Ultimate ABCA D'League Announced (maybe)

[New York]

ULTIMATE ABCA D'LEAGUE ANNOUNCED

After the success of Ultimate ABCA Summer League, the committee would like to announce that starting in Season 9 we will be introducing the Ultimate ABCA D'League. In this post, I will address some of the details regarding this new addition as well as some of the potential questions and concerns.

*Maybe included in the title to gauge the response of the league for this. I'll run a D'League no matter what next season as a trial sort of thing but this only continues if the league wants it to. 

INVOLVEMENT INFORMATION 

- First and most important, much like Ultimate ABCA this is 100% OPTIONAL. I want to stress that point because I know in the past we've had some express concern that adding a D'League will add too much to the GMs plate. This is an extension to the Ultimate ABCA, an optional resource there for every GM but by no means something that they are required to take part in or that they'll be penalized for not taking part in. If for example, Beijing Aoshen choose not to participate in this, there will still be a 12 man Beijing Aoshen D'League team with the roster automatically filled by the game. The Beijing Aoshen GM can just focus on their regular Ultimate ABCA team and it will be like the D'League doesn't exist. 

- Next as a bit of a continuation of the above, there are levels of involvement to this. Just like a regular team there is a 12-15 man roster for every team (more on this later), a DC, a gameplan, etc and you can choose what parts of the D'League team you want to be involved with. For example, one GM may want to send a few players down to the d'league but otherwise let the computer handle everything else and that's fine. Another GM, may want to send a few players down, sign a few others, set the DC, and set the gameplan and that's fine as well. Or like the Beijing example, you can completely ignore the team and that's fine as well. 

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ROSTER INFORMATION

- Now onto the rosters, much like real life teams will be allowed to assign at most 3 players to the D-League at one time. These 3 players still count towards a team's main league 15 man roster so you can't assign 3 guys to the D'League and then sign 3 Free Agents to replace them. 

- Every player on a team's main roster isn't eligible to be assigned to the d'league (I will talk about this in more detail in a bit). Only players with 3 years (as in the number of years shown in game, not necessarily how many they've actually played) are eligible to be sent down to the D'League. This isn't a personal rule, this is a rule that the game has built in that we will go with. 

- That still leaves 9 open spots, these spots can be filled by guys in the free agency pool. Free Agents aren't limited to an experience cap so as long as someone is in the D'League Free Agency Pool (which doesn't include every main league free agent) they can be signed, even if they have 20 years of experience. This is true to life as there are veterans that play for D'League teams in order to get noticed by NBA teams. It should be noted that players signed as Free Agents by D'League team aren't tied to any main league team so at any point they could be signed by a main league team and removed from their D'League team. 

- Back on the subject of a team's 3 designated D'League assignments, while the only official rule is that the player has to meet the experience requirement, there will also be rules in place to ensure teams aren't sending players down to the D'League that shouldn't be there. This ties into the anti-tanking rules a bit but GMs will not be allowed to assign players that should be playing on their regular team to the D'League. For example, while guys such as Magic Johnson, Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Marvin Barnes, Dirk Nowitzki, Mitch Richmond, etc are eligible to go to the D'League but they wouldn't have been allowed to go. This is because these are guys that should easily be getting minutes on their main roster team. 

NOTE: This isn't to say good players aren't eligible to go down to the D'League but they have to realistically be outside of (or barely in) a team's rotation. As an extreme example of this, lets say a team has Kevin McHale, Anthony Davis, and Greg Oden as their front court rotation then that means someone like Marvin Barnes really isn't in the rotation so he can be sent down to the D'League to get minutes. Like I said that's an extreme example but basically a guy is okay to go to the D'League if there are better players in front of him and they wouldn't have gotten any minutes if the D'Leauge didn't exist. While GMs will be allowed to make their cases, in the end the call comes down to the committee (mainly NY as I won't put that burden on anyone else) and that call won't be allowed to be argued. If a GM decides to make a fuss about this, they will not be able to participate in the D'League for the rest of the season (see point one about this being optional/bonus material). This may sound a bit harsh but that's the only way this thing is going to work. DON'T USE THE D'LEAGUE AS A TOOL TO TANK!!!

- D'League Signed Free Agents can be traded

- There are no salaries for the D'League (this is how the game has it setup). 

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SCHEDULE INFORMATION

- There is a D'League Draft that takes place after the main league's Free Agency but before the main league's TC, but it can be skipped so I am still undecided on what I will do in regards to that. I am hesitant to add anything that will extend the league's off-season.

- There is a D'League Training Camp but this will be 100% recommended as I won't be spending time putting in settings for random D'League guys.

- The D'League season will last for 50 games just like in real life and it will run concurrently with the regular ABCA season. 

