BuzzerBeater Forums

Just thinking out loud:

If teams stayed in the same league, even after a champion is crown. And the only free agencies/players available are from your league. You would most likely see less 40-60 year old players in this game. And in a sense players would retire, at a "normal" age. Not sure, but more training of younger player's would probably go on. And this is how the top team, the aka champion team, would not stay atop "forever"

Another thing, im not sure how many active teams there really are, but you would have less if any bot teams. This part has nothing to do with the new teams in this league, but new teams are kinda scary because you DON'T know if their be active or not. This wouldnt change things either way, and really has nothing to do with anything.

If theres an odd # of active teams, add an extra team or two to leagues, OR have 20 teams per league. (10 on each side, with only 4 teams making playoffs) i think it would definitely keep the playoff race interesting up until the final day. Most seasons than not anyway.

*More realistic BB, then it is right now*

>>> Maybe try running it more like the NBA...

Yup. With a limited free agent market, it makes star players more valuable, being that there are only sixteen teams training players. Which also means that the stars that DO exist will have legacies of their own which adds to the immersiveness of the BB experience. That's missing right now because, unless you're in a top division in an active country/region, there is always a player available on the TL to make your team better. Especially if you're not imposing self restrictions, like me, with only buying USA players.

Like you said, a concern in a promotionless system is inactivity. But I do believe that playing with the same people and developing rivalries would keep even the non playoff teams interested. Another thing you could do is give new managers control of an inactive team as is, instead of an entirely new one. In a one league system it would be bad if an entire team goes into free agency when a new manager joins the game. The best teams would just pick up the good players and become even more dominant, leaving the new guy and the bottom teams screwed for a long time, which will result in more inactivity.

I think sixteen teams is fine. I'd rather have more seasons to play through.