Updated New Guys Article, First Draft, Looking for Feedback
Sept 5, 2015 15:23:02 GMT -6
Face-in and kn88 like this
Post by eric on Sept 5, 2015 15:23:02 GMT -6
Links
Rosters - Every team's rosters
Injuries - Who is hurt and how long are they out? Note that injuries are reset after the playoffs end
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. 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 well they lock down the opposing player
Rebounding: How well they get on the backboards
Potential: This is their SCOUTED potential. Generally the better the grade the more likely they are to grow in Training Camps, but the system has two levels of randomness.
Grades can be deceiving because the attributes that are their components are not weighted according to on-court results. Defense is even more untrustworthy because every position has soft caps beyond which an attribute can grow and (vastly) effect on-court performance but have no contribution to the Defense rating. Never go by grades alone if you can possibly help it.
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 offseason. Resignings, free agency, training camp, preseason, etc. will be in here.
Sim Results - This is where the sim results are posted, including playoffs.
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.
History - Want to find out who was on the '08 title team? Curious who won the '05 dunk contest? All that and more on this board.
Off Topic - Shoot the breeze. 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 indicate if any player is on MLE or LLE deals. Post 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. Unless you hit an attribute hard cap this will have no impact on on-court play whatsoever, only on Training Camp results.
Signings and Cuts - Sign free agents and cut players on your roster here. Outside of the free agency period, you can simply post any free agent's name as a signing and they will sign a one year minimum deal. Cutting a player does not remove their salary from your cap sheet, and you cannot cut a player for the sole purpose of tanking. You can extend MLEs under the thread title "Extending MLEs" UNLESS you already have an extended MLE on your roster. The Buyout thread is here as well.
Rewards:
Articles - Here you can write an article about the league for a chance to improve one of your players. Hosting a podcast or writing a Hall of Fame nomination counts as an article. If you do well, you can get 5,000 casino dollars (aka dump bucks), which can be exchanged for various rewards you can read about here. You can write three articles a year. Some teams do this every year to give their team a better chance to win. Others find it too time consuming. It’s up to you.
Casino & Contests - Each day there will be new games available to bet on. Bet up to 200 casino dollars per day.
Skills Camps (SCs) - Got an extra 5,000 dollars to use? Cash them in here to help improve your players. Limit 3 per player per career and 3 per team per season.
Reward Camps (RCs) - For 100 posts or 3,500 dollars you can add +3 to one of your player's attributes. Limit 3 per player per career.
Both camp forums have a list of what upgrades have been received by what players. You cannot increase the same attribute twice without paying extra dollars, you cannot increase the same attribute three times, and you cannot increase an attribute beyond 85.
Banking - This is where we keep track of your casino dollars. Wondering how many dollars you have saved up? Check the "Bank of Dump" 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. If a player improves from a B+ to an A in a certain category people call this a “+2”. Training Camp results are selected from a distribution determined by a player's true potential (within 25 points of scouted potential) and roster position. Even 100 true potential players can lose attributes, even 0 true potential players can gain, but the most likely outcome is big gain for A and big loss for F.
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 a 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 you cannot make a trade once the next sim has been run.
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 optionally fix depth charts, then finish the series.
The Offseason
Retirings: Watch the old guys hang it up. Older players and players not under contract are more likely to retire.
Resignings: Some players will request to resign. For those that do you can accept, decline, or do nothing. If a player you ignore doesn't sign with anyone during days 1-2 of free agency you can accept their resigning bid after, and the same for days 3-4.
Draft: The draft starts after the playoffs. It is strongly recommended to submit a list of players if you are not going to be around. 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: Offer free agents that aren’t resigned 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 in each of the three rounds: days 1-2, days 3-4, and day 5. Not all offered players will sign. Big name free agents get big offers early and therefore sign early. An offer made will stay in the system until the player is signed or you explicitly ask the commissioner to remove it, and an offer that is legal on the day submitted will remain legal regardless of your changing salary cap situation.
Depth Chart
Strategy matters. Playing to your team's strengths can greatly help your chances of winning.
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?
