Where I Messed Up This Season

February 27, 2015

You know what the HAC is? It is like a prototype vehicle that Google and Apple are working on for a driverless car. Hear me out. This league can easily withstand a virtually commissioner-less situation and thrive. So, while I messed up, the league is at least as healthy as it has ever been. And for that, I’m grateful to every owner in the league.

Two trade deadlines?

I had a big goal of instituting two trade deadlines in the league to prevent too many draft picks changing hands, since at mid-season, most teams still have a shot at the playoffs. However, later in the season, by mid-February, there are clear sellers and buyers. Now that I assess the league and how the trade deadline went, I honestly don’t really think that will be a big issue in this league. I thought it might be last season, but now that it is the second straight season with all of the same owners, I think we all know everyone well enough that no one is going to simply dump their team and dump their team of draft picks, ruin their team for the next season and then all of a sudden pull the rug out from under the league and leave a franchise barren of picks. Of course, if worse comes to worse, which I highly doubt it will, if there is ever a wacko trade (which didn’t even happen this season), I’ll always talk to the two owners involved, and if need be, bring in Donkey Cranker Nate and Sacramento Mike for more objective opinions. But that is always a last resort because I think everyone in this league has the best of intentions which is so reassuring.

The other message board

In hindsight, the message board was a good idea, but completely unnecessary. Sorry to Sacramento Mike, and to a lesser extent Long Shot Wes, but Facebook is easier and it does everything we need it to do. It gives alerts to people when a post is made which is much easier to have set up than the message board’s alerts. Plus, Sacramento Mike can always make a fake profile which links to his phone so he won’t be completely out of the loop. In any case, I’ll try to e-mail all important news or put it on the league message board.

Other rules that fell by the wayside this season

Not trading first or second round picks? Yeah, that didn’t happen. This proposed rule which wasn’t enforced was really to protect teams from mortgaging their future, kind of like the two trade deadline idea. But, partly to get me off the hook, let’s look at the franchises which did trade their 1st round pick for next season. Glen’s Left Coast Gravity did, and I think everyone in the league would agree that he’s one of the most active, if not THE most active owner in the league. Even when his team wasn’t doing so great last season, Glen was all over the place, making trades and free agent acquisitions. Another team that traded their first round pick was Balls to the Wall. Gary is the only other owner who would rival Glen for most active owner in the league. Christian also traded Durantula’s first round pick...for LeBron James. So...the two most active owners in the league traded their first round picks and another owner traded his for arguably the best player in the NBA? Yeah...I don’t think there’s a problem.

I didn’t really communicate the idea of being able to trade FAAB money in trades well before the season, and certainly not during the early part of the season. Next year that can happen I think, though I suppose it isn’t that necessary, probably. At the same time, I don’t really see the problem with it, though it’ll take more work on my end, but as long as I’m conscious and around, I can do it.

Looking forward, finally

At the same time, the playoffs (and Consolation Bracket!) are coming around the corner, and maybe the saying, “better later than never” applies with my re-emergence. The trade deadline was an exciting one and there might have been as many trades completed this season as last. It certainly was close, and I don’t remember last year’s trade deadline as active with so many trades in the last few days. So, looking forward, I’m excited! There was a lot to learn for me and while it hasn’t been fun seeing my squad get taken to the woodshed, hopefully I can make it up a little by making some noise in the Consolation Bracket. Oh, and we have a new logo!...at least for now. I may change it eventually. But we had to have something rather than that vague, boring basketball court!

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Commissioner's Mea Culpa

February 19, 2015

To my valued, fellow HAC fantasy basketball owners, I want to apologize for doing a remarkably terrible job so far this season with organization and as an honest competitor. I will try to not make this exceptionally long and rambling like most of my e-mails/write-ups are, but you all deserve an explanation that will show that I haven’t willingly ignored High Above Courtside, which I do love, and you all, whom I love having in the league a whole lot more. Like I always say...or write, without all of you, there is no HAC, and for that I am very grateful.

