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It is definitely most time consuming. I am also looking for commitment when it comes to building a database and believe it would be beneficial to have something like that on the offsite accessible by few trusted personnel. I remember something like that was setup once or twice and we actually had decent activity back when I was NT manager with people contribution to pre-game discussions.
How much time in first week after selection is each candidate willing to spend on building database
How much time in consecutive weeks one believes it will take to do a good job as U21 manager and are they ready for such commitment?

My questions for the candidates are those: given that even in fairly small country the depth in U21 is so much bigger than in NT, it is possible you will have to make tough decisions when it comes to roster:

- what do you prioritize on players in U21 - offense, defense, flow?
- Do you believe the way to achieve success is to go with primary skills non-stop or is there still time to work on secondaries?
- What are the two most important secondary skills on big men



Also as a sidenote: why in the world doesn't BB allow to have official position of NT assistant manager? For example main manager could turn on/off option for assistant to set lineups, etc. based on the time he has on the given week and the trust he/she has for the assistant

Thank you for everyone's consideration. I am taking my name out of the hat. I will alwasy be fortunate to those who gave me the chance to be NT Coach, as I had a blast, but i truly dislike the process/negative types of discussions that take place in NT election forums. I'll chose to keep my integrity over having to stoop lower and continue to focus on negative talk instead of focusing on the task which is trying to make Canada better.


If my opinion counts at all, I would suggest people vote for FurYak. He has a great track record and seems like he coudl be an asset to our program. Sparky has had his chances in the past.

Good luck FurYak... we can't claim that a foreginer would screw up our program, as our own have already done that on other occasions.

I will not run in this country again. POwer goes to the negative ones.

If there isn't one, then that's about the smallest problem i'll have. Means i do not have to hurt someone elses feelings to improve a system in the event that they put forth a lot of effort.

I wouldn't call it "impressive" either, i would simply say it is effective in giving the most people the access they need to make good decisions for the first two years of development while giving scouts/national manager(s) the ability to update to a single place and develop a line of communication.

What i found on the u21 side in my previous four season stint is that you don't so much need the updates mid season about where the prospects are at, you need to have people at your disposal that have built successful u21 players in the past for the team that are willing to spend some time helping newer players or inexperienced players learn the game quicker. This is arguably more rewarding than any "wins" that i can accomplish in the first two seasons. If the other candidates are as interested as they sound in the u21 and willing to put in the solo work as well, i'll build you a framework google document win or lose that you can copy. Then if you don't trust me simply replicate it in your own google document and don't invite me and you have a working program that improves overall communication and helps organize your scouting.

Music_Chick, this is the same with regards to the public discussions in other nations, it's why i just live with some of the attacks and occasionally have dished my own back out. I'd certainly love to have your help with assisting others in learning the game should they respond back to my initial scouting. The one on one aid to owners who want the help is much more rewarding.

The first few days is all you need to build the core features. Anything else is just icing, and i can do that at a less critical time. Need to do player evaluations before the enthusiasm reset happens.

Consecutive weeks is 45, on just over 3 seasons. The 18 year old draftees that i will scout this season will be the first actual class of players that i have full control and responsibility over. Getting them from start to finish is the most important and consecutive part of the job, moreso than the gameplanning for each opponent. You have all of 18, all of 19, all of 20, and the first three or so weeks of 21 to get a player to the point where he can be considered for the u21 position. From there, development is still important week to week, but gameshape begins to take significant priority by the halfway point of season 21. I'm not sure whether or not i survive long enough to reach the point where i can take the group of owners and players i work with to that level given i will be judged largely on a player base that i had about 18 weeks of my own development time to invest in.


As far as the remaining strategic questions

1) Defense, Handling, Defense, Rebounding. Outside Defense and Inside Defense improve the rate of contested:uncontested shots (amongst other things such as reducing the passing efficiency of the opponent). Shot blocking also plays a part, but if there is something i am ok with sacrificing it is shot blocking as it increases the big rating and salary of a player too significantly for managers to control. from there, reducing the amount of turnovers and increasing the amount of rebounds we win over the opponent will reduce the amount of opportunities the opponent will freely generate.

2) My valuation of players is that you prioritize the players with decent primaries and good secondaries (typically 50-54 tsp) with those willing to spend on the quality. For guards, you will inherently train some IS if you utilize OnevOne @ Forward AND every 8 weeks in OD you will usually see ID pop, and that'll get you on better starting players to the point where they have about 7-10 IS and 6-8 ID, which is kinda useful. This is especially true of the Small Forward position. you will see me do some interesting things from here.

