S69 Town Hall #5: Wisdom

[MexicanMamba]

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

What is the single best piece of sim advice that you've gotten in your time in the game? And can you name at least one instance where it's really helped you out?

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[K-100]

I think garbageman once wrote something along the lines of do not attach too much value to your rookies. Nobody values them more than you do anyway so be realistic about their value, especially in trade talks. The most successful teams do not often feature folks you groomed and developed since draft day because you cashed them in for someone else's once prized prospect who already is in their prime.

Both of my championships are a direct result of this advice. I got William Pearman from greeple's Lakers for a raw Les Kim during my 1st title run and cashed in Anas Mahmoud and draft picks for Lyle Galloway and Dorian Whitley from EazyP and Gerry Folse for Chief K from AngryBanana during my 2nd title run.

So long story short, always be ready to cash in your chips folks. You never know when it could lead to a title.

[garbageman]

While @JNR was a great mentor who answered the many questions I had daily, I think the thing that sticks out the most to me was something that was routinely in Wig articles. He always hammered home the importance of making sure all your players are on the same timetable if you want to compete. I see a lot of teams trying to have their cake and eat it too in terms of keeping all their promising rookies and going for a title. I think the most shining example of this is the Lakers. If you look at their roster last year, it's the season they finally cashed in every bit of youth they had and stocked their lineup everywhere. If you look at their roster from howevermany seasons before where they had 60 or 70 win teams without rings, they had rookie contract guys that they had not cashed in (guys like JR Smith Jr., Gradey Dick, Robert Hannon, Primo Spears, Hershal Gilmore).

More to Wig's point, you want all your players to be in win now mode. The ages might vary, and you might have a lot of players who are over the hill but still effective, but that generally beats a player who hasn't quite hit their potential yet, even--or especially--if they're on their second contract. If they're getting paid and they're not at their potential, that's money that could and maybe should be going to a guy who's going to help get you more wins, even if he's in his thirties.

[Black Superman]

I actually don't know if I've gotten any good sim advice. There's been things said in passing or to the collective. But I don't know if I was given any advice directly that was impactful enough to me to still hold onto or to still be guiding me today. I've pretty much just kinda watched and learned that way and tried to pick up things over time. Things have been said to me as far as rules and things along the way but as far as advice? Man, I really have think of anything. I always feel like I'm learning and can be better.

Actually it just hit me lol, excuse me for thinking out loud in this post. Rondo(as I call him) or MexicanMamba the Lakers once gave me a really good perspective on points and trading. He told me that trading a guy for ten points is the same amount of points you get for winning 50 games which is not easy to do. I used to harp over the idea of being a good team so that I could earn points. And he said save your cap and be a buyer off expiring bad deals. I thought I needed to use up my cap space in later UFA rounds when I was bad to try and field a good team very similarly to what the kings just did this off-season. So I'll pass this along to them. @SuperDog instead of using up all your cap space in an effort to compete (I'm not sure if points was a driving Factor) just think of how many points you could have earned being a buyer for teams dumping cap space. On top of earning a top 5 pick.

[LazyTitanSmash]

@greepleairport told me to trade with as many people as possible to see what they value. So far that has been good advice. I feel like the Jordan Poole trade happened because I got a feel for what the magic were looking for.

I also started to see the tread of good teams moving older players to make cap room to pick up younger players in free agency and make the turn around quickly. Meanwhile, more often then not a team to picked up players at the end of their careers like Markus Ridenhour or Darius Garland have to figure out how to get out of a long term nearly 100,000,000+ million dollar straight jacket.

[greepleairport]

I think some of the best guidance I received was early in my career and I thought u had gotten hosed on a few deals - specifically David Leiker for Jerry west. I’ve written about this before. [mention]garbageman [/mention] reminded me every time I got down or salty about this deal that I accomplished what I had set out to do. I went for a title, ultimately lost, but I made a play for gold. Sure, I watched Leiker get better and West’s quality dropped precipitously, but I accomplished my goal by getting as good as I possibly could that season. And I made it to the finals.

Looking back I made a lot out of how others viewed my deals instead of how I viewed my deals. There are a handful of confidants whose opinions I value - we all need that - but otherwise if people don’t like it? Cool. Great. Who’s winning more lately and taking the risks…?

(It was me, bitch)

[Xist2Inspire]

I've been at this for a long time, so there's so many things I've learned that have just become a part of the way I think, and I've forgotten who originally said them. I can't even remember which forum they're on.
I strongly encourage all GMs to take some time going through the In/Off-season Media section and looking at old articles and podcast links. PBSL has a surprisingly rich history, and a lot of us used to be prolific creators back in the day, myself included. Gman in particular has been creating insightful analysis articles from pretty much when he first arrived, taking over from Kucoach, who also used to crunch numbers here and there. Wig, of course, is a legend who basically shaped how this league is played. JNR, BSH, Quail...there's a lot you can learn by reading old articles.

