Flag starts in the middle of the map, cap in your opponents base. If the flag is dropped, either team can pick it up and keep going.

Instead of making the flag return to the stand after it is capped, maybe it would be better basketball style? Like, whatever team just got scored on gets the flag. There could be some kind of special stand in each base, by their respective cap-points, which only that bases team could interact with. After the flag is picked up, it is live again and only returns to the stand when capped. If the team does not pick up the flag within, let's say, 10 seconds, it returns to the primary, mid-field flag-stand.

With this basketball style, there is no issue with dying, suiciding and respawning. When you die, you simply spawn somewhere in your own base. The 10 seconds or so should give your team the time to regroup and clear your base.