The NBA All-Star game and the recent rash of HAC trades inspired me to finish this message to all of you when really, I should have done it a long time ago. You guys have been without a league organizer for quite some time, and it hasn’t been fair. Not only that, you’ve also been without a competitive team owner, and that might even be worse. And while I don’t want to turn this into a “woe is me” because it isn’t true, you guys deserve some kind of an explanation.

Shortly after the draft, I broke up with my girlfriend of nearly three years. Since we were living together, I then had to find a new apartment, pack up all of my things and move. During that time, my responsibilities at work increased quite a bit as well. So, before, if I couldn’t write something at home, I could usually find time to do it at work. For the past few months, that ability hasn’t been there. Not only that, when I come home from work, I’m usually pooped and don’t want to sit in front of a computer. And maybe this might make sense to some of you, but I was very cognizant of my failings with HAC this season, and each week that I put it off, it felt worse and worse, and it was easier to keep ignoring rather than addressing head on like I am now, which I should have done a month ago, at least. Those are the two main things that I’ve been dealing with though. But hey, nothing life threatening and for that, I should be grateful.

So, while things in real life that have happened made it tough for me to be very active in HAC like I’ve always tried to be, there is no excuse for me to keep putting off explaining to everyone why that is. I’m the first to gently nudge guys who start getting a little inactive because it does not help the league. And the HAC is something I’m very proud of, primarily because of the owners who are in the league. This is the second straight season that we’ve had the same ownership group in the league. Three years ago we had to let two guys go for being inactive, and that has not even come close to being a problem since. To me, for an internet based league, that is amazing.

Let’s face it, with the internet age, my responsibilities are very little with the HAC. That is because, without all of you, there is no league. The HAC, in my biased opinion, is fantastic because the 11 other owners other than myself are active, enthusiastic NBA fans who show pride in their team and the league. I feel very confident that no owner in the league cares more about their team than the league and that also is what makes me very sorry about procrastinating about sending this message to you all for so long.

I don’t want to keep rambling on and on about it. The fact is, this has been a lost season for me alone. The fact is though, it is not a lost season for the HAC and I am determined to not make it so. There is still a LOT left to the current season and believe it or not, I am excited for it even though my Washington Spin aren’t threats, and I am hopeful for future seasons in that I hope you fantastic owners who have committed to the HAC are willing to stay along for the ride even with my sorry showing this year. I will do my best to improve drastically and I thank you guys for your incredible patience with me on the rudderless ship that has been the HAC. Just know how appreciative I am that the ship was coasting along just fine because of all of you keeping it afloat and moving forward steadily.

Let’s go HAC!

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Jabari Parker Takes Knee Advice From Grandpa Rose

December 18, 2014

Written by: Ken Gardner

In a shocking development the Milwaukee Bucks have discovered their emerging rookie star Jabari Parker will be lost for the rest of the season with a torn Derrick Rose....I mean ACL. The High Above Courtside Investigative team has recently learned of a meeting that took place between Derrick Rose and Parker when the following information is exchanged.

Rose: "Listen man, Here's what you do blow out your knee early so the whole city blindly believes you will come back stronger than ever."

Parker: "But this sucks."

Rose: "But now you can sit and then sign a huge endorsement deal and get paid for not even playing. Then when you come back you can blame the knee for missing shots. I mean seriously looked how its worked out for me. Don't view this as an injury. Instead think of it as a business opportunity."

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Hub Caps Blame Sanders for 2013-14 Woes

November 4, 2014

Today, Latrell’s Hub Caps CEO Erik Andersen held a press conference to take a moment to celebrate his arrival on the league’s new Fleaflicker website as well as the league’s new message board, the new homes of the High Above Courtside fantasy basketball league. Andersen wasted no time explaining the reason why his team struggled last season, finishing a league worst 3-18. He started on the first question. “Larry Sanders”, replied, the Hub Caps boss.

