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Isa: Our main concern over the next two seasons is going to be our aging roster and our ability to replace those players with guys who can contribute similarly or better. In particular, we are going to be seeing a shortage in bigs with all of our best bigs being 33+ starting this season. These next two seasons will be a transitional year where experimenting and trying new things will be needed because our guard depth will be better than our bigs for the first time in a long while. If you have been keeping up with the NT you'll know that I have been experimenting with Princeton and now looking at small lineups. It'll be these types of lineups that will help us overcome this issue. As for the community , which has recently been brought up, I do agree that we need to have more involvement but this is something we can continue discussing with other questions or on the off-site. I once ran my campaigns revolving around community involvement and apparently I got away from that at some point.

Chek: User Tha Yimmy stated that "competing in D.IV, D.III, D.II, and... D.I... is not a fair comparison to the NT" how does your strategy for the NT differ from your strategy for your own club team?

Isa: My own club team I am more worried about testing and trying new things. That's one of the primary reasons I have always been buying and selling players. I enjoy testing different combinations of players and skills. As far as the NT I'm focused on playing what is best for the team and what gives us the best opportunity at winning Gold. If that means throwing a game, like I did in the Americas tournament, to put the team in an easier bracket then I will. As for tactics, well I'm not discussing but we can on the off-site.

DC: Well for your own team you are in control of what you are training, GS, etc. The biggest difference is that for the NT you are using a collection of players trained/managed by others and you have to be able to work with what you got. That's where the strategy differs. What I bring to the table is versatility in style of play. I can work around what we have and make sure we field a team with a strategy that would enable us to win.

khen: Just a few more questions left. Thanks again candidates for taking some time to debate today. For both candidates and starting with DC on this one, how do you see your candidacy differing from your opponent, and what one advantage or skill do you believe your opponent has an edge over you on?

DC: Well this has been the whole basis of my campaign: tactics and strategy. I know I can out coach the opponent. I saw someone say it's not rocket science but if you do it right you can beat teams better than you as I have done in the past. Not only do you have to take time looking at your own roster versus theirs but also have to research the manager and his tendencies while making sure you switch up your own. It's not just "LI at the NT level" as that same person suggested. The one advantage Isaiah has obviously is NT manager experience but I know I can get the gold for our country.

Chek: User Coach_Nuggets asks "How do you plan to improve our advance scouting? I know it's a huge task but I think it could be a huge advantage to us if we had someone who was passionate about tracking stats over time and seeing what offenses and defenses do what against certain teams."

DC: This would go great with what I said earlier. If we hold elections for other positions like NT Advanced Scout, we can ensure we will get someone who actually wants to do that and would have to prove they can by getting the approval of others through the election process. Getting people into positions through elections will let them realize their value to the NT with what they bring to the table through clearly defined job responsibilities. I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves but maybe we could extend that to electing a Board of members who can help oversee these more specific tasks

Isa: RIP advanced stats :(.

I will actually agree with Dwight in terms of gaining the contribution of others to do something like this. I would love to do something like this, but as the NT coach you can sometimes be consumed with other things. Would love to start an advanced stats team where it's not too much for one person,but more of each person being in charge of tracking certain stats. Let's talk on the off site in terms of what we want to track and I can organize and start it.

But...then again it comes down to gaining the interest from others. So we need to work on growing interests in the team most likely before others may offer to help in such a task.

khen: I really like the idea of the cabinet so to say from DC, and truly those Advanced Stats are being missed right now Isaiah. Final question from me for the both of you, and thank you both for taking part in this first of hopefully annual debates. Beginning with Isaiah, how many seasons do you see it taking before the USA NT is "World's Gold worthy", and how do you propose to keep the community and naysayers on the positive side with success not visible for a couple seasons?

Isa: Well first off, this team could even win a World's Gold now as long as we have great GS and no injuries. That will be the key. In terms of future success, I think in 2 more seasons we will begin to see a new crop of top players around 27-32 yo that will give us a great chance at 2 world's gold trophies and maybe more. I'm putting together a group of top managers to help with mentoring of fellow managers who want to train NT players which will be 26yo at that time, so we can begin to have a consistent flow of NT worth players. As far as the community, it's all about keeping them in the loop and getting them involved. We discussed how that is something that needs to happen, so my first job once re elected will be focusing on the community to create a better relationship between the team and managers. Maybe some competitions like we used to do for best players in each class.

DC: We can definitely win now. But the goal is not just one and done. We want to create a dynasty. One where we can win multiple championships in a row and that starts with the support of all the US managers. We have to keep the community positive by clearly outlining a plan for the future where they can see the end result but also keeping them motivated along the way. But the NT has to earn their trust now for that to happen and that's why it's important I win this election. We need a world's gold now to rekindle that trust with the community. Only then can we truly start a dynasty by getting managers to buy into our vision and developing top NT players.
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That concludes our debate! Thanks for listening and we wish both managers luck. Make sure you vote using the NT Election tab on the menu. Whoever wins I am sure will do a great job leading the NT.

Me and khenry have been working on something super special that we are excited to release. Look for another special edition of FML Radio coming your way on Sunday!


Last edited by Chekreyes at 5/27/2016 6:32:31 PM