- There is a D'League All-Star weekend with all of the normal All-Star activities

- There is a D'League Playoffs but unlike the main league's Playoffs it will only be for the top 8 teams (4 from Eurasia, 4 from America)

OTHER INFORMATION

- There will be a new section added to the forum for all D'League house keeping. A trade forum (both for blocks and completed), a free agency forum, a DC forum, and anything else I can think of. 
 
- For manual DCs, there will be some type of limit in place for this as well. Like I mentioned this is a bonus to the main league so I don't want to spend more time entering in DCs for the D'League than I will for the main league. If you want to constantly update your DC for the D'League then do it in game where it won't be any extra work for myself. 

- Speaking of DCs, don't post a D-League DC and not post a main league DC because I won't put it in. There should never be a time where your main league team suffers because of your D'League team.

- Assistant GMs will once again be allowed for teams with the introduction of the D'League. Why? Because there is actually something for them to do now rather than confusing everyone with random trade blocks. They can set the D'League Depth Chart (remember though it'll be ignored if your main roster one isn't set), make D'League trades, and basically run things at that level. This way they can get their feet wet in the league while not getting in the way of the regular league happenings. 

- Much like Summer League, there will be a separate section on the HTML for the D'League. However unlike Summer League, the D'League will be included in the save that's uploaded. 

- In the end, this is just an attempt to add more depth and layers to our league while not increasing the workload of any of our GMs in any way, shape, or form. With the addition of the D'League we have the chance to see things like, 2nd round picks getting more attention, AGMs actually mattering, GMs getting to test guys out that they wouldn't have been able to otherwise, more ABCA content, more competition with a 2nd less important playoffs being held each year, and that's just a few things off the top of my head.

So with that, I think I've covered everything I can. If you have any questions, please post them here. 

[New York]

Things I wanted to mention but didn't want to put in the first post since these are more questions for the league than announcements.



1) Are you a fan of the idea of a D'League in this form? I want to get an honest response here because this first season is just a trial run, if it goes as well as Summer League has then we can keep doing it, if it isn't well received or causes too many headaches it takes one button to remove it from the league.



2) Player eligibility - So the 3 years of experience thing isn't going to change but one discussion I had while putting this together was whether my current method of deciding which players could/couldn't play beyond that was the right way to go. One suggestion was limiting it to 2nd rounders and just having the D'League be based around them. My take here is that this is supposed to be a fun bonus to the regular league so people should be okay with my decisions to make a final call on who is "fair game" for the D'League similar to Summer League. I'm not sure the Rondo's, Vinnie J's, Nerlens Noel's, Hersey Hawkins, etc's of the league should be excluded due to where they were taken in the draft. But again I want to hear some thoughts on this.



3) Fun or Bonus - In conjunction with the suggestion of limiting this to 2nd rounders (or late rounders), one idea that was passed along was having players that are assigned to the D'League for a full season receive some type of rating boost. Is this something that should be implemented in the future or should D'League stay similar to Summer League and just be about getting players minutes that wouldn't have otherwise?

[Brooklyn]

*golf clap*

1) I have always been interested in the d-league option, but I've never done it so I'm glad there's going to be a trial season. Once I see how it works in-game I'll definitely provide feedback.

2) I think the 3 year eligibility limit is good enough. I think the anti-tanking rules should cover any sketchy stuff (for example, a team clearly burying a good young player in the d-league and then giving playing time to crappier guys at the same position). I drafted Rondo high because I like him but I still might want to play him in the d-league because I have 2 better PGs on the roster right now.

3) I don't think there should be rating boosts especially if we're not expected all GMs to participate. If there are bonuses then GMs who dont participate will lose out. I think being able to give players minutes in the d-league is reason enough to have it.

[Aalborg]

when did the league just start doing these things without committee discussion? I like d leagues btw as many know just seems odd

[New Orleans]

Yes

No

No

And HOLLA!!! I'm excited about this. Big time.

[New York]

Oct 21, 2016 3:42:13 GMT Aalborg said:

when did the league just start doing these things without committee discussion? I like d leagues btw as many know just seems odd

Probably could've been asked on Slack in a message and sorted out a bit easier. I may have jumped ahead on this one but it's something we've discussed a ton in the past with support from the majority of the committee but you're correct there was no recent official discussion, I'll handle that now. 

[Deleted]

Can I just move my whole team to the D League?

[Portland]

My honest take on an ABCA D-League is... what's the point? As I understand it, the game doesn't allow for player development based on playing time; thus having a yellow/green guy in the FA pool or having him on my D-league team getting actual minutes makes no difference. He's still a player I don't care about either way because his ratings aren't improving with the game experience. "D" stands for development, right? No development, no interest.