“Sanders was an albatross on this team’s neck and I vow not to let that happen again. Just today I told Larry that he’d be playing for another franchise this season as I’ve granted his release and he’ll be an unrestricted free agent and able to be drafted by another team, including the Hub Caps. However, I told Larry that unless he lasts until the 16th round, we probably wouldn’t be selecting him.”

Sanders was indeed released and became draft eligible for the 2014 HAC Draft. After the Hub Caps spent a 2nd round pick on him in the 2013 HAC Draft, Sanders lasted until the 8th round where the Washington Spin selected him with the 85th overall pick, quite a slip from the season before. Andersen complained, “I feel like Sanders was a bad omen right from the start. We pinned our hopes on him and wanted him to be a cornerstone for last season for the franchise, but instead, he was the driving force for the Hub Caps becoming the league laughingstock."

Sources say that Sanders felt that being drafted by the Hub Caps was an insult. We tried to reach Sanders for an exclusive interview to ask why, but when told the subject, of his lone season with the Hub Caps, he refused.

The Hub Caps really weren’t a laughingstock in the HAC last season, however. Yes, the team had one of the worst seasons in HAC history, but Andersen’s stewardship of the team may have established him as the most respected last place team in fantasy sports history. Even as Erik saw his franchise fall out of playoff contention before midseason, he was a constant and welcomed presence on the league’s message board. In an unscientific survey, no fantasy basketballer had ever seen an owner of a struggling franchise maintain such good humor and contribute to the league in such a way before. Still, if you know Erik, you know he is all fantasy business, all the time as he continued his press conference.

“Gerald Green is going to be the foundation of the Hub Caps going forward. He’ll be a guy that will be at a low cost to re-sign for a couple of seasons and the Hub Caps plan to make him a lynchpin of our anticipated success.” Green is on a team-friendly contract for the Hub Caps, costing just a 10th round pick to re-sign this past offseason. Retaining talented players like Green, guard Victor Oladipo (6th round re-sign cost) and forward Josh McRoberts (14th round re-sign cost) already helped to make the Hub Caps better moving forward. Drafting more talented players such as forward/center Al Jefferson and guard Jrue Holiday has to put the Hub Caps on a better track than last season. Hell, it couldn’t get much worse than that.

“We’ll be better. How much better, I have no idea, but the great thing is, I can’t get fired. We are in a good market with loyal fans who will keep coming to the game, even if I have to pay for their tickets to get them in the seats. The point is, this team isn’t going away.”

In conclusion, we tend to believe Erik on this one. We have no idea how good the Hub Caps can be this year, and even if they can stay in the playoff hunt past midseason. However, we do know that the Hub Caps are in the HAC for the long term. That much is certain, and it makes HAC a better league for it.

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2014 HAC Draft is Done!

October 27, 2014

I'll try my best to keep this short and to the point. The draft is done, but I'll need your help as you'll have to make sure your rosters are ok. They should be accurate, but more sets of eyes never hurt.

Besides messing where Fleaflicker got janky, I messed up the draft in that a two teams got one extra draft choice at the end which they shouldn't have: myself and Play Sorry For Jabari/The Big Deng Theory. I will move our last round picks to free agency and I apologize about that. Balls to the Wall also had one less draft pick than they should have, another error on my part. Please forgive these beginning year jitters on Fleaflicker. This was my error, for not making sure everyone had 17 draft picks, and not the site's.

Regarding a mobile app for Fleaflicker, they got rid of theirs, so now it is just the web browser. I am in a fantasy football league on Fleaflicker, and through this season, it has been fine using the web app. Everything is very readable.

The NBA season starts TOMORROW (the 28th)! So make sure your roster is good to go, because the games are getting ready to count for real! The NBA is here and HAC fantasy basketball is set for another season. I'm glad you came along for the ride and I'm looking forward for another year!

