The Dynasty in Live will be useless if they don't fix this.

[KABI]

Minimum signers. Have you ever had the problem where all the good free agents sign for minimum on one team and then they go 78-4 for the season? If not I question whether you read the name of the game correctly because it happens EVERY YEAR in EVERY FRANCHISE in EVERY GAME since 2002. Does this not bother anyone else? It wasn't on the wishlist.

[Andrew]

When a highly rated player leaves his team for free agency and no other teams can offer him a large salary, have him re-sign with his current team.

In other words, don't have him sign elsewhere for the minimum.

[chipper]

it happened with the lakers this year though..
maybe they should make it happen only to old veterans who had a superstar career + huge contracts and now all they want is a championship

[chipper]

oh, it happened before too.
Remember Houston Rockets had Sir, Dream and Pip and the Glide all about the same year? (pip came in after drexler retired or something)

[Andrew]

Scottie didn't sign for the minimum. The Bulls re-signed him (I forget the exact figure but it was pretty generous) then traded him to Houston. The Dream and Sir Charles also had fairly big contracts.

[Larry Bird]

It doesn't look like it will be fixed! The problem is because every team (except like 3) is in the negative in cap space, so after each season, if a big free agent is available, no one is able to sign him because no one has enough money. In the video it shows that the Pistons are something like 900 points or something over the cap, and I'm sure there are no sign-and-trade options, and unless there is a "veteran exemption" free agent option, we are screwed again.

[chipper]

Scottie didn't sign for the minimum. The Bulls re-signed him (I forget the exact figure but it was pretty generous) then traded him to Houston. The Dream and Sir Charles also had fairly big contracts.

Oops

[chipper]

It doesn't look like it will be fixed! The problem is because every team (except like 3) is in the negative in cap space, so after each season, if a big free agent is available, no one is able to sign him because no one has enough money. In the video it shows that the Pistons are something like 900 points or something over the cap, and I'm sure there are no sign-and-trade options, and unless there is a "veteran exemption" free agent option, we are screwed again.

Your right. With all the AI they program, they missed one thing.
Teams try to free up their space when big name stars become free-agents. They either trade for draft picks or pack their team with 1-year contracts... I guess they might have put it in or it will be too late now.

[Andrew]

It doesn't look like it will be fixed! The problem is because every team (except like 3) is in the negative in cap space, so after each season, if a big free agent is available, no one is able to sign him because no one has enough money. In the video it shows that the Pistons are something like 900 points or something over the cap, and I'm sure there are no sign-and-trade options, and unless there is a "veteran exemption" free agent option, we are screwed again.

As in past years, teams can go over the cap to re-sign their own free agents. If a star player can't get a better deal anywhere else, he can re-sign with his own team. Therefore, if a big free agent is available and no teams have space to sign him, he can re-sign with his current team regardless of the cap situation. If that's the nature of free agency in NBA Live 2004, then I'd say the problem is more or less fixed.

[OldFoolStyle]

Not to take this off subject, but with the 97/98/99/00 Rockets, Hakeem made the big bucks due to his "Larry Bird" exemption. Clyde was still on his Trailblazers contract, then re-signed for about 3-mil his last two years. Charles was on the last year of his Phoenix contract in 97 where he got a baloon payment of 2.5 mil, then re-signed in 98 and 99 for 1 mil each, which was the league minimum for a 14 year vet, his final year he was eligable for an exemption and took about 6 mil. Pip got his LB from Chicago who paid a percentage of his 5+ mil for two years. Not exactly the cap busters expected.

Btw: 71 Lakers had three of the 50 all time greats, the result was a great season but no championship.

85 and 86 Sixers had three of the 50, died in the first round both years.

97, 98 and 99 Rockets had three of the fifty, and still didn't make the finals.

[Metsis]

Man these boards are getting repetative... This subject has been gone over and over and over on numerous occations, but I guess there is not straight forward topic on this atleast not visible in the first 100 topics.

Live 2003 had the salaries messed up, so that was the reason why you really never could trade players or try to build something nice. And there were always players willing to play for the minimums at the start of the season with overall in the high 80's... All because of a messed up salary file.

A word of warning again: The dynasty mode seems to use a system similar to NHL... You have a practice schedule in NHL and accordingly the players stats will be adjusted for the games to come. And thus in the first years of dynasty mode there really aren't any big shooters in the league, maybe a few and some guys that have a hot streak going. But basically they are all mere mortals and not some hockey gods... It is a good system and it keeps the game challenging when you don't have 10 attackers with those huge shots. Where do I come up with this idea, well I just looked at one of the videos where there is a dynasty mode game being started and they show starting lineups for Detroit and Ben Wallace has an overall of 75 and he was probably the tops on that team. And that is low... I just hope they don't make the mistake of attaching the salary stuff with this rating cause this has been toned down... I am quite sure that Big Ben should have higher ratings. There was also a lot of stuff about the dynasty mode options... There was a lot of info there...

But I digress... Minimum players have always been a problem in Live games and I expect this year to be no different... Although it ruins the game with a couple of teams playing 75+ win season just cause they had the opportunity to get a lot of people for the minimum...

I really hope they get it right this time... Hope for the best, fear for the worst...

[Andrew]

Live 2003 had the salaries messed up, so that was the reason why you really never could trade players or try to build something nice. And there were always players willing to play for the minimums at the start of the season with overall in the high 80's... All because of a messed up salary file.

I don't think the problem lies in the salary.ini file alone.

Some years there aren't any good free agents available, and other years big free agents don't have many attractive options. The best option may be to remain with the current team, since they may be the only team that can offer a lot of money. In NBA Live 2003, most of the big free agents looked to sign elsewhere. This meant they'd go through to the Sign Free Agents phase, where no one had enough money to sign them. Hence, they'd remain free agents at the start of the regular season, and sign for the minimum.

Obviously the point system is part of the problem, but the fact that the best free agents always seem to look elsewhere, coupled with the fact if you don't re-sign your own players during the Re-Sign Players phase you cannot exceed the salary cap to re-sign them means the low figures in the points system becomes an issue. It would not be as big a problem if the offseason was not so linear, and free agents acted more realistically.