Post by Buster 5000 on Nov 11, 2014 16:11:02 GMT -6
Links
Rosters – Every team's rosters
Injuries – Who is hurt and how long are they out?
Free Agents – Who can you pick up?
Draft – Next year’s class
Potential Free Agents – Who is in the final year of their contract?
Standings – Check the playoff/tanking race
League Leaders – Top 10 individuals in statistical categories
Weekly-Monthly Awards – Players and rookies of the week and month
Team Stats – Sortable team statistics on offense and defense
Historical Team Performance – How has your team done throughout the years?
Shout
The chat box under the links at the top of the page. It’s where the league congregates. Whether it's discussing how low Devine's IQ is or getting a TMBSL history lesson from Ian, Shout is always a good time and arguably the best part about being in the league. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions here.
Your Team
Players – A list of all the guys on your squad. Their ages, heights and weights and ratings are there.
Ratings:
Inside scoring: How well they go to the hoop
Outside scoring: How well they shoot from the middle and from 3
Handling: How well they pass and handle
Defense: How good they lock down the opposing player. Post defense helps inside guys, drive defense helps wings, perimeter defense helps guards, etc.
Rebounding: Self explanatory
Potential: This is their SCOUTED potential. Generally the better the grade the more likely they are to grow. But there are mistakes. Just like Darko was a lock star in real life and he busted, “A” potential in here does not necessarily mean success.
Salaries: The players’ salaries are listed at the bottom of the page. This has the length of their contract with a year-by-year breakdown of future salaries. You can see who will be free agents for you when and this will help shape your squad.
Forums
General:
General Board – This board has all the important parts of the season/offseason. Resignings, free agency, training camp, preseason, etc, will be in here.
Sim Results - Self explanatory. This is where the sim results are posted.
Depth Charts – Here you set your team’s depth chart for the season. You set your three-deep lineup and special traits your lineup needs. You pick your top scoring options who generally will take more shots. Pace is the speed your team looks for a shot. Generally, defensive stud teams go slower while run-and-gone go faster. More trapping and pressing create turnovers but also risk fouls to your players. Balance will determine whether you go to the hoop, play outside or a combination. Play to your team’s strengths.
History - Want to find out who was on the '08 title team? Curious who won the '05 dunk contest? Looking to see how much Magic Johnson signed for after his rookie contract ran out? All that and more on this board.
Articles – Here you can write an article about the league (read a few examples to get what we look for) for a chance to improve one of your players. If you do well, you can get 5,000 , a five point addition to one of your player’s attributes. You can write two articles a year. Some teams (i.e. the Jazz) do this every year to give their team a better chance to win. Others find it too time consuming. It’s up to you.
Off Topic – Shoot the shit. Anything not sim related here.
Transactions:
Trade Talk – Post who you’re looking to trade or look at other teams' trade blocks to see who is available.
Completed Trades - For trades that have been officially completed. Post the trade number and the team names in the subject and the trade itself along with the necessary signings/cuts in the body. DO NOT COMMENT on a trade until both parties have posted they have accepted. That’s when it becomes official. This forum also has a list of all future picks that have been traded in the thread titled "Owed Picks Thread".
Position Changes – Check and move guys on your roster to a different position.
Signings and Cuts - Sign free agents and cut players on your roster here. You can also Extend MLEs on this board under the thread title "Extend MLEs". Got a player you want to buyout? The Buyout Thread is on this board as well (see thread for details).
Rewards:
Articles - Post league related articles here with a chance to earn between 0 and 5,000 casino points. You may write up to three articles per year.
Casino & Contests - Each day there will be new games available to bet on. Bet up to 200 Dump Bucks (casino points) per day. Outside of sports you can also bet on NASCAR and soccer.
Skills Camps (SCs) - Got an extra 5,000 points to use? Cash them in here to help improve your players. Formerly known as Training Camp (TCs).
Rewards Camps (RCs) - For every 100 posts you make you earn an RC. Cash those in here to add a +3 to one your player's attributes. Limit 3 per player per career.
Banking - This is where we keep track of your casino points. Wondering how many points you have saved up? Check the "Team Banks" thread. Need to make a withdrawal? Make sure to post it in the "Bank Withdrawals" thread.
