[ARTICLE] Paid Training for Top Rookies Picks of the 1983 Class

[AngryBanana]

Having a top rookie in Ralph Sampson has me tweaking quite a bit with my ideas for what I should do to increase his ability, both in the short term and long term. Is that even what I should be thinking of, or should I focus on short or long term development solely. I also just was talking to BigD the other day and he was also contemplating on how he should train one of his younger players. Flip flopping between ideas with the given points that he wants to allocate. These questions got me thinking about what I would do with each of the top picks from this years draft if I was in those teams situations, given that they are all in different points of their roster builds, so lets go ahead and tackle a few until I get tired of this thought experiment. All of this was done without looking at what each GM had decided to do and was based on the point totals in their bank at the time of the writing.

Denver Nuggets Pick #1: Clyde Drexler SG out of Houston.

Nuggets Available Points: 160 points


Well, this starts out super simple, doesn’t it? Clyde, the first pick in the recent draft is a purple potential player. Which is awesome for the Nuggets and JediHero. He is a stud that was always going to be the number one pick for whatever team was drafting I think. So with him being purple that prevents the Nuggets from training the only kinks in his game, the Post Defense and Perimeter Defense potentials. So Nuggets will need to look to spend their war chest of points elsewhere, maybe in acquiring a new big to make them bonefide playoff contenders? For Drexler though, they should be happy that they can put points into his Personal Foul up to 70 and injury avoidance up to 68. Which is nice that they both are high C category bumps, helping preserve some points long term. He probably could look to train another player, maybe Valentine or Sanders, but I am solely looking at Drexler in this thought exercise and honestly JediHero should be making his core player as good as possible.

PFL: 60 > 70 (25 points)
Injury Avoidance: 58 > 68 (25 points)
Total Points Spent: 50
New Point Total: 110

New Jersey Nets Pick #2: Dale Ellis SG Tennessee

Nets Available Points: 13 points

This is another somewhat no brainer. Dale Ellis getting taken second, combined with the rest of the Nets roster, has really made this team a young robust group of players. Every player is a blue potential, except for two bench players, and Ellis is a purple potential. So this makes sense why the Nets decided to pay for insurance instead of paid training. Given that Ellis is a purple potential and that the only two things the Nets can pay to increase cost more than the Nets have, it looks like no training will be done. Maybe they should look into consolidating some players for more depth and points if they feel the itch, or if the pre-season holds true…

Total Points Spent: 0
New Point Total: 13

Atlanta Hawks Pick #3: Derek Harper PG Illinois

Hawks Available Points: 42

The Hawks, new to NPBSL, but a long time GM of the original PBSL, picked Ron Harper at pick 3. Harper is a decent sized PG with A in Passing and a very high B in Handling to go with a near 100 steal and a high B perimeter Post Defense. He is pretty well rounded for the long term, which I think theSyndicate is looking to with this pick. I also think Syndicate knows exactly what he is would do with Harper if he sat down and had time to review, but given he offered to pay someone to do his point bank a few weeks ago he may not have the time to look. If I was playing this slow game with Harper and the Hawks, I would look to train Harper’s fouling to a 73 and his Inside currents up a few points since it is so low currently. I wish you could train his quickness, but at an A band it’s not allowed. Ultimately, with only 42 points available, you can only spend so much and this will allow Harper to play more efficiently and help his long term growth be realized sooner. There are some potentials Syndicate could look to pay for as well, either Perimeter Defense potential to A or free throws to B, but I would wait and see how he plays this year before investing in those traits.

This training will also deplete the Hawks of the majority of their points, but I have the hope that they will develop more wins this season on the back of his new starting five and having any sort of activity. Also, if they crash and burn they would hope back into Hakeem or Jordan who you can’t, nor need to, pump points into anyway.

Current Inside Scoring:
PFL: 63 > 73 (25 points)
Inside Scoring: 25 > 35 (15 points)
Total Points Spent: 35
New Point Total: 7 points

Boston Celtics Pick #4: Ralph Sampson C Virginia

Celtics Available Points: 140 points

I traded just about my whole team for this guy, so you know that I am invested in his future. However, it is a little tricky to see what the best way forward with Ralph is. I could train some potentials, but anything I train that would be worth training, such as post defense or block, would be a minimal jump to 85 or would not make sense, such as Jump shot at 19 current and a D potential. I could maybe do his free throws, but I would like to see how much he draws fouls given his current strength of 55 (weaker than Ron Harper is currently). This leads me to deciding on athletics right now. So pumping up the strength to 60 ands jumping to 60 makes the most sense to me.This will allow the 7’4” center to be an even more towering presence in the paint. I can also look to further invest in the player, by either training his injury avoidance to a 40 or fouling to a 69, which I am still personally on the fence about and am leaning towards the injury avoidance particularly. So we will account for that in this article.

