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Changing the player skills helps balance the game, as OD and IS are overpowered because you can train a wide effect with just 1 skill (kill an outside offense with just high OD), where other areas need multiple skills (Passing, handling and driving for flow, OD, ID and SB to stop IS on guards). SB and JR are stilll undertrained because of the limited effect. Also, I'd like to see more balanced players and I think more skills that are important for both bigs and guards will help with that.

What I suggest is the following:
Remove DR, replace with off-ball movement
Remove SB, replace with off-ball defense
Remove IS, replace with Post offense
Remove JR, replace with Finish at the rim

Now I realize this might be a big change to the GE, but it could be a long term project that I think will serve multiple purposes and make the game more versatile. I'll also get into how I think it can be implemented but I'll save that for the end. Hear me out.

Explanation on new skills:
Off-ball movement
Any player that wants to create opportunities with the ball needs both HA and DR, so why have seperate skills for them? It's already hard to train them independently because they are trained by the same regimens, but even if you could it wouldn't make a lot of sense to want more of either. Therefore, I suggest to remove DR and replace it with off-ball movement. This shouldn't be a free skill salary/cap wise for non-PG players.

Off-ball movement is to create opportunities off the ball, either by cutting, screening, or coming off screens. Why this instead of DR? Because it's important for guards and bigs alike, and because 4/5 of your team needs it (the ones without the ball) while only 1/5 needs driving (the one with the ball). This will also help to create different types of players, like a Ray Allen who excelled at getting open, or a DeAndre Jordan who could always catch an alley oop after setting a strong screen. It will also have a different effect on different tactics; against a zone defense off-ball movement works better than driving/dribbling, and in a motion offense you need good screens. These different effects of skills on tactics increases the ability of the manager to make a difference through them, instead of just outside vs inside.

Off-ball defense
I think SB is still undertrained because of the limited use. Off-ball defense is a more widely usable skill that captures most of the shotblocking ability, while also being relevant for outside defenders. It encompasses help defense (hedging, switching, shotblocking), staying connected with cutters and disrupting passing lanes. With off-ball defense a seperate skill, a good perimeter defender will now need 2 skills to be good instead of just 1, so I hope this will lead to a less OD dominant game (1 skill stops a complete outside offense). It has a different effect on offensive tactics (OD is good against patient, off-ball defense against motion), and the effect on your defensive tactic (off-ball defense is important in zone defense, OD in M2M).

Post offense/finish at the rim
Post offense is a part of inside shot and a part of driving, but mostly relevant for just bigs. It's less of a catch all skill that IS is, so I hope it will decrease the dominance of inside offenses. With Finish at the rim a seperate skill, there are now 2 skills that are necessary for a good inside attack. Also, in order to score inside efficiently as a guard you'll need both handling (for dribble penetration) and off-ball movement (for cutting), both increasing the salary. Also, finishing at the rim is flashy and thus warrants big salary, making it more costly to train it on your guard.

JR is removed, because it's not different enough from JS and too limited like SB. Good shooters that are not good 3P shooters don't exist, they are just average shooters with great handles to create opportunities. Good 3P shooters need jumpshot and off-ball movement.

Last edited by Jeründerbar at 8/17/2016 11:09:16 AM

JR is removed, because it's not different enough from JS and too limited like SB. Good shooters that are not good 3P shooters don't exist, they are just average shooters with great handles to create opportunities.

I disagree with you on that.Lets take for example Michael Jordan and Dwayne Wade and their career percentages.

MJ 50 % FG, 32.7 % 3P while 51% 2P and 83.5% FT%
D-Wade 48.8% FG, 28.4 % 3P while 50.8% 2P and 76.7% FT%

We are talking about the No1 SG ever and a Top 5 or even a Top 3 SG of all time(IMO).Their Mid Range game was the best basketball has ever seen but they were not good behind the 3PT line (keep in mind that MJ in his first 5 seasons was atrocious from 3PT line with <25%).

In addition to that,if you remove JR then every manager will play LI and only LI.I think this is the main problem to resolve.BBs tried to solve this by introducing GDP but ever since every B3 winner played LI to win the title.LI is dominating BB.



Last edited by The Count at 9/1/2016 10:15:37 AM

Makes no sense to compare with real world basketball.

LI has the pace and rebounding advantage, those need to go, then we can talk about balanced tactics.

Because I think there is an underlaying problem why those are not trained a lot, which is what I'm trying to explain Their effect is too limited; you can't train all skills to a high level so you need to make choices, so people go with the skills that have to most/broadest impact. By replacing the narrow skills of JR and SB with broader impact skills, and decreasing the impact of IS by only making it post moves, the balance should return.

They were great SG's because they were great finishers at the rim, and had great handles so they could get off shots at any time. They did not have spectacular shooting like Ray Allen or Stephen Curry. But this was not the point of my argument.

Removing the skill JR does not equal removing the 3 point shot from the game. You just have to train 1 skill instead of 2 to have an effective shooter, making it easier to train one.

Those skills are perceived to have a limited impact. That doesn't mean they are limited.

What I mean is that they have a narrow (though possibly strong in that narrow field) impact. If you can choose between a skills that has a strong broad impact and one with a narrow strong impact, guess what gets trained the most? All players benefit from scoring inside and all benefit from preventing others from getting inside. If those 2 abilities can both be trained with a single skills, the surely will stay the focus of everyone.

Im saying it would be good if those widely important abilities need 2 skills to be used effectively, so it takes an appropriate amount of effort to achieve the benefit.

But again, you're saying SB has a narrow impact. You don't know that. Everyone has assumed that, but that's not the same as knowing.

Truth doesnt always matter, the result are clear and I'm suggesting a solution. Even if just the names are changed it could provoke a change. If you name it help/off-ball defense people can understand it helps the whole team over the whole floor, and might lead to more people training it.