Final HAC Scores

March 24, 2019

Final scores (at least currently; I don't know if Fantrax will change anything overnight) to end the 2018-19 season:

HAC FINALS

Washington Spin 1,921.6

Atomic Supermen 1,885.3

RACE FOR 3RD PLACE

Left Coast Gravity 1,788.8

Hickory High 1,502.5

RACE FOR 5TH PLACE

Calipari's Kids 3,025.2

Latrell's Hub Caps 2,887.6

EVEN THE LOSERS (GET LUCKY SOMETIMES) TOM PETTY INVITATIONAL CONSOLATION BRACKET

Uncle Drew and the Europeans 4,449.8

Jive Suckas 3,812.0

Halftime Hoopers 3,386.9

Trick Swishers 3,325.0

Process 3,313.6

Donkey Crankers 2,983.4

More to come!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAC Finals Are Here

March 17, 2019

It has been a long HAC season to date, over five months, and that doesn’t even include restricted free agency which took place in July. However, it all boils down to one last week for all teams, most notably the league championship which pits the league organizer (myself) against an upstart first year owner in Jake with the Atomic Supermen. Both teams have earned their spots, and now the games have to be played!

Still, the Race For 3rd Place involving Left Coast Gravity and Hickory High need to be determined. The two teams that lost in the semifinals also had great seasons. The winner of this matchup will get 225 coins while the loser will get 180. Hickory finished 14-6 while the Gravity had an impressive 13-7 record, so these two teams are pretty evenly matched, especially seeing that over 20 weeks, only 111 regular season points separated the two long standing HAC franchises.

The Race For 5th Place between Latrell’s Hub Caps and Calipari’s Kids is in its second and final week to determine the winner of 190 coins. The loser, or 6th place team, will get 155 coins. The Hub Caps have been a stalwart HAC franchise since its inception in 2010 while Cal’s Kids are in their first season. The Hub Caps went 0-20 in 2016-17, but improved to 8-12 last season and did even better this year at 11-9. Cal’s Kids have been competitive all season long and boxed out the Process even though the Kids had a 9-11 regular season record. However, their impressive points scored outdistanced the Process and their 13-7 record by nearly 300 points which left the Process out of the playoffs.

Finally, there is the Even the Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes) Tom Petty Invitational Consolation Bracket. Uncle Drew and the Europeans hovered near a playoff spot all season long only to fall short with the 8th seed, but they have shown why they were competitive all season long by blowing away the rest of the field in the Tom Petty Invitational. For the second straight week, Uncle Drew had the highest team score. In Round 1, Week 21, Uncle Drew had 1532.7, over 200 points more than the second place team. Then last week, in Round 2, or Week 22, Uncle Drew went nuts for 1646.1, this time over 400 points more than the closest Tom Petty Invitational rival. Here are the current Tom Petty Invitational standings.

Uncle Drew and the Europeans: 3178.8

Halftime Hoopers: 2312.9

Trick Swishers: 2295.8

Jive Suckas: 2247.1

Process: 2156.6

Donkey Crankers: 2142.6

With an 865.9 point lead on the second place Hoopers, last season’s HAC champions, it would appear that Uncle Drew has the Tom Petty Invitational title and the 150 coin first place prize well in hand. However, only 170 point separate the Hoopers from current sixth place team Donkey Crankers, another former league champion.

Trick Swishers had the worst record in the league at 4-16, but could finish the season awfully well with a big final week. Jive Suckas fans deserve a bright spot to their season, and it could prove to be a strong finish in the Tom Petty Invitational round robin. No HAC analyst understands why the Process had such a good regular season, but now such a poor postseason. And the same goes for the Donkey Crankers’s implosion in 2018-19. But all Tom Petty teams would be smart to keep one eye on both of these feared franchises with strong historical track records. The sixth place team gets just 40 coins while second place earns 125, so a lot can happen in this final week, Week 23. Keep setting those lineups!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom Petty Invitational Round 2 Update

March 13, 2019

No 300 point days from any Tom Petty Invitational team last night, though shout out to my opponent Glen who had one with his Left Coast Gravity to make the Gravity-Spin semifinal matchup close.

Right now, here is the current Round 2 Even the Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes) Tom Petty Invitational Consolation Bracket standings:

Uncle Drew and the Europeans - 520.1

Jive Suckas - 331.3

Trick Swishers - 328.6

Halftime Hoopers - 314.4

Process - 199.4

Donkey Crankers - 194.5

And here are the total Tom Petty Invitational standings so far:

Uncle Drew and the Europeans - 2052.8

Donkey Crankers - 1495.5

Halftime Hoopers - 1412.2

Trick Swishers - 1411.5

Jive Suckas - 1348.3

Process - 1299.1

George and the Jive Suckas have made a great comeback this week after having the lowest total score last week. David and Uncle Drew is still setting the pace as they did last week. It looks like Gary may need to start making some transactions. True, they were 3rd in scoring in Round 1, but have slipped this week and now find themselves at the bottom of the pack. Stuart's Hoopers and Monte's Swishers are still staying in the middle. Nathan and the Donkey Crankers are doing well in second place overall, but their slow start in Round 2 this week is allowing the Halftime Hoopers and Trick Swishers to stay in the hunt for second place. Realistically, since only 200 points separate the 2nd place Crankers from the 6th place Process, each team has a shot at second place. But with a 557 point lead right now in first place, something pretty terrible would have to happen for Uncle Drew to surrender their lead, but there is still a week and a half left to go and it is a war of attrition!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Race For 5th Place

March 11, 2019

Just because Calipari’s Kids and Latrell’s Hub Caps lost in the first round, their season isn’t over! As Erik previously stated, that is one of the benefits for making the playoffs; you are guaranteed to get more coins than the winner of the Even the Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes) Tom Petty Invitational. But that is determined on where you finish! And the two teams that lost in the first round enter into their own two week battle royale to see who will be the 5th place team and who will be 6th place.

The next two weeks will be a cumulative score to determine the winner between the Kids and Caps. Meaning, not only the HAC Semifinals (Week 22) will count, but also the HAC Finals week (Week 23) will also matter. They will not enter into the Tom Petty Invitational.

The difference is 35 coins! The winner of this two week battle royale will earn the 5th place distinction and win 190 HAC Coins while the loser will be tabbed the 6th place team and obtain 155 HAC Coins for their trouble.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Protest at Halftime Hoopers Arena

March 8, 2019

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Halftime Hoopers owner Stuart Bassett was awoken out of bed at 5am because of near pandemonium outside of the arena that he built with the help of Frank Ntilikina’s discarded contract.

Stu and his Hoopers front office have been in negotiations to affix the name ‘Frank Ntilikina Stadium’ to the facility, but complaints of complicated spellings have clouded this project. The Hoopers have shifted their focus from their “one trade per day” mission, inspired by the old Phoenix Suns’s “7 seconds or less” offense, to their new stadium name after the trade deadline since they were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention about two weeks after the season started.

City officials have been upset at the Hoopers’s strategies this season, from increasing ticket prices for a substandard product to trading away franchise players like Chris Paul and James Harden from last year’s championship squad. Throughout, team owner Stu has been largely aloof and has refused to be sensitive to these complaints. He has been consistent in stating that the region should be grateful that he brought a championship to the area in only his second year in the HAC. This has resulted in a standoff between city officials and fans and the franchise which has apparently bubbled over into demonstrations in front of the Hoopers’s new arena.

More details will be reported as soon as they are provided.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week 20 HAC Coin Earnings

March 7, 2019

Week 20 standings have been updated for HAC Coins. Some notable accomplishments:

--David and his Uncle Drew and The Europeans scored the third most points in Week 20 though unfortunately got saddled with a loss from my Spin. Still, the 1630 points earned five extra coins for breaking the 1600 barrier and three extra for having a top six score in a losing game. It was the franchise's first time all season scoring at least 1600 points in a week.

--Monte and the Trick Swishers also earned a top six score with 1546 points. This earned three coins even though the Swishers were defeated by the Gravity, 1624-1546. Surpassing the 1500 point barrier also earned two extra coins.

--Nathan and his Donkey Crankers just missed out on one of the top six scores of the week, by just two points. Merely being in the top six scores of the week earns no extra coins, but I thought this was unusually close. The Crankers scored 1544 points in their win over Geo Utter's Jive Suckas. But at least the Crankers also got two extra coins for scoring over 1500 points for the week. This was the first time all season that the Crankers scored at least 1500 points in a week.

--Latrell's Hub Caps, captained by Erik and Patrick, scored 1586 points, the first time the Caps exceeded 1500 points in a week since Week 10.

--Glen's Left Coast Gravity earned a win in Week 20 over the Swishers and scored 1624 points. This was the first time the Gravity scored over 1600 points since Week 10, and this feat earned the Gravity five extra coins.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom Petty Invitational Incentives

March 5, 2019

Any team in the Even The Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes) Tom Petty Invitational Consolation Bracket that scores over 300 points in a night will get the three HAC coins usually reserved for getting a win in the regular season. Maybe not a rich reward, but the feat can be repeated.

And I know, I know… The Tom Petty Invitational is a round robin tournament where no team is being eliminated over the three weeks and individual matchups don't matter. Unless I give teams three HAC coins for scoring higher than the team they happen to be matched up against this week, the first week of three in the Tom Petty Invitational.

There are some good individual matchups in the Tom Petty Invitational field this week:

--Donkey Crankers vs. Halftime Hoopers: Two former league champs going at it in a rare season out of the playoff picture.

--Process vs. Jive Suckas: two HAC vets, one who has had playoff success (Gnj Magnus) and one who has not in their HAC career...yet (Geo Utter).

--Uncle Drew and The Europeans vs. Trick Swishers: Uncle Drew had bouts and fits of competing for a playoff spot this season in their first year as a franchise. The Swishers had a second straight difficult year, but maybe they can give some optimism to their fans in the postseason?

With that, Charles Barkley is always open to some wagers in the Tom Petty Invitational and taking coins from hard working HAC owners. Who is game?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best HAC Playoff Race...Ever?

March 2, 2019

Erik's and Patrick's Latrell’s Hub Caps have a chance to pull off what was once thought of as impossible: snatch the sixth and final playoff spot and earn the franchise’s first postseason berth since the 2016 HAC Playoffs. As it currently stands, the Caps could catapult into the playoffs with a Process loss, but at the same time wins by Glen's Left Coast Gravity and Jake's Atomic Supermen will be needed. However, this is all depending on the Hub Caps outscoring the Process by at least 100 points in the final week of the regular season. Difficult odds to be sure, but possible nonetheless! And it might be the most captivating playoff chase in recent HAC memory.

The Hub Caps have lingered around the seventh spot in Geo Utter’s league power rankings since Week 12 of the season. As their season points scored have continued to increase, they have also embarked on a current six game winning streak which allowed them to overtake Aaron's Calipari’s Kids in win-loss record, as the Caps are now 10-9 while Cal’s Kids are 9-10. However, the final two playoff seeds are predicated on season points scored and not record, so the Caps have had to overcome the points scored obstacle rather than just wins.

The Hub Caps’s ability to overtake a current top six team in season points scored had seemed tenuous before their winning streak. Even before the week began, most league analysts were focused on the Caps trying to catch Calipari’s Kids who are currently holding on to the last playoff spot. However, the Hub Caps were over 400 season points behind Cal’s Kids, and this seemed like a far fetched possibility.

Once those same league analysts started looking deeper though, it became apparent that Gnj's Process could be vulnerable. Only one game in the standings separate the #3 seed Process at 13-6 from #4 Atomic and #5 Gravity, both at 12-7. Wins by both Atomic and the Gravity, and a loss by the Process would drop the Process to the #5 spot because the Process has less season points scored than Atomic and the Gravity. The Process are now just 100 season points ahead of the Hub Caps. The Process will hold on to their playoff spot if they can stay ahead of the Caps for season points, but if the Hub Caps surpass the Process by 100 points over this final weekend of the HAC regular season, the Caps will leap frog over the Process and get that playoff spot.

The Process has made the playoffs in three of the last four seasons, but midway during this current campaign, GM Trent Tucker announced that the franchise was going to be a seller and was going to start looking towards next season. Still, the franchise kept winning! Since midseason (Week 10), the Process has gone 8-2 in their last ten games, not looking like a struggling franchise, and one that very much could be a title contender.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C.J. McCollum's Time on Waivers

March 1, 2019

The HAC Press recently caught up with Trick Swishers guard C.J. McCollum about his brief time on the HAC waiver wire, and how tumultuous that was. Every player deals with adversity differently, but it affects everyone. Whether it is being separated from their family, not having the role the player desired or not getting along with the coach, it is bound to happen and McCollum’s case is so interesting because he is willing to be forthright about it. The Swishers are playing Left Coast Gravity this week, and at shoot around, McCollum sat down for an interview. “Difficult, heart breaking and optimistic, all at once” was McCollum’s initial thoughts on being placed on waivers after being released by the Halftime Hoopers on January 12.

McCollum was traded twice this year before being cut by the Hoopers. That is quite a turn of events for a player who previously had enjoyed stability in his HAC career. And that started in the 2015-16 season, as Hickory High drafted McCollum in the fifth round of the 2015 HAC Draft. Hickory then gave the guard an Option Year Contract in the offseason to bring him back in the 2016-17 season on a one year, non-guaranteed contract, and freezing his contract status. However, the next season, the good shooting guard performed well, and Hickory re-negotiated McCollum’s contract in the offseason to give him yet another Option Year Contract, his second one which would be the last time Hickory could retain him. McCollum’s salary became $15 for the 2017-18 season in the HAC shift towards salaries and contracts.

Unfortunately, because of McCollum’s impending unrestricted free agency at the end of last season, this caused Hickory to want to get value in exchange for an impeding free agent at year’s end. McCollum and his affordable $15 salary was traded to the Process, and knowing Process CEO Trader Gary, just two days later, McCollum was dealt to Halftime Hoopers and won a championship ring with the Hoopers, finishing the year with them.

As an HAC unrestricted free agent, McCollum should have been happy, as he was due a healthy raise thanks to league inflation, but this started his vagabond year. The talented guard went into the 2018 HAC Auction, and was acquired by the Suckas for $27. Right away, McCollum stated, something felt off. “My boss George couldn’t have been nicer. Truthfully, it was Ethan “Bubblegum” Tate [the Suckas general manager] that presented many of the problems. I felt misled and after I communicated that, I felt quickly labeled as a malcontent which wasn’t the case. Only about a week or two after I brought my issues up to the front office I got traded. That was the strangest episode of my basketball career.”

By mid November, he was traded to Atomic Supermen. According to McCollum, he felt misled by the Suckas. “I felt like I was supposed to be the first option on offense from how the team initially laid out their plans for me. Then the season started, and it all changed.” Unfortunately, his tenure with Atomic didn’t last long either, as McCollum was told to pack his bags and head off to the defending champion Hoopers a month later, on December 6. “With Atomic, I just feel like it was a new franchise, and I felt like I didn’t fit as a veteran. Things like game plans and travel arrangements were being redrawn on the fly, and it didn’t suit my style, so I requested a trade.”

On January 12, the Hoopers cut McCollum to be able to place a waiver claim on Kevin Love who had just been cut by the Trick Swishers. The Swishers lost out on reacquiring Love, who had been overpaid at $28, to the Hoopers. As a result, the Swishers put in a $25 waiver claim on McCollum and got him instead. McCollum said that “after being with the Hoopers last season and getting a ring, I was really hoping I could stay with them again. It felt right and it seemed like after asking for a trade with Atomic and things not working out with the Suckas, I’d finally landed in a spot where I felt comfortable. And that only lasted a month before I was cut. I know the Hoopers weren’t doing great as opposed to last year, but I thought I could fit in. Stu and the Hoopers felt differently though, and I had to regroup and readjust and go to the Swishers. It has been a difficult series of adjustments and transitions this year. I’m not sure where the future leads, or if I’ll be with this team or another next year, but I hope it is a new beginning for me in the league.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even The Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes) Tom Petty Invitational Refresher

February 25, 2019

As the HAC enters into the last week of the 2018-19 regular season, and the postseason nears next week for Week 21, I thought that it might be useful to have a refresher of what used to boringly be called the Consolation Bracket. Thanks to Aaron, who gave it a much needed witty name, it is now the HAC Even The Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes) Tom Petty Invitational.

Six teams will enter into the Tom Petty Invitational. However, it will not be head to head matchups, like it has been for the regular season. Starting next week, in Week 21, and for three weeks total, it will be a round-robin type format where all six teams will be playing against each other for all three weeks. The highest cumulative scoring team over the combined three weeks will win the Tom Petty Invitational. In addition to that, they will win a bucketload of HAC Coins for their trouble!