Faster: More possessions, higher scoring, higher FG%, more free throws drawn, more shots taken from three
Slower: Less possessions, more assists, slightly less turnovers per possession
If team A scores more points per possession on average than team B, a faster pace further favors team A because a larger sample size will push the actual values closer to the expected values. If your team is good, always go as fast as possible. At the time of this writing the Very Fast pace option is illegal.
Scoring Focus:
22% C_ / 22% PF / 17% SF / 17% SG / 22% PG - inside
17% C_ / 17% PF / 19% SF / 19% SG / 28% PG - balanced
15% C_ / 15% PF / 17% SF / 22% SG / 31% PG - outside
These values are a baseline. Specific players will shoot more or less than the average depending on their attributes. Overall, a team will have more threes, less free throws, and less turnovers the further outside your focus is.
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, and you could give up easy buckets on the other side. 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 Rules
1. You must have exactly 12 players dressed. If you do not have enough players on your roster to do so you must sign players until you do. If doing so puts you over the hard cap you must get under the cap and get to 12 players. If you have more than 12 players on your roster you must list the players you do not want dressed as Injured Reserve.
2. The only players who can be listed at PG are (a) players listed as PG in their draft profile (b) players listed as SF, SG, or G in their draft profile with B+ or higher Handling grade or (c) players listed as G in their draft profile that are on their rookie contract.
3. In general, you must have players for appropriate positions on your roster and your DC; at least two point guards, three wings, and three big men. Small forward is the most flexible position.
4. In general, your best players must start.
5. First string players cannot be listed as second string. Any dressed player can be listed as third string.
6. Scoring options must all be filled with players on the depth chart.
It is not a rule but it makes it much easier on the commissioner if you post and bold ONLY changes you make to your DC. Suppose our initial DC is...
C: Okafor / Hill / Smith
PF: Smith / Yardley / Longley
SF: Barry / Favors / Favors
SG: Langhi / Garmaker / Garmaker
PG: McCall / Barkley / Grannis
Wrong:
C: Okafor / Hill / Smith
PF: Smith / Longley / Longley
SF: Barry / Favors / Longley
SG: Langhi / Barkley / Barry
PG: McCall / Grannis / Barkley
Right:
PF: Smith / Longley / Longley
SF: Barry / Favors / Longley
SG: Langhi / Barkley / Barry
PG: McCall / Grannis / Barkley
Depth Chart Mechanics
The software only really cares about the first two healthy players listed at a given position. If we test three DC types over a three season simulation...
A: starter / backup / backup
B: starter / backup / starter
C: starter / backup / utility
...the starters and backups played 99.7%, 99.7%, and 99.6% of the available minutes, and the starters played 77%, 77%, and 77%. Even when I tried the 1st center at 3rd power forward, vice versa, the 1st shooting guard at 3rd small forward, and vice versa, I only got another 25 minutes per player per season, which could very well be random noise. There's just no way around it, your starters will get the minutes their talent deserves and that's that.
The third string really comes into play for foul trouble or injuries. For reference, there were 780 total foul-outs in the 3021 season, or about 1 every 15 player-starts. Injuries can range in severity from season ending to 1 game knocks. For long term injuries you should adjust your DC, but having an intelligently designed third string will help your team during a sim when you can't adjust anything manually. The software coaches make truly inexplicable decisions: I have seen them play a C Handling PF at PG when a B+ Handling PG was available on the bench but not on the DC. Since you can't squeeze out any significant minutes for your starters or backups, you may as well use the third string how it is intended: as the last level of control over your coach in fringe situations.
Improving Players/Points Dispersal
Got 5,000 casino points available? Here's a breakdown.
Inside Scoring
Best for: Scorers
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring
The skinny: Increases scoring efficiency AND increases a player's desire to score more than any other attribute, AND is the only attribute that will create more uses for the team overall. Ideal for the efficient player who doesn't shoot enough, the no. 1 option you want to score more efficiently, anyone that you want to score at all, ever.
Overall grade: A+
Jump Shot
Best for: PG/SG/SF
Ratings Affected: Outside Scoring
The skinny: The only attribute that improves FT%, and the slowest growing attribute outside of athletic attributes. Scoring big men with terrible FT% seem like obvious candidates, but there are better options for them.