Draft:
Current Draft - The first board will include the current season's draft and upcoming draft profiles.
Future Drafts - Find out what drafts and players are coming up in the next four seasons.
Past Drafts - All past drafts and draft information are posted here.
The Season
Training camp – See how your team improved from one year to the next. This can make or break a player or an entire team. If a player improves from a B+ to an A in a certain category people call this a “+2”. When people talk about a guy +5'ing in TC it means that the sum of their letter grade changes is +5.
Preseason – Just a quick run-through. Nobody smart puts much stock in this. The software tends to set the depth charts all wonky.
Season- The season alternates between 10 and 5 days sims. Sometimes we'll get the occasional 15 day sim. This is referred to as a double sim.
Key dates
Day 100 – The trade deadline. We stop the previous sim at Day 99 and day this is the last day you can trade.
Day 120- The season ends. The draft lotto is conducted after.
Playoffs: Best of seven series to determine the winner. We sim the first three games, take a break to fix depth charts, then finish the series.
The Offseason
Retirings: Watch the old guys hang it up. Or the 33 year olds who have severe depression (happened once).
Resignings: Resign your players. NOT all players will request to resign.
Draft: The draft takes place over two days with time limits. Read the draft thread to read the updated order/timelines. All first-rounders get four year deals (removing the 4th year is permitted). You can choose to have your second rounders have two or three year deals (limit one per season).
Free Agency: Sign free agents that aren’t re-signed or drafted. If you have salary cap room this is more fun since you can bid until you go over soft cap. You can place up to 15 bids for days 1-2. Some players will sign, others will not. Days 1-2 are when most of the big name free agents sign. Same deal for days 3-4. Last is day 5, which mostly consists of scrubs and roster fillers. After free agency the offseason is pretty much over and we're off to Training Camp.
Basic Strategies
Coaching matters. Playing to your team's strengths can greatly help your chances of winning. We will cover basics all the way to advanced strategies.
Pace: Pace determines how quickly you take shots. Do you pass it around and milk the clock or do you take the first look you get? I'll break down the advantages to each.
Faster: More possessions, higher scoring, fewer turnovers per possession (but likely more overall)
Slower: Higher FG%
Now while that looks like a clear victory for "fast", don't forget that your opponent will have more possessions and score more too. A strong defensive team may want to go slow and grind it out. A fast team passes it around less so they have fewer turnovers per possession, but they will also get worse looks.
Scoring Focus:
Inside: 35% inside/60% jumpers/5% threes
Balanced: 25% inside/60% jumpers/15% threes
Outside: 15% inside/60 jumpers/25% threes
One thing people seem to not notice is that you will be taking a ton of jumpers regardless. Even a star PG with "A- inside" will not take many layups. He'll take runners and jumpers still. Bigs are the only ones who will constantly pound it inside like they're Melanie Silvestri after a couple pancakes. Even if you don't have a center as a scoring option in an inside offense he WILL shoot. Even if you have a SG who is not an option in an outside offense he WILL shoot. Balanced is the likely choice for most owners unless their team is set up to go "all in" for a concept
Press: Do your guards play good defense? You might want to press and force some turnovers. It could really slow down a fast-quick shooting offense and can force a lot of turnovers. It could get you in some minor foul trouble though. It also seems like you can give up easy buckets on the other side. I would avoid "never" pressing unless your guards can't stop a nosebleed.
Trapping: When there's a center on the baseline, do you want your bigs to double him to cause trouble? The key benefit is turnovers forced. With most opposing bigs possessing C or D handles, you can cause some problems. But watch out! You might give up easy buckets leaving your guy and increase your fouls in traffic. Make sure you have big depth if you plan on doing this.
