BuzzerBeater Forums

IMO stamina is fine. Basketball, more so than other sports, is a star driven sport. Look at the NBA, teams with stars beat teams with depth every time. The Raptors, before Kawhi had a very deep roster, but could never get past the Cavs even when Lebron was the only good player on that team. Lebron by himself, was able to turn terrible teams into contenders. The Warriors gave up a lot of depth to get Durant, yet that move made them nearly unbeatable. The Lebron-era Heat didn't have any great players outside of the Big 3, yet were still quite succesful.

Getting a bunch of superstars and then filling out the roster with cheap guys on vet min is a winning strategy in the NBA, I don't see why it shouldn't be in BB. In fact I'd argue B3 teams are usually even deeper than NBA superteams, since they often have 7-8 great players on the roster.

Not sure why you're going on about Toronto when I used them as an example of a team with great depth (who before Kawhi, still couldn't beat a team with just a single star).

But you make the point that NBA players rarely play 48 minutes, and even stars usually do not go above mid 30s. This I agree with. BB and NBA are clearly different in this regard, but I would say a lot of this is due to the NBA having better quality subs. If you're in the NBA, you're already one of the best players in the world. That's why NBA teams can get guys for 1/10 the salary of superstars, who can actually hold their own on the court (or at least not blow a 20 point lead in 10 minutes). BB has a much wider range of player abilities, and getting cheap subs (I'm talking under $20K/week) who can perform reasonably well for a top tier team is nearly impossible.

BB does reward depth in a way that the NBA doesn't though. Players weekly minutes have to be limited so you can't play your starters more than 2 games per week without having their GS tank. This gives deep teams an advantage as they're able to win cup games, without sacrificing league play. NBA players on the other hand are easily able to start every game as long they're healthy (barring some exceptions like Kawhi).

Also one final thing, I think your suggestion would hurt teams who train as they're the ones who often to need to play their trainees for the entire game to maximize training.

With Leonard they needed a lucky shot to even make it to the conference finals, where they already got before.

Well both the Bucks and 76ers were far better teams than any the Raptors had beaten in their previous runs.

With regards to your other points, this season's B3 finalists both had 7-8 good players on their roster (and it was arguably South Dragon's 6th man who won him the title). They didn't use their bench that much, because like you said, without LCD/blank, there really isn't much advantage to depth. However, if the situation was reverted to how it was 20 seasons ago, I'd imagine these teams would still be very successful.

Also, I looked at how long South Dragons was playing his starters per week and it generally seemed to hover around 65-70 minutes/week during the regular season. During playoffs of course it was higher (around 80), but this happens even in the NBA, where lineups shorten in the playoffs and stars take on a higher load (often averaging 35-40+ minutes per game).