Strength: 63 > 68 (15 points)
Jumping: 55 > 60 (13 points)
Injury Avoidance: 30 > 40 (20 points)
Total Points Spent: 48
New Point Total: 92

San Antonio Spurs Pick #5: Byron Scott SG Arizona State

San Antonio Available Points: 33 points

I have a feeling that the Spurs were hoping Sampson would fall to them, because now they have four players that are guards that are very good, young, high end players. This makes sense for them as well spending to insure, and probably pricing themselves out of TC as a result to protect all four. Looking at Scott particularly though, he is a pretty well situated Guard that is set up to play now. He appears to be already an offensive threat, and is near the top of his numbers of what he would hit at defense as well. I think the Spurs would be best suited to pay for currents right now to help him produce more while on the court this season. So I would look to increase handling to 50 and maybe stealing to 75. The Spurs need to be careful given that they have all of these players and will eventually need to look at a tax bill, however if the keep not signing anyone is that really a problem? But I would understand if he chooses to focus on saving points, or pumping them into Thomas instead of Scott.

Handling Current: 45 > 50 (9 points)
Stealing Current: 74 > 75 (3 points)
Total Points Spent: 12 points
New Point Total: 21 points

Dallas Mavericks Pick #6: Doc Rivers PG Marquette

Dallas Mavericks Available Points: 38 points

Here is a pick of a player that I thought would have been maybe picked instead of Ron Harper at 3. I really like Doc and what he brings to the table, and he is a win now player if that is what you are looking for. That is why the Mavs not getting Moore back will sting a little less. Looking at this player in a vacuum, outside of the team, I think there is some opportunity to make him even better. I think bumping his Inside Scoring from a B to an A would make great use of that 99 Jumping ability. I also think the fouling at a 41 and the injury avoidance at 14 are both a little concerning as well. I would also like to upgrade the Perimeter Defense, but at a 71 potential I think that could be a waste of points that could go elsewhere, and his stealing potential of 100 helps negate the defensive ability some if he is paired with a good defender on the wing. You could also look to bump up his passing from 77 to 80 to get that done before you are having to pay in the A band for trainings. With all these taken into account and the point total the Mavericks have to play with, I would do this.

Passing Current: 77 to 80 (7 points)
Injury Avoidance: 14 to 24 (15 points)
Total Points Spent: 22 points
New Point Total: 16 points


Atlanta Hawks Pick #7: Craig Ehlo SG Washington State

Hawks Available Points: 42

I am going to attack the Elho training independent of the Harper training, because why not. Ehlo is an interesting prospect. He does not have any D or F categories for potentials which I think helps in development and well worth the swing by Syndicate, hoping that he gets some positive TC boosts in the coming sim years. Given the 42 points that the Hawks have, it limits what you can do in this situation again. I think the best thing would be to develop a potential you want Ehlo to excel at. I think the best place to start would be bumping his inside scoring to a B. That would give him a lot of room to develop. Take that with his good Jumpsuit and his great three point shot, and you have a dynamo scoring prospect. Now this takes a heavy toll in the points department, and I initially thought about training his inside currents, but only playing a handful of minutes in this roster, I think it is best to save the points. Also stopping here would allow you to train Harpers Inside shooting as well.

Inside Potential: C > B (25 points)
Total Points Spent: 25 points
New Points Total: 17 points

Milwaukee Bucks Pick #8: Jeff Malone

Bucks Available Points: 3 points (33 for this article)

Well this experiment has been fun. This is another team that had ample young players on their squad so they had to sacrifice points for TC instead of training. I wonder what that may do to change developments of players if this trend continues? Anyways, Quial can not train his guy at all, nor does he really need to since he has such a loaded roster. I think Quail will not train Malone because he may ultimately move Malone before he ever gets any serious consideration in a Bucks jersey, but I could be wrong and Quail may pivot a completely different way. For fun though, if Quail didn’t spend the points on TC, 30 points, and had the full 33 to go off of for a Malone training I would improve his Jumping and three point shot potential. His offense is so refined as it is that I think this training could put him in elite scoring territory. While 3ps is not very commonly used, if you have a player who shoots the threes its still beneficial and can at least get you some points if they are proficient/shoot enough to stay on the 3ps% list of player leaders. Jumping will also allow him to score more in the paint, being able to out jump his opponents. If I am Quail I am also not concerned about points because he always finds a way to get them.

3ps Shot Potential: C > B (25 points)
Jumping: 57 > 60 ( 8 points)
Total Spent: 33 points
New Points Total: 0 points

Well, I am over the 2,000 word cap so I am going to end my bit here. I know no one will follow my guidance on training because, why would they? Good luck to everyone this year and enjoy the season!

[greepleairport]

I love this idea. I hope the series continues for seasons to come!
2000+ words, +6pts