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This is an idea I worked up on how trading could be implemented in BB. I have read through some of the other threads and noted concerns that I hope are corrected by this idea. Some key points of this idea:
-1 player for 1 player trades only
-The existing transfer list system stays in place
-The existing limit on salary that can be acquired stays in place
-Trades are only for players that are put on the TL. They can’t be initiated for players that are not already available for sale.
-$0 transfers cannot be traded for (since these are players put up by the computer due to team bankruptcy).
-A team can accept only 1 offer from any other team each season
-No trades would be allowed between teams managed by the same manager

Overview:
A selling manager would put a player on the TL with a starting bid value and would check a box to allow trade offers.
Up to 5 offers at a time can be pending for each player.
Only 1 offer per manager can be pending for a given player at a time. This allows other managers to make offers.
Because only 5 offers can be pending per player, to prevent a manager from logjamming the offer list for a given player by offering over and over again, only 3 offers can be made for a player per auction per manager. Once the 3rd offer is rejected, no further offers can be made by that manager for that player, although the manager can still bid cash only.

Offers are limited by the salary of the player on sale. The salary of the offered player must be at least 75% of the salary of the TL player and cannot exceed that of the TL player. (I used 75% as an example. BB could go 50% or even 95%. Whatever works for fairness, but still makes trades interesting and viable.) The difference in salary is paid by the offering manager.

The selling manager has the option to accept any one trade offer for that player. Each offer can also be rejected by the selling manager. If an offer is rejected, new offers can be made up to the limit for each player. If a player has been offered in a trade and the trade has not been accepted or rejected, that player cannot be put on the TL or offered in a different trade. If an offer is accepted, assuming neither player is currently playing in a live game, the players are swapped, the difference in salary is paid, the trade is complete, and the player is removed from the TL. If no trade is accepted before the auction expires, then no trade is performed and the highest cash bidder wins the player. If no cash bids were made, the auction expires and the player will need to be relisted.

Here are changes that all players would see:
For all managers, a new checkbox option would be added to Preferences. It would read, “Always allow trade offers for Transfer listed players?” If the box is checked, any player the team manager puts up for Transfer would have the trade option checked by default, though it can still be unchecked. If it isn’t checked in preferences, the trade option is defaulted to unchecked for each player when the player is listed, though the manager can still check the box on each individual player when the player is listed.

For all teams, a list would be created that would contain all of the teamids of all of the teams that they have accepted offers from during the current season. At the end of the season, the list would be reset. This prevents a team from collaborating to trade all of their best players to another team.

Under Current Transfers on the Manage My Team page for all managers, a new line would be added that reads: “# trade offers on your # players” where the first number is how many offers you have pending and the second is how many players are on the trade list that are eligible for trade offers. Also a new line would be added that reads: “# trades offered on # players” where the first number is how many offers you have made that have not been accepted or rejected and the second is how many players you have made offers for on the trade list.

Last edited by Tom Bane at 8/15/2014 7:03:14 PM

When selling a player, the following changes would need to be implemented:
On the player page, beneath Transfer list this player and Starting Cost, there would be a checkbox followed by “When on transfer list, allow trade offers for this player?” that is defaulted to unchecked. If the manager sets his preference to always allow trades, this box is defaulted to checked.

On the Bids page, a new section would be added that says “Current Trades Offered on Players Owned by #teamname”. Trade offers would be grouped or sorted by the player on the TL. When a player is offered, the entry would read, “#newplayer has been offered for #yourplayer with additional cash of $”. #newplayer is a link to the player being offered. #yourplayer is a link to your player on the TL. $ is the difference in salary between the two players that will be paid by the offering manager. After the deadline column, a new column would be added that has two buttons in it for each offer that is listed in this section. The buttons would be labeled Accept and Reject. Reject would remove the offer from that section and allow another offer to be made up to the limit of offers for that player. Accept would accept the offer, transfer the players to their new teams, transfer the salary difference to the accepting team, and remove the auction from the TL. It would also add the teamid the offer was accepted from to the selling players Accepted Offers List which then prevents that team from making any offers on any others players that team puts up for sale for the rest of the current season. The Accept button would not be available during Live games.

Last edited by Tom Bane at 8/15/2014 4:46:58 PM

When buying/trading for a player, the following changes would need to be implemented:
On the Search the Transfer List page, a new checkbox would be added under Best Position that would say “Trade Offers only?” If checked on search, only players on the Transfer List that allow trade offers would be displayed.

On the Transfer List page search results, a new icon (maybe a stylized TA for “Trades Allowed”) would be added after the player’s name and player id that would indicate that trades are allowed for that player. Beneath Starting Price, it would read “Offers Pending : #” and show the number of offers pending for that player.

Once a player is selected that a manager wants to trade for, on the player page in the section that says “Place a bid on this player”, a dropdown would be added that is beneath the box where you input your bid with a label before it that reads “Offer:”. The dropdown would contain all of the players on the offering manager’s team that are within 75% of the salary of the player selected and equal to or less than the selected player’s salary. The dropdown would exclude any player currently on the Transfer List or already being offered in a trade. It would also exclude any player who was recently traded and has not played in at least 5 league games for the current manager. This option would be grayed out during Live games. It would be followed by a button that says “Offer Trade” which would send the offer to the selling manager. The button would be followed by a label that says “Offers Remaining:” and the number of offers the offering manager can still make for this player. It would start at 3 and decrement by 1 for each offer by the offering manager that is rejected for that player. If the player already has 5 trade offers pending , the dropdown and “Offer Trade” button would be replaced with a message that says “Maximum offers pending for this player.” If your teamid is on the selling players Accepted Offers List, the dropdown, “Offer Trade” button, and “Offers Remaining:” text would be replaced with a message that says “No further trades allowed this season with this team.”

