BuzzerBeater Forums

Alright where to start....How about here:

Sidenote: You guys are really cluttering up this thread with useless posts, and really taking away from people like me and Jason trying to answer the questions. Please try to refrain from needlessly bashing each other or trolling. No one is going to take the time to read a 250 post thread with like 30 actual questions and answers. Anyway...

Sadly I did read through it all. I commend Jason and Namssor for at least attempting to sort through the bullshit. I am discouraged and disappointed by not only the attention but the negativity put out towards fringe candidates like buckeyefan01. If you don't take him as a serious candidate, don't acknowledge him. 2/3 or more of the messages in this thread was directed or by him and other candidates. I basically learned very little about namssor and Jason because of this.

That is backed up by fewmit's complaint, which I heartily agree with. The U21 election was exhausting so I imagine both namssor and Jason tried hard to find all the questions but just couldn't hit them all:

Hrm. Lots of joking around while real questions get ignored.

Makes the decision easier, though. My vote's going to RiP.

Seriously.

I know namssor is away from the computer so most of this is going to be directed at Jason and hopefully namssor can address when he returns.

Basically I knew almost nothing about Jason prior to jfarb stepping down. I wasn't in Jason's fed and he wasn't in our offsite. I knew namssor by name only mostly, having spent one season in the same league as him. I was skeptical about namssor so was optimistic about Jason due to his team success and promotion from other respected members.

However, from reading this debate, Jason, you have come off as narcissistic and defensive. You have made several personal attacks on other BB-users whether they were taking part in the election or not. The focal points on your debate has been based around your CLUB team and its success. I in no way doubt your acumen as a club manager but this is NOT about you and it is NOT about your club. It is about the greater BB-USA population. It is about forming a sense of community and getting people involved. Frankly you have done nothing, in my mind, but drive people away since this debate started.

jfarb, your friend, a person who could be considered a mentor for me, succeeded not because he won a bunch of games but because he got everyone involved. He got users training NT players and got people to sacrifice for the greater good (Logsdon, Owens, Bland, etc.)

Thus, my question is, if elected, how on earth do you plan on creating this sense of community and getting more and more people involved and ready to sacrifice their club team for YOUR benefit?

And please use some description this time:

Absolutely...I was talking the other night about this idea, and I have several variations of such a plan I would implement. I think there are several directions we can go in this regard, to have some home grown NT players that can be what we need to win World Championships!

I am committed to that. I just want everyone to keep in mind something...First, I am an "Is what it is" type guy.. And second, I have as much passion and enthusiasm for BB as anyone in this game. And third, look at the success my team has had. Its not luck, its not right place right time..heck, the DIV league I played in is good or better than half the DIII leagues. Its like I went from DV to DIII, did it again, and now am in DII. I haven't just built a winning team, I have built a dominant franchise. My team excels in every way. On the court, training, game shape, and even in the Press Release department.

If you vote for me, I promise to carry that same determination, experience, and success and give to our NT program.

(continued)

More specific, general questions. Hopefully you all find these as important.

1. Do you know how a blank line-up works? Do you trust it? Are there any specific concerns you have with it? Show me an example where you used it.

2. In the verrrrry start of the U21 program there was concerns about overlap. This has largely been assuaged do to the caliber of players on the NT. However, with players rapidly aging (Jairo, Madrid, etc.) AND the quick progress we have seen by young players (Owens, Carson, Turpin, etc.) the gap has shrunk SIGNIFICANTLY. The U21 is more of an arms race where the NT is more of a finesse contest with conflicting end goals. As such, how would you work with the U21 coach to assure a seamless transition?

3. What do you make of the tactics used by the club team USA Elite?

4. A lot has been discussed regarding our biggest deficiency. The consensus is we lack Inside Defense. Said another way, our opponents are primarily strong in Inside Offense. They run a lot of Look Inside as a result. What would you consider our biggest strength? How have we done deploying that strength? Would you accentuate it another way? My opinion is it is very easy to identify our one biggest strength.

