Yep, just be reasonable with your roster. 'd hate to see this devolve to a bunch of people arguing whether or not their Lebron, Amar'e & Rose team can beat Wade, Howard & Dirk.
Here's my team, perhaps it will inspire others to contribute. For most of the reasons that GovAggie stated, Mexico City seems like an ideal place to land a new expansion team. No where else can match the combination of arena, population and money that Mexico City has. As for a team name, I'd go with Aztecas. I don't know Mexican culture, however, so if this is a horrible, offensive name, my apologies in advance. In terms of the roster: BOBCATS: (Protected) White Augustin Henderson Thomas Cunningham Maggette Diaw Aztecas select: Eduardo Najera; Nice little bit of trivia for the franchise, as the second Mexican-born player in the NBA becomes the first player in Mexican franchise history. As for the Bobcats, dropping Najera's salary would give them some additional salary relief on a player who was injured for most of the year. BULLS: (Protected) Rose Noah Deng Boozer Gibson Asik Korver Brewer Aztecas select: Keith Bogans. Definitely a flippable asset here; a defensive-minded starter might be able to get a late first from a team like Boston or Miami later on. For ~1.7M in non-guaranteed salary, this is a no-brainer. MAVERICKS: (Protected) Nowitzki Kidd Terry Marion Beaubois Fernandez Jones Mahinmi (Tough choice, but I really doubt they fail to sign Chandler, which makes Haywood expendable) Aztecas select: Corey Brewer. Young, cheap player that had the Celtics, Spurs and Mavericks beating down his door when he got dumped by the Knicks. I actually like Haywood as a player, but he's probably untradeable, and the 3rd year on his contract will affect the first full-capped year in franchise history. PISTONS: (Protected) Monroe Daye Bynum Wallace Maxiell Stuckey Gordon Villanueva Aztecas select: Richard Hamilton, after the Pistons send a lottery protected first rounder, $3M and the Rockets 2012+ second rounder. Rip will be immediately waived and not count against the salary cap. On the other hand, the Pistons badly need to get rid of Rip at this point, and would save almost $19M in this deal, also allowing them to amnesty Villanueva. As for the expansion team; there's no way I want a disgruntled player being forced outside the country, and since our cap is shot the first two years anyway, we should easily be able to absorb the money left on his contract without it affecting the future. ROCKETS: (Protected) Martin Scola Lowry Patterson Lee Budinger Dragic Williams Aztecas select: Jordan Hill. Can't pass up the opportunity to get a high upside big man, even if I've personally soured on him. PACERS: (Protected) Granger George Hansbrough Hibbert Collison Hill Jones Stephenson Aztecas select: Brandon Rush. Amazed at how deep the Pacers are. Would love to give Stephenson a chance, but I think they'll give him one more shot. LA CLIPPERS: (Protected) Griffin Kaman Jordan Gordon Bledsoe Aminu Foye Williams Aztecas select: Willie Warren. I need someone to put the ball in the basket, and if there is one thing this guy can do, even inefficiently, it is score. Von Wafer potential here, especially on a team with no need to win, and the ability to get him a bunch of shots off the bench. GRIZZLIES: (Protected) Gay Gasol Randolph Mayo Conley Allen Arthur Henry Aztecas select: Greivis Vasquez. Tough, gritty, playoff experience. Thought he would be a massive bust, but had a surprising rookie year. Good backup PG. HEAT: (Protected) Wade James Bosh Haslem Miller Anthony Chalmers Jones Aztecas select: Dexter Pittman. Probably a bust, but you can't teach size. T'WOLVES: (Protected) Love Beasley Randolph Johnson Rubio Ridnour Webster Milicic Aztecas select: Anthony Tolliver. Young big man with 3 point range? Sign me up. I do like Pekovic here as well. ZOMBIE SONICS: (Protected) Durant Westbrook Harden Ibaka Perkins Sefolosha Collison Maynor Aztecas select: Cole Aldrich. Lottery pick shot blocking center? Absolutely worth the gamble. Crazy that they can afford to leave him unprotected, but look at that core 8! 76ers: (Protected) Iguodala Holliday Brand Williams Turner Young Meeks Speights Aztecas select: Craig Brackins. Young, long scorer who is probably a bust, but why not? Don't think I can get Hawes to stay as an UFA, unfortunately. BLAZERS: (Protected) Camby Aldridge Wallace Felton Oden Matthews Batum Williams Aztecas select: Luke Babbitt. Tough to say which 2010 draftee the Blazers will let go, Babbitt or Williams, but they seem to be overstocked at the 3/4 and lack a PG. Plus, they've spent so much effort on rehabbing Williams, I would think they'd give him a shot first. KINGS: (Protected) Evans Cousins Hickson Thompson Salmons Thornton Greene Taylor Aztecas select: Fransisco Garcia. Overpaid, but at least he can play. Plus, comes off the cap in 2 years, so does not affect the franchise's first real Free Agency. RAPTORS: Bargnani Derozan Bayless Weems Davis A. Johnson Barbosa Alabi Aztecas select: Jose Calderon. Toronto sends a lottery protected first rounder and $3M cash. I need a point guard, and once upon a time, Calderon was the model of efficiency. Maybe he can get it back; if not, his salary is off the books by the time the team hits full cap status, and I picked up a potentially valuable pick down the line. I could cut him, and have roughly $10M in cap space as well. So the final roster would be: PG: Calderon/Vasquez SG: Garcia/Bogans/Warren SF: Brewer/Rush/Babbitt PF: Hill/Tolliver/Brackins/Najera C: Aldrich/Pittman Total salary: ~$39M, with $0 committed after 2013. Ideally, with a few high draft picks and a breakout by either Hill or Aldrich, the team could be competitive in as little as 4 years. Pretty awful, but when you look at what the Bobcats ended up with, outside of Gerald Wallace, this team is quite a bit better, with a surprising amount of upside in the front court, and strong defense all the way around.
Interesting team, I can't really comment since you're the first team, but in terms of expansion rosters, that's not too shabby.
Almost forgot about this lol. Question: Do we assume that each team will keep 8 players instead of say 5 because of bad contracts?
Good thing for HI_Mana, I was starting to worry we wouldn't have it. As you your question, you don't have to have every team protecting 8 players(although you can if you like) just make sure that whatever scenario of protected players you do have fulfill the league rules (as posted on page 1 by myself and BimaThug)
You know what would be better than an expansion draft? A contraction draft. Next week, we should start one. We can figure out which two to four teams we want to eliminate.
Damn, Hi Mana! That was a very well-thought-out expansion draft roster. You properly accounted for cap flexibility two years out, when the expansion team would first be entitled to spend the full maximum team salary. You added mostly young players with potential. You took on a couple of bad contracts in exchange for future first rounders, while still keeping those trades reasonably realistic. All in all, for what it's worth, excellent job!
