- Draft
- Each June, NBA teams take turns picking eligible young players. In the game you become eligible at 19, and your projection moves with every season before it.
WikiThe draft
- Draft combine
- Four days in Chicago in May, in front of every front office, before the draft. In the game it comes the season you become eligible, before you declare.
WikiThe draft
- Lottery pick
- A top-14 pick, held by a team that missed the playoffs, with a drawing that sets the order of the first four. In the game it is the best projection a prospect can carry into draft night.
WikiThe draft
- Undrafted
- Nobody calls your name. In the game the career goes on in the G League, in Europe or, with enough standing, in the EuroLeague. A player who was on the draft board and slid off it can also get a two-way deal.
WikiThe draft
- Rookie scale
- The fixed salary for first-round picks, set by draft slot, on a 2+2 deal. The game pays the real scale at 120%: $13.8M a year at pick 1, $2.42M at pick 30.
- Veteran minimum
- The lowest salary a team can pay, rising with years in the league. In the game it runs from $1.16M for a rookie to $3.3M at ten years.
- Max and supermax
- The max is the top salary a player can sign. The supermax is the bigger version for stars who re-sign with their own team. In the game a Star earns $30M to $55M a year. The supermax can come once per career, when you play at an All-Star level with 6 NBA seasons or more behind you, from an NBA club you have already played a season for, with a year or less left on your deal and a reputation of 70 or more: five more years at 1.45 times your role's salary, capped at the top of that role's band.
- G League
- The NBA's development league. In the game it pays a scale and signs for one season at a time.
- Summer League
- July games for rookies and fringe players, where a roster spot can be won.
- Team option, player option
- A final contract year that the team, or the player, can pick up or decline.
- GM and front office
- The people who build the roster, sign the checks and make the trades.
- Load management
- Resting healthy stars to keep them fresh for the playoffs.
- Heat check
- The tough shot a hot shooter takes to see if he is still on fire.
- Clutch
- The last minutes of a close game, and the players who deliver in them.
- March Madness
- The NCAA tournament: 64 teams, single elimination, Sweet Sixteen, Final Four.
- EuroLeague
- Europe's top club competition, where the game's European careers climb.
- OVR
- Overall rating, the single number for your level. The career card keeps your peak.
- Journeyman
- A player who changes teams every year or two. It is also a rung of the legacy ladder, reached through four NBA locker rooms.
- Hall of Fame
- The basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the game's public board of signed careers.