Depth Chart Strategies
Beginner Strategies
Roster composition: Since there are 15 depth chart spots and only 12 active players at a time, there will have to be three duplicates. The basic strategy here should be to have a third string wing and a third string big. These guys are the most flexible. And, barring injury, you usually only need 2 PGs. Going with a basic depth chart your roster should be composed of:
4-5 PF/Cs
4-5 SF/SGs
2-3 PGs
Balancing minutes: There are 240 minutes in a game. Many teams go with straight depth charts with little duplication of players. For example:
C: Shaq/Robinson/Scalabrine
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Kidd/Kidd
In this case, Scalabrine, Dr. J and Kidd are the duplicates. Scalabrine and Dr. J are third string guys, Kidd is filling both backup roles
Minutes breakdown: Generally, starters get between 30-40 minutes per game. This is a rough breakdown of minutes I've seen per depth chart position. Factors including fouls make bigs play fewer minutes.
C: 32/12/4
PF: 32/12/4
SF: 35/10/3
SG: 35/10/3
PG: 38/9/1
As you can see, third string PGs are pretty much useless and a waste of a roster spot.
Intermediate Strategies
Doubling up players:
Going back to our original DC:
C: Shaq/Robinson/Scalabrine
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Kidd/Kidd
We can milk more minutes out of our starters.
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Kidd
If we really don't want Scalabrine matched up against big Cs, we can make Robinson take more minutes at C.
By switching Nash to backup PG, we could milk an extra two or three minutes out of him per game.
This can be incredibly useful if you are short on depth.
Players "official" positions: I've been the [HASH]1 abuser of position changes, but they actually end up being important depending on your DC. Since you only set your top three positions, you may want control passed that. For example, let's go to our new doubled up DC:
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Kidd
Shaq fouled out and Robinson needs a rest. Who are we going to? Remember, we DO NOT want Scalabrine going in to center. But our coach, who only knows the top-3 players at each position and their position, looks to the bench and sees this:
Scalabrine C
Garnett PF
Pippen SF
Dr. J SF
Magic SG
Kidd PG
Who do you think he's going with? The center. Scalabrine.
How can we avoid this? Pretty easily. Set Garnett to be a Center and Scalabrine to be a PF. When we're in our top-3 depth chart, it doesn't matter what our players' nominal positions are. But once we get past that their nominal positions can serve as essentially a fourth depth chart space.
With Scalabrine at C and Garnett at PF, our 4 deep looks like this
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson/Scalabrine
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine/Up to the coach
With Scalafbrine at PF and Garnett at C, our 4 deep looks like this
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson/Garnett
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine/Up to the coach
Advanced Strategies
Tweeners: Ohhaithur's favorite thing. Guys who can play 2-3 positions.
Let's go back to our depth chart
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Kidd
Getting 10 mpg from Magic Freaking Johnson is not going to cut it. He can be our SF, SG or PG. And he'd be great at any of those positions, he's just stuck behind greats like Nash and Jordan. So let's move him around to steal him a few more minutes.
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Magic
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Magic
We've effectively doubled Magic's minutes while taking away from shitty players like Dr. J and Jason Kidd.
But if you're worried about what happens if Bird gets hurt and Magic is playing PG, don't forget, using your positions you can effectively make your DC four-deep
With Dr. J as a SG and Kidd at PG
SF: Bird/Pippen/Magic/No idea
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Magic/Kidd
With Dr. J as a SF and Kidd at PG
SF: Bird/Pippen/Magic/Dr. J
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Magic/Kidd
Improving Players/Points Dispersal
Got 5,000 casino points available? Let me help you. Overall, boosting elite players to even-more-elite is the best way to go. If you know your player but don't know where to boost him, here's a breakdown.
Inside Scoring
Best for: SF/SF
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring
The skinny: Possibly the most valuable skill as this leads to the most scoring directly. While many wing players have great inside scoring ratings, they still end up taking more jumpers than PFs and Cs. In the end, a boost in inside scoring can add two or three points a game to a player and, more importantly, raise their FG%. This is on of the better upgrades
Overall grade: A
Jump Shot
Best for: Everyone
Ratings Affected: Outside Scoring
The skinny: This might be the best upgrade. For balanced teams, an average of about 70% of shots taken are not three pointers or "inside", they're jumpers. Some teams are above 80% jumpers. This improves FT shooting too. This is a no-brainer upgrade for all players outside of defense/rebounding first bigs who you don't want shooting much.
