I 've been reading this thread the last few days. Since its talking about training, I might as well jump in the conversation.
When I started in season 19, I gone on a spending spree in order to make my team better. Yea, ultimately it was a bad idea but I can tell you prices were lower back then. Now to the run stuff.
I think training is vital to a team's success. Sure, some managers don't think training is great and all, but it does help your team to some extent. Last season I kept my 3rd round allstar drafted. I have trained him only for a little bit. but he already has 11 ID. I think training is beyond just looking at potential and saying "allstar, he sucks!" for the new crew of managers. I teach about a dozen guys who I got from another online site to play BB. Of those teams, only 3 has a MVP+ player that they are training. 2 other teams have USA U21 prospects on their team, and one has a Romanian U21 Star that he has trained on his team (20 yrs old at that too)
I taught them about training and such, and now they are all excelling, 2 of them are against ea h other fighting for promotion. Others are in the playoffs in their respective division. Now, if they didn't have a trainee, I can say that their teams would not be where th ey are now. Of course, a mentor helps, but even I got the hung of training for a short bit by just reading the manual.
The thing is most newbies don't want to read the manual because it is "boring" or "too log to read" and I can agree to that. It took my half a season to finally take my time to read it myself. We have one on one mentoring help on the help forum, and in the USA off-site. But.still there are teams leaving. Wonder why? Because in their starting teams they got a complete trash roster. Now, it helps GREATLY if you sign up right before the draft. But to the select people who didn't catch the draft time? They are stuck.
Now, I like what another person has said about implementing 22-25 year olds into FA. I have a suggestion myself...how about an expansion draft? It could only hold maximum salary of 8,000 and then it holds players ages 21-26. This gives new guys the chance to get at least someone to help their team win.
I personally think training provides a team at least 2 players in their starting 5 while they are saving cash for their stud free agent. There is a team in USA owned by fruity cakes. He has never made it out of d4. Wondeer why? He never takes the effort to train a player. If he had trained just one decent guy he would be in the right direction. Training may not be fun in some cases, but it's a highway to the right road. But what can I say? I'm tanking and I bought a trainee for 2.1 million bucks and he has only had 2 pops all year....
3 Time NBBA Champion. Certified Trainer. Mentor. Have any questions? Feel free to shoot me a BB-Mail!