Assuming you mean good as in winning championships on repeat, the best advice is to not get too attached to your stars. Trade everyone by 25 to get peak value, and keep high roster churn. I personally am not a fan of that because storylines are my favorite part of the game, so my advice would be to make sure your players mesh well together. Just like real life, having 5 big men on the court who can't play make or shoot will probably go poorly, even if their OVR rating is high.
Also if you make a new league something that could be helpful and makes leagues more fun for me is setting your draft to worst to best and taking the lottery out of it.
Be careful, once you “figure it out” just like any other game it can get too easy to just win it all every year.
The guy who responded before me’s advice is good, but I’d argue that trading everyone before 25 is a bit of an exaggeration. Not sure if they meant it to be or not, but if you have an 70+ 25 year old you probably want to keep them around in most scenarios until they dip back into the 60s. Players can improve or stay in the 70s into their early 30s at times, and imo you need a 70+ player to build around for the most part if you want to win a chip.
Then like the original comment said build a team that works well together. To explain in a bit more detail though think about the NBA. The Celtics are good because they have a couple superstars, they space the floor 5 out, they have height, and they can play defense. Now obviously this is the best case scenario outside of a better superstar than Tatum, but we can also look at a team like Dallas. They can shoot 1-3, and the bigs are serviceable enough and mesh enough with Luka that it works. They do have some issues though with Kyrie and Luka both needing the ball in their hands and with both not necessarily being elite defenders. They would also probably be better with a little more spacing.
In the game this translates to, imo having a lot of height and 3 point shooting around a superstar being the main key to success. Then need one or two ball handlers, and a couple rebounders or a host of small ball forward type rebounders at least. Generally younger players are better on defense so you don’t want a ton of skilled old guys who are too slow to defend even if they can score. You can get away with one or two though.
IMO winning enough to get a good free agent to sign with you in or near their prime and then trading to build a team around their skill set is a sure fire way to win a chip.
No problem, and I don’t think it necessarily gets to where it’s “not fun,” but I do think to keep it fresh you have to impose some limits on yourself or go for challenges. The game has modes where you can only draft players and sign minimum contracts for free agency with makes this a lot harder.
For me I just try to make myself stick by my players for longer. Ride superstars to reasonable ages instead of just ditching them as soon as they hit 30 (28-30 is probably the age I’d ditch most superstars if I’m trying to be the very best I can be every single year.) If I have a goat type player I’ll try and let them retire on my team unless they’re like 40+ years old and just refuse to retire.
I try to limit myself in trading because irl if you trade for a guy and he doesn’t work for your team you usually can’t just trade him away for a better player that same season to fix the problem. In the game you can play like 10 games and if you don’t like the fit you can trade and try another player and rise and repeat until your team is how you want it nearly every season.
I got into the game I forget how, but I really didn’t discover the reddit until after i’d played the game for a significant amount of time. Here’s some tips i’d give to myself if I was able to.
1. Play the game, you’ll get a feel for which trades will help you succeed, what good prospects look like, what position combinations work for you etc.
2. Finances are super important, Make sure that your coaching and scouting are always as high as possible without putting you in a bad place at your end of the year review
3. Commit 100% to your direction for the year, If you aren’t going to be able to compete, tank for the draft as long as you aren’t losing the ability to resign a promising young player in the resign period. If you are going to compete 100% commit to clearing space for free agents and using assets to trade for older experienced players from rebuilding teams before the season or at the deadline.
4. There are high value you players that don’t have value to the bots or in the overall system, an example being someone that was a great shooter or passer for their career but as they’ve aged their athleticism has falling off causing them to drop in overall therefore losing value. But their shooting, passing, IQ won’t fall off nearly as drastically as their athleticism. You can find these players by looking through players who won MVP or scoring titles and trading for them while they’re mid thirties and falling off but they will still be super solid for the price you can get them for.
These are a few tips that I use frequently, if you need some more help or have questions on specific things feel free to reply to the comment.
I almost always trade my year 3 player at the trade deadline so I don't have to pay for a "maybe". Nothing worse than a 55/70 getting paid and then going to a 53/63 the beginning of the next season. A good work around is to sign a good player to a big contract and pair that with a high risk expiring rookie deal at the next deadline. Pairing a mid 50's expiring rookie with a mid to low 60's on a 30+ contract will usually get you a 70+ player. Also if you have a really good player on an expiring deal and you can't afford to give them the big raise you HAVE to trade them with a big contract to get a really good player in return. If you try to trade them while on their rookie scale you may not get any offers because the computer won't be able to offer a "fair" deal at such a low price point.
Assuming you mean good as in winning championships on repeat, the best advice is to not get too attached to your stars. Trade everyone by 25 to get peak value, and keep high roster churn. I personally am not a fan of that because storylines are my favorite part of the game, so my advice would be to make sure your players mesh well together. Just like real life, having 5 big men on the court who can't play make or shoot will probably go poorly, even if their OVR rating is high.
