Rules for the 2008-2009 Basketball Season

Note: This year's changes, including dates, are in bold.

Contents
Teams
Players
Weekly Lineups and Scoring
Additional Bonus Points
Player Draft
Trading
Waivers
Winning
Amendments
The Most Important Rule

Teams
The league is limited to 15 teams. The entrance fee for each team is $80. Each team must draft and always carry 14 players to be designated as follows:

• starting lineup: 1 center, 2 forwards, 2 guards
• backup lineup: 1 center, 2 forwards, 2 guards
• bench: 2 players, any position
• injured reserve: 2 players, any position
  

Players listed as guard/forward or forward/center may be used in either position, but the remainder of the lineup must be properly balanced. Positions listed on Yahoo are the official positions used in our league. However, on draft day, each team can propose a change in position for one player. There will be a quick up or down vote; majority rules; no discussion. Players not listed on the roster can only be designated for one position, with proof.

On Saturday evening, March 21, prior to the start of week #22, a supplemental draft will be held for a 15th player for each team. The draft will be held in the reverse order of the standings. Lineups for the final four weeks (25 days) will include a 15th position (added to the bench), which earns no points.

table of contents

Players
Each player earns points as follows (per game):

1. Field goals made (FGM) multiplied by 2, minus ½ point for each field goal attempted (FGA). (Example: Bol shoots 9 for 20, earns 8 points; Bogues shoots 9 for 18, earns 9 pts.; 10 for 20 earns 10 pts.)
2. Free throws made (FTM) minus ½ point for each free throw attempted (FTA). (Example: 8 for 10 earns 3 points; 4 for 10 earns -1 point.)
   
3. One point per rebound.
   
4. One point per assist.
   
5. One point per steal.
   
6. One point per blocked shot.
   
7. Three point shots multiplied by 2. (Example: 3 made earns 6 pts.)
   
8. One point subtracted per turnover.

table of contents

Weekly Lineups and Scoring
Each team calls in a weekly lineup, designating starters, backups, bench, and injured reserve. It costs $4 to activate a player from the injured reserve to the regular 12 man roster. The lineup must be received by Martin (at his home phone number) one-half hour before the first game of the week begins. Martin calls his lineup to Tom. The lineup remains in effect for the week. Each week runs from Sunday to the conclusion of games on Saturday. (Exceptions: The first week (five days) runs from Tuesday, October 28 to Saturday, November 1. The final week (four days) runs from Sunday, April 12 to Wednesday, April 15.)

Each player's points for the week are totaled (using stats downloaded from USA Today Stats). Players in the starting lineup (first five) are counted as double value. The backup players (second five) are counted at face value, and the players on the bench and injured reserve (11th through 14th men) earn no points. For the last four weeks (25 days) of the season (starting Sunday, March 22), starters are counted as triple value, the bench as double, the 11th and 12th men are face value, and the added 15th position and players on injured reserve earn no points.

Teams earn bonus points for the week for a player on the active roster who finishes 1st (15 pts.), 2nd (10 pts.) or 3rd (5 pts.) in any of the first 7 statistical categories listed above. (Bonus points are not doubled for starters, and stats are not doubled for starters for bonus purposes.)

table of contents

Additional Bonus Points
Year-end bonus points are earned by the top 10 players in the 7 categories listed above. In order to earn bonus points, the player must be on a roster at the end of the season, and only earns bonus points for that team. Furthermore, stats contributing toward the player's total are only counted when the player is in an active roster position in our league. If a player is traded between teams in our league, the stats follow the player. (Example: Manute Bol blocks 90 shots the first 10 weeks, but is on no team's roster. He blocks 100 shots the next 10 weeks, and is on John's active roster. He is then traded to Greg and blocks 40 shots in the final 4 weeks. Bol has 140 blocks for purposes of determining year-end bonus points for Greg.)

Year-end bonus points are based on the actual totals earned in the following categories: free throw points, three pointers made (not doubled), blocks, and steals. The actual totals for field goal points and assists will be divided by 4, while rebounds will be divided by 5. (Example: Hardaway earns 672 field goal points, and makes 127 three pointers, while Rodman has 1,530 rebounds. Hardaway earns 168 year-end bonus points for field goals, 127 year-end bonus points for three pointers, and Rodman earns 306 year-end bonus points for rebounds.)

