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| <small>'''Note: This page is a Sandbox used to test formatting for potential updates to the [[Team Staff Resource]]. This page is very much a WIP, and you should use the main resource page or speak to the committee or commissioners if you have any questions.''' | | <small>'''Note: This page is a sandbox used to test formatting for potential updates to the [[Draft Candidate Resource]]. This page is very much a WIP, and you should use the main resource page or speak to the committee or commissioners if you have any questions.''' |
| </small> | | </small> |
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| The Team Staff Resource is a guide to the yearly schedule of the Furry Basketball Association, and team staff members' responsibilities throughout the season.
| | This page is designed to be a resource for everyone thinking about creating a character for the '''FBA Draft'''. The first section gives specific tips and advice for filling out the draft submission form. The second section covers advice for playing your new character, including some ideas on how to start. |
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| =Team Staff=
| | If you have any additional questions, feel free to stop by the Discord anytime. The Draftee Workshop channel is specifically for asking questions about the process and getting feedback on ideas. |
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| Team Staff members are responsible for running their team throughout the year. Team Staff are divided up into two Roles: '''Primary Contact''' and '''Secondary Contact'''.
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| ===Primary Contact=== | | =The Draft Candidate Submission Form= |
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| The '''Primary Contact''' (PC) has final say on any and all decisions regarding their team. | | This form is the official document to use for submitting a character for the upcoming FBA Draft. The dates for accepting draft submissions varies from year to year, but submissions often open up in the late spring or early summer, and run until early August. To check whether the form is currently open, stop by the Discord and ask or check the announcements. |
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| Ahead of each off-season, contributors can apply to be PCs for any team that does not currently have one. A PC is entitled to continue managing their team for 3 seasons. After this, they can choose to continue to run their chosen team, but other contributors can request to take over for them.
| | The form can be found in the left sidebar on the wiki, in the '''Offseason''' section. |
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| The PC is responsible for many tasks, all of which are outlined in further detail below. Here is an abbreviated list of yearly tasks that PCs perform:
| | ==Background== |
| *Free agent offers
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| *Draft night selections
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| *Day to day roster rotations (gameplan for games and moving injured players to the bench)
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| *Respond to trade requests (either accepting, denying, or negotiating them)
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| *Submit player stat boosts (happens 3 times a year)
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| *Be reachable on Discord for your team's contributors
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| ===Secondary Contact===
| | The '''Background''' section of the form outlines your character's general biography and personal information. This includes basic info (birthdate, species, etc) and also their personal history. Much of this information will be straightforward, but two sections in particular require some thought. |
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| The '''Secondary Contact''' (SC for short) is an individual that the Primary Contact selects to serve as a backup in cases where the Primary Contact is unreachable. The Secondary Contact may also take on specific tasks as agreed upon with the Primary Contact.
| | ===Character Bio=== |
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| Each PC and SC pair decide how they'd like to divide up team responsibilities. For example, the SC might act as a head coach, and handle day to day roster updates. Or perhaps the Secondary Contact handles all signing and player boosts, leaving the Primary Contact to work on developing storylines for the team.
| | This goes in the section labelled 'Describe your Character's background.' Your character's biography is one of the most important sections of the entire form. It's the first impression that many people will get of your character, and it can help establish the tone and potentially set up ongoing stories for your character coming into the league. The bio also makes up a significant amount of the material that the Committee will have for reviewing your submission for potential ranking in the Top 24 [1 - link to Top 24 section], and that teams' Primary Contacts [1 - link to NCG useful terms section] will have for deciding who to draft. |
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| While the PC and SC determine how to divide responsibilities together, the Primary Contact is ultimately responsible for the team. The Commissioners and Committee will look to the Primary Contact first to resolve matters involving the team. | | While there isn't a strict formula for what makes a 'good' bio, the following list has a couple things to keep in mind that will help you develop your character. You can also look at the character pages of recent years' draft candidates for inspiration. |
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| <!-- Check - is this still a thing?
| | * '''Origin''' - Make sure to communicate the important parts of where your character comes from. That varies from character to character - some characters are very grounded in their hometown, while others' bios might focus on a friend group that was important to them. Your character didn't spring into being at the age of 20 as a future basketball pro. Ensure that the information that's most important to who they are is included. |
| | * '''Direction''' - Show where your character is headed. What are their goals and ambitions, both on and off the court? This can help establish your character's personality, their general tone, and can hint at or give inspiration for future stories. |
| | * '''Drive''' - Your character is putting their name in to participate in the most competitive basketball league in the world. What has driven them to this level? Raw self-confidence, familial pressure, a need to prove themself, or desperate personal circumstances are a few options, but there are many others. Make sure we know ''how'' they've come to be one of the best. |
| | * '''Length''' - A good bio can be anywhere from a couple paragraphs to a few pages long. Take the amount of space that you need to communicate who your character is, but don't get too bogged down in details. If your character's bio is getting long, you might consider cutting some of the detail and instead using it for a story about your character's past. |
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| ===The 3-2-3 Rule=== | | ===Schools=== |
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| All team staff must be accessible (within reason) via Discord. The 3-2-3 Rule is a rule that outlines what this means.
| | Where your character went to school can help define the most recent few years of their life. Not every draft candidate needs to have just come from a school; for example, they might be coming from another professional basketball league like the EFBL. That said, a school can help you establish relationships for your character with other students from the same school. |
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| This rule states that team staff have to respond to messages regarding their team within 3 days. If not, the person attempting contact can reach out to the committee or commissioners to request their help getting ahold of the contact.
| | When you pick your character's school, you can either invent a new one or pick one from the [[Universities]] page. If you choose a school that has a Contact listed, it's a good idea to reach out to that Contact before submitting your character. It's best to avoid having multiple players in the same position from the same school in the draft, or to avoid overcrowding (eg - having six players from the same school in the same draft class). |
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| If the team contact fails to respond to the committee member or commissioner after 3 days, they are given a warning. After 3 warnings over the course of a season, that team contact will be relieved of their team duties. | | Around March, the league regularly hosts the [[FCAA_Tournament|FCAA March Madness tournament]] and [[Canadian_Furry_Intercollegiate_Sports|CFIS Playoffs]] for American and Canadian schools respectively. If you're around for these events, you can submit your character and their school as participants. If you weren't around, you can still add a character to a participating school. These tournaments are mostly intended to be opportunities for roleplay and storytelling, and the results are there to give you prompts to work with. Having a character on the winning school doesn't guarantee high ranking in the draft, and having a character on a school that placed low or didn't qualify doesn't guarantee a low ranking. |
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| To sum up, the 3-2-3 rule states that 3 times per year, a team contact has 2 chances to respond within 3 days.
