The Mamba's Guide to the Sim-Galaxy

[MexicanMamba]

The amount of turnover in the league these days was a major component of the discussion during the recent podcast between Josh and me. Personally, I have had to have many conversations getting new people up on the inner workings of the league as I have added four new branches to my GM tree in the past two seasons. So, even though there may be some overlap here in what was in the pod, I figured another good way to gobble up some more points would be to jot down my thoughts for all to see regarding how to field a successful team and franchise. Of course, take any of this with a grain of salt because everyone’s enjoyment of this game will not match my own!




Let’s break it up into sections, shall we?





PLAYER ASSESSMENT





Perhaps the most important thing that you will learn, and that anyone who has been here for a minute can tell you, is that you CANNOT simply rely on a player’s color to help you build a complete roster. The colors are certainly a good starting point, however there is much more nuance to that than it would appear at first glance. This was touched on with Josh and I, but the computer program which this entire game is based off, assigns each player with a number rating for their current and future, which is where these colors come from. I am not going to bother looking up the difference between red and yellow because, well, it doesn’t really matter if we are talking about building a good roster. For the rest though, here is what this looks like:



Green: 100 – 114

Blue: 115 – 150

Purple: 151+



Unfortunately, not everyone in the league can see these numbers. However, something that you should all be aware of and not be afraid to utilize, is that you can reach out to me personally at any time and I will be happy to pull any detailed information about players you need to see more intimately. This is especially useful when deciding who to train and what attributes would be most beneficial to you, but I’ll get into that further down in this article.



The most important thing to take from these numbers is that the blue area is so much larger than the green and only a very select few players ever get over that 150 mark to get to purple, and even less of them fly FAR beyond that number to become a genuine freak of a player. So, you can build a roster of 10 blue players, but if they are all 115? You probably will not win as many games as you expect that you will.



What you want to look for, beyond the color, is the attributes that often lead to winning. Inside scoring, 3-point shooting are major ones, particularly if a player is high-level at both. On defense, you want guys that do SOMETHING great. Rebounding? On-ball defense? Shot blocking? Whatever it is, make sure they have something to rely on. It’s tough to win at the highest level without your best players being able to be 2-way players.



Look at the Raptors roster as an example.



Evan Mobley and Jere Bailey are both Blue/Blue players.



Mobley: 24.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.6 blocks, 22.5 PER (.528/.790/.352)

Bailey: 7.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 8 PER (.417/.818/.378)



I can’t go into every small detail to look for in this space, but just know that there are factors to look out for, and if you are having trouble deciding between two players early in your career, reach out to someone! Your mentor, me, Josh, someone else you trust. Anyone. We’ll be there to help you out.





ROSTER CONSTRUCTION





Here is one of the times where you really do have to learn the style of play that you enjoy the most and just roll with it. What I have learned though, especially if you are hunting for star players as I often do, is that sometimes the players that become available don’t quite match the philosophy that you prefer and you must choose between not adding a great player for that reason or adjusting your gameplan and building around what they do well. Teams that can attack the basket at a high level seem to be this game’s favorite. IF you can build a team completely around getting to the bucket and scoring or drawing fouls, you are probably going to win a lot of basketball games.



That said, I have also won 60+ and even 70 games with a team built around shooting the deep ball and it was a ton of fun. I have come up short of winning a championship with those rosters, but that may be more of a failure on my end than anything having to do with the roster’s makeup. Obviously, the preference would be to attack the rim but have enough guys that can also shoot the long ball that you have an ability to attack inside and out, but if you must choose ONE, I’d say to try focusing on inside scoring.



Whichever you choose, I think my advice is simply to go all-in on that focus. Your best offensive player scores inside frequently? Grab as many other pieces that can do the same thing and try to overwhelm the rim. Best player is a shooter? Bombs away! Get more and more 3-point shooters to surround him! This is NOT real basketball where a guy like LeBron, who is best going downhill, needs shooters surrounding him to be most effective. You can overload one attacking style and win big. Same goes for defense. Hoard the shot blockers. Collect guys that steal. Post defenders, Perimeter defenders. Stockpile, stockpile, stockpile. Whatever you’re great at already? Just get even more great at it.





ATTACKING FREE AGENCY





Since I have seen this happen with two major players in the past two off-seasons (sorry Jon), let me just go ahead and drop this knowledge right now: If you have a star player that you are looking to bring back in UFA, do NOT try to get cute and short-change them in the first year of their contract. I get wanting to save some money but do it in other ways that fool the program. Outside bidders can only offer 5% raises, while you can offer up to 7.5% with bird rights. So, offer 5.5% or 6%! Hell, don’t offer any raises! Make the 5th year of the contract a team option! Whatever you do to save money, don’t short that first year if you really want them back. What it seems to me is that the two things which free agents really want to see are the first season’s salary and the total contract. So, if you offer a max the first year, and give the 5th year (even if its funny money since you will almost certainly decline it), you will likely win the bid. Note: Unless you are an awful franchise and someone with a better reputation and winning percentage has cap space. Then there is still a chance they take less money to leave. It is what it is.



