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I think what we'd like to see is our best five ball prospects (MVP+) prepared for the full NT from day one, and if they play for the U21s along the way, great. That leaves the four ball potential or less players (Superstar, Peren allstar, maybe even allstar in some positions) to be trained with only the U21s in mind - as they will then likely be sold at 22.

We want good communication with managers of these prospects, so they train the players well.

We want good communication with the community, so we know which players are coming through and become excited about seeing them play for the U21s.

Some success on the court would also be good, but not at the expense of player development.

Essentially it's about taking each draft group to U21 graduation and preparing the five ball potential players to be NT starters around the age of 24.

Eminence ticked all these boxes, and we'd hope to get someone just as good this time. Maybe even better, if we're lucky.

He could've won the game against the Czechs!

Looking at the players who've graduated and been transfer listed, I'd say he's done a really good job. A lack of stamina and ball handling skills being the only real issue. Did Hall, for instance, need 10 in OD? But this is nit-picking, he did a great job.

Last edited by Elmacca at 5/20/2012 1:13:13 PM

A 2-3 zone can be run effectively, but only if you have the right types of players. Obviously your guards would have to have high OD to make up for the lack of outside coverage, but running a 2-3 zone correctly mostly relies on the bigs. Not only would your bigs have to have decent OD in case they had to go out and cover the long jumper, but they would also have to have high SB levels to help stop the guards from penetrating towards the basket and either getting a layup or close jumper. If the opposition's guards have high HA and DR also, and are able to create their own shot and get to the basket more effectively, then a lack of OD and SB levels on your bigs will lead to a lot of unnecessary fouls, and these guards would just dominate the whole game. I know many may disagree with me about the whole SB thing, but OD and ID pressure the ball handler, while SB pressures the shooter at the moment of the shot (stated by BB-Charles himself). If you aren't able to pressure the shot effectively, some of your key players may foul out.

To basically sum up what I said, the 2-3 zone requires a lot to work as it should, but is a good option if you have the right players and are facing the right team.

Last edited by SREZ at 5/20/2012 4:22:01 PM

I would like to pose another question to the English community: what could the next manager do to ensure that you guys as a community have more fun and become even more involved? We have taken a step in the right direction these past few seasons with Morwood's writeups and Eminences U21 stats, but I believe we could always do better. Is there anything else you guys would like to be seen done that could make this community that much better? I was thinking maybe we could have some contests, not sure if there would be prizes or not but that sure would be fun. I am also thinking that we could potentially start a mentoring program here, if enough experienced managers are willing to help out and enough inexperienced managers are willing to be helped out :)

Id help out with the mentoring. Also in Canada we have a pick em contest for Naismith and Div II games. Someone(me) picks 4 games from Naismith and 1 from each div II league and people pick who they think will win.

Greerzilla also started a NT trivia thread where he would pose questions and people would answer. They were both contests for bragging rights.

I agree that I would only consider using a 2-3 if I knew the opposition was going to use an inside tactic (which most do, but still) because, well... that's what a 2-3 zone is meant to do; help stop an inside offense.

As for training SB, I know a lot of managers have different opinions about this, so it is truly hard to say. Obviously with ID training comes SB pops, and many times this will be enough to reach an appropriate level in this skill. Although I don't think spending a very long time training SB is good, I personally believe it should be trained a little bit (rather than just relying on cross training). Having a player or two with SB would always be a nice callup option. Also, I hear many managers say that SB drives the salary of a player up way too much, but I think this may be a bit unfair to say. SB is cheaper than every other inside skill, and I think that the people who say this basically just see it has a worthless skill. Sure ID is probably more important, but SB is a nice secondary that will improve a players inside defense and help decrease fouls.

Quite obviously though, if a manager didn't know whether to focus more on ID or SB (because they were new) I'd tell them ID :P

Yeah I was personally thinking maybe we could start a prediction contest for the EBBL and U21 games, if enough people were interested. I sure think it is an interesting idea!

Last edited by SREZ at 5/20/2012 5:02:30 PM

Some OD for a center [Hall] can be usefull but 10 is overkill indeed

If i remember rightly Hall was sold on and the new manager, i think, did his own thing with him (dont recall him replying to my bbmails). I could be mistaken though if Eminence tried and had success. Hall was a trciky one though as his salary had jumped up quite a lot and there was a lot to do on his guard skills. At least he got something in that department, although like you say those extra pops in OD are increasingly less useful with the other weaknesses he has.

EDIT - and Morwood's write ups were awesome. :) really added something for me and i didnt have an U21 player

Last edited by Fluff at 5/21/2012 2:43:32 AM