| | ==Vitals== |
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| --> | | The '''Vitals''' section of the form is where you'll put in some of the basic physical and basketball-related information about your character. This section is more straightforward than others, but it contains some critical information. |
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| =The FBA Season= | | ===Positions=== |
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| The FBA calendar has four main phases: '''Free Agency''' (also known as the Off-Season), '''Preseason''', the '''Regular Season''', and the '''Playoffs''' (also known as the Post-Season). | | The position where your character performs the best. You may also select a secondary position they can play. Below are descriptions of the five positions. If you'd like more information, there's plenty of information online about the positions and their roles on a team. You can also look at the Playstyles section below for some example archetypes that the various positions might fill. All of these descriptions are generalizations - some players might not fit as cleanly into these categories. |
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| ==Free Agency==
| | * '''Point Guard''': The Point Guard (abbreviated PG) is usually responsible to call and run the plays as they typically are the ones to be inbounded the ball. This often makes them a de facto leader. Normally a PG is required to be good at passing, though some PGs are focused solely on scoring. Most PG are under 6'6" |
| | * '''Shooting Guard''': The Shooting Guard (abbreviated SG) is usually the go-to scorer. Shooting Guards usually excel in at least one if not two areas on the court, whether that be Close Range (Inside the Key/Paint), Mid Range, or behind the Three-Point line. SGs tend to be taller than PGs but still somewhat on the small size for basketball players (probably good around the 6'2" - 6'8" range). SGs can be a hybrid of both being okay with playing the PG position as needed or the SF position. |
| | * '''Small Forward''': The Small Forward (abbreviated SF) is the middle player of the lineup. They tend to be a jack of all trades, being good at a number of skills, however they are able to specialize in just about any skill set. This can mean their success is more dependent on how well their playstyle meshes with the team. They are usually in the 6'6" - 6'11" height range. |
| | * '''Power Forward''': The Power Forward (abbreviated PF) is often considered the athletic bigman, though there are a number of different styles of play. One of the most common skills that help define a good PF is their rebounding, given they are often posted up in the paint where they are in a prime position to pull down the boards. Most PFs tend to be in the 6'8" - 7'1" range. |
| | * '''Center''': The Center (abbreviated C) is the big guy (or girl) on the team. They are generally the ones taking part in the jump ball (where the ball is tossed into the air by the ref and one player from each team tries to retrieve it). Centers tend to use their strength and size to push their way in close to the hoop or get rebounds. Most centers over 6'10". |
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| '''Free agency''' normally takes place in late summer and early fall. It is the season when team staff build their team for the coming season.
| | ===Height and Weight=== |
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| The main components of free agency are making '''contract offers''', negotiating '''trades''' with other teams, and planning for '''Draft Night'''. All of these actions are done while also managing the team's '''salary cap''', both for the current and upcoming seasons.
| | A good resource for defining height and weight: http://pinwheelempire.com/p/nba/prototypical-size-vs-reality-in-the-nba |
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| For the rest of this section, we will play out some free agency actions from a made up FBA team, The Whitehorse Blackouts, during the 2021 free agency period.
| | The FBA is far more diverse than the NBA and typically has more extremes for each position. However, we still try to keep it within the realistic realm. A 7'3" PG submission or a 5'5" C submission will raise eyebrows and the contributor will be contacted about possibly changing their position or height to be more realistic. The following rules are non-negotiable for a draftee submission: |
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| ===Salary Caps===
| | *Draftee must be 18 years old at the time of the draft |
| | *Draftee must be no taller than 7'6" at the time of the draft^ |
| | *Draftee can be no shorter than 5'0" |
| | *Draftee can be no heavier than 350 lbs^ |
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| The '''salary cap''' is the maximum amount of money that a team can pay out on players' contacts in a given year.
| | ^After the draft contributors can request height/weight boosts that may allow their character to exceed this, however these are dependent on stories and approval from Committee. |
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| Every year, teams have a budget of $90m to spend on players' salaries. At the start of free agency, some of this budget will already be allocated to spend on a team's existing contracts, as well as their draft picks for the coming season. The money that's left is what is available for offering new contracts.
| | ===Top 24 Consideration=== |
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| Each team's page contains a table that details their salary for the current season. Below is the salary cap table for the Whitehorse Blackouts at the beginning of free agency.
| | '''The Top 24''' is exactly what it sounds like - the 24 top-rated draft candidates. Checking off this box indicates that you'd like your character to be considered for inclusion in this group. |
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| {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
| | There are a few benefits to being in the Top 24. During the Draft Combine (detailed below), the top 24 draft candidates get to participate in a set of games against each other to show off their skills to the league. After this game, they will be ranked from 1st to 24th ahead of the draft. Being included in this list greatly increases the odds of your character being drafted. Don't forget - your character's rookie salary is determined by their draft position, so they have a lot of motivation to prove themselves! |
| !2021 Budget for !!Total Cap!!Contracts Paid!!Buyouts!!Available
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| |Whitehorse Blackouts||90.0||71.5||0.0||18.5
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| |}
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| In the above example, the Blackouts have a total of $90.0m for the season. $71.5m is already allocated for their players' pre-existing contracts, as well as the salaries of any players they will draft this season. As shown, this leaves the Blackouts with $18.5m to use at the start of free agency.
| | Mechanically, top 24 candidates will have slightly higher stats going into the league than non top 24 candidates. |
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| Each team's page also contains a table detailing each player's salaries. Below are the Whitehorse Blackouts' current contracted players coming into the 2021 free agency period.
| | Please note that only one character per contributor can be included in the Top 24 of each draft class. If you're submitting multiple characters, you should only check this box off for the one you really want to see in the Top 24. If you check the box off for multiple submissions, the committee will choose which one to include in the Top 24. Checking this box off doesn't guarantee inclusion in the Top 24 - if more than 24 characters are submitted for the Top 24, some will be left out. First time contributors tend to get priority for these positions. |
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| {| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left; font-size: 83%;"
| | Being in the Top 24 isn't required for a character to have good stats. Plenty of non Top 24 characters have gone on to be some of the best players in the league, and some even put up impressive numbers in their rookie seasons. |
| |+ Whitehorse Blackouts Team Contracts
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| ! Name !! 22 !! 23 !! 24 !! 25 !! 26
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| |Player 1 || 10.0 || 11.0 || 11.0 || ||
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| |Player 2 || 16.0 || 15.0 || || ||
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| |Player 3 || 8.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 4 || 7.5 || 7.5 || || ||
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| |Player 5 || 3.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 6 || 2.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 7 || 5.0 || 4.0 || || ||
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| |Player 8 || 3.5 || 4.5 || || ||
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| |Player 9 || 1.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 10 || 4.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 11 || 4.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 12 || 1.0 || 1.0 || || ||
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| |Player 13 || 1.0 || || || ||
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| |}
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| <!-- Consider swapping the order of the salaries and the budget? -->
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| The table shows all players that are currently on contract with the Blackouts, as well as their salary for each year of their contract. In most cases, a team can only have 15 players on their roster for a year.