The one (somewhat) recent thing I can remember that immediately impacted my approach was Gman's Guide To UFA (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12412&hilit=Guide). For some reason, I'd never noticed that superstars sign first, and didn't structure my offers based around that. That might've been the root cause of some of my Free Agency flops over the years. I immediately changed my approach, and though it didn't always pay off, it did help me with making better use of my cap space. There's a good chance that I don't end up with Amen without reading that article.

I'll also second Gman's comment on Wig's emphasis on timelines. For me, I applied that to contracts and cap space, making sure I never locked myself into a losing and expensive roster, and also making sure that I had the cap to go after key RFAs and UFAs during certain seasons. The first part helped me a lot during the Quintin Kidd years, as I was able to retain my core of Cuomo/O'Neal/Kidd/Cucone without racking up a high tax bill. The second part has helped me be to always be able to go after big Free Agents when I need to, and not pay tax until I have to.

[AngryBanana]

The best advice is a passive thing I saw as a result of me messing up. I had the option WAY back in the day to sign Lino Brookins over Patrick Edmunds. It was a situation where I was looking at the letters for potentials and thought that Lino was the better player... That could not have been further from the truth. Lino was a solid player, but was just never a serious build type of player. Patrick became an all time great with the Bulls. So what I felt like I had learned since then was that you can not just look at potentials and if they are a color, because that really isn't even half of the story. I think the biggest way I learned off of that would be when I had the first pick back in the day. I had an opportunity to pick between Zaire Wade and Dorian Whitley. Both turned out to be good players, but I chose Wade because I felt he was going to be the better talent that had more the more attainable skill set.

[pennpanther1]

@AngryBanana taught me to not be afraid and trade with the older GMs like garbageman and IamQuailman. I felt like our talks have been good and these guys did not try to rip me off as a new GM so I encourage everyone to try and take a swing. I am still learning how to play the game but AngryBanana has helped me along and suggested others I should try to trade with too so I hope those talks end up going well too.

[Eazy P]

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

What is the single best piece of sim advice that you've gotten in your time in the game? And can you name at least one instance where it's really helped you out?

Sent from my SM-F711U using Tapatalk

I been here too long and don't remember. Most of my learning came from experience and trends. With me, during my whole Sim career I always practice patience. When others were making moves just to for activity purposes, I was just waiting until said player(s) on the roster became good enough to make a push. I did take some notes from Wig by observing how he did things with his team and used it along with some of the things I noticed to help with being a consistent winner. Like other's said there's some good articles out there if sim advice is needed.

[MexicanMamba]

Josh would've said it to me first, but you don't really get a firm handle on it until you do some trial and error (and commishing), but it's the fact that not every blue potential or current player is created equal. There's a lot of nuance involved in this game and learning how to really decipher the differences between players is crucial. You have to be able to look beyond the colors and potential letters and see how they perform, what the main reason is for their color, and which roles they'll fill for you. And price.

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[BigDaddyd8720]

I can’t think of any advice I’ve gotten that’s really made a difference. Part of the reason is probably me not asking the right questions. Last season I was active but not really focusing on how to improve my team. I made it a point this season to pay more attention to my team and make smarter decisions. I think once this season ends and I read a few more articles of the past, I’ll be able to really start making the improvements to me team that can start me down the road to contending.

Overall, I just need to be more diligent in learning the ins and outs of this league


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[Jedihero]

I'm still very new, and honestly just getting flooded with information so I can't really pinpoint a single thing to post there, but I want to point out that I have received helping hands from multiple different owners which is fun and helpful. It'll be as a comment on an article I posted, or having trade talks that fall through and they offer advice on what they would look to do in the future. I've reached out to a few people just to ask a question or two about what is happening in the league. I will give most of the props to @AngryBanana though, because he brought me onto the league and he has received countless questions from me through my whole first season and into this season, and he will continue to receive countless more questions as we continue.

[garbageman]

I can’t think of any advice I’ve gotten that’s really made a difference. Part of the reason is probably me not asking the right questions. Last season I was active but not really focusing on how to improve my team. I made it a point this season to pay more attention to my team and make smarter decisions. I think once this season ends and I read a few more articles of the past, I’ll be able to really start making the improvements to me team that can start me down the road to contending.

Overall, I just need to be more diligent in learning the ins and outs of this league


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I'd say a big part of the reason is you've only been here a couple seasons. You can get and read all the advice you want, but it takes a lot of seasons for the advice you get to actually play out in front of you in real time. Players have 15 year careers, so if you've only been here for 2 seasons, you haven't been able to experience the full arcs of how players grow and develop, how long they stay productive, and how they decline. I'd say it takes about 10 seasons here for a really astute GM to become fully seasoned, and probably longer than that on average, just because the ramifications of decisions can take a multitude of seasons to play out.

Keep asking questions, there are no wrong questions, just not enough of them.

[greepleairport]

+1 @garbageman @BigDaddyd8720 @Jedihero @Eazy P @pennpanther1 @AngryBanana @Xist2Inspire @greepleairport @LazyTitanSmash @Black Superman @@K-100

+2 @MexicanMamba