League play postponed until at least mid-July by Ngozika Nwaneri Mock GM will be returning sometime after the July 4th holiday with not only an updated collective bargaining agreement, but with a new face. When Mock GM kicks off, it will have a new look to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the first pilot Mock GM League. "This is a great day for us, " said Mock GM creator FWG Wani. "We got our issues resolved when it comes to game play and giving league creators more control over basketball-related matters. We hope to continue to build from there." FWG Wani, along with a small group of long-time Mock GM dynasty members came to a "meeting of the minds" over how to best approach the issues faced in last year's keeper leagues in particular the issues with GMs having over inflated baseball-like payrolls. "Let's just say the whole Donald Sterling fiasco inspired us all!" said FWG Wani. Starting this summer, dynasty league creators will be allowed to set a mandated cap number for teams that are exceedingly over the cap which would then force those teams to "cut" players outright using a more aggressive version of Mock GMs current Amnesty clause provision. Teams marked by this mandate will have until the leagues College Draft to take the necessary action before those powers are handed over to the league creator who would then be allowed to make the necessary adjustments before the start of the league free agency period. League creators can set the payroll mandate to no more than 30% of the highest teams payroll in their league. "This deal should re-energize leagues where the competitive balance is construed in the other direction," said FWG Wani. "Ultimately the goal is to keep dynasty leagues going. We have some (leagues) with five years of transactions (history). They are of great value to us, the owners of those organizations, and the league creators and we would like to preserve as many (leagues) as possible." Mock GM 2014 will have a new interface and take advantage of the latest the web has to offer, however with big change comes big delays. "We would have like to started (league offseasons) right after the NBA Draft (June 26, 2014) but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, " said FWG Wani. "We need more time and patience to roll this thing out. At this point, we cannot go backwards (to the existing Mock GM) since all the new changes have been implemented on 2014." Traditionally Mock GM starts the Saturday immediately following the NBA Draft however the delays are estimated to push the debut to July 12th or July 19th, 2014. "We are working as fast as we can to get this thing up and running. " said FWG Wani. The last time Mock GM was delayed was in the summer of 2012.
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