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2014 HAC Draft Preview

October 15, 2014

Some of you might be wondering, what is going on with the 2014 HAC Draft!? Well, I'm here to help with all, or at least some, well...maybe a few (?) of your draft needs. Work has been brutal recently, so I have been running ragged and haven't been able to update the league as much as I'd like.

When Does The Draft Start, Finish

The draft will start at 12 pacific time (3pm eastern) on Saturday, October 18. The draft will take place on the new league message board. Because we have quite a few re-signed players on teams, the draft shouldn't take very long, I'm thinking potentially a week. The draft will end each day at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific) and start each day at 12pm Eastern (9am Pacific).

Owners Need To Keep Track of Picks!

The draft should be easy to keep track of on the message board and I doubt I will be able to be militant on time limits with work tugging at me constantly during the daytime hours. I will try my hardest to keep updates going, but it will be each owners' responsibility to be up to date on the draft. Since the message board is very easy to access on phone, there's really no excuse. Because of this, we will keep it like it was last year regarding time limits. Each pick will have a two hour time limit until 8pm Eastern time (5pm Pacific). If an owner misses his two hour window for his selection, the next pick can commence and that owner can make his pick. The owner whose selection was skipped can then make his pick at any time. I'm hoping this will be enough motivation for owners to keep up with the draft.

Because of my work responsibilities, I will likely not be able to send texts to owners when their pick is next like I did last year. Not only that, but when I did that last year, I was burnt out for about a month afterward and I want to try to prevent that. Owners who are not keeping up with the draft shouldn't have an assist from me to make their pick. Owners who keep up with the draft and are prepared for their pick shouldn't be, in effect, penalized by this.

So, get your draft lists updated, and keep researching! The 2014 HAC Draft is about to start. I'll be updating the draft thread to be ready by Saturday. Please feel free to ask me any questions on here, the league's message board, text or Facebook. I'm looking forward to another great season of the HAC and I'm thankful you guys are a part of it. I'm also looking forward to Saturday!

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Keepers, Draft, New Message Board!

October 3, 2014

I know, you think it is football season, and that is cute, but the NBA preseason starts NEXT WEEK! So, really, it is soon to be pro basketball season, and that is sure to be a great thing.

On that note, you all submitted your keepers, and that is a glorious thing which I am thankful for. What, are you insecure about your keepers? Do you think there will be no players left worth to acquire? Oh, how wrong you are! James Harden, Blake Griffin, Kyrie Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Marc Gasol, Derrick Rose, Al Jefferson and others are unrestricted free agents and draft eligible. Doesn't seem so bad now, does it!

Oh...that link. What is that? It is to the new league message board! Over half the league has joined, so that's great. I'm going to put all new stuff on the new board, and not on Facebook.

I know it will seem weird at first to have the league web site on one page (Fleaflicker) and then discussions happening on another. But we'll be able to do sooooo much more than on the Yahoo message board. Most importantly? Discussions will be able to be preserved for a long, long time. In addition, I'll be able to phase out the historical website I'd been maintaining and the Facebook group page which not everyone used all the time.

So, with that, the draft is the next thing to happen. October 18 is probably the easiest date as it is Saturday. We can start early in the morning and since ther ewere a lot of keepers, the draft should probably only take a week and then the NBA season starts on October 28, so we should be in pretty good shape. It will be a slow draft

So, that's the latest HAC update!

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The New HAC Message Board Has Launched!

September 30, 2014

I posted this on Facebook yesterday, but since the message board is ready to go, I wanted to send you all an e-mail about it. Not everyone is on board with Facebook understandably (either personally, or professionally) and because of that, I wanted to start a new league message board that would be around for as long as the league is.

Enough suspense. Follow this link to the new message board, and register and jump on in. The water is warm.

