Salary Cap & Bird Years

[MikeDead]

Salary Cap

Fast Break Basketball 2001 uses a Salary Cap on team salaries. The purpose of a salary cap is to prevent certain teams from signing every player that they want with no regard to salary. By default, the league salary cap is set at $42,500,000.

There are some exceptions to the salary cap:

*A team can always offer a player who played for their team the previous season a contract starting with at 120% of the salary the player made the previous season. The player may receive up to a 10% raise each year in the contract.

*Each team has a mid-exception and a low-exception that it can offer players. The mid-exception is a one-season contract for $4,500,000. The low exception is a one-season contract for $1,200,000.

*If a player has gone three full seasons without changing teams via free agency, they are considered to have Bird Rights. A player with Bird Rights may be resigned by his previous team without any restriction from the salary cap. The number of seasons a player has gone without changing teams via free agency is reflected in their Bird Years.

Player Contract Rules
How much a player can be offerered by a team is determined by a number of rules.

If a player is signing with a new team:

1) The contract can be for up to 6 seasons.

2) The player can receive a raise each year of up to 10% of the value of the first year of the contract.

3) The maximum value of the first year of the contract is the smaller of the amount of cap room the team has and the maximum salary the player can receive based up his experience in the league(see table below).

If a player is resigning with his previous team and has 3 or more bird years:

1) The contract can be for up to 7 seasons.

2) The player can receive a raise each year of up to 12.5% of the value of the first year of the contract

3) The player can receive the larger of the maximum salary based on his experience and 120% of his previous salary in the first year of the contract.

If a player is resigning with his previous team and has less than bird years:

1) The contract can be for up to 6 seasons.

2) The player can receive a raise each year of up to 10% of the value of the first year of the contract.

3) The player can receive the larger of the team's salary cap room(up to the maximum salary) and 120% of his previous salary in the first year of the contract.

Teams over the salary cap also may offer a player one of their two salary cap exceptions:

1) Mid Exception - one-year offer of $4,500,000

2) Low Exception - one-year offer of $1,200,000

Each exception may only be used once per season.

Bird Years:

Bird years are the number of seasons a player has gone without changing teams via free agency. When a player is traded, he maintains his bird years.

Salary based on experience:

Exp Min Max
0 $332,817 $10,625,000
1 $465,850 $10,625,000
2 $540,850 $10,625,000
3 $565,850 $10,625,000
4 $590,850 $10,625,000
5 $653,350 $10,625,000
6 $715,850 $10,625,000
7 $778,350 $12,750,000
8 $840,850 $12,750,000
9 $965,850 $12,750,000
10+ $1,000,000 $14,875,000