One Trade Is Tearing My League Apart.... Please Advise

[Dingram]

We try to resemble NFL franchises all the time in dynasty. In the NFL teams try to get rid of bad contracts. That's what team A did. Nothing wrong at all

[knotts4372]

im in a salary cap league where this kinda thing happens like 2 or 3 times a month. in fact i recently did exactly the same. i traded tamba hali and a 4th rd pick just to be rid of him. its good for both teams. team a gets to save salary cap, team b takes on bad contracts but gets picks to do so. its a win win for both teams. the only reason ppl are complaining imo are because they didnt think of it sooner

[zounder]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this trade. It happens all the time in the NBA. The 76ers recently received a conditional first (could be as high as the 6th overall pick this year)+ a bad player with a huge cap hit for literally nothing in return. No one batted an eye.

[DJB]

Nothing wrong with this deal as far as I can see here. The deal greatly benefits both teams.

[sloth8u]

although i completely disagree with this being a legit move...i cant wait to try this in my cap league. my offer will look like this...

hey, i dont want to take the cap hit for cutting these guys, so im going to give them and my two 4ths to you since you arent contending and have cap space. in return...you give me nothing. no need to thank me! i have a little extra cap space to sign better players.

seriously though, ive seen moves to unload contracts, but this takes the cake. one team gives absolutely nothing.

[dynastyninja]

They are giving cap space. I really don't understand what the problem is with it.

[TurtleBK]

Cap space can be measured, and therefore is as tangible as anything else in fantasy sports.

I say the trade stands and argument 1 is not accurate.

[sloth8u]

i agree that he is giving cap space. that isnt what im disagreeing with. lets put this into something real. josh gordon has 1 year left on his contract in this league. lets say he is signed for 10 mil. is he allowed to trade gordon and two 4ths for nothing? lets say an injury happens to a high dollar player who is in his final year. is that owner allowed to trade said player and two 4ths for nothing, so that he can then turn around and make a trade with another owner to replace his injured guy?

those are things for you to answer personally. if your ok with those kinds of moves...then sure this is a legitimate trade. to me, this is a back door out of bad signings or unfortunate luck. its pretty easy to say that its ok to clear cap space for players that arent significant or dont hold any value, but you cant allow it for those types of players and not every player. who could possibly step in and say that you will allow this for tate and lewis, but not for guys like rice or ap last year because of their situations. what prevents an owner from signing a guy like gore at a ridiculous cap hit, only to make a move like this to a bottom team in a year when the team isnt competing? lets say you sign him at the max number of years for a large sum, fully aware that he isnt likely to be playing the entire contract. you can always just dump it on a bottom team that can absorb the cap until he retires. imo, your league is opening up pandora's box if you let this go through, essentially any dump for any reason is ok. ultimately, its up to the league members and how you guys want to go forward. this small meaningless trade over these players and very little cap space, could certainly lead to a much larger contract involving a significant player being dumped for nothing in the future though. how will your league handle that? you will have this trade as the prescedent to look back on.

[Tsunami]

i agree that he is giving cap space. that isnt what im disagreeing with. lets put this into something real. josh gordon has 1 year left on his contract in this league. lets say he is signed for 10 mil. is he allowed to trade gordon and two 4ths for nothing? lets say an injury happens to a high dollar player who is in his final year. is that owner allowed to trade said player and two 4ths for nothing, so that he can then turn around and make a trade with another owner to replace his injured guy?

those are things for you to answer personally. if your ok with those kinds of moves...then sure this is a legitimate trade. to me, this is a back door out of bad signings or unfortunate luck. its pretty easy to say that its ok to clear cap space for players that arent significant or dont hold any value, but you cant allow it for those types of players and not every player. who could possibly step in and say that you will allow this for tate and lewis, but not for guys like rice or ap last year because of their situations. what prevents an owner from signing a guy like gore at a ridiculous cap hit, only to make a move like this to a bottom team in a year when the team isnt competing? lets say you sign him at the max number of years for a large sum, fully aware that he isnt likely to be playing the entire contract. you can always just dump it on a bottom team that can absorb the cap until he retires. imo, your league is opening up pandora's box if you let this go through, essentially any dump for any reason is ok. ultimately, its up to the league members and how you guys want to go forward. this small meaningless trade over these players and very little cap space, could certainly lead to a much larger contract involving a significant player being dumped for nothing in the future though. how will your league handle that? you will have this trade as the prescedent to look back on.

Trading draft picks for a playoff run is common in all kinds of dynasty leagues. It benefits both sides. It's obviously not a strategy that you like but it doesn't do any harm. In your example, they would have to trade picks to free up space, and then trade something else to replace the player. It's not a loophole, it's a less effective strategy in a contract league than in a dynasty league. And no decent owner is going to trade for a large long contract for only a 4th round pick, such a cap hit would hurt you more than the pick would help. The market takes care of it.

