2015-16 articles

Two Separate Trade Deadlines Rule

October 24, 2015

This is a rule that was supposed to be enforced last season, but due to my incompetence at being an organizer, it never was. So, this year it will be instituted and this is a reminder to everyone. There will be two trade deadlines: one midseason deadline involving trades with draft picks and the normal, later trade deadline which will only involve players and no draft picks.

January 11 will be the mid-season draft pick trading deadline. February 25, the normal trade deadline from before will still stand, but it will now only be for players and no draft picks.

While it is possible that there may be fewer trades this season, and in the future, because of this, I’m betting that with the owners that we have in the league, there won’t be too much of a downturn if any.

Will there be a trade in the future like one that happened last season that involved Long Shot trading LeBron James and a 10th round pick to contender Durantula in exchange for a 1st and 4th round picks as well as Steven Adams?

This rule came about because of the trade explosion that first happened in the 2013-14 season and then it was proven again in 2014-15. Basically, all an owner needed to do before was to trade all of their players near the trade deadline in late February to contending teams in exchange for draft picks. Then, that team will have a surplus of draft picks and, theoretically, have a good team the next year. In the third season, the team could then tank, trade all of those good players for draft picks again, and stack up again for the following season. I’m not saying that any HAC owner did this, but I could see that pattern being possible. This is kind of a lazy plan, and more importantly, it changed the balance of power of the league in what franchise was lucky enough to be able to trade for this team’s best players.

Therefore, to make it a more challenging league, and more challenging to be a general manager, but not to limit any owner’s freedom with their team, this rule was devised. The theory is, at mid-season, most teams should still be contending for at least a playoff spot. Because of that, those teams that may be on the playoff bubble would be hesitant to trade away their good players. Not only that, it might give owners second thoughts about trading high draft picks away which would hamstring them in the next season.

The long term implications for the league will be closely monitored, not just this season, but into the future. Bigger rosters may be a possibility and I would like to allow owners to start trading future draft picks. That will be an ongoing league discussion.

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HAC Coins

October 19, 2015

HAC Owners, I know...I know you're being deluged with draft e-mails! However, I wanted to bring up two things and something I've been thinking about for a while. One - I'm going to bring back the other message board we used for last season's draft for offseason information and other stuff that should be archived, and I'll eventually shut down the HAC Guide. I think the other message board will allow for feedback if necessary and dialogue which couldn't really happen on the HAC Guide.

And the second thing: HAC Coins. I'm not sure if you all got an e-mail from the FF message board about this. I clicked the "send e-mail to all" thing, but when I don't hear back from anyone, I assume no one saw it, and thus, you get this. So, if you've seen this on the league message board already, please forgive the duplicate notice. This will start taking place right after the draft. This is getting rid of end of the year prizes and having another system in place. For expediency, I'll copy and paste what I wrote on the FF message board:

What the hell are "HAC Coins"!?!?!? Well, in short, prizes are done. I don't want to have to feel like the bad guy and reign them in if I think they are getting too plentiful. It seems like a conflict of interest since I am also an owner of a franchise. Plus, I felt like the prizes were getting too top heavy, and helping the best teams rather than the owners who deserve it, which include the middling teams as well as the struggling ones. Getting a bonus contract is a huge thing.

So, a change is going to be made. No more end of the year prizes, and instead. every owner will earn HAC Coins. HAC Coins is a system where owners can purchase rewards for their franchise for different league activities. Outstanding in season management of their franchise, contributions to the league such as posts made on the league message board, article writing and any other contribution that helps promote league activity. Wins will get points but so will a loss if it is one of the highest scores in the league that week. Basically like "victory points". In turn, at certain benchmarks for Coins accrued, rewards that increase in value become available to owners to "purchase" for their team.

Also for expediency, I won't go through all of the details. You can do that. I put all of the information you'll need about it on the "other" message board. I guess I need a good name for that board? The offseason board? I don't know. Anywhere, here's the link. If you have any questions about it at all, please let me know. Like I wrote above, I'll start tallying HAC Coins immediately after the draft.

