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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.

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?

What? This isn't true at all. In fact, we had a couple guys that have a higher salary than anyone on Poland's team. Are you even aware of the types of players we're up against? I'm not worried about the guys with a ton of primaries and no subs. What I am worried about is that Poland has 7 of these guys:

14/8/10/13/15/11 - 17/17/16/10

CR has this guy: 15/10/15/18/19/15 - 16/16/14/9. That's 147 skill points. These are the types of players it takes to win worlds trophies. These guys aren't cheap on the TL, and they are absolutely useful and sustainable for a D1 team.

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"

I seriously don't know how many times I can make this point. They aren't winning because they are using LI. They aren't tactically superior to us. They are winning because all of their players are better than ours. And until we change that, we're not going to win anything.

And here's the biggest point: It's not like the two guys I've mentioned couldn't play in an outside offense. The top guy is one hell of a PF or C in any offense. We need more skilled players before we can really threaten other teams with running outside offenses or zones.

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.

I don't think this is true either. I don't think we have 1 guard that is good in both inside and outside tactics, and really only 1 or 2 bigs that are good at both.

Also, what you mean by "used appropriately?" Do you mean we've been using some players incorrectly? I might agree with you there. That could be an interesting discussion.

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.

I don't think you understand where we were at in jfarb's term (S15-S16). You realize we almost didn't make worlds right? We beat Uruguay by 4 and Peru by 5 to miraculously avoid Chile in the semi finals. We then got demolished by Chile in the final, but at least we made worlds. We lost to Poland by 45 in the worlds semi final. This guy played 22 minutes in that game: 6/2/6/1/3/2 - 16/17/16/8 (or something very close). We had a ton of work to do.

Poland, by contrast, had Rakus and Gurak suit up for that 45 point loss in season 16. Those guys also were on the team last season for their world's win. Did Poland improve? No doubt. But they were way ahead of us in season 16, and I don't think they're as far ahead of us now.

In what ways do you think we regressed?