Other important things:



Older players who are not purple or not high-level stars, or young players who aren’t yet stars and so they haven’t shown production yet, but have some useful traits, are the guys you can get away with offering vet min deals or one year, less than desired contracts and possibly winning on. Look, I saw folks offering guys like Gerry Folse and Larry Williams the MLE and while I appreciate the attempt, it really is a wasted bid because you will NEVER get players of that caliber or with that much upside on those kinds of deals. Then Ronny Asher, a 32-year-old All-League Center, ended up taking a 1-year, $22 million contract to stay with me, however he initially passed up a similar deal with me in UFA 1 because I had an option year attached to it. Some guys won’t take less than their desired for more than 1 season. You never know which guys this will be, but it is something to keep in mind. So, don’t waste time offering a legit star player your MLE over 4 years when it is $50 million below his asking price. You are NEVER going to get him.



Also, keep your eyes on youth that have fun traits but have not yet started to fully bloom. The Pelicans got Andy Elliott for $30 million per season and he is now Green/Blue and in a starting role, averaging 15 points, 9 rebounds, 1.5 blocks. Once he fully matures, he is going to be a steal at that price and the perfect complement to Ned Lomax in the front court. Not on that level, but also give a look to the contract which I was able to nab Dario Beaton, a 27-year-old 3 & D player who hit Blue/Blue right after that contract.



Pick your spots, be smart, and be strategic and you will find yourself with some gems in free agency!



Oh and …



Be careful maxing guys that lack top-end traits.



And NEVER do recommended bids. Ever.





ANATOMY OF A DEAL





Trading. Some people love it, others hate it. Unfortunately for the ones who hate it, it is often one of the more important pieces of this game IF you have hopes of winning championships. Personally, I love it because it the time I get to directly engage with the other members of the league consistently. I’ll jot down some quick “rules” (quotations because there’s exceptions to almost everything) that I tend to follow when I am engaging in these discussions.



Don’t agree to anything unless you feel comfortable with the result!


- Sounds simple enough right? But sometimes we talk ourselves into accepting less or giving more than what we were initially interested in and then finally agreeing to the proposal stings. Well, if you are feeling that tightness, take a step back and give yourself more time to think or get another opinion. No matter what the other GM says, we are all on our own clock, but especially when you are first starting out. As you become more comfortable with the process and your decision-making, this won’t be as big of an issue but at first? Take your time.


Don’t fret over points!



- If it is a deal that you REALLY love, do not be the person that lets the difference between 10 points and 8 points (regardless which side of it you’re on) be the reason that you miss out on a great deal. If you try enough, you can get those points back in any number of ways.


Don’t become TOO attached to your drafted players (but do properly evaluate them)!



- This one is a matter of opinion. If you want to strictly build through the draft because you don’t enjoy trading? Don’t listen to this one. However, if you want to wheel and deal and build contenders? Do not fall in-love with a youngster so much that you can’t let them go when a superstar trade is staring you in the face. Know your young player’s worth and get the same value for that asset in return, but don’t miss out due to sentimentality. But also, know when you have a young player that you absolutely should not be trading away! (I LOVE YOU SAFI!).


Don’t become obsessed with “winning” the trade!



- We all want to win the deal and some of us are terrified of being on the slimy end of a deal. Of course, do not be slimed, but also, sometimes the market dictates to us that we probably aren’t going to be able to pull as much value from a player as we might believe that we should. Dong Bone is a Purple/Purple and I got in return a couple a nothing draft picks, some points and Mac McClung. While I think McClung is a very strong asset, he needs TC luck and/or training to put him into elite asset territory (and I’ve already put 25 points into him now). Could I have held out for the full 10 points? Future draft picks? Or multiple blue potential rookie contracts? Possibly. However, I saw what I wanted in McClung and felt happy enough with the idea of shedding Bone’s money. Recognize the market, identify what you feel you need, and go get it without fear of what the rest of us will say about it afterwards. Only YOU must deal with the results of the trade, not everyone on the meme thread.




TRAINING CAMP





Hell if I know.



The TC gods remain a mystery to us all!







PLAYER TRAINING



I’ve trained all manners of training at this point and where I fall on this now boils down to a few things.



