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In regards to building a team with multiple tactic options, do you mean forming a team that in one season can run multiple tactics? What I mean is, with a limited amount of allowed call ups, do you see a challenge with our current player builds to have one roster that can an inside offense one week, and then an outside offense the next week? Is this something we can accomplish during this term, or is this a longer term plan?

Also, if we form players who can each run multiple tactics, is it a danger to potentially create a bunch of tweeners who have no weaknesses, but no real strengths on the national stage either?

With running multiple tactics, many of our guys are already built to be able to run inside and outside tactics, as long as they are used appropriately. So, this would not necessarily require call ups all the time. Also, I understand what our strength is and I'm not saying we constantly change tactics, what I'm saying is that I will have my mind on the matchups and if the situation calls for different tactics to be able to compete then I will do it. I will answer more specific questions to this if you have them, but in general, different tactics won't require call ups all the time.

For the second part, the goal isn't to make a whole bunch tweeners but I can see where you might think that. Players would have an identity to them specifically made for a purpose. Example: Defensive SFs, Outside bigs, inside guards, pure SGs, offensive oriented bigs, etc. They have an identity and will be different from each other. At the same time, we will still need types of player builds we have now. It'll be the combination of the two that will help us move forward.

Just a quick example of the past:

We knew we were outmatched and the opponent had gone 2-3 in the past, but instead of taking the chance going outside we would hear everyone say "stick to our bread and butter," ala go LI and M2M despite being outmatched an low chance of winning. Then, what do you know, the opposition would go 2-3 and we lose. The losing isn't necessarily avoidable, but we can take actions to raise our chances of winning.

Of, the guys that are 23-25, only a couple are probably good enough to end up on the team in the next two seasons. The goal is to develop better players, with the hope that someone other than me in 4-6 seasons can give it a real shot at worlds. The 23-25 year old guys don't have much more than 2 seasons of training left, so I think these next 2 are crucial.

You've also hit the nail on the head as to why the NT manager can't go rogue and propose large training changes. Any significant training changes have to be agreed on by most people involved in the NT. I'm not proposing any long term training changes. But I think theres a huge role for the NT coach to encourage managers to train players that can be useful for the NT and sustainable in D1 leagues. Also note I dealt with this as U21 coach. Some of it is going to be personal preference, no way around it. But there shouldn't be any large scale changes.

On the offsite forum, we'll have a thread of current players that are 22+ and what builds their manager is projecting for them. We'll talk about what builds we think will be useful and sustainable, and we'll communicate that with the manager. Everyone is encouraged to contribute or dissent. I think it's better to have a consistent long term plan for the NT, with minor changes every two seasons, rather than constant wholesale changes.

Obviously people who have the "trophy or bust" attitude don't really understand all the work that's been done over the past several seasons, and how much better our team is now than our semifinal team in S16. I'm really not worried about what they think. My goal is to develop better players, and I'll be successful if the next manager has a better team to work with than I do.

All really good questions, thanks.

Here's the problem we face. We have consistently been a LI team and rarely run anything else.

I don't think that's the problem at all. I can't find a team that's been successful because they've "kept people on their toes" with tactics, or because they had the "guts" to play outside offenses once in a while. I can, however, find teams with a lot of great players that are "one dimensional," and can run LI better than everyone else. Those teams win gold a lot. They've been successful being one dimensional because they have a lot of players built for the same offense, and therefore have a lot of depth each week. They can dress the guys with the best GS each week.

However, with the SB change and BB's apparent commitment to being able to successfully run different tactics, this may need to change. It's something we should at least consider in building players for the future. But let's not act like this has been a major, or even minor problem in the past.

Right they have many guys for the offense, but they also have those bigs with big salaries that many people do not want to hold. If nobody wants to hold them then how do we do that? And here's another thing I have to say about that....if you look on the TL you will see that lots of players that we once believed were important for the LI offense are becoming cheap on the TL These are the same players that would always sell for a lot even when the market was down, but not now. What that tells me is that the value of these players is going down and managers are moving to other builds. What happens then for the NT if the owners want different players?

