BuzzerBeater Forums

In the spirit of the OP (and since I trash talked his preview), my take on the league preview:
The Lesser Conference (Big 8)

84th Street Hoopers:
- Last Season: 3rd place, 1st round PO loss
- Salaries: $451k
- Changes: Will Griffith +$46k, Stanley Moore +$23k
A solid team, but not super varied in tactics (47 of 50 games in Base Offense in the past 2 seasons). Also, is a zombie team (would be a bot if not supporter) and is likely to be running at a deficit due to the updated salaries of his big man trainees and the constraints of a d3 economy.
- Prediction: 5th-7th, ends the season as a zombie but the Mendoza Line for people to be able to stay up in the league.

Lion Rebels
- Last Season: 8th place, II.4
- Salaries: $404k
- Changes: sold Palmer Hooks, $45k 31yo PF at midseason of last season
Made a deep cup run last year while doing just what he needed to do in order to stave off boycotts and bank mad capital in division II. Has a few too many players on the roster to keep them all in top notch gameshape (especially since he doesn't seem to be training). Still, probably deep enough and a solid roster that should dominate the league, unless it gets distracted by the Cup Sirens again.
- Prediction: 1st-2nd, finalist

Midwest Bulldogs
- Last Season: 5th place, won relegation 2-0
- Salaries: $323k
- Changes: Peyton Wilburn +$8k

The odd man out in the Big 8 scrum last season, still finished with 10 wins and a solid performance. Likely to improve his results simply by virtue of the top three teams from last season either being gone, being drastically overhauled, or being a zombie, but also a solid team and ready to break into the playoff run.

- Prediction: 3rd-4th, first round exit

Motor City Machines
- Last Season: Champion, IV.23
- Salaries: $260k
- Changes: Tom Bonds +$25k, Boyd Ferrell +$20k, Francis Willingham +$18k

Rode his big man trainees to a dominant sweep of the IV.23 playoffs, and got the economic help he needed to keep the band together with promotion. All-American and with two young trainees (Ferrell and Willingham) anchored by the slightly less green leadership of Bonds and the veteran presence of Avarell Jones and Hugh Bonilla. A solid candidate to go playoffs-to-playoffs on promotion.

- Prediction: 1st-2nd, semifinals loss

MORNINGZZZ
- Last Season Finish: 4th, 1st round loss
- Salaries: $229k
- Changes: None

Treading water and banking profits definitely helped last season, when the Big 8 was dominated by 3 power house teams. But the lack of training may leave him poorly positioned to step into the void at the top of the conference now. Question will be if he has the money to load up on talent and make a move, or will keep floating at the playoff/relegation cut line

- Prediction: 3rd-4th, 1st round loss

Chicago Trojans
- Last Season: Champion, IV.51
- Salaries: $113k
- Changes: bought Jean Le Guellec $22k SG 28yo for playoffs, Kobi Scherer +$4k, Edouard Bodin +$2k

Made a decisive purchase to complete his domination of IV.51 and promote at the end of his second season. His guard trainees aren't ready for the d3 big time yet though, and he'll need outside help to survive relegations.

- Prediction: 5th-7th

Celtic Saints
- Last Season: IV.45 finalist, 20-2 auto-promo
- Salaries: $82k
- Changes: bought Cory O'Dwyer $14k SG 27yo

Came up short in the finals, but had a good enough record to promote anyway. Freed from the inactivity of a bot conference d4, how will he position for his first season in an active league? Likely to be saved auto-relegation by WCH.

- Prediction: 5th-7th

Windy City Heroes
- Last Season: 1st, semi finals loss
- Salaries: $11k
- Changes: Sold or fired all remaining players

Imploded after the semi-finals loss. Had a sell off of players that may have been a bankruptcy, hasn't logged in since the players were listed.

- Prediction: 8th (bot)

Last edited by Azariah at 9/21/2024 11:01:36 AM

BB-Charles' Blessed Conference (Great 8)

Mos Eisley Imperials:
- Last Season: 4th, 1st round PO loss
- Salaries: $349k
- Changes: sold Reggie Boles ($9.7k PG) and Son Clemons ($11.9k SG), bought Freddie Dickinson ($57.9k SF). Vaughn +$4k, Jialun +$6k, Elkins +$5k
Air mailed RR3 after falling out of top seed contention and got a double whammy of a badly timed injury when trimming salaries. Backed into the playoffs by virtue of a soft schedule to end the season. Moved on from his last tutorial players as now his guard trainees are ready to take on a larger role.
- Prediction: 1st-2nd, finalist

Coolsville Comets
- Last Season: 5th, won relegation 2-0
- Salaries: $324k
- Changes: Winston +$8k, Alley +$3k, Bostic +$3k
Flirted with playoff contention but fell back during the end of season gauntlet. Solidly won relegation, giving his guard trainees more time to come online. Plays varied tactics, but his total salary is a bit of a paper tiger due to the long tail of mid salary players that wind up fighting each other for playing time
- Prediction: 5th-7th

Tulsa Tomatoes
- Last Season: 2nd, semifinals loss
- Salaries: $323k
- Changes: Fabra +$6k, Ludlow +$2k, Kauzonas +$5k
The team that's slightly infamous on BB-USA discord for always GDPing. Leverages those predictions to cause opposing managers to second guess their best offense or pay the GDP piper, but also is very predictable with his own offensive tactics. Has bounced up into d2 a couple of times, but can GDPball work for more than being a d3 playoff team?

