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Originally Posted by joosegoose |
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Why do I bring this up? A problem with AAA sports video games (not so much text sims) is that players and ratings are largely static. If a player is rated 74 overall going into a season, that's what he is. Sure, he'll progress and regress over a career (and I know the team, including you personally with the training overhaul, has done great work here recently), but you know what you have. And as nice as the total-control player training is, I wonder if it's a little too much control at times; it'd sure be nice to improve Ricky Rubio's shooting or a lot of players' defensive chops, but the NBA doesn't always work that way. Current development also doesn't allow for large swings in a rating over the course of a single season, as we've seen with guys like Boogie and Anthony Davis stretching their range.
Ben Simmons is a 79 in the game, never mind that he might start playing and turn out to be much better than that (like Towns last year). There are also plenty of players currently barely fit to be on a roster who will turn out to be key role players at season's end (maybe they finally acquired the defensive IQ to stay on the court, or developed a 3 point shot), and solid veterans who will regress so quickly their careers appear to be over.
This is the biggest thing that makes this excellent franchise mode get staler quicker than I'd like, and the D-League is a good representation of how to innovate and get it 'right'. It doesn't have to be an actual D-League simulation per se, just like we don't need a proper Euroleague simulation to provide the same level of depth with draft-and-stash. A more dynamic ratings system (optional of course, so that guys don't get cranky when their prized prospect or key role player turns out to be much worse than advertised) would finally give value to second round picks and end of the bench signings, as well as creating the ever-elusive 'draft bust'. Drafting a player in the top 5 and immediately knowing he is a 67 (and simply cutting/trading him) is not the same as wasting years on him only to never realize his potential.
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I actually create my own sort of randomization in my MyLeague game saves.
Each season at the start, I use Siri to give me three random numbers between 1 - 30. I then scroll through the teams starting alphabetically with the 76ers and stop at the team number corresponding to my random numbers. Then I take the youngest player with potential below A- on each team and add 3 points to his potential.
That lets me spice it up a little for CPU teams, who as a rule don't do a great job developing players. I exclude the team I control from this, so my Knicks never get that bump. Since as a user I tend to draft and develop players better than the CPU, this at least gives the league a little more competition.
I don't really see it overall increasing the league's overall talent level because it's a small bump and a lot of these guys still don't fully achieve their potential due to injuries, inferior coaching, inferior trainers and such. Or some just have weaker peak start and peak end curves.
On the other hand, if a recent lottery pick goes from B+ to A- potential in this process, it kind of simulates the KAT scenario and gives that weaker team a guy to really build around. It can also have the effect of turning a late first or early second rounder from being roster fill to a useful role player in his career, going from C+ to B- potential.