5. When I became the U21 coach I felt confident having shadowed the team for a few seasons. The one thing I immediately realized I was behind in was domestic scouting. Granted it is particularly bad at the U21 level where I have a 1-2 season window. However, we have a number of aging players. Who are, say, 5 players who you expect to be on the team within your tenure who have not played a meaningful amount of games at the NT level yet? How are their owners? How do you expect the communication with their owners to be? Do you think they will continue to train? Name one player that you would bet our future on.

1. One of the biggest obstacles we face in developing quality NT players is how expensive they are. One area of concern the new training presents is that the random factor could make it more difficult to keep costs down by specifically training the ratings the trianing, and only the ratings they are training. For instance, right now, if we train OD, we know that it sub trains Driving, Handling, and Inside defense to a lessser extent. Well, as we have discussed, high level NT players are very expensive. Its diffiucult to have one of these players, and have a solid roster to compete in league play as well. So if a team owner is focusing on defense, already concerned about the rising salary of that player, an in addition to the OD pop they aer going after, they get a Jump Range pop...it could be very costly.

Judging by how the salary formula works, I do not agree with this. If a Center pops in Jump Range it will have literally 0 impact on the salary and vice versa for guards. Similarly, the salary formula is calculated based on sublevels so little green arrows do not matter.

However, from reading this debate, Jason, you have come off as narcissistic and defensive. You have made several personal attacks on other BB-users whether they were taking part in the election or not. The focal points on your debate has been based around your CLUB team and its success. I in no way doubt your acumen as a club manager but this is NOT about you and it is NOT about your club. It is about the greater BB-USA population. It is about forming a sense of community and getting people involved. Frankly you have done nothing, in my mind, but drive people away since this debate started.

Narcissitic? A little strong! I think you are confusing love and admiration of ones self for confidence and fact. I dissagree with your assessment a bit here. Being NT coach, is absolutely about the greater BB-USA population. Being NT Coach, is indeed, about community and getting people involved. Getting elected, is very much, about me, and my club! There is no other way for people to get to know me, have confidence in me, than showing my successes as a BB team owner. There are lots of people running in this election who "love" the USA NTs. There are people running, who absolutely would love the thought of winning the election, being NT coach, and giving this country a World Championship. But wanting that, and being able to do that, are seperate things. Just like Namssor has been quick to point to his team in the NBBA, his experience, and his time as NT coach in NZ; its what needs to be done. So I am not going to apologize for speaking of my teams success in an effort to show people I understsand this game, and how to be successful in it. In part 2 of your post, you even ask my opinion, of my old league mate USA Elite...So even you recognize that my worthiness, or lack of is largely about my team and whats its done. Thats what got me to this point. My team will have no effect on things, once I am elected if that happens. But for now, I can't speak on my time as an NT coach, or NT assistant coach, or anything like that. My resume rests solely in my teams success, and what I have done with community projects such as my Federation and Private League network.

Thus, my question is, if elected, how on earth do you plan on creating this sense of community and getting more and more people involved and ready to sacrifice their club team for YOUR benefit?

I don't have to create it. Its already there. Jfarb laid the grand work on this. This is the biggest single reason I decided to run when I heard he was stepping down. He did such a fantstic job of creating not only community awareness in our NT program, but pride, and involvment. My success in things going in the Federation I created, as well as always being one of the most active people in my leagus forums, and with Press Releases for my team, I believe I am a perfect person to step in and continue what Jfarb started!

People are willing to sarcrifice for something they believe in. Jfarb has done a great job of growing this community and getting people to believe in the program again and have hope that those sacrifices will be rewarded. Communication is the key to this. However, the reality to this kind of success is that it doesnt come down to one person. The key to this is to have people like Jfarb stay involved no matter who wins this election. And not just him, but others as well. Having others like SpF contrinbute his interviews, stories and videos are what gets even more community interest. When people show up on the offsite forum and get a chance to see the staff working behind the scenes and see the dedication and professionalism, and a plan; that also will contibute to people wanting to be involved in a number of ways.


To be continued.

Last edited by Jason at 7/29/2011 3:51:56 AM

Boy, lots of directions to go here...Here is where one of my trainees is heading:

JS: 15 JR 8
OD: 20 HA 15
DR: 15 PA 15
IS: 9 ID 5
RB: 3 SB 5

110 points. He's being groomed for my Look Inside attack that I run. Only 125K too, so very affordable.

