NBA Front Office

Curated rosters, original ratings, simulated contracts. The play-in is waiting for your mistakes.

Take over a front office

Curated NBA roster snapshot with original simulation ratings. Run the cap, work the phones, survive the play-in, draft the future. Ages and contracts are simulated. Saves automatically.

Opening estimates use 2024-25 and 2025-26 regular seasons. Box scores only partly measure defense and roles; missing matches use a marked game prior.

NBA Front Office: Basketball GM Simulator

Take over an NBA franchise from a curated roster snapshot. New games use original 2024-25 and 2025-26 regular-season rating estimates with limited defensive and role evidence; ages, potential and contracts are simulated. Manage the cap, waive and sign, trade, survive the play-in for seeds 7 to 10, then draft and develop across saved seasons.

Running an NBA franchise looks easy from the couch. This sim hands you a curated roster snapshot, a cap sheet and 29 rivals so you can find out.

Waive the deadweight, sign the bargains, swing trades the computer actually weighs, and steer the season toward the bracket and maybe a banner. Dynasties are the real scoreboard.

How to play NBA Front Office, a free NBA GM simulator

Inheriting a roster from 30 franchises

Pick any of the 30 franchises. New games use original opening estimates from 2024-25 and 2025-26 regular-season inputs. The e marker means defense and role evidence is limited; unmatched players use a marked game prior. Ages, potential and contracts are simulated. Existing saves keep their ratings and development.

Reading the ownership mandate

Read the ownership mandate: a loaded roster is told to win the Finals, a mid one to make the playoffs, a thin one to hit an honest win number. It resets every offseason.

Working the roster with waivers and trades

Work the roster. Waive contracts, sign free agents with your cap room, and propose trades.

Simming the season in 20 stretches

Sim the season in 20 short stretches, watching the conference standings tighten and the mandate's live pace read.

Making the playoffs, then chasing a repeat

Finish top 6 for a direct playoff seed, or 7th through 10th for the play-in.

Win four best of 7 rounds, then draft and rebuild for the repeat, as long as ownership keeps you.

NBA Front Office rules: the cap, trades and the play in

Cap room and roster size limits

The cap starts at the real 2026-27 figure, just under 165 million, and rises 7 percent every season in the game. You can waive down to 8 players during the year, but the season cannot tip off with fewer than 14 or more than 15: short of 14 the league fills the gap with minimum deals (2 million each in a new league, rising with the cap) and tells you who, and above 15 the first round waits until you waive down.

New deals are priced in the money of the season they start in. Re-signings, rookie deals, the minimum and free agent asks all rise with the cap, so payrolls stop falling seven percent a year behind the tax line. They still drop over the first couple of seasons, because computer teams let expiring depth walk (all of it when they face a bill) and refill only on minimum deals, so expect fewer taxpayers than a new league opens with; from about the third season payrolls hold steady against the line. A contract already signed keeps its number until it runs out.

Season lines and the five awards

Every game writes a box score off the result already decided. Open Roster, then Set rotation to choose five starters and three bench players; selecting someone already chosen swaps their slots. Starters supply 72 percent of strength and the bench 28 percent. The eight slots get 36, 34, 33, 32, 30, 28, 26 and 21 simulated minutes. Injured choices get healthy cover and return when recovered; departed players are replaced. Automatic uses the highest-rated healthy eight. Those same players earn the season lines, their points add up to the team's score, and the winner outscored the loser. If nobody is healthy, the current engine uses its best eight for an emergency box score, even if injured, a simplified injury exception rather than a real NBA rule. These are this save's sim seasons, not real NBA stats.

At season close the league names five awards by fixed rules, and a man needs four in five of an average team's games to qualify (about 64 of 80). MVP: points plus rebounds plus assists a game, plus 20 times his club's winning share. All-League First Team: the five best by the MVP score, any position. Rookie of the Year: points plus rebounds plus assists a game, among first year men drafted in this league, so a new league's first season has none. Defensive Player of the Year: steals plus blocks plus half his rebounds a game, among men whose club allowed fewer points than the league average. Sixth Man of the Year: points a game, among men who started fewer than half the games they played.

The close screen shows the awards, the points, rebounds and assists leaders and your own club's lines. Winners wear the award on their roster card, and the Standings box keeps every season's champion and awards. A save from before season lines plays out its current season without them and starts keeping them next season.

The luxury tax, the aprons and the repeater rate

The real league put its 2026-27 tax line at 200.4 million, but the salaries here are the game's own and run richer at the top, so every new league sets its line from its own payrolls instead: enough clubs over it to look like a real season (eight paid tax in 2023-24), but nobody facing a bill above 190 million, about the most any club has ever been billed. The opening line is 226.7 million, with five clubs over it once minimum deals fill the rosters. Your cap panel shows current contracts and a separate tipoff forecast that includes those missing deals. The line rises 7 percent a season with the cap.