Overall grade: B
Three Point Shot
Best for: PG/SG/SF
Ratings Affected: Outside Scoring
The skinny: Increases 3P% and the player's desire to take 3s instead of 2s. Helps winning about as much as Jump Shot, but Three Point Shot is the fastest growing attribute for perimeter players.
Overall grade: C
Handling
Best for: Everyone
Ratings Affected: Handling
The skinny: Handling is the only attribute that will reduce a player's uses, all in the form of turnovers. Turnovers are the worst possible outcome for an offensive possession. Handling is really really good.
Overall grade: A
Quickness
Best for: PG/SG/SF
Ratings Affected: Handling, Defense and Rebounding
The skinny: As the ratings affected suggests, Quickness does a lot of little things but doesn't do any one major thing. It adds up to a solid upgrade for perimeter players, never use it on a big. On average does not grow in TC.
Overall grade: B
Passing
Best for: PG
Ratings Affected: Handling
The skinny: Increases assists, but doesn't help the team win as much as other upgrades. Also grows very quickly for point guards, which makes spending points on it less efficient. Is by far the biggest contributor to Handling grade.
Overall grade: D
Stealing
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: SGs for whatever reason get the inside track for steals in the software, but this attribute turns out to help big man defense the most, and even for them not that much.
Overall grade: C
Shot Blocking
Best for: Everyone
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: Blocks in real life are hugely overrated, but nobody told the software coder that. A big with 100 shot blocking and 25 everything else will be a better defender than if he had 25 shot blocking and 100 everything else, and it's not close. For perimeter players it's not a no-brainer no. 1 choice but it's still good.
Overall grade: A
Post Defense
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: Makes it harder for the opponent to hit 2s at the rim, but the bang you get for the buck is very poor. Only useful for defense-only bigs who can't increase big boy defensive attributes.
Overall grade: D
Perimeter Defense
Best for: PG/SG
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: Makes it harder for the opponent to hit 3s and long 2s, but doesn't discourage them from taking them in the first place (or encourage if it's low). Neck and neck with Shot Blocking as the top defensive upgrade for perimeter types. Useless for bigs.
Overall grade: B
Drive Defense
Best for: SG/SF/PF
Ratings Affected: Defense
The skinny: Makes it harder for the opponent to blow by, forcing more passes and thus more turnovers, but doesn't make them any worse at shooting from any area of the floor. Also has the biggest effect of the three Defenses at making opponents go deeper into the shot clock to take shots.
Overall grade: B
Offensive Rebounding
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Rebounding
The skinny: Keeps the possession alive, and gives your big a small bump in usage in the form of putbacks, which are high % looks. However, both reboundings are the fastest growing attributes for bigs so it's not as valuable as it could be. Terrible for perimeter players, presumably because it compromises floor balance.
Overall grade: B
Defensive Rebounding
Best for: PF/C
Ratings Affected: Rebounding
The skinny: Same issues as Offensive Rebounding plus you can't goose a specific player's uses. Not an openly useless upgrade, but should be low on your list.
Overall grade: C
Strength
Best for: Scorers
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring, Defense and Rebounding
The skinny: Like Quickness it does a lot of little things, but unlike Quickness one of those things is increasing shot attempts. It's not close to Inside Scoring for scoring usefulness, but it's definitely no. 2 and helps other areas too. Not ideal for defense-only types because they'll shoot more. On average does not grow in TC.
Overall grade: A
Jumping
Best for: Scorers
Ratings Affected: Inside Scoring
The skinny: The no. 3 for increasing shot attempts. If you can't increase Inside Scoring or Strength and you ONLY want your player to shoot more, this is your best choice by a mile. Outside of this very specific scenario, Jumping is a bad choice. On average does not grow in TC.
Overall grade: C
Best for Scorers
1. Inside Scoring
2. Strength
3. Handling
4. Jumping
Best for Defense Smalls
1. Shot Blocking
2. Quickness
3. Perimeter Defense
4. Strength
Best for Defense Bigs
1. Shot Blocking
2. Stealing
3. Post Defense
4. Strength
Best for Mixed Types
1. Handling
2. Shot Blocking
3. Inside Scoring
4. Strength