On the Bids page, a new section would be added that says “Pending Trade Offers made by #teamname”. When a player is offered, an entry would be added to this section that reads, “#yourplayer has been offered for #newplayer with additional cash of $”. #yourplayer is a link to the player you are offering. #newplayer is a link to the player on the TL. $ is the difference in salary between the two players that you will pay to the selling manager.

Once an offer is accepted your teamid will be added to the selling players Accepted Offers List which then prevents you from making any offers on any other players that team puts up for sale for the rest of the current season. There will continue to be no limit on the number of players you can bid cash only on.


Edit: Added restriction on trade offer to prevent recently traded players from being offered until they have played in at least 5 league games for the current team.

Last edited by Tom Bane at 8/18/2014 2:05:15 PM

No transfer or even no player who ever played in one of the team could play for the other one. Assuming you were talking about Utopia, since apart that exception, nobody is allowed to have two teams and could be ban for that.

That is what I was suggesting. I don't know if that is already in place for transfers between your main team and your Utopia team, but if so, the same restriction would apply. This idea works in conjunction with whatever rules already exist in game.

first of all, good work on providing lots of detail with your suggestion. I like the way you have covered a lot of the implementation ideas and thats really good.

Something which all suggestions should have are:
- What is the benefit that this suggestion is going to give to the game?
- How or why is this going to make the game better?
- What are the impacts to the current system/s?

So whilst you have provided LOTS of really good detail about how you imagine it working, there isn't a lot of detail abouot the above 3 questions.

So please have a go at answering those questions.....sell it to me..... and then ill respond with my thoughts. :)

Your first two questions are essentially the same question.

One benefit I foresee is that managers looking for new players will send messages to other managers to setup deals. Especially with the limit on offers per player, a manager would want to make sure they are offering something the selling manager wants. An increase in communication between the players is a good thing in my opinion. Currently, a manager does not need to interact with any other manager at all in order to acquire a new player.

This would also help managers who spent rashly downsize their budgets and get some cash and a player in return for someone they really couldn't afford to keep. They aren't handicapping their team by simply selling off the player and only getting cash in return because they are getting someone who can still help their team, but doesn't cost quite as much.

I think it would help drive prices down a bit on the TL as well because, by making a good offer, you won't have to pay as much for a good player.

Also, this idea adds more manager style tools to the game. This idea fills the hole in the toolset that most professional sports leagues have. There doesn't seem to be as much player driven wheeling and dealing going on, something that managers do all the time in the NBA. Because this is a managing simulator, it just makes sense to add more fun tools for managing your team that build on all of the excellent tools already available in game.

One impact I foresee is that the offseason would be more interesting. Once the draft ends, every team will have low salary players on their roster that would all be trade assets since their salaries are so similar. If you didn't get what you wanted in the draft, you could offer your player up and ask for what you were looking for and any manager could meet that request since everyone gets 3 draftees and someone may have drafted that rookie you were looking for.

I don't really see any negative impacts since this is adding on to the existing system which managers can still use if they need cash over a new player. Does anyone else see anything that was missing or would hurt the game in the proposed idea?

One benefit I foresee is that managers looking for new players will send messages to other managers to setup deals. Especially with the limit on offers per player, a manager would want to make sure they are offering something the selling manager wants. An increase in communication between the players is a good thing in my opinion. Currently, a manager does not need to interact with any other manager at all in order to acquire a new player.

Yep good

This would also help managers who spent rashly downsize their budgets and get some cash and a player in return for someone they really couldn't afford to keep. They aren't handicapping their team by simply selling off the player and only getting cash in return because they are getting someone who can still help their team, but doesn't cost quite as much.

Yes actually very good point there, well stated.

Also, this idea adds more manager style tools to the game. This idea fills the hole in the toolset that most professional sports leagues have. There doesn't seem to be as much player driven wheeling and dealing going on, something that managers do all the time in the NBA. Because this is a managing simulator, it just makes sense to add more fun tools for managing your team that build on all of the excellent tools already available in game.

Yep fair enough, but ill comment on this in my next post.

ok so there is a negative about introducing a trade mechanism and you kinda touched on it when you talk about reduction of player prices.

BuzzerBeater in general, as a game, is a very fragile economic environment. When BB's made changes to say, player salaries to reduce the overall salary of higher-salaried players, they did so (and still do) over the course of many seasons, such as to not upset the apple cart of the economic system.
There is a danger that a trade mechanism would cause a conflict with whole economic system and WHY we even have an economic system. Ive posted this before and details can be found here - (261454.8)

Now - onto real life sports trading - lets use the NBA as an example.
Most trades in the NBA, especially now, are because of the following factors
- Player is unhappy with team (or doesn't get along with coach - think Deron Williams - Utah Jazz scenario) - team trade him.
- Player contract is causing financial issues and so you end up 'trading' the contract. (eg: You take the large contract of player X, and give me a good player Y in return).
- Player asks to be traded

less and less likely will NBA players be traded for other players in order to meet team requirements, like how it would work in BB. BB won't ever need trading due to contract reasons or player not getting along. The only reason why you would trade is because you have player X who doesn't quite fit into your system and you want someone of equal value, but with slightly different skill sets who WILL fit into your system. Which doesn't happen much in real life.

also I just don't know how often people would be willing to risk a trade.


Plus there is the whole increased in cheating thing, which is pretty obvious.

So there you have it. I like the idea of it, I really do, and I myself have thought about how it could work (and to be honest, your effort is pretty good, best ive seen so far) but i just can't see it ever working unfortunately.

i disagree with any trade proposal no matter how well thought of or explained


the current TL is doing just fine