Every dollar of payroll over the line, dead money included, is taxed at season close in brackets about 3 percent of the line wide (6.9 million in a new league), at the league's real rates: 1.00 and 1.25 on the first two brackets, 3.50 and 4.75 on the next two, then half a dollar more per bracket. Pay tax in three of the previous four seasons and you are a repeater, taxed at 3.00, 3.25, 5.50 and 6.75 on the same brackets.

The cap panel shows the projected bill all season. At close the bill is listed beside the results, ownership takes one point of trust per 6 million of it (never more than 20), and the money is held back from next season's cap room. Above the first apron (236.4 million in a new league) a trade has to send out at least the salary it brings back. Computer teams that pay tax let their expiring depth walk the next summer, so the line moves the whole league, not just you. A save from before the tax plays out its current season untaxed and gets its line that summer.

How trade negotiations play out

Trades are a negotiation now: open talks and the other GM answers with a handshake, a pick demand, a lesser man, or the dial tone. You can stand firm exactly once per call, and it genuinely gambles: they blink and the price drops, or they dig in and it rises.

Reaching the play in for seeds seven to ten

The play-in covers seeds 7 through 10, with one last game deciding the 8 seed.

Draft classes and scouting uncertainty

Each club starts with 2 simulation picks. Trades can leave you with fewer or more choices, and each selection spends one owned pick. With none left, finish the draft and offseason. The pool has at least 24 prospects, and rivals get two batches of up to five eligible selections in this abbreviated draft. Scouting grades can miss the truth by a few points either way.

How aging and decline work each summer

Everyone ages each summer: young players develop toward potential, decline starts at 32, veterans retire.

What moves the trust meter

Trust upstairs runs 0 to 100: beat the mandate and it climbs, miss it and it falls, a banner fixes almost anything, and at zero you are fired and the save ends.

Waiving a player and the dead money

Waiving a man is not free. Half his salary stays on this season's cap as dead money, a quarter lands on next season's if he had years left, and you cannot sign him back until the offseason.

NBA Front Office walkthrough: a rebuild that reaches game 7

Trading an aging star for a young pick

You take a bubble team and ship an aging star for a 24 year old, pick attached. The season starts ugly.

A 9 seed run that ends in the conference finals

Then the kid pops. You sneak in at the 9 seed, win two play-in games, upset the 1 seed in seven, and lose the conference finals. The rookie scouted at 91 comes in at 87. Run it back.

NBA Front Office tips for building a lasting contender

Why age is the real trade currency

Age is currency. The trade engine pays a premium for anyone 24 and under, so shop aging names early.

Bench quality matters when injuries hit

Your best five carry most of the load, but bench quality is real when injuries hit.

A champion roster is never truly finished

A champion is never finished. Contracts expire, and some role players walk every summer.

NBA Front Office FAQ: rosters, trades and getting fired

Are the rosters real?

The players are real, about ten curated per franchise in a roster snapshot. OVR is an original simulation estimate, with limited box-score defense and unchanged seed roles. Prior-only and unmeasured estimates are marked separately. Contracts, salaries and ages are simulated, and later ratings come from your saved career.

Why did my trade get rejected?

The engine values rating adjusted for age and wants to come out ahead. Offer youth, take back age, or add a pick.

Can I get fired?

Yes. Ownership grades the mandate every season and tracks trust from 0 to 100. Losing the play-in when the ask was a banner costs real trust, a luxury tax bill costs a point per 6 million of it, and at zero the save ends and you take another job.

What happens if I start the season with 12 players?

The league fills you to 14 at tip off with the lowest rated free agents in the pool on one year minimum deals (2 million each in a new league, rising with the cap), and the feed names them. Sign who you actually want before you press play. With 16 or more you cannot start until you waive down to 15.

Does my save persist?

Yes, the league auto saves in your browser across unlimited seasons. Clearing site data wipes the franchise.

Are the season stats and awards real?

No. The rosters use real names, but every line, leader and award comes from the games your save simulated. A star on a losing club can lose the MVP to a smaller line on a winner, because the rule counts his club's record.

Is NBA Front Office free to play?

Yes. NBA Front Office is free to play on DoUKnowBall, right in your browser. No download and no signup needed.

More games to play

🌟 NBA My Career Draft night to the rafters. 5 positions, 100+ crossroads, and one very tempting phone call ⚔️ Gauntlet Draft: NBA Pick your five, five cards at a time, then survive a five round cup 🏀 Buzzer Beater Pick the arc, beat the hand, drop ten jump shots 🗺️ MLB Conquest Imperialism at the ballpark: winners annex whole empires, two invaders start landless 👆 Idle Arena Tap to score, sign a squad that scores for you, lift trophies, earn while you are away 🏢 NFL Front Office Full GM sim with real rosters: cap, trades, drafts, dynasties

NBA playoff format history and the rules this game uses