SimHoops Pro Rules

SimHoops Pro Rules
Last Updated August 17, 2021

Schedule
Each season of SimHoops Pro will run between January-April, May-August or September-December. SimHoops Pro will be a 4 month season consisting of:
- Week 1 - Training camp & Exhibition Games
- Weeks 2-12 - Regular Season games (All-Star Game in Week 8)
- Weeks 12-16 - Playoffs (4 rounds)
- Week 17 - Special Event (Tourney, Olympics, etc) and Live Draft
Games
Games will be played every weekday (Monday-Friday) and an occasional Saturday between 5PM-11PM Central (US) Time. Results, standings, box scores, and play by play files will be available no later than 11PM Central Time those evenings. This means the database will be potentially unavailable between 5PM and 11PM these days. On occaision the commissioner may be out of town and thus have to run these games on the weekend (for example games for Friday could be played Saturday). Due to the injury and fatigue factors in the game, the commissioner will run no more than 1 game per team per 12 hour period. An email is sent after games are run and the database has been uploaded to the website.
Rosters
Team rosters will consist of 12 players - 2 players at each position and 2 additional bench players. Owners will have the ability to make roster moves (see below) as well as assign starting and bench players and assign how much the starting players should shoot (for example, if you have a center with a low FG Rating, you may want him to shoot less). One injured list roster spot is available if a player is injured (a total of 13 roster spots). You cannot place a player who is not considered injured on the Injured List and once he is healthy you must activate him or risk losing him. You will also be able to select the skills emphasis in training camp (see below).
Skills Training
At the beginning of each month, players will get skills increases/decreases according to age and the skills emphasis. Skills currently assigned are Shooting, 3-point shooting, FT-Shooting, Rebounding, Defense, Ball-handling and Stamina. Each player can be trained in each of the seven attributes. Each attribute must be trained between 5%-40%, with all training equaling 100%. A player does have a cap on how much he can improve in each category. There is a hidden potential rating that explains the cap for each player/rating combination.
Roster Moves
Roster moves will only consist of adding/dropping players from available free agents, acquiring players via waivers, trades and the SimHoops Pro Draft (which happens at the end of each season for the next season). Trading of draft picks is allowed up to three seasons in advance. Please note only teams with paying owners can make trades. Roster moves will be allowed anytime the database is accessible on a first-come, first-served basis. Since this is a fee-based game, trade fees no longer exist.
Farm Clubs
Beginning with Season #3 (Sept 2002), the Elite League teams will have an associated Farm Club in the Semi-Pro League. Elite teams can call-up and drop players onto this teams roster. If the owner has a team in each league, then his team's will work together and no fees are assessed.
Salary Cap
Salary Cap Information Is on the player movement page

Injuries/Fatigue/Stamina
Players are subject to fatigue on a game by game basis as well as in-game fatigue. Players can also become injured at any time during the game. Most injuries will sit the player down part of a quarter, some will for the rest of the game, and in a few cases, some for multiple games. These injuries are currently random, at some point an injury rating may be established to show players as more/less injury prone. A player can never go above 100%. A player who goes below 60% will be considered too fatigued to play and therefore "injured". A player who is less than 90% can still play but will start to lose skills depending on their rating (a player at 65% will not be as effective as if he were 85%).

90-100% Fatigue Rating - Peak Condition
85-89% - Good Condition
80-84% - OK Condition
75-79% - Fair Condition
70-74% - Needs Rest
65-69% - Very Tired
60-64% - Near Injury
Under 60% - Injured

Players gain/lose fatigue based on their stamina rating. This is a new rating implemented in Season 5 (May 2003). Players with high stamina do not fatigue as fast and recover from injury more quickly. Players with low stamina will fatigue more quickly and take longer to recover from injury. If a player is injured, the lowest amount of fatigue points he will gain back per game is 3. The more minutes a player plays, the faster he will fatigue (but his stamina rating will also increase). Below is a table of how much fatigue a player will lose based on minutes played and stamina:

Stam →
↓ Min 10 30 50 70 90

0 3 4 5 6 7

5 2 3 4 5 6

10 1 2 3 4 5

15 0 1 2 3 4

20 -1 0 1 2 3

25 -2 -1 0 1 2

30 -3 -2 -1 0 1

35 -4 -3 -2 -1 0

40 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

45 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2

Fatigue Bonus
All players receive fatigue rating bonuses during the season at three specified times:
1) After the exhibition season and before the regular season (+10).
2) During the all-star break (+10)
3) After the regular season and before the playoffs (+10)
Players on teams that win a consolation or playoff round before the deciding game will receive a +5 fatigue bonus for each game they do not have to play in. For example, if a team wins a best of 7 series in 5 games, the players will receive a +10 fatigue bonus.
Injuries will not carry over into a new season, so all players will start each season at 100%.