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| As a note, the Blackouts' 2021 contracts only add up to $66.0m, but their current Contracts Paid value is $71.5m. The remaining $5.5m is allocated to the Blackouts' 2021 draft picks, which we will cover below.
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| <!-- Draft players: one at 1.5, one at 4.0 -->
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| ====Exceeding Salary Cap====
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| A team can increase or decrease their salary cap from $90m via trades, which we'll cover below.
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| It's also possible for a team to exceed their salary cap. If a team winds up in a position where their total contracts paid exceeds their total cap, the team's trades are locked down until the situation is resolved. They can make trades to either reduce their contracts paid or increase their cap space, but they are not allowed to make any trades that don't contribute to solving the problem.
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| A team that starts the season having exceeded their cap space, or that winds up in a position during the regular season where they've exceeded their cap space and don't resolve the situation in a timely manner, is excluded from participating in the playoffs.
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| <!--Confirm the above with committee-->
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| ===Contract Offers===
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| The bulk of free agency involves team contacts making '''contract offers''' to players with no current contract (free agents). When a free agent accepts a contract offer from a team, they move onto the team's roster, and their salary comes out of the team's available budget.
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| There are two types of free agents:
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| * '''Unrestricted free agents''' (or FAs) are players that have had a contract during the past season. Contracts for FAs can last from 1 to 5 years. The maximum salary for an FA in a single year is $30.0m.
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| * '''Restricted free agents''' (or RFAs) are players that have not had a contract during the past season. Contracts for RFAs are all for 1 year at $1.0m.
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| For example, the Whitehorse Blackouts want to sign Player 14 to their team. Player 14 played for a team during the 2020-21 season, and as such is an unrestricted free agent. The Blackouts' team contact goes to Player 14's page on the wiki, and clicks on the 'Submit Contract' button at the top of the page. This takes them to the contract offer page. The Blackouts want Player 14 for three years, and are willing to pay them $4.0m per year. The team contact fills in '4' for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023.
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| In the Comments section, the team contact can put any additional information that they'd like. This can include an in-character appeal from the team's general manager or head coach to the player. It can also include in-character additional perks for the player, like promises of access to certain facilities, personalized trainers, etc. The Blackouts don't feel that this is necessary for Player 14, so they submit the form.
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| <!-- Confirm with committee - no trade clauses? -->
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| Player 14's actor reviews the offer from the Blackouts. They like it, so they send an email to the commissioners stating that they accept the offer. In this scenario, '''only the character's actor has to send their approval'''.
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| Upon the actor's approval, Player 14 moves onto the Whitehorse Blackout's roster, and their salary is taken out of the team's available salary cap.
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| {| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left; font-size: 83%;"
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| |+ Whitehorse Blackouts Team Contracts
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| ! Name !! 22 !! 23 !! 24 !! 25 !! 26
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| |Player 1 || 10.0 || 11.0 || 11.0 || ||
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| |Player 2 || 16.0 || 15.0 || || ||
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| |Player 3 || 8.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 4 || 7.5 || 7.5 || || ||
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| |Player 5 || 3.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 6 || 2.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 7 || 5.0 || 4.0 || || ||
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| |Player 8 || 3.5 || 4.5 || || ||
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| |Player 9 || 1.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 10 || 4.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 11 || 4.0 || || || ||
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| |Player 12 || 1.0 || 1.0 || || ||
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| |Player 13 || 1.0 || || || ||
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| | '''Player 14''' || '''4.0''' || '''4.0''' || '''4.0''' || ||
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| |}
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| {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
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| !2021 Budget for !!Total Cap!!Contracts Paid!!Buyouts!!Available
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| |Whitehorse Blackouts||90.0||'''75.5'''||0.0||'''14.5'''
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| |}
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| Current contract offers for the preseason are tracked on the Contract Offers page of the Wiki, under the Regular Season section of the sidebar. All Open Offers are in the table on the left, including the contract's duration and total value. Once a contract is accepted, all offers for the player in question are removed from the Open Offers, and the accepted contract moves to the table on the right under Accepted Offers.
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| If a team needs to update an offer, they should create a new contract offer rather than updating the old offer. If they need to withdraw their offer for any reason, they should go to their most recent contract offer for the character in question, and clear out the page. Remember, people will assume that your most recently submitted contract offer for a player is the correct one.
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| <!-- | | <!-- |
| | ==Character Details== |
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| ====Trades====
| | A few things to keep in mind when building your character. |
| =====Sign-and-Trade=====
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| ====Draft Night====
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| =====Draft Order=====
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| =====The Lottery=====
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| ====Additional Pre-Season Rules====
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| =====Buying Out Players=====
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| =====The Amnesty Rule=====
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| =====Renegotiations=====
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| =====Underwood Rule=====
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| ===Preseason===
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| ====Scheduling Preseason Games====
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| ===Regular Season===
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| ====Lineups====
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| =====Starters=====
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| =====Bench=====
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| =====Reserve=====
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| =====Deep Reserve=====
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| ====Injuries====
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| =====Partial Game injuries=====
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| =====Day-to-Day injuries=====
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| =====X-Day Injuries=====
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| ===Season Ending and Career Ending Injurires===
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| =====Injured Reserve Slot=====
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| ====Boosts====
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| ====Trade Deadline====
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| ====Promotional Nights====
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| ===Playoffs===
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| ====Additional Rules====
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| =====Buying-Out Players=====
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| The FBA currently does not have a system for waiving a player. The only way to waive a player is to buy him or her out, which means spending as much money from the current year budget as it would take to pay out all the years in the player's remaining total contract.
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| Players that are bought out of their contracts become FAs and can negotiate with teams on what kind of contract they will sign.
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| =====The Amnesty Rule=====
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| Mismanagement of team budgets by Team Staff in previous seasons have handicapped new Team Staff that have taken over some teams. To combat this, the Amnesty Rule has been instituted which will allow any new Primary Contact to cancel one non-draft contract of a player currently on his or her team, without negatively affecting their salary cap. The player is simply dropped from the team roster and immediately becomes an FA, effectively freeing up the money that would have been paid out of the team's budget.
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| Each PC will only be allowed to use this rule once for the team they manage. Players whose contracts that are added to the roster as a result of a transaction that happens during or after Free Agency cannot have Amnesty claimed on them until the start of the next season, or until a new PC takes over the team. Even if a PC claims Amnesty on a player's contract at or after the deadline for Free Agency contract offers, the player is treated as if s/he were bought out and can negotiate contract offers like any other FA until the next off-season.
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| If the player goes on record as being active for the team in any pre-season or regular season game, even if that player recorded zero minutes in the game, that player no longer qualifies for Amnesty and must be bought out. In addition, teams that try to re-sign a player that they Amnesty can only do so at the terms of that player's original contract.
