Trades

Build a deal in the trade builder with players, draft picks, or both. You can bring in a third team for a three-team deal. Each side has to put something in.

The other GM accepts, rejects or counters, and you can cancel your own proposal while it is pending. You can send at most three proposals to any one team in a 24-hour window. Offers to AI teams that sit unanswered for more than a week of league days expire.

Roster sizes count too. A deal that takes a team over its roster max carries that team's cuts with it. A deal that leaves any team under the 8-player minimum (regular season, playoffs, training camp and preseason) is refused when you propose it, when it is accepted, and again when it executes. There is no minimum in the offseason.

A player or pick that is already in an accepted trade (waiting out the veto window) is locked. Once a trade goes through, any other pending deal that involved the same players or picks is cancelled automatically, and everyone in it is told.

Every team in a trade has to pass the salary rules for its own tier, checked when you propose and again when the trade executes. By default:

At the first apron you also cannot bundle contracts: your largest single outgoing salary has to make the match alone. At the second apron you can never take back more than you send. If you are over the cap, you cannot absorb salary without sending some back. Block cards show "works" or how far short you are for a quick read.

Each team holds its first- and second-round picks for the next three drafts, and a new year is added as each draft is completed. By default you can trade picks up to three years out, and your commissioner can open that to five.

HoopSim uses the Stepien rule: you must keep at least one first-round pick in every pair of back-to-back future drafts. Trading your first-rounders in the first and third drafts out is fine; trading two in a row is blocked. You also cannot trade away your last first-rounder. Picks move as whole picks: there are no lottery protections or pick swaps.

If a pick changes hands during a live draft, the new owner goes on the clock for it.

When every team has accepted, the trade enters a veto window, 24 hours by default. Your commissioner can veto it, fast-track it, or later reverse it if nothing has moved since. If the league sets the window to zero, accepted trades go through at once.

Trades are open in the offseason, staff free agency, the draft, free agency, training camp, preseason and the regular season up to the trade deadline (February 6 on the league calendar by default). They close after the deadline, through the play-in and the playoffs, and reopen when the offseason starts. A trade accepted just before the deadline but still in its veto window after it will fail.

Your commissioner can also switch off trading with AI teams entirely.

Put a player on the block with up to four tags for what you want (picks, young talent, expiring money, or a position) and a one-line note. Rivals only see the players you list. You can list three players a calendar month, and the block closes when trades do.

Listing gets noticed. A card goes up in league chat, GMs who are thin at that position get a push, and a star listing can make the wire. AI teams list players too, based on their plan.

There is a cost. Being shopped hurts the player's morale, more for a star, and it wears on them the longer they sit there. It fades over about two weeks after you take them off. Each listing also dents team chemistry a little. The listing sheet shows the cost before you confirm.

You can DM any AI GM in plain words: "my backup center and a 2nd for your wing", "what would it take for your point guard?", "who's available?" or "what do you need?". They read it into a deal card for you to confirm, then answer in their own voice. They might accept, pass, or counter with a full package of their own.

Talks on one player run a few rounds a day. After that they stop until tomorrow, and you can still send a formal proposal from the trade builder. Call something your "final offer" and they will take it or end talks on that player for the day. Walk away and, now and then, they call back. When you agree, the AI sends you a real proposal that you still have to accept.

Every AI GM has a personality, needs and a plan for their team, and it shows in how they talk and bargain. They also remember how you have treated them: deals done, walkouts, lowballs. Their profile shows how they see you (Warm to Burned). That memory colours what they say. It never changes their prices.

Some players are simply not available from AI teams, whatever you offer. In the league's own words:

"AI teams won't trade their best player, an all-star, a young rising star, their only playmaker or rim protector, the only starter at their position, a key starter with no real backup, or a young starter still on their rookie deal."

Ask about one in DMs and they will tell you it is off the table; tap "Why?" for the rule. The rule applies only to AI-run teams. Human GMs decide for themselves.

AI GMs also come to you. When trades are open, an AI team may DM you a pitch: a player they would move who fills your weakest position, with a note and an offer card you can take, counter or turn down. Countering starts a normal negotiation.

You get at most one pitch a day across the whole league, and at most one a week from any one team. Pitches skip your quiet hours and stop if you mute AI DMs.