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TRADING PLAYERS:
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- All trades must fit under the salary caps.
- Multiple team trades are allowed.
- Draft picks can be traded, but only the draftpicks for the upcoming rookie draft.
- A trade deadline will be set each season.
*The Strategy*
- Groom a young dynasty? Or try to win now, and lure the big free agents next year.
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CUTTING A PLAYER:
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- You can free up a roster spot by cutting a player.
- But, his contract still counts against your cap UNTIL IT RUNS OUT.
- This can not be exempted, even if another team signs the cut player, or even if you re-sign that player.
*The Strategy*
- This makes long term contracts risky if you're not sure a player will still produce a few years down the road.
- You'll be carrying a player's dead weight if he retires before your contract runs out.
- Signing players to too short of a contract however, gives more risk of losing that player to free agency,
or paying a higher salary in future years..
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BUYOUT RULE
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-If you have enough free cap room after free agency, and before the new season starts, you can "buyout" the remaining years of a player's contract. I'll explain this with an example:
Abraham Lincoln, PF, has 2 years left on his contract at $5 million per season.
Unfortunately, Abraham's no longer the player he was when you signed him to that longterm deal.
So, say you didn't sign anyone during free agency, and you now have $12 million in free cap room remaining. It may be beneficial for you to buyout Lincoln's contract this year - you'll have to cut him from the roster, but by designating $10 million of your cap room this year, you'll have his $5 million in cap money available for you next season which you wouldn't have if you didn't buyout his contract. If you can fit the sum of a player's remaining contract under your salary cap, you can buy him out.
-You can only buyout a player's entire remaining contract - you can't put him on a layaway plan.
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SIGNING FA'S DURING THE SEASON:
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- All free agents not signed during free agency remain FA's during the season.
- Teams can sign Free Agents during the season to a minimum contract (0 mill, 1 year).
- These in-Season FA's can still be traded like any other player under contract.
- The team still holds LOYALTY over this FA at the end of the season.
- Yahoo! has a built in waiver system for determining which team gets to sign a newly released player.