BuzzerBeater Forums

That's the nature of bb players. In real life most players do start to "drop" skills around 30's, but they are not rubbish. It's just that there're always some younger, stronger, and faster rookies joining the league every season.

Last edited by Eagle at 2/26/2012 2:42:00 PM

Yes. And you're lucky :)

NBA players don't peak at 32, but, quite the opposite, they do in BuzzerBeater because of experience gains. It is the final year they can maintain their skills but have the advantage of more experience than previous seasons.

I would think a 35 year old player in BB would be very valuable with his advanced experience even with a few drops, but it is pretty rare that good teams have these players because they are clearly not a wise long term investment (they depreciate quickly). I would think merchandising boosts for players that have been on your team for a while (and still produce) would help offset this. Especially if we could see the breakdown by player for merchandise (maybe with a "Jerseys Sold" or "Bobbleheads Sold" statistic). Would be more difficult to sell that 34 year old if he was selling 30k worth of bobble heads and jerseys per week himself.

It would also be great if skills dropped at varying levels (quickness based skills like outside defense and driving hit the worse but muscle memory/experience based skills like shooting and passing not affected as much, for example). Most NBA players actually improve their shooting over their careers and maintain it well into their late 30s or longer (still pretty sure Kerr could beat most players in a 3 pt shootout). Outside defense is by far the most important skill in this game, unlike the NBA where a player like Nash can keep playing due to his court vision and shooting efficiency into his late 30s even though he is not quite as quick on the defensive end as he once was. That type of player will lose you games quickly in BB.

Excellent post! I agree that it was innaccurate of me to say they peak at 32 but what I would contend is that a lot of the great ones are still at their peak at 32 and while perhaps things like footspeed are going down other things like JS and JR are still going up as you said. Kareen, Magic, Bird, Jordan, Stockton, Malone, Bryant, Allen, Nowitski, Kidd, Nash, and dozens of others at age 32 were far from washed up and still amongst the best.

Easy to cite examples of the opposite Kenyon Martin, Jermaine O'Neal but it is the same for young guys like Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. Real life injuries wreck players forever.

I just had a search on the TL for players aged 34 or more with a $70,000 or higher salary. There are none!

Last edited by yodabig at 2/27/2012 3:17:10 PM