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I have a question for NewEra. Please don't take this the wrong way, i just think it needs to be pointed out. There is a core of people that have been a part of the NT effort for a long time now, Sleet being one of them. By this I mean active in scouting, game planning, and helping get American players trained. While I think you have good ideas and are an all-around good duy, you haven't been a part of this effort. Why should we vote for you instead of someone like Sleet, or even Isaiah, who has been around the NT and knows the personnel, procedures, etc that are involved?

I completely understand your concern. In my speech, I mentioned that I will most likely NOT get elected. My intent is to become a bigger part of the NT community and become more involved. I believe I can contribute to the effort. By running for the manager, I have gotten LOADS of knowledge and opinions that will help guide me in my quest for becoming a contributor to the NT. Obviously someone like Sleet will be more qualified, so I take no offense to your question. At my current state, I would say that there no reasons to vote for me over the people you mentioned. They are more experienced and have already taken initiative. If I did get elected though, I would put in a great amount of work making sure that I help move the team forward, and not hold it back (although I admit I would require some help from the community).

New perspective.

Chip Kelly vs Andy reid

We may have deviated a bit from the biggest problem in our roster. Now guard play is important, but considering that an outside offense is questionable right now, let's put that aside for the moment. The US has always been top tier in guard play, and while we can improve, it's not our biggest concern. What we lack in world-class competition is competitive bigs. Right now we can't compete with the Chinese, and barely the Chileans for that matter. We've seen some secondary strong bigs come through the pipes recently, and that's extremely commendable to the manager who put in that hard work, but it's not consistent enough, especially at PF. Whether we eventually go with an outside offense or not, we have to realize that most other teams are going to be running LI anyway.

Of course there are concerns about 250k guards, but a top quality big costs up to 300k easily. 99% of American players can't afford this kind of guy, but it's the kind of player we're going up against at worlds, with teams using a strategy that allows these players to dominate. So our biggest problem here is not figuring out what guards we need, it's figuring out a way to stop these monster bigs and maintain a strong defense against a LI oriented NT landscape.

Well, as many people know, I have always been a fan of shot blocking. Unfortunately I never got the time to finish my shot blocking study to see how much each pop of shot blocking effected the opponent's field goal percentage. However, I think the way to stop LI kind of gets into the way of playing a LI offense.

See, if the price of SB doesn't go down much, and bigs continue to have ridiculous salaries with all primaries, then the only way to do it is by taking away other primaries on bigs in order to have SB. The question though, what do you subtract?

You can't subtract rebounding because we all know how important that is. We can't subtract IS, especially if we run a LI offense. Could we subtract ID? Well, maybe depending on how effective SB becomes.

If we subtract IS let's say, to add more SB, then we will struggle running the LI. I know others will say our guards can make up for it, but I'm just not sure.

Personally the way I look at it is if you add to our defense to stop the LI, we will almost be forced to try something else on offense.

So, as I say right now, I think we are built for the LI just ecause that will give us the best chances to win. But if we want to be able to stop the LI we might be forced into something else.

Ultimately, I think we need to turn our bigs into more of a PF type. PFs usually cost less (salary wise) and also benefit club teams as well. This could be one option to keep bigs' salaries down. Of course it would be hard to make all bigs PFs, but it's an option to tell everyone when they train them.

Well the U21 team is run by some whack-job named fewmit who is -- ok I digress ;)

Finish that sentence. I dare you.

Thanks both of you for responding. My somewhat curmudgeonly view on this is a matter of public record: (http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/forum/read.aspx?thr...). I won't digress on it other than to say that I'm hopeful I can work with the new NT manager and come up with something that works for both programs, especially concerning U21 Worlds age classes.

Agreed, 300k bigs aren't common, or really the norm, but that's not what I meant. We've still had to face them, and will still continue to face those types, though not common, they're out there. The question is not pumping up our own monster bigs, but figuring out how to deal with theirs.

Stamina/free throws are hugely important too, so I agree there. I'm excited to see the SB update, so we can legitimately ponder how that changes the ideal big. And I think continuing to take players off the U21 arms race route will help create these types of players. But when it comes down to it, it just takes time. It takes time to train a player, then collect data and fine tune that player model ever further.

I doubt my guy Marks at SS potential will be able to be a sf for nt. but I am going to train him as if he needs to compete against people on that level anyways

There is an SF on the NT, Frank Tanner (14602057) who has SS potential. It is possible to get an SS potential guy on the NT, but he'd most likely have to be listed at SF.

Not to forget Weeks and Velasco(I think)
Unfortunately they're old now

Not to forget Weeks and Velasco(I think)
Unfortunately they're old now