Post by Rams GM (Frank) on Dec 20, 2018 15:01:03 GMT -5
I think as is the case in most of these leagues, the trade deadline is very generous in that it extends to over half of the regular season within these types of leagues. In Legacy, our cut off is at the 7 1/2 week mark, which is actually shorter in comparison to most leagues that I see can go all the way to week 10, only 2 games before the playoffs, which I think is ridiculous. What happens in all these leagues by the time the trade deadline closes, is a definitive measure of where teams are in the standings, as we pretty much know who is in the playoff hunt and who is shutting it down for the year. This presents a serious problem IMO, as GM's begin to see more definitively where their teams stand, ultimately the teams surrendering their season begin with fire-sales to sell off what assets they have as they're looking to the future because of a hopeless situation for the current season. I believe this distorts the market value of players, but also distorts the competitive nature of the game. We see it in all leagues, as the late trade deadline approaches, it becomes a race to see who is selling out for the current season, and those teams in the hunt racing to get to the next fire sale to put them over the top. This sets up a dynamic that places more ambitious GM's in a more stronger position then GM's that are more passive in nature.
It also sets up a dynamic that distorts the franchise aspects of these types of leagues, where negotiation tactics and ultimately personalities in the realm of trades becomes the dominant asset in terms of taking a competitive advantage over other GM's. We spend 6 months in the offseason trading, drafting and partaking in free agency, and often times it comes down to who gets the best value on a trade, in an imperfect trade system, as the clock is ticking by GM's who have no more current interest in the current season. This in my opinion really undermines the franchise aspect of these leagues.
Thus, the RL NFL understands this flaw in the system, and no where close is their trade deadline darn near 3/4 of the way into the regular season.
It also sets up another scenario where teams that have a fire sale in the second half of the season, also have very little in terms of competitive talent for the rest of the currents season, and it lends itself to either incomplete line-ups, or very very weak line-ups that distorts playoff races late in the season. Thus my solution would be to shorten the trade deadline to a point where there is less of a certainty of whether teams are going to be packing it up, as I believe a 4 1/2 week trade deadline would be a fair and balanced approach to avoid some of these discrepancies. The more teams that are in the hunt, or believe are in the hunt, the healthier the league.
