Ok, here is a more detailed explanation of my ideas :)
Scouting in 3 steps
- Check the draft results for the last 4 seasons. This way we can find all young players created by draft, but we miss players assigned to new teams that registered to the game during the season.
- Check the roster and the transfer list of all active (present and past) teams. Luckily they are not so many :)
- Constantly check the transfer market and try to "push" good prospects for sale towards teams able to provide them good training and game shape (if already in the NT).
Each interesting prospect will be followed by one scout. As the number of active teams is limited, I expect that about 3 scouts can do the job.
The player's skills will be updated on an online database. I was thinking of creating an account on google docs with a simple excel file that can be only accessed by scouts and myself.
Another thing I am going to do is to "save" prospects belonging to teams that are turning bot. If at that time they are part of the NT they will directly go to the transfer list for sale and won't be lost forever.
For this same reason, at the beginning of the season I will only call 12 or so players in the NT. The last 6 spots will be left available for the mentioned purpose (you have got to know that dismissing players from the NT reduces the team enthusiasm, so that is also something that needs to be carefully done).
Last but not least, it would be great if you could convince friends, relatives and colleagues to register to BB. Even if they quit after one day, the players assigned to their teams might result useful for the NTs.
Training and skills
Secondary skill are really valuable. In particular I appreciate decent levels of OD and passing for C and PF, while a bit of jumper (possibly more than that) is a must for a PF. Similarly, IS, ID and Reb are also useful skills for SG and PG, as stamina and FT also are for all players.
Nonetheless, for U21 players it is always better to focus on primary skills first and training secondary skills will be mainly asked for players close to the potential cap, before reaching the limit.
Concerning primary skills, I like players with shooting skills a couple of levels higher than defensive skills.
For example, for big men I would pursue a similar skill set IS=Reb=ID+2. Similarly, SG should have something like JS=OD+2=JR+3, while PG should probably sacrifice some JR and JS for more Passing.
SF are a bit tricky. I like all rounded SF (I actually trained one for my own team). But for the U21-NT purposes it is probably better to aim for specialized SF. One type for outside offenses and another one for inside offenses. All rounded SF are nonetheless ideal as backups.
Of course, the best skill set also depends on the tactic used (see below).
Tactics and skills
Imo, r&g and look inside are the two most successful tactics at the moment, while m2m and 3-2 are the preferable defenses most of the times. I don't exclude to go for different options when I see the players available, though.
Look inside requires a high offensive flow and so a real PG (with high passing) on the court. In this case, if available, I would use an internal SF, a player with much higher IS than JS. Practically a PF with good OD (at least respectable) and JS.
JR skills are a bit less important for PG and SG, but I would never field a second PG as SG.
In case of r&g, the offensive flow is less important, while shooting skills (and JR in particular) are crucial. In this case a combo-guard (a SG with some level 9-10 in passing) could be used as PG, while as SF I would go for a SG with good internal skills. In this case, the C should have more rebounding and for the PF good outside shooting skills are really appreciated.
Tactics will always be chosen after a careful look at the opponent strengths and weaknesses, and also at the game shape of our players (pretty crucial, in NT).