BuzzerBeater Forums

You always draft from the league you are in that season.

And I agree, I wouldn't spend too much money either, so you could consider buying trainees at the start of next season. I personally believe the own draftee status is quite valuable, and worth spending money on drafting, at least in low divisions. But it's easy to get unlucky, and you don't have a lot of time to do a lot of scouting. Note that scouting points can be saved between seasons, so you could do some scouting now, and use them next season. Even though you'll likely have a better record after demoting, you'll be in a league with many bots, and owners who don't invest in scouting. So you can definitely a get players then too.

I'd suggest checking out players with star to perennial allstar potential. People tend to overpay for high potential guys who will never reach their cap (potential doesn't affect training speed). A lower potential guy who is cheaper can be fully trained for one season and they'll be good players in D5. Fully trained for 2, they'll be decent when you get back to D4. These kind of guys can be had for 50K and less at the start of next season when everyone rushes to unload the trainees they don't want.

That is great info - thanks so much. I am going to just play this season out and save as much money as I can. Then at the end of this season spend some money on 2 big men who are "mature". Then hope I might get a good trainee from the draft (in my league the average scouting is just 6k = no one is scouting) and purchase guard trainees and one good young SG/PG/SF. Train for the next year - rinse repeat.

Spending $$$ on the draft might be a good idea. You'll have a top 3 pick and it looks like one of those other 2 teams has packed it in already.

The only thing I'd add is you lose a lot if you don't set yourself a scrimmage each week. Not just a training spot or even two, if you are two-position training, but also on a chance to improve your player's experience. One scrimmage won't make a difference, but 20 will. If you don't like the idea of having extra "starting 5" for a scrimmage, you can buy a pair of scrubs with low salary and play them in scrimmages.

Good point. Plus you only need to start 3 players to prevent a forfeit, so save a couple of your other initial players and let them be your scrimmage meat.

When I joined I had a $750 a week player and I cut him immediately.

It wasn't until a few weeks later I learned he had value.

If he's going to lose anyway, who cares about game shape. Cut to the minimum and let them play 144 minutes a week each. Should do great for experience and anyway game shape is reset in about 6 weeks.

If they play 144 minutes a week then the chances of them getting injured are very high.

Not only will the total cumulative probability of injuries be higher, but I'd suspect there would be a higher rate of injuries even at a per minute basis. Lower gameshape and longer court durations will degrade the player's ability. Because some part of the tendency to foul is related to the mismatch between your player's ability and his opponent's, foul rates would then rise a bit. More fouls means more flagrants means more injuries.

All the other issues aside, if he wants to learn how the game engine works and how to manage his roster the next few weeks, playing 5 guys 144 minutes just to save a few thousand $$$'s a week doesn't really help accomplish that.