GM Desk Explained

GM Desk is a daily cap-sheet puzzle. You build a starting five that fits under the official NBA salary cap. Stay under and your score is the five’s combined points per game. Go over and the score is zero.

The board

Each UTC day deals a new board. Every position — PG, SG, SF, PF, and C — shows four players: one star and three cheaper options. The four names at a position come from different teams so you cannot stack one roster.

PPG is visible before you lock. Salaries stay hidden until you lock the five. That is the puzzle: estimate who still fits after you take a star.

How scoring works

Under the $164.961M cap → score = PG + SG + SF + PF + C PPG
Over the cap → score = 0

PPG is calculated from licensed BALLDONTLIE 2025–26 game-player rows by dividing total regular-season points by distinct games played; playoff and non-participation rows are excluded. The displayed 2026–27 cap hits come from the BALLDONTLIE Contracts API. Source URLs, terms, seasons, calculation method, and retrieval time are retained with the generated snapshot. The $164.961 million cap is independently verified against the league's June 30, 2026 official release.

One official lock and one leaderboard submit per UTC day. Highest under-cap PPG ranks first. Tied PPG ranks by earlier submission on the server.

What the game is asking

Stars win scoring but eat cap space. Role players keep you legal. The interesting boards are the ones where taking two max-level names leaves no room for a real center, or where a cheaper scorer is the better GM choice than the headline name.

Limitations

GM Desk is not a full CBA simulator. It does not model Bird rights, tax apron, mid-level exceptions, trades, or two-way deals. It is a one-day starting-five puzzle using published cap hits and scoring averages. It is not NBA affiliated and is not betting advice.