Post by logpmess on Mar 15, 2014 20:33:47 GMT -6
I entered the league at the beginning of the preseason. I was lucky having two good players in Gary Payton and Dikembe Mutombo. I’m not necessarily going to go into specifics of my team, but more of a look into what I saw through the first full year. I am going to be making references to my team since that is all I knew. I was lucky to have some GM’s looking after me and helping me with ideas and trades and things of that sort.
Preseason- I was told that most people use preseason to see how good some of the role players are going to be. Being a new GM, I used this time to get accustomed to how the league worked as a whole. The biggest mistake that I made was using a not very good player at PF and having him score a bunch of points. I thought that meant that he was better than he really was. I ended up starting him for half of the season and it did not work well at all. By the time I realized my mistake and started the better player, I was so far behind that I had nothing to gain. For incoming GM’s, I would recommend this time to get accustomed to your team, but don’t take the preseason too seriously, because other teams are not playing starters full time minutes.
Regular season (up to all star break) – This part of the year won’t make a playoff spot for you, but will lose one. I was having trouble learning what type of offense to run, and who to put in my starting lineup. I was able to figure out a good rotation (outside of my PF as mentioned earlier). The hardest thing is figuring out game plan. Learning what motion and style of offense to run is key here. An easy thing to fall into is having a good sim and not wanting to change from that setting. Use this time to learn your team and how they work well together. As far as defense, it is more difficult to understand than offense. Figuring out a primary defense is not to bad, but the secondary offense is hard. Knowing what defense works against what offense is crazy. Knowing what defense works for your players is even crazier. This time period is a large amount of trial and error.
All Star Break – The actual publication of who makes what team and how the teams are picked and the selections and results of the Saturday night events are still a loss to me. But other things happen during this time. You are able to use points to improve your players. I have yet to actually do this yet so I have to real comment on it. Also, the trade deadline is the following sim. I will get to that later.
Regular season (all star break to playoffs) – This part of the season can determine if you are in or out of the playoffs. Also, and more importantly, this is where a top player got hurt for me. I had to determine how to use a completely different line up to still contend in games. This problem shows the importance of at least solid back ups on the bench. It also makes you look back to the first half of the year and how long you were playing your top players. Also during this stretch, I started looking at match ups for game planning instead of just planning for my team. Matchups are big in sim league. Adjusting accordingly can make a good/bad sim.
Playoffs – Unfortunately, I was unable to make the playoffs this past season (and I was no where close either). However, the league instituted a Sim League pick ‘em bracket for the playoffs. It cost development points and kept people like me that were outside looking in interested in the playoffs. I was following the playoffs every time a sim occurred. I noticed some changes through each game. I would have liked to have the final DC’s publicized, but I understand that is a lot of work. It would just allow us watching to see the actual numbers that changed and not just the outcome.
Draft – The draft was a lot of fun. Possibly the coolest part of the season. They did a draft lottery the same type that the current NBA does. I had a top 3 pick, which was very valuable. This is a part where a lot of trades occur. Trading picks and spots and moving up and down is a lot of fun. I was unable to get the trade that I wanted, so I drafted the best possible player. How this player turns out will determine the real outcome of the draft. Also for second rounders, most people just cut them right away, but I found my second rounder was a solid enough backup at a really cheap cost.
Free Agency – This part was the craziest part of the entire season. After going through it, I will definitely approach it differently next time. I was able to resign my top player that was on my team the year before. It is difficult because you never know how much other teams are bidding. A lot of players are overpaid (including the player I acquired). What I would do differently is make some bids on lesser players, because everyone is going for the superstar on the first round. This might allow me to get a second tier player for less than a max deal. The second and third rounds are built the same way as the first, and this is where players really get overpaid. So expect to have a fairly high bid in the second or third round if they are blue/blue or green/blue in ratings.
Signing day – This is a frenzy of signings as all players not drafted become free agents at the same time, people are trying to get the best possible player to fill holes. I didn’t participate in this, so I have no idea how this even works.
Training Camp – I really enjoyed this part of the season as well. Some GM’s let it autosim, but since this was my first year I figured why not give it a try. Training camp does not cost the points that I earn during the year for things such as submitting a depth chart every week. These "points" are granted for every player as 25 sessions basically to distribute as I choose between the categories. It was suggested to me to use them more for improving the categories that my players have good potential in instead of trying to make a player better at something they have bad potential. When I thought about it, I put the points on how I wanted the players to be and what positions they should be strong at. Overall successful.
Points – Gaining points throughout the year is weird in some cases. If a rookie plays more than 30 minutes a game on average, you get some points. By participating in some things you get points. By making posts and commenting on posts you get points. Also, if you win your division, you get points. Same for playoff runs and mvp and general manager of the year. Since these points are used to improve players, it is almost a rich getting richer type of thing. It doesn’t allow lower teams to develop the players other than offseason and draft.
Trades – People will offer you ridiculous trades and make it sound like it is the best decision you can make. My advice, as a new GM get another gm that you trust to review your trades. You will start to understand the value of players. Also, people over value the players on their own team. A top player might not be able to get full value because other teams over value who they have. So be careful with that. Also, don’t be afraid to make a bad trade. It may only cost you one year, but you learn that way. I have yet to trade for draft picks, but I am interested in getting into that next year.
