apply for a job with BLH, please make sure you can meet the requirements above (II), and then fill out the form provided below.

APPLICATION FORM

When applying for a job at Baseline Hoops, fill out the following form and e-mail it to mattsa_tx@totalsportsworld.net or mikesa_tx@totalsportsworld.net

Full name:
AOL screen name:
E-mail address:
Date of Birth:
Experience (past leagues, etc.):
Why you should get this position:
References:

Upon sending your request to the Commissioner's Office, expect a 5-7 day wait for your request to be processed.