Overall grade: A+
3 Point Shot
Best for: Highly rated outside shooters on "outside"-minded teams
Ratings Affected: Outside Scoring
The skinny: Boosting a crappy 3 point shooter's outside game won't help much, so don't do that. If you +5 3-pointers, you can realistically expect maybe a 2% or 3% increase in their percentage. So if a guy shoots 35% and boost it up to 38% on five attempts per game, you're going from an expected 5.25 ppg (35% of 5 attempts is 1.75 3pg) to 5.7 ppg (38% on 5 attempts is 1.9 3pg). That means you'll add .45 points per game by doing this. Is that really that big? Especially considering other options? No.
Overall grade: C
Handling
Best for: PG's and Grant Hill
Ratings Affected: Handling
The skinny: This has proven to be the best way to lower turnovers at the PG position. While most PGs hang around 2.5-3.0 ToPG, a boost here could lower that a bit.
Overall grade: B+
Quickness
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Handling, Defense and Rebounding
The skinny: The current and a couple former commissioners say this is a good upgrade so that's good enough for me. It also apparently helps guys get to the foul line, which is nice.
Overall grade: B+
Passing
Best for: PG
Ratings Affected: Handling
The skinny: This helps clamp down on turnovers less than "Handling" does. There is really no way to define how this helps, but I do feel as though better passing might be one of the more underrated upgrades due to being able to improve FG% and assists through better passing.
Overall grade: B+
Stealing
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: If you steal the ball, you're saving yourself on average of 1 point possession. But when there are only a handful of players over 2 spg, what are you expecting when you +5 steals? Overall, I just don't think you're helping yourself more than 0.2 or 0.3 PPG by boosting your steals
Overall grade: C+
Shot Blocking
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: This is one that many of us are guilty of fapping to, but others would say it's overrated. Blocks are such a pretty stat for someone who loves defense as much as me, but it's probably not the best way to boost D, especially when you consider that blocks don't even guarantee you get the ball back. Boosting blocks by 0.5 per game may net you only about 0.25 PPG. One of the lowest boosts.
Overall grade: C+
Post Defense
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: The clear better alternative to blocks. While not as flashy as blocks, forcing a guy to go 5 for 20 inside is the best way to shut down a team.
Overall grade: A
Perimeter Defense
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: This helps shut down outside shots, namely threes. With how effective players are at scoring from the outside in TMBSL, this is very important for wings.
Overall grade: B+
Drive Defense
Best for: SF/PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: I wouldn't use this unless your first 5-6 choices are over 85.
Overall grade: C-
Offensive Rebounding
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Rebounding
The skinny: Another overrated attribute, with less than 30% of rebounds being offensive, it just isn't as important as defensive rebounding would be.
Overall grade: C+
Defensive Rebounding
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Rebounding
The skinny: Teams that rebound well win and that starts on the defensive glass. With a boost to defensive rebounds, you increase an attribute that you already have an advantage in (roughly 70% of rebounds are defensive) and limit easy second shot opportunities from inside.
Overall grade: B+
Strength
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring, Defense and Rebounding
The skinny: This is a great attribute as it improves the three biggest categories for bigs. While it doesn't directly lead to improvement like Inside Scoring does, the overall improvement can be very noticeable. It cuts down on fouls generally and boosts scoring, blocks, and rebounding. I've seen guys go +2 with only 3 points added to their strength. I'm a big, big fan of this attribute.
Overall grade: A
Jumping
Best for: Idiots
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring
The skinny: It doesn't affect rebounding (lol) and I don't think anyone can imagine that it would be worthwhile.
Overall grade: F-
Best for PG
1. Passing
2. Handling
3. Jump Shot
4. Perimeter Defense
Best for SG
1. Jump Shot
2. Perimeter Defense
3. Strength
4. Inside Scoring
Best for SF
1. Jump Shot
2. Strength
3. Perimeter Defense
4. Inside Scoring
Best for Scoring Bigs
1. Strength
2. Inside Scoring
3. Jump Shot
4. Post Defense
Best for Defense-First Bigs
1. Post Defense
2. Strength
3. Defensive Rebounding
4. Shot Blocking
Rosters – Every team's rosters
Injuries – Who is hurt and how long are they out?