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| =====Renegotiations=====
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| As part of the In-Canon lockout that occurred at the start of the 2015-2016 Season, a Contract Renegotiation became part of the off-season leading up to Free Agency. This was in response to both Teams and Players desiring a way for them to get out of bloated contracts, and get out of underpaying contracts respectfully. A player undergoing Renegotiation becomes a Free Agent for the upcoming Free Agency period and may only be offered a one or two year deal by teams. Either a team’s Primary Contact or the player could initiate the Renegotiation if all of the following were met:
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| * The player must have completed two (2) seasons of their contract
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| * The player must have at least two (2) season left on their contract
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| * A team could only initiate one (1) Renegotiation each off-season
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| A Renegotiation voids the last two-three years of a deal, the team does not have to pay the value of the contract, so a Renegotiation acts like a yearly Amnesty option, but only on very specific contracts. At the same time this allows player to also start the Renegotiation process, thus giving more control to the players.
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| So why might a player want to Renegotiate? Perhaps they are unhappy with the direction the team is going after they had signed a five-year deal. Or maybe since they have signed the deal they have become the face of the team and want to rework their deal to make more money. As a Primary Contact it’s a good idea to keep track and reach out to players who are eligible to initiate Renegotiation and make sure they are happy or that their needs are being met.
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| ====Making Trades====
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| One of the best tools that PCs have at their disposal is the ability to trade with PCs of other teams. Not only is there an opportunity to collaborate on potential storylines, there is also an opportunity for a PC to improve the overall quality of the league and not just his or her own team.
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| Trades are not limited between two PCs; the most involved deal involved four teams at once. However, each PC in the trade must notify the Commissioner of their approval before the deal can go through. The Commissioner can also reject a deal as well if it causes one of the teams involved to violate their salary caps, if they feel it is heavily uneven trade of talent, if a roster size violation would occur, or if an Underwood Rule (see below) violation would occur as a result of the trade. The Commissioner can only warn the violating team of the infraction and will expect the PC to rectify the situation in a timely manner (see The 3-2-3 Rule section below).
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| =====Sign-and-Trade=====
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| Normally, only players that are under contract can be traded. During the contract offer period, however, there is a special rule called the Sign-and-Trade that allows PCs to trade away players that just finished a contract with their team. Unlike regular trades that require approval from only the PCs involved, the Sign-and-Trade requires the Creator of the player(s) involved in the deal to submit their approval as well.
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| PCs cannot use the Sign-and-Trade to immediately re-sign one of their own players in a contract extension; the Sign-and-Trade guarantees that the player is being shipped off to another team. In addition, this is the only way that an FA can accept a contract offer prior to Draft Night. However, players that accept a Sign-and-Trade are immediately removed from the free agent pool and can no longer entertain contract offers from other teams, as they are signed to a team. Furthermore, to prevent FAs from becoming just trade bait, teams that acquire players via Sign-and-Trades cannot buy-out, Amnesty, or trade the player away until the start of the regular season (the "Susan Kruegar Clause").
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| It would seem players are giving up the advantage of bidding wars in the Free Agency period by agreeing to such a trade, but there are instances it would make sense for a player, and be to their benefit, to agree to a sign-and-trade. One such example would be if a player has a specific team they want to play for, but that team has nowhere near enough cap-space to offer the kind of contract the player deserves. In this case, the cap strapped team would send the players original team one or more players to make room for the sign-and-trade player, and likely ship off a pick or two to balance out the deal. Such an instance would allow all parties to ‘win.’ The original team to acquire some pieces when they know they won’t be able to keep the Free Agent player, allows the player to end up on the team they want, and the team gets the player they want without going over budget.
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| ==The Underwood Rule==
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| Named after [[Ned Underwood]], one of the historical founders of the league, the Underwood Rule was instituted to promote the species diversity of the project, while also maintaining potential storylines for marketing and other ideas. The rule simply states that '''no team may have more than 5 players of the same species family'''. While the species designation is the only thing normally listed next to a player's name and position, the species family of the player is stored in the FBA database and will be counted up on the team roster displays. This public designation will be used to ensure that teams are properly diversified. By allowing up to 5 of the same family (canine, feline, lapine, etc.) teams that wish to market themselves toward a particular species family are allowed to build a starting line (or roster) of one family but must keep the rest of their team diversified. Any team that begins the regular season with 6 or more members of the same species family, or does not promptly rectify a situation where a mid-season trade pushes the team to have more than 5 members of the same species family, will be ineligible for the playoffs regardless of season performance. (Please note: foxes are considered under the Canine family!)
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| ===Hybrids===
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| Hybrids count against ALL species involved for the Underwood Rule. For example, a wolf-cougar hybrid would count as both one canine and one feline. A wolf-cougar-hawk hybrid would count against all three species.
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| ===Legendary Species===
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| The following legendary species are classified as the following:
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| *Unicorn: Equidae
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| *Pegi: Equidae / Aves
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| *Hypogryphs: Equidae / Accitripidae
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| *Dragon: Varanidae (lizard)
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| **East Dragon: Varanidae
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| *Hippogryph: Accipitridae Equidae
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| *Gryphon: Accipitridae Felidae
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| *Phoenix: Accitripidae
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| *Cockatrice: Chicken
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| *Basilisk: Varanidae (lizard)
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| *Manticore: Felidae (Lion) / Scorpion
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| Following a 2017-2018 community-wide vote, going forward, the only hybrids allowed are those of the same family. All hybrids that were created before 2017-18 are grandfathered in and in-canon are considered to be the extremely rare few that were born between two different family creatures.
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| ==Draft Night==
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| '''Draft Night''' is an exciting night for not only contributors but also Team Staff. The yearly draft is typically held during the second weekend of September, with the 1st Round taking place on one day and the 2nd Round taking place on the second night.
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| Every Draft teams are awarded a pick in each round, with the pick order being determined by their seasonal record with the best performing teams picking later. This excludes the teams that missed the previous years playoffs, please refer to Lottery Teams for more info on how their pick order is determined.
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| Before the draft, each Team's Staff should have an idea of who they want to draft and submit a list to the Commissioner ranking the draftees by preference. This way if the Team Staff are unable to attend the Draft and submit their picks live we can assure that the preferred player is picked. Commissioner will still attempt to reach out to each Team Staff once on the clock to ask for their pick, but if time runs out they will go based on the ranked list they received.
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| After all 48 picks are announced, any remaining draftees that went undrafted become RFAs and may field minimum contract offers from any and all teams. This can be a bit of a mad scramble right after the draft as teams try to get offers in early for players they had their eye on, but could not justify picking them with what they had on the board.
