[PINNED] Off-Season Free Agency Rules

Off-Season Free Agency will be very familiar to those of you who partook in TSFBL II, and will once again attempt to mirror real life as closely as possible. It'll once again be run 100% externally and allow for contract offers that wouldn't be possible with the in-game system.

Before I get to what your team is allowed to offer a certain player, let's first go over the general limits to what can be offered:

MAXIMUM SALARY

Salary Cap Amount can be found here: Important Salary Cap Figures

Years Pro	Maximum Salary
0-6	25% of salary cap
7-9	30% of salary cap
10+	35% of salary cap

If you do not have the cap room to offer a maximum salary, or anything for that matter, don't fret; there are salary cap exceptions that allow you ways to still offer a contract.^a

BIRD RIGHTS

If the player last played for your team before becoming a free agent, that means you have his bird rights. The number of bird years a player has determines the contract you can offer him.

Bird Years	Contract Length	Contract Amount	Maximum Increases
1	1-4	120% of previous salary, up to a max	5%
2	2-4	175% of previous salaryb, up to a max	8%
3+	1-5	Maximum Salary	8%

EXCEPTIONS

If you do not have bird rights on a player, or if you have 1-2 bird years but you can't offer as much as you'd like, you can resort to using salary cap exceptions.

The amounts of all exceptions for the given season can be found here: Important Salary Cap Figures

Exception	Contract Length	Maximum Increases
Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level	1-4	5%
Taxpayer Mid-Level	1-3	5%
Room Mid-Level	1-3	5%
Bi-Annual	1-2	5%

Each exception can only be used once per season, with the exception of the Bi-Annual Exception, which can be used once every two seasons. Please note that exceptions are exactly that. If you use cap room in any way in the off-season, you cannot use any exceptions, with the exception (pun intended) of the Room Exception. There is no workaround like in previous leagues, where you could use your cap room and then use your Mid-Level Exception. Likewise, the Room Exception is only available to teams who have used cap room.

Another new feature in this league is that you can break up these exceptions into multiple deals if you see fit. If the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception is worth $8,000,000 in a given season, you can offer it in the form of one contract starting at $8,000,000 or two contracts starting at $4,000,000.

If you go into the off-season with less team salary than the salary cap, the exception amounts will be automatically added to your cap number. You can renounce them as you could any other cap hold (see more on cap holds below).

Exceptions can be used to acquire players in a trade.

If you do not use all the exceptions at your disposal in the off-season, your exceptions will carry on into the regular season, where you can use them in the same way. However, as is mentioned in the In-Season Free Agency Rules, they will begin to pro-rate at a certain part of the season.

Please note that using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception or bi-annual exception hard caps you at the 1st Apron for the duration of the league year. Using the taxpayer mid-level exception hard caps you at the 2nd Apron for the duration of the league year. Similarly, you cannot offer these extensions in the first place if they would put you over these respective Aprons.

MINIMUM CONTRACTS

Minimum contracts are NOT available to be used during off-season free agency. We will keep that period for in-season free agency.

OPTION YEARS

When offering free agent contracts, you will have the option to make the final year of the contract an option year. This does not add an extra year to the contract, but rather adds the possibility of taking one away. For example, if you offer a five-year contract with a option at the end, the option year will be the fifth year. Options (obviously) can only be offered on multi-year deals. There are two types of options, Player and Team.

Player Option: The player under contract has the ability to void the final year of his deal up until the start of the off-season in which he would be a free agent. A contract with a player option in the final year has more appeal to a free agent than the same contract without an option year, because it gives him the ability to control his own destiny and re-enter free agency sooner if he wants to.

Team Option: The team has the option to void the final year of a player's contract up until the start of the final off-season in which he would be a free agent. A contract with a team option in the final year has less appeal to a free agent than the same contract without an option year, because it takes control out of his hands and puts it in the hands of the team. There is a real chance that team option will be declined in the future, and the player will lose out on that money.

