BuzzerBeater Forums

So I haven't been around here in seasons but I come here today to tell my situation and perhaps get a new plan for...my bench. If you wanna read my short story read disclaimer but if not you can go to the actual reason I wrote the post (In bolded italics)

Disclaimer

So this season I had playoff aspirations and I lost quite a lot of games...a few of them were cuz well my team overall played terrible. The other majority was because my bench killed my horribly. Lost about 5ish games this season because of the bench. Cut 4 players in the process too. The final straw was Saturday when I had my rival TV game and I crunch timed and lost....because well Bongiovanni (my sg) wasn't getting any help at all and cuz my scrub pg (rich loften) had to start for my 2 injured Players due to injury. I ended up losing by 1 because that scrub pg got destroyed (let up 34 on their pg) and missed 2 crucial free throws to seal my game.

Reason I post here today
My bench is terrible....beyond garbage and maybe beyond repair. Only players I have right now for the bench is Jaak Pold (33) and Ernest Jones (big in training) My fans have not been loyal at all to me this season so I have decided to lower prices for next year. Now here is my question of the day: what should I buy to improve my bench? I'm intending to run a motion/RnG/push the ball offense next season and I'm wondering what would be good for those tactics; a guard who just passes the ball insanely, a guy who just defends well while my best guys are on the bench, or should I buy a shooting specialist with the shot of Ray Allen. Or go Dennis Rodman and get a rebounder? Also what skills would you think is appropriate for bench d3...sensational+? Thanks for the help!

Hey tough,
I have a couple of philosophies when it comes to the bench. Personally, I like to get niche players that can do one thing well. A PG that is basically all passing and some OD. A SG/SF that is all JS/JR and some OD. A PF/C that has a lot of REB or SB.

Some of my examples: Souto (approx): 17/10/8/10/14/4-6/6/6/4, Iaccarino (approx): 6/7/6/7/4/7-6/12/7/18

The other philosophy is to grab a bunch of players that are like your starters, but with less skills (e.g. 8-10 in main skills instead of 12-14). That's what I've been doing lately due to affordability in D IV.

Also, I like to get decent scrubs. You can get a player with 7/7/7 OD/HA/PA for <50k and they can do a decent job as a backup/scrub.

Hope some of this helps,
TTS

A center that can pass. shoot,/ reb / defend in all aspects. is must if your going to running those offenses.

It will get expensive but it's worth it in the long haul. I would go looking to small country to get young center with exp. In Greece , china. cuba. malta. Somewhere like that. Then get a 28 yrs old sf who is very good and play well in road games. 18-20 ppg. I don't think you have to spend over 250K to get all the players.

All you need is 3-4 good bench players. You will be ok.

Always remember your bench is your teams future in most cases. Don't get them so old you have to a rebuild in both areas. Make sure they have up-side to them in a long run , For me I want them to have 9 seasons of play in them.. Meaning I can play them for 9 seasons with low cost great results, which open the door to new players even better than them and make me more money.

I don't think you necessarily need to be deep, but at DIII you need at least 3 10-20k guys (guard, sf, big) on your bench. My advice would be to either fill these high amounts of defensive skills & passing or guys that can score in your primary offense.

no no, what he is trying to say is that you need a young centre with experience in speaking Greek, Chinese, Spanish and Maltese.
Also a degree in Political Economics and Philosophy wouldn't go astray either.

Hey Tough!

I'm going to preface my response with this: I've always run an 8-9 man roster in my most competitive seasons so keep in mind I'm definitely biased towards getting specialty bench guys over pure depth. Also, I'm going to reference my experience from my recent 5 season stint in D.III (you can decide if that's positive or negative).

That said, I agree with TTS; you need some guys that do something specific well. For example, I had a guy that, from memory, was roughly something like this: 9/8/15/9/9/8 6/8/5/7. That's a 13k salary and fits in an Allstar potential which you'll find for super cheap on the market. I bought the guy for 211k and sold him 2 seasons later for 162k so he cost me 50k for two years of service. I played the guy at everything from the 1 thru 4 spots. Obviously I used him at the 1-2 simply to keep my opponents guards from killing me while the starters rested and although he wasn't ideal he was sufficient enough to play 3-4 spots without completely giving the game away.

Given you plan to play fast paced mostly outside based offenses you need to determine what you'll need most from a bench player. It appears to me that your team identity will be offense, offense, offense. To play that style I'd assume you need to have efficient scoring but possibly more importantly I'm betting that you will HAVE TO win the rebounding battle to be successful based on the large number of possessions that style will lead to.