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| ==Draft Order==
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| Teams that did not qualify for the post-season are entered into the Draft Lottery to determine the order of the first few picks of the next season's draft. To prevent PCs creating self-destructive teams that earn the worst record in the league in order to claim the first pick of the draft, the lottery gives every non-playoff-bound team a chance to earn that coveted first pick. While the odds are weighted towards those with worse records, that does not mean a team that just barely missed the playoffs could not be randomly selected, no matter how unlikely, to be given the 1st Overall Pick.
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| ==Preseason==
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| The Preseason is the period between the end of the off-season and the start of the regular season, usually lasting between two weeks and one month. During this time, players get acclimated to their new teams while PCs finalize decisions on roster sizes, exhibition matchups, and schedule requests.
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| ===Matchup Scheduling===
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| During the latter half of the pre-season period, exhibition games are held between teams. They do not count towards the rankings, and provide an opportunity for contributors to roleplay results and other interactions. Exhibition matches must be agreed upon by both PCs and submitted to the Commissioner at least three days in advance.
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| ==The Regular Season==
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| Comprising the bulk of the year, the Regular Season lasts about six months and encompasses all of the games to be played between the teams. The results of these games provide the rankings for the league to determine which sixteen teams advance to the post-season, and which teams are entered into the draft lottery.
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| ===Lineup===
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| ====Starters====
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| Starters are the core of the team. They should ideally be the best 5 active players on the team; the best two active guards, the best two active forwards and your best center. This of course brings the question of who are the best players on the team for these roles. The answer to that takes a bit of work on your part. You need to actually look at the box scores from your team's games to get a feel for who is doing well and who is doing not so well. Sometimes you will need to experiment with several players in a single position to see who fits best. If you are still confused then feel free to stop on by the chat and ask. There are usually people there who can help you understand.
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| ====Bench====
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| The Bench players are the backups to the team. Players aren’t superheroes. They tire out after a while. It is very rare for a player to be able to play at their best for all forty-eight minutes. As such this will necessitate time where they are allowed to rest for a while. Your bench players take over when the starters need some rest. Naturally they probably won’t be as good as your starters, but they will be good enough to still carry the team if need be. A really good team will have a strong bench. If starters are usually getting about thirty minutes of playtime a game, the bench are closer to fifteen.
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| ====Reserves====
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| Reserve players are there 'just in case.' They don’t get much playtime game to game. However, if someone were to get injured, foul out completely or even just get too many fouls too early in the game there will be an empty slot in the roster. The Reserves fill this role. As they are the backups to the team it is best to have a slight variation in who is in them. If you have two guards in your reserves and a Center gets pulled there is no one in the reserves to take over in the rotation.
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| ====Deep Reserves====
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| Deep Reserves (DR for short) are those extra players on the team. In any given game only twelve players are allowed to play, but teams are allowed fifteen players on the roster. As such, none of the up to three players on the DR for a game will actually play. If an active player gets injured or suspended from story reasons, then someone from the DR will have to go into active rotation.
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| ==Roster Form==
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| On the team page you may notice a small little button under the roster marked "Head Coach Use Only." This is the button that can be pressed to update the lineup, bringing you to a form with all your players lined up in the position they were the previous game. Next to each player's icon is a drop down menu featuring every spot in the line-up they can go. From here you can place anyone here you want to the location you want them to go. But keep in mind that every spot can only have one person in it. You can't have two people play first bench, it'll confuse the system and if you submit it you'll get an error. If you are having trouble lining people up then one simple solution is to set the drop down menu of all players to DNR (don't submit it or you'll get a warning message that it isn't right). Then simply go down the list one by one filling in that slot (as in pick who will be the first bench, then the second bench, so on and so forth until all spots are filled). Remember once done with a fifteen player roster there should still be three marked as DNP.
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| Now, one thing to remember when setting things up is that Starter Positions matter. You don't want to be putting a Center in the PG position, it probably won't end well. However, Bench positions is more about how important that player is than what role they play. The 1st Bench does not mean the PG's replacement, but rather the bench spot that's most likely to be swapped in if someone's tired. Now in the form, there's 5 main groups of players, the Starters, Bench 1-3, Bench 4-5, Bench 6-7 and the Deep Reserves (the difference in playtime shown below). Your starters are well, the starters, the ones getting the most playtime.
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| Next we get to the Team Focus and Floor Time Strategy part of our page. So what do these mean? Each team can pick two unique stats that they want their team to ‘focus’ on, giving all players on the team a fixed boost in that stat. You can think of this as what the team has been practicing leading up to this game, causing a temporary boost in that stat. This means you can try to strategize against other teams by focusing on what they are weak, or maybe focusing on what your team is weak in to try to counter what another team will do. The choice is all up to you!
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| For each quarter you may select which Floor Time strategy you want the team to play in on that quarter. Your options are Equalized, Normal and Aggressive. Equalized means that you are spreading out the minutes to all your players. Your starters will still get a bit more playtime than the rest. but not a lot. With all four quarters as equalized, expect the starters to have around 28 minutes (8/6/6/8), the first three bench positions will play 20 minutes (4/6/6/4) and the bottom four bench positions will play 10 minutes (2/3/3/2). Note that this divides the bench between the first three and the last four. Teams that have a lot of depth, where all of the players are fairly good would do well with equalized play. Their starters won't shine as much, but everyone is doing their part and sharing time. Also means that the starters are less likely to tire out since they aren't playing as much.
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| In Normal, the play time is more restrictive, giving more time to the starters than equalized. With this you can expect to see starters get around 31 minutes (9/8/6/8), the first three bench getting 17 minutes (3/4/6/4), bench four and five getting 13 minutes (3/2/6/2) and the bottom two bench locations getting 4 minutes (0/2/0/2). So note that as of right now, in Q3 and Q4, for the first 8 spots on the lineup there is no difference between normal and equalized. The only difference is in how much Bench 4-7 get during those quarters. But ideally this is more so that you are giving some minutes to all players, but the starters will still be mostly doing a lot of the work.
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| Finally we have Aggressive mode. Aggressive mode is having your starters do all the work they can. With this mode starters will get 40 minutes (12/9/10/9), the first three bench spots will get 8 minutes of play (0/3/2/3) and the bottom four bench spots will only get any floor time if there's an injury.
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| One very important thing of note is that you do not have to keep all at one setting. You are more than free to experiment and play around with the modes as you like. But keep in mind that the longer a player is on the court, the more fatigue will build, resulting in decreased performance and the higher chance of injuries.
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| ==Injuries==
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| And this brings to mention one of the most important duties for Team Staff: managing injured players. '''''Injuries happen.'' A lot.''' If one of your players gets injured, you need to replace them on the lineup. There are multiple levels of injuries, which will be explained below. But for roster management, there are two categories: Day-to-Day and Injured.