The new message board, while primitive and skeletal, is functional and running and it seems fairly user friendly which is exciting to me. Our old Yahoo league's message board would delete messages after a season which is unforgivable to me and the Fleaflicker message board isn't that intuitive. I think this will server our interests very well and it looks awfully good on a phone too.

I'm hopeful all league business can happen there and even more like league discussions and people participating, things like that. Hope to see you on there! Thanks to Long Shot Wes and Gary for already jumping on board. Long Shot has already posted his keepers!

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Free Agent Coupons and Prizes

September 29, 2014

Dear HAC Owners,

Remember! Keepers are due on Wednesday, October 1! Every single HAC franchise had access to Level 3 prizes explained here.

These included Free Agent Coupons. As a 'thank you' to every owner being in the league, I allowed teams to be able to use these Coupons retroactively and as a reward for carrying a keeper worthy player acquired as a free agent until the end of the season.

However, going forward, these Coupons are ONLY going to be able to be used DURING the season and not after. You will have to declare if you want to use your coupon immediately when you acquire a free agent, and not later on. This is one reason to possibly hold on to a Level 3 prize for next season. If you use all of them this offseason, you won't have any going into the 2014-15 season and will have to wait for the 2015-16 season.

Other Prizes:

Regarding other prizes, I am thinking I probably handed too many out this offseason. I don't want a lot of elite players being able to be retained each offseason, so I'll correct that going forward now that the league is starting to establish its own value now for many players. Getting a handle on the player market value and reeling in the amount of prizes should help going forward.

Does Anyone Know of a Good, Free Message Board?

Also, if anyone has any ideas for a good, free message board for the league to use, please let me know. I'm not confident in Fleaflicker's message board, though it could work a little. The problem is for important documents that I would like to have stickied, and I can't do that on Fleaflicker. I can do it on Facebook, but not everyone uses Facebook, or at least not actively. So, if anyone has a good recommendation for a message board, please let me know, because I'm going to start taking a look around for one that is free and easy to use. I want all 12 owners to be able to access, at any time, league rules and important league notes and that simply isn't the case right now and it isn't fair.

I hope that makes sense, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Thanks for being part of the HAC!

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Keepers Update

September 24, 2014

It is now late September and not too much longer until October 1 (a.k.a. the HAC keeper deadline). I am starting to get a wee bit concerned because outside of a brief flurry of activity when I extended the keeper deadline, I have only really heard from one owner who has made any move with his franchise regarding keepers.

That's fine if you don't want to keep any players; you have that choice. Just know, that when the calendar turns to October 2, out of consideration to the owners who have been conscientious about their keepers, I'll have to shut the keepers down. If you are thinking about having no keepers entering the 2014-15 season, a short reply back to me saying so would help a lot.

It is about a week until October 1, so I figured touching base with you all would be a good thing. I've written this in previous updates, but if you need help with keeper rules and information, that is on the Facebook group page and also here, on this website. You can always ask me any time for advice. E-mail is probably best for that.

Get going on keepers, HAC owners!

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Keepers 101 Revisited

September 17, 2014

It is now the middle of September and not too much longer until October 1 (a.k.a. the HAC keeper deadline). I am starting to get a wee bit concerned because outside of a brief flurry of activity when I extended the keeper deadline, I haven't hear from any owners since.

I'm forwarding my "Keepers 101" e-mail to try to refresh those of you who might need it. Otherwise, this is simply a reminder to start thinking about basketball because, believe it or not, it will be coming soon! Not yet...but soon. The NBA preseason will be starting in just a few weeks, and real live NBA basketball will be happening.

I won't make this too long. Just that your end of season 2013-14 rosters are on Fleaflicker now. In addition, all of the keeper rules are on Facebook as well as my primitive HAC Guide website that I've made for record keeping and for times like this.

