Ownerless team trade offer (1 Viewer)

[Phantom Knight]

I, as commish, as managing an ownerless team in a 10-team ppr, keep-6 league.

The ownerless team is not a contender this year and so any moves I make are geared toward making the team more attractive for a new owner in 2018 (but without completely gutting it this year).  The draft is snaking and there is a high possibility that this team will have the #1 pick in 2018.

The ownerless team is Team A below.  Here is the trade:

Team A gives:

• Amari Cooper (Round 1 keeper)
  
• Chris Thompson (Round 8 keeper)
  

Team B gives:

• Jordan Howard (Round 20 keeper)
  
• Kelvin Benjamin (Round 4 keeper)
  

While I do think the trade is reasonable, my initial reaction was to reject it. However, given my intentions for Team A, I do want to trade away Cooper this year.  With the overall #1 pick (or a top 3 pick at worst), Cooper would almost certainly be available if a new owner wanted to pick him back up.  Better to have a solid keeper in a later round and the 1st round pick available.  But I am just not convinced that Howard will remain a sure-fire rb1 nor that Bryant will remain even a sure-fire wr2 moving into 2018.  With Howard being a 20th-round keeper, he is likely to be keepable, Benjamin is probably not a keeper in the 4th.  

The more I look at the offer, the more inclined I become to accept it.  However, I might be able to get more for Cooper from a team in contention this year or which still buys his top-10 wr projection? I'd appreciate hearing other opinions.

 

[Gawain]

Play in the same set up as you. (Keep-6, lose the round)
My only concern would be that Cooper would bring in more, especially pick wise (if you allow trading of picks).

If you are gearing this team to look the most attractive to someone coming in, stockpiling picks is always going to make the team look better than stockpiling players.

 

[wlwiles]

I think you need to set some ground rules with the other owners in your league.  Does everyone in the league understand your intentions are to make the team as attractive as possible to find an owner for next year?  I think transparency is the biggest asset you could have here, unless each of your other owners has already said some variation of "I don't care, do whatever you want with Team A".  What happens if you decide you want to make a trade with the ownerless team (yourself)?  Do you have a deputy commish that can step in to avoid the appearance of collusion? 

The trade is fair - no reason that I can see that it shouldn't go through.  Team A needs better keeper options, and Howard that late is attractive.  I'd send a message to the entire league and say "Here's the proposed trade, it's fair, it helps make Team A more attractive for new owner, you have X days to come to me with a better offer or else I process this trade". And if new offers are sent in, then make them known to the rest of the league.  

 

[Phantom Knight]

I have been transparent about how I would handle any trades and how I will set the lineup (fantasypros "Who do I start").  In regards to any trades from my team to the ownerless team, there would be a veto opportunity from the rest of the league.

I like the idea of posting the offer and giving an opportunity for other offers to come in.  I also like the idea of suggesting picks even though in the case of Cooper that could be problematic.  

An owner who traded away a 1st could not keep Cooper (or even his own 1st round pick) since he would not have a pick in that round to do so unless he made a 2nd trade to acquire someone elses 1st.

 

[Gawain]

I have been transparent about how I would handle any trades and how I will set the lineup (fantasypros "Who do I start").  In regards to any trades from my team to the ownerless team, there would be a veto opportunity from the rest of the league.

I like the idea of posting the offer and giving an opportunity for other offers to come in.  I also like the idea of suggesting picks even though in the case of Cooper that could be problematic.  

An owner who traded away a 1st could not keep Cooper (or even his own 1st round pick) since he would not have a pick in that round to do so unless he made a 2nd trade to acquire someone elses 1st.

My league is a 2 QB, so a touch different, but would Cooper be a 1st round keeper? In our past draft he was a second rounder and was tossed back. He went third  over all (Fournette; Hunt; Cooper, Dez). I don't think anyone is going to be looking at Cooper in the first round as a guy they want to keep. You get a crop of rookie RBs every year, there are a few good players that are tossed back and Cooper isn't good enough to be a no brainer. (Three first round guys were kept in my league this year, Luck @1.09, Elliot @ 1.10 and Gurley @1.12)

It makes for a very arbitrary valuation on your part, but a collection of picks in rounds 3-6 may be more valuable than a 1 or 2.

As for the deal, I don't think I'd do it from a trying to win this year stance, I don't know if I'd do it from a trying to win for next year standpoint and I wouldn't do it to make the team more attractive to incoming owners perspective.

Do you use previous record to determine draft order and is the draft snake or straight? 

 

[beerbuff]

I would approve it, Howard in the 20th round is a steal compared to Cooper in the 1st.

 

[Phantom Knight]

My league is a 2 QB, so a touch different, but would Cooper be a 1st round keeper?

For me know.  But for someone else no.  But the bigger point is that out of 10 first round picks in our league, there are typically 3 to 5 keepers - Ezekiel, Julio, LeVeon come to mind.  Owners of THOSE players would have issues if they traded a 1st for Amari as part of their "win now" strategy even if they had no intention of keeping him.

 

[Trelocke]

Howard in round 20 is nuts. That alone would make me interested in coaching that team in a keeper heavy league, assuming he retains that keeper value from year to year. Even if he doesn't, that's still pretty attractive. KB is never going to live up to what we thought he was going to be after his rook season, so that really doesn't matter. Thompson is pretty nice in PPR and since it's a keep 6 league, he'll probably go pretty high if he's not kept, but I still don't think it's anywhere close to the value of Howard. Round 20 is practically free, and even if he only puts up low RB2 numbers for the rest of his career, that's still a steal.

 

[Gally]

I would try and find someone interested in getting into your league and let them take the team this year for free with the confirmation of them joining next year.  This way they get to try and make moves and build the team how they see fit.  Everyone sees things differently and will value things in many different ways.

That being said, the only way I would trade off the abandoned team would be to publically show offers and give every team the opportunity to better the offers.  All trades should be conducted almost like an auction so that there is nobody that can say I would have offered more or I didn't know that guy was available.  I would set up a ground rule that once you received an offer you deemed fair you will post it to the league and everyone will have one week to make their own offer if interested.