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I outlined my plan for a player development department here: (122310.130).

Obviously, the U21 coach would need to have a high degree of input into the player development process, possibly even having more direct say than I would into the training plans of 18/19/20yo prospects. Having worked on Coco's scouting team over the past 2 seasons, I'm pretty confident that I can work well with Coco in NT-U21 coordination.

To all candidates

How would you work with the U21 coach to ensure the pipeline of players being developed fits with the National Team?

Things are different now. What i mean by that is 3-4 seasons ago people capped at all star level were full national teamers, and the best u21 candidates were also instantly likely to soon have full senior team caps soon after. Now I am not so sure that's the case.

Let me explain:

The classic u-21 player probably has at least high 3 ball potential out of the gate, with 6k++ salary, and very favorable heights (ie 7'4 center or 5'10 pg). Player gets powertrained in the most important skills for 2+ seasons, gets called up, contributes to the u21's.

In the old days there were discussions over the top 21 year olds who were also really senior team material (or near it)

Now we don't have that problem.

THe most important thing the senior coach can do, is help the u21 coach long term with identification of prospects, especially the 2nd tier, guys with MVP+ potential, that might have 4.5k salary at age 18. They might not quite have the ideal height (6'11 bigman or 6'2 guard), and won't likely get u21 caps. But it is important to keep these owners focused on the fact that they have a stud, let them know that if they want caps for the player, here is what needs to be trained, and get diversity among these longer term players. To get a SF like wendon (Steve Smiley, currently for sale is i think our best answer to wendon) takes a LONG time to train, and we can help make sure the skills are brought up together as optimally as possible.

You will still have the base skill behemeoths, but even at age 21 these players are likely to be 2 seasons from the NT.

So thats a long answer, but hopefully it makes sense.

To get a SF like wendon (Steve Smiley, currently for sale is i think our best answer to wendon) takes a LONG time to train, and we can help make sure the skills are brought up together as optimally as possible.

Surely he cant be close to USA NT talent... cough* HARVEY SELF for USA cough*

Good luck to all candidates - I've enjoyed tuning into the debate......my vote wouldve gone to URP but this is based on what I've read and not what goes on behind the scenes.

Any predictions as to how many people have actually read this thread from the USA community (suggestion thread idea?) and more importantly how many people will actually vote?

Well I am still in the election surprisingly but I would give your vote to wozzvt because he seems to have the right idea in my mind for what to do with a National Team. Even though I am a brand new user and still grasping some of the basics of the game I still have legitimate opinions. URP has given some reasonable numbers that he has come up with and Azariah has shown signs too but wozzvt has the best strategy for the National Team if he were to win in my mind. Good luck to everyone.

Surely he cant be close to USA NT talent... cough* HARVEY SELF for USA cough*

Posting over here so as not to hijack TUG's thread. The single thing we've had the most trouble finding in the US is a guy that can play inside-outside defense really well. Smiley's value (and Serrano) is that he's not a total disaster there. But, it's generally been more advantageous to either pick and inside guy (Grubbs/Santos type) or and outside guy (Whittington/Sam Anderson) with really good secondaries that fits with the tactics we want to play while also covering up their deficiencies.

I've always known Self is behind the curve and he's never really been a top priority trainee of mine and in my opinion he is far superior to Smiley... but as you state a much more dominant guard or big man is better to use with the likelyhood one of their defense stats will come up short you just hope where they excel will be enough to counter this.

Ok a question for all candidates, this guy fouls, alot it seems, in NT games. If I am not successful in selling him, how should I go about "fixing him" to make him a more valuable contributer. He is 7'3 so learning outside defense might be about impossible but I am not opposed to working with him on it. On the other hand I do believe I did a good job at maintaining good game shape for Jairo last season, he was rarely every below a strong rating and often proficient. Let me know, his salary seems to be frightening off bidders so its possible even at a discount I may not be able to offload him.

Weekly salary: $ 264 076

DMI: 654300
Age: 25
Height: 7'3" / 221 cm
Potential: hall of famer
Game Shape: respectable

Jump Shot: proficient Jump Range: atrocious
Outside Def.: atrocious Handling: pitiful
Driving: strong Passing: respectable
Inside Shot: prodigious Inside Def.: stupendous ↑
Rebounding: stupendous Shot Blocking: proficient
Stamina: inept Free Throw: awful

Experience: mediocre

BTW, thanks for nothing on getting a team together for the last scrimmage. Not that anyone needed the merchandise money to offset retarded player costs or anything.

deadmeat,
first of all, i think in the old days that guy mighta been low 220s, depending on the sublevel of the skills.

So it seems like the new system screwed you.

With the potential and height, this will sound counter-intuitive, but if you are stuck with him, you might want to train... wait for it... shot blocking.

this i was usually the worst skill to train because it jacked up salary costs disproportionately to what i felt was the value added. With the new salary system this isnt quite as true though, and you might get less screwed

Of course, the upside is it should train relatively quickly for you and you would of course still have that defensive anchor.

the final issue is while your income in the nbba could support training a SF type (see the earlier discussion on steven smiley), i think 260k a week is going to be tough on anyone. You are going to be faced next season at the latest with the old club vs country conundrum. That said, ther is a reasonable chance my guard training ends next season, and i would be interested in the guy (only arreola is really worth training for me at this point).

i realize that isnt the answer you are looking for but it's my honest opinion.

i would also (and this is a given)...

train ft before anything else, and i realize stamina could be a future bugaboo with your training plans, but i would get that up to average.

those arent primary skills but would definitely benefit your team