Because the NBA preseason starts in early October, I really don't want to extend the keeper deadline further than October 1. I'd like to not be under a time crunch. What that means is that I'll be able to get everything straightened away for the draft as well as allow those who want to look at everyone else's keepers to prepare for the draft. Because quite a few players will be re-signed by teams, the draft won't be nearly as long as last season. That will give us a bit more leeway with time in getting the draft done. Still, don't forget. The NBA regular season starts October 28! That's just five weeks away!

So, look over your rosters and it shouldn't take long determining who you want to keep. There are three ways to re-sign a player: 1) the standard way of paying a draft pick two rounds higher than where the player was originally drafted, 2) an Option Year contract which freezes the player's keeper value, but you lose the player's rights at the end of the season and they go back into the draft and 3) a Franchise Player Tag which allows you to keep a 1st or 2nd round draft pick, but only for one season, and you only get one Franchse Player Tag every 3 seasons. Remember this and look over the league prizes, because you may have some of those.

Get those keepers in to me soon! Can't wait for another season of the HAC and I hope this finds you all well.

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Keepers 101

September 11, 2014

From some of the questions I was getting, I think it is clear that it is just far too early to be thinking about basketball for some of you! Well, that'll change once keepers are in play and you realize that you can keep some of your great players for a very good price, eventually. So, what I wanted to do was tell some of you what you should be looking at with keepers. It may seem convoluted and detailed, but when you start breaking it down, it gets a lot less complicated.

Look at the Draft!

The 2013 HAC Draft is the most important detail here. Why? Well, that is the basic rule of HAC Keepers. The cost to re-sign a player from your end-of-season roster in the 2013-14 season is a draft pick two rounds higher than where the player was drafted the season before. That is the most important rule of re-signing players in HAC.

Who can I keep?

Ok, THIS is the most important detail here if we're talking about keepers! Now, you don't have to re-sign any player from your roster at the end of the season. However, it would probably be advantageous to do so. And every franchise has good players at a good keeper price. Still, not all of the top players will be re-signed with the structure of the league's keeper system, so there will be great players available in the draft. Speaking of that, let's delve into the HAC keeper system.

The HAC keeper rules

There are three major details of the keeper system:

1. Regular keepers - to keep a player, the price is two draft rounds higher than the previous year or where the player was drafted that season. As a result, first and second round picks can't be re-signed this way.
2. Option Year Contract - you can freeze a player's keeper status with this contract and not pay a higher cost. The catch is, this is a one year contract and after the season, the player goes back into the draft. You lose all rights to re-sign the player as a keeper, but you can always re-acquire him in the draft. A first or second round pick CAN be re-signed with an Option Year deal.
3. Franchise player tag - With this, you can re-sign a player drafted in the first two rounds, but you won't lose the player's rights at the end if the session. The catch here is that every franchise will have just one of these over three years.

What are league prizes about?

Now that you know the finer points of the league's keeper system, there are other details that might make you think differently about keeping a player. That could be prizes.

Basically, the HAC prize system is to reward franchises for how they did in the previous season. The prize system is listed in complete detail HERE.

You could have the ability to place another Franchise Tag on a player. Or get a discount on the re-sign cost of a player you were on the fence about. Or even being able to freeze the keeper status of a player for up to four seasons. Still other prizes can be used during the season if you prefer.

So these are important, but my goal with the HAC prizes are not to make the rich richer or change the balance of power in the league. I always want the play on the actual court to determine that. But since this is a free league, I want to give something to league owners who were active all season long and did well. But for those owners who had a tough season, they won't go empty handed either.

I didn't want to make this too overwhelming for everyone, so I'll end this here. Feel free to ask me any questions, on e-mail, text or facebook. I hope this helps though.

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Keeper Deadline Extension

September 9, 2014

The time is near, but I'm going to push out the keeper deadline which was supposed to be tomorrow, to October 1. This accomplishes a couple of things:

1. From the questions I'm getting from owners, it is probably a combination of being too early to think about fantasy basketball and owners just not looking at the keeper information yet.