Right now, barring something unforseen, it is looking like these are the teams that will be in the Tom Petty Invitational starting next week:

7. Latrell's Hub Caps - Erik and Patrick

8. Uncle Drew and the Europeans - David

9. Jive Suckas - Geo Utter

10. Donkey Crankers - Nathan

11. Halftime Hoopers - Stuart

12. Trick Swishers - Monte

Just because a team might have one bad week doesn’t mean all is lost. Having two more weeks to stage a comeback could happen, so don’t give up! Also, if it is pretty clear that a team can’t win the tournament, still putting up points and finishing as high as possible will likely yield something positive in terms of HAC Coins. Here is the layout of what the finishers in the Tom Petty Invitational will get:

Consolation Bracket Winner = 150 HAC Coins

2nd Place in Consolation = 125 HAC Coins

3rd Place = 100 HAC Coins

4th Place = 80 HAC Coins

5th Place = 60 HAC Coins

6th Place = 40 HAC Coins

The Tom Petty Invitational winner will win about as many coins as the 6th place team in the HAC Playoffs. Also, 150 coins is enough to afford a contract re-negotiation prize, for example. But even if a team doesn’t win, and finishes in third place, everyone has more than 40 coins, so a contract re-negotiation prize is easily attainable. The point being, there is a big difference between sixth and third place in this tournament, and it would behoove each team in the round-robin Even The Losers tourney to keep trying to score as many points as possible. Keep making transactions, keep setting those lineups, because it could benefit you for next season!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hometown Discount Changes From Last Offseason

February 14, 2019

HAC'ers, I wrote this back in August 2018, and have since revised it further, but because we have two new owners (Jake and Patrick) who weren't in the league then, I figure, this is a good time as any to have a refresher. I will certainly re-post this in the summertime when owners start thinking about keepers, but as always, the prize description is both in the Fantrax forum and on the HAC Guide.

The Hometown Discount 275 coin prize is one of the most popular prizes of the HAC Coin system, and went through some changes last offseason. Because of how the league is changing, and holes that became evident in this prize, modifications were necessary. I wrote about my ideas for the modifications last August, that were to take place this coming offseason, but I have revised them. Because we have a higher echelon of owner in the league now, I can put more wrinkles into rules and the HAC Coin prizes, such as tiers.

While the biggest discount is for the start of a four year, guaranteed contract (GC), this prize can still be used for a shorter guaranteed contract. But the GC is the key - if you want to give a discount to a non-guaranteed contract, you’re going to have to spend 450 coins for the Time Machine. If you want to give a HTD to a shorter guaranteed contract, this discount will be less, but it will still be sizeable. The discount will be 5% less for each year less on the GC. For example, it will be a 20% discount for a 3 year GC and a 15% discount for a 2 year GC.

Starting this coming offseason, there will be a “no trade clause” added to this prize. This will entice the player to sign the contract at a lesser salary. If the owner wants to trade the player, they’ll have to pay 100 coins to negotiate with the player’s agent to drop the “no trade clause”. I originally thought it would be a 200 coin fee, but that seems prohibitive to making trades.

As for the tiers, hopefully they will be easy to follow.

• 275 COIN PRICE: If you’ve owned the player for MORE than one full season.
• 300 COIN PRICE: If you’ve owned the player for at least one full season.
• 400 COIN PRICE: Any less than one year owning the player.

I’d originally thought of maybe lowering the cost of the prize, but I think I’m going to stick with the 275 coin cost that it has been. It is a valuable prize, so it should cost a fair amount. After all, because the prize reduces a player’s salary 25%, that can be a huge discount when it is an expensive player. For example, with a $40 player, a 25% discount on that salary is $10!

And the coin cost for the prize remains the same whether you want to sign the player to a four year GC or to just a two year GC. That is because in this prize, the thinking is, if the player is willing to give his HAC team a discount, he wants security and a long term contract to stay with the team for a while. Further thinking is that an HAC owner probably wouldn't use this prize on an average player, but instead, a very good player. That player is willing to sign at a lower salary to stay with a team, but the player will want something in exchange from that team, and that is the no trade clause.

Constant evolutions in HAC, all in the effort for a more perfect league. I hope you guys agree, and if not, I am very willing to have a discussion to tweak things in the language if necessary.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merge Weeks 18 and 19?

February 11, 2019

To be sure, I’m not proposing this idea for this season! I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about this or brought this up before, but I honestly don’t remember ever thinking about this. I think part of it is, the NBA recently changed when the All-Star break was going to be to allow for more rest. So maybe it wasn’t a big deal in the past. Now it is forefront in my brain as I’m looking at the NBA schedule for the next two weeks. However, I’d like to talk about a proposal to merge Week 18 and 19 for next season.

No NBA teams play more than two games in the next two weeks. Five NBA teams are going to play just one solitary game in Week 18. To me, this could create a fluke win in the standings when teams are trying their best to get wins now.

Here is my proposal for the 2019-20 season and beyond. Or as long as the NBA has their current schedule for the All-Star break. We merge Weeks 18 and 19 together as one week in the schedule. Then, we extend the regular season to Week 21 to still have a 20 game schedule. This would start the playoffs in Week 22 and go to Week 24. I think concluding the HAC Finals in Week 24 (instead of Week 23) is still safely before NBA teams start resting players for the playoffs.

I would be curious what you all think about this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposed HAC Coins Postseason Awards

February 8, 2019

I'm not that alert today, so I have no interest in a long, drawn out post, but I wanted this to be a discussion. I was looking at the postseason coin awards the other day, and I didn't like them.

This is what is currently the postseason coin awards:

NON PLAYOFF TEAMS

Consolation Bracket Winner = 100 HAC Coins

2nd Place in Consolation = 75 HAC Coins

3rd Place = 60 HAC Coins

4th Place = 50 HAC Coins

5th Place = 35 HAC Coins

6th Place = 25 HAC Coins

PLAYOFF TEAMS

Race For 5th Place Winner = 100 HAC Coins

Race For 5th Place Loser = 75 HAC Coins

Race For 3rd Place Winner = 150 HAC Coins

Race For 3rd Place Loser = 125 HAC Coins

HAC Finals Loser = 175 HAC Coins

HAC Champion = 250 HAC Coins

Again, I think that this is crap. 25 and 35 coins are stupid. So, I went through a couple of drafts and I think I found a set up that I liked a lot more that helped those 5th and 6th place teams. Because a Bonus Contract is 500 coins, and I don't want to give the league champ anywhere close to that, I think that this could work. I'm hopeful you all will find it suitable as well.

NON PLAYOFF TEAMS

Consolation Bracket Winner = 150 HAC Coins

2nd Place in Consolation = 125 HAC Coins

3rd Place = 100 HAC Coins

4th Place = 80 HAC Coins

5th Place = 60 HAC Coins

6th Place = 40 HAC Coins

PLAYOFF TEAMS

Race For 5th Place Winner = 190 HAC Coins

Race For 5th Place Loser = 155 HAC Coins

Race For 3rd Place Winner = 225 HAC Coins

Race For 3rd Place Loser = 180 HAC Coins

HAC Finals Loser = 250 HAC Coins

HAC Champion = 300 HAC Coins

Let me know if you hate anything about this, or love it or whatever. If you hate it, I'm happy to look twice at it. I write it as much as I can, but I want to always communicate it: this is every HAC owner's league. I'm just a meager steward, but it is nothing without all of you. So, if I don't hear any cries of outrage, I'll probably go with what I have in the second set up and revise it. I want to try to be as transparent as I can with any changes that I make on my own.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remaining Strength of Schedules

January 15, 2019

As the HAC season starts coming into the home stretch, teams jockeying for playoff position may be tempted to look ahead at their schedule through the end of the regular season, which is Week 20. And while that is nice, that doesn’t tell the whole story, because it is important to be mindful of other teams schedules too.

Right now, a lot is up for grabs for the playoffs. For example, the top two seeds, which earn first round bye weeks is up for grabs. The sixth seed, Calipari’s Kids are at an impressive 8-5, just two games back of the first seed, my Washington Spin at 10-3! In addition to that, the race for the playoffs is still very much alive. With seven more weeks left in the regular season, 11th seed Halftime Hoopers, with a 4-9 record, is four games back from sixth seed Calipari’s Kids. I’m not saying it will happen, but the Hoopers are not out of it just yet! Points scored is always an important detail that I’m not covering, of course.

Uncle Drew and The Europeans have a 6-7 record and are on the outside looking in right now with the seventh seed while Jive Suckas are at 5-8, holding on to the eighth seed. They could make things very difficult for the three 8-5 teams just above them in the league standings right now (Left Coast Gravity, Atomic Supermen and Calipari’s Kids).

This is why it is of utmost importance to start looking at each team’s strength of schedule as we head into the last seven weeks of the season. The Donkey Crankers, who have uncharacteristically struggled this season with a 4-9 record, have the hardest strength of schedule by far, having to face both current 10-3 teams at the top of the standings, Hickory High and my Spin. The aforementioned Uncle Drew isn’t far behind with the second hardest schedule in the next seven weeks, also having to face Hickory and the Spin. That won’t make their chase for the sixth seed any easier. Then again, the fifth and sixth seeds are determined by season points scored, and Latrell’s Hub Caps and the Crankers have more points scored than Uncle Drew and Jive Suckas. The Hub Caps have one of the easiest schedules remaining. This playoff race could get very exciting!

My Spin have the easiest schedule remaining, having to play just one team over .500 the rest of the way. I promise I didn’t make the schedule! Hickory High has the third toughest schedule remaining. Coach Norman Dale is going to have to figure out game plans against the four teams immediately under Hickory in the standings, in seeds three through six: the Process, Left Coast Gravity, Atomic Supermen and Calipari’s Kids.

The last seven weeks of the season should be exciting ones. Teams that once thought they were out of it all of a sudden have a realistic chance to make some noise this season. Some teams that are in it could find themselves in an even stronger position in a few weeks than they are now. In addition to that, HAC Coin bonuses will probably be increased a bit for playoff finishers as well as Tom Petty (Even the Losers) Consolation Bracket teams. So, it may behoove those teams in the playoff chase to keep fighting. Buckle yourselves in, HAC’ers!

HARDEST SCHEDULES REMAINING

Donkey 54-37

Drew 51-40

Hickory 48-43

Atomic 47-44

Jive 47-44

Hoopers 46-45

Cal 46-45

EASIEST SCHEDULES REMAINING

Spin 33-58

Caps 42-49

Gravity 42-49

Process 45-46

Swishers 45-46

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAC Expectations

January 14, 2019

I’m learning in life that having expectations without communicating them is almost a guarantee for disappointment. I want to prevent that here. I have mainly had a laissez-faire approach to the cap and the 17 player roster rule for a host of different reasons, not many of which are important to list here. The point is, I’ve mainly counted on owners to correct cap or roster issues with the gentlest of prodding, partly because I dislike confrontation.

In the past week, three different situations have come up regarding the roster requirement of 17 players or the minimum salary cap requirement of $140. It has made me realize that clear communication is needed to establish expectations going forward.

I would strongly prefer that no franchise dip under the league minimum salary cap of $140 unless they approach me first with a clear plan of how to rectify this. As with the 17 player roster rule, because I haven’t wanted Fantrax to penalize owners with their points scored not counting because of a roster issue, I’ve made it so that I have to catch these things.

If I think of a logical plan that would prevent a team from having to go under $140, I will not allow a team to go under. If an owner wants to cut a high salaried player that brings them below $140, they will be expected to sign a player as soon as possible that will then bring the roster to the minimum cap. Preferably, a free agent signing would happen immediately, but in certain cases, waiting for a waiver claim might be possible and I can work with the owner on that. However, if that first waiver claim does not work out, it is expected that a backup player on waivers would be secured or an outright free agent would be acquired to solve the minimum cap issue.

I understand that a team that is near the minimum cap is not trying to break any rules or be nefarious in any way as this isn’t benefiting a team to be in this situation. However, adhering to the league rules is part of the challenge of being an HAC owner. I also understand that the 4 Transaction Per Week rule can be problematic in these situations, but again, that is part of being an HAC owner; managing your roster while adhering to league rules.

The same goes for the 17 player roster requirement. In the future, if a team does a 2-for-1 trade that brings them to 16 players, I would request a plan from the owner whose team will have 16 players after the trade how they will acquire that 17th player. I have not wanted to withhold processing a trade in the past in fear of upsetting the second team in the trade, so this is my effort to communicate to all teams that this is what will happen going forward; that there could be a delay in processing a trade in these situations. At the same time, just like bumping against the minimum $140 cap, having fewer players rather than too many is not conducive to success, so I don’t want to be overly harsh with teams trying to improve their rosters.

Teams going over the cap or going over the 17 player limit hasn’t been an issue, as I am grateful that league owners who have bumped up against their maximum cap have fixed this issue right away. I am generally able to help catch problems that might result in a team exceeding their cap or roster limits. I’ll likely miss things here and there, so your cooperation and patience is always appreciated when issues arise. My intentions are never to hurt a franchise, and are only coming from a place of being a steward for the league and to make sure rules are being adhered to.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposed Trade Rule Change

January 9, 2019

Yesterday, an owner brought up one, solitary line from the constitution that I know all of my fellow HAC’ers have read completely. It involves Section 3.4 - Trades...something that several HAC owners love participating in. The one sentence was:

“A trade must include one player on either side.”

Way, way back, in the grainy, olden days of the HAC, this provision was actually necessary to institute. I’m talking the days before the auction, and when keepers were initially brought in, back in 2014. This was to ensure that a player wouldn’t be traded simply for a draft pick. I think in hindsight, because we don’t have the caliber of owners that we have now in the league, the thought was, this would help to safeguard outright tanking because the team wanting a draft pick would still have to take on a player. Still, this could be easily sidestepped by just taking the player the other team was going to cut.

In any case, that sentence looks pretty darn outdated now. Primarily, in my eyes, because of our salaries and contracts. Matching up trades with salaries can be challenging enough sometimes. I think now, we have a league full of knowledgeable owners where, if a player was to be traded solely for HAC Coins, the coin total would justify it. Since the move to an auction, I’ve viewed that HAC Coins could be used as a substitute for trading draft picks.

I wanted to bring this thought about removing this restriction to you all, because it is your league and no rule change should happen without all HAC’ers approval. And, just to be clear, if this rule was changed, it would only happen after this year.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Injured Reserve Discussion

January 2, 2019

Almost three months in, I’m realizing a few things about the league that are pretty evident to me, but then again, may not be agreed by all. However, the point is, I had some preconceived notions coming into this season, and some haven’t played out like I thought. One of those things is our pretty strict injured reserve rule.

To recap from the league constitution, though I know none of you need that because, of course, you’ve memorized the rules!

Section 3.8, Inured Reserve

No currently injured HAC free agent can be acquired and then immediately be put on the IR. The player must take up one of the reserve spots on a franchise's roster for at least one month before that can happen. The player will be identified as an injured player acquired through free agency on their team roster page as "IR-FA". After a month, the owner may place the player on their team's IR and the "IR-FA" designation will be removed.

If the owner would rather not wait a month, they can pay HAC Coins for the Roster Flexibility prize. This will allow an owner to place a player, acquired as a free agent while injured, on their IR sooner than one month on their roster.

I’m not sure if I considered you all CIA operatives or something and why I felt like this needed to be so heavily policed. Though I think before the season, I was concerned about the new unlimited injury reserve spots that we would have. I think I was also concerned about the roster limit and about hoarding players. I know I wasn’t the only one about the latter point. However, I also realize that the $170 salary cap is a built-in deterrent to prevent hoarding and I also know that all of the HAC’er owners are not going to pull shenanigans and search day and night for loopholes.

I noticed that Rajon Rondo is on waivers right now, and to me, he belongs on an HAC roster. I just can’t get upset about an owner winning Rondo on waivers and then immediately putting the point guard on the team’s injured reserve. After all, the owner still has to pay Rondo’s new salary out of his cap.

So, not to get too long winded here (though I already have), it seems that this debate comes down to how you feel about hoarding players and what you feel the injured reserve should be meant for. I know I feel differently than some in the league about these two things, and so for that reason, I wanted to let democracy rule and let the league decide. And if the league wants to change the IR policy, then it would only be for next season (2019-20), not for this year. Just to make that point known. But please let me know what you think, as it is your league too, and this league is nothing without you guys and your great activity and fastidiousness which I am always impressed by.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAC Press: Porzingis Dealt For Lopez, Ross

December 20, 2018

When HAC Commissioner Walt “Clyde” Frazier was summoned from his usual playground pick up game to the league office to analyze a trade being submitted by the Halftime Hoopers and Atomic Supermen, Clyde was understandably perturbed. When the venerable sportscaster saw the details of the trade, with All-Star Kristaps Porzingis, he was mystified...until he was on a conference call with both owners. When other HAC owners, observers and fans saw the trade, they were also confused. This will be a look deeper into the motivations and machinations that went on behind the scenes in this trade of The Unicorn.

Late this past Tuesday evening, the defending champion Hoopers and newly minted Atomic Supermen agreed on a deal that would send PF/C Kristaps Porzingis from Atomic to the Hoopers in exchange for center Brook Lopez, SG/SF Terrence Ross and 100 HAC Coins.