Free Agents – Who can you pick up?
Draft – Next year’s class
Potential Free Agents – Who is in the final year of their contract?
Standings – Check the playoff/tanking race
League Leaders – Top 10 individuals in statistical categories
Weekly-Monthly Awards – Players and rookies of the week and month
Team Stats – Sortable team statistics on offense and defense
Historical Team Performance – How has your team done throughout the years?
Shout
The chat box under the links at the top of the page. It’s where the league congregates. Whether it's discussing how low Devine's IQ is or getting a TMBSL history lesson from Ian, Shout is always a good time and arguably the best part about being in the league. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions here.
Your Team
Players – A list of all the guys on your squad. Their ages, heights and weights and ratings are there.
Ratings:
Inside scoring: How well they go to the hoop
Outside scoring: How well they shoot from the middle and from 3
Handling: How well they pass and handle
Defense: How good they lock down the opposing player. Post defense helps inside guys, drive defense helps wings, perimeter defense helps guards, etc.
Rebounding: Self explanatory
Potential: This is their SCOUTED potential. Generally the better the grade the more likely they are to grow. But there are mistakes. Just like Darko was a lock star in real life and he busted, “A” potential in here does not necessarily mean success.
Salaries: The players’ salaries are listed at the bottom of the page. This has the length of their contract with a year-by-year breakdown of future salaries. You can see who will be free agents for you when and this will help shape your squad.
Forums
General:
General Board – This board has all the important parts of the season/offseason. Resignings, free agency, training camp, preseason, etc, will be in here.
Sim Results - Self explanatory. This is where the sim results are posted.
Depth Charts – Here you set your team’s depth chart for the season. You set your three-deep lineup and special traits your lineup needs. You pick your top scoring options who generally will take more shots. Pace is the speed your team looks for a shot. Generally, defensive stud teams go slower while run-and-gone go faster. More trapping and pressing create turnovers but also risk fouls to your players. Balance will determine whether you go to the hoop, play outside or a combination. Play to your team’s strengths.
History - Want to find out who was on the '08 title team? Curious who won the '05 dunk contest? Looking to see how much Magic Johnson signed for after his rookie contract ran out? All that and more on this board.
Articles – Here you can write an article about the league (read a few examples to get what we look for) for a chance to improve one of your players. If you do well, you can get 5,000 , a five point addition to one of your player’s attributes. You can write two articles a year. Some teams (i.e. the Jazz) do this every year to give their team a better chance to win. Others find it too time consuming. It’s up to you.
Off Topic – Shoot the shit. Anything not sim related here.
Transactions:
Trade Talk – Post who you’re looking to trade or look at other teams' trade blocks to see who is available.
Completed Trades - For trades that have been officially completed. Post the trade number and the team names in the subject and the trade itself along with the necessary signings/cuts in the body. DO NOT COMMENT on a trade until both parties have posted they have accepted. That’s when it becomes official. This forum also has a list of all future picks that have been traded in the thread titled "Owed Picks Thread".
Position Changes – Check and move guys on your roster to a different position.
Signings and Cuts - Sign free agents and cut players on your roster here. You can also Extend MLEs on this board under the thread title "Extend MLEs". Got a player you want to buyout? The Buyout Thread is on this board as well (see thread for details).
Rewards:
Articles - Post league related articles here with a chance to earn between 0 and 5,000 casino points. You may write up to three articles per year.
Casino & Contests - Each day there will be new games available to bet on. Bet up to 200 Dump Bucks (casino points) per day. Outside of sports you can also bet on NASCAR and soccer.
Skills Camps (SCs) - Got an extra 5,000 points to use? Cash them in here to help improve your players. Formerly known as Training Camp (TCs).
Rewards Camps (RCs) - For every 100 posts you make you earn an RC. Cash those in here to add a +3 to one your player's attributes. Limit 3 per player per career.
Banking - This is where we keep track of your casino points. Wondering how many points you have saved up? Check the "Team Banks" thread. Need to make a withdrawal? Make sure to post it in the "Bank Withdrawals" thread.
Draft:
Current Draft - The first board will include the current season's draft and upcoming draft profiles.