Personally, I think you need 3 specific builds coming off the bench. I'd go for a defender type with the best OD/ID sum you can afford (personal preference would be more emphasis on the OD than ID). Something like my example but more ID would be ideal. This guy could be serviceable in the 1-3 spots and should limit the scoring while your offense rests they wont have as big a hole to climb out of when they return. Second, I'd get a rebounding focused big. Something like: 6/4/5/4/4/5 8/11/14/6 (16k). That is pretty pathetic for D.III but serviceable as a reserve. He wont be good for many points but he'll limit the oppositions second chance points and also give your reserve squad (who obviously are weaker) more attempts to put points on the board. This should, again, limit the size of the hole your starters have to dig out of which if you haven't noticed is the common goal of my suggestions for your bench. Lastly, I think you need a pure point on the 2nd string. It's no secret your offensive firepower will be way less on the reserve squad and your team identity is all about outscoring your opponent. Take a look at the advanced stats on your team and look at the shot percentages on assisted shots. Until a week ago, I didnt have a salary over 7k and mine is nearly 60% on assisted shots (inside). Granted I'm playing against 2nd strings and league-mates scrubs but it's still a significantly high conversion percentage. Even someone like: 7/6/10/9/13 3/5/3/4, who is nowhere near D.III caliber as a starter should accomplish the goal.

Best of luck to you bud. Keep us posted on what you decide and how it works out for you!

PS: I'll be gazing up to you in envy from my new D.IV home next season! :)

I don't think he need high experienced old . He needs one with some exp 2~3 if he can afford it... I said those countries just for an example. Those countries a Big in BB on talent but same time it was a direction hidden in text if can see where I started.
.
It not impossible to find the talent in small countries. They put a few good players out from time to time. Getting them in a bid is another story.

I have two bench scenarios

Cup Bench
and then post-cup bench

I run a different bench system when im in the cup then when im out of the cup. Generally been lasting fairly deep in the cup during seasons of late, so its worth my while.

but lets assume you want the post-cup bench scenario.
You already have a trainee for your bench so lets assume he will take the C bench spot for most of next season.

I generally try to base my bench requirements based on the stamina levels of my starting 5. So for example my team this season had the following stamina:
PG - Low
SG - High
SF - Medium
PF - Low
C - High

Because the SG and C both have high stamina, the bench guys tend to play less minutes - so I invest the least amount into those bench positions. And vice versa - I have my best bench player as my PF.

I tend to always focus on defensive-sided bench players. Rebounding and defence. so OD for PG's and SG and ID/RB/SB for C's and PF's. The SF is usually a better bench player overall though due to the dispersed skillset.

anyways that's my advice. pick ur worst stamina starting 5 player, and the equivalent bench player should be ur best bench player.

Hmm ... it's always an interesting question, the bench! We all try and get as much as we can out of our starters, as they are our stars - but lack of bench depth can kill you in those close ones, as you've already found out. My own bench strategy is still a work in progress, but here's how it has developed:

Step 1: Work towards a 5/3/3 lineup. That's your five starters, 3 decent bench players, and 3 scrubs. Back when I was running for a D3 title in Australia, that's kind of what I was aiming for. The decent bench and the scrubs should both be broken down further as: 1 small (PG/SG), 1 big (PF/C), and one that can play SF (as well as preferably at least one or two other positions). Decent bench players for me then were around the $7k-$10k salary mark, scrubs anything under $5k.

Step 2: Incorporate a 6th man. Ideally, he is versatile and can play multiple positions - and ideally one of those is SF, so even if you suffer an injury or foul out your team can adapt and players can move up/down accordingly with the five solid starter players you have remaining.

Step 3: Gradually improve each player, if you find someone at a cheap price that is better than someone you already have, pick up the new guy and sell off the old player (finances permitting). This is actually something that I have been doing all along, and I found for a minimal outlay and marginal increase in weekly salary my bench incrementally got stronger and stronger.

Step 4: Build towards running a 7-man starting rotation, 3/2/3. That's 3 smalls, 2 SF, and 3 bigs. Again, versatility is desired, so if any of the smalls or bigs can play SF that's good, and of course the SFs should be able to fill in at at least 1-2 other positions. The rest of the lineup is covered by the decent bench players you've been improving along the way, and should include at least 2 smalls and 2 bigs.

That's kind of where I'm at now, and finances would prevent me from running any deeper given my current salaries, until I promote to the top division :)

My #1 philosophy for all bench guys would also be that they MUST be able to defend their position! I'll happily sacrifice quite a bit of offensive power on them - it's not their job to score, but their defence must be at least within 2-3 levels of my starters for me to be happy having them on the court.