3) Depends on the opponent, which is why you honestly need bigs with different strengths in their secondaries to have a real chance. Some opponents value OD on bigs, which means any HA + PA <= 5 big on the team will have 0-1 assists and 3-5 TO's in the game. Some opponents value shooting on bigs (which really only means they'll gain 4-5 points per big if your big's have OD's of 1 and 2 over the 5+ OD bigs), some opponents value donkeys that can be exposed ridiculously quickly by any bigs we have with high OD/HA. If you wanted me to pick two, i'd probably pick HA/PA to reduce flow issues from 12-20 TO's a game to a more managable and consistent 6-13 average pending the opponent's philosophy.

i do have a spreadsheet (a bit messy but with everything needed), I'll send it to the new manager.
I'd like to have a response from Fury about the scouting as well. Do you plan on scouting the ~600 players 18-21yo with allstar+ potential by yourself?
You can't really count on scouts, response rate are way too low for that, so you'll need to do the work if you intend to have a player database. The trouble with young players is that you can't really count on the salary to make a selection for you so there's no way around it.
It took me a good week to scout all players (starting from scratch). Is any of the candidates willing to do that or do you count on other means to select the ~15 best players?

1) i figured you had a spreadsheet somewhere, kinda hard to keep track on anything else :D

2) All of the preseason scouting is done by the u21 manager in every country. I did it for 4 seasons in a country with more active divisions and more active current players that sell their talent, it was about ~70 bigs, ~125 guards, ~100 SF's, and about ~60 19 year olds POST-scouting, each class was roughly double that to start but had players with 2 or more critical deficiencies or were on bot/afk managers.

3) Scouts that are there to get skill updates midseason aren't being utilized effectively. Scouts should instead be focusing on helping the more active and responsive managers that ask for help, and focus on responding to PM's within 24-48 hours so that any questions that occur are brought up quickly. Additionally, it is their job to monitor a playerbase and make sure the trainees are getting minutes, and at worst trying to get the manager who doesn't see the value in training the player to see the value in 150-200k cash to go buy a better bench player or starter for themselves.

4) If you utilize the scouting tool that was made, it takes about 3 days total from scratch to do the 18 and fresh 19's. it takes another day or 2 to update the former class of 18 that turned 19, and the 20-21 class for each build.

I find it exciting to press the "add to team button" and get the reveal of how skilled the players actually are. It's kind of like buying a pack of baseball cards.

Will you rely on other users to be your staff or are you prepared to do all the work yourself?
Unfortunately there's a difference between NTs of big nations with 1000s of managers, and those like canada with ~100 managers. You can't really count on anybody but yourself and you shouldn't expect to be able to delegate part of your work. If someone steps up great for you but it most likely won't happen.
If you're not prepared to put the hours required to scout all the players (although I already did most of the 20yo), you're going to run into a wall after enthusiasm reset

Edit: nothing negative here, I'm still undecided, I know sparky can do the job and gets his hands dirty, albeit with some errors, but I'm also curious as to what a next level manager can do. We tried that with falke a few seasons back, still have mixed feelings about it

Last edited by Fwinns at 10/27/2018 2:56:42 PM

Sorry to see you go
I will say that this is nothing compared to the discussions that used to be
Not to mention the one that drummed Sparky out of the NT job in the first place

You wrote:

Sparky has had his chances in the past

So did you
And you were deservingly asking to show everyone that you had learned, gained experience, and were now ready to show everyone that you were capable of improving on your past through your experiences.
Doesn't Sparky deserve the same
I say keep in Country!

And besides he's a fine son

1) I am willing to spend all the time in the world to help complete the whole database within a week. I believe that it might take 5 - 15 hours to complete it. With some music, it should be a swift task.

2) I believe that it'll take about 2-4 hours a week to message managers/set lineups. I am 100% ready for the task.

3) I prioritize Defense & Offense over Flow. I think that flow needs to be at a necessary size, yet, I believe that the least important skills are within the "Flow Category". Exe: Handling/Drive. I'm not saying that these skills aren't necessary, I just believe that 1 on 1 monsters are not what our U21 team will succeed with. A little 1 on 1 can be good though. Offense and Defense are close in importance, but I prioritize Defensive players over Offensive ones.

4) I believe that for a u21 player, you should have the primaries at a large size, unless you have skills under "mediocre". It really depends on the position, since Centers need less secondaries than PFs. I prioritize 18 year olds in communication over those who will be weak in the secondary skills. In most cases, most players should train primary skills for the majority of the time.

5) Jump Shot & Outside Defense. Jump Shot is necessary for players around the court and increases effectiveness of their shots, no matter where you are. Outside Defense is a perfect way to be able to mix around your defense types, have your Big Men be able to face opposing Jump Shooters, and make it possible for you to play a big man at small forward. Since they will be able to stop small forwards who could be guards.

5b) Passing would be my next choice. Passing gives you the opportunity to play princeton effectively and makes motion a lot stronger. It also affects your offensive flow more than any other skill IMO.

I did not have a "real chance". I came into the job, midway through the season, after Kumiko had passed. Afterwards, I had to scout the whole database for myself with a lineup that I did not agree with and improper enthusiasm. Just because somebody has had a chance in the past, it does not mean they wouldn't deserve a second one. Since people change. For the same reason, as I'd vote for you if I wasn't running.