Player Skills
As mentioned above, players will have certain skill ratings which affect how they play over the course of a season. Individual game stats may vary as there are random elements involved in the simulation program. You will see ratings in one of 6 categories (see below):

Rating/Skill	FG Shooting	3PT Shooting	FT Shooting	Rebounding	Ball Handling	Defense
Poor	35-39%	20-23%	56-60%	40-43%	16-17% TO	35-39%
Fair	40-43%	24-27%	61-65%	44-47%	14-15%	40-44%
Average	44-47%	28-31%	66-70%	48-51%	12-13%	45-49%
Good	48-51%	32-35%	71-75%	52-54%	10-11%	50-54%
Excellent	52-55%	36-39%	76-80%	55-57%	8-9%	55-59%
All-Pro	56-60%	40-43%	81-85%	58-60%	6-7%	60-65%

Player Retirement
Players will age each season. A player who is 23 in Season 1 will be 24 in Season 2, etc... Players will retire sometime between their 33rd and 40th birthdays. Retirement will be a random event (with some determination based on ratings to further discourage great players from retiring early) to determine at which age they retire, but all players will retire at the end of the season. Retirements will be announced following the All-Star game. Retirement will be based as follows:
- Age 33: Players who are currently 32 (would be 33 in the upcoming season) will have about a 3% (give or take depending on player skill ratings) chance of retiring at the end of the current season.
- Age 34: 10%
- Age 35: 20%
- Age 36: 40%
- Age 37: 60%
- Age 38: 80%
- Age 39: 90%
- Age 40: All players will retire the season before they turn 40.
Fees
Each owner recieves a 25 game free trial to determine if they like the game. To continue to play, there are a couple payment options:
- One season small-market package - 1000 credits ($10) - Allows a full season (4 months) of gameplay
- One season major-market package - 2000 credits ($20) - Allows a full season (4 months) of gameplay and includes special weekly newsletters and pre-draft camp newsletters filled with information to help you win!
- Collection of Fees - All fees must be paid via PayPal. Each owner can access their current balance and invoices when they login.
- Playoff Series victories in either league will results in awarded credits that can be applied towards any fees.
- All changes must be made before the 2nd week of the season. All fees must be paid before credits can be used.
- The commissioner reserves the right to offer special pricing at any time and all decisions are final.
Tiebreakers
For the purposes of playoff seeding and/or draft lottery, the following tiebreakers are applied:
- Head to Head Regular-Season Record
- Division Record (if both teams reside in the same division)
- Conference Record
- Regular-Season W-L Percentage against other playoff teams in the same conference
- Regular-Season Scoring Margin
- Virtual Coin-Flip
- Division Record (if both teams reside in the same division)
- Conference Record
- Head to Head Regular-Season Record across all teams tied
- Regular-Season W-L Percentage against other playoff teams in the same conference
- Regular-Season Scoring Margin
- Virtual Coin-Flip
Ghost Owners
From time to time, not all teams will be owned by human owners. A paying owner of another franchise may run a CPU-team as a caretaker (affectionately known as ghost ownership) in a different elite division than their own (different conference preferred). The commissioner may always intervene if he feels the spirit of the game is being violated by a particular GM move for a ghost team (or improperly benefitting their owned franchise). The following GM moves will be allowed to help out the ghost team:
- Promotions/Demotions
- Waiver Wire
- In-season free agent acquisitions
- Restricted Free Agency signings
- Unrestricted free agency signings (rounds 2 and 3 only)
- Trades during the regular season (between Game 1 of regular season after rosters are in compliance and before the trade deadline). 2nd and/or 3rd round draft picks may be moved, although the ghost team must always have at least one 2nd/3rd round pick in every subsequent draft. 1st round picks for CPU-owned teams can never be traded.
In addition, all ghost team draft picks, including 3rd rounders, will have players selected (in the past, 3rd round picks were removed)