2. With those questions, it is apparent that keepers are already a lot to chew on, let alone another concept like Restricted Free Agency. I'm going to push that off until next year...at least.

3. With the indefinite delay of RFA, we are in no rush for keepers since the NBA preseason doesn't start until early October. I simply would like keepers to be in and there to be a week or two delay to the draft so owners can prepare and look at keepers and adjust their cheat sheets and know who will be available and who won't be.

4. The delay also helps me to answer owners' questions and not be rushed about it. I can't often drop what I'm doing, but I love the league and love fantasy basketball so I often want to.

October 1 should be enough time, and this is fantasy basketball; it isn't life or death. But that October 1 is going to be the final deadline, again, to give owners time before the draft to prepare for it. I put in a lot of time and effort on the keeper rules that I put up on Facebook, so I'm hoping the rest of you who have yet to submit your keepers can take a bit of time to review that and review your teams and get back to me.

I want to thank Gary, Glen and Nate for getting their keepers in really early. You guys can adjust your keepers still until October 1, but I appreciate how on top of it you guys were.

Maybe next season my goal of having more of an offseason can happen, but at the same time, I'm ok with moving slowly towards that goal as well. I'll base it on how next offseason goes and what all of you, the HAC owners, prefer.

Please, please, please look on our Facebook group in the documents section for the keeper information that will help you. You can also look at the primitive website I made for the same purpose. The same information is there as well. Look at it, read it! There is a tab on the left hand side of the primitive website for keeper information; it should be easy to find if you click that link above. I put it there for a reason, not to waste my time!

So, feel free to contact me with any questions, either on Facebook, text or e-mail and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If I'm slow in getting back, just send me another message.

Until next time, which will probably be pretty soon, have a smile with a picture of World B. Free.

Fleaflicker Update

September 1, 2014

It is now September officially, and that means the keeper deadline is coming soon. Specifically, it is on September 10, so get ready. That also means that soon, in about a month we will finally be having preseason NBA going on. There is USA Basketball, but since the coach is junior varsity Coach K, it isn't real basketball.

My point in writing to all of you is to give a rough breakdown of the Fleaflicker site since it is new to all of us. Unfortunately, it can't be too in depth since we still have three owners who have not signed up to the league site. It only takes about five minutes (literally) to do so, so I'm not sure why it hasn't been done yet, but this e-mail serves another purpose, and that is to specifically call out Durantula owner, Christian, Detroit Bad Boys owner David and Sacramento Oaks owner Mike to get on the Fleaflicker High Above Courtside league home.

Now that I've called out our three AWOL owners, let's start the Fleaflicker website 101. Christian, Dave and Mike...get on the site! I'll send you invites that will hopefully make it easier.

Where is the app?

I'm not sure if others did, but the best thing about the Yahoo basketball league home was Yahoo's app. I didn't like much else about Yahoo, but the app was well done. Well, with Fleaflicker, it is made so that the website will work on a PC, tablet or phone perfectly. What I would suggest is to save the bookmark of the league page on your homepage of your phone or tablet, and then you can get to it easily.

I've signed in already, now what?

To the eight other franchise owners who have already signed in, I thank you. Three other franchise owners Gary of Vegas Vicodins, Glen of Left Coast Gravity and Nathan of those buckin' Donkey Crankers have given me their keepers. Now, nothing is binding until September 10 and you can change your mind until then. Make sure you've seen the league prizes as well and if you are owed some, but that will also be communicated in a future e-mail soon. But when you go to your team page, you will see your end of season roster from last season as that has been imported. I will give everyone a keepers refresher later in the week, and it is also on Facebook as well as on the HAC Guide keeper page here.

While not official yet, the Donkey Crankers have stated their intention of re-signing center Andre Drummond with a Bonus Contract at the cost of a 5th round draft pick. So, it is possible that Drummond won't be draft-eligible for up to four seasons and will cost the Crankers a 5th round pick for each of those seasons.

