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For an outside guard at the U21 level I would look for 14/14 in JS/JR ideally. However that could be changed a little. I don't think it's entirely impossible to have guards similar to what Jonathan Yi was at 21 with 14/15 to start the season, but training seems to have slowed down a bit according to popular belief (I'm not even sure it really has). As a baseline though, I would aim for AT LEAST 13/13 to start the season when they turn 21. Overall, for guard skills, I would look for something like this from a pure SG to start the season-14/13/14/13/13/9.

Some of those could be changed a little based on how training has gone. If you add more JR ( like Yi or others have had) then you may lower the passing a bit. I do believe you could create a great SG for the U21 with low passing as long as passing is then trained when they are 21. At this time too, it could be an even more ideal time to train passing because the elastic effect will help your players pop quicker at every 1.5 weeks.

Last edited by Isaiah at 12/26/2013 1:48:53 PM

Question to all candidates:

I've been hearing a lot of talk about having true guards and true Power Forwards, and I would like to know a little bit of what are you ideal "True PF" Start build and U21 build. I'd like to know because I may have a player or 2 who may meet those requirements

The vote really comes down to, for me, Smallfry and Oriolekid. You guys were both really active on the offsite during my first go round in this game, you've been committed to the NT for quite a while, and I dig a little outside of the box thinking.

How will your tenure be different than fewmit's and previous managers? Keeping in mind that most of what previous managers have done has been wildly successful.

When you look at the scope of the NT program, what needs to be changed tactically and in training to have sustained long term succes at the world level? What part can you play in that improvement as the U21 manager?

I'll answer this one thoroughly.
Typically, an 18 y/o will be on the map at the time he is drafted is if he has around 50 TSP(total skill points). Are prospects with less than that still viable U21 candidates? Absolutely. This season the top 8 bigs, going by the databases PF rating system, have an average TSP of 78.25, with a split of 34/44 GSP/BSP So let's say we have 38 pops to work with.

My perfect PF would be 8/3/5/7/9/5 13/13/11/6. That's 80 TSP, and a 37/43 split. 32k salary. 2 pops high, but you don't need 8 JS to start, and this is assuming SB, passing, and JR are 3, 5, and 6. For me, this is almost a lock assuming potential is at least SS.

The things you should know about a PF. JR is very overrated, and tedious to train. Often times you won't be facing a PF with OD higher than 5, so the difference between 7/3 and 7/5 is negligible. Driving is very effective and cheap(try free), and handling is also free for a PF. So you can even skimp on IS and go 10/14/13 if you wanted, but the PFs JS, and driving will make them score like a much more expensive PF. Plus having a big that doesn't turn the ball over is a huge plus.

For the most part it is the same. The scouting network and database is amazing, so that does not need to be changed. The offsite game planning threads will be made, and ideas will be shared.

What I want my mark to be is having my scouts identify the HOF players with workable skills, and I want to personally mentor them into building a PF, or a SG, or a LI PG, or an Outside oriented SF. The difference between the USA's NT and the NT powers of the worldm like Poland and Czech Republic, are those insanely talented specialty players. Do yourself a favor and look at the players that are on sale for Poland, Portugal, and China rosters.

Do we have any players that are even close to that build? No we don't. We have guards who have some IS, and bigs that have one or two guard skills they don't suck at. We have Nemesio Xermade, Robby Serano, Frank Tanner, and Tobe McCullough, who are 31, 27, 31, and 29. They won't be awesome forever. We need more players like them.

And that starts at the U21 level. There is not a single reason why the U21, and NTs should not be the best in the World. I think I can help both of those teams get to that point.

America, (colorful expletive) Yeah!

I have to disagree with Oriolekid somewhat. For a PF build youll need decent JR to start because at the U21 level you will want to have at least 6JR. Once it dips below 4 you start to see iffy shooting but you also dont want to waste time training it so ideally they will start with 6. Also, I would look for more JS. You could easily train him 1v1 forwards and itll train both JS and IS. As an overall build I would look for something like this: 9/6/4/7/9/5/12/14/12/8.

That build requires good starting skills but for a player to truely by a PF at the U21 level they will need to start with good JS/JR/DR already.

The vote really comes down to, for me, Smallfry and Oriolekid. You guys were both really active on the offsite during my first go round in this game, you've been committed to the NT for quite a while, and I dig a little outside of the box thinking.

How will your tenure be different than fewmit's and previous managers? Keeping in mind that most of what previous managers have done has been wildly successful.

When you look at the scope of the NT program, what needs to be changed tactically and in training to have sustained long term succes at the world level? What part can you play in that improvement as the U21 manager?

First off, you are right .All previous managers have been successful. However I want my time as NT manager to be remembered for creating a diverse player base for our NT level. That starts first with the U21 level. I have been campaigning on this for several NT and U21 elections now, but it is about time we have a variety of players. LI, although successful, is quickly becoming less popular and teams all over BB are going with different tactics. But yet we continued for far too long trying to create all of these LI players. Our database of players has been stacked with LI players for almost 10 seasons now. That, to me, says we put all of our chips in quite a while to ago to catch up with other teams, and we still haven't got there. We are slowly starting to fall behind again too. I want to help change the thought process everyone has and begin planning for the future to be better than everyone else instead of equal or lesser. Once we can do that it will be the snowball effect and it will get easier and easier to sustain world class teams and finally win a NT worlds gold.

I'm not sure how this logic makes sense. Yes they have been involved with the NT for longer, but this is about the U21 NT specifically which I have been much more involved with than either of my two opposing candidates. Neither one of them participated in helping the U21 NT for awhile, where as I have and was probably the most active person (aside from fewmit) that helped with planning and roster setup.

There is much that needs to be changed for the exact fact that you stated, all the past managers have been pretty successful. The new key is to get the right build of players and make the most of what young talent we have. Fewmit had a hard time at world both years simply because the players needed to succeed at worlds were not available. I think we need to utilize the JR and BLK changes that occurred recently to our advantage. Once we can get a couple players to be successful on the U21 NT with different builds, more managers will be willing to train their rookies the same way, ultimately making our team better overall.

If you have already kicked me out of your voting, then that is fine, but just note that I am much more experienced in this specific area than they are. If this was an election for the NT I would definitely say vote for smallfrie, but this is the U21 NT.

Our 21 year old guards this season are not built very well for outside offenses so I do not see it happening this season and it may or may not happen next season. I am personally trying to see how our current team can play BO though, so I am slowly trying to draw us away from LI. Obviously LI will still be our main tactic, but I'm hoping at some point in the season we will not have to rely on it. Luckily, we will breeze by in Continentals because our SFs and Bigs this season are very good and very reliable with game shape it seems. As for next season, there is still time to shape some of our players to be a bit more outside oriented, but I don't see a full switch straight to motion or anything. Thank you for your question!

Hey tough! Thanks for your question. I'm actually hoping that you will be one of the managers that can train a true PF/ Inside Oriented SF for us in the future with your guy.

My perfect PF would be 9/6/7/6/7/5 13/12/11/8. This could be achieved with a good trainee and a pretty good trainer. The height would definitely change things up slightly but i think a very balanced PF would be perfect for one of these future U21 NT teams. Your guy personally may fit the SF position better, but I bet you no one would complain if you wanted to try to make him a true PF ;)