League observers have had mixed feelings about Lopez. While he is leading all centers in three point field goals and also attempts, he is also making $10 on a salary that some have deemed too expensive. At the same time, swingman Ross has long been viewed as a trade piece because of his affordable $2 salary and no contract. Lopez is also not on a contract right now, having been acquired in the 2018 HAC Auction by the Hoopers after a protracted bidding war. Porzingis was signed this past offseason to a two year, guaranteed contract that will expire in the 2020 offseason, even though he was injured at the time.

Hoopers owner Stuart had considered the prospects of acquiring Porzingis for a long time. As the Hoopers front office increasingly started to shift their focus to next season, trading for assets with a long term view became the goal. The Hoopers tyrannical boss expounded: "Porzingis was a good candidate to target because I felt like the Supermen are pushing to compete now and Porzingis is probably missing this season or most of it. At $9 next year we liked the return on investment, even if he only has next season under HAC control. The way I see it, that's $8 on IR all year. So I can then have cheaper active contracts.”

When asked if the Hoopers are specifically targeting injured, but talented players, Stu responded, “Kinda. It makes the active payroll even cheaper. Which makes it easier to get a few more of those $5 and under contracts on my team. However, I wouldn’t say it’s a goal to acquire hurt guys. It just kinda worked with Porzingis and DeMarcus Cousins. Gary Harris I probably got a bit cheaper because he was hurt.”

Atomic Supermen fans were flooding social media with outrage that CEO Jake would trade away Porzingis, even if he may not play this season. Unicorn bobbleheads and t-shirts of Porzingis were among the biggest sellers in the Atomic pro shop. Still, when asked why he decided to anger fans for the sake of his team, Atomic’s CEO had this to say: “when I lost two guys, one for two weeks and one for four, I struggled with my budget and I needed points. I don’t know if I will win it all this year, but I need points and KP is not coming back - I’d be surprised if he did anyway. KP felt expendable since he’s on the IR and I didn’t think anyone would give me much. The Hoopers also offered 100 coins.”

Commissioner Frazier was upset a fellow New Yorker would be traded, especially for a center who is allergic to the paint like Brook Lopez. On the conference call, the Hoopers boss reportedly shot back that “Lopez has been traded three times and no team has cut him yet to get him cheaper. Can’t be too worthless!” This only increased the longstanding tension that Stu has had with Commissioner Clyde. League sources have informed the HAC Press that Clyde was not happy that he had to give the championship trophy to Stu back in April.

However, not only was Commissioner Frazier upset, but Atomic fans would not be assuaged by their fearless leader Jake’s explanations. Jake even explained that he was unsure about the deal at first. “Originally I was going to decline, then I did a bunch of research and got concerned that this dude would be not be as good next year or in the future. In the meantime my cap has been at the maximum all season to the point where two guys went down and I couldn’t even sign replacement players. Then I thought about how well I’ve been able to do while KP just sat on my IR using up money.” This kind of cold-hearted, bottom line thinking is what initially made Atomic fans happy about the new regime. But now it affects one of their favorites. Still, it is Jake who has to make the tough decisions.

And the tough decisions don’t end there for Atomic Supermen. They not only have to factor in this season, but the future as well. As Jake explained, “I already have seven guaranteed contracts on my team. A couple of expensive ones and all that I will likely keep through next year. During the off season I might add one or two more.” Surely, Supermen fans can be upset that one of their favorites has been traded, but they can at least rest easy that above all else, the front office is looking out for the best interests of the franchise.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAC Press: Don't Despair

December 19, 2018

We are now at midseason, at least for the regular season, in the HAC in Week 10, since the HAC postseason starts at the conclusion of Week 20. As usual, at this point in the season, what has happened is there are three groups of teams. Teams that are championship driven near the top of the standings, teams that want to make the playoffs in the middle, and then teams that are preparing for next season at the bottom. This piece is for ALL teams, not just for some. It is for those owners who have been frustrated when they get outbid on a waiver claim, or when a rival owner isn’t interested in a trade proposal. I wanted to share with you some epiphanies that I’ve recently had.

Firstly, and most importantly, we may have a 12 team league, but really, the HAC could be considered a 16 team league by most. Let me explain further. Our rosters are 17 players deep; that is not normally the case for most leagues. Most leagues have 12 or 13 player rosters. Let’s compare a 12 team league with 13 player rosters. In this type of league, 156 players are rostered (12 teams x 13 players per team = 156). In the HAC, 204 players are rostered (12 teams x 17 players per team = 204). That is a difference of 48 players! 48 players who are not free agents in HAC and are on rosters. You would have to factor three and a half extra teams in that 156 player league to equal the depth of the HAC rosters. I like to round up for effect in life and in this case, I’ll round that three and a half extra teams to four.

The moral of this is, don’t despair when you might be out of options at the moment in how to improve your roster. The free agent list is significantly less plentiful than the normal, average 12 team league described above. If this is your first or second season in HAC, you might be thinking - ‘hey, it should be easier than this!’ Well, you’re probably right with a normal league, but it won't be in HAC because of the league setup.

On the other hand, if you’re a seasoned pro in HAC, you also might be dealing with some adjustments since this is the first year with contracts and only the second year with salaries. That has significantly changed the value of some players.

Then, another wrinkle is that the activity level has also changed significantly in the past season or two. It used to be, an active owner could wait like a buzzard over the waiver list and pretty easily be able to pick off terrific values. In the current climate of the HAC, if the past two months are any indication for the future, those times have changed. There are several recent indicators. Let us look at the waiver claims just in the past day.

Waivers are so competitive, that there were six claims submitted for forward Jeff Green. In addition, there were five claims submitted for forward Taj Gibson. These two players are not difference makers, but they are obviously viewed by half the league as worthy of being on their rosters.

Another example of how competitive HAC is on the whole now has potentially busted a largely untested theory that if you have an overpaid player, you could simply cut that player, expose him to the rest of the league, and get the player back on a cheaper salary through waivers. Well, Halftime Hoopers tried this, cutting SG/SF Nicolas Batum when he was overpaid at $18 to try to get him back cheaper on waivers. His plan was thwarted when Uncle Drew and The Europeans snuck in with a $7 bid and won Batum.

As usual, I’ve gone on longer than I meant to. So, in conclusion, if you are frustrated in how to improve your squad, you likely are not alone. Half the league is within one game of .500, either with a 5-4 record, or at 4-5. It used to be, you could get an easy fix through free agency or through a trade, but that seems to be no longer the case in HAC. It is becoming a war of attrition and a test of patience where every player release and every trade has a more involved purpose. The Kristaps Porzingis trade last night is a wonderful example of a trade that has many deeper meanings under the surface, and the HAC Press is hard at work with an in depth story about the inner workings and aftermath of that trade. So, don’t lose your patience, and stay active. Because of the difficulty of trying to acquire helpful free agents, owners are willing to trade, so keep burning those phone lines...or instant messenger lines, and your persistence and patience will likely pay off.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An HAC Look at Trae Young

December 17, 2018

By Gary Magnus

In this edition of “Planes Trains & Automobiles” we look at the travels of NBA & HAC rookie Trae Young.

Yesterday, Young was involved in yet another HAC deal as he heads to the Jive Suckas in exchange for Otto Porter & his $18 FIT contract. We THINK, keyword THINK, that Suckas GM Bubblegum Tate might hold onto Young, as at least on the surface, he fits into the plan of the Suckas.

We here at PT&A are hoping Young has only had week to week leases where he’s stayed so far as he’s racked up those frequent flier miles.

Young and his $14 salary have been part of The Process, Hickory High, & Halftime Hoopers. Has Young found his final destination, or is another Lfyt on standby to the airport?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trademageddon!

December 14, 2018

By Gary Magnus

It started out as a casual Friday,nothing happening in the HAC world, and then....... INCOMING

The day started with Hickory High trying to solidify their roster by acquiring their obsession, JJ Redick. Owner Wesley Flis has never hid his love for JJ and acquired him this morning in a deal with the never standing pat, Freak N Process. PJ Tucker and Taj Gibson, 2 old dogs come to the Process for JJ & constant add/drop Dwight Powell.

If you listened at the end of the trade call, you could hear "Reunited and it feels so good..." playing in the Hickory offices

As that trade was being processed by the league office, another BOOM was heard as Jive Suckas/Cals Kids got in on the action.

Suckas acquired Mikal & Miles Bridges (to be known going forward as Bridges squared) and Otto Porter, in exchange for the centerpiece rookie big man DeAndre Ayton, along with Thon Maker & Harry Giles.

Suckas continues their plan of acquiring low dollar high potential keepers, while Cals Kids adds a possible franchise cornerstone big in Ayton.

But wait.... there's more!

Not to be outdone, league front runner Washington Spin got in on the action as they, and once again Process reached a deal to swap Beady Eyes Klay Thompson in exchange for Fred VanVleet and Richaun Holmes.

The Spin continue their tinkering to keep their foot on the gas and run away and hide from the rest of us, while at this point what Process is doing is truly anyones guess.

There are rumors that Process is in negotiations with Greta Van Fleet about becoming their official band

Happy Friday,and it's still early!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Statement From Calipari's Kids GM Antoine Walker

December 14, 2018

By Aaron Bentley

Today is an historic day for the Calipari's Kids franchise--our very first trade! We started this season planning to develop our young talent and try to use our veterans to acquire more young players. However, the Kids tore that plan up by playing so well and winning so much. I know what management that refuses to change with the times looks like--I played for Coach Pitino in Boston--and I refuse to let that happen to this group of players.

That's why we traded Otto Porter, Miles Bridges, and Mikal Bridges to acquire Deandre Ayton, Harry Giles, and Thon Maker. Obviously, the key to this deal was getting an impact player like Deandre. Otto has been good for us and Miles and Mikal both have insanely bright futures. However, Deandre has already proven to be a high-level player in this league and we're excited about having him with us for years to come.

We are going to meet with Harry and Thon and decide whether playing for Cal's Kids is best for the team and the players. Regardless, this may be our first trade but we don't plan for it to be the last this season. We will leave no stone unturned trying to improve this team and try to shimmy our way into a high playoff seed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank Ntilikina Released

December 11, 2018

While the release of a backup guard wouldn't usually be news, when it is the first player cut on a guaranteed contract in the new era of HAC, that makes it newsworthy.

Ok, technically it wasn't the first ever cut of a player on a guaranteed contract. That was actually Josh Jackson who was released by the predecessor of the Atomic Supermen franchise. However, because Jake took over the franchise shortly thereafter, Jackson's salary cap hit was not affixed to the franchise so Jake could start off clean.

Ntilikina's salary cap hit will be the first cap penalty ever. Ntilikina's previous salary was $4 and he was on a four year, guaranteed contract. Because of that, the cap hit was going to be $10.

As league rules state (Section 3.2 in the Constitution - “Salary Cap”), the cap penalty for releasing a player on a guaranteed contract is 100% in the first year, 50% in the second, 25% in the third and 10% in the fourth. For Ntilikina, because he had a $4 salary on his 4 year GC, it would be a $4 hit in the first year (100% penalty), $3 in the second year (50% of $5 salary), $2 in the third (25% of $6 salary) and $1 in the fourth (10% of $7 salary).

Stuart could have chosen to deal with these yearly cap hits but decided to pay 160 HAC Coins for the Sam Bowie Breaker Buyout prize which stipulates that the entire cap penalty can be taken in one season. Stu will have that $10 charge on his roster for this season, but he'll be done with it after, which is a pretty sizeable benefit.

Frank Ntilikina will always be remembered for his place in HAC history!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harris, Wall Traded

December 8, 2018

Halftime Hoopers and Washington Spin agree to a five player trade that sends G/F Gary Harris, G/F Rodney Hood and SF Moe Harkless and 150 HAC Coins to the Hoopers in exchange for PG John Wall, C Jonas Valanciunas as well as $10 in salary cap.

A strange subplot to this trade is Wall going back to the nation's capital where he was acquired in the 2017 HAC Auction for an outsized $47. Wall's tenure with the Spin was inglorious as the Spin made the decision to cut Wall amidst salary cap issues. After dealing with a sizeable salary cut, Wall, after swearing he'd never play for the Washington franchise again, has shuffled around to a few franchises since.

The Hoopers allowed Washington head coach Bill Bradley and the Spin front office to contact Wall on a conference call to gauge Wall’s level of interest in joining the Spin again. After a few moments of trepidation and awkwardness, Bradley charmed Wall and pitched him on a role in the team’s nightly rotation.

This marks the Hoopers shift to looking towards the future in selling salary cap space for coins as well as trading for a young player in Harris though while injured, is on a cheaper contract than Wall and has at least a high of a ceiling. Bradley was remorseful in trading Harris, explaining to the HAC Press, “calling Gary to tell him he was traded was an awfully difficult thing to do. If only I didn’t have a silent partner for a team owner and general manager so I wouldn’t have to do it.”

This trade also blows the roof off of previous HAC Coins attached in a trade. Before this season, the cap of 50 coins being able to be sent in a trade was lifted. This may set the market in the future. Also, $10 in cap may be the most sent in a trade. In the future, the HAC Rules Committee will need to review the long term ramifications of both aspects of this and how it could affect league balance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Injured Reserve Further Clarifications

December 7, 2018

Unfortunately the NBA simply isn't very good at demanding teams be clear about player injuries. That can make determining if a player will miss time very tricky. Also, I know that dealing with the potential for a player to miss time is annoying as you don't want a dead spot in the lineup. However, assuming a player is going to miss time when nothing has been determined is something I'd like to touch on. I've started thinking that I may not have clearly communicated my expectations when it comes to putting players on the IR.

I've had to contact numerous owners in the past week or two for assuming a player is going to miss time when they haven't officially been listed out yet and placing a player on the IR. Unfortunately, that isn't going to work.

Just because a player left a game with an injury and even gets an MRI is not proof that the player will miss a game. Because of this, I will likely contact an owner who puts a player on IR who hasn't missed a game to rectify this. I am thankful that those I have contacted have made the necessary correction immediately.

I am willing to be pretty flexible when it comes to taking a player off of IR. My determination is that a player can stay on IR until after they have played in one game, to be absolutely sure they are back to playing. After that one game played, I expect an owner to take the player off of the IR.

Putting the player on IR is more tricky because of day to day type injuries. Just know that an MRI is not an indicator that a player will miss any time. And I would strongly prefer that you get word from a beat writer, or better yet, from the team itself, that the player will miss a game or more before putting a player on the IR and signing a free agent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official Press Release: Atomic Supermen

December 6, 2018

By Jake Wyatt

When new owner Jake Wyatt took over the team, he promised to shake things up, but the people of Earth heard that line before, and were reluctant to believe. After a name change, a logo change and the controversial hiring of 160 year old, Hubert J. Farnsworth, as GM, fans were ready to throw in the towel.

Today Farnsworth lived up to his nickname “ The Professor” and Mr. Wyatt proved that he was willing to make the big moves necessary to develop this fledgling team into a true contender.

Fans are excited for the veteran leadership and sweet skills that both Harden and Curry bring to the court. Along with these two perennial all stars, the Supermen brought in the intimidating Griffin, the streaking Green and the potential star power of Justice Winslow. Fans are sad to lose the Klaw, but not so sad to see his huge contract gone, and Wyatt was determined to unload the burdensome contract of Frank Ntilikina, who just wasn’t living up to Wyatt’s high standards in work ethic.

The professor has been slowly putting the pieces of this team together like a well oiled Smell-O-Scope, but today the Supermen made one of the biggest trades in league history, and proved to the rest of the team owners that The Atomic Supermen were invading this league with the vengeance of an Omicronian emperor.

The people of Earth now have a team that they can put their faith in, a true team of Atomic Supermen!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Howard Upset With No HAC Minor League

December 6, 2018

Dwight Howard passed through waivers recently and is now an HAC unrestricted free agent, able to sign with any team for the league mandated salary of $5. However, all is not rosy with Howard. He has been tweeting and complaining to anyone who will listen, why HAC does not have a minor league where he can attract interest from a team.

Howard was cut by Trick Swishers at his $20 salary after being acquired in Restricted Free Agency in the offseason. Jive Suckas originally granted Howard RFA at his $14 salary from last season. Four different owners expressed interest in Howard with bids, but Trick Swishers CEO/general manager Monte was insistent that his team needed the bulky center. Swishers head coach Jackie Moon wasn’t completely sold on the idea it was revealed to sources near the team and it came to a head when Howard kept having difficulty getting on the court. The Swishers cited the need for salary cap flexibility as to why Howard was being released. In the new era of HAC salaries, Howard now has the distinction of being one of the highest paid players to be cut by an HAC team, if not the highest. League historians are trying to piece that together - maybe Carmelo Anthony was released last year at a higher salary?