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| Day-to-Day players can still play as their injuries are minor so they do not require being placed into the DNP (Do Not Play) portion of the form. However if they receive an injury while Day-to-Day they will suffer a longer injury due to already being injured.
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| For Injured players, this is anyone with a 7-Day or longer injury, they are unable to play, and must be moved to DNP until they are downgraded to Day-to-Day or completely healed.
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| It is also very important to not forget about your injured players. Eventually injuries will heal and when they do that player should be allowed back onto the rotation. Players can be divas. If they are no longer injured and you don’t put them back into the rotation they start getting annoyed at you and call you out at it. The twitter feed right after the game ends usually does list when players have been cleared, else check in on the "Injuries" link in the sidebar. If the player is still marked as injured on that page, then there is that. If they are listed in the Day-to-day list then you can play them if you want, but know that doing so puts them at risk of an even greater injury.
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| ====0 Day Injuries====
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| A 0 day injury mainly means that they are "injured," but only for that game. A small cut, "excessive shedding," bruised joint, being ejected, etc. all could count as a 0 day injury. With these they are considered injured and step out of the game not to return later on, but once that game is done they are still good to go. If a player is on a 0 day injury, no action is required by the HC.
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| ====Day to Day Injuries====
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| Day to Day (D2D) injuries are the next level and come with its own special set of conditions. While on a D2D a player can still be placed in the lineup without causing an error, but there comes a cost with that. However, should they get injured again while still on the D2D they'll face a much greater injury, even leading to a potential SEI/CEI (see fourth type of injury).
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| ====X Day Injuries====
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| X Day injuries fall into a few groups: 7 day injuries, 15 day injuries, 30 day injuries, 60 day injuries and 90 day injuries. Note that these do not mean that exact number of days. But rather a range about that long. Also note that unlike last year which dealt with X Game injuries, this is X Day, meaning that even during breaks the injury ticker will keep moving. When in this level of injury they are not cleared for play and must be in the DNR part of the lineup, if available. Periodically after enough time they will be downgraded to the level below and eventually downgraded to D2D.
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| ====SEI/CEI====
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| These stand for Season Ending Injury and Career Ending Injury. With these injuries that player is done and no returning at all for them, there is no timer set for when they can return. With an SEI, that player cannot ever return that season, but can return to play the next season. A CEI means that player is done for good and can never play again. Currently both of these injury types are limited to "By Contributor Request" meaning that they will not happen randomly, on when requested by a Player's creator. If you would like to request one of these injuries you need to reach out to the Commissioner(s).
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| ===Injured Reserve Slot===
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| Every team is allowed to have a 16th totally inactive player on their roster. This player will be in Injured Reserve, and while the idea for this is to give teams a way to deal with players that are injured for the entire season, it can be used any way the PC likes.
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| Once a player is put into Injured Reserve, s/he is not available AT ALL for the team that used this slot until the end of the current season. A player in Injured Reserve still must be paid whatever his or her contract stipulates for that season. PCs can't use the Injured Reserve Slot to get out of a contract, which also means that the contract is still in effect when the player comes out of Injured Reserve at the end of the season.
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| For example: if Buck Hopper were to be slashed open by Julio Onca again (eek!), the Lone Stars could put B-Hop into Injured Reserve. They would still be obligated to pay his current year salary which would be part of their current year budget, and once B-Hop was in Injured Reserve he would be done for the Lone Stars for the season. As long as he stays on the Lone Stars, he would not play again until the next season. However, when B-Hop comes out of Injured Reserve at the end of the season, he would still be held to his contract, so once he's playing again he would have to be paid the same value he was promised for the next season.
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| Players in Injured Reserve CAN BE TRADED! Once traded, the player can play for their new team; they do not automatically go into the new team's Injured Reserve Slot. Also, players in Injured Reserve do NOT count toward the Underwood Rule, so PCs can replace a player going into Injured Reserve with another player of the same species family without penalty. The Underwood Rule only counts the 15 available players.
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| Please note that teams are still limited to 15 roster spots, of which at least 5 must be active players. However, any team that does not reduce their roster to 16 players or less by the start of the regular season will be ineligible for the playoffs regardless of season performance. In addition, any mid-season trades or signings that would push a team over 16 players on their active roster will be automatically rejected by the Commissioner.
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| ==Stat Increases==
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| As a way of rewarding active players, Team Staff have the option of requesting a stat increase for their players for two times a year. They are allotted up to 25 points/player, up to 100 points/break and up to 200 points/season. This is not required but is strongly encouraged. Keep in mind, though, that giving a massive boost to one stat may cause another stat to decrease (ie if you increase strength by 25 they won't be able to move as fast with all that extra muscle to move around and thus speed will drop). And remember this is supposed to be rewarding active players so requesting major boosts to a player that has never done anything might not get approved. Possibly. The final stat increase will be voted on by both the committee and the commissioner before the increase is applied.
| | *Play Style |
| | *Strengths/Weaknesses |
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| Each player can only increase an upwards of 15 points on a single attribute boost per break period. Anything more then that will be rejected.
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| Player subtractions can be made, especially when storyline involved. A committee member can drop the stats of players over 29 where it makes sense.
| | ===Playstyle=== |
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| Committee typically looks for boosts for younger players over older players, especially where it makes sense (Younger players typically grow in strength and speed early on.)
| | Next is how your player contributes to the team when they are on the court. Keep in mind the below playstyles are not necessarily the full list, nor are players limited to developing in only one playstyle. |
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| If the committee rejects a boost, it is at the committee's discretion to refund OR destroy the points used in the request. Select wisely.
| | First we will list the General playstyles that can apply to all positions: |
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| Points can only be applied in 5 point increments. (So you can’t add 9 points to Strength and 1 point to Speed)
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| For what each stat means, follow this link here: [http://wiki.furrybasketball.net/index.php?title=Draft_Candidate_Resource#Strengths_and_Weaknesses]
| | *Athletic: Uses their immense physical abilities to outperform their opponent, whether that be their Strength, Speed, Jump, or Endurance. |
| | *Rebounder: Great at pulling down Rebounds, whether offensive, defensive, or both. Typically also have good Strength and Jump in order to help them box out and reach the ball over their opponents. |
| | *Defensive: Specializes in shutting down the opposing player, depending on their position they may be good at Perimeter or Post Defense. Also usually good at Blocking or Stealing the ball from their opponent. |
| | *All-Rounder: A jack of all Trades who doesn't excel at any one stat per say, but doesn't have many if any weaknesses |
| | *3 Point Specialist: A player who excels from behind the 3 Point line |
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| ==Home Game Promos==
| | Now here are some Position Specific Playstyles: |
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| While there may not be any concrete evidence to this phenomenon, it can be said that the team hosting the game plays better when the crowd is cheering them on. This Home Court Advantage (referred to as HCA) is a static percentage increase to a teams ability.