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2015 HAC Draft Cliffs Notes

October 13, 2015

Alright, you fantastic HAC owners, I'll try to keep the key details short. You all know what's going on anyway. Here it is:

  • When each team is on the clock, the clock will be 3 hours.
  • If the three hours pass with no pick, and no list, from that owner, then the highest ranked player on the default FF draft rank list will be selected for that team. You will NOT be passed over and able to make a pick later. The top ranked player will be selected for you, and this selection will be final. So, if you won't be around, get me a draft list!
  • If an owner cannot be around when their pick will come up, please feel free to send me a list with enough players to last until your pick. I will be happy to make that pick for you.
  • You do not have to give ME a draft list if you see my pick coming towards yours. Please feel free to give a list to an owner you trust, and that owner can relay the pick to me. However, be sure that owner will be around! If I don't hear from anyone once 3 hours is up, then that isn't my problem!
  • I will NOT send texts to an owner when they are on the clock. You should get notifications from FF with picks. Or, you can amend these notifications to not get an e-mail with every single pick, but only a notification when YOU are on the clock. But if you do not get notified, this is NOT my problem! To check your notifications, once on the FF website, go to the upper right where the gear symbol is (next to 'Search'). Access that pull down menu and go to 'Account Settings'. Then go to 'Email Alerts' on the left side.
  • Picks will be made on the FF site. Not through e-mail, Facebook, a message board or any other way. Each owner will go to the 'Players" tab and find the desired player and on the right hand side, a green 'Draft' button will be there.
  • The draft clock will run from 12pm Eastern time (9am Pacific) until 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). However, if your pick is on the clock after hours, please feel free to make a selection. There is no draft clock after hours, but picks can always be made! This will help the draft move faster.
  • If, after several days or a week, the draft isn't moving fast enough, the draft clock will be shortened to two hours. And then one, if necessary. Lots of warning will be given before this happens though.
  • Since this is the first year we'll be using the FF site principally for the draft, I'm hoping there will not be any problems. But, you never know. If there are, we can always restart the draft if not too many picks have happened.
  • You can see your team's picks by going to your roster and then selecting the 'Picks' tab.
  • That pull down menu under 'Picks' will show you any other franchise's picks.
  • To see the draft board at a glance, go to the 'Draft' tab on the top of the screen.
  • To see the FF draft rankings, go to the 'Draft' tab, then 'Draft Ranking' and be sure to select 'hide keepers'.

This is all I can think of for now. If anyone has any other tips, feel free to let everyone know. Fair warning - if you don't care to read these points, it is not my fault!

I'm excited for another season of HAC, and hopefully the best yet. I'm glad you're along for another year.

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High Above Courtside Update

June 28, 2015

I know that the NBA Finals just ended, but the HAC season ended a while before so forgive me if I’m going a bit stir crazy! I wanted to just send out a few dixie cups and some string and communicate about the outlook for next season which obviously involves any changes coming for the 2015-16 season. I’ll try to keep it short as you probably all know I have a penchant for writing.

The league rules are the second most important thing in the league after the league owners. After that, anything can be negotiated. I am the first to admit that I didn’t do the best job that I could have last season with organizing. There was one rule that sticks out for me that I should have been persistent about putting into place and that was the rule about having two trade deadlines. One is the deadline in the middle of the season (say January 1 for example so it is easy to remember) for draft picks being traded, with or without players. The other is the regular trade deadline, which was February 26 last season, only involving players. This would have a big affect on the future of the league. From possible keepers to the draft to trade negotiations between franchises as well as trades in general. Next season, I promise to do a better job with this rule.

One of the biggest things for any franchise is the rules affecting re-signing players for the next season. The keeper rules have been modified this offseason with an eye towards next offseason. I wanted to modify it more this offseason, but that wouldn’t have been fair to those owners who traded players that were drafted in the first two rounds or had Round 1 or Round 2 values as it directly affects those players. So, that put me in a tough spot. Next offseason, teams will be able to re-sign players with first or second round values for multiple seasons, but fear not - it will be very expensive to do so, as it should be. As you all probably know, with a draft for dispersing players as opposed to an auction, I’ve been trying to make the keeper system fair for everyone while incorporating it into the draft. This is a new thing for me and I’m sure there will be modifications in the future to the keeper system if the player economy goes out of whack in some way.

