I'm looking at this as my slow moving, long term dynasty. My 'goal' is to take over a team after 50 years of history have been created. Probably an expansion club in Seattle or Vegas, but that's way down the road, and I may not get there anyway.
The players are the Historical 1976 import with a fantasy draft, but I've had the 'real' players renamed. It also helps keeps some distance if the player over/underachieves. Plus, at least from a philosophical point of view, since I randomized potential and the historical drafts (at least, I think I did), these players are already fictionalized. Keeps the illusion alive, if you will. I also think the historical import handles lower Salary Caps better than the pure fictional import.
Otherwise, the play/concept is pretty straight forward. The first few seasons will be a jumble as I find my reporting balance.
One 'funky' thing for this first season (and possibly for a year or two afterwards) is the three kinds of rookies the Assoc will have.
A. True Rookies: the College/High School players who were draft eligible, they classic image of a rookie.
B. International Rookies: the game created fictional foreign players. This would also include any Euro-players who move to the Assoc.
C. ABA rookies: Players who had spent their whole career in the ABA are given 0 experience, so they will be eligible for all rookie awards. Nine years is, of course, the most experience any rookie has. There are a few of these ABA rookies playing in the CBA (renamed D-League), but I think those players should either be retired or on an active roster by 79-80.
The Breakdown of types of rookies for this first season is:
29 True Rookies
33 International Rookies
48 ABA Rookies
Salary Cap: $24,140,000
Luxury Tax: $43,290,000
16 teams under the cap, 6 teams over the cap
At least the clubs over the cap seem to have spent well, if not unwisely: The top 6 clubs in power points are over the cap. Seattle is No. 1 in power points and $3,018,831 over the cap. The Milwaukee Bucks, after appearing to piece together a European All-Star Squad, have $14,594,216 in space to burn. The Kansas City Kings with a similar approach, going heavily for Europeans, have Twelve million plus in cap space. Neither Milwaukee or Kansas City are expected to be any good.
Projected standings
The projection is based off the power points.
Team Snapshots
If I was using the players' real names, I don't think I would feel as obligated to post club rosters. Usually when starting a fictional universe (Mainly OOTP) there isn't past stats to reference. Take advantage of the information you have, I sometimes say.
Without further ado, let's start