What is the timeline going forward for the league?

More will be explained soon, but here it is, briefly. Like I wrote before, September 10 is the keeper deadline. From September 17 to October 1, Restricted Free Agency will start, and that will also be explained again soon, but it is also explained on Facebook and on the HAC Guide here.

Since the NBA season (and thus, the HAC season) starts on October 28, I'm thinking the draft will likely start around October 11 (Saturday) to give us plenty of time to complete the slow, e-mail draft.

I will try my best not to overload all of you with e-mails and with Facebook posts. But, as keepers come close, then restricted free agency, and then the draft, it will start happening.

Thank you all for being in the league, and I'm very excited to start another HAC season with you all.

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Free Agent Keepers Refresher

August 22, 2014

I've been referencing a rule for re-signing players for a little while and just caught myself that what I've been thinking and, as a result, possibly saying or writing, isn't entirely accurate.

The league rule is that if a player drafted in rounds 1-12 is released, say Derrick Rose last season, that player keeps their draft, and thus, keeper, status for the year. So, say if Rose was a first round pick last season and was released, he'd still have a first round tag for keeper purposes.

Which HAC franchise will be the beneficiary if Rose comes back to his pre-injury status?

For players drafted after round 12 who are released, their keeper status reverts to being equal to a 12th round draft pick, and it would cost a 10th round pick to keep them.

This is to make keepers a bit easier and more fair as well, since we only have one injured reserve spot. Ultimately, because we have only one IR spot, it is to protect owners in the case of a roster crunch, so they don't have to keep a player around.

So, my apologies to those that I've said something different to about this. Just wanted to put that out there since I caught myself recently.

Remember: September 10 is the (revised) keeper deadline!

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HAC Offseason News

July 13, 2014

I know, I know...you’re thinking - what? The NBA season doesn’t even start for three months! Well, what can I say - I was inspired by NBA free agency, so I wanted to look over things. What I discovered was, it is high time to start thinking about keepers, league awards and the move to the new league hosting site: Fleaflicker.com. Some discussion is already going on in the Facebook group, but I’ll try to summarize it here.

I won’t take your valuable space and time in detailing all of the awards as I’ve put it out there before, it is on the Facebook group and soon, it will be on the new league website. The point is, every single owner in the league, no matter where your franchise finished, will get some type of league award. However, they will vary in significance. The better your team did, the better prizes you will get. Basically, the prizes will be a use it or lose it proposition, slated to expire after one year. Many of the awards will be offseason awards, but many will also be able to be used during the season. For example, if you want to cut a player that was drafted in the 3rd round but is out for the season, you could use an award for a buyout and get a draft pick in the next season’s draft 10 rounds lower, so Round 13. Hey...better than getting nothing for that player! Other awards consist of getting more Free Agency Acquisition Budget (FAAB) dollars and being able to keep players at a discount.

Keepers will be due in the not-so-distant future. If the draft is slated to start in mid-October, and Restricted Free Agency will go on before that, keepers will have to be due, probably no later than August (next month!) so start thinking about that. I’m thinking August 15 as a rough date. By then, I’ll have the end of season rosters from last year and we can work from that.

Restricted Free Agency will go on for two weeks with a hard deadline. My goal for this to take place will be after keepers, in late August. The finer points will all be communicated to you, and they have been as well in the past.

The draft will be the same as last year, a straight, slow draft. This time, we will try using Fleaflicker as they have a slow-draft capability. You’ll obviously have to add Fleaflicker as a contact so it doesn’t go to your spam mail, but when your pick is up, theoretically, you should get an e-mail update. The draft will happen the same time as last year, in mid-October.

That’s all for now, but I will be contacting you all again pretty soon, in a week or two about an invite to the new league home at Fleaflicker.com. Prepare for it! The HAC is almost ready for another season!

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