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Or at least let us choose.

As someone who isn't American (or a matter of fact being Asian and growing up in a competitive environment) I actually dislike garbage time. I know it's a cultural thing in American sports where you're supposed to respect your opponent and not humiliate them further, and that this game is somewhat modeled after the NBA so that's why we have it. But on the other hand, the rest of the world can't really relate to it (Goran Dragic definitely didn't bother about it in 2018 and Ben Simmons even agreed to his actions by saying he would have dunked it if it was him).

That said if we view this objectively:
1. Point difference is used as the tie breaker in the standings. Having garbage time prevents your team from competing fairly to extend your point difference by pitting your subs against your opponent's starters. I have games where I literally lead by 20 per quarter (up to 60-70 before the fourth) and my opponents just chip off the lead in the 4th because my subs played the end of the third plus the whole of the fourth.

2. Training and game shape are minute based. Garbage time really messes up with training and game shape minutes. Also in real life, coaches use garbage time to let role players have more play time, which they can improve from. Such a concept cannot happen in BB because if the players are outside of training position, they won't receive anything other than experience, and experience is useless as long as you don't have the skills (for the record, I have a 22 experience player and his performance is just comparable to another player of similar skill level who has 3 experience), so even the more reason to not have garbage time.

3. While meaningless, some people like their players on the leaderboards. Having a blowout game would literally mess with their PPG record.

There's literally no merit in having garbage time in this game, and it in fact doesn't complement the game design at all. So I don't see why it can't be removed.

As one of the rest of the world member, I can say that its a cultural thing in Israel and in Europe in general as well.

Oh wow. Never expected this really, since in games like football, some teams never take the foot off the pedal, while when Goran Dragic hit the layup in the final play, he was like, I don't care, and the media attribute it to a European being ignorant of American culture. I guess that's evidence of how media can mold a person's mind xD

It's one of the rare features of this game that helps manage game shape so it should stays this way.

Things aren't necessarily as rosy and straightforward as you think. It's a way to manage game shape IF you have an expected blowout and plan for it. I understand that such situations allow you to field the same starting lineup 3 games in a row and garbage time will play to your favour. But there are games where teams throw one out of three games in the week, and if you just so happen to come across an unexpected blowout, things can really go haywire.

That said, the first sentence of my post did propose for the best of both worlds - managers who love the feature can keep it, while managers who don't want it actually can choose to play their starters like a normal game. That would be an even better feature which helps you manage game shape, wouldn't it?

You are both right. That's why in my opinion a toggle should be implemented, as it has been suggested before.

Edit: Sorry, I saw now that Joe already spoke about it.

Last edited by mink0ff at 6/14/2022 11:54:16 AM

I agree that removal of garbage time should definitely be out of the question. Options are rarely a bad thing though.

On the question of game shape, I've always found garbage time one time in a week is helpful for game shape. Twice is less helpful.

If an option for garbage time is brought in perhaps we could also have an option to choose how many points the lead should be when garbage time starts.

As an option, sure, go for it. It's useful for point difference which can have extreme importance at the end of the season.

However, garbage time is also useful for the GS which is important all the time. I do play scrimmage against teams I expect to beat easily and thus know roughly the minutes that'll be played on Thursday. Same in league/cup if I know I'll win easily.

This.