New options: hard/soft cap and playoff byes

November 11, 2018-

I just deployed a new version of Basketball GM with three changes:

  1. The ability to change from a soft cap (default) to a hard cap.

  2. An option to give playoff teams first round byes.

  3. An option to set the number of playoff rounds and the number of games per round.

Okay, #3 was already there, but now you can easily change it in the God Mode options, along with the two brand new features.

More details on the cap stuff:

Most sports leagues have a salary cap. The cap can be "hard" or "soft". A hard cap means that teams are not allowed to exceed the cap at all. A soft cap means there is a salary cap that imposes some restrictions, but it is possible to exceed it. So while there is only one way to have a hard cap, there are many ways to have a soft cap.

For example, the NBA has a soft cap. There is a salary cap, but it can be exceeded in many ways, such as various exceptions for signing players and by making certain trades.

Previously, Basketball GM's salary cap rules were a very simplified version of the NBA's. Now, there is another option, available in the God Mode options. You can switch from a soft cap to a hard cap. This does a few things:

  1. Does not let you go over the cap to re-sign your own players. If you want to re-sign your players, you'll have to clear enough cap space to do so.

  2. Does not let you go over the cap when making trades.

  3. Makes players generally ask for less money, since with a hard cap teams will be spending less money.

However it's still not quite a real hard cap. You can exceed the cap to sign players to minimum contracts (so you can never get stuck in an impossible position where you are over the cap, can't trade, and don't have enough players) and your draft picks still get added to your roster even when you're over the cap (I might change this in the future and force you to get under the cap or renounce them).

So, why these specific new features, a hard cap option and playoff byes? There is a reason, but I'm not going to spoil the surprise!