| | *Score-First PG: These are Point Guards who focus on getting to the basket or putting up a shot. Sometimes called 'selfish PGs' due to their habit of looking to put up the shot themselves rather than finding the open fur with a pass. These types of players are usually good at Dribbling, Speed, and one or two areas of shooting such as Close Range, Mid Range, or 3-pt Range. |
| | *Pass-First PG: The antithesis of the Score-First PG. Rather than trying to score themselves they will look first to pass the ball to an open teammate or run a play in order to get someone open. These kind of PGs are best at Passing and Dribbling with some other specializations in something like defense or athletic skills. |
| | *Combo Guard: These are PG or SG who specialize in both Passing and Scoring, usually it takes a year or two to develop into this kind of Guard it is possible for a rookie to specialize in both Passing and Scoring if they struggle in other areas of their game. These players are comfortable playing either spot and can be a dangerous one-two punch along side another PG. |
| | *Swing-Fur: These are players who bridge the gap between SG and SF, usually SG who are big enough to defend against other SFs but specialize in scoring. Can lean either more towards SG or SF. |
| | *Slasher/Cutter:A PG/SG/SF who specializes in using Speed and Dribbling in order to get around their defender and get closer to the basket, usually specializes in Close or Mid-Range Shooting. |
| | *Big-Fur: These are furs who can play both PF and C, usually these are above average athletic Centers who are able to move outside the post to help score and defend. |
| | *Post Up (Back to Basket): These are SF/PF/Cs who use their size to get low in the post, turning their back to the basket and using their Strength to push the defender closer, they also typically specialize in Close-Range Shooting, and Jump. |
| | *Faceup: These are PF/Cs who play face to the basket from mid-range to the post, they specialize in Dribbling, Close-Range Shooting, and possibly Speed/Jump in order to get by or around the defense |
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| PCs can also provide an additional boost to their team's HCA by having a Home Game Promo for a specific matchup. For example, the Typhoons could request a "Sibling Rivalry Night: brothers and sisters of paid ticket holders get in for half price with ID" when they host the Mayors.
| | Not every playstyle may be listed here, as there are many nuanced styles that are variations or combinations of some of the above. When creating your draftee don't be afraid to think about more than one style they might eventually grow to represent, what we are looking for in the application is the one main style that you feel best describes their play. If you don't see one listed, make sure to use the provided space in the application to describe the style to the best of your abilities! |
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| Promos must be announced at least one week in advance of the home game that it will affect, and does not require anyone other than the hosting team's PC to submit it to the Commissioner. Teams are limited to six (6) promo games that provide an additional boost to HCA, they may submit more than six (6) but they will be for Role-Playing and story content only.
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| ==Scheduled Breaks== | | ===Strengths and Weaknesses=== |
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| There are four six-day breaks allocated within the regular season schedule: the MFF break, the FC/All-Star break, the TFF break, and the MCFC break. During these breaks, as well as before the start of the regular season and at the end of the regular season.
| | A well-rounded player has both Strengths and Weaknesses, no player is perfect. In your draft submission, you will want to talk about both what the excel at, and what they struggle with. If you are having trouble coming up with what to write about a great resource is http://www.draftexpress.com/! Below all the Grade Skills are listed along with their general meaning and effect. It's usually a good idea for every strength or two you have at least one weakness to offset it. Not all Strengths or Weaknesses have to be directly stated as one of the below stats either, such as saying your player struggles with their footwork or that they have off-court issues might be a weakness for them but they are excellent Hustlers and never give up on the ball. |
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| ==Trading Deadline==
| | * Strength: how strong your player is; influences post defense, rebounding, and post scoring |
| | * Speed: how fast your player is; affects shooting and defense |
| | * Jump: how high your player jumps for their height; influences shooting, defending, and rebounding |
| | * Endurance: how fast a player tires during a game, decreasing their skills, and how likely they are to be injured |
| | * Fouling: lower levels are more likely to foul |
| | * Contact: how likely a player is to initiate contact to draw a foul |
| | * Free Throw Shooting: how accurate your player is from the free-throw line |
| | * Close Range Shooting: 2 point shooting from inside the paint. included both post play and dunking |
| | * Mid Range Shooting: 2 point shooting from between the post and the three-point line |
| | * Three Point Shooting: Shooting from the furthest range behind the three-point line |
| | * Blocking: To physically put a paw on the ball a player shot, a blocked shot is a miss |
| | * Stealing: Ability to generate a Turnover off an intercepted pass or to reach in and steal the ball while dribbling |
| | * Dribbling: influences how likely to turn the ball over (the higher the grade the lower the Turnovers), also increases shooting success |
| | * Passing: influences how likely to turn the ball over when passing (the higher the grade the lower the Turnovers), also increases teams overall shooting success |
| | * Offensive Rebound: Ability to pull down a missed shot on offense, thus creating a second chance to score |
| | * Defensive Rebound: Ability to pull down a missed shot on defense, denying the opponent a chance for a second shot |
| | * Post Defense: Ability to put pressure on an opposing shooter in the post/paint, reduces their shooting effectiveness |
| | * Perimeter Defense: Ability to put pressure on an opposing shooter from mid range and 3pt range, reduces their shooting effectiveness |
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| At the end of the final regular season break is the Trade Deadline -- the last day that PCs may sign unrestricted free agents or make trades for the season. After the trade deadline, PCs may still use their current season salary cap to buy out players, and can only sign RFAs to fill any last roster spots.
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| ==The Playoffs==
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| After the regular season concludes, the FBA Playoffs are held -- an elimination bracket composed of eight teams from each conference competing in best-of-seven series matchups to determine a conference champion. The winners of these brackets then face off against each other in the FBA Finals to determine the overall season champion. Detailed notes on the actual format of the bracket can be found [http://wiki.furrybasketball.net/index.php?title=2014_FBA_Playoffs#Format here.]
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| | [[Category:FBA info]] |
| --> | | --> |
Note: This page is a sandbox used to test formatting for potential updates to the Draft Candidate Resource. This page is very much a WIP, and you should use the main resource page or speak to the committee or commissioners if you have any questions.
This page is designed to be a resource for everyone thinking about creating a character for the FBA Draft. The first section gives specific tips and advice for filling out the draft submission form. The second section covers advice for playing your new character, including some ideas on how to start.
If you have any additional questions, feel free to stop by the Discord anytime. The Draftee Workshop channel is specifically for asking questions about the process and getting feedback on ideas.
The Draft Candidate Submission Form
This form is the official document to use for submitting a character for the upcoming FBA Draft. The dates for accepting draft submissions varies from year to year, but submissions often open up in the late spring or early summer, and run until early August. To check whether the form is currently open, stop by the Discord and ask or check the announcements.
The form can be found in the left sidebar on the wiki, in the Offseason section.
