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Again, thanks for the comments.

the only thing with 48 is if you plan on only playing 48, you should get your player the minutes early in the week

Hadn't really thought of mentioning that but its worth considering.

ultimately game shape can be a crap shoot sometimes.

Yes, anything with randomness is going to end with an element of luck involved. That can mean players who play too many minutes can still have reasonable game shape. I did actually discount one player because he had played too much, even though his GS was still 7(considered the minimum), because I couldn't be sure he'd stay in shape.

(38856)
Iceland U21 72 England U21 98
Player of the game was Malcolm Lambert, top scorer and top rebounder. 9 player lineup worked quite well.

(http://www.buzzerbeater.com/world/standings.aspx?teamid=1...)
Standings here for those who don't know where to find them. Too early to read much into it, but the top 4 seeds all won their first games, though Hungary had to use more effort to beat Switzerland, which was interesting.

Probably should have mentioned this sooner. If anyone is after a possible u21/NT trainee and the price is too high for you, either get in touch directly with the manager in question, or if you prefer, get in touch with me and I'll see if I can help.

I know everyone has been waiting to see what I'd be discussing this week. Trump's hair? The state of the Labour Party? The effect of Brexit on the BB economy and our chances in the Euros. Well, obviously we're finding things much cheaper in Ukraine because of the weaker pound but other than that I can't see much difference, its not like we needed visas.

No. None of those things. I'm going to pose a much more important question. Or questions actually. Why should I draft? Why should I train someone for England? What's in it for me?

Why should I draft?
There are two trains of thought on this. One, that the draft is useful because you gain three players, and there's a chance (quite small according to some) one of them could be very good. And two, that the draft is a complete waste of time and money because its a lottery.

Which is true? Well, in fact both are true. Yes, its a bit of a lottery as you don't know in advance the quality you're going to find, but inevitably some people will be lucky, and if you spend money on the draft, its much more likely to be you than your division rivals.

As examples of this, I'll use two of the current U21 squad as examples. Andrew Reeve, drafted by Irvine Blackhawks, sold for over $1.5m, albeit after being trained for a season by that team, and Ernesto Corral, drafted by Olympian of T20 Cricketers, sold for over $2.5m.

That's a massive profit for both of those teams compared to what they must have spent on the draft.

Obviously there's the matter of draft position. Reeve was pick 13, and Corral pick 10, but generally you want to spend relatively less the later in the draft you pick. In D3 obviously there are more bots who can be disregarded and so a later position there might be more attractive than in D1 and D2.

I'll be commenting further on the draft later in the season, probably quite well in advance of the actual draft.

Why should I train someone for England?
For one thing, because its good for me. I personally think its good for England to have a healthy NT and U21 team, and it adds interest to the game.

Perhaps more importantly though, its a way of making a very good player, to fit your own needs, that perhaps might not be available through the transfer list.

Will this be expensive? If you want an NT player then yes, it probably is. Too expensive? That's a value judgement. In my opinion, not excessively expensive as its possible to make very good players indeed.

For U21 players however, training need not be expensive. And if you don't draft a good player, there's not necessarily a need to invest a lot of money in a young trainee who could make the U21 squad. Again I can use an example of a few members of our current squad.

Malcolm Lambert, our MVP of last week's game, a perennial allstar potential, cost only $10,000. Ethan Sanderson, another perennial allstar cost $100,000. And Julian Wilson, a superstar potential, cost only $4,000. Allstar potential players are also often available for as little as $1,000 so the initial cost of a trainee can be very small indeed.

Again, comments are invited, especially if you have a player you can comment on, or particularly if you have strong feelings about the draft.



Last edited by Gully Foyle at 9/19/2016 10:12:01 AM

I would love to see that debate on Trumps hair XD

(38860)
England U21 114 Austria U21 88
A few differences this week, with Reeve moving from SF to SG and Coulter a Center playing SF. Both did well. Overall a very good team performance where it was difficult to pick the player of the game, but for the sake of it, I'll go for a surprise and pick a backup, because the 4 main backups played very well, and that player is Alex Nurrish who played 18 minutes at PF and 6 minutes at C.

(http://www.buzzerbeater.com/world/standings.aspx?teamid=1...)
Standings here. Again, all four top seeds won their games. We play the best of the bottom four seeds this week, Switzerland.