I want owners to be able to retain first or second round picks, but maybe not as many that were re-signed last offseason. Having an identity with your team and being able to re-sign players that an owner likes, without the league becoming a dynasty league, is a big deal to me. What is also a big deal is insuring fairness with how often the top talents in the NBA are available as draft eligible free agents. This is a balance that will always have some push and pull and will always have to be negotiated.

So, this year, first round picks that were re-signed on Frozen In Time awards or with Franchise Player awards will have to go back into the draft unless the franchise that owns them can use another award on them. I wanted to figure out a way to “grandfather” these awards to allow owners to further keep these players at an expensive cost, but like I said, that wouldn’t be fair to other owners who were operating on the keeper rules they knew at the time.

Message Board Back From the Dead?:

I may bring the HAC message board back, for fair warning. Simply for offseason archiving, especially as the league gets more in depth as it has been. The Fleaflicker message board is ok, as at least we can search for past topics. But I’d rather make it much easier for everyone if someone is hunting for a rule or previous keepers or a player’s value.

HAC Slow Draft:

I was playing around with a possible live draft this season, but I think I’ll stick with a slow draft again, but this time, make it so that time limits will be strictly enforced (for once!). I’ll write more about this as the time gets closer for the draft.

Prize Distribution This Offseason:

Yes, the prizes given out were decreased this offseason. The teams that did well this year may have been expecting more prizes than they will be receiving. However, I noticed last year that things needed to change when as league champion, I was able to keep four players with prizes and not really faced with a challenge. Not only that, Frozen In Time awards were probably too lenient, allowing first round picks to be re-signed using that. I already went over the prizes in a previous e-mail, but I do realize that the prize structure has decreased, but just to let you all know, there was a LOT of thought behind it. To me, being able to re-sign players is really fun, but it should be a challenging process while also keeping the draft exciting. My hope is that the changes to prizes will do that and don’t forget - prizes aren’t a guaranteed thing!

That is already probably too much, but I'll be back to write more in a bit with more of a focus on one topic.

HAC Google Hangouts Group Chat

June 17, 2015

I'm here to harass you (and I'm sure I've harassed some over text) about a Google Hangouts chat group for the league that I've started. It was mainly in reaction to Sacramento Mike not using Facebook. And it is a lot more immediate than Facebook anyway and it is a real give and take between owners. And more than Facebook, it seems to have a sense of community with the give and take.

Hopefully you all have received an invite to the Google Hangouts group. Don't fret - you can shut off notifications so that you won't get a buzz or something every time someone posts something in it. You can check it when you have time and when you want.

Right now, we have a good group in there with Gary, Erik, Ken and Glen. But it would be great to get more in there, and my goal is to get every owner in there. I hope it can happen, and if you aren't in there, expect an impatient text from me in the near future!

Hope your fantasy basketball offseason is going great.

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HAC Prizes for 2014 Postseason

June 5, 2015

I am getting a late start concerning the prizes at the end of the season for teams with where they finished. I should have announced this earlier just in case some teams wanted to analyze their keepers, but really, I should have had this ready a lot sooner. A fair warning: prizes this year are going to be a lot thinner and not nearly as generous as they were last year. Consider last year a gift for the first real year of the HAC going forward with keepers and a clear structure going forward.

After looking at the keepers and having a year to reflect on how many players were re-signed with prizes, it is fairly obvious that the league economy needs some tapering down, at least with prizes. With reflection, it is clear that too many players were re-signed to very cheap contracts in addition to too many elite players being retained. I want teams to be able to keep players that were drafted in the 1st and 2nd round, but it should be expensive and it should be rare.

Because of that, I’m taking away the Franchise Player tag out of the prizes and making it a standard keeper option for every team that can only be used every other year. I’ll go over the keeper options soon. There were only slight revisions. Only three players were given Franchise tags last year, so I feel that it will work. Also, it will allow teams to keep top players, but only for, at most, two seasons.