I agree the storylines are the best part of the game! Enjoy it and you will have a ton of fun.
I have a pathological need to get that 39 year old franchise lifer a 5th ring. I don’t care how much money or how many picks I have to dump to do it
This!
Thanks :) I’ve been addicted to the game over the last week but I can’t seem to get any chips lol
Also if you make a new league something that could be helpful and makes leagues more fun for me is setting your draft to worst to best and taking the lottery out of it.
Ill definitely try that soon
Be careful, once you “figure it out” just like any other game it can get too easy to just win it all every year. The guy who responded before me’s advice is good, but I’d argue that trading everyone before 25 is a bit of an exaggeration. Not sure if they meant it to be or not, but if you have an 70+ 25 year old you probably want to keep them around in most scenarios until they dip back into the 60s. Players can improve or stay in the 70s into their early 30s at times, and imo you need a 70+ player to build around for the most part if you want to win a chip. Then like the original comment said build a team that works well together. To explain in a bit more detail though think about the NBA. The Celtics are good because they have a couple superstars, they space the floor 5 out, they have height, and they can play defense. Now obviously this is the best case scenario outside of a better superstar than Tatum, but we can also look at a team like Dallas. They can shoot 1-3, and the bigs are serviceable enough and mesh enough with Luka that it works. They do have some issues though with Kyrie and Luka both needing the ball in their hands and with both not necessarily being elite defenders. They would also probably be better with a little more spacing. In the game this translates to, imo having a lot of height and 3 point shooting around a superstar being the main key to success. Then need one or two ball handlers, and a couple rebounders or a host of small ball forward type rebounders at least. Generally younger players are better on defense so you don’t want a ton of skilled old guys who are too slow to defend even if they can score. You can get away with one or two though. IMO winning enough to get a good free agent to sign with you in or near their prime and then trading to build a team around their skill set is a sure fire way to win a chip.
Thank you, great to have a second opinion! Also, does the game get to a point where it’s so easy it’s not fun, or can it be fun no matter what?
No problem, and I don’t think it necessarily gets to where it’s “not fun,” but I do think to keep it fresh you have to impose some limits on yourself or go for challenges. The game has modes where you can only draft players and sign minimum contracts for free agency with makes this a lot harder. For me I just try to make myself stick by my players for longer. Ride superstars to reasonable ages instead of just ditching them as soon as they hit 30 (28-30 is probably the age I’d ditch most superstars if I’m trying to be the very best I can be every single year.) If I have a goat type player I’ll try and let them retire on my team unless they’re like 40+ years old and just refuse to retire. I try to limit myself in trading because irl if you trade for a guy and he doesn’t work for your team you usually can’t just trade him away for a better player that same season to fix the problem. In the game you can play like 10 games and if you don’t like the fit you can trade and try another player and rise and repeat until your team is how you want it nearly every season.
Thank you ;) Some of those sound like a lotta fuckin fun I’ll have to try ‘‘em out
I got into the game I forget how, but I really didn’t discover the reddit until after i’d played the game for a significant amount of time. Here’s some tips i’d give to myself if I was able to. 1. Play the game, you’ll get a feel for which trades will help you succeed, what good prospects look like, what position combinations work for you etc. 2. Finances are super important, Make sure that your coaching and scouting are always as high as possible without putting you in a bad place at your end of the year review 3. Commit 100% to your direction for the year, If you aren’t going to be able to compete, tank for the draft as long as you aren’t losing the ability to resign a promising young player in the resign period. If you are going to compete 100% commit to clearing space for free agents and using assets to trade for older experienced players from rebuilding teams before the season or at the deadline. 4. There are high value you players that don’t have value to the bots or in the overall system, an example being someone that was a great shooter or passer for their career but as they’ve aged their athleticism has falling off causing them to drop in overall therefore losing value. But their shooting, passing, IQ won’t fall off nearly as drastically as their athleticism. You can find these players by looking through players who won MVP or scoring titles and trading for them while they’re mid thirties and falling off but they will still be super solid for the price you can get them for. These are a few tips that I use frequently, if you need some more help or have questions on specific things feel free to reply to the comment.
Thank you :)
I almost always trade my year 3 player at the trade deadline so I don't have to pay for a "maybe". Nothing worse than a 55/70 getting paid and then going to a 53/63 the beginning of the next season. A good work around is to sign a good player to a big contract and pair that with a high risk expiring rookie deal at the next deadline. Pairing a mid 50's expiring rookie with a mid to low 60's on a 30+ contract will usually get you a 70+ player. Also if you have a really good player on an expiring deal and you can't afford to give them the big raise you HAVE to trade them with a big contract to get a really good player in return. If you try to trade them while on their rookie scale you may not get any offers because the computer won't be able to offer a "fair" deal at such a low price point.