Notes:
a - When it comes to the amount you're allowed to offer a player with bird rights, any hard cap imposed on your team take precedent over all else. In other words, if you are hard capped at the 1st apron, you can only offer contracts that take you up to the 1st Apron, regardless of how many bird years you have on a player.
b - If the player is making below the league average salary, the league average salary can be used in place of the current salary.

Where Do I Submit Free Agency Bids?

All bids during the off-season free agency period must be submitted through our Google Form. This form should be very intuitive when paired with the rest of the information in this thread.

If you want to retract a bid on the Google Form, simply submit an invalid bid for the player you want to retract the bid on (I recommend a bid for $0 just to keep things simple).

If you have a strategic preference for your bids, please let the FBB Agent know. I can take anything into account, as long as I'm aware ahead of time.

As always, I'm here to answer your questions as needed, but I feel confident that you can find the answer you're looking for right here, first, and will point you directly to this thread when asked questions.

Restricted Free Agents

Restricted free agency gives the player's original team the right to match an offer sheet the player signs with another team and keep the player. It is allowed following the fourth year of rookie "scale" contracts for first-round draft picks, as well as all other veteran free agents who have been in the league three or fewer seasons (including the current season). Note that this means any first-round rookie scale player whose third or fourth-year team options were declined is NOT eligible to be a restricted free agent.

In order to make their free agent a restricted free agent, a team tenders a qualifying offer to the player by the start of the off-season. The amount of the qualifying offer for players on rookie scale contracts is automatically calculated based on the player's draft position. For all other players, the qualifying offer is either 135% of the player's previous salary, or the player's minimum salary plus $200,000, whichever is greater. This qualifying offer will automatically be offered to all players eligible.

The qualifying offer is a one-year contract that the player has the option to take if he does not sign another contract or offer sheet with another team. The player does not have to take the qualifying offer if he doesn't want to, and it expires after training camp is simmed. If he does not accept the qualifying offer, he still remains a restricted free agent.

The team automatically gets an exception in the amount necessary to make this qualifying offer if they are over the salary cap. If a player returns to your team on the qualifying offer, he cannot be traded for the entire season, so there is motivation to get a deal done with your restricted free agents.

When another team wants to sign a restricted free agent, it signs the player to an offer sheet, the principal terms of which the original team is given 24 hours to match. Just like a regular free agent, the team must have the cap space for the offer sheet. If the player's original team matches the offer sheet, the player is then under contract to his original team and is no longer a free agent. If the player's original team does not exercise its right to match the contract within 24 hours, the offer sheet becomes an official contract with the new team, and the player is no longer a free agent.

Offer Sheet Rules:
- The offer sheet must be for at least two seasons. If you're offering a max contract, the offer sheet must be for at least three seasons.
- There can be no compensation given to a team in return for their not matching an offer to a restricted free agent. (For example, Houston could not sign Golden State's restricted free agent, then send Golden State a draft pick in exchange for their not matching the offer and retaining the player.)
- Teams can rescind their qualifying offer to a restricted free agent, in which case the player becomes unrestricted. (Note, this does not mean the player's cap hold has been rescinded.)
- A signed offer sheet cannot be rescinded.
- If you choose to match the offer sheet signed by one of your restricted free agents, that player must stay on your team through Day 60 of the following season. He also cannot be traded to the team he signed an offer sheet with until the following off-season.
- If you sign a player to an offer sheet and his original team does not match, that player must stay on your team until the All-Star Game of the following season.

GILBERT ARENAS PROVISION

There is one very specific case that I want to cover in here for players that do not have full bird rights but are restricted free agents. For this specific case, the "Gilbert Arenas Provision" allows teams in this situation to still have a chance to retain their restricted free agents, assuming they want to do so. In the case that a restricted free agent has less than full bird rights, the team with his rights can use either early bird rights or their Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception to match the contract, if they still haven't used it and doing so wouldn't put them over the 1st Apron.

