Agents

Every player is represented by an agent for their whole career, and every coach by the coaches' agent. Agents live in your Messenger DMs and talk to you with cards. Each agency has its own style, and the agency card's "Known for" line tells you the short version (one walks early and wants a player option, another anchors high and waits). Their style shapes how high they ask, how many counters they'll trade, how many teams they call and how loose-lipped they are with the media.

An agent asks your permission to shop a client when you tap Ask his agent to shop him on a player's sheet, when an AI club has shown interest (never in your two best players), when a player with a trade demand asks you to let them go, or when a public request leaves you no choice.

The Permission to shop card lets you say what you want back with chips (Guard, Wing, Big, Young, Picks, Cheap, Expiring) or in your own words, then Make the calls, Edit terms, or Not now. The card warns you when your locker room is leaky (word may get out) or the deadline is close. While the agent is calling you can Stop the calls, or just type that the player isn't for trade. Saying no to a shop you didn't start simply closes it.

Within about three days the agent comes back with up to three real trade proposals from other clubs, each already checked against the cap, with a line from the agent on each. Accept one and the others are withdrawn (you may be asked to pick roster cuts). You can also View trade, Pass on all, or Keep shopping, which passes on these and calls new teams on the same terms. Offers lapse three league days after your turn, and every shop closes at the trade deadline.

Changed your mind after passing, cancelling or pulling a shop, or letting the offers lapse? Type something like "back on the phones", "keep shopping" or "try again" in the agent's thread and the shop reopens on the same terms (or starts a fresh ask if none were set). "Hold off" or "wait" won't trigger it.

Agents also call about new deals. A player's agent calls when an extension window opens (the final year of a deal, a veteran with two years left, the last year of a rookie deal, and the offseason before free agency), eager clients earlier in the season, others later. You can also open talks yourself from the Extensions page or by typing "extend" or "new deal for" plus the name in the thread. After a monthly or bigger award, the agent may call with an Open talks card too.

The extension card shows the agent's ask, your last offer and what your cap allows (Bird rights, cap room, or the most you can offer). Set the yearly salary and years with steppers, then Meet the ask, Counter, or Walk, or tap "What else does he want?". You get a set number of rounds, and the window closes during the next advance. You can type offers too, like "$13M 4 years" or "3 years with a team option for the 4th". The agent tells you plainly when the cap is in the way and what would fix it, and names the gap after a counter. A client who wants to test free agency will say so once.

An extension of two years or more can carry a team option or a player option on its final year, picked with the chips on the card. A player option makes your offer worth a bit more to the player, a team option a bit less. Agents who play hardball ask for a player option out loud, and Meet the ask includes it, whether you tap the button or type "meet his ask" or "deal". For how options work once signed, see Money.

Your coaches' agent calls in a coach's final contract year, from early in the season. The card works the same way without option chips, and it checks your coaching budget instead of the cap. Let a coach walk and they go to staff free agency when the season ends.