Future Drafts - Find out what drafts and players are coming up in the next four seasons.
Past Drafts - All past drafts and draft information are posted here.
The Season
Training camp – See how your team improved from one year to the next. This can make or break a player or an entire team. If a player improves from a B+ to an A in a certain category people call this a “+2”. When people talk about a guy +5'ing in TC it means that the sum of their letter grade changes is +5.
Preseason – Just a quick run-through. Nobody smart puts much stock in this. The software tends to set the depth charts all wonky.
Season- The season alternates between 10 and 5 days sims. Sometimes we'll get the occasional 15 day sim. This is referred to as a double sim.
Key dates
Day 100 – The trade deadline. We stop the previous sim at Day 99 and day this is the last day you can trade.
Day 120- The season ends. The draft lotto is conducted after.
Playoffs: Best of seven series to determine the winner. We sim the first three games, take a break to fix depth charts, then finish the series.
The Offseason
Retirings: Watch the old guys hang it up. Or the 33 year olds who have severe depression (happened once).
Resignings: Resign your players. NOT all players will request to resign.
Draft: The draft takes place over two days with time limits. Read the draft thread to read the updated order/timelines. All first-rounders get four year deals (removing the 4th year is permitted). You can choose to have your second rounders have two or three year deals (limit one per season).
Free Agency: Sign free agents that aren’t re-signed or drafted. If you have salary cap room this is more fun since you can bid until you go over soft cap. You can place up to 15 bids for days 1-2. Some players will sign, others will not. Days 1-2 are when most of the big name free agents sign. Same deal for days 3-4. Last is day 5, which mostly consists of scrubs and roster fillers. After free agency the offseason is pretty much over and we're off to Training Camp.
Basic Strategies
Coaching matters. Playing to your team's strengths can greatly help your chances of winning. We will cover basics all the way to advanced strategies.
Pace: Pace determines how quickly you take shots. Do you pass it around and milk the clock or do you take the first look you get? I'll break down the advantages to each.
Faster: More possessions, higher scoring, fewer turnovers per possession (but likely more overall)
Slower: Higher FG%
Now while that looks like a clear victory for "fast", don't forget that your opponent will have more possessions and score more too. A strong defensive team may want to go slow and grind it out. A fast team passes it around less so they have fewer turnovers per possession, but they will also get worse looks.
Scoring Focus:
Inside: 35% inside/60% jumpers/5% threes
Balanced: 25% inside/60% jumpers/15% threes
Outside: 15% inside/60 jumpers/25% threes
One thing people seem to not notice is that you will be taking a ton of jumpers regardless. Even a star PG with "A- inside" will not take many layups. He'll take runners and jumpers still. Bigs are the only ones who will constantly pound it inside like they're Melanie Silvestri after a couple pancakes. Even if you don't have a center as a scoring option in an inside offense he WILL shoot. Even if you have a SG who is not an option in an outside offense he WILL shoot. Balanced is the likely choice for most owners unless their team is set up to go "all in" for a concept
Press: Do your guards play good defense? You might want to press and force some turnovers. It could really slow down a fast-quick shooting offense and can force a lot of turnovers. It could get you in some minor foul trouble though. It also seems like you can give up easy buckets on the other side. I would avoid "never" pressing unless your guards can't stop a nosebleed.
Trapping: When there's a center on the baseline, do you want your bigs to double him to cause trouble? The key benefit is turnovers forced. With most opposing bigs possessing C or D handles, you can cause some problems. But watch out! You might give up easy buckets leaving your guy and increase your fouls in traffic. Make sure you have big depth if you plan on doing this.
Depth Chart Strategies
Beginner Strategies
Roster composition: Since there are 15 depth chart spots and only 12 active players at a time, there will have to be three duplicates. The basic strategy here should be to have a third string wing and a third string big. These guys are the most flexible. And, barring injury, you usually only need 2 PGs. Going with a basic depth chart your roster should be composed of:
4-5 PF/Cs
4-5 SF/SGs
2-3 PGs
Balancing minutes: There are 240 minutes in a game. Many teams go with straight depth charts with little duplication of players. For example:
C: Shaq/Robinson/Scalabrine
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Kidd/Kidd
In this case, Scalabrine, Dr. J and Kidd are the duplicates. Scalabrine and Dr. J are third string guys, Kidd is filling both backup roles
Minutes breakdown: Generally, starters get between 30-40 minutes per game. This is a rough breakdown of minutes I've seen per depth chart position. Factors including fouls make bigs play fewer minutes.