Howard wasn’t as concerned with being released as he was of not getting another call from a team. “I know no HAC team is just going to throw me out there. But I’d like the chance to put in a couple of minutes work to see how my progress is, in a game situation. I don’t get why there’s no minor league for that or for guys who want to get a crack at the league but simply haven’t been able to yet. They could call it the H-league. Either for Howard...or for the HAC! I belong on an HAC roster and I understand the league rules and why I wasn’t claimed on waivers, because of my injury. But I’ll be back and I’ll note the teams that didn’t take a chance on me.”

For his part, HAC Commissioner Walt Frazier was neutral in his comments in responding to Howard. “I respect Dwight and view him as a future Hall of Famer. But he is not in our league office in Springfield, Mass. and he is not aware of our discussions.”

There is a subplot here with Frazier’s unhappiness about the HAC league offices being based in Springfield rather than a major U.S. city. Still, there have been rumblings among HAC owners about the possibility of adding a minor league in the future. Howard speaking out may jump start the conversation again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official Press Release: Jive Suckas

December 6, 2018

By George Utter

As Ethan Bubblegum Tate put it, sometimes shit doesn't add up. Jive Suckas GM along with ownership decided after the auction that following up a failed plan in year one with another failed plan in year two wasn't the direction they needed to go.

After acquiring some fluid pieces in the auction and then systematically trading off hot players and projected point scorers, Bubblegum Tate has gotten rid of many of the players who weren't limited by the quality of keeper they were, but rather their window of opportunity to be see the Suckas through to more victorious times. The plan is complex without being overly complicated, though admittedly executives from around the league who have been on and off the record indicating that Shit-Show Suckas are a total dumpster fire rolling through Texas, heading towards the border where it too, will be deported and tear gassed. However, deep inside Jive Suckas headquarters/ Dunkin Donuts a plan is being hatched.

Without going into too much detail, Bubblegum Tate came to the point in his own way and said "Look we're trying to win by losing. It's a wang-dang weird ass idea on the surface. We're piling up as many assets as we can. Some will be with us long term, some will be on other teams, and others will be busing tables at Olive Garden in the near future. Take a look at the core trio of players we picked up tonight. Deandre Ayton at 20 years old and is a top 30 player right now at a premium position. Luka Doncic is only 19 and in the top 70! He's pricey, but we'll work around that and talk with his camp over the summer about a better deal for the Suckas for a longer commitment. Then there's Wendall Carter, the youngest of the 3. Top 70 HAC player, premium position. Y'all will see. There's a lot to work with there and dream on. If not, I'll be out of a job."

Tate went off on a tangent about a complex mix of projectable talent, potential influx of coins, closely noted habits of other executives, and an understanding of the brutal competitive nature the HAC offers. The Jive Suckas aren't counting on everyone they have to pan out - but hopefully enough will so that the Suckas and Bubblegum Tate can hoist some HAC hardware.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Option Year Contract Modifications

December 5, 2018

Those of you with Option Year Contracts might have noticed a slight change if you're perceptive enough with the players on them. I changed several players from simply an "OPT" label to an "OPT20" or "OPT21" or "OPT22".

The vague "OPT" label doesn't help me much when it comes to keeper time if an owner wants to re-negotiate a player's contract. Is that the player's 2nd Option Year? How many years left does the owner have in control of the player's rights?

So, the "OPT20", for example, tells me that the franchise controls the player's HAC rights until the 2020 offseason (after the 2019-20 season). Same with an "OPT21" label telling me that the player's rights are controlled until the 2021 offseason in case the franchise wants to re-negotiate the Option Year contract. I've also made notes in the "HAC" column if it is the player's first option year, and in all cases it has been. I think C.J. McCollum is the only player in league history to have a second Option Year placed on him, which was done in the 2017 offseason by Wesley for his Hickory High.

Just lettin' y'all know.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Salary Cap Penalties For Releasing a Player on a Guaranteed Contract

December 5, 2018

I feel like it is my responsibility, for several reasons, to remind my fellow HAC owners about rules or simply communicate the nuances of them. One reason is because I made the outrageously long constitution! And another is because, well, as the organizer of the league, I always want rules to be known and transparent. That isn’t always possible, but I figure if I can periodically bring up rules, you all will understand them. As we are nearing midseason in the first season with guaranteed contracts (GC), this might be one a few of you would want to know about. And eventually, we all will probably want to be mindful of it. As always, never be shy in asking any questions, though beware...I’ll likely know if you haven’t read the constitution!

These are the salary cap penalties for releasing a player on a GC. This is listed in Section 3.2 of the Constitution, appropriately titled, “Salary Cap”:

--100% in the 1st year

--50% in the 2nd year

--25% in the 3rd year

--10% in the 4th year

Penalties will round up. So, in the event a player is released who has a $9 salary on a two year GC, the franchise will be assessed a $9 hit on their cap in that first year of the contract. In the second year, they would be assessed an $5 hit ($9 x 50% = $4.50).

The smallest cap penalty is $1. So, if a $2 player is cut in the first year of a 4 year GC, the penalties would be $2 for the first year, then $1 for the second, $1 for the third and then $1 for the fourth and final year of the GC.

However, don’t despair - there are ways around these stiff penalties with the ever present HAC coin system. Because guaranteed contracts are the biggest commitment an HAC owner has, there are several coin prizes pertaining to them. Let’s review them from most expensive to the cheapest.

DARRYL DAWKINS DUNKER

This prize, costing a pricey 425 coins, will allow an owner to cut a player on a guaranteed contract scot free, no matter the length, and dunk his contract in the muddy blue waters of the HAC ether. And if you are not aware of the legend of Darryl Dawkins, you should be.

BUYOUT

If that one is too expensive, there is also the Buyout prize, costing 325 coins. This will allow an owner to get out of a guaranteed contract, and pay the player off with a modest salary cap hit. This prize would cut the penalty to: 50% in the 1st year, 25% in the 2nd year, 10% in the 3rd year and 5% in the 4th year.

For example, if a player with an $8 salary was signed to a three year guaranteed contract, the player's salaries for the next three seasons would be $9, $10 and $11. Using this prize, if the player was released during the 1st year of that contract, the salary cap penalty would be 50% of the player's 1st year salary, rounding up. Meaning, because the player's first year salary was $9, the team's salary cap would be deducted $5 (rounding up from $4.50) during the first season. In the second season, because the player's salary was $10, the cap hit would be $3 ($10 x .25 = $2.50 rounding up). Finally, in the 3rd and final season of the contract, because the player's salary would have been $11, the team's salary cap penalty would be $1 ($11 x .10 = $1.10).

ANTHONY BENNETT BAYONET

Much like Bennett’s underwhelming career, this prize isn’t as comprehensive as the above two. This prize allows you to simply cut one year off of a guaranteed contract.

SAM BOWIE BREAKER BUYOUT

This prize can be used to break a guaranteed contract (GC) like Sam Bowie broke his ankles. However, this buyout prize is different from the above ones. This one will frontload all of the salary cap penalties in one season, rather than spreading them out for the life of the contract.

For example, if a player with a $9 salary on a 3 year GC ($10 and $11 upcoming salaries) is released, the normal cumulative cap hit would be $9 (100% hit) + $5 (50%) + $3 (25%) = $17. Using this prize, you can take that $17 cap hit all in one year. Pay another 160 coins, and you can slash that cap hit in half.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week 7 HAC Notes

December 4, 2018

Calipari’s Kids are now on a three game winning streak, and four wins in their last five games.

Aaron’s squad was 12th in Power Ranking after Week 2. They have since risen to a tie for 7th after Week 3, back to 8th after Week 4, then 7th after Week 5, up to 5th after Week 6, and with another win, they are in 5th again.

Latrell’s Hub Caps have now defeated the defending champion Halftime Hoopers for the third straight time dating back to last season. The Hub Caps won both of their matchups with the Hoopers last year, and then Latrell’s boys took the Hoopers down this year with the second highest points this week.

Still, all was not lost for the Hoopers. They still gained three HAC Coins, the equivalent of the amount earned for a win even though they lost because they were among the top 6 highest point scorers this week with 1448.4.

The Hub Caps scored 1521.5 points this week. That is the most they’ve scored since Week 3, last season when the Hub Caps exploded for 1684.5.

Left Coast Gravity is now 3-4 on the season. This is the first time they have been under .500 at any time since Week 5 of the 2016-17 season when they started the season 2-3. For any rival owners getting excited about these struggles for the venerable Gravity, be sure to note that in the 2016-17 season, the Gravity escaped from a 2-3 record to start the season to finish at 12-8. Glen’s squad then proceeded to win three straight games in the postseason to win their only HAC Championship.

Trust The Process made a big trade with the Hoopers to get two star rookies in Trae Young and Wendell Carter. In that trade they sent Nicolas Batum, among other players, to the Hoopers. The Hoopers just cut Batum and his $16 salary, becoming the second highest salaried player in the HAC so far this season to be released. Dwight Howard is now the first after Monte gave the order to his Trick Swishers front office to give up on the injured center and his former $20 salary.

Interestingly, the Process now has four of the top seven draft picks from the 2018 NBA Draft: DeAndre Ayton (1), Luka Doncic (3), Trae Young (5) and Wendell Carter (7). Gary also just acquired Elie Okobo as a free agent who was the first pick of the second round in the 2018 NBA Draft!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week 8 HAC Betting Room

December 3, 2018

This is the next coin incentive to keep all teams engaged...I hope. Another week, another idea, spurred on by Gnj Magnus. Ok, this took more time than I wanted, primarily because I don’t understand betting lines in the least. So I tried to make it so the lowest common denominator (me) would understand it. Gary was an enormous help with all of my questions, as Charles Barkley was at The Mirage fishing for games. Gary may throw up a little in his mouth when he reads how I wrote out the betting lines. I hope it works! I wasn’t sure if people would understand or if they are as advanced as Gary is with betting lines or idiots like me with it.

Here are the parameters:

• Bets needed by first game played on Monday! Any bets after that may have altered odds.
• 5 coin prize right off the bat for betting on your game as long as your opponent also bets.
• If your opponent does not bet, then you’ll get a 3 coin prize for betting on your game.
• Betting on other games is welcomed, but no extra prize for doing so.
• 5 coin minimum, 15 coin maximum for any bet
• The HAC Betting Room is only equipped to take 30 coins at most from any owner. Disperse them as how you see fit in your betting.
• Betting lines - If you bet 10 coins for an underdog at +1.5 to win and they win, you’ll win 15 coins (10 * 1.5). If you bet 10 coins for a favorite at -1.5, you’ll win 7 coins (10 / 1.5).

CALIPARI’S KIDS VS. DONKEY CRANKERS - even odds

• Upstart Aaron's Cal’s Kids take on 2015 & 2016 HAC Champion Nathan's Crankers.
• Cal’s Kids: 5th in power, 4-3 record, 9,446 season points.
• Crankers: 7th in power, 3-4 record, 9,187 season points.
• Bet 10 coins on either, get 10 coins if your bet wins.

LEFT COAST GRAVITY VS. HALFTIME HOOPERS - even odds

• 2017 HAC Champion Glen's Gravity takes on 2018 HAC Champion Stuart's Hoopers.
• Gravity: 4th in power, 3-4 record, 9,838 season points.
• Hoopers: 6th in power, 4-3 record, 9,021 season points.
• Bet 10 coins on either, get 10 coins if your bet wins.

HICKORY HIGH (-1.6) VS. UNCLE DREW AND THE EUROPEANS (+1.6)

• Wesley's Hickory has won at least 16 games the last two seasons; David's Uncle Drew in the playoff chase in their 1st year.
• Hickory: 2nd in power, 5-2 record, 9,845 season points.
• Uncle Drew: 8th in power, 4-3 record, 8,492 season points.
• Bet 10 coins on favorite Hickory, if they win, you’ll win 6 coins.
• Bet 10 coins on underdog Uncle Drew, and if they win, get 16 coins back.

JIVE SUCKAS (+2) VS. WASHINGTON SPIN (-2)

Both teams look to keep the momentum going after Week 7 wins.

Geo's Suckas: 10th in power, 3-4 record, 8,445 season points.

Spin: 1st in power, 6-1 record, 10,792 season points

Bet 10 coins on underdog Suckas, and if they win, get 20 coins back.

Bet 10 coins on favorite Spin, if they win, you’ll win 5 coins.

TRICK SWISHERS (+1.2) VS. LATRELL’S HUB CAPS (-1.2)

• Both squads are looking to get out of the bottom of the Power Rankings; this could be the week.
• Monte's Swishers: 12th in power, 1-6 record, 6,933 season points
• Erik's Hub Caps: 11th in power, 2-5 record, 8482 season points
• Bet 10 coins on underdog Swishers, and if they win, get 12 coins back.
• Bet 10 coins on favorite Hub Caps, if they win, you’ll win 8 coins.

TRUST THE PROCESS (-1.6) VS. ATOMIC SUPERMEN (+1.6)

• With some recent trades, is Process going for the future? Or the title? Jake's Supermen may need to make that choice soon.
• Process: 3rd in power, 4-3 record, 9.285 season points.
• Supermen: 9th in power, 3-4 record, 8,997 season points.
• Bet 10 coins on favorite Process, if they win, you’ll win 6 coins.
• Bet 10 coins on underdog Atomic Supermen, and if they win, get 16 coins back.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gratitude For Responsive Owners

December 1, 2018

I wanted to take time out to express my gratitude to those owners of struggling teams who respond to trade offers quickly. I have sent multiple trade offers this week, and several to some struggling franchises, and I never had to wait more than 12 hours, let alone 24, for a response. Now that we are more than a quarter through the season, that deserves a mention.

That was all I was initially wanting to get across, but, like always, it turned into more. My Spin had a brutal year last season, so I can empathize with the day to day HAC challenges that struggling owners are facing. Hell, setting a lineup can be a laborious process. Often, my thinking last year was, I have to deal with crap in my daily life; why should my fantasy basketball team add to that!?

With that, I ask all owners, not just those of struggling teams, for help. I would love to get your ideas on creative ways to keep all 12 franchises interested and involved all season.

Maybe it means more coin possibilities, though I don't want to make it too easy to get those prizes. Then again, maybe that's not a terrible thing? The push and pull balance of the right way to manage coins is always going to be a constant. Are there other ideas that you all have?

But, regarding trade offers and everyone responding to them in a timely manner is huge. And not only that, I asked another owner, who is, shall we say, a frequent trader, and he said a few hours is generally the average span of time for when he gets a response from his offers. This makes me so happy.

To me, trade offers are a form of communication. And by now, most of you know how nutty I can be about wanting to form a community within the league which is one reason why we settled on Facebook for a league message board. And of course, responding to offers is generally a good barometer of an owner's level of interest.

However, looking back on my team last year and my attitude, neither was good. And I'm trying my best to think of ways that would have made me feel more engaged with the league last year. But I need all of your help too!

Also, let me touch on this again: we are already in Week 7! We are almost a third of the way through the entire season counting the HAC postseason!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reminder About 17 Player Roster Rule

November 21, 2018

I realize that with so many changing rules, it is my responsibility to remind my fellow HAC’ers and Daryl Morey-types every so often on rules. This was not prompted by anything as I’d been wanting to remind everyone about this and other rules periodically. Every team needs to have a minimum of 17 players at any time. That can include players on injured reserve; I don’t care if you put an injured player on IR and haven’t gotten a free agent to replace that injured player and thus have a short handed bench so long as your total roster count comes to 17. If you want to claim a player on waivers but move a player to the injured reserve before then, feel free, as you will still have 17 total players. Also, I’m fine with if you just want to see if you get the player on waivers and then have 18 players. Just release a player as soon as you’re able to, or shift an injured player to the IR.

Another wrinkle is the injured reserve. I know that has changed a bit too, specifically with not being able to acquire an already injured player as a free agent and stash the player on IR for free. That said, I’m pretty flexible with players on IR. I’m fine with an injured player that’s been on IR, and then he comes back for his first game and is still on a team’s IR. However, what I expect is, once you see that your IR player has played in a game and is no longer injured, that you’ll make the roster change to get the now-healthy player on your reserve or active roster. Otherwise, I’ll come calling!

I wanted to thank everyone for being so flexible with these rule changes and amendments. And also to adhering to them, as I haven’t seen any roster violations, such as having less than 17 players. And I wanted to thank those owners who’ve messaged me because they were unclear and wanted to make sure they were within the rules.

I want to try to have these infrequent reminders once in a while. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don’t. I’ll try to though, as at least for me, I always need refreshers on things.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2014-15 HAC Trade Deadline: A Look Back

November 19, 2018

In the 2014-15 HAC season, the league had the most trades ever completed in one year up to that time. There were 17 trades if you count two offseason trades. It didn’t set a league mark by much though; in the 2013-14 season there were 14 trades. Compare that to the 2017-18 season where there were 42 trades over the season - almost three times as many as in 2014-15! The league has come a long way with more active owners, though in the 2014-15 season, the league was going through a shift then too. After all, in the HAC’s first three seasons, there were five total trades!

