BuzzerBeater Forums

Help - English > Tanking

Tanking

Set priority
Show messages by
From: Ariane

This Post:
00
332319.5 in reply to 332319.1
Date: 8/4/2026 3:39:10 AM
Ariane BC
III.14
Overall Posts Rated:
101101
Second Team:
BC GoldRush
I would say it depends if you want to have a high pick to get trainees or to get money. In the first case, it's probably easier to get them through the transfer market, especially if you are aiming for a specific skill distribution, player height and potential. If it's to sell your rookies, tanking is totally worth it though.
And economically speaking, tanking is also absolutely worth it when done correctly. I'll even go so far as to say that it's almost the only way to reach the top division and be competitive in a lot of countries.

From: Ariane

This Post:
11
332319.7 in reply to 332319.6
Date: 8/4/2026 4:00:52 AM
Ariane BC
III.14
Overall Posts Rated:
101101
Second Team:
BC GoldRush
Yep I also had the HG team case in mind, but not being HG myself I did not feel legitimate to write about it. And I knew you would probably mention it at some point

From: Wagner

This Post:
00
332319.9 in reply to 332319.3
Date: 8/4/2026 6:52:49 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
458458
I have done it several times. There are pros and cons

If you do it to clear salary and hoard money, it's not so bad. There are always players available on the TL at the beginning of the season. If you know what you want, you'll probably find it.

If you do it to draft players, it's not a sure thing. A couple of seasons ago, I tanked and started investing in the draft. I was able to buy all the categories available (70 points). I focused on 19 year old players because they were easier to gauge. I ended up with a HOF and MVP player, but both were really flawed. I sold them for good money. But I spent more accumulating draft capital than what I made back.

I take the time every season to look at who was drafted in my league. It's never a guarantee that a really good player will be in your draft. And it's possible to get a HOF player with 38 TSP to start who is not much of a help

You've got some good points here, I think. I'll respond especially to the parts on your post that are now in bold text.

As a HG team myself, I can definitely see lots of other value in drafting my own players, than just simply the possible economical value. Joy of "creating" (training) players from scratch, having to plan carefully due to optimizing whole team development, creating players that have played their whole career in my team, being able to play in Home-Grown League with like-minded managers due to having 100% HG team, etc.

However, like you well mentioned, this has often times been my experience as well - as far as economics go, it is so easy to spend more in a draft than what you can get out of your draftees if you sell them.

It's of course a complicated subject (potentially low sales price of prospects you've used lots of money to scout and possibly to train them bit further, using training slots in your weekly training and paying them salary), and making huge changes into that part of the game probably would change some other parts (or at least in terms of draft strategy of teams).
So it's not like there would be extremely simple way to fix/change this (other than maybe remove the restriction of maximum sales price, while I do understand why that exists in the first place - while I do understand it, it doesn't mean I'd like that rule though).

But I'm just saying it might be tempting for even more teams to consider 100% HG roster-strategy, if it would be economically even more tempting choice. There is of course a boost in economy of some sort, like was just recently discussed on other thread.
Having said all this, my experience on transfer list remains limited during recent seasons, but you can't avoid seeing "the usual selling prices" of your own players when you look at their player cards, and even from that it's possible to conclude that it's definitely not guaranteed to be economically the most efficient option to draft your own players. But like I said, to me drafting players and having 100% HG team is much more than making money, and I know I'm not alone with my opinion.

Speaking of which, we'll get to your second point (in bold in above text of yours), TSP.
Due to how training is (still, after all these seasons..) handled in BB, I think this is one of the biggest problems for me personally (as I'm in a position where I can't afford to tank/get relegated - some could ask what on earth I'm doing in this discussion then;), as you can only have limited number of lousy players in your weekly training rotation in order to be able to be competitive at least to some extent. (This could easily lead to another discussion on training, but OP didn't start the thread for that so I'll try to not make it off-topic).

There are lot more knowledgeable managers in BB, so take what I wrote from that perspective, but just my two cents because I think you had strong points in your reply, that I've also experienced myself during all these years.

From: Gaillimh

This Post:
00
332319.10 in reply to 332319.9
Date: 8/4/2026 11:20:05 AM
Johns Creek Wave
III.14
Overall Posts Rated:
9292
Second Team:
Holly Springs Haggis
Coincidentally, I arrived at this by pursuing a homegrown team

I have been at this a long time (40 seasons now) and never made it past D3. There have been some close calls and heartbreaking losses. Unfortunate injuries and bad decisions. But I was in a brutal D3 where I couldn't compete and the fan support was so low that I couldn't afford better players. I blew it up after losing a Cup game because that was my only hope of raising fan support.