Background
The Background section of the form outlines your character's general biography and personal information. This includes basic info (birthdate, species, etc) and also their personal history. Much of this information will be straightforward, but two sections in particular require some thought.
Character Bio
This goes in the section labelled 'Describe your Character's background.' Your character's biography is one of the most important sections of the entire form. It's the first impression that many people will get of your character, and it can help establish the tone and potentially set up ongoing stories for your character coming into the league. The bio also makes up a significant amount of the material that the Committee will have for reviewing your submission for potential ranking in the Top 24 [1 - link to Top 24 section], and that teams' Primary Contacts [1 - link to NCG useful terms section] will have for deciding who to draft.
While there isn't a strict formula for what makes a 'good' bio, the following list has a couple things to keep in mind that will help you develop your character. You can also look at the character pages of recent years' draft candidates for inspiration.
- Origin - Make sure to communicate the important parts of where your character comes from. That varies from character to character - some characters are very grounded in their hometown, while others' bios might focus on a friend group that was important to them. Your character didn't spring into being at the age of 20 as a future basketball pro. Ensure that the information that's most important to who they are is included.
- Direction - Show where your character is headed. What are their goals and ambitions, both on and off the court? This can help establish your character's personality, their general tone, and can hint at or give inspiration for future stories.
- Drive - Your character is putting their name in to participate in the most competitive basketball league in the world. What has driven them to this level? Raw self-confidence, familial pressure, a need to prove themself, or desperate personal circumstances are a few options, but there are many others. Make sure we know how they've come to be one of the best.
- Length - A good bio can be anywhere from a couple paragraphs to a few pages long. Take the amount of space that you need to communicate who your character is, but don't get too bogged down in details. If your character's bio is getting long, you might consider cutting some of the detail and instead using it for a story about your character's past.
Schools
Where your character went to school can help define the most recent few years of their life. Not every draft candidate needs to have just come from a school; for example, they might be coming from another professional basketball league like the EFBL. That said, a school can help you establish relationships for your character with other students from the same school.
When you pick your character's school, you can either invent a new one or pick one from the Universities page. If you choose a school that has a Contact listed, it's a good idea to reach out to that Contact before submitting your character. It's best to avoid having multiple players in the same position from the same school in the draft, or to avoid overcrowding (eg - having six players from the same school in the same draft class).
Around March, the league regularly hosts the FCAA March Madness tournament and CFIS Playoffs for American and Canadian schools respectively. If you're around for these events, you can submit your character and their school as participants. If you weren't around, you can still add a character to a participating school. These tournaments are mostly intended to be opportunities for roleplay and storytelling, and the results are there to give you prompts to work with. Having a character on the winning school doesn't guarantee high ranking in the draft, and having a character on a school that placed low or didn't qualify doesn't guarantee a low ranking.
Vitals
The Vitals section of the form is where you'll put in some of the basic physical and basketball-related information about your character. This section is more straightforward than others, but it contains some critical information.
Positions
The position where your character performs the best. You may also select a secondary position they can play. Below are descriptions of the five positions. If you'd like more information, there's plenty of information online about the positions and their roles on a team. You can also look at the Playstyles section below for some example archetypes that the various positions might fill. All of these descriptions are generalizations - some players might not fit as cleanly into these categories.
- Point Guard: The Point Guard (abbreviated PG) is usually responsible to call and run the plays as they typically are the ones to be inbounded the ball. This often makes them a de facto leader. Normally a PG is required to be good at passing, though some PGs are focused solely on scoring. Most PG are under 6'6"
- Shooting Guard: The Shooting Guard (abbreviated SG) is usually the go-to scorer. Shooting Guards usually excel in at least one if not two areas on the court, whether that be Close Range (Inside the Key/Paint), Mid Range, or behind the Three-Point line. SGs tend to be taller than PGs but still somewhat on the small size for basketball players (probably good around the 6'2" - 6'8" range). SGs can be a hybrid of both being okay with playing the PG position as needed or the SF position.
- Small Forward: The Small Forward (abbreviated SF) is the middle player of the lineup. They tend to be a jack of all trades, being good at a number of skills, however they are able to specialize in just about any skill set. This can mean their success is more dependent on how well their playstyle meshes with the team. They are usually in the 6'6" - 6'11" height range.
- Power Forward: The Power Forward (abbreviated PF) is often considered the athletic bigman, though there are a number of different styles of play. One of the most common skills that help define a good PF is their rebounding, given they are often posted up in the paint where they are in a prime position to pull down the boards. Most PFs tend to be in the 6'8" - 7'1" range.
- Center: The Center (abbreviated C) is the big guy (or girl) on the team. They are generally the ones taking part in the jump ball (where the ball is tossed into the air by the ref and one player from each team tries to retrieve it). Centers tend to use their strength and size to push their way in close to the hoop or get rebounds. Most centers over 6'10".
Height and Weight
A good resource for defining height and weight: http://pinwheelempire.com/p/nba/prototypical-size-vs-reality-in-the-nba
The FBA is far more diverse than the NBA and typically has more extremes for each position. However, we still try to keep it within the realistic realm. A 7'3" PG submission or a 5'5" C submission will raise eyebrows and the contributor will be contacted about possibly changing their position or height to be more realistic. The following rules are non-negotiable for a draftee submission:
- Draftee must be 18 years old at the time of the draft
- Draftee must be no taller than 7'6" at the time of the draft^
- Draftee can be no shorter than 5'0"
- Draftee can be no heavier than 350 lbs^
^After the draft contributors can request height/weight boosts that may allow their character to exceed this, however these are dependent on stories and approval from Committee.
Top 24 Consideration
The Top 24 is exactly what it sounds like - the 24 top-rated draft candidates. Checking off this box indicates that you'd like your character to be considered for inclusion in this group.
There are a few benefits to being in the Top 24. During the Draft Combine (detailed below), the top 24 draft candidates get to participate in a set of games against each other to show off their skills to the league. After this game, they will be ranked from 1st to 24th ahead of the draft. Being included in this list greatly increases the odds of your character being drafted. Don't forget - your character's rookie salary is determined by their draft position, so they have a lot of motivation to prove themselves!
Mechanically, top 24 candidates will have slightly higher stats going into the league than non top 24 candidates.
Please note that only one character per contributor can be included in the Top 24 of each draft class. If you're submitting multiple characters, you should only check this box off for the one you really want to see in the Top 24. If you check the box off for multiple submissions, the committee will choose which one to include in the Top 24. Checking this box off doesn't guarantee inclusion in the Top 24 - if more than 24 characters are submitted for the Top 24, some will be left out. First time contributors tend to get priority for these positions.
Being in the Top 24 isn't required for a character to have good stats. Plenty of non Top 24 characters have gone on to be some of the best players in the league, and some even put up impressive numbers in their rookie seasons.