I don’t train potentials after 25-years-old generally, but definitely not after 27. Between 25 and 28 I stick strictly to trainings of things that help them NOW (currents, athleticism, fouls). I don’t train a damn thing at 30+ because TC is bound to make those trainings pointless after one season anyways.***



*** The exception being if I’m in a title chase and some athleticism training puts a player in a better position to help me go after that championship.





POINT ACCUMULATION



Be active. Pretty easy! I know not everyone is going to want to write 3,000-word articles like I am doing here. Hell, some people don’t want to write the pressers and do questions. That is fine too! However, I find it a fun, creative outlet sometimes and it gathers me points to use in the process. Even if writing is not your thing, I suggest doing the pressers at minimum, jump into the meme thread (an easy 10 points per season and who doesn’t like roasting their friends?), vote on awards (when we have them), do your lineups (another 5 points) and do trades to grab you some points. If you TRY then you will earn some points and then you can have even more fun with the other parts of the game.



But hell, try out an article or get together with another person to attempt to do your own podcast! Who knows, you might enjoy it!



Honestly, I think it’d be a lot of fun to read/listen to the perspective of fresh GMs in these formats.





DEATH AND TAXES





The tax situation is something that you should be aware of and respect, but I never let it fully dictate how hard I go at an all-in season. If you are active and on-top of how many points you are going to require to make it out of a season, you can easily collect the points you need. Hell, if it is IS an all-in season and it leads into a season in tax jail, that is okay too if it leads to a title. Depending on your roster make-up, you can trade for points or clear salary but still have a good enough roster with minimal work the next season to be good enough to earn plenty of points to cover the cost quickly and return back to a functioning member of the sim-society. It’s when you rage and accumulate bills of 400+ points with no avenues to gain many points when you get in trouble. So, just be smart and aware and you will be fine here.





ASSET MANAGEMENT





There are parts of this that would tie-in with other sections that I’ve written to this point. Ultimately, this boils down to knowing what you have, what they are worth and, perhaps most importantly, when the best time is to strike. For instance, rookie contracts (blue or purple ones anyways) often have the most value the first 2 seasons of their career because it offers whoever has that contract the most flexibility, be it for training or future trades. So, if you have young assets that you know you want to deal for win-now help, target what kind of players you want for them and go and get them as soon as you can. It’s also preferable to cash-in assets for a full push to winning big in a year where you’d be in year 1 of the tax.



On the other side of that, your star players in their prime. It is so important to recognize when it is the right time to move on. If you have life left in a legit title run? You can feel safe holding onto a star player, and you have the right pieces around them to run it back. However, if you feel your team has reached its peak and you are losing the ability to surround that player with back-up suitable for a championship, it would be wise to start considering rebuilding (0r re-tooling) and getting assets for that star before they begin to take TC hits and dampen their worth. Sometimes this simply has to align with the rest of the league. What if you have a major player to deal but no one in the league with assets, is trying to win now? It can become difficult to find the kind of value that you deserve.



Patience, young padawan!



Once again. Just know the market and establish what you think you deserve and what you’re willing to accept and act on it. And get second opinions if you need to!





FUN





At the end of the day, you can toss out most of what I have spewed out to this point and ask yourself: Am I enjoying myself? If the answer is YES, then keep on doing whatever it is that you are doing because that is all that truly matters. If you want to trade all the time because you enjoy the interaction like me (and Doug)? Hit it as much as you want. If seeing players you drafted (and renamed) grow and shine and flourish gives you a rush? DON’T trade them and simply build your teams entirely through the draft. Articles or not, pressers or not, trades and free agency or not … just have a good time for as long as you’re here with us.





Hit me up if you have any questions about just about anything in our league and I’ll answer whenever I am able to (which is usually pretty quickly).



And if any other GMs read this and have bits of knowledge and advice they want to drop under this as well? GO FOR IT!





Sent from my SM-F711U using Tapatalk

[AngryBanana]

Can this also be put in the information for new GMs page?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[greepleairport]

3100+ words, +10pts

and here i am thinkin i had a shot at MEOTY. silly me. mamba hath spoken (and written now, too).

[pennpanther1]

[IamQuailman]

Wow a trading suggestion piece where its not doubling as a hitpiece against my character... nice!

[garbageman]

Wow a trading suggestion piece where its not doubling as a hitpiece against my character... nice!

@greepleairport Are you sure this piece should qualify for the full 10 points if it's missing such crucial information?

[greepleairport]

Wow a trading suggestion piece where its not doubling as a hitpiece against my character... nice!

@greepleairport Are you sure this piece should qualify for the full 10 points if it's missing such crucial information?

What were you thinking, something in the range of 6-9 points (...nice!)?