I had drafted a couple of guys who were useful and the next season drafted a Superstar with a really high starting TSP. I had been reading about home grown teams and thought, why not? I started dumping cash into scouting in hopes of landing a cornerstone player.

I focused on 19 year olds since I had seen a video about how they had changed the draft to make them more useful. It would also line up with the Superstar I was already training. A couple of 19 YO and the 2 20 YO I could train as backups.

I spent over 400K on scouting. I identified a couple of guys who looked good. I was really high on one because his box score was phenomenal. I was really hoping for an ATG player. Instead, I got a HOF and MVP. I ended up selling them for a little over 200k in the end.

I sold them because I found a couple of guys on the TL whose skills lined up better with the players I was already training. It became obvious to me that I was better off dumping the guys I had spent so much money drafting. One of the guys I bought is on Slovenia's U21 team. The other 2 are borderline U21 players, but probably won't make it because the US produces so many players.

Part of the problem is the way training works. It takes 4-5 seasons to train a player. If you are trying to build a team with homegrown players, you really have to hit on the draft. But if you draft a great guard one season and a great center the next, what do you do? Because you may not draft another great player for 5 or 6 seasons.

But the real limiting factor is the fan support. I went 19-3 with my Utopia team, but couldn't raise my bleacher prices beyond 5 until the very end of the season. And you can be going along great and lose a game to your rival by 2 points and 5000 people stay away. And I have no idea how a homegrown team satisfies the fans that want the GM to do something to make the team better.

It's just the whole package. You can't really train players in a competitive league. And you have to time your promotion right because if you do it too early, the fans will punish you. And once you have trained guards, you'll probably have to play them at forward so you can train secondaries for your big men. None of it makes sense.

But trying to do all that and depend on the draft? Ugh

The crazy thing is I have drafted an ATG and 2 HOF guards in drafts that I really didn't scout.

My strategy now is to buy 2 drafting points a week. In a couple of seasons when the current training class is fully trained, I might have enough to try again.


From: Gaillimh

This Post:
22
332319.12 in reply to 332319.11
Date: 8/5/2026 12:59:47 AM
Johns Creek Wave
III.14
Overall Posts Rated:
9292
Second Team:
Holly Springs Haggis
I appreciate the offer, but I have one goal now and it's to get to D2 in the US. Not even sure it's possible in Utopia

I am 65 years old and would like to do this before I die. Not sure this would be the best path to do it

Maybe in a couple of seasons, I'll give it a shot. But I suspect it takes some forethought and more than a little luck

From: Wagner

This Post:
00
332319.14 in reply to 332319.10
Date: 8/6/2026 6:39:03 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
458458
Coincidentally, I arrived at this by pursuing a homegrown team
[...]

Once again your excellent reply requires a good, thorough reply, but as HGL (Home-Grown League) preseason preparations are in progress, that needs to wait a bit longer (as they take lots of time).

Speaking of which, HGL is what GM-MrJ was referring to as "HG-only competition" in his previous post.
In the case you (or anyone else) would be interested for becoming HG team partly due to the aspect of 'being able to play in a free league reserved strictly for HG teams', direct links to such league can be found from here:
- HGL Season 6 main thread, here: (332267.1) and
- HGL Scores-thread, here: (332268.1)

Anyway, I'll get back to you bit later with a proper reply - thanks for your thorough message that once again had many good points in it that I agree and recognize from my experience!

This Post:
22
332319.15 in reply to 332319.1
Date: 8/7/2026 2:39:15 AM
Tampa Tampons
III.4
Overall Posts Rated:
4444
Second Team:
Broken Lifters
My simple to-the-point 2 ¢:

If you’re drafting for the joy of a HG team, then it’s totally worth it, enjoy the fun.

If you’re drafting for a good training prospect (up to a MVP), it’s way easier and probably cheaper to find one in the flood of rookies on the TL in the first week or so.

If you’re drafting for a great / NT prospect, you’ll need to hit in the draft or have a boat load of cash for the TL. Good luck.

If you’re drafting to make money on the TL, don’t. It’s like playing the lottery: You may get lucky, but probably not.

Advertisement