I worry about manually boosting certain guys down there based on some criteria; seems like it would end up being pretty subjective and it would totally unrelated to the gm's decision-making skills. At what point would I think, "Oh that was a smart move I did, sending player X to the d-league. I saw something in him, gave him a chance, he got better, I'm enjoying this."?

[Madrid]

I completely agree with Brooklyn. I love having the option but would be skeptical about limiting it too much or allowing for extra player development. If we can think of a way to employ player development down there that isn't extreme or subjective, that could be cool. Could be a randomized upgrade or something, like each player down there has a 1/10 chance of getting a 500 PP upgrade or +2 potential boost at the beginning/end of the season. Not sure how we'd operationalize that and if it'd be too much work even for the guys teams specifically send down there. Could also give slight boosts to award winners. That might make it easier.

Does the game make it easy to send down or call up players throughout the season?

[New York]

Oct 21, 2016 13:18:05 GMT Portland said:

My honest take on an ABCA D-League is... what's the point? As I understand it, the game doesn't allow for player development based on playing time; thus having a yellow/green guy in the FA pool or having him on my D-league team getting actual minutes makes no difference. He's still a player I don't care about either way because his ratings aren't improving with the game experience. "D" stands for development, right? No development, no interest.

I worry about manually boosting certain guys down there based on some criteria; seems like it would end up being pretty subjective and it would totally unrelated to the gm's decision-making skills. At what point would I think, "Oh that was a smart move I did, sending player X to the d-league. I saw something in him, gave him a chance, he got better, I'm enjoying this."?

What's the point of any of this? lol. It's just a fun addition to get a chance to see guys play that maybe normally wouldn't. Same thing as Summer League, same thing as pre-season and things like that. 

But the great thing about this is, if a GM doesn't see a point in it then they don't have to participate in it and they don't lose anything from it. 

[New York]

Oct 21, 2016 13:42:41 GMT Madrid said:

I completely agree with Brooklyn. I love having the option but would be skeptical about limiting it too much or allowing for extra player development. If we can think of a way to employ player development down there that isn't extreme or subjective, that could be cool. Could be a randomized upgrade or something, like each player down there has a 1/10 chance of getting a 500 PP upgrade or +2 potential boost at the beginning/end of the season. Not sure how we'd operationalize that and if it'd be too much work even for the guys teams specifically send down there. Cool new feature, though.

Does the game make it easy to send down or call up players throughout the season?

yes to the final part of your post. It's as easy as putting someone on Injury Reserve as it's literally the button right next to that one lol.

I should also remind everyone that the second post in this thread were just suggestions given on things we can do. I don't want anyone to think that come next season we are going to have some type of player boost or limit guys that were selected before a certain point for D'League. As you all know, I'm all about letting GMs ideas get their fair shake so if something was suggested to me I wanted to throw it out there for the league to give their take on. The only stuff that is guaranteed to happen right now are the things covered in the initial post.

[Chicago]

Another great addition to the league by New York and really looking forward to this.  As far as my input with regards to the three questions:

1) If it is like summer league, I am definitely a fan of this. Many times especially as a competitive team, you are not able to play young guys guys and get a feel for what they can offer the team, this will help in solving that issue. Just on our team alone, we had guys like Mickey Johnson and Jim Chones who we could not really scout effectively with just 6 preseason games. So, once again great idea.

2) Not a fan of the idea to limit the eligibility to 2nd rounds or only late 1st round guys. I think any player should be eligible that we need to get an idea of how they might fit with our team. That does not mean that we are sending guys like Shaq or Davis down there because they are obviously already elite but maybe a cheap guy you pick up off free agency or a signing that may have more then a couple years experience. Having said that, still more than okay with whatever New York decides as the cutoff. 

3) I do not agree with the ratings boost system. If we are not making this mandatory for all (we already have a lot of GMs not so active without D-League) it could lead to complaints in the future and more of a headache for New York. 

Chicago

[Perth]

I like the d-League. The summer league is a great way to see guys get minutes and a D-League could be fun. I have to read the posts closer to see the meat of the matter.

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2016 2:51:45 GMT New York said:

3) Fun or Bonus - In conjunction with the suggestion of limiting this to 2nd rounders (or late rounders), one idea that was passed along was having players that are assigned to the D'League for a full season receive some type of rating boost. Is this something that should be implemented in the future or should D'League stay similar to Summer League and just be about getting players minutes that wouldn't have otherwise?

Love everything except this. (I'm aware it's just an idea)

D League is a great opportunity to experiment with DC/GP, and also a place to see what players can do with some minutes they wouldn't see otherwise. However, there should be no bonus or improvement given. Some of us just simply won't have the time to participate and shouldn't have to miss out on all additional player growth opportunities. 

Everything else though, fantastic work sir.