- Prediction: 1st-2nd, semifinal loss

Conquerors
- Last Season: Champion, IV.29
- Salaries: $295k
- Changes: Yeung Hoi +$6k, Mize +$19k, Cooke +$5k, Jouffre -$5k, Olariu -$7k
Rode his big men to a dominant 22-0 season in IV.29 and capped it off with a trophy. Salaries are vastly dominated by his top two bigs and some of his older veterans are in an accelerating decline phase, which may limit his team's potential without some roster retooling.

- Prediction: 5th-7th

Ewoks
- Last Season Finish: Champion, IV.12
- Salaries: $274k
- Changes: bought Thad Lam (22yo $53k C), Pouilly +$8k, Katsapopoulos +$8k, Sylvester +$3k, Becerra +$3k
Dominated his d4 league and rode league MVP BJ Clement to a championship sweep. Spent his promotion bonus showing he's ready to contend in d3 with a solid young big man. Will his offense look drastically different with the new addition and the new league?

- Prediction: 3rd-4th, 1st round loss

Eugene Register-Guard 2.0
- Last Season: Champion, IV.51
- Salaries: $263k
- Changes: bought Aidan Girard (20yo $7.9k PG), McHugh +$3.7k, Bean +$2k, Muncy +$2k
Splashed the cash on Rickie Markham last season, then instantly regretted it and posted his L on the press release blog. Skimmed along in II.4 well below the salary floor but still earned a relegation series anyway... where he was vastly overmatched by the 6th place team from the Conference Of Death. Well positioned in this conference to stay more steady for his rebuild process toward eventual NBBA aspirations.

- Prediction: 3rd-4th, 1st round loss

Hemet Hooligans
- Last Season: 3rd, 1st round PO loss
- Salaries: $220k
- Changes: sold Placido Mercado (37yo $82k PG), Greber +$7k, Alderman +$6k, Sample +$7.5k, Sapun -$4k, Bollinger -$13k
Threw it in everyone's faces last season that he finished 4 games over .500 with a -200 PD. But now age has caught up with the team, the star player has left to chase the money bag in Utopia, and he's been reduced to buying trainee rejects from the team that finished below him in the standings last season. Can he avoid paying for his karmatic sins?

- Prediction: 5th-7th


Last edited by Azariah at 9/21/2024 11:04:25 AM

Maryland Maurauders
- Last Season: 6th, won relegation 2-1
- Salaries: $155k
- Changes: sold Giovanni Obhart (34yo $71k PF), Ba +$7k, Posch +2k
Survived the gauntlet to win the 6th place relegation series last season. But team anchor Obhart is gone, there's no solid training pipeline to replace him, and the conference doesn't have any obvious weak links after getting two well stocked promotees. Likely would stay up easily in the Weak 8, but he has the misfortune of playing in the Great 8

- Prediction: 8th

Playoff Predictions
Big 8
Lion Rebels d MORNINGZZZ
Motor City Machines d Midwest Bulldogs

Lion Rebels d Motor City Machines

Great 8
Mos Eisley Imperials d Eugene Register-Guard 2.0
Tulsa Tomatoes d Ewoks

Mos Eisley Imperials d Tulsa Tomatoes

Finals
HCA from playing in the softer conference proves decisive, Lion Rebels d Mos Eisley Imperials

Thanks to everyone for their analyses and predictions! I’m halfway between looking forward to this season and worrying about it and I’m not sure which is more prominent.

Regardless, this is my first season in five tries at the D3 level winning the first game of the season, so already doing better than the past four. Still some work to do revamping my team, but hopefully for the better.

Good luck everyone!

Inspired by the OP and totally not just to try to make my own team look good, here's my take on a power ratings metric:
- Calculate minute-weighted team salary and DMI (defined as player's MPG in league games / 36 * Salary or DMI respectively)
- Rank from 1 to 14 (excluding the bot and WCH)
- Score 14 points for rank 1 down to 1 point for rank 14. Combine the scores as 2*DMI rank score + 1*Salary rank score

Current standings (weighted salary and weighted DMI in parenthesis):
1. Mos Eisley Imperials ($312,453, rank 2; 2.98M, rank 1) - 41 points
2. Lion Rebels ($305,424, rank 3; 2.96M, rank 2) - 38 points
T3. 84th Street Hoopers ($318,392, rank 1; 1.90M, rank 6) - 32 points
T3. Midwest Bulldogs ($210,820, rank 7; 2.07M, rank 3) - 32 points
5. Motor City Machines ($202,892, rank 9; 2.06M, rank 4) - 28 points
T6. Coolsville Comets ($187,378, rank 10; 2.01M, rank 5) - 25 points
T6. Hemet Hooligans ($215,074, rank 6; 1.84M, rank 7) - 25 points
T6. Tulsa Tomatoes ($255,139, rank 4; 1.78M, rank 8) - 25 points
9. Eugene Register-Guard 2.0 ($219,117, rank 5; 1.54M, rank 9) - 22 points
10. Ewoks ($203,957, rank 8; 1.27M, rank 10) - 17 points
11. MORNINGZZZ ($178,307, rank 11; 1.02M, rank 11) - 12 points
12. Chicago Trojans ($116,066, rank 13; 0.78M, rank 12) - 8 points
13. Maryland Maurauders ($118,879, rank 12; 0.75M, rank 13) - 7 points
14. Celtic Saints ($50,812, rank 14; 0.22M, rank 14) - 3 points

This is great - I hadn't thought about using DMI. Thanks for sharing!

I’m not sure DMI would really be of much value pre-season. In season, I think it’s a good proxy for GS management and hence why I have it weighted more heavily than salary.

Oh of course - I was just thinking of it from the power rankings aspect.