In this case, outside teams can still offer a maximum contract as an offer sheet, but it will be adjusted -- the first year of the contract will be lowered to the amount of the most the original team can offer (either early bird rights or the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception), and the second year of the contract will be equal to a 5% raise off the starting salary. Year 3 will look just like it would on a normal max, and Year 4 will be a 4.5% increase on that, which will lead to a vary wonky salary. Here's what it looks with a salary cap of $100,000,000, and a Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception worth $10,000,000:

Year 1: $25,000,000 -> $10,000,000 (MLE amount)
Year 2: $26,250,000 -> $10,500,000 (5% increase on Year 1)
Year 3: $27,500,000 (Year 3 of a max deal)
Year 4: $28,737,500 (4.5% increase on Year 3)
TOTAL: $107,500,000 -> $76,737,500

This is the maximum offer sheet a player protected by the Gilbert Arenas Provision can receive, given the cap information provided above. In order to offer such an offer sheet, you'd need at least $19,187,500 in cap room (equal to the average of the contract over all four years). You can lower the amount of the offer sheet to accommodate less cap room, but only the third and fourth year of the offer sheet will be adjusted.

Cap Holds

If we're in the off-season, you'll probably notice a large amount of waived salary on the index. Just like in real life, all of your team's free agents will have an associated cap hold. Essentially, the cap hold is the price for keeping the player's bird rights. The rules for the cap hold are simple:

1st Round Pick Rookie Contract: 300% of previous salary
3+ Bird Years: 150% of previous salary
2 Bird Years: 130% of previous salary
1 Bird Year: 120% of previous salary

You can renounce the cap hold to any (or all) of your free agents at any time in the off-season (there will be a new thread up every year where you can do so), but this also sets their bird years to zero.

As I mentioned above when covering extension contracts, if your team salary is low enough that you could have cap room, all extension contracts that would be available to your team if you didn't have cap room will also be added to your waived salary. These can also be waived at any time, but it renders them unusable for the full league year. The same applies to trade exceptions.

Sign-and-Trades

The sign-and-trade rule allows teams to re-sign their own free agents for trading purposes. Under this rule the player is re-signed and immediately traded to another team. This is done by adding a clause to the contract stipulating that the contract is null and void if the trade to the specific team is not completed within 24 hours. A sign-and-trade is treated like a single, atomic transaction, and not two separate transactions between which one party can change its mind -- if the trade is not completed, then the signing is invalidated.

To qualify for a sign-and-trade, all of the following must be true:

1) The player must re-sign with his prior team -- a team cannot include another team's free agent in a sign-and-trade
2) The player cannot be a restricted free agent who has signed an offer sheet with another team (see above)
3) The team receiving the player cannot be above the 1st Apron at the conclusion of the trade^a
4) The team cannot receive a player in a sign-and-trade if they have used the Taxpayer Mid-Level exception that season
5) The trade must be completed prior to the first sim of the regular season
6) The player cannot be signed using any exception

Sign-and-trade contracts must be for at least three seasons (not including any option year) and no longer than four seasons. The starting salary in a contract signed for a sign-and-trade may be any amount up to the player's maximum. Raises are limited to 5%.

If a team acquires a player in a sign-and-trade, then the Apron effectively becomes a tsfbl.proboards.com/post/38354/thread for the remainder of that season.

As is fully detailed in the trade rules, players who are signed-and-traded will have different calculations for incoming and outgoing salary.

Notes:
a - A team above the Apron can receive a player in a sign-and-trade if the trade reduces the team's payroll and the team finishes the trade below the Apron.

Over-38 Rule

This is a very seldom-used rule only applies to players receiving a four-year or five-year contract that extends past the season in which he turns 38. I'm going to treat this section as "let's cross that bridge when we come to it", and build it out later.

With that said, I will include a warning here that money owed to players who still had years left at the time of their retirement will count as waived salary. Keep this in mind when offering contracts to players nearing the end of their careers. You are allowed to stretch this salary if you see fit.