This was just an insight on things that I learned and possible understandings for incoming GM’s. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions and comments. Good luck on the upcoming season. See you in the playoffs.
Preseason- I was told that most people use preseason to see how good some of the role players are going to be. Being a new GM, I used this time to get accustomed to how the league worked as a whole. The biggest mistake that I made was using a not very good player at PF and having him score a bunch of points. I thought that meant that he was better than he really was. I ended up starting him for half of the season and it did not work well at all. By the time I realized my mistake and started the better player, I was so far behind that I had nothing to gain. For incoming GM’s, I would recommend this time to get accustomed to your team, but don’t take the preseason too seriously, because other teams are not playing starters full time minutes.
Regular season (up to all star break) – This part of the year won’t make a playoff spot for you, but will lose one. I was having trouble learning what type of offense to run, and who to put in my starting lineup. I was able to figure out a good rotation (outside of my PF as mentioned earlier). The hardest thing is figuring out game plan. Learning what motion and style of offense to run is key here. An easy thing to fall into is having a good sim and not wanting to change from that setting. Use this time to learn your team and how they work well together. As far as defense, it is more difficult to understand than offense. Figuring out a primary defense is not to bad, but the secondary offense is hard. Knowing what defense works against what offense is crazy. Knowing what defense works for your players is even crazier. This time period is a large amount of trial and error.
All Star Break – The actual publication of who makes what team and how the teams are picked and the selections and results of the Saturday night events are still a loss to me. But other things happen during this time. You are able to use points to improve your players. I have yet to actually do this yet so I have to real comment on it. Also, the trade deadline is the following sim. I will get to that later.
Regular season (all star break to playoffs) – This part of the season can determine if you are in or out of the playoffs. Also, and more importantly, this is where a top player got hurt for me. I had to determine how to use a completely different line up to still contend in games. This problem shows the importance of at least solid back ups on the bench. It also makes you look back to the first half of the year and how long you were playing your top players. Also during this stretch, I started looking at match ups for game planning instead of just planning for my team. Matchups are big in sim league. Adjusting accordingly can make a good/bad sim.
Playoffs – Unfortunately, I was unable to make the playoffs this past season (and I was no where close either). However, the league instituted a Sim League pick ‘em bracket for the playoffs. It cost development points and kept people like me that were outside looking in interested in the playoffs. I was following the playoffs every time a sim occurred. I noticed some changes through each game. I would have liked to have the final DC’s publicized, but I understand that is a lot of work. It would just allow us watching to see the actual numbers that changed and not just the outcome.
Draft – The draft was a lot of fun. Possibly the coolest part of the season. They did a draft lottery the same type that the current NBA does. I had a top 3 pick, which was very valuable. This is a part where a lot of trades occur. Trading picks and spots and moving up and down is a lot of fun. I was unable to get the trade that I wanted, so I drafted the best possible player. How this player turns out will determine the real outcome of the draft. Also for second rounders, most people just cut them right away, but I found my second rounder was a solid enough backup at a really cheap cost.
Free Agency – This part was the craziest part of the entire season. After going through it, I will definitely approach it differently next time. I was able to resign my top player that was on my team the year before. It is difficult because you never know how much other teams are bidding. A lot of players are overpaid (including the player I acquired). What I would do differently is make some bids on lesser players, because everyone is going for the superstar on the first round. This might allow me to get a second tier player for less than a max deal. The second and third rounds are built the same way as the first, and this is where players really get overpaid. So expect to have a fairly high bid in the second or third round if they are blue/blue or green/blue in ratings.
Signing day – This is a frenzy of signings as all players not drafted become free agents at the same time, people are trying to get the best possible player to fill holes. I didn’t participate in this, so I have no idea how this even works.
Training Camp – I really enjoyed this part of the season as well. Some GM’s let it autosim, but since this was my first year I figured why not give it a try. Training camp does not cost the points that I earn during the year for things such as submitting a depth chart every week. These "points" are granted for every player as 25 sessions basically to distribute as I choose between the categories. It was suggested to me to use them more for improving the categories that my players have good potential in instead of trying to make a player better at something they have bad potential. When I thought about it, I put the points on how I wanted the players to be and what positions they should be strong at. Overall successful.
Points – Gaining points throughout the year is weird in some cases. If a rookie plays more than 30 minutes a game on average, you get some points. By participating in some things you get points. By making posts and commenting on posts you get points. Also, if you win your division, you get points. Same for playoff runs and mvp and general manager of the year. Since these points are used to improve players, it is almost a rich getting richer type of thing. It doesn’t allow lower teams to develop the players other than offseason and draft.
Trades – People will offer you ridiculous trades and make it sound like it is the best decision you can make. My advice, as a new GM get another gm that you trust to review your trades. You will start to understand the value of players. Also, people over value the players on their own team. A top player might not be able to get full value because other teams over value who they have. So be careful with that. Also, don’t be afraid to make a bad trade. It may only cost you one year, but you learn that way. I have yet to trade for draft picks, but I am interested in getting into that next year.
This was just an insight on things that I learned and possible understandings for incoming GM’s. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions and comments. Good luck on the upcoming season. See you in the playoffs.
