[IBL] IBL: Something has to change

Sun Jan 21 18:17:23 EST 2018

My $.02 (current value in Bitcoin undefined):

- This is something like my seventh draft, and as best I can recall the first round usually gets to the late teens, given that we have 10 more days, it’s probably going to be under that this year, but I could see a flurry of action that gets us to 13 or so.

- I’ve always understood this part of the draft as optional, as Alex stated and Mike reiterated.  I’ve always been a little confused by others getting so upset when picks don’t come in at this time.

- At the same time, I happen to like the draft announcements, so I’m not opposed when we have action at this time of year.

- But ultimately, I can’t fault anyone for taking their time in making a pick.  There are a number of strong reasons a team would take their time:
  - The stats sheet that Rusty creates usually isn’t ready until the beginning of January (actually, I believe it can’t be created until Cuts are declared?)
  - That sheet has players, but no IBL affiliations or games played.  It takes time to put those things together for each team.  Maybe some teams are more proficient at scripting than others, but the determinant is the speed of the slowest team, so a Python expert here and there isn’t going to speed things up (unless we get a volunteer to put all of these things together, for all of us to use?)
  - Setting up conditional trades in advance sounds nice in theory, but what happens when a team before you offers to trade *their* pick?  If you go ahead and offer your pick before they use/trade theirs, you’ve hurt both picks values, with your pick always getting the worst of it, since by definition it goes last between the two.  This is what happened with my 1-6 this year:  I actually was going to send a flier out before MAD picked with 1-5, but once he put that lock on the market, it would have been foolish for me to do anything but wait.
  - So then we get the problem of trying to make a trade for your pick only when the pick is the next one up.  We talked to quite a few teams about our pick during that week, so there was certainly activity, it just wasn’t visible to teams not involved in talks.
  - And of course, we all have lives!  I can’t speak for others, but my delay at 1-6 had a lot to do with my real life, and pulling together a sheet of 2017 stats myself, because the one Rusty puts together wasn’t ready yet.

So in the end...I dunno.  I understand why it feels like “nothing’s happening”, but at the same time I know that a lack of picks does not necessarily mean a lack of activity.

From my perspective, a removable obstacle to making picks or trading is getting the sheet of 2017 stats, and merging it with IBL team affiliation and games played.  Do others feel the same?  If so, maybe we can collaborate on a way to get them in everyone’s hands sooner, with the teams/games played info already there.

Thanks,

Noel
NYK

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 21, 2018, at 3:47 PM, Mike Monostra <monostram1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I think Alex hit the nail on the head with everything. From 4.6.2: 
> 
> There will be no deadline for any member to announce and no member should feel pressured to announce a selection prior to the first Friday.
> 
> If a team wants to hold out and wait 4, 5, 6 or more weeks to make a pick, they have every right to do so. I'd be open to listening to people if we want to change how the draft is conducted overall. But unless that happens, I don't have a problem sitting and waiting for a pick to be made. 
> 
> I  agree that the playoffs are an issue, but one that can be solved easily. If you read sections 2.2.4 through 2.2.7, they detail a playoff calendar in the final paragraph (two weeks for the best-of-five Wild Card Series, three weeks for each best-of-seven series). Rusty recently put in artificial deadlines similar to these in the last newsletter, which was absolutely necessary. If these are simply implemented and properly followed each year from when the regular season ends, we're talking about the IBLCS ending by mid-January. Two months total for playoffs is a perfect compromise between giving teams time to play FtF (if they can) and allowing for the typical delays related to the holidays, life, etc. 
> 
> NJR Mike
> 
>> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 4:04 PM, Alex Campbell <arc213 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The draft doesn’t officially start until Feb 1. The pick by pick portion is a type of accommodation that is outlined in section 4.6.2 of the constitution. There is no time limit by pick and no owner should feel pressure to pick per the constitution. 
>> 
>> Personally, I am more troubled by the lack of progress in the playoffs. 
>> 
>> AC 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Jan 21, 2018, at 10:51 AM, Doug Palmer <aeronutty43 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Joel,
>>> 
>>> I was thinking the exact same thing!!  I can't believe that we're only 8 picks in not to mention the IBL Playoffs are STILL going on!!  The season ended months ago.  I wish I had an answer but I don't.  A time limit (3 days?) from the time you're on the clock?  Go to lists faster?  
>>> 
>>> It would probably be beneficial to have the 2017 season finished before the 2018 season starts :)
>>> 
>>> Doug/BAL
>>> 
>>>> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 12:56 PM, Joel Roberts via Members <members at lists.ibl.org> wrote:
>>>> So, we are (by my count) 12 days from going to pick-by-list and we are only on the eighth pick of the draft. This has to be some kind of record.
>>>> 
>>>> If we look at the number of days spent on each pick a pattern emerges:
>>>> 
>>>> 1. 19
>>>> 2. 0 (yay?)
>>>> 3. 0 (yay...)
>>>> 4. 0 (Yay!!!)
>>>> 5. 13
>>>> 6. 8
>>>> 7. 2 (Maybe things are moving?)
>>>> 8. 13 and counting
>>>> 
>>>> Now, one might assume from this rant that I am against the idea of not having deadlines for the draft. This could not be further from the truth. *I do not prefer a draft with per-pick deadlines.* I like that this system accommodates the fact that people have lives, especially around the holidays, and I don't want to see people chained to the draft on an artificial schedule for two months.  
>>>> 
>>>> In the past this system has worked perfectly well, but for the past few drafts it seems to be broken. And the cause of this, it would seem to me, is that people delay action and planning until their pick is actually up. If people are looking to trade their pick, they sit until they are actually on the clock and only then do they shop the pick. This leads to the following.
>>>> 
>>>> -- Somebody (finally) picks.
>>>> -- The next person realizes they would rather trade the pick than choose any of the remaining players.
>>>> -- They wait up to two weeks before realizing they aren't going to get any offers they like.
>>>> -- They finally pick the guy they would have picked anyway.
>>>> -- (Repeat the cycle)
>>>> 
>>>> This is actually a culture shift from the time when the draft was working better. In the past people with an impending pick have had a list of a few players they would like, on the presumption that some of them might be picked ahead of their pick. If it looked like all their faves might be gone, they actually shopped their pick ahead of time so that their negotiations could move along in time to be done soon after they were on the clock. 
>>>> 
>>>> Like I said before, I like the framework we have now. And I think it could work, because it has in the past. But it's not working now so, unless something culturally changes to improve the situation. when the next round of constitution amendments comes around I will put a proposal on the table that has some kind of per-pick deadline. Maybe people will vote for it and maybe they won't. If it doesn't pass, fine by me. That just means I am one of the few, if not the only, people annoyed by this. But I don't think I am.
>>>> 
>>>> Joel 
>>>> CAN
>>> 
> 
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