It Came From the Forums: Long-Term Salary Cap Issues in NBA 2K20 MyLeague and a Possible Fix

Some of you folks might be getting deep into your MyLeague journeys at this point and thus running into some of the heartier bugs the mode has to offer. Early in the year, there were some gnarly bugs that wrecked RFAs, especially for rookies finishing up their first contracts. A patch did smooth out some of the NBA 2K20 salary cap issues, but controlling all 30 teams is still somewhat necessary if you want to have more league-wide parity and fewer good players sitting idle in free agency after a couple offseasons.

NBA 2K20 Salary Cap Issues and Solutions in MyLeague

This is where OS users come into play. This thread originally started out maligning the fact that the salary cap gets real wonky by even the third year of MyLeague, but some solutions have been offered up. Controlling all 30 teams is still a must because even turning off the salary cap still leads to some good players sitting idle in free agency.

However beyond just 30-team control, OS user oldfruit has a solid method for trying to stave off the issues and quicken the process of going from offseason to offseason:

“I have a solution that seems to work pretty well for me without thirty team control. First, I set the cap at 119 to start with max inflation. Then I have a set of sliders that turns down the effect of potential, fame, etc. with the max and min ratings both at 50.

Every year when free agency starts, min is at 50. After the moratorium ends, I raise it into the 60s, then every two or so days after that I raise it again until it’s 100 around day 10 or so (then I reset it to 50 after FA ends). I haven’t done a lot of scientific testing (or any, actually), but I find it works pretty well to get just about everybody decent into a roster.

What it means is that except for max level free agents, you will pay less the deeper you are into free agency. By day 10, veterans in the high 70s to low 80s will sign min deals. For someone young like De’Anthony Melton, you might pay 6-8 million a year for him in the moratorium but if you wait till the end and he’s still there you’ll pay more like 2.

I feel like it does a decent job of mimicking the real dynamic where mid level guys who don’t sign before the money dries up end up getting underpaid. My only real qualm with it is that it doesn’t prevent me from signing those guys on four year deals they would never sign in real life.”

Continuing on in a later post:

What I use is roughly:

Min rating 50
Max rating 55
Salary curve 8
Player potential 0
Player durability 27
Player minutes 32
Player fame 0
Player non-financial ambitions 29

I can’t swear that’s the best, but it’s what I’ve settled on through trial and error that gives me results I’m pretty happy with. I’ve found that the scale isn’t totally intuitive. For instance, young players still demand too much in a lot of circumstances (I would have thought 0 meant they don’t demand any extra).

I only change the min rating as free agency goes on.

Also, I set the cap at 119 and inflation at 100.

This is worth trying out if you’re running into similar issues. You can head to that thread and share your results if you go through with it.