I tend to agree that the auction system for staff isn't optimal, because an auction implies that the asset being purchased has some value but there's no way to recover some of that value by selling the asset later.
It is amazing to me how pervasive the idea of $-profit is in BB. It really isn't a basketball management sim, where the sole measure of success would be more W's than L's, and where a trainer would be hired for the sole objective of helping get more W's than L's. It is no wonder the idea of bringing the economy into line gains no traction -- everybody is like a kid in a candy story throwing around Monopoly money. Very discouraging, since I wanted this to be a basketball management sim, not a day-trader's paradise where vistory is measured in cash to the almost complete disregard of W's.
I was merely saying that an auction system only make sense (in my opinion) in an environment where the the asset being purchased is one where having a market setting a value makes sense. In a system with a fixed supply where the assets can not be returned to the market afterward, it makes more sense to have costs fixed.
I also might suggest that when you want to make a point about treating the game being a basketball sim and not an economy tycoon game, you don't lecture me on it - six of my nine primary players have been on my roster at least three *years* (not seasons, years), and two of the other three are well over 300 days tenure. My five deep reserves are three draftees and two guys with over 600 days tenure on my club.