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I can see how that works great. I think if I were to give advice to a newer player about training though, I would probably stick to a more 'tried and true' training regime. I think many will concur that although it is very possible to not only compete, but to excell with this type of training(team), it also takes a little more knowledge of how the whole training thing works to have success.

I also believe it is easy to have balance while only training one type of player. If I train inside guys all year, and sell one or two, I can use the money to buy a better outside man. this isnt a new concept at all, just pointing out since we are talking about balanced teams and training.

As for the first poster; Training D first isnt a bad idea, imho. I trained ID for the first 7 weeks of the season, and only once has a league opponent hung 100+ on me. Since I train inside guys, I spent a bit of money on better outside guys, and also focused on getting good guards who play D. I also picked up a poor defender that is a shooting specialist, based on the different opponents i might face. The obvious problem is that sometimes I have trouble scoring, especially from the outside (motion or RnG). Its a trade off for sure, but I feel that my defense has won more games for me than my offense. Just one guys opinion though.

Last edited by Heathcoat at 1/25/2009 4:59:43 PM

balance seems to be the key for my team so far...i train guards only since the start of my team -3 weeks of ID...i rotate in order of importance in my opinion....OD, DRV, Passing, JS....so far this has worked out well...i like zone D alot i can play 2-3 and 3-2 well...since most train JS or IS it works very well to rotate depending on what kind of team you are playing...also what has helped is buying guys who are good in skills i don't plan on training...this helps build in a little bit of balance...so far i have two guys who can play all 5 positions...and everyone else can atleast play 2-3....this seems to help a lot with keeping minutes down when u need to....all in all i say DEF is probably most important

I am still new in the Game but that is what exactly I will be doing. Training my teams defense to create offense. I will be happy to give feedback what ever result will be for the next few games.

I'd like to offer some support for the 'team training' approach. I've played the game for a couple of seasons now, and not bought big, or traded a lot, but I've replaced pretty much my entire starting team with youngsters, and trained the skills which can be team trained most of the time, and never trained only 1 or 2 positions.

My notes on "pops" suggests that in a bad week I see three or four pops when training the whole team at, say, outside shooting or 1v1. In a good week I might get as many as nine or ten pops. This week for instance, I got pops in JR for 2 players and JS for a different 2. But all 13 of my players improved somewhat. I can't see how this could be beaten by training only 1 position (and thus a maximum of three players).

My record? Having been promoted to English division 1 almost as soon as I started playing, thanks to the bot cleanup, I struggled in the top division but survived two seasons. Now relegated, I have a 17-3 record, top my conference, and look to be going into the playoffs with enthusiasm in double figures. I seem in a much better position than other teams relegated last season. But I have no player in the "league leaders" for my division, and got only a couple of All Star Game bench positions.

I think training the whole team works really well if your whole squad are at a similar level, so that you can rotate players at all positions. I often will have all thirteen of my players play between 48 and 80 minutes, and that's only possible I think because I can afford to rotate the starting and bench positions. That has an added bonus of meaning that team performance doesn't tail off in matches when the starting five are tired, like it used to.

Excellent post, alot of good info. If I may ask.......

Do you sell a couple players per season to keep a constant stream of young replacing the less than young? If not you will find yourself with a team full of older players not getting pops nearly as fast, I presume.

Some of the trainings cannot be done as team training, does your team start falling behind in certain catagories or do you try and acquire players with these traits allready up a bit? Not being sarcastic, just trying to learn a bit.

Being a new team in a lower division (USA IV) I had to make choice based on limited resources, and I found I was filling my 'off-training' positions with more veteran players for two reasons

1. Cheaper. I was getting pretty good players for cheap because of thier shorter shelf life. Since I am training 6 inside guys I plan to sell 2 next season to get better and younger on the outside. In my situation my off-training guys are more expendable long term anyway, as I improve with money, not training (atm)

2. Experience. I have seen a difference of opinion on the actual importance of it and how much. Having two PG with nearly identical skill levels but different experience levels, I feel it does in my limited experience. With a bunch of 7' tall 18 year olds running around under the basket, its nice to have that vet, imho.

I definitely want to get younger as well as stronger when my resources allow, and I may choose a more team training set-up.

Yes, I tend to sell / buy one or two players a season, and I'm probably more likely to keep draft picks than other teams. Last season, getting relegated from the English first division meant I got good draft picks, so two of them are in the side and training well.

And, yes, particularly for defensive skills - if I'm buying a new inside player, I insist on them having at least reasonable OD since I know I won't be able to train that. Likewise, I expect guards that I buy to come pre-packaged with OD and RB. I do still train those skills for the players who need them, but they take second place to 1v1, outside shooting, passing, etc., which can be whole-team trained.

You're right about expense and experience. I noticed in the the first couple of seasons, that my team finished games badly. I knew it wasn't stamina or game shape, and I think experience was to blame.

Overall, this approach probably made my first few seasons harder than it would have been for a 'traditional' train 1 or 2 positions and fill the other half of the court with experience team. But (a) it's only a game and I enjoy knowing that my players have been with me for most / all of their career, and (b) it's a long haul, not a sprint, the result of this approach is only now starting to show, and I think success will be all the sweeter for having been home-grown.

Thanks, certainly something to consider. I have trained team JS twice randomly, but its not quite as effective with my 4 thirty-somethings. I am happy with my first season results so far, but always thinking ahead. Good info.

reasonable OD

Is that in between average and respectable?

;)

It's a variable amount depending on how much I like the player in question! I certainly wouldn't buy someone now with less than average defensive skills.