C: 32/12/4
PF: 32/12/4
SF: 35/10/3
SG: 35/10/3
PG: 38/9/1
As you can see, third string PGs are pretty much useless and a waste of a roster spot.
Intermediate Strategies
Doubling up players:
Going back to our original DC:
C: Shaq/Robinson/Scalabrine
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Kidd/Kidd
We can milk more minutes out of our starters.
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Kidd
If we really don't want Scalabrine matched up against big Cs, we can make Robinson take more minutes at C.
By switching Nash to backup PG, we could milk an extra two or three minutes out of him per game.
This can be incredibly useful if you are short on depth.
Players "official" positions: I've been the [HASH]1 abuser of position changes, but they actually end up being important depending on your DC. Since you only set your top three positions, you may want control passed that. For example, let's go to our new doubled up DC:
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Kidd
Shaq fouled out and Robinson needs a rest. Who are we going to? Remember, we DO NOT want Scalabrine going in to center. But our coach, who only knows the top-3 players at each position and their position, looks to the bench and sees this:
Scalabrine C
Garnett PF
Pippen SF
Dr. J SF
Magic SG
Kidd PG
Who do you think he's going with? The center. Scalabrine.
How can we avoid this? Pretty easily. Set Garnett to be a Center and Scalabrine to be a PF. When we're in our top-3 depth chart, it doesn't matter what our players' nominal positions are. But once we get past that their nominal positions can serve as essentially a fourth depth chart space.
With Scalabrine at C and Garnett at PF, our 4 deep looks like this
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson/Scalabrine
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine/Up to the coach
With Scalafbrine at PF and Garnett at C, our 4 deep looks like this
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson/Garnett
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine/Up to the coach
Advanced Strategies
Tweeners: Ohhaithur's favorite thing. Guys who can play 2-3 positions.
Let's go back to our depth chart
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Dr. J.
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Kidd
Getting 10 mpg from Magic Freaking Johnson is not going to cut it. He can be our SF, SG or PG. And he'd be great at any of those positions, he's just stuck behind greats like Nash and Jordan. So let's move him around to steal him a few more minutes.
C: Shaq/Robinson/Robinson
PF: Duncan/Garnett/Scalabrine
SF: Bird/Pippen/Magic
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Magic
We've effectively doubled Magic's minutes while taking away from shitty players like Dr. J and Jason Kidd.
But if you're worried about what happens if Bird gets hurt and Magic is playing PG, don't forget, using your positions you can effectively make your DC four-deep
With Dr. J as a SG and Kidd at PG
SF: Bird/Pippen/Magic/No idea
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Magic/Kidd
With Dr. J as a SF and Kidd at PG
SF: Bird/Pippen/Magic/Dr. J
SG: Jordan/Magic/Dr. J
PG: Nash/Nash/Magic/Kidd
Improving Players/Points Dispersal
Got 5,000 casino points available? Let me help you. Overall, boosting elite players to even-more-elite is the best way to go. If you know your player but don't know where to boost him, here's a breakdown.
Inside Scoring
Best for: SF/SF
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring
The skinny: Possibly the most valuable skill as this leads to the most scoring directly. While many wing players have great inside scoring ratings, they still end up taking more jumpers than PFs and Cs. In the end, a boost in inside scoring can add two or three points a game to a player and, more importantly, raise their FG%. This is on of the better upgrades
Overall grade: A
Jump Shot
Best for: Everyone
Ratings Affected: Outside Scoring
The skinny: This might be the best upgrade. For balanced teams, an average of about 70% of shots taken are not three pointers or "inside", they're jumpers. Some teams are above 80% jumpers. This improves FT shooting too. This is a no-brainer upgrade for all players outside of defense/rebounding first bigs who you don't want shooting much.
