The parties involved in the Lockout arent giving much away - understandably; however, I get the feeling they may be making progress. They seem to be meeting more regularly now, and just today, several sites are reporting that its been leaked that the owners are willing to back down on their demands for a "hard salary cap system".

Currently the NBA has a "soft" salary cap system in place, where (basically) it is possible to exceed the salary cap - with relatively small penalties for doing so. The "hard" system that the owners are trying to introduce would not allow teams to exceed the salary cap at all; so it seems to be the general view that the owners backing down on this factor (if they even are - nothing solid has been reported yet) would be a significant step in the right direction for an agreement to be made.

Anyway, whether we are close or still a long way off is hard to know, so we should push on full steam ahead in setting up our fantasy comp.

We now have 36 players interested! Which is perfect for 3 leagues of 12 - Premier league, Div1 and 2 - but Ive just realised that there is one guy that played last season that hasnt come fwd yet for this year and last years players should get 1st preference imo. Each league will be split into two conferences (Too & Serious). There are 22 weeks during the season, so everyone will play the teams in their own conference twice, and the other 6 teams only once. Then there will be 3 weeks (but actually 2 weeks per matchup) of finals with the winner of each conference getting a bye in the first game heading straight through to the Semi Final. -- Later, over the break, Ill outline who is in each league.

Now we just have to work out our scoring... Last year we had a pretty good system imo, but I think everyone agreed that it needed a small amount of tinkering. I personally think that we only need to change a couple of stats - increasing the points awarded for Blocks and Offensive Boards, and I think we should try to reduce the penalty for shooting badly for 3 and from the line. There have been a few suggestions already made in the previous thread, and Ill outline them over the break as well:::::::

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First things first, here are the leagues:

Too Serious NBA PREMIER LEAGUE:

Owen, HEAVER, karlos, Micka?, Jasmine, fudge, anthak, dabombers, chris88, walesy, maggots, Ruddy.

Div 1:

stowie, Fez, UnderAchievers, Steve, Doobs, Sainter, TN, BlueBeliever, brobyn, bgt2110, LiQuiD_SiXx, Sainterz12.

Div 2:

Rev, spm67, blankmc, soups, twoeyec, Don_Cottagers, maxweas, smokinjoemisiti, nicksnow, minis, Jet, &amp; the last spot needs to go to one of travyboy11 or Son of Whips...

If Micka doesnt want to play, or doesnt come fwd quick enough, then both travyboy11 and Son of Whips will get a gig, and Rev would go into Div1, and whoever finished 13th last season will move into Premier (cant remember of top of my head who it was but can check if necessary). But if Micka does want to play, then Whips son should get in as he (technically speaking Whips did on his sons behalf) came fwd before travyboy11; but I dont think Whips son is a TS member yet... anyway, Im thinking outloud here, and its late. Itll all work out. Somebody may have to miss out though - or be 1st emergency.

Now onto the scoring, heres some of the chatter from the other thread:
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=dabombers">dabombers[/url]</cite> says: On our scoring and PG dominance we might need to go back over some stats and work out how to even it up. Dont want to penalise PF/C’s for getting assists.</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=Steve">Steve[/url]</cite> says: Do we reduce assists by 1 point? Open to any suggestions.</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=anthak">anthak[/url]</cite> says: what dan was saying – and I agree with him – is that we shouldn’t reduce assists, as it would also disadvantage players of other positions that get assists. I think we should leave assists as they are, and increase blocks, and maybe rebounds.</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=stowie">stowie[/url]</cite> says: I can’t find the forum thread where I suggested we use the FIC as our base scoring system(http://basketball.realgm.com/src_fromtherafters/138/20080109/the_reina_value/#ixzz1YNAkj1Lf)

(Points
+ Offensive Rebounds
+ .75 Defensive Rebounds
+ Assists
+ Steals
+ Blocks
- .75 Field Goal Attempts
- .375 Free Throw Attempts
- Turnovers
- .5 Personal Fouls)

The Top 5 Last Season:

Kevin Love Timberwolves 20.05
LeBron James Heat 19.93
Dwight Howard Magic 19.88
Pau Gasol Lakers 17.58
Blake Griffin Clippers 17.47</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=anthak">anthak[/url]</cite> says: Looks ok stowie. Where would have last season’s MVP – Derrick rose – come in on the list? I would be happy with that system, but tbh I reckon we were almost spot on with our own system, and it only needs a minor adjustment IMO. I reckon it is prob better as it takes a lot more into consideration.</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=stowie">stowie[/url]</cite> says: @ant_hack: DRose came in 10th (16.06). I think most the other stats used were really duplications of others (eg. Free Throws Made and Points). I find FIC a simple formula that includes the major stats once and doesn’t over complicate things <img src="http://tooserious.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt="" /></blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=anthak">anthak[/url]</cite> says: I reckon the scoring was the best factor of our system. I wouldn’t look at it as duplicating stats, just look at the final outcome:

*if you shoot
50% FG’s then you will score 1 point for every point made = 2 points for a dunk.
40% 3pt then you will score 1 point for every point scored = 3 points per basket.
66.67% Ft’s then you will score 1 point for every point scored = 1 point per FT made
* you will start scoring negatives when you are:
below 25% for both FG’s and 3pt’s
and below 50% for FT’s.
*and the better someone shoots the more points they get for their baskets in all 3 categories.