Yikes. This was a great question by SM, and there are very few wrong answers. In my opinion, this is a wrong answer.

I'm not sure that guy would make the team. If you would have put this player on the NT in season 16, I would be very hesitant to vote for you. For the past couple seasons, our NT has been unable to run an effective LI offense. We just don't have any really good LI bigs to make this offense work, with our without a LI PG. We also have a player with very similar skills, Jamie Nix. Jamie Nix did not make the team last year, because we couldn't run a good LI offense with or without him.

Even if we had the bigs to run a good LI, where would he play? Would you play him at PG over Bronson and Nix? Maybe he could start at SG over Medrano. If we blanked the whole thing, I'm not positive he gets playing time. I don't think this is what was lacking from season 16.

I know you only joined the offsite a week ago, but jfarb created a thread with the roster, depth chart, and pipeline, and listed about 100 player skills. Why didn't you peruse that thread before answering the question? That would have taken 10 minutes.

The question was "how would you allocate them to best suit OUR team's needs?" I'm concerned that you answered with a player that best suits YOUR team's needs.

Scrimmage me and we will see which team is better. boyy u better put the best D u got cuz i'm fanna bust u down.

However, from reading this debate, Jason, you have come off as narcissistic and defensive. You have made several personal attacks on other BB-users whether they were taking part in the election or not.

I must say I disagree with this statement. He has been the only one out of Namssor and himself that has had his ability to manage/build community/etc... questioned. Therefore he had to answer questions that were directed towards him. Did some answers seem fairly harsh? Maybe, but some of the things directed at him were as well.

I have read every post in this thread. I have sifted through everything and I agree about some things you said as well. In fact I could see where some things I said probably cluttered the thread. Guilty. I admit it. However I am disappointed in how you are coming across right now. I know you aren't trying to but the vibe I get is a "holier than thou" one. I understand you are frustrated, but placing yourself above others with your post is not the way to handle it. Again I understand this is not what you are trying to do, but that is what I believe it's coming off as.

Now as for your questions...they are good ones. I wish Namssor was here to answer as well. He hasn't had to answer any questions that were questioning his abilities unfortunately, but I would have liked to have heard his take on these.

I think both candidates would be great for the NT, however for slightly different reasons maybe. Many have asked questions about how Jason will grow the community....well the same way Namssor would. Neither have to do much work in this regard because we have a very large group already formed that work every day to do this. The community is set up and the ground work is laid. Neither candidate will do any harm to that work as they both understand the importance. To me there is no wrong choice between the two. Namssor has great experience with the USNT and abroad. He has been playing at a high level...yet he has been here since season 2 and never won the NBBA...closest being the semi finals. In the beginning it was easier to get there, and recently he made it back. He is a great manager of his club team nonetheless, but there are some red flags at the highest level IMO. Jason on the other hand remains to be seen. This upcoming season will be telling and the next few as well. He has had a meteoric rise and he must be doing something right or his team, regardless of payroll, has dominated the leagues he has been a part of. Maybe he does actually have something fresh ideologically? Remains to be seen of course. I do know that nobody is on BB more than Jason. Period. And that makes me feel comfortable that great amounts of time will be put into the team as well if he won. I love things about both candidates and both are qualified...but they are not the same. No matter who is chosen the team will be in good hands I just hate to see only one person having to answer for personal attacks on their own abilities and not the other.

I am not writing this to show where any allegiance lies, but I did feel the need to post in response as I felt your post was a little off base in some ways. Again I respect what you have done with the U21 team and I also feel you are asking great questions in your post. I just think you expressed yourself in a condescending way.

I hope you are joking... Let's just focus on the debate...

Also, you should be proud of the success you've had. But be careful comparing your teams success to others. You're assuming they're playing the game for the same reasons you are. Oriole is training one of the best 20 year old bigs we have in the pipeline, and, potential permitting, could make the U21 team next season.