Before the 2014-15 season, the trade deadline was moved up one week to the last week of February. 14 of the 17 trades in that season were done in February. Not only that, 12 trades were done within a week of the deadline and six trades were done in the last two days! Four trades were done on the final day, the 26th. This may not seem like much now in the HAC, but last year, only two trades were done on the day of the trade deadline (February 23) and six trades were done within a week of the deadline. With each new year, there has been more consistent trading done throughout the season, but trade deadline activity has paled in comparison to the 2014-15 trade deadline!

A week before the trade deadline saw LeBron James traded in a package to Durantula with a 10th round draft pick in exchange for Steven Adams as well as first and fourth round picks. It was a worthy gamble by Durantula, but one that ultimately didn’t work out as Durantula lost in the Semifinals in the HAC Playoffs. LeBron wasn’t the only upper echelon star to be traded near the deadline, however. Marc Gasol, Kevin Love, Mike Conley, DeMarcus Cousins, Victor Oladipo and Pau Gasol were all traded less than a week before the deadline. Gasol and Love were traded on deadline day while Conley was traded the day before.

Cousins has been traded numerous times during his HAC career and Conley was just recently traded this season from the Hoopers to the Washington Spin. Cousins was traded from a struggling Spin squad in February 2015 along with David West and a 13th round pick to Glen’s Left Coast Gravity for a solid rebuilding package in Marcus Morris along with 1st and 4th round draft choices.

Victor Oladipo had not quite yet exploded in 2015, as he was still with Orlando. He was traded by Erik and his Hub Caps with 11th and 14th round draft picks to Gnj and his then-Balls to the Wall for the former Mr. Kardashian, Kris Humphries as well as 6th and 9th round picks. It is fascinating how some player values can change so much. However, there really weren’t any blockbuster trades. Interestingly, of all of the deadline trades in 2015, the Cousins trade had the most NBA players in it with three. All trades done involved draft picks which had a lot of currency back in the draft-era of HAC.

In the 2013-14 season, one trade was done on deadline day (March 6) and two trades were done on March 5. But there was constant activity it seemed in the 2014-15 season regarding trades compared to previous seasons. To emphasize that point, 8 out of 12 teams completed trades in the last two days before the deadline.

In 2016-17, as with last season, there were two trades done on deadline day (February 22). There was also one more trade done the day before. There were a total of 28 trades done that season. However, even though recent seasons haven’t compared to the 2014-15 trade deadline day, the amount of trades completed per season keeps increasing.

As each season goes by, the amount of trades increase.

2013-14 = 14 trades

2014-15 = 17 trades

2015-16 = 18 trades

2016-17 = 28 trades

2017-18 = 42 trades

2018-19 = 12 trades after just 5 regular season weeks!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

State of the HAC

November 5, 2018

I'm not sure how often I express my gratitude for the owners in this league, so when I'm in doubt, that's generally a good time to say or write it. I realize there already been new rules and changes in this young season, and I wanted to explain my thinking to try to be transparent and maybe, hopefully these changes can make sense.

Communication and expectations, I've learned, are keys to any relationship, so I'll try my best now and going forward. In just the past few years, there have been many significant changes to HAC. Just this off-season, we brought in long term contracts for the first time. Last off-season we made a huge switch from a draft format to an auction. These changes alone have shifted the landscape of the league.

I began realizing that some of the rules the league had no longer worked that well with salaries and then contracts. Some with trial and error, some with hard lessons learned, and a few with trying to be a step ahead. Because of this, it has been a two year process to examine every rule and see if it could use revising; and many rules could use it!

Injury reserve, HAC coins, the center position - there have been many growing pains in the journey from a draft format to auction to a more in depth and competitive league and to make rules that make sense, and there will likely be more. A league that stops evolving is one that starts dying though I think.

The one thing I want to get across is that no change is made for the sake of it. The goal is always to make this a more enjoyable league for all owners, make it competitive and challenging and form rules that make sense.

However, with my many anxieties and insecurities, I often wonder if I deluge you all with too many suggestions for change and that the descriptions for rules are too convoluted and hard to understand. It is challenging for me to balance my exuberance for the league and wanting to address many topics with some moderation as well. I know some of you have families and we all have busy lives. I try to remember that, but sometimes I fail to.

You all extend so much patience to me, especially when it comes to rules that are confusing, and I couldn't be more grateful, and it is important for me to communicate that, and not take it for granted. That is the entire reason this league can exist, because of you all.

This is where this write-up, journal entry, whatever you want to call it takes a different turn. In only the past two offseasons, five franchises have had ownership changes and I wanted to explain for those newer owners (and for the longer tenured ones as well!) why this has happened. What seems obvious to me, isn't that way to others, and I often forget that.

The league started in 2010 and by 2014, there were several owners in the league from the league’s inception, who preferred a ‘set it and forget it’ type of league. In those days, pre-2014, there wasn't a ton of interaction with owners, and we just went year to year with no specific guarantee that the league would continue past that year. I always wanted a more active league in terms of communication. I envisioned a bar type setting where we are all virtually hanging out and exchanging stories and barbs.

When I decided to start the Facebook group for the league, that changed things a bit for me. So did a move from Yahoo to Fleaflicker which expanded capabilities for historical record keeping for the league. Both of those things helped the league to grow and it made me realize that I didn't want to organize a ‘set it and forget it’ league; that my expectations were much higher. The difficult part for me was figuring out how to migrate the league from how it had started to what I envisioned it to be. I admit, many times I grew frustrated because I didn't know how, so I left things be and I wasn’t as active as a league organizer as I should have been. However, during this time, owners like Gary and Glen helped to inspire me and Glen bringing in Stuart as an owner in 2015 inspired me even more to change the league.

From owners who didn’t have interest in being vocal and not having interesting rules, for example, I decided to start trying new things as opposed to just changing hosting sites...which we did fairly often! Before the 2017-18 season when we went to Fantrax, we went from Sports.ws to ESPN to Yahoo and then Fleaflicker. Beginning in the 2014 offseason, the decision was made to have keepers which I think started the ball rolling to the HAC of the present day. This shift helped to start weed out some non-committal owners. Then when HAC Coins were brought in at the start of the 2015-16 season, that helped further. But really, once the talk about moving the league to an auction format, that was when the biggest shift of HAC’s existence was made. I see Facebook posts from midseason in the 2016-17 season about moving the league from a draft-style format to an auction.

There were many discussions about the auction (you know me, I can’t shut up), but one thing I didn’t need to talk about with anyone was the fact that there would have to be a greater expectation of owners in terms of involvement. In the 2017 offseason, right before HAC’s first auction, the league bid farewell to three long-time owners. All three are wonderful men and good owners for what the HAC used to be, but I think all three realized that they were maybe not cut out for being in an in-depth, involved league which is what HAC continues to evolve into today.

Then, during last season, as I learned more about what would be essential for an owner in the league in HAC’s new era, two more franchises changed ownership when their ownership level did not meet my expectations. Like I wrote before, expectations are the key to any relationship, and that involves HAC too! With a lot of new blood all at one time, sometimes errors can be made with recruitment, and that is what happened with the former Enter Glassman owner, Robert. For some reason, personalities didn’t mesh, and that is as essential as setting a lineup in HAC. It was apparent early on to me in Robert’s brief tenure that a change needed to be made eventually. Thankfully, HAC stalwarts like Erik and Geo recommended Jake and the league could continue to remain strong.

And that is what it is all about. Great owners make a league strong, that’s what it comes down to. And I am inspired by the collection of NBA fans that HAC has brought in which is reflected in my overly long, rambling posts like these. I respect all of your opinions and I want to be more forceful in the future in asking for advice in how to help the league get even stronger. All of this to basically get across...thank you all for being part of HAC!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C.J. McCollum's Journey in the HAC

October 30, 2018

C.J. McCollum is in his sixth NBA season and already he has had a wild journey in becoming a valued player on an HAC roster. I had wanted to write about him because he was a free agent in this past HAC auction for the first time since 2015.

After having a relatively uneventful NBA rookie year in the 2013-14 season, averaging just over five points a game, McCollum was selected in the 2014 HAC Draft in the 16th round (pick #192) by Durantula. Regrettably, McCollum's tenure in Durantula land didn't last long - all of four days - and he was cut. He toiled for a second season in the NBA with no HAC interest as he upped his scoring to just six points a game. But HAC stardom was coming for C.J.

In the 2015 HAC Draft, Hickory High took C.J. in the fifth round. While there were players retained as keepers in the league, this was an interesting pick for a player who'd never averaged double digits in points in his career. Still, Hickory has a large front office, and they did multitudes of research. Knowing that LaMarcus Aldridge was leaving Portland as a free agent in the NBA, Hickory felt that McCollum’s time had come, and they were right. The 6-3 shooting guard scored 20.8 points per game for Hickory High, helping the team to a 12-8 record and a playoff berth. After the season, Hickory owner Wes liked McCollum, but only enough to extend him an Option Year Contract to freeze him at his 5th round value.

The next year, in 2016-17, McCollum had an even better season, averaging 23 points per game on 48% field goal shooting, and this was instrumental to lead Hickory to an HAC-best 17-3 regular season record. McCollum’s dreams of an HAC championship wouldn’t happen though because of a heartbreaking one point loss to Left Coast Gravity in the HAC Semifinals, 1374-1373.

Because of this, the Hickory front office chose to pay handsomely in HAC Coins to re-negotiate McCollum’s Option Year deal to keep him out of the newfangled HAC auction in 2017. McCollum and his agent chose to go back to a successful team to an HAC translated rate of $15. However, because of keeper cap constraints, Hickory was forced to give McCollum yet another Option Year Contract. Because HAC rules stipulate that a player can only receive, at most, two Option Year Contracts, McCollum was set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. This did not deter him as he performed admirably, averaging 21.4 points per game to lead Hickory High, again, to the best record in the league at 16-4. McCollum ranked ninth among shooting guards in HAC scoring with 2655.5 points, a 32.8 point per game average.

In this past offseason, with McCollum set to taste free agency for the first time in three seasons, the entire HAC universe knew that he was due for a big raise, and he got it, signing for $27 with the Jive Suckas in the 2018 HAC Auction. Unsurprisingly, once again, McCollum is putting up healthy totals in the very young season. Over his first six games played, McCollum is averaging 19.3 points per game and has put up 160 HAC points, a 26.7 point per game average. And while he’s shooting an uncharacteristically low 39% from the field, all expectations are that McCollum will become one of the very best players in the league, and that should stay the same for quite a few years to come.

I’ve now profiled some of the highest profile players to reach unrestricted free agency after several years of being retained by HAC franchises. DeMar DeRozan and DeAndre Jordan were profiled earlier as part of the first wave of keepers in the league way way back in the 2014 offseason. DeRozan spent five seasons with the Washington Spin and Jordan spent five with the Donkey Crankers. McCollum was the next most tenured player not having reached unrestricted free agency, having spent three seasons with Hickory.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5th Year Option

October 26, 2018

Right now, it is easiest for owners who choose to give Non-Guaranteed Contracts (NGC) to a player for three straight offseasons to simply give an Option Year (OPT) for a 4th year. After all, if you can only re-sign a player for four years, why would you pay more for yet one more NGC when you can give an OPT for that last year?

But as an incentive for owners to give NGC's for the 4th year, if they do that, they will immediately have the choice of vesting a 5th year option year at the same price as the 4th year NGC. There is no obligation to re-signing the player to a 5th year - it is simply a choice the owner can make. There would be no penalties to not exercise the 5th year option.

This would be free, it wouldn’t cost any HAC Coins and obviously, it wouldn’t even come into play for three more seasons, or in the 2022 offseason, to apply to those players who were re-signed to an NGC for the first time this past offseason. And of course, don’t forget, just because you signed a player to an NGC this past offseason, you can always choose to change and re-sign the player to a two or three year Guaranteed Contract. You just can’t do that in the 3rd year of an NGC.

Let me know if anyone is against this for whatever reason, as just like your 2nd grade teacher said, there are no dumb questions, and there are no dumb reasons to be against it, if you might be. But my HAC’ers are smart gentlemen and I’ve found it is wise to put things up for your review, because often, you all find something that I wasn’t even thinking about.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy It Now Further Clarification

October 24, 2018

I’m back with more administrative stuff. I thought one clarification was all that was necessary, but it turned out a second one is necessary as well. I’ll chalk the first one up to a simple rough draft and I hope you all can too. The first one was to close off the loophole of cutting a player only to purchase this prize to claim the player right back. The second one is a bit more nuanced.

The terminology of the prize was not outstanding. There was confusion regarding whether a player’s last season’s points or this year’s scoring average would be used to determine the player’s Buy It Now salary. That was my fault, as it was not explicitly clear, and I’ve tried to clear that up. Here is the further revised prize language:

BUY IT NOW (250 coins): An owner can bypass waivers and simply sign a player immediately after he is released. However, an owner cannot release a player from his roster and then use this prize to re-acquire that player. Depending on the status of the player, the player's new salary and the cost of the award will change. All rookies in their first year will be judged according to their points per game in the current season. Tiers will be decided upon whichever number puts the player in a higher tier, if that is applicable: the player's points in the previous season or current scoring average - always go by the higher threshold. Meaning, if a player scored 1400 points in the previous season, but is averaging 24 points per game in the current season, he would be eligible for a $5 salary, not $3.

• 250 coins for normal players = less than 1500 points in previous season OR less than 20 HAC ppg in current season (whichever is greater). Salary would be $3. This is a compromise as it is more than a potential $1 or $2 salary if acquired through waivers, but less than a $5 normal free agent salary.
• 300 coins for a player who scored 1500-2000 points in previous season OR between 20-25 HAC ppg in current season (whichever is greater). Salary = $5.
• 350 coins for player who scored 2001-2500 points in previous season OR between 25-30 HAC ppg in current season (whichever is greater). Salary = $10.
• 400 coins for a player who meets this criteria: 2501-2750 HAC previous season points OR between 30-35 HAC ppg (whichever is greater) OR NBA All-Star in last 2 years. Salary would be $20.
• 500 coins for a player who meets this criteria: 2750+ HAC previous season points OR 35+ HAC ppg (whichever is greater) OR NBA All-Star in last 3 years. Salary would be $30.
• 600 coins for a player who meets the 500 coin tier above AND the player was an All-NBA player at any time in the last three years. Salary would be $40.

You can see that I added an additional tier of 600 coins to account for a possibility of a star being released somehow. But the key language that I added to make things as clear as possible, at least I hope was this: “Tiers will be decided upon whichever number puts the player in a higher tier, if that is applicable: the player's points in the previous season or current scoring average - always go by the higher threshold. Meaning, if a player scored 1400 points in the previous season, but is averaging 24 points per game in the current season, he would be eligible for a $5 salary, not $3.”

I had stated the other day that in a new season, I’d give two scoring periods before I started using the current season’s point totals. But I am going to get rid of that. Again, if one of the two numbers puts the player in a higher tier, go with that one. If both numbers put the player in the same tier, then that will make things easy. I thank Robert for motivating me to make these changes. If anyone else has any suggestions to fine tune this even more, I would be grateful for any helpful assistance. Thank you for all for your patience as I keep tinkering with this, but it was necessary.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rules Refresher!

October 23, 2018

I realize that over the past two years, HAC has changed a lot with a lot of new rules. So from time to time, I'm going to try to focus on bringing up rules that have changed or have been revised in the past few seasons.

One big one as I'm slowly learning Fantrax's pesky ways is the roster requirements. Focus on the picture. I know it says that 15 minimum total players - please disregard this! The definite, absolute, no question rule is 17 minimum players. I have only adjusted this setting to 15 so that with some weird things, no one will get penalized points on a certain night if their lineup is illegal. But don't you worry, if you have 15 or 16 total players on your roster, I will harass you...repeatedly, until you fix the problem. You won't like it, I won't like it, so please try not to let it happen.

Another big one, and I will try to bring this up repeatedly for a while - the league now has UNLIMITED injured reserve slots. This rule was changed in the offseason, but I know that was a long while ago. We all need reminders, so here's another for unlimited IR slots. You still have to pay the player's salary on IR, but as long as you can fit 10 players under the cap on IR, you can have 10 injured players. But make sure they are really injured and not just day to day. I will be watching everyone's rosters, and I can let a day or two slide if a player is kept on IR when he shouldn't be, but please don't abuse this.

Like I said, I will try to focus fairly often on rules that have changed to bring them up and make sure everyone is familiar with them. Thank you to Erik for motivating me to do this. I want everyone to be aware of all rules. Knowledge is power!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy It Now Clarification

October 22, 2018

I wanted to let everyone know about a clarification I needed to make explicit in the Buy It Now coin prize. I remembered that I wanted to do it late last season, but with the offseason, I simply forgot and I forgot to remind myself. Point is, the offseason changes to the Buy It Now to add tiers depending on the player are the same. However, a key detail that I never listed and therefore mistakenly left a Grand Canyon sized loophole: you cannot release a player and then purchase this prize to immediately get the player back while he is on waivers.