Overall grade: A+
3 Point Shot
Best for: Highly rated outside shooters on "outside"-minded teams
Ratings Affected: Outside Scoring
The skinny: Boosting a crappy 3 point shooter's outside game won't help much, so don't do that. If you +5 3-pointers, you can realistically expect maybe a 2% or 3% increase in their percentage. So if a guy shoots 35% and boost it up to 38% on five attempts per game, you're going from an expected 5.25 ppg (35% of 5 attempts is 1.75 3pg) to 5.7 ppg (38% on 5 attempts is 1.9 3pg). That means you'll add .45 points per game by doing this. Is that really that big? Especially considering other options? No.
Overall grade: C
Handling
Best for: PG's and Grant Hill
Ratings Affected: Handling
The skinny: This has proven to be the best way to lower turnovers at the PG position. While most PGs hang around 2.5-3.0 ToPG, a boost here could lower that a bit.
Overall grade: B+
Quickness
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Handling, Defense and Rebounding
The skinny: The current and a couple former commissioners say this is a good upgrade so that's good enough for me. It also apparently helps guys get to the foul line, which is nice.
Overall grade: B+
Passing
Best for: PG
Ratings Affected: Handling
The skinny: This helps clamp down on turnovers less than "Handling" does. There is really no way to define how this helps, but I do feel as though better passing might be one of the more underrated upgrades due to being able to improve FG% and assists through better passing.
Overall grade: B+
Stealing
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: If you steal the ball, you're saving yourself on average of 1 point possession. But when there are only a handful of players over 2 spg, what are you expecting when you +5 steals? Overall, I just don't think you're helping yourself more than 0.2 or 0.3 PPG by boosting your steals
Overall grade: C+
Shot Blocking
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: This is one that many of us are guilty of fapping to, but others would say it's overrated. Blocks are such a pretty stat for someone who loves defense as much as me, but it's probably not the best way to boost D, especially when you consider that blocks don't even guarantee you get the ball back. Boosting blocks by 0.5 per game may net you only about 0.25 PPG. One of the lowest boosts.
Overall grade: C+
Post Defense
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: The clear better alternative to blocks. While not as flashy as blocks, forcing a guy to go 5 for 20 inside is the best way to shut down a team.
Overall grade: A
Perimeter Defense
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: This helps shut down outside shots, namely threes. With how effective players are at scoring from the outside in TMBSL, this is very important for wings.
Overall grade: B+
Drive Defense
Best for: SF/PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: I wouldn't use this unless your first 5-6 choices are over 85.
Overall grade: C-
Offensive Rebounding
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Rebounding
The skinny: Another overrated attribute, with less than 30% of rebounds being offensive, it just isn't as important as defensive rebounding would be.
Overall grade: C+
Defensive Rebounding
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Rebounding
The skinny: Teams that rebound well win and that starts on the defensive glass. With a boost to defensive rebounds, you increase an attribute that you already have an advantage in (roughly 70% of rebounds are defensive) and limit easy second shot opportunities from inside.
Overall grade: B+
Strength
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring, Defense and Rebounding
The skinny: This is a great attribute as it improves the three biggest categories for bigs. While it doesn't directly lead to improvement like Inside Scoring does, the overall improvement can be very noticeable. It cuts down on fouls generally and boosts scoring, blocks, and rebounding. I've seen guys go +2 with only 3 points added to their strength. I'm a big, big fan of this attribute.
Overall grade: A
Jumping
Best for: Idiots
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring
The skinny: It doesn't affect rebounding (lol) and I don't think anyone can imagine that it would be worthwhile.
Overall grade: F-
Best for PG
1. Passing
2. Handling
3. Jump Shot
4. Perimeter Defense
Best for SG
1. Jump Shot
2. Perimeter Defense
3. Strength
4. Inside Scoring
Best for SF
1. Jump Shot
2. Strength
3. Perimeter Defense
4. Inside Scoring
Best for Scoring Bigs
1. Strength
2. Inside Scoring
3. Jump Shot
4. Post Defense
Best for Defense-First Bigs
1. Post Defense
2. Strength
3. Defensive Rebounding
4. Shot Blocking
