BuzzerBeater Forums

still have 3 empty roster spots on the team. Whenever U21 is done maybe I can call up a couple of the young guys.

Or you could pick up Umari right now and have another proven winner in good game shape right away. He has been trained almost every week this season and has had several pops.

You would think so, but who? The NT can always do what a lot do and just play PGs and Cs but 2 of our top 4 big men are injured. Lucky that our star Yusuke Furusawa and the brilliant Hirofumi Sonoda are in proficient GS. We have brilliant PGs like Rikkio Eguchi, Takatoshi Tagawa and 4 others on the team. 6 PGs in total but just 2 SGs. Obviously some of those PGs could be combo goards. Also when in shape Hideki Ochi and Masatomo Saiki are very solid, but not really up to the standard of lots of other NTs. Umari is far, far, far from it. Where are the hall of fame and all time great players?

On the NT we have:
1 hall of famer
4 MVP
4 Superstar
5 perennial allstar
1 allstar

That is not a lot of high potential players. There are a lot perennial allstar players and Umari has been trained all but 1 week this season. Whn I asked the NT manager last season about him he said Umari would need several pops to make the team, well he has had several although I have tried to not pop JR or OD because of fear of him capping although this has been bad for Takayoshi Kawagichi my U21 guy as that is exactly what he needs. Hard to balance things sometimes.

So on the one hand I look at Umari and think, not close to NT level. But then I look at the guys on the team (and have seen several for sale) and think he is in the same ballpark. So I don't know what to think.

One good thing on the U21 team are a few guys who are the future of the team including 2 hall of fame players and 5 MVPs. We are heading in the right direction.

National Team Press Release


Japan NT Starts 2nd Round Off With Blowout Victory

In the first game of second round our boys overcame a 3 point halftime deficit to Prathet Thai by outscoring their opponent by 31 points in the second half to a blowout 112-84 victory. With this win the team is now 5-2 in competitive games this season. Over the course of the season the team has risen from their initial 73rd ranking to now being 49th in the world. Five wins is also the most wins since the team went 6-2 in season 14, coached by Wolph. Prior to that you have to go back to season 11 when they were 7-3.

Thailand is by far the easiest opponent we will have in round 2. From here it gets much more challenging. Next up is 54th ranked New Zealand. At best we are even strength with them but in reality they look to have better players and more depth. So, I’ll have to work some magic with the team to try to get a win. Luckily, it looks like we should be getting Ochi back to good form and can put him back in the starting line-up. That will be a big help.

Once again Furusawa led the way for the team against Prathet Thai with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Top assists went to Tagawa with 7, and Eguchi contributed 3 steals on the defensive side. Overall we out shot them 53% to 41% and out rebounded them by 14.

Here’s the lineup I used for this game:

Point Guard
Tagawa
Hara
Fujii

Shooting Guard
Eguchi
Ochi
Hara

Small Forward
Oishi
Suenami
Ueda

Power Forward
Furusawa
Shibukji

Center
Sonoda
Shibukji

Injured
Hayakawa
Kouzuki

Five wins is also the most wins since the team went 6-2 in season 14, coached by Wolph. Prior to that you have to go back to season 11 when they were 7-3.

Wasn't season 14 the consolation cup? The consolation cup is a bit like the Nippon Cup...all about the luck of the draw. A good job for sure but the WORLD CUP Q's are a different story...

Great work to win by 30 with less effort. As usual Furusawa was the star, but Tagawa was also great and I must comment on my guy Sonoda who slaughtered their $127k C keeping him to just 2/11 shpooting and 6 rebounds. I notice that he is now retired Pornchai Junsit (6616095). That was poor work by Thailand, not organising someone to bid on him and keep him alive. Losing their starting C, wow that must hurt.

Swoosh is selling Chihiro Okita (6927944). He looks great, nice defence and JR. Why isn't he on the NT?

Okita is a nice player but he isn't on the team mainly because of the quality of guard depth that we have. The guys on the team are just a little bit better.

BTW, I just noticed that Eguchi is up for sale again.

Another NT prospect for sale is Yuya Takayama (18297154). He could be good for me as Kaname Kouzuki has probably only 1 more season of elite play before he starts to decline (I will try to get a CE trainer just for him next season). Will anyone be upset with me if I never train his primaries. Again he may be capped and he has to fall into line behind those that are a higher priority like Kawagichi and the Shinkansen. But when I do some more 1 on 1 training next season he can certainly have some of that to improve those really bad secondaries.

So basically will anyone mind if I do decide to buy him that he wont get trained much and not at all in primaries. If anyone else thinks they can get him to NT standard then feel free.