1. Almost every time a player in real life has a player option, that option has been excerised in the game. That is ridiculous in a lot of situations. Examples seasons after this one. There is no way he would get that on the market. This applies to many other players like Keith Van Horn, Nick Van Exel, would be Penny Hardaway has a player option this year, but there's no way he's going to exercise that. He's going to get 30 million in the next 2 Erick Dampier, Bonzi Wells, Latrell Sprewell, Michael Finley, Antawn Jamison, Shawn Bradley, Cuttino Mobley, Austin Chroshere, Devean George, Eddie Jones. At some point these guys [/i]could[i] opt out, but there is ZERO chance that's going to happen b/c they just wouldn't make the money back on the free agent market. Because of this many teams are getting out of bad contracts making franchise mode less realistic. Oh, and I was only through like half the NBA teams for those players listed. There are more. It would be interesting to see how this could be fixed b/c you'd have to pretty much have a common sense thing built into the game.
So I don't see this fixed anytime soon.
2. Same type of thing with the team option. This mostly applies to players on their rookie contracts. In the NBA, the team has the option to decline the 4th year on rookies contracts after their 2nd years. It would be realistic if you would have the option of declining the 4th year if you're a team looking to clear cap and you have a player who isn't producing and would like to get rid of one year earlier or if you just wanted to clear as much cap space as possible.
3. Players salaries are not right. They are usually "around" what they are in real life, but that's just not good enough for me.
I wish the NBA would just "officially" release contract information so they could put this stuff on the game. It's just the realistic factor. Maybe after the NBA's CBA expires after next season, this is something they could allow finally. Who knows. But anyway, some players that have signed even the EXACT SAME contracts show up different in the game. That's just plain stupid.
4. Some players contract's length is just plain not right. Antonio McDyess if a free agent this summer no matter what. No player or team option. It's just the end of his contract and that's that. Well in the game, McDyess has 2 years left. The thing about that is that absolutely killed the entire idea Phoenix had when they traded for McDyess. They wanted to clear cap to make a run at a big name free agent. See, I'd like to see the Phoenix team in my game make a run at a free agent so this can be REALISTIC. With that in mind and then considering Penny's contract expires after year 1 in this game, that trade was a MAJOR ripoff for Phoenix b/c they didn't even get the cap relief, the main part of the deal for them. Wow. Same thing with a ton of teams that wouldn't be in the free agent game anyway, but it still takes away realism. It's mainly with smaller contracts, but some of those smaller contracts on your teams salary cap certainly don't help you at all.
5. Created players contracts are ridiculous. Amount and length. Ronald Dupree on my Bulls is making over 100,000 for 3 years. Polynice and Overton on the LA Clippers are making 60,000 for 3 years. For the Clippers, them two and Josh Moore's contract screw them out of the free agent race this year too. In real life, they will have enough money to offer a max contract, but in the game b/c the system had to give them 3 year deals, it takes away over 150,000 available money for them to use. That really makes it worth it huh? I noticed this when I tried simming a few dynastys just to see what I could do with some teams. With Washington, if they can get rid of Laetner or Hughes or Stack, just one of those 5-6 million dollar deals for an expiring one, they have roughly 10 million to spend this summer. But not in the game. I got rid of Laetner for an expiring deal and only to notice in the offseason b/c Mitchell Butler was on my team taking up 60,000, I could not offer a big deal to someone. If Miami could get rid of Grant or Jones, they could be players too, but they can't in the game b/c Haslem makes 150,000 for 3 years. San Antonio in real life will have money to play with but not the game b/c Jason Hart and Alex Garcia are taking up 200,000 points!!! Garcia makes 100,000!!!! Never even heard of the bum. I suppose I could release some of these guys but I like having Dupree on my team and Haslem and Hart have helped out their teams. Anyway, for one, created players that aren't even rated 55 or even 50 sometimes should not be making that much. And secondly, they should be on minimum contracts.
6. Two last things. This oneisn't a bug in the current game. I think they should have the mid level exception implemented into the game. Every team in real life over the cap can use it to pursue players so it should be in the game. If it's in the game, it SHOULD be in the game, right? It kind of sux that you can't improve your team through free agency in this game unless your under the cap. Only a few teams each season ever are, and almost never in this game b/c of the above things I mentioned. Also, this would fix some good players signing for the minimum in our seasons. Also, I wish you could negotiate contracts.
Oh well, maybe in 10 years.
