The basketball GM glossary

Cap and contracts

The salary cap, the tax, the aprons, exceptions, Bird rights and contract types

Salary capA salary cap is the limit on the total player salary a basketball team can carry, set by the league each season.Luxury taxThe luxury tax is a payment a basketball team owes when its payroll is above the tax line, a threshold set above the salary cap.Apron (first and second)An apron is a payroll line above the luxury tax that takes team-building tools away from the teams that cross it.Hard capA hard cap is a payroll line a team cannot cross for any reason: no exception, no re-signing right and no trade can take total salary past it.Soft capA soft cap is a salary cap a team is allowed to exceed through defined routes, such as re-signing its own players or using exceptions, instead of a line that…Cap spaceCap space is the gap between a team's committed salary and the salary cap: the money it can offer free agents or absorb in trades without using an exception.Cap holdA cap hold is an amount charged against a team's cap for a player it does not have under contract yet, usually a free agent it still holds rights to, so the…Bird rightsBird rights let a basketball team go over the salary cap to re-sign its own player.Mid-level exceptionThe mid-level exception (MLE) is a yearly allowance that lets a basketball team over the salary cap sign a free agent up to a set amount.Minimum contractA minimum contract pays a player the lowest salary the league allows. A veteran minimum is the same idea for an experienced player, and teams can sign minimum…Max contractA max contract pays a player the most the league allows, a percentage of the salary cap that rises with their years of service.Rookie scale contractA rookie scale contract is the fixed-length, fixed-salary deal a first-round draft pick signs, with the salary set by where they were picked rather than…Team optionA team option is a contract year the team can choose to pick up or decline, usually the last year of the deal, decided before free agency opens.Player optionA player option is a contract year the player, not the team, can choose to pick up or decline.Restricted free agentA restricted free agent (RFA) is a player whose contract has ended but whose old team keeps the right to match any offer they sign elsewhere, a right created…Unrestricted free agentAn unrestricted free agent is a player whose contract has ended and who can sign with any team, with no right for their old team to match.Qualifying offerA qualifying offer (QO) is a one-year contract offer a team makes to its own young free agent to make them restricted, which gives the team the right to match…Contract extensionA contract extension adds new years to a player's current deal before it expires, so they never reach free agency.Dead moneyDead money is salary that still counts against a team's cap for a player no longer on the roster, usually because they were released with guaranteed years left…Waive / waiversTo waive a player is to release them from their contract. The team keeps paying any guaranteed salary as dead money, and the player becomes a free agent.Stretch provisionThe stretch provision lets a team that releases a player spread their remaining guaranteed salary over more seasons than their contract had left, lowering the…BuyoutA buyout is an agreement in which a player gives back part of their guaranteed salary in exchange for being released early, usually so they can join a…

Trades and team building

Salary matching, the deadline, picks, the lottery, tanking, the depth chart

Salary matchingSalary matching is the rule that a basketball team over the salary cap can only take back trade salary within a set margin of what it sends out, so trades…Sign-and-tradeA sign-and-trade is a transaction in which a team re-signs its own free agent and immediately trades the player to another team, usually so the new team can…Trade exceptionA trade exception, or traded player exception, is a credit a team receives when it trades away more salary than it takes back, which it can use within a year…Trade deadlineThe trade deadline is the last day of the regular season on which teams may trade players.Draft pick protectionDraft pick protection is a condition on a traded pick that returns it to the original team if it lands in a protected range.Pick swapA pick swap is the right to exchange draft positions with another team in a given year, taking the better of the two picks if yours turns out worse.Draft lotteryA draft lottery is a weighted random draw that decides the top picks in a sports draft among the teams that missed the playoffs, giving the worst teams the…Draft rightsDraft rights are a team's exclusive right to sign a player it drafted. Until the player signs or the rights lapse, no other team can sign them.TankingTanking is losing on purpose over a stretch of a season to get a better draft pick, usually by resting or trading away good players.RebuildA rebuild is a deliberate period in which a team gives up on contending now, trades older players for draft picks and young talent, clears salary and plays its…Salary dumpA salary dump is a trade whose point is to shed a contract rather than to get talent back, usually sweetened with a draft pick for the team that absorbs the…Trade blockThe trade block, or trading block, is the informal list of players a team is willing to trade.Depth chartA depth chart is a team's ordered list of who plays each position: the starter first, then the backups in the order they would come in.RotationA rotation is the set of players a coach actually uses in a game and the pattern of substitutions that gets them their minutes.Closing lineupA closing lineup, or closing five, is the group of players a coach wants on the floor at the end of a close game, which is not always the starting five.Sixth manA sixth man is the first player off the bench, often a scorer good enough to start who gives the second unit a focal point.

