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+1 darky for admitting you are a troll lol

Jelme and I have been fielding a lot of questions on what we expect skill wise for future NT and U21 players. So we put together these guidelines:

BASIC Training Guidelines for USA U21 and NT, Guards and Bigs

Note: This guide does not address SF/PF types who may have an unique skill set, this is just for training your BASIC guard or C.

Guards:

Age: To train a U21 or NT guard , you will need to begin with an 18yr old player.

Potential: For American guards to be considered for the USA U21 or NT, obviously they must have a certain level of potential to even have the capability of reaching the skills necessary.

- For U21 guard prospects, at least 6 (allstar) potential would be necessary, but likely it would have to be 7 or higher.

- For NT guard prospects, at least 9 (MVP) potential would be necessary. In the future might be 10 only.

Training: You will need at least a level 4 trainer.

The basic U21 guard would have their skills somewhere in these ranges at the beginning of their age 21 season:

Jump Shot: sensational-marvelous (12-15) Jump Range: proficient-marvelous (9-15)
Outside Defense: sensational-prodigious (12-16) Handling: prominent-tremendous (10-13)
Driving: prominent-tremendous (10-13) Passing: proficient-marvelous (9-15)

Note: If your player meets only the minimums in all or most of these categories don't expect him to be put on the team.

Obviously not every guard will be the same, and in some cases we will consider players with skills outside these ranges if they are more specialized in a specific skill that meets our needs. These are just BASIC guidelines of what we are looking for.

The basic NT guard would have their primary skills somewhere in these ranges:

Jump Shot: stupendous-legendary (17-20+) Jump Range: prolific-phenomenal (11-18)
Outside Defense: stupendous-legendary (17-20+) Handling: tremendous-legendary (13-20+)
Driving: tremendous-legendary (13-20+) Passing: prominent-phenomenal (10-18)

Again, these are basic guidelines. Every guard will be different, and there may be some exceptions.


Bigs:

Age: To train a U21 or NT big man, you will need to begin with an 18yr old player, though in some RARE cases it may be possible to begin with a 19yr old.

Potential: For American bigs to be considered for the USA U21 or NT, obviously they must have a certain level of potential to even have the capability of reaching the skills necessary.

- For U21 big prospects, at least 7 (perennial allstar) potential would be necessary, but likely it would have to be 8 or higher.

- For NT big prospects, at least 9 (MVP) potential would be necessary, but very very likely it would have to be 10.

Training: You will need at least a level 4 trainer.

The basic U21 big would have their primary skills somewhere in these ranges at the beginning of their age 21 season:

Inside Shot: tremendous-prodigious (13-16) Inside Defense: tremendous-prodigious (13-16)
Rebounding: tremendous-prodigious (13-16) Shot Blocking: Do not train, let it pop with ID training.

Again, every big will not be the same. In some cases we are looking for bigs who are highly specialized in 2 of the 3 primary skills such as ID/RB or IS/ID.

The basic NT big man would have their primary skills somewhere in these ranges:

Inside Shot: prodigious-legendary (17-20) Inside Defense: prodigious-legendary (17-20)
Rebounding: prodigious-legendary (17-20) Shot Blocking: We will accept low SB, but high SB is a +.

Same as U21, sometimes we are looking for bigs who are highly specialized in either ID/RB or IS/ID, but really we probably can’t accept someone with low ID.

I don't know if Xarn is still around, but a few seasons ago he criticized (and actually really annoyed) me for not thinking it would be a good idea to do something like this (to the point where it had to evolve in a vicious BB-mail exchange).

I gotta give it to him (and you), it has some advantages (though I can definitely see the disadvantages as well).

Secondary skills, how important are they? Should I train them?

Secondaries are important, and do factor in to our decision making when we select U21 and NT players.

Should you train secondaries? For U21 players, NO (unless you are planning on training a specialized SF/PF). If we are talking about basic guards and bigs, you don’t have time to train secondaries if you want your player to make the U21 team. Its basically luck whether or not your player has good secondaries.

For the NT, my suggestion is to train secondaries AFTER you have completed training primaries, or during short weeks (all-star, end of season, etc).

Guard wise, if your guard has good IS that makes them more usable in an inside offense. If your guard has good ID/RB that makes them a better option at SF in an outside offense and is always a +, guards who can rebound can have a significant impact on the game.

Personally I look hard at secondaries for bigs. The difference between 1 PA/HA and 4 PA/HA is often 2-3 turnovers a game. The difference between 1 OD and 4 OD can be a lot points if the opposing big has even a decent jump shot. If your big guy has good JS/JR that makes him more playable in an outside offense.