If you release a player and then put in a bid to try to get the player back through the normal 48 hour waiver wire process, that is totally fine. This is because the player was exposed to the rest of the league and all 11 other franchise owners had the chance to bid on him. That has to happen if you are going to re-acquire a player that you just released.

Just as a reminder of the prize, this is the full description for it. You’ll note the opening paragraph which now contains the language that I wrote about regarding not being able to use this prize on a player that you just released.

BUY IT NOW (250 coins): An owner can bypass waivers and simply sign a player immediately after he is released. However, an owner cannot release a player from his roster and then use this prize to re-acquire that player. Depending on the status of the player, the player's new salary and the cost of the award will change. All rookies in their first year will fall under the 250 coin cost portion and cost $3 in salary.

• 250 coins for normal players = less than 1500 points in previous season OR less than 20 HAC ppg in current season. Salary would be $3. This is a compromise as it is more than a potential $1 or $2 salary if acquired through waivers, but less than a $5 normal free agent salary.
• 300 coins for a player who scored 1500-2000 points in previous season OR between 20-25 HAC ppg in current season. Salary = $5.
• 350 coins for player who scored 2001-2500 points in previous season OR between 25-30 HAC ppg in current season. Salary = $10.
• 400 coins for a player who meets this criteria: 2501-2750 HAC previous season points OR between 30-35 HAC ppg OR NBA All-Star in last 2 years. Salary would be $20.
• 500 coins for a player who meets this criteria: 2750+ HAC previous season points OR 35+ HAC ppg OR NBA All-Star in last 3 years. Salary would be $30.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get Rid of the Center Position in HAC?

October 19, 2018

I’ve written this before, but I think it is a mistake to ever think that the HAC is right where it needs to be and everything is perfect. There is a difference between being grateful for the evolution this league has taken (I am) and the owners that HAC has (I am) and being curious about always evolving more. And one key way to do this I think is to get rid of the mandatory two center positions in the required starting lineup. Let me explain.

I think you all know, as NBA fans, that the sport is simply moving away from traditional low post, hulking centers in the low post like Shaquille O’Neal, Ben Wallace and Dikembe Mutombo. And the tallest player ever at 7'7", Gheorge Muresan! Players like Nikola Jokic, Al Horford and Anthony Davis are taking their place - players who can shoot three pointers and on defense, switch and guard small forwards. Big men like Andre Drummond and Aron Baynes are changing their game to shoot more three pointers, and others like Joel Embiid are just going to take more and more.

The NBA has already seen this shift away from traditional centers and made the first step in changing their All-Star ballot way back in 2012. Instead, now, they have three “frontcourt” positions, and that is what I am proposing changing our HAC starting lineup to. Right now, besides the two center positions, we also have a F/C position in the starting lineup. Why not simply make three total F/C positions? That would keep the 11 starting players but also evolve towards the modern NBA.

Looking at the center only eligible players in the league, there just aren’t that many. Sure, there are names like Hassan Whiteside, Deandre Ayton, Rudy Gobert, Enes Kanter, Steven Adams, DeAndre Jordan, and Marc Gasol. However, it didn’t take long for me to run into scrubs like Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee, Tyson Chandler, Ante Zizic and Ian Mahinmi.

Back in the days of Moses Malone, Robert Parish and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or even the next generation of Ewing, Olajuwon and Shaq, centers were very valuable. Not so much anymore, but yet our starting lineup places a priority on centers and that may not be very accurate anymore. I’m curious what you all think about this and if there is support for it. If so, this can be the first step of starting a rule change with a league poll of owners coming next.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Injured Reserve Thoughts

October 18, 2018

HAC’er owners, you’ve always been good about not putting ‘game-time decision’ players on the IR. Let me first state that before writing that if any of you do, I will come down hard and thump you for it! No, for real - this is a message in advance: please don’t do it. You will get a warning from me to remedy the problem, and that’s no fun. And you won’t want to ignore it, because I might throw a tantrum...or take a more drastic action and freeze your ability to claim players. No one wants that!

I’ve been noticing an issue where some teams have less than the required 17 players. I have been flexible on this in the past because it prevented Fantrax from issuing error messages with lineups which then prevented owners from getting points. However, I think it is figured out now with Fantrax, so teams being penalized points shouldn’t be a problem any longer. Therefore, I will give everyone a week from now to figure this out, and then I will start giving warnings to get your roster to 17. If you are at 17 total with a player on injured reserve, that’s fine. The main thing is, you can’t have 15 or 16 players total on your roster.

Also, I wanted to remind everyone of a new rule that was put in place in the offseason. No owner can acquire an injured player and promptly put that player on the IR. This rule is in Section 3.8 of the constitution which I know EVERYONE has read!

Well...you can acquire an injured player as a free agent and put him on your IR, but only if you pay HAC Coins first for the Roster Flexibility prize which is 190 coins. However, you can only get this prize after the injured player has been on your reserve roster for a month.

Further, if an owner has an injured player on their IR...and then that player gets healthy, you have to take the player off of the IR. If an owner leaves a healthy player on IR, I’m going to come after you for it! The reverse is true too. If you leave an injured player on your roster, and you have cap room, and you haven’t put that player on the IR and gotten a free agent, I’m going to wonder what is wrong. That’s all for now!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hickory High, Enter Glassman Tension?

October 17, 2018

It has been rumored that Hickory High has issued a cease and desist order to the Enter Glassman franchise for impinging on Hickory’s franchise player, Anthony Davis. Enter Glassman owner Robert, after taking over the franchise before the 2017-18 season renamed the franchise after re-signing Davis. However, near the trade deadline last year, on February 21, Davis was unceremoniously traded to Hickory in a deal that involved Bobby Portis also going to Hickory and Enter Glassman receiving Brandon Ingram and Kyrie Irving. Still, Robert did not change the Enter Glassman franchise name, and this is what Hickory High has gotten upset about.

Reticent Hickory High owner Wesley did not make himself available to HAC Press to comment on this story, but Hickory coach Norman Dale was happy to offer his thoughts. “It is more than just how strange it is that another franchise is all ‘Fatal Attraction’ with our star player. It has to do with marketing too. But let’s get back to the Fatal Attraction part of it. Why is another franchise stalking our player with their franchise name? It is confusing for fans.”

As for Davis, the Hickory High cornerstone, he didn’t have much to offer. “I don’t want to burn any bridges, and last year, checks from Robert went right into my bank account with no problems. I didn’t complain with my $40 salary. If every franchise in the league wants to rename themselves to honor me in some way, I won’t complain about that either.”

Unfortunately, the tension will have to wait to get ratcheted up as Hickory and the Glassmen don’t play each other until Week 9. The league scheduler should probably be fired. In any case, it will be interesting to see what comes of this. HAC Press fully admits that there is a strong possibility that there is no cease and desist letter and this information was generated from “sources” after several gin and tonics. Or maybe one source. At a local dive bar. Who actually isn’t connected to any HAC franchise, but is a league observer. By watching on television...he actually has never visited an HAC office. He’s just a fan. But he’s still wondering, as is HAC Press...why does a franchise who doesn’t own a specific player like Anthony Davis, still have their franchise name honoring him! Maybe the stakes can be raised in Week 9 and Hickory can demand a name change for the Glassman if Hickory wins?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2018 Keepers Are Announced!

September 27, 2018

Alright, my fellow HAC’er owners, the keepers for all franchises are here. I’m embarrassed that it took me as long as it did to get them straightened away, but the good news is, there is still over two weeks for all owners to analyze free agents. Thank you all so much for your patience, not just for giving me time to get through all of the keepers but also mostly answering me in a very timely manner when I had questions about your keepers. I will be giving coin bonuses to those who submitted their keepers early, and considering everything that happened with my delay and the aftermath of trying to make sure the keepers were ok for all teams, I’m going to give coin bonuses to those who got their keepers in merely on time.

Please let me know if I have missed anything (likely) or something needs revising. I merely went off of the lists that everyone gave me, but there is high likelihood for a data entry error. I haven’t yet tidied up the Fantrax roster pages, but I will get on that soon. What is on the Google docs keeper page is correct for the contract status for all players, as of right now, for the upcoming 2018-19 season and beyond.

I’ll definitely let you all know once I finish updating each roster page on Fantrax. And I’ll also try to explain my abbreviations in depth for all players. For example, the difference between “OPT” and “OPT19” is really just for my sake. For example, an OPT is for an option year contract. However, the OPT19 is to show me that the player is in their 4th and last year as a keeper and cannot be given a Contract Re-negotiation prize at the end of the 2018-19 season. They must go back into the 2019 auction, but players that just have the OPT can be brought back in the 2019 offseason with that prize.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why the hell are keepers due a whole month before the auction?

August 15, 2018

Why the hell are keepers due a whole month before the auction? And why the hell does this guy write so much all the damned time? Well, I’m here to answer all of your HAC centric questions.

Well, not all, actually. I can’t tell you who to re-sign when keepers are due. So I already lied to you, but the key thing - why are keepers due a month before the auction? Well, a couple of reasons actually. For one, NBA free agency is all but over. With that, there won’t be a whole lot of news before the season, and thus, there shouldn’t be a lot to miss by submitting keepers in mid September. Also, by tallying up the re-signed players and allowing all HAC’er owners to see which players have been retained, that allows everyone to fully prepare for the auction and to have plenty of time to do so.

I see no reason to prevent any trades *after* keepers are submitted. After keepers are submitted, you would not have to conform to the $100 keeper cap, so you’d just have to keep in mind the overall $170 season cap.

Further, you can always bring back a player that you originally released if you think twice and want to offer that player a contract after all. You’ll just have to pay HAC coins for the privilege! That’s what the “Back From the Dead” prize is for, which costs 70 coins. Hickory High did this two offseasons ago to bring back Nicolas Batum after releasing him.

• BACK FROM THE DEAD (70 COINS): Did you release a player when keepers were announced, but now want to bring him back as a keeper? This award will let you do that. An owner will still have to re-sign the player at normal costs.

Unfortunately, if you no longer want a player that you re-signed to a guaranteed contract as a keeper, you’re going to have to pay for that decision in terms of penalties. I’ll go more into depth on this with a specific article on it in the future. These are the cap penalties you’re going to have to pay if you release a player that is on a guaranteed contract. Remember, a player signed to a non-guaranteed contract an be released at any time without penalty. And an Option Year Contract *is* a one year, guaranteed deal. So choose wisely!

• 100% in the 1st year
• 50% in the 2nd year
• 25% in the 3rd year
• 10% in the 4th year

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using Facebook for HAC

August 14, 2018

Ah, my freakin' HAC'ers, nowadays, this league is the major reason why I stay on Facebook...er...Boastbook. Reading only the highlights of people's lives is pretty sterile and vapid, but this league makes the most sense on Vaguebook. I'll tell you why.

Communicating with venerable Trick Swishers owner Monte recently, he conveyed that he only uses Boastbook because of HAC. And, while I've already communicated my issues with the site, it has some terrific positives for our uses. For one, you can choose to get alerts in several ways on your phone if you use the Facebook app. And FB looks terrific on my phone.

I have it so that I get notifications every time a post is made on this page. Then, I never have to really pull up the FB app - it just simply tells me when a HAC'er has made a post...which is mostly all I care about. This makes it efficient for me so I don't ever have to waste my time on Boastbook reading about how some sad sack acquaintance's crappy job is the greatest thing ever.

I would suggest our infrequent FB users like Wesley and Nathan also set up their FB app on their phones to give them alerts on posts...if they don't have that already. It doesn't have to be *every post* but instead, it could be the *highlights* option. Then, they don't have to pull up FB except when they want to see what was posted. I'm not sure what "highlights" means, but it is better than no alerts and you can see what's being talked about in the league and be part of the community. In the future, I would really like to stress this.

I realize that if we used the Fantrax message board, it would send you an email alert when a message was posted. And I could set my phone up so that I'd get alerts whenever I got an email (which is not my setup now). In the past, Fantrax was kind of clunky to use in that way, though I will say for restricted free agency, the Android Fantrax app was outstanding. Unfortunately though, it is fun to read Stuart's posts about what NBA players write on twitter or crazy social media posts, and to me, this is perfect on Facebook, and it would seemingly gum up the works on Fantrax. Fantrax's forum is poorly laid out with no ability to have stickies and I like to have the HAC Coins information readily available for everyone. On Facebook, the "Files" section allows everyone to see the league constitution or other important league stuff whenever they want.

If anyone is concerned about privacy on Boastbook, follow Gnj Magnus's lead and simply change your name...and change every detail about your life. I'm not sure if all you need is an email address for a FB account, but that should work. Also, this is a "closed" group. Meaning, no one not in this group can see what is posted. They can locate the group, but they can't read any posts. Unless it was a private investigator, I can't see how anyone could find or read anything posted in this group.

Anyway, just some rambling thoughts about how or why I have chosen to use Boastbook for this league as a message board, of sorts and how you can make it work better, and more efficiently, for you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dedmon Looking For His Chance

August 8, 2018

Dewayne Dedmon’s 2017-18 year got off on a rough start, after having contentious negotiations with the Trust the Process front office, the young center settled for a one year, Option Year contract that would pay him $5 for the season. Asked why the negotiations were testy, Dedmon replied, “I felt that Gary should have named the franchise after me. Not Process or whatever. I kicked Embiid’s ass every day in practice!”

Dedmon’s mood became noticeably brighter when in midseason, he was traded to the Halftime Hoopers and eventually earned a championship ring. Process owner Gary could see Dedmon loafing a bit in practice, and with his squad in the chase for a championship, and with Dedmon on an option, Gary decided to cut bait. Trust the Process traded Dedmon and Dwight Howard to the Hoopers in exchange for Marcin Gortat and Dejounte Murray.

Dedmon was originally acquired as a free agent by the Process in November of 2015, but in true Process fashion, Dedmon was released just 10 days later. After being signed and then cut by Left Coast Gravity, Durantula bid for Dedmon on waivers after the 2016 HAC Draft. The athletic young center stayed on Durantula the entire season, but rather than re-sign Dedmon, Durantula traded Dedmon along with Myles Turner to the Process. The Process then signed Dedmon to that ill-fated option year contract.

Much like in his NBA career where he’s now played for five teams in five years, Dedmon has played for several teams in the HAC. The Hoopers big man is now kind of a lame duck as he knows he will likely be released and be an unrestricted free agent in the 2018 HAC Auction after a career year last season. Dedmon averaged a career high 10 points per game for the Atlanta Hawks last season, which was double his previous career high scoring output, which was 5.1 ppg for San Antonio in 2016-17. Last season’s career best season translated to a very decent 1,452.9 HAC points and 23.4 points per game. His points average ranked #39 among HAC centers as Dedmon only played 62 games last year. He also ranked 19th among all HAC centers in defensive rebounds per game, with 6.3. For this reason, he may very well expect a raise from last year’s $5 salary by a new team in the auction.

Asked about his thoughts on being in the auction as an HAC free agent, Dedmon replied, “I’m not sure what to expect or what team I’m going to go to. All I can ask is that my next team wants me.” When the HAC Press asked Dewayne if he would be ok going back to the Process, he stated, “oh, any team but the Process! Please!”

Who said at the HAC Press we didn’t get down and dirty with the juicy details and fictional league gossip that you want?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Difference Between Time Machine and Hometown Discount

August 3, 2018

A few HAC’ers have asked me what the difference is between the Time Machine (450 coin cost) and Hometown Discount (275 coin cost) prizes in the HAC Coins. And because all of my fellow HAC’ers are intelligent men, this didn’t surprise me, as the language I’d previously used for the prizes was admitted vague and not extremely helpful. Because of this, I wanted to go into it with the rest of you.

These are very valuable prizes, maybe some of the most valuable, because they reduce a player’s salary 25%. That can be a huge discount when it is an expensive player. For example, with a $40 player, a 25% discount on that salary is $10!

Basically, the main difference is, the Time Machine is for players who are currently keepers. Meaning, if a player was kept last season, he is only eligible for this and not the Hometown Discount. That is because a Hometown Discount can only be used on players who are in the first year of being keeper-eligible. Either they were acquired in last year’s auction, or as a free agent during the season or maybe as a restricted free agent.

However, there is a slight wrinkle. The Hometown Discount can only be used in the first year of a *guaranteed* contract. If you want to take less risk and apply this 25% reduction in salary to a player on a non-guaranteed contract, you’re going to have to spend more coins for The Time Machine which can be used at any time during a contract, but can also be used in the first year of a non-guaranteed contract.

Even when a player is on a guaranteed contract in the future, the Time Machine prize can still be used on that player.

The Time Machine prize is appropriately priced, as it is the second most expensive prize. However, because the Hometown Discount is so valuable, after this offseason, there will be some modifications to reflect that. Next offseason, there will be tiers to the Hometown Discount. My idea for this modification is this:

• 200 COIN PRICE: If you’ve owned the player for MORE than one full season.
• 250 COIN PRICE: If you’ve owned the player for at least one full season.
• 400 COIN PRICE: Any less than one year owning the player.
• There will be a “no trade clause” added to the Hometown Discount going forward. This will entice the player to sign the contract at a lesser salary. If the owner wants to trade the player, they’ll have to pay 200 coins to negotiate with the player’s agent to drop the “no trade clause”.

