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Section 4: Projected Development

To make a quality U21 player, as mentioned earlier, it really helps to start from the age of 18. In this section, I'd like to present an imaginary case study of how a player might progress (roughly) each season. This is intended to help give an idea of what I'm looking for down the road, in terms of well balanced guys. I also thought it could be good to share some of the thought process I have when thinking about how to train.

Example Guard (PG/SG)
I think of PGs and SGs as very similar players. I like it if players at either position can defend, protect/move the ball, and score. The main difference to me is that a PG, in general, benefits from slightly better ball movement skills (handling, passing). A SG, in general, needs slightly better shooting skills (jump shot, jump range).

Test Player: Random sample Canadian player, that is pretty good right out of the draft. Let's call him Steve. "Steve" started out with the following skills, when he was drafted at age 18:

Height: 6'4", 193 cm
Jump Shot: respectable Jump Range: respectable
Outside Defense: respectable Handling: awful
Driving: mediocre Passing: average
Inside Shot: awful Inside Defense: respectable
Rebouding: respectable Shot Blocking: respectable
Stamina: pitiful Free Throws: awful

Wow, Steve's good! With skills like that, it would be possible to make him into a nice SF. However, he could also be trained as a pure guard. Let's see what might happen each year if we do that, and give him some nice well rounded combo guard training, with perhaps an SG slant (estimates from my good friend, trainer parrot):

Season 12 (age 18):
Plan - heavily train handling, to build up his lowest guard skill, while also mixing in some passing. Single position trained at PG, level 5 trainer, with results:

At 19
Jump Shot: respectable Jump Range: respectable
Outside Defense: strong (+1) Handling: strong (+5)
Driving: proficient (+4) Passing: proficient (+3)
Inside Shot: awful Inside Defense: respectable
Rebouding: respectable Shot Blocking: respectable
Stamina: pitiful Free Throws: awful

Season 13 (age 19):
Plan - Work on OD and JR, while sneaking in a passing pop

At 20
Jump Shot: strong (+1) Jump Range: proficient (+2)
Outside Defense: prolific (+3) Handling: prominent (+2)
Driving: prolific (+2) Passing: prominent (+1)
Inside Shot: awful Inside Defense: strong (+1)
Rebouding: respectable Shot Blocking: respectable
Stamina: pitiful Free Throws: awful

Season 14 (age 20):
Plan - Work on OD for 2 pops, then switch to JS (2 position training)

At 21
Jump Shot: prolific (+3) Jump Range: prominent (+1)
Outside Defense: tremendous (+2) Handling: prolific (+1)
Driving: sensational (+1) Passing: prominent
Inside Shot: inept (+1) Inside Defense: strong
Rebouding: respectable Shot Blocking: respectable
Stamina: pitiful Free Throws: awful

Everybody dance now! Steve made the U21, as those skills happened to be good enough to earn a spot on the season 15 team (in imaginary Steve land).

continued in next post ------>


Last edited by The Mogul at 04/22/2010 03:46:37

<-----continued

Season 15 (age 21):
Plan - get one more level of OD, then train JS all season

His last week on the U21, he looks like:

Jump Shot: wondrous (+3) Jump Range: prolific (+1)
Outside Defense: wondrous (+1) Handling: sensational (+1)
Driving: tremendous (+1) Passing: prominent
Inside Shot: inept Inside Defense: strong
Rebouding: respectable Shot Blocking: respectable
Stamina: pitiful Free Throws: awful

Yay for Steve! If his potential is allstar, he's probably hit it now, or possibly a couple of pops earlier than that. With higher potential, he can keep training into his age 22 season, and possibly beyond, and on to national team glory (depending on just how high his potential is).

That was all just an example, with estimated training speeds, but the pop rates seem reasonable based on my observations of various players. Also, Steve was lucky enough to stay injury free, but that is somewhat offset by his 6'4" height (which slows him down compared to, say, a 5'11" guy). The main goal was to give an idea of how an U21 training program might go for a particular player, in terms of types of training and general development.

Ok, that's all from me, for now. :)

Last edited by The Mogul at 04/22/2010 23:33:36

One extra thing!

Details on what trains what, with rough speed estimates: (78242.1)

Fantastic post! Cudo's to you for putting this together. These types of 'How To' post are incredibly helpful. I still refer to the post HPP made a season or two ago. And will surely do the same with this one.

Thanks again!

One extra thing!

Details on what trains what, with rough speed estimates: (78242.1)

I am starting to wonder if this is true. I was foolish enough to train a player from atrocious IS and have him currently up to strong. In that time I trained IS for 14+ weeks and got no secondary pop in ID. Is there a reason why? I have a level 5 trainer and the player has pretty decent potential(have a look he is on your U21 team) ;)

Terrific job Mogul. This is an excellent write up and should be ESSENTIAL reading for almost every BB manager no matter how experienced. Training young players is an absolute must for any manager who wishes to be successful in BB.

Fantastic summary...all of my prospects will be following this theory.

Training IS at Center (or C/PF) does provide secondary training to ID. I know, from experience, and have seen ID pop while training IS.

I suppose that for your guy, he could have gone 14+ weeks without an ID pop if:
- his initial ID sublevel was extremely low
- ID was relatively high (compared to his other inside skills), and trained slightly slower as a result
- his age was a bit higher than optimal
- his height is a bit lower than optimal for inside training
- maybe in some weeks, he didn't get a full 48 minutes?

Those are just some possible factors I can think of, some of which might apply to your guy. His ID sublevel should be very high now, in any case.

Last edited by The Mogul at 04/22/2010 17:22:39

Absolutely GREAT post Mogul... We should have more managers like you :)

hello this might be canada team u21
------------------------------------------------------------- Massimo Gaeta (16221886) Shooting Guard
Owner: ET-Rate

Weekly salary: $ 4 119

DMI: 10300
Age: 18
Height: 6'0" / 183 cm
Potential: allstar
Game Shape: respectable
Jump Shot: mediocre Jump Range: respectable
Outside Def.: respectable Handling: pitiful
Driving: atrocious Passing: respectable
Inside Shot: pitiful Inside Def.: average
Rebounding: mediocre Shot Blocking: mediocre
Stamina: pitiful Free Throw: awful

Experience: atrocious







------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He is short. But Allstar potential is not great.

Allstar is plenty for a PG. Mine is only star and has a decent shot to make the team next season.