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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.
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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.

Welcome back to activity!

For the short term, I would probably try to find a couple of guys who have a lot of skills in the 6-8 range at almost every position on sale relatively cheap, if possible. Those are the type of guys you can have at least as deeper reserves that in case of a really bad injury streak can play at any position without being too awful.

I'm a bit out of the ordinary in that I actually prefer an 11 man rotation when possible, though I haven't had one in seasons. As I've moved up, the gap between the starting five and the next five has widened in many cases, and I haven't had that higher skill version of the all-skills player to be that 11th man in a long time either. I've just always been of the philosophy that while it's certainly possible to manage minutes somewhat effectively with a seven or eight man rotation, if you have a couple of injuries or foul outs, starting with a ten or eleven man rotation means you can still manage minutes and compete, while that can cripple you with a very thin bench.

Wow hrudey a gm now nice! I'm late lol. Ok back to the point: I like all of y'all s suggestions so far. So I think I will mix up a few of the suggestions. I think I will go for the specialist approach on Sf. SFs with even 9/9 od id cost a lot on the transfer wire, so I think I will try and get a 13/13 Js jr specialist instead when I have the appropriate finances. I like the other suggestion with having my trainee C develop into the C role when he gets trained up. I also like the idea of a rebounding specialist for this offense--I will be training rebounding for some time this season anyways, so I might plan on buying a dude with 10 id and 9-10 rb 21 year old on the wire--those rejects don't go for that much so. I know I can get one of those (and the good thing is that his salary won't go up til season 31 )

Finally, I like the idea of getting a versatile Guard. Since the best 2 players on my team are guards I should be able to get a versatile guard....if that plan fails I will look into the pass and D type of guard for my bench to facilitate the O (@ Rucker bad boys : I have trained both my big men to be very excellent players for this offense they can hit a J pass greatly and defend the perimeter well too, hell my PF right now can defend sf too)


I got another question in mind: since my season is over should I try selling Jaak Pold for what I can get right now? Soon his bench role will keep diminishing and his skills will get worst. So is it safe to say I should sell him before he turns to garbage or keep him til the sunset?

Last edited by tough at 12/30/2014 12:16:04 PM

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.

Completely agree, mate. I'm of the opinion the bench should be able to come in and defend (firstly) and score (secondly, but not as important). They simply come on and defend their positions while my starters take some deep breaths, a swig on their water bottle and hear some advice from the coach. Simplz...

@ Tough...good luck mate.

I also agree with the defense philosophy. Great ability differences between starters and bench guys, especially when it comes to defence, that leads to simply a defeat.

I can put several suggestions forward, so-called main principles of bench strategy from my point of view :)

1. Reserve PG should have enough OD along with HA (in order to avoid critical turnovers).
2. Reserve SG should have at least enough OD.
3. Having 2 seperate SF may be another option (One of them is inside oriented, the other is outside oriented. One can decide whom to play considering rival SF skills).
4. Reserve PF should have at least enough ID.
5. Reserve C should have enough ID/SB along with RB (in order to avoid 2nd chance points, very important)

And i completely agree to one opinion mentioned above, that having well balanced backup player with very reasonable wage, almost every skill between 8-10, provides great benefit for unexpected situations like injury or early bath fouling out.

Last edited by Sir Fifty at 1/6/2015 5:18:18 PM