How to Play 82-0: Rules, Draft, and Simulation Explained
The rules are simple to state and genuinely hard to execute well: five picks, one for each position, one era-accurate season, and a real chance you finish undefeated. Here’s every step.
Step 1: Choose your draft mode
Before you start, pick Classic (full player ratings visible the whole time) or Blind Draft (every number hidden — you’re picking on position, era, and what you actually remember about the player). Classic is the easier starting point; Blind Draft is the real test once you understand what a strong roster looks like.
Step 2: Draft five rounds, one per position
Each round spins a decade of NBA history and a small pool of real candidates from it, targeting one specific position in order: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, center. You’re picking from what that round’s spin offers for that exact position — you can’t skip ahead to a different slot, and you can’t draft two players at the same position. That’s the deliberate fix for the biggest gap in most games in this genre: no positional restrictions at all.
Rerolls: your escape hatch, used sparingly
If a round’s candidates genuinely don’t fit a gap in your roster, you get two rerolls per run to work with. They’re not meant for unlimited re-spinning until a specific famous name shows up — save them for a real need.
Step 3: The chemistry system actually matters
Once your five picks are locked in, the game runs a full chemistry check against your specific roster: things like Elite Spacing (multiple knockdown shooters), Twin Playmakers (two or more players who can create offense), Dominant Frontcourt (rebounding at both big-man spots), or the flip side — Usage Conflict (too many high-usage scorers fighting for the same shots), Crowded Paint (two non-shooting bigs clogging the same driving lanes), or Poor Era Fit (a lineup stylistically out of place in its simulation decade). Every bonus and penalty is named and explained, not folded into a single opaque number.
Step 4: The season simulates automatically
Once all five picks are locked in, the game simulates the season without further input. The schedule length is era-accurate: 48 games in the league’s earliest seasons, growing through 56, 62, and 70 games across the following two decades, before settling at 82 games from 1967-68 onward — a flawless 1950s season and a flawless 2020s season represent genuinely different amounts of work.
Reading your results
The results screen shows your final record, a letter grade, playoff results if you qualified, and — most importantly — a full chemistry breakdown: a named list of exactly what worked and what didn’t, each with the specific reason it triggered. If your run falls short of flawless, this is where you find out why, not just that it happened.
Sharing and replaying
Every completed run generates a seed. Share it, and a friend entering that seed will be put through the exact same sequence of draft options you had — a real, fair comparison, not just two unrelated runs. There’s also a Daily Challenge: everyone who plays that day gets the identical sequence of options, with results comparable on a live, public leaderboard.
Ready to draft?
Start your own run here — free, no account required.
Frequently asked questions
How do you start a game?+
Choose Classic (stats visible) or Blind Draft (stats hidden), then click Start Drafting. You can also load a shared seed to replay someone else's exact draft, or play the Daily Challenge for that day's shared options.
How many rounds are there?+
Five: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center — one pick per position, in that order.
How does era selection work?+
Each round spins a decade of NBA history — 1950s through the 2020s — and offers a small pool of real candidates from it. Your era isn't chosen upfront; it's part of what each round's spin determines, and your final simulation era is the average of all five spins.
What does positional locking actually mean?+
Every round only offers candidates eligible at that round's position. You can't draft five centers or stack three shooting guards the way most games in this genre allow — each of the five starting slots on the floor has to be filled by someone who actually plays there.
How many rerolls do you get?+
Two per run, usable on any round where the spun candidates don't fit a real need. They're not unlimited — save them for genuine gaps, not simply preferring a more recognizable name.
Does the season length change by era?+
Yes. The NBA played a 48-game schedule in its earliest seasons, growing through 56, 62, and 70 games across the 1960s and 1970s before settling at 82 games from 1967-68 onward. The simulation uses the real length for whichever era your roster ends up representing.
What happens after all five picks are made?+
The game locks your roster and simulates the season automatically — no further editing once the draft is complete. Results show your final record, grade, a full chemistry breakdown, and a seed you can share.