The better someone shot they were rewarded more and more. Especially if they scored a heap of points. And vice versa, if a player shot badly they would be penalized more and more the worse they shot.</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=dabombers">dabombers[/url]</cite> says: @Anthak, You got my point dead on. I dont think we should penalise PG’s for getting 20 assists and scoring a truckload of points from last years scoring system. And Certain PF/C’s were quite capable of scoring 70+pts with dbl/dble’s in reb/Pts catagories, if they got it in blocks there was a 100pts in the bag, but that was rare if it even ever happened.

I think the 3 cat’s we need to look at are TO’s, Steals, And 3pts missed.
3pts as they were penalised twice I think for a FG missed and 3pt missed. Which penalises SG/SF’s the most.
Steals should be rewarded more but then do we reward blocks in the same vein.

From memory PG’s esp good ones were golden but good PF/C’s were a close second, Gasol early, Griffen etc. But I dont think there was a SG in the top ten and LeBron was the only SF.

The only solution I can see it to increase a few stats by only a small amount eg 0.5 as to increase some by more will unbalance what a great scoring system we did have.

Anyone else got any ideas or changes they would do?</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=HEAVER">HEAVER[/url]</cite> says: I realise that everyone is used to the scoring system we have in place already. i think it worked pretty well – didn’t like the missed FTs and missed 3s as Dan indicated. those missed FTs wrecked havoc for someone like dwight howard!

but I’ve recently signed up to Yahoo’s fantasy bball and they have another scoring system. It’s based on winning certain categories (ie pts, assts, rebs, FG%, 3PM, FTM, blks, stls, TOs etc). So there’s 9 categories, and if you win 5/9 categories vs your opponent that week you get the Win for the week.

So there’s no weighting as such like we have – and you need to have good overall players that contribute multi-stat categories. Or you could try to overload on one stat and dominate that way. just depends on ur strategy.

there’s no pts for double doubles, ejections etc which might leave the fun out of it (and didn’t I just love KLove’s recording breaking consecutive double doubles!)

I think this is called the ‘roto’ style of scoring? not sure – from what I’ve read the hard-core fantasy guys use this scoring system. maybe something to consider?</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=UnderAchievers">UnderAchievers[/url]</cite> says: @Heaver I have used that scoring system in the past for NHL and MLB, and although it is a very fair system, I cant express how much more enjoyable it was following my players in the NBA last year watching their scores rise and fall using the point scoring system we had.
I cant think of the best way to ‘fix’ the scoring we had, the only thing I can suggest is removing the utility positions and making the team set-up PG,SG,PF,SF,C,F,F,G,G,B,B,B. Something along these lines will require each team to have the same number of forwards and guards, removing the possibility of someone loading up on SGs etc
Not sure if this will work, but its food for thought</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=Fez">Fez[/url]</cite> says: My 2 bobs worth re the scoring

Defensive rebounds 2
Offensive rebounds 3
Instead of +6 for a made 3 pointer and -2 for a miss I suggest a 5 for a make -1 for a miss
Only -1 for a missed FT instead of -2

Also potentially looking at bonus points for milestones eg 20 rebounds 5 blocks/steals shooting 40 points and so on</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=anthak">anthak[/url]</cite> says: @Heaver, I have to agree with UA’s… The two times I had played fantasy bball before last season, I had played with that system, and the points system last year was sooo much more fun.

@Fez, I reckon thats an excellent idea about milestones gaining points, but Im not sure if its possible. Unless the league admin added the points manually, but that would be way to much to do.

and on the 3pointer and FT suggestions, I havent time right now to see what effect that would have. so I wont comment yet on that bit.</blockquote>
<blockquote><cite><a rel="external nofollow" href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=Jet">Jet[/url]</cite> says: I’ve played the last 3 years and we’ve changed our scoring system each year. Have found it very hard to make it even amongst positions. The first year guards were heavily favoured, 2nd year PF/C were and last year pretty even. One thing that I definitely think worked though was less is more.
Last year we just had rebounds as 1 category, scrapped any penaltys for fouls or ejections and tried to avoid ‘doubling up on any stats’ it worked really well.
I guess at the end of the day everyone plays under the same rules, but you kinda want guys like Howard to be scoring the same as someone like Rose.</blockquote>
So yeah, there were some interesting ideas being thrown around, but it would be great to get some more opinions! especially those that played last season.

And here is a run-down of how our scoring looked last season:

Points (PTS)1

Blocks (BLK)4

Steals (STL)4

Assists (AST)3

Offensive Rebounds (OREB)2

Defensive Rebounds (DREB)1

Ejections (EJ)-10

Flagrant Fouls (FF)-4

Personal Fouls (PF)-1

Technical Fouls (TF)-3

Turnovers (TO)-3

Disqualifications (DQ)-5

Field Goals Made (FGM)1

Free Throws Made (FTM)1

Three Pointers Made (3PM)2

Field Goals Missed (FGMI)-1

Free Throws Missed (FTMI)-2

Three Pointers Missed (3PMI)-1

Double Doubles (DD)6

Triple Doubles (TD)11

Quadruple Doubles (QD)20

Team Wins (TW)1

.

What do you all reckon?