The Hometown Discount’s name should reflect that. The player is willing to sign at a lower salary to stay with a team. But the player will want something in exchange from that team, and that will be a no trade clause. But we’ll get into that next year!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is Lance Stephenson's Future Looking Like?

July 31, 2018

What is Lance Stephenson's future looking like? Hickory High has Stephenson at a $1 salary, though Hickory CEO Wesley has given no indication on whether or not Stephenson will be offered a contract. He now moves to a new NBA team on the west coast, and the west coast didn't suit him well when he played for the Clippers very briefly in 2015-16.

Stephenson's HAC journey last year is equally as interesting as his NBA journey has been. My Washington Spin got him in the auction at $1. However, his tenure on the Spin didn’t last long and he was cut. Stephenson then packed his bags for the Trick Swishers, but Swishers coach Jackie Moon and CEO Monte weren’t big fans of Lance. Finally, Hickory took a chance on Stephenson, acquiring him on waivers. A non-guaranteed contract would require a $3 contract for next season, but maybe Hickory has more faith and could extend a guaranteed contract?

It seems that the only place Stephenson has played well in the NBA is in Indiana. For a while, Larry Bird was his chief cheerleader, but he's long gone now, and maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise that the succeeding GM, Kevin Pritchard, had this to say regarding Lance's departure: "Sometimes, he was the best player on our team and sometimes he was the best player on the other team."

The Clippers traded for Stephenson, and then almost immediately, after 43 games, couldn't wait to get rid of him. They ended up having to attach a first round pick to be able to move him to the Memphis Grizzlies. He didn't last long in Memphis either, playing in just 26 games. In fact, with five other teams other than the Pacers, he's never even lasted one full season. He may never reach the heights of his 2013-14 season in Indiana where he averaged 13.8 points per game on 49% field goal shooting. But last year wasn't bad as he played in all 82 games, averaged 9 points and 5 rebounds per game.

Will LeBron James inspire him this coming season? Lance revived his career, which looked to be on life support, last year in Indiana. He got more money ($4.5 million) to come to the Lakers than a player like Isaiah Thomas did when he signed with Denver. Will he get as good of a payday in the HAC?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DeAndre Jordan, Free Agent Profile

July 30, 2018

DeAndre Jordan is set to be an unrestricted free agent in the HAC Auction for the first time since 2013. That is a pretty darn long time, so five years later, it is time to take an HAC retrospective on his journey in the league.

Jordan was initially drafted in the 10th round, with pick number 94, by Rudy Gay and Chardonnay...the franchise which ultimately became Bed, Bath and Biyombo, in the 2011 HAC Draft. This was the first season that Jordan was drafted in the league and his first appearance in the league that I can find. He may very well have been acquired as a free agent in the 2010-11 season, HAC’s inaugural season, but unfortunately, those records are long lost!

Jordan was then drafted in the 9th round, with pick number 100, by my Washington Spin in the 2012 HAC Draft. After that, he was drafted in the 11th round, with pick number 123, by the Donkey Crankers in the 2013 HAC Draft. Jordan then became a Cranker for the next five seasons. He is an important player in HAC’s history because of this, because he played an important role on the Donkey Crankers’s two championship teams, in 2015 and 2016 as well as the Hoopers' 2018 title team.

He was dirt cheap to re-sign for Nathan, having been drafted in the 11th round, and the 2013-14 season, Jordan’s first year with the Crankers, he exploded into a terrific player, averaging a double-double and leading the NBA in rebounds per game (13.6), total rebounds (1,114) and field goal percentage (.676) as well as getting over 200 blocks - all important things in HAC. With Jordan having been re-signed by the Crankers to incredibly modest increases over the next few seasons, the hulking center became a star. He was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive team in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and was also named to the All-NBA 3rd team in the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons as well as the All-NBA 1st team in 2015-16.

In Jordan’s fifth and final year with the Donkey Crankers last season, his new salary translated from draft rounds was still modest at $15. In the last year of his deal, the Crankers decided to make the difficult decision to trade Jordan to the Halftime Hoopers rather than keeping his rights and paying for restricted free agency after four seasons. With Jordan's help, the Hoopers then won the 2018 HAC title, adding another championship ring to Jordan's collection. The Hoopers ultimately decided against granting Jordan 4 year restricted free agency as well.

Jordan’s NBA situation has changed as he is now on the Dallas Mavericks, his first new team after 10 years in the league. It sort of mirrors his HAC career in a way, spending a very long time with just the Crankers. Will he get a big jump in salary this October in the 2018 HAC Auction? Centers are rare and Jordan has proved to be very durable. At the same time, Jordan is now 30 and with a new team. Nothing is ever certain in the HAC! But one thing that is, is that Jordan played a very important role with the Donkey Crankers for over four seasons, helping the franchise compile a 71-30 record and the aforementioned two HAC titles in that time. And then moving to another franchise, the Hoopers, and helping to guide them to yet another championship. There aren't very many players in the history of HAC that have been on three championship teams.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Prizes: "$0 IR Replacement Player" and "Greg Oden Injury Problem"

July 28, 2018

The new $0 IR Replacement Player coin prize will take the place of the Injury Exception prize that allowed an owner to get more cap money if a player was injured for the season. The $0 IR replacement will cost 200 coins and be a bit different, but I honestly feel like it is a worthy substitute for a team that gets into injury troubles. With the new league rule establishing unlimited injury reserve slots for each franchise, no player should ever have to be released again because of a roster or salary crunch. In a desperation mode though, these new prizes can help to bail out an owner so that they can retain talented players who may be injured.

Like I wrote about before, the reason for the switch is to try to prevent any unnecessary additional money being brought into the league economy. The league should only have a total of $2,040 ($170 salary cap x 12 teams) existing in the league at any time. Teams may trade cap to other teams, but when added up, every team’s cap should always equal to $2,040. This keeps a stable metric of player valuation in place. Player values will change, but it shouldn't be because of arbitrary reasons like adding more money into the league.

This $0 IR Replacement player will have to be kept on the active roster. It is in the rules (Section 3.8, Injured Reserve) that an owner cannot acquire an already injured player as a free agent and immediately place that player on his franchise’s injured reserve list. In the event that the $0 IR replacement player gets injured, an owner has a couple of options: 1) release the player and acquire another $0 injury replacement player, which would be free of cost once you have paid for the prize, for as long as the original player is injured or 2) pay for another newly established coin prize, the Greg Oden Injury Problem for 100 coins. This prize would allow you to place the $0 IR player on your IR list at a salary of $5 and acquire another $0 IR replacement player.

With this Greg Oden Injury Problem prize, if an owner wants the former $0 IR Replacement player at a cheaper salary than $5, the owner can pay 100 coins for each dollar deduction.

This is all about the long awaited (by some!) transition to unlimited reserve spots on each franchise’s roster. Like always, it’ll be about trial and error and seeing what works well and what doesn’t and adjusting from there. I count on all of you for your honest feedback with this entire system and, of course, your patience!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAC Coins Change: No More Free Money

July 25, 2018

Just so you all know, coin prizes that can be applied for offseason use won’t change in cost this offseason. However, I’m going to look at in-season prizes. If there are any changes to those, they won’t be significant. And if I do change anything, I’ll let you all know.

One thing that needs to be revised...and really eliminated are the prizes that enable artificial money to be pumped into the league economy. It has taken me awhile to come around on this, but the negatives outweigh the positives in that if enough artificial money is brought into the economy, player values get out of whack along with other negatives such as a team being able to acquire players they wouldn’t have been able to necessarily by having a boost in their cap. As a result, the “Window Shopper” prize which gives an owner $10 in temporary cap to work with will be eliminated along with the “Injury Exception” prize.

Fear not though, a prize will replace the Injury Exception. It will work this way. If a player is injured, and it doesn’t matter for how long, an owner can pay for this prize to acquire a free agent at a $0 salary. Once the injured player is healthy, the $0 injury replacement player must be released. However, you can pay coins for an additional award to keep the $0 IR replacement player on your roster and release another player. I’ll go more into this soon.

I have thought about coins exhaustively trying to look at all aspects of them. Is it even a good system on the whole? Is it nice in theory but affecting the balance of the league negatively? I’ve tried to be honest with myself, and I really do not think this is the case. The coin system has only been in the league for two years in practice, and the first year, things had to be revised significantly. Same with this past season, and as a result, I haven’t gotten a handle on the average coins an owner generally accumulates.

The entire coins system has to be treated like a rubber band until a routine is in place. At times, some coin prizes seem to be too cheap and other prizes too expensive. And sometimes the wording needs revising. The whole system needs to be snapped back sometimes or sometimes loosened. And sometimes left alone which is an aspect that I struggle with! But I’m learning...slowly!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Restricted Free Agency Recap

July 24, 2018

Of the eight players granted restricted free agency, four received bids. Kawhi Leonard, the highest salaried player when restricted free agency started, at $32, received the most bids - 14 in all - to climb to a high bid of $46 from Enter Glassman. That high bid is the second highest salary ever given to a player from an HAC franchise, behind Steph Curry’s and John Wall’s $47 in last year’s inaugural HAC auction.

The eight players who were granted RFA were, in order of original salary and franchise:

Leonard ($32, Spin), Damian Lillard ($29, Suckas), Blake Griffin ($28, Gravity), Paul Millsap ($24, Imps), D’Angelo Russell ($18, Glassman), Jabari Parker ($17, Hub Caps), Dwight Howard ($14, Suckas) and Tim Hardaway, Jr. ($12, Process).

Hardaway, Jr., Howard and Lillard all received bids besides Leonard...and all four will be playing for the teams that were the high bidders for them in 2017-18. Hardaway, Jr. received one bid by the Trick Swishers at $13, and Trust The Process owner Gary elected not to match that bid. Howard and Lillard were granted restricted free agency by the Jive Suckas. Howard got several bids by four different franchises, and the highest was, again, from Trick Swishers at $20. Suckas CEO George decided to let Howard pack his bags for the Swishers. Outstanding point guard Damian Lillard received five bids all the way up to $34 from Left Coast Gravity, and again, the Suckas CEO determined that Lillard would walk and go to the Gravity.

Griffin, Millsap, Russell and Parker all got no bids, and all will be heading back to their original teams. However, league sources have told HAC Press that Griffin immediately was dealt to defending champion Halftime Hoopers. Griffin’s salary was reduced all the way to $23. Millsap will go back to the Halfman and the Imps at a $19 salary, down from his original $24. Russell will play for Enter Glassman in 2018-19 at a $14 salary, down from last season’s $18. Latrell’s Hub Caps has long been a supporter of Jabari Parker, and will get him back at a much more affordable $13 next season.

Finally, there was Leonard. Things seemed to be going uneventfully for the two time NBA Defensive Player of the Year as he had no bids until one day before restricted free agency was to end. Then all hell broke loose with the Hoopers opening the dam with a $33 bid. The Glassman raised that to $34, and after one more bid to $35, the Hoopers had reached their limit. From there, the 2017 HAC Champion Left Coast Gravity took up the mantle, exchanging bids with the Glassman all the way to a high of $46. That is when the Gravity tapped out leaving the Glassman the winners for Leonard’s services as the Washington Spin made the difficult decision to let Leonard go.

The player salaries and contract statuses are all updated, and the four players who were won by other teams, and not matched, are now on the high bidding teams. I’ve put “RFA18” under the “HAC” column on the players who were involved in RFA this offseason. I have also given coins to Gnj and Geo for RFA compensation for losing their players. Please check my work as it is always possible I made a mistake, and ultimately it is always your responsibility to manage your franchise and make sure everything is ship-shape!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transition Time

July 24, 2018

As the league moves from year to year contracts with no obligation to a long term contract structure with guaranteed contracts, there are going to be issues that will need explaining and clarification. I’ll try to give some examples, such as if a player has a “1st” (or another number) by his name on the roster page, what does that mean for offering the player a contract?

For that question, if a player has been retained once as a keeper in the previous era of the league, he would be eligible only for a maximum of a three year contract, and not four years.

There are wrinkles like this that will come up and I wanted to try to address some. However, I won’t be able to address them all, and the 11 HAC owners are intelligent men who will think of other things that I hadn’t even considered. For example, what about the Hometown Discount prize that Geo asked about? This is the wording of the prize:

“This prize is used to re-sign a player to a 25% discount on their first year salary at the start of a new contract. This has to be done at the start of a contract, not during.”

Well, what is deemed a “new” contract? And I think that going forward, any player signed to any kind of guaranteed or non-guaranteed contract should be eligible for this prize. Some of the wording with the prizes and the rules may be funky during this transition time, and it may turn out that I will have to alter language to account for the new contract structure and make it more straight forward for everyone.

Another issue is restricted free agency. For example, Jabari Parker and Kawhi Leonard have been retained once as keepers and thus, have a “1st” by their name on their roster pages. I hadn’t even considered the prospect of a restricted free agent, and if their rights reset if retained by the team that nominated them. And I want to make Restricted Free Agency something to look forward to and I want incentivize it as much as possible. So, besides potentially getting a discount on the player if he gets no bids, I also want to offer that if a player is retained by a team after going through RFA, his contract status resets. Therefore, Erik, who nominated Parker, will now see that “1st year” status of Parker’s disappear since Parker was exposed to the league and any other owner could have bid on him.

My point of writing all of this is, through this transition time of the league, there are bound to be additional things like this that I don’t notice or pick up on that at least one of you will. Please never hesitate to bring it to my attention, and we can talk about it. And it may turn out that it needs to be something altered. In other instances, it may turn out to be a funky thing that we’ll have to deal with through this transition time, and after that, it should be ok. All of you are so patient and forgiving and I am very grateful for that.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HAC Coin Cost Inflation!

July 11, 2018

HAC Coins are barely even two years old, and we've only gone through one full season with them. I learned a lot of lessons last year with them, and one lesson continues: the coins are simply piling up. I hadn't really thought of the prospect of people simply not using them. I haven't tallied coins for a while, and I'm going to do that soon. I'm expecting a huge amount of coins for most. Because of that, just a fair warning, out of necessity, a lot of the prizes will simply have to go up out of necessity for league balance. Coins were always meant to simply augment a franchise's goals, and not to be a staple.I'll have to think of a fair rate that takes into account how many coins are in circulation now and how many coins have been acquired in the past calendar year. But I wanted to give you all plenty of notice before keepers have to be announced. We're in really good shape as it'll be about two months before keeper time is here. And I won't keep any coin cost changes a secret.And I have full faith in all of you. If you have any ideas for coin cost changes, I'm all ears, believe me. I have no master plan, I have no agenda other than to make this a FUN (first and foremost), competitive and challenging league for everyone. You're all here because you're a valued part of what I'm trying to put together, and thus, your opinions are always valued as well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's Appreciate Kevin Durant

May 11, 2018

I just wanted to take a moment and focus on Kevin Durant for a second. I know that everyone is falling all over themselves, talking about how great LeBron James is, me included. And he may well be the best player in the game today, but is he the best? I think that is debatable one you think about Kevin Durant, and I don’t do a good enough job considering that. I was looking at his career statistics and noticed that he is in his 11th season and already has over 20,000 career points. Think about that for a second. He is not even 30 years old yet. He is already 41st in (American) pro basketball history in career scoring. Basically, he could retire right now, and he would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.While everyone is lavishing praise on LeBron, and we all know that the Warriors have a great team, Steph Curry has been injured a fair amount this spring and hasn't looked 100%. Durant is the guy that keeps the offensive motor going because he is basically unguardable. Offensively, he can do every single thing not just well, but if he's not the best at it, he's one of the best. 3 point shooting? He shot 42% this season. Free throws? Don't foul him late, he's a CAREER 88% shooter. He's been over 50% from the field the last six seasons. Oh that's fun - you think he is all offense and doesn't care about defense? He was 6th in the NBA this year in blocks.I have no idea what Wesley will do with Durant and his $42 salary this offseason as he has a lot of options. Hickory High was so close to a title this year; does Hickory keep Durant around at the same salary for another season to win a title? Do they make more sacrifices on the cap and sign Durant to a long term contract? What about trying to risk restricted free agency in the effort of saving a few needed bucks? Could a trade happen? I don't know, and I don't know what the Warriors chances are against Houston and in the NBA Finals. But I do know that Kevin Durant is simply an amazing basketball player.Personally, I need to do a better job of being grateful for what I have in life, and one of those things is being able to watch players like this who are actively playing. Yes, going on YouTube and watching clips of Magic, Bird, Olajuwon, Iverson and Jordan are great. But what about RIGHT NOW, and this guy is as good or better than any of them. And in the present moment, we get to watch his greatness unfold. How many players in the history of the sport can you say as a statement, and no one would disagree, that 'he is unguardable'? This guy is one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could Al Horford be a Hall of Famer?