As far as players that were re-signed last offseason with prizes, those original prizes will be honored and grandfathered until a player becomes a free agent.

Here is the current prize structure:

    • League Champion: 1-Level 1, 1-Level 2, 1-Level 3
    • HAC Finals Runner up: 1-Level 1, 1-Level 3
    • 3rd Place Team: 1-Level 2, 1-Level 3
    • 4th Place Team: 1-Level 2, 1-Level 3
    • 5th Place Team: 1-Level 2
    • 6th Place Team: 1-Level 2
    • Consolation Bracket Winner: 1-Level 2, 1-Level 3
    • Consolation Bracket Runner-up: 1-Level 2
    • Other four non-playoff teams: 1-Level 3

If you haven’t already followed the links to the Prizes page, all of the descriptions are listed on that page here. Go to that page and you’ll see what prizes your team is eligible for. If you have any question at all, please don’t hesitate to ask here or on text. I’ll get back to you quickly.

Even though the NBA Finals haven't even ended, I'm already excited for next year's HAC season. Don't worry if you lose this e-mail. That prize structure will be listed on the...wait for it...PRIZES page! And I am sure I'll reference it in the future.

Thank you for being a part of the HAC and while I think last season was a success in a lot of ways, I know there is always room for improvement. But without all of you, there is no league; you all are the most important part of the league. Thank you for making it worthwhile for me.

Donkey Crankers: The Quest For a Title

June 2, 2015

The Donkey Crankers are one of seven original owners in High Above Courtside, back when the league started in the 2010-11 season.. Part of the original recipe, so to speak. Since that time, however, the Crankers have not yet won a league championship, but have appeared in the inaugural season’s HAC Finals only to lose. Few owners have consistently put more competitive teams on the floor and that is reflected by the fact that the Crankers have been in the HAC Playoffs four out of five seasons. The Crankers started out the 2014-15 season with a 4-0 record, which was tied for the best record in the league up to that point with Durantula. The thought must have been starting in owner Nate’s head...could this be the year the Donkey Crankers win their first HAC Championship?

When a franchise wins 85% of their games, there should be little doubt that this franchise would not be one of the very best in the league. The Donkey Crankers did this, winning 17 of 20 regular season games. Not only that, but they won their last 10 regular season games in a row. If someone felt that the Crankers would coast to the High Above Courtside championship, that could be understood. However, one team had a better regular season record and two other teams won 15 out of 20 regular season games. So, the story is a little deeper than that for the Donkey Crankers.

The Donkey Crankers won their second Dick Stockton Division title, but just barely. The Sacramento Oaks threatened the Crankers all season long and finished two games behind with an impressive 15-5 record. Durantula won their first Walt Frazier Division title in just their second season in the HAC and also had a 15-5 record. Only one other team in HAC history has ever won multiple division titles.

Balls to the Wall won 11 of their final regular season games and scored more regular season points than the Crankers. Not only that, the 2012-13 HAC Champions Balls to the Wall also scored more regular season points than the Crankers. You can see where this is heading. It is heading into a battle between the two franchises with the best two records in the league in the 2015 HAC Championship, and that is just what happened.

Since Balls to the Wall and the Crankers were the top two teams in the league, they earned first round bye weeks for the playoffs. Balls to the Wall defeated 4th seed Sacramento Oaks by just 80 points, which isn’t much when Balls to the Wall scored 1,469 points against Sacramento in the Semifinals. However, the Crankers came up with a surprise blowout in the Semifinals against 3rd seed Durantula, securing a 1483.0 to 1119.8. This led to the league’s top two teams, 2nd seed Donkey Crankers looking for their first HAC championship and 1st seed Balls to the Wall hoping to become the league’s second multiple-time champion, meeting in the HAC Finals.

Ultimately, the Donkey Crankers would go on to defeat Balls to the Wall by one of the slimmest margin in any HAC Finals contest ever, with just a 50 point margin of victory, And like that, the Donkey Crankers won their first championship. No team has ever repeated as champions...could it be the Nate’s Crank?



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