Each team earns 100 points for each of their players that make the All-Star game if they are the original selections (by fans or coaches, 24 players total). Substitute players do not count. Also, 100 bonus points are awarded to the team with the player receiving the NBA's MVP, Most Improved Player, 6th Man, Defensive Player, and Rookie of the Year awards.

table of contents

Player Draft
The draft will be held on Thursday, October 23. Teams that finished out of the money last year (Sean, Tom, Jim, and Anthony) each have two chances in the hat, while teams that were in the money (Martin, Pat, and Jason) and expansion teams (Paul) will have one chance each in the hat. The first name selected drafts first, and so on. (Duplicate chances are void.) After each team has made its first pick, the order of selection is reversed, and so on each round until the teams have each selected 14 players. Trading of draft positions is not allowed.

table of contents

Trading
Trades may be either between teams or from the pool of remaining players (add/drop). If an add/drop is made from the pool, each player received costs the team $4. (Note: If a player is moved from the active 12 man roster to injured reserve, a player on injured reserve is cut, and a player from the player pool is picked up and activated — all at once — it counts as one $4 transaction.) If a trade is between teams, each player received costs that team $1. Teams must always have a full roster to start a given week. (Example: Tony trades O'Neal to Larry for Haley, Shackleford, and Bol. Tony pays $3 for the players received, and he must drop 2 players from his roster to get down to 14. Larry pays $1 for O'Neal, and must purchase 2 players from the pool (for $4 each) to get back up to 14 players.) Trading for an upcoming week ends one-half hour before the start of the week's first game.

After trading ends for the week, it may begin again for the following week at the start of the first game of the week.

After the All-Star break, any player to be traded who has finished first in any of the 7 statistical categories for any week during the year must be approved by a majority of all team owners before the trade is accepted. The trading deadline for the year is 11:30 p.m., Saturday March 21. However, if a player is injured after this date (and proven through a box score or newspaper account), the team may drop that player and add from the player pool.

Trades must be called to Martin's home phone number and confirmed in order to be completed. Martin's trades are called to Tom. Trades always take effect for the following week's lineup. If you don't have my phone number, please send me an e-mail and I'll e-mail it to you.

Trades must at least appear to be favorable to each team. If the Commissioner (me) believes that a trade is completely unbalanced, or is not in the interests of the league, the trade will be put to a vote of all teams not involved with the trade. If a majority believes that the trade should not be allowed, it is void.

All trades and add/drops must be paid for in advance.

table of contents

Waivers
Players dropped into the player pool are on waivers and are available for pickup by other teams by either calling or emailing me at any time as soon as the player is listed on the website. The waiver will be awarded at 7:00 p.m. the Saturday following the Sunday close of trades. If more than one team claims the same player, the team that is highest on the Waiver Priority List (WPL) is awarded the player. The WPL is initially set based on the reverse order of our draft. However, each time a team adds a waived player to its roster, the team is moved to the back of the WPL. (In other words, the team with the lowest waiver priority will always be the team that completed the last successful waiver claim.) This "rolling" list stays in effect for the entire season. IMPORTANT: If a team claims 2 or more players off waivers on the same week, I will assign first priority to the player mentioned first unless the priority order is specified. (For example, Sean is first on the WPL and both Smush Parker and Lebron James have been waived for some reason. Sean alone want Smush and everyone wants Lebron. Sean mistakenly emails me "drop Smith and Jones and pick up Smush and Lebron". Sean gets Smush and is then moved to last on the WPL for the Lebron waiver. Ouch!) I will also drop the player mentioned first (Smith in this example) unless a team specifies what they want to happen. Up until the time the waiver is awarded, a team can cancel its claim for the player, or change the player it wants to drop for the waived player. Note: If a team wants to pick up a player that it waived, the player must first clear waivers of all the other teams.

table of contents

Winning
All money collected through entrance fees and trades will be distributed as follows (after deducting for expenses and the Commissioner's fee of $120):

The top two teams through stats of Saturday, February 14 choose a team in the All-Star game (1st place chooses first), which will be played on February 15. The winner receives $25. However, if the team has not chosen a team nickname by the start of week #5, it receives only $20.

At the end of the year, money is distributed based on the number of teams in the league:

	8 teams	9 - 12 teams	13+ teams
1st Place:	55%	50%	45%
2nd Place:	30%	25%	25%
3rd Place:	15%	15%	15%
4th Place:	N/A	10%	10%
5th Place:	N/A	N/A	05%

Amendments
In order for rule changes to be adopted next year, two-thirds of the returning teams must support the rule change. Also, each team is limited to three rule change proposals next year.

The Most Important Rule
During his term in office, the Commissioner cannot be fired, and his powers cannot be diminished.

table of contents