Sure he may have come across a bit rude, but he did have a valid point. I'll try to make it clearer:

Namssor has been active on the offsite, especially in the tactics debate threads and opponent scouting. He has seen what has and has not worked in the past. He understands nuances that you may not be familiar with yet. Being a member of the offsite won't help you with your club team. But you're not running for manager of your club team. Being a member of the offsite will absolutely help with learning about the nuances of the NT. If we play a blank lineup, Namssor has a feel for what the GE will do with certain players. It may be beneficial to set some positions and leave others blank. The learning curve will be steeper. Fortunately, that's what the first round of America's is for. Good luck.

1. I do know how it works...I do not trust it completely....Unpredictablilty are my concerns. I used it in this game (35641608). This was a huge upset for my team in the cup, and the blank lineup worked flawlessly. It managed my players minutes, kept them fresh, substitutions were good. I didn't agree with its choices for starting PG and SF, but it was okay, and it wasn't something that was scary, or messed up.

I used it in this game also, PL Playoff game, (35731502). Everything worked perfect into the 4th quarter. About 3 minutes into the 4th quarter I built a 23 point lead. Despite playing Low Post offense, the game moved my dominant big man to SG, and that started a 9-0 run by my opponent. Late in the game, my PG was put in at PF or Center. My lead was cut all the way to 6 before we regained control again. Was this more because of the PL game engine? I don't know. In game 2 of my championship series in Season 15, my opponent used blank lineup against me. The game started, and continued throughout using guards at big man spots, and big men in the guard spots. It was an ugly game, but his team whomped us in that game. So even though it was completely unconventional, largely messed up, I guess the bottom line is it worked.

2. With anything communication is key. I would definitely want to work with the U21 coach for that transition. Having not been part of the program, I don't know the ins and outs at this point...but I always assumed the the two work together on things like that.

3. A lot of DII teams are chomping at the bit to get a piece of USA Elite. I believe they are very underestimating him. I watch all of my games, every minute. I can honestly say, no game is as grueling to watch as the ones with USA Elite. His team just forces you to do things, that do not make sene for the tactic you are playing. Clearly he has done a masterful job of training OD/ID, lots of IS, Driving and Handling, and a decent amount of passing. Everyone of his players can play all 5 positions on the court because of this. I believe because of the great balance of OD and ID that everyone of his players have, it makes them challenging to score against because on every play, your team has to get past players that have both OD and ID. Its makes their defense double effective. His cup loss was to an NBBA team. he only lost by 18 but he Tied, and the NBBA team Normalled him. I think that is pretty respectable. I think the one area that USA will struggle with is that most of his really good balanced players are getting old enough that the pops are going to really slow down, and his young trainees are way to raw to compete in DII. I am interested to see how he transitions to DII and what he does to build on what he has already done.

To be continued

Last edited by Jason at 7/29/2011 4:14:33 AM

1. One of the biggest obstacles we face in developing quality NT players is how expensive they are. One area of concern the new training presents is that the random factor could make it more difficult to keep costs down by specifically training the ratings the trianing, and only the ratings they are training. For instance, right now, if we train OD, we know that it sub trains Driving, Handling, and Inside defense to a lessser extent. Well, as we have discussed, high level NT players are very expensive. Its diffiucult to have one of these players, and have a solid roster to compete in league play as well. So if a team owner is focusing on defense, already concerned about the rising salary of that player, an in addition to the OD pop they aer going after, they get a Jump Range pop...it could be very costly.

Judging by how the salary formula works, I do not agree with this. If a Center pops in Jump Range it will have literally 0 impact on the salary and vice versa for guards. Similarly, the salary formula is calculated based on sublevels so little green arrows do not matter.

In my example, I assumed it was obvious I was speaking of a guard. And In fact, if you are wanting an OD pop, and do not want anymore JR pops, this new training system will impact the players salary. And like you said, this is the case, whether you get a pop or not. Its not matter of just the arrows, its the sub levels. So if the mystery random bonus traning happens to be JR of a guy who is already high in JR, that would add more expense to his salary even if he didnt actually pop in JR. And in this example, if you werent wanting any more JR pops for that guy, but the mystery random training was for JR that week (which is totally out of our control) then it will affect the players salary.