May 4, 2018

For my longtime fellow HAC’ers, you know that I scoff often at ‘Softy’ Al Horford. However, my opinion has slowly been changing about him, at a glacial pace. I may never be a real fan of his game, but I’m at least becoming more objective about it. I was reflecting about his outstanding play in the playoffs and that he was an All-Star this past season while only averaging 13 points per game. I realized that he’s modified his game to be perfect for this modern version of a big man who can shoot three pointers and play defense effectively all over the floor which makes him very valuable. While his future in HAC is not certain with a $23 salary on Monte’s Trick Swishers, I noticed that he’s now a 5 time All-Star and wondered, could he become a Hall of Famer eventually?Before you scoff at me as much as I scoff at Horford, consider this. He is a month away from being just 32 years old. Sure, that sounds old compared to young bucks who are his teammates like Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, both of whom are not even 22. But Horford’s game is perfectly suited for him to be a vital cog in an NBA offense for a long time. He is quick...but not particularly fast. He is mobile...but not really a gazelle running all over the court. So, even if he loses some athleticism in the next few years, he will still be able to hit a 3 point shot and play good defense off of pick and rolls. This will allow him to play, pretty much however long he wants. So, age isn’t really an issue for him.He isn’t asked to be a volume scorer with the Celtics and that should also help him to age well. He’s asked to stretch the defense, run the offense at times, and be involved with pick and rolls and pop out for 3 pointers and if challenged, go to the rim. If he does not suffer any serious injuries, and he’s been completely healthy for the last four years, he could potentially play the same way he is playing now at 37 years old. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to drive as much from the 3 point lane into the paint, but his first step is pretty deceptive, and he seems to be pretty disciplined with keeping in shape. Robert Parish stayed in very good shape even as he got older and that could be a good model for how Horford’s body could age.

Like I wrote before, he is now a 5 time All-Star. By the time he retires, say he plays 8 more years. He could potentially get named to three more All-Star teams if he can continue his current level of play. He now has 10,000 career points, so at this pace of almost 1,000 points per season, he could be well over 15,000 career points, and maybe over 17,500. If he does attain this level, I look down the all-time NBA scoring list at big men to compare Horford to and Kevin McHale scored 17,335 career points and is a HOFer. Grant Hill just got elected and has 17,137 points. Chris Webber, who should get elected eventually, has 17,182. Chris Bosh the same; he has 17,189. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. Sure, Horford isn’t as dynamic a player as McHale, Bosh, Hill or Webber were, but stat accumulators get rewarded for longevity even if I’m not a fan of that.

If Horford gets three more All-Star selections in his career to bring his career total to eight, that would be one more than McHale’s and Hill’s seven. It would be three more than Webber’s five All-Star nods. Bosh had 11 All-Star selections, but he’s a rare case who had his career ended prematurely and would have had several more good years. Bosh is a definite Hall of Famer. Still, it could be argued that McHale’s career ended prematurely because of injury as well, as he is regarded as one of the greatest low post scorers of all time. My point here is that Horford ranks well with current and future Hall of Fame forwards.

Still, there are holes in my theory as a talented big man like Jack Sikma (17,287 career points) who was a 7 time All-Star has not gotten a HOF nod. I have to think that All-Star games help in lieu of great career statistics though, because that shows that you were highly regarded among your contemporaries. Grant Hill had 7 All-Star selections. Other big men who had good careers like Kevin Willis (17,253 career points), Elton Brand (16,827 points) and Buck Williams (16,784) all had issues in their careers that prevented HOF consideration and only had six All-Star games combined. Otis Thorpe, another talented big man of the 1990s, had an impressive 17,600 career points, but was mostly consistently pretty good as he only was named to one All-Star team.

A player like Shawn Marion, who very well may get elected to the Hall of Fame, is probably a good comparison to Horford. Marion had 17,700 career points for a 15.2 point per game average, comparable to Horford’s current 14.2 career scoring average. And like Horford, was never a top tier scorer, though he was significantly better than Horford. He rebounded well, maybe even a bit better than Horford in their primes. But they both shoot the ball well, in the field and at the free throw line. Both are good defensive players who rack up steals and blocks and don’t commit many fouls. And maybe most importantly, both are consistently on winning teams. Shawn Marion’s rookie year in Phoenix (1999-2000) coincided with the Suns rebounding from an off year the year before he arrived. His first year on the Dallas Mavericks (2009-10) saw a jump in their win total, and the second year? He was on an NBA champion. Every team Marion was on was better because of him.

This seems to be the case with Horford too. He was with Atlanta for nine seasons, and he was only on two sub .500 winning teams for a combined seven games below .500. One was his rookie season, in 2008, and his 37-45 Hawks took the eventual champions, the Celtics, to seven games in the first round. Sure, when he became a free agent in 2016 he sought out the Celtics, but at the same time, the Celtics had to want to sign him...and they offered him a maximum contract. If these playoffs are any indication, he is worth that. When he signed with the Celtics, they had just been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the team he had just left - the Atlanta Hawks. When he came to the Celtics, they were immediately better. Obviously not just because of him, but he did have something to do with it.

Oh, by the way, remember I wrote that Horford has five All-Star selections right now? For his entire 16 year career, Marion made four All-Star teams.

Sure, it is much too early to decide if Horford is a Hall of Famer. However, it isn’t too early to consider his eventual candidacy, rife with hypotheticals and debate. Still, if he can put up several more seasons like this one, and 6-8 more productive years overall, I can’t see why Horford would not be eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame. Disagree? Tell me why!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brett Brown vs. Mike Budenholzer: Who Would You Want?

May 4, 2018

I thought of this pretty fair comparison of two former San Antonio Spurs assistants. Why do I have more confidence in Brett Brown than Mike Budenolzer? Now, before I start, I’m fully aware that these are only my perceptions and I know nothing about these two men. They are probably both wonderful people and I am only going by what I see with pretty much no frame of reference whatsoever, so I’m largely ignorant and just an ignoramous fan. The worst of the worst.Brown doesn’t waste time with his words in interviews I notice. He doesn’t “umm” much and he says a lot in not very many words. He gets to the point, he’s honest in interviews and doesn’t meander around. He just appears to be candid and he makes me want to pay attention and a lot of that is because he doesn’t waste words. Not only that, I can imagine he’s a great motivator. Budenholzer’s soft voice and mumbling enunciation doesn’t really make want to jump up and say “what a leader!”. He’s had one excellent season with Atlanta and other than that, not much, but that could be the fault of the dysfunctional front office that happened during his time there with Danny Ferry being out of his element and then the pretty much always terrible idea of having the head coach be the GM. Budenholzer was in the right place at the right time, much like Doc Rivers, to take over the basketball operations because of a racist executive (in this case, Ferry). But, seemingly like Rivers, he didn’t really deserve that much control and as a result, a lot like the Clippers, things unraveled quickly.

I also wonder why Budenholzer was an assistant with San Antonio for so long. Maybe there are a lot of other components like family life, but I wonder how many previous offers he had to become a head coach? I can’t find a whole lot out about him but yet I can find a lot of interesting stuff out about Brown. That Brown was in Australia coaching after making a cold call to a team’s head coach there. And that he was sought out by R.C. Buford to work for the Spurs.

It is weird, but Brett Brown is about 8 years older than Budenholzer (56 to 48) and Brown seems more vital, more youthful and energetic. I realize that I’m only going on my perception and it may have nothing to do with anything: Budenholzer may have more stamina, may be more focused and more intense than Brown...though Brown seems awfully intense.

It says something to me that the 76ers management stuck with Brown even through the very lean years, even with the 10-72 season from 2015-16 (only two years ago!). The 76ers signed Brown to a contract extension in 2015 and were able to get him from the Spurs in the first place by offering a fully guaranteed four year contract.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Players That'll Be Draft Eligible, Part I

April 24, 2018

In this year’s auction, there will be several players that will be eligible that haven’t been in a long time. There could be more, but I’m just going to focus on four players who were recently released, and are definite unrestricted free agents that will be preparing for the HAC auction. Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, DeAndre Jordan and C.J. McCollum are players who have not been on the free market for quite some time. This first part will focus on Kyle Lowry, the apple of Left Coast Gravity fans’ eye.

Lowry, the former face of the Left Coast Gravity, was originally drafted in the seventh round of the 2013 HAC Draft by the Gravity. For the next five years, he would play for just that one team, winning a championship ring in the process. The Gravity still could get him back in the auction, but for the first time since 2013, he will be available for all teams to compete for his services. Lowry’s history with the Gravity is an interesting one. When Lowry was drafted in 2013, his reputation wasn’t outstanding in the NBA and no one was completely sure how he would do long term. It might seem like Lowry has been with the Toronto Raptors forever, but you have to remember, Lowry had played just one season with the Raptors by the time the 2013 HAC Draft took place. And Lowry didn’t have a great season. However, in that offseason, probably because he learned he was drafted by the Gravity, Lowry started transforming his body and workout habits, and became an upper echelon NBA point guard and the Gravity benefitted mightily. He has been an All-Star for the past four seasons, starting in 2014, but he hadn’t sniffed an All-Star game before that.

Glen’s Gravity re-signed Lowry for four straight offseasons, and chose not to purchase the 4 Year Restricted Free Agency prize. This would have allowed the Gravity to keep Lowry’s rights as they granted him restricted free agency. In Lowry’s first year with the Gravity, the team went 9-12. The team then went 12-8 in 2014-15, 7-13 in 2015-16 and then 12-8 in 2016-17 and a league championship, finally culminating in a 16-4 record last season. While Lowry is certainly not the only reason for the Gravity’s ascension, it could be argued that because the Gravity were able to retain Lowry at affordable costs, and likely below market value, Glen was able to acquire other players to help. Even last season, the last year of Lowry’s contract, his salary was a very affordable $20. Especially for what the Gravity got.

Lowry was 40th overall in HAC scoring in the 2016-17 season with 2,381 points, but that’s not entirely fair as Lowry missed 22 games in that season. However, he also had an average of 39.7 HAC points per game, and that placed him 16th in the league. Among point guards, he was 9th. Even though Lowry averaged five minutes less per game in 2017-18, he played 18 more games. That enabled him to score 2,796 HAC points which ranked 20th in the league, for an average of 35.9 points per game. Among point guards, he ranked 8th in points.

Lowry is now 32 years old after having played the main years of his prime in northern California for the Gravity. It would be a solid bet that he will go for more than $20 in the league auction. However, with HAC franchises able to hold on to a player’s rights for a full season without having to make a decision on the player’s future after they acquire them in the auction, it is anyone’s guess if Lowry will have another long term stay with an HAC franchise. With the way he has changed his regimen and how his minutes were managed this year by the Raptors, it is possible that he has quite a few years left to help a team in the HAC.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We Have a New Owner!

April 23, 2018

A new owner, David, has come into HAC! David was recommended by Geo, as they play fantasy baseball together, and because of this, and David’s familiarity with in depth leagues, should make for a great fit in HAC’s new-ish format.

However, because the league isn’t expanding (yet?), that means an owner has left, and that always makes for mixed emotions with these announcements for me. Especially when it is the caliber of person of Christian who has decided to bow out. Christian came into the league in 2013 before HAC even started having keepers! With no exaggeration, Christian is one of my favorite people in the world, as I know him outside of HAC, and I loved having him in the league. His presence helped the league so much when he came in, as back then, we were in a transition mode from very casual league to attempting to take it seriously as a recurring league. From 2010-2012, there was always a bit of uncertainty whether the league would go forward for another season, and when Christian came in, he brought stability and dependability as well as a good natured competitor. Hopefully, Christian will still patrol the HAC's grounds as an owner-emeritus.

The league has changed a lot through the last few seasons, from a basic keeper league to salaries, and starting with contracts. From one year at a time in retaining players to now looking as far as five years into the future. That is a drastic change. As such, that kind of league isn’t for everyone, I know, and a third of the league’s owners before the 2017-18 season had to be replaced because of it.

It is good to have you, David!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$100 Keeper Cap

April 19, 2018

I know I previously mentioned the keeper cap of $100, but I’m not sure how detailed I was. There is no minimum for non-playoff teams, but for playoff teams, there is a minimum of $25 that they must keep. That could be comprised of one player, or several. The keeper cap amount of $100 was decided on because, well, it was a round number that was easy to remember. But that wasn’t the only reason. The fact that it is approximately 60% of the league salary cap of $170 was a number I was shooting for. Parity is ultimately the target of the league, which forces successful teams to continue to work hard to keep their talent while giving struggling teams a chance to accelerate their rebuilding efforts. We had $100 for a keeper cap last offseason, but that was a unique time since it was the transition from draft rounds to real market value with auction dollars. There are still players with a value held over from before the transition, but for the most part, I think this past season showed they were pretty accurate. Players can be released at any time. However, a player that you may want to release could be an interesting asset to another squad. There is no rush to release players right now - that will happen in September, quite a ways away. But trades can happen now!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy It Now Prize Change

April 18, 2018

It is obvious that there needed to be a change to the Buy It Now prize. Like many things, I didn’t envision the potential loopholes that could happen with it. For example, let’s take a player like Steph Curry, one of the most valuable players in all of basketball, and has a salary of $47. His owner could release him, and then immediately purchase the Buy It Now prize and get Curry back at $3 with the original prize description!

Thankfully, nothing drastic like that happened, but it was close. I am grateful that HAC is filled with owners who care more about the league than their own team. I feel like it could be called the Klay Thompson Buy It Now, because it was that transaction, late in the season, that first showed me the error of my original Buy It Now prize description. I am grateful there as well, as without these trial and error instances, I can’t learn and adjust for the sake of bettering the league.

Here was the original Buy It Now description:

BUY IT NOW (250 coins): An owner can bypass waivers and simply sign a player immediately after he is released. The owner still has to take on the player's contract however. If the player has no contract, the player's salary would be $3. A compromise as it is more than a potential $1 or $2 salary if acquired through waivers, but less than a $5 normal free agent salary.

During last season, the Buy It Now prize was 225 coins. I increased it to fit in other prizes and because I saw the value in the prize. But now I realize, that original price was fine. The foundation of the prize will remain the same in that it will still be a prize where an owner can bypass waivers and sign a player immediately. Please let me know if you see anything awry or something that could be improved on. I depend on all of you for your good judgment and creative ideas! Otherwise, if no one notices anything off base, this will be the new Buy It Now prize structure:

• 225 for normal players (less than 1500 points in previous season OR less than 20 HAC ppg in current season) - salary of $3, and then:
• 250 coins for a player who scored 1500-2000 points in previous season OR between 20-25 HAC ppg in current season. Salary = $5.
• 300 coins for player who scored 2001-2500 points in previous season OR between 25-30 HAC ppg in current season. Salary = $10.
• 350 coins for a player who meets this criteria: 2501-2750 HAC previous season points OR between 30-35 HAC ppg OR NBA All-Star in last 2 years. Salary would be $20.
• 400 coins for a player who meets this criteria: 2750+ HAC previous season points OR 35+ HAC ppg OR NBA All-Star in last 3 years. Salary would be $30.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Restricted Free Agency Ramblings

April 13, 2018

Nothing I ever write is concise and to the point, however, I will really try with this. Restricted Free Agency will be a learning process for me certainly. This idea is born from Geo’s creative idea of arbitration in his fantasy baseball league, so in addition to him, Aaron and Erik who are in his league will be somewhat familiar with the process.One of the first things I thought of was...where to have it? On Facebook, things can easily get buried. And maybe the “Files” page on the Facebook group could work, it would probably be best on the Fantrax forum. That way, if owners want to sign up for alerts (and they should!), they’ll be alerted each time there is a bid on an RFA player. It would be perfect if we could have a forum where there were subtopics, but I think one Fantrax forum post, and then all of the RFA players listed in the initial post would work. Then, owners can simply bid on individual players, and I can update the initial post.The timeline of restricted free agency was a hotly debated topic a week or two ago. And this will be another instance of trial and error. I had initially expected RFA to last two weeks, but I now realize there are some holes in that theory. Having one end date/time for players isn’t fair to owners who want to bid on players because of budgeting. Or owners who may have granted RFA to players. What would happen if you were interested in several players, but weren’t sure who you might get?Because of the budgeting issue as well as the end time needing to be staggered for players so they don’t all end at the same time, a few RFA players at a time will be up for bidding each day. In addition to that, the duration of bidding for each player will last from 5-7 days. If there is a bid for a player anywhere within 24 hours of that player’s bidding time ending, the clock will reset for 24 more hours. This will repeat for however long that is necessary for any player. This will prevent any last second sniper bidding. For this reason, I can’t guarantee how long restricted free agency will last as it is more important to ensure fairness than to ensure timeliness.

These are two issues that were front and center in my brain. However, I’m sure my fantastic HAC’ers will think of things that I hadn’t thought of, so if there are other issues that any owners can forsee, please don’t be shy with bringing them up!

HAC Guide home