Stats

Pace, usage, the four factors, shooting efficiency, ratings, PER, plus-minus

PacePace is the number of possessions a basketball team uses per 48 minutes. A fast team plays more possessions, so both it and its opponent score more points; a…Usage rateUsage rate (USG%) is the share of a team's possessions a player ends while on the floor, by shooting, drawing free throws or turning the ball over.Four factorsThe four factors are the four box-score rates that explain most of why a basketball team wins or loses: shooting (effective field goal percentage), turnovers…Effective field goal percentage (eFG%)Effective field goal percentage (eFG%) is field goal percentage adjusted so that a made three-pointer counts for one and a half made twos, because it is worth…True shooting percentage (TS%)True shooting percentage (TS%) measures scoring efficiency across field goals, three-pointers and free throws together, as points per shooting possession.Offensive ratingOffensive rating (ORtg) is points scored per 100 possessions. Using possessions instead of games removes pace from the comparison, so a slow, efficient team…Defensive ratingDefensive rating (DRtg) is points allowed per 100 possessions. Lower is better, and like offensive rating it strips out pace so fast and slow teams can be…Net ratingNet rating is offensive rating minus defensive rating: a team's point margin per 100 possessions.Player efficiency rating (PER)Player efficiency rating (PER) is a per-minute, all-in-one box-score rating created by John Hollinger: it adds up a player's positive contributions, subtracts…Plus-minusPlus-minus (+/-) is the team's point margin while a player was on the floor: if the team outscored its opponent by 7 during their minutes, they are +7.Per-36 minutesPer-36 minutes stats scale a player's totals to what they would be in 36 minutes a game, so a bench player on 18 minutes can be compared to a starter on 36.

Sim league terms

GM sims, sim leagues, commissioners, advancing, ratings, scouting fog, dynasties, AI GMs

GM simA GM sim is a sports management game in which you make a team's front-office decisions (drafting, trading, signing and paying players, setting the lineup) and…Sim leagueA sim league is a multiplayer league inside a sports simulation game, where each human runs one team, a commissioner runs the league, and the computer plays…CommissionerA commissioner is the person who runs a sim league: they create it, invite the GMs, set its rules, keep it moving and settle disputes.Sim day / advanceA sim day is one day of the league calendar; to advance (or "sim to the next day") is to play every game scheduled on that day and move the calendar forward.Auto-advanceAuto-advance is a sim league setting that moves the league forward on a timer, so nobody has to press a button for each day and the league keeps a steady pace…OVR (overall rating)OVR, or overall rating, is the single number a basketball game uses to sum up how good a player is, combining their individual skill ratings into one figure.PotentialPotential is a projection of how good a young player can become, as opposed to how good they are now.Scouting fogScouting fog, or fog of war in scouting, is a game design in which players' true ratings are hidden and every team sees only estimates, so scouting has real…Progression and regressionProgression is a player's ratings improving over time, and regression is their decline.DynastyA dynasty has two meanings in basketball. On the court, it is a team that wins several championships over a run of years with the same core.AI GMAn AI GM is a computer-run general manager that manages a team in a sports simulation the way a human would: setting lineups, drafting, signing free agents,…