[DynoScout]

i agree that he is giving cap space. that isnt what im disagreeing with. lets put this into something real. josh gordon has 1 year left on his contract in this league. lets say he is signed for 10 mil. is he allowed to trade gordon and two 4ths for nothing? lets say an injury happens to a high dollar player who is in his final year. is that owner allowed to trade said player and two 4ths for nothing, so that he can then turn around and make a trade with another owner to replace his injured guy?

those are things for you to answer personally. if your ok with those kinds of moves...then sure this is a legitimate trade. to me, this is a back door out of bad signings or unfortunate luck. its pretty easy to say that its ok to clear cap space for players that arent significant or dont hold any value, but you cant allow it for those types of players and not every player. who could possibly step in and say that you will allow this for tate and lewis, but not for guys like rice or ap last year because of their situations. what prevents an owner from signing a guy like gore at a ridiculous cap hit, only to make a move like this to a bottom team in a year when the team isnt competing? lets say you sign him at the max number of years for a large sum, fully aware that he isnt likely to be playing the entire contract. you can always just dump it on a bottom team that can absorb the cap until he retires. imo, your league is opening up pandora's box if you let this go through, essentially any dump for any reason is ok. ultimately, its up to the league members and how you guys want to go forward. this small meaningless trade over these players and very little cap space, could certainly lead to a much larger contract involving a significant player being dumped for nothing in the future though. how will your league handle that? you will have this trade as the prescedent to look back on.

It still takes two teams to agree to a trade. You can only dump the contract on a willing trade partner. The larger the contract, the greater the cap space alpha is getting, and the higher the pick team beta can demand. Extra first and second round picks help beta get better and not having them hurts alpha. Alpha is still penalized quite heavily IMO for their poor contract, and is now forced to build through free agency instead of the draft.

I don't see this as a slippery slope situation. This is a fun and integral aspect of the gameplay in my salary cap leagues. To me resource management is an underlying foundational concept of SC leagues. Signing people to stupid contracts is poor resource management and the drop penalty or paying additional resources for someone else to take bad contracts are both penalties for giving stupid contracts.

Recent trade talks in one SC league:
- Alpha offered Ray Rice (~20% of cap) + 2015 1st for any 2015 4th --- NO TAKERS, cut Rice
- Alpha traded Matt Stafford+Marquess Wilson (~10%) for Tony Romo (~7%)
- Alpha offered Stevie Johnson (~5%) + 2014 2.12 for free --- NO TAKERS, cut Johnson

[rubber_duck]

There is a quick test that can be applied when judging if trades are shady or under-handed. Examine the trade and ask the question:

Did both teams benefit from the deal?

[Schmev22]

There is a quick test that can be applied when judging if trades are shady or under-handed. Examine the trade and ask the question:

Did both teams benefit from the deal?

Perfectly stated.

[MEuRaH]

if you can believe this, the argument is still raging on because we now need to know what the definition of a trade is, and does this previous transaction fit that definition?

Such bs......

[johnyo]

This is perfectly ok in a salary cap league. Salary cap hits can and absolutely should be tradable. For reference, my main salary cap league allows that type of trade in OP as trading the rights to an RFA after a season has ended, cap space on its own, etc.

As for the "what constitutes a trade" fiasco you're having, in my opinion "freeing up cap space by shedding a bad contract" is a perfectly viable thing for one side even if no other tangible assets are received.

You said your commish is leaning against the majority here? What is his reasoning? I think this is an important part of a salary cap league that distinguishes it from a normal league.

[Cult of Dionysus]

MEuRaH, I do think the guy has a point in discussing the larger issue of salary cap dumping. While a heavily skewed trade is certainly acceptable, I tend to agree that some nominal consideration needs to be exchanged. Giving away a player for free... I'm not so sure how I'd feel about that...especially if it was a moderately valued guy, say a Reggie Bush or Jordan Cameron, and not some scrub.

Also, any cap dump should still be analyzed as to whether it had competitive merit. By that I mean, if a very valuable player is jettisoned for pennies on the dollar when other managers would certainly have paid more. Say if someone dumps a top 5 player for a late pick... That probably wouldn't be kosher, imho, if it was clear that the manager could have easily obtained far, far greater value. I would not be adverse to adding a rule in my SC league stating that "before a valuable player is traded to another team for no tangible value in return, and merely to clear cap space, the owner must have announced his willingness to give up said player for little in return or his overall willingness to shift a significant amount of cap space for little in return."

To be clear, I fully support the concept of a cap shift, but tend to agree that some parameters need to go along with it (nominal consideration and some prior notice of some kind to the rest of the league).