BuzzerBeater Forums

I am very glad that Southpaw, Azariah, Smallfrie and others joined the race for the NT because of the great debate that is materializing. It may seem like a pissing contest but these are topics and debates that are vital to the growth of the USNT. I would just like to thank all of you for participating as it will be very beneficial for our future.

This.

Speaking in generalities primarily over a concern of keeping specifics to the offsite...

My hope would be to build a "tactic neutral" team offensively that has a pretty good cross-section of JS, DV, and IS at all five positions. Defensively, I think we need a good representation of ID at SG and SF, and as much OD as we can get lucky to draw on our PFs and Cs.

Overall, I think one of the NT coach's biggest roles is to shape and guide the discussions that develop the training vision for the NT community. But I'm gonna hafta weasel out and say I haven't really completely developed my vision much beyond a strong belief that monsters are both not required and detrimental to the future of the NT & its community.

Valid point.

If all of you post on the offsite is that against election rules?

Anyhow, let me ask a less strategic question. What skills have we been under utilizing that may allow us to compete with the best in the world? Also, I am very intrigue by SM's view on ID. Do you agree or disagree and why?

These are for all candidates.

I couldn't disagree more. (I've actually had this argument with wozz back in season 17: we were discussing whether or not SM should buy a C or a guard for the B3 elimination round (SM ended up buying a guard, I thought this was a mistake and wozz was on the fence: I think it clearly proved to be a mistake))

SM's strategy is to shut down your team with OD. This works with most NBBA teams, but the thing is: enough passing, and you can work around the monster OD: so you are left with soft interior defending. It hasn't worked all that well against top tier inside teams (though there is some room for debate here), and it doesn't work *at all* against national teams.

Outside of the brief period where I bought a guard for B3, only to waste his skills playing LI in the hopes I could draw VS into playing man to man, I've always maintained a salary under 700k, lately around 650k. Generally I've held an average to below average salary in the NBBA. I don't feel that most would consider that top tier. Yet, I've won two cups and managed to twice make it to the B3 elimination round (coming in 8-0 as the 5th seed in my B3 debut), without ever having owned a player that has more than prominent ID. There's no doubt that my team would improve if my bigs had more ID, but in my view it isn't an efficient use of resources.

As for the strategy, my long term plans for my team design (when I'll have a salary more on par with top teams) won't be complete until midway through season 21, so until that point I'm more concerned with saving money than competing with the elite LI teams of the world. Anything above that this season will be a bonus.

That said, there's no reason to minimize the collective salary of an NT, so my philosophy on ID is irrelevant. I will say that high ID/SB on our guards, what you might expect to see on a SF, would be extremely useful in stopping LI.

In general terms I would build towards a LI team. Is that because it isnt good to have a team that can be great all around? Well, no but LI is just the hardest to defend and if you are going to win you need to fight fire with fire.

With that being said, the team would definitely require DR like many have said but I would want more IS and ID on the guards and a lot of passing on SF. Im not going to go into details here about specific layout of players though.

SMs view is definitely intriguing....I didnt really read though what he was talking about but Im assuming you are talking about how he has less ID and relies on his guards with high OD to stop players from getting inside?

With that said I believe there is truth to this. Any team can dominate with great OD. Not only against outside tactics but inside tactics as well. If we went towards this with the NT it would allow this bigs to have less ID thus leading to lower salaries and then more teams can afford them. My only problem is what if we play against a team with great passing? Everything can be countered in BB even the LI. Ways to counter some tactics may not be so clear to us right now but it will come. If we lower the ID of our bigs but have a little higher ID on our guards as well as dominating OD on our guards it will basically leave a hole in our team. It can be beat by great HA and PA. What if we would face a team with outstanding PA and the destroy us from inside? Then all teams would recognize that and build teams with more passing. As much as I would love to lower the ID on our bigs and have more OD on our guards, it will not work.

I will continue to say that players with these good secondaries and or"unique" skill sets are great to have on a team but we cant build a team solely around them. We are going to need a few of the "beasts" to play against the other teams' beasts.

I just want to say something for everyone reading the posts in this debate.

The NT is in good hands no matter who wins this election. All of us in this debate are on the offsite regularly and we will make the USA NT the best NT on BB. It may take some time but we are on the right track and with all the great minds we have we will make a team that will dominate,and that's a promise.

But just to plug it as a general defense of ID, my point is this:
I know that your salary is low (and Ive been thinking how much money you've been accumulating in these seasons!): still, if I were to add 200k for a temporary run, I'd add it to the inside defense, not anywhere else. The reasoning is that the teams that can beat you are ones that can work around your OD. And if a team successfully works around that OD you're still left vulnerable. (the discussion between me and wozz was back in the days of your 200k guard acquisition, and yes we were baffled by the LI :D)

I have a feeling I'd gain more from adding rebounding if I were to pick an inside skill to improve. Actually, even as far as the NT goes I don't think it would be a bad idea to trade a few pops in IS or ID for RB. If we're to become one of the top NTs in the world, we can't afford to be outrebounded.