I have said it in previous elections and will say it again....we will never be a Golds team if we continue to be like everyone else. So you are saying " there are team that are constant gold contenders who use LI" but they are already, and have been for awhile, ahead of us in the production of different players. In fact, we are trying to play catch up by creating similar players. Then what happens when we catch up and they are already ahead of us in other types of players and tactics? We can't keep saying "well they did so we can to." We need get ahead of these teams and that means we need to start developing with our mind on other ways. I compare this to a basketball player whose shooting motion is bad. He may shoot decently and can score lots of points but he will reach a point where he won't get better because of his flaws. The same goes for us, we will never get better if we keep doing what we are doing, which is trying to be like everyone else, because there will come a time where we can't get better and we will be behind everyone else.

I will agree with you though that we can't make huge changes right away because people will resist so it will take gradual changes, but I do believe we need to desperate ourselves instead of being like everyone else.

First off, I’d like to say I love your mentality with regards to tactics and player development, it’s refreshing.

My question is twofold.

Short term:
Our results from worlds were disheartening to say the least, and we won’t see significant changes to our core group in two seasons. The quickest way to improve this team would be through a stamina training regime, but we’ll still be at a disadvantage.

Knowing that we don’t have the best talent to draw from, what can we do strategically to maximize our success?

Long Term:
Simply, how can we develop the best players in the world?

Obviously people who have the "trophy or bust" attitude don't really understand all the work that's been done over the past several seasons, and how much better our team is now than our semifinal team in S16.

In season 16, I made the NBBA playoffs starting a SG with 12 OD, and won the cup with a team that would struggle not to be relegated today. In season 16, guards with strong ID could completely shutdown opponents running LI, today I’m up against guards with marvelous IS. There’s been a massive shift towards inside offenses in recent seasons, and the USA has followed that trend.

Our NT is no doubt a better LI team than it was the last time we made the semis, but I’d argue that our player growth as a whole hasn’t kept with the rest of the world, and in some areas we’ve regressed.

Can we expect to be a contender for gold in season 26, and if not, what should our goal be? When could we expect our talent to develop to a point that we can be a perennial favorite on the world stage? Today’s 27 year olds were 18 the last time we made the semis.

I joined the elections today.
I have read the discussion.

Few points. To build a NT player takes at least 10 seasons. Nowadays best players have over 140 skillpoints. Czech, Poland, Slovensko, etc have all players with at least 130 skillpoints.

I can see three players at the moment who are for sale. A center who is build as a salary monster, but without shotblocking and no real guard skills he will be eaten alive by todays competion.
a 28 guard, who is build as a look inside guard, but without outside shooting and just IS of 9, what can he do?
And now it is too late to increase his IS because 2 pops a season is probably the max and who is going to pay 250k salary to train him as C. Not much outside shooting, so use him in an outside tactic is no option either.

And an interesting 24 year old, 109 skillpoints is a little bit low for his age, but an affordable salary, could make him interesting. But to make him a world class player, he needs lot of training inside and who is going to do that? Or choose to make him an outside specialist and train his JR up to 18, which will make him a salary monster and will he have teammates who can also play an outside tactic?

I don't know if in season 26 USA can compete for gold, excatly I don't think it is possible. I believe keeping a top 15 ranking will be difficult enough. I hope that when I get coach, there will be some hidden gems. But for now it looks very difficult to catch up with the top countries.

I believe a coach should be elected for 2,3 terms. So that he get the chance to inspire managers to build up together a team for the long run. The end goal of any national coach is to leave a better team for his successor than the one he got.

I'm sorry, I just can't help it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ882QYzr-M

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfD1WQCEzAI)

Learn already some Dutch, like Ross.

Last edited by Ruaidri at 9/19/2013 4:44:25 PM

I see that you have national team experience which is a great thing to have in this election, but I feel like you missed a lot on your speech. You failed to mention your love of fast food, love for American football, you didn't call football soccer, you didn't say that you're really stupid, and you didn't make fun of Canada. As someone with experience running in foreign elections, let me tell you that you need to make the country's users feel like you're one of them. That's how you really get their attention.