Last edited by Gully Foyle at 9/23/2016 4:44:52 PM

So far I've done my weekly debate thingy before the game, but didn't have time today, so after a disappointing loss to Switzerland (apparently when you lead with 4:09 left and then only score 2 pts afterwards, its hard to win) I'll do it now.

The review of the game will follow later in the week but for now I hope you still want to read this. (If you've actually read any of the others.)

Following on from last week when I proved that training is a good idea (prove! ha!) I'll continue on a similar theme.

When I acquire a draftee or trainee from the transfer list, do I have to train him in the position he is listed as playing?
Simple answer: no. Slightly longer answer: the game lists the player's position as the one at which he would receive the highest salary given his skills. This is not always the position that would be a player's best position given his skills and is not important when it comes to deciding where and how to train your player.

Another important point is that you should train your player in the position that gives the best results. For example, even a shooting guard should play point guard when training pressure, handling or passing. Equally a point guards should play at shooting guard to train outside shooting.

In that case, how should I decide what position to train my player to play?
This is probably the most important thing to think about before, and possibly during training. While its not advisable to change your mind constantly, this decision need not be set in stone.

When I start training I base my decisions on a number of factors. Firstly potential is important, since it gives an idea of how long you will be able to train a player, and also how high you will be able to get his skills.

Secondly, though not necessarily less important, the player's height is a factor. Tall players train faster in inside skills, and outside skills train faster for short players.

Thirdly, I am influenced by starting skills. While it would be nice to train a 6'8 player in inside skills primarily, if they start off too low, then its probably advisable to train the player as a guard despite the height. I'd also say you should consider at this point if a tall player with guards skills and very low inside skills was worth training at all, as in all likelihood you could find better options on the transfer list. Obviously I am talking about very low inside skills, not just slightly below average. I'd consider a 6'8 player with guard skills and 5s in inside skills as a relatively attractive prospect, given high enough tsp.

Wait a second. How much tsp should a trainee have?
For an 18yo I prefer 50+ tsp. Vecx, trainer of Innes and Big Mac, says 45. Again, the individual skills can make a difference. A player with as low tsp as 40 at 18 can still make an U21 player, and a decent player for you, but its harder, and again, in all likelihood you could find someone easier to train on the transfer list.

At 19 I would prefer not to train someone with less than 58 tsp. The same applies here though. If you take 45 as the starting point at 18, then 54/55 is reasonable at 19. And the same for a player with 50 tsp at this age, if he has some outstanding skills.

By 20 you're then looking at 63-68 as a good range for the minimum, and at 21 you want at the very least someone in the 70s.

Is this where you tell us how to train and what skills a player should have?
Now it's my turn to say wait a second. For a start I prefer to judge a player on an individual basis, the skills each player has are different and so the best way to train one player is not the best way to train another player. I may deal with this in a more detailed way later, but I'm not sure.

Is there anything else, you're running out of space?
Only this, a player needs 48 minutes to receive full training. This needs to be in the position you set for training and doesn't necessarily have to be in one game, 24 min

Damn, went over despite my bold imaginary friend's warning.

As I was saying, 24 minutes in each of two games would suffice.

As promised, my usual short review of this week's game. Two 100% records disappeared on monday. Our undefeated run ended at a disappointing two and my 100% approval disappeared.

Switzerland U21 85 England U21 77
It was a tight game, a good second quarter had given us a lead, though we were never in complete control, and Switzerland were able to fight back, when in the 4th quarter we simply stopped scoring. 2pts in the last 4 minutes just killed us and when you end a game in form like that, you're never going to win.

Obviously I had expected a difficult game, we tried harder than them. Despite their low ranking, looking at their previous games, it was clear that we were not that far apart. An injury to our starting small forward didn't help, but nor did it decide the game. Simply, they played better than we did and deserved the win.

Standings here:(http://www.buzzerbeater.com/world/standings.aspx?teamid=1...)
Dropped to 4th, which is bad. What's worse is Switerland have played most of the teams above us and so are a threat to move above us in a few weeks. We'll need to beat at least one of the better teams to ensure finishing as high as possible.




Last edited by Gully Foyle at 9/30/2016 1:27:03 PM

Having seen Cranston's Utopia trainees, which were not in my database, and should have been, I believe I may have missed the English 19yos in Utopia. If you have a 19yo in your second team, please let me know. Include his skills if possible. Thanks.