New File Additions 6/30/13

New Roster Version 1.1 (Adds Derrick Coleman, Richie Guerin, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Martin, Jermaine O'Neal, Willis Reed, Billy Cunningham, Stephen Curry, George McGinnis, Eddie Miller, Jack Twyman, Ryan Anderson, Marcin Gortat, Antawn Jamison, Reggie Miller, Michael Redd, James Silas, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Bobby Jones, Josh Smith & Deron Williams)

NBA Roster Version 1.1

NBA Settings Version 1.1

Jersey Pack Vol.1 (76ers, Bobcats, Bucks, Bulls, Cavs, Celtics, Clippers, Grizzlies)

Missing Players

LEAGUE DOWNLOAD LINKS

Roster

Settings

Cyber Faces Part One

Cyber Faces Part Two

Cyber Faces Part Three

Cyber Faces Part Four

Please let me know if there are any headless players in the league and I'll get those players uploaded. Enjoy!

NBA NEWS 6/17/13

Last week we discussed one of the most important parts of a player and that was Shot Ratings and Tendencies. Now we can move on to other important parts of the spreadsheet.

 

At the beginning of the spreadsheet you will see the player’s season that is currently being used and the team he played for that season. The statistics that are listed are from that particular season and these go into creating the ratings that you will see posted as well. Next is the player’s vital statistics such as size, weight & position. One thing that has changed on the Basketball Reference website is that they now list the particular position a player played for that particular season. Now some players will have a different position listed as their primary position for each different season, so if you want to change a player’s primary position you now have that option BUT he must have played that position primarily before the current season that he is using. For instance, Shawn Marion is currently using his 2005-06 Season and that season he has Center used as his primary position (he played in that Mike D’Antoni crazy offense). He also played SF and PF before the 05-06’ season so Marion can have any of those three positions listed as his primary position and this can be changed at any time during the season.

 

If you look thru a player’s statistics as you are looking at a particular player, you will notice some things that you may not be aware of. One is FG% Differential. This statistic is key to determining a player’s defense ratings because it shows that amount of defense (good or bad) that the team played for that particular season. What the number represents is the difference in the player’s team opponents FG% was and what the average season FG% was for all teams. So if you see a negative in that statistic you know that the team the player played on allowed a lower FG % than the average for that season and if you see a positive well you know what that means. Like I said before, this gives bonuses or deductions to the players numerous defensive ratings so if you are looking into changing a players season this is something you would really want to research before making that change. In the past the defense ratings wasn’t well reflected, especially on guys who played great team defense (ala the 90’s Pistons) but now those players will get there due.

 

Another statistic that you may not be aware of is SRS Rating. This is a Simple Rating System that was invented by a guy on Basketball Reference and it rates every NBA team that has played in history. A player can actually receive bonuses or deductions in certain areas based on this stat. If the player played for a rotten team the player’s ratings will decrease and will increase if he plays on a good team. The highest SRS rating I have seen would go to the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks and that was a 11.91. The lowest I have seen would go to one of the first expansion teams in the 90’s (can’t remember which one). This keeps guys who padded there stats on weak teams (ala Michael Adams) from being just as good as guys who did it on competitive teams.  One thing to note is that you will see some old school players who do not have opponent’s statistics for their particular season so you will see a N/A listed in those statistics like FG% Differential and Rebound Margin. In this case the SRS rating will be used to determine bonuses or deductions.

 

Finally there is Rebound Margin and this directly affects a players rebound ratings. A plus rebound margin means the player played on a team where they outrebounded there opponent and a negative indicates a team that was outrebounded. This will add bonus or deductions to a players ratings and this is another statistic you want to pay attention to when changing a player’s season.

 

In conclusion, if you have any questions on any of the ratings let me know because I know that the headers on the spreadsheet is an abbreviation of what the name of the rating actually is and it may confuse you. It was done like that so all we have to do is just copy and paste the ratings into the editor without having to go in and do it manually. I’ve included the list of the first 116 players I have finished so far

NBA NEWS 6/10/13

The player spreadsheet is one of the most useful tools we have for researching potential prospects & free agents because of the information it has on ratings & tendencies. This year with the new way I have in creating players the spreadsheet will not contain information on every player for every season. The reason being is because all the information needed can no longer be obtained from one website and must be inputted by hand. Of course this makes it more difficult in creating players, but it’s a sacrifice in order to have the most realistic league since we have started.

 

Now the spreadsheet will contain all the players that are available for drafting and list the season that was used in creating them, but what happens if the player you drafted has what you think is a better season out there for creating his ratings? Well, unfortunately the data on the players other seasons will not be available for viewing on the spreadsheet but you can still change a player’s season. Now you will be taking more of a risk by changing a player’s season because you won’t know if those ratings will be better than where the player currently is at the moment. Don’t be discouraged by this new change because I’ll show you how the ratings are calculated so you can make a good determination on what a player will look like.

 

First, a player’s Shot Ratings are based on a players Field Goal Percentage. Of course the higher the better, but the ratings are broken down into 4 groups as you know (Inside, Close, Medium & 3pt) so the ratings are determined by what the player’s field goal percentage from each of those area’s on the court are. So, just because a player shoots 60% from the field it doesn’t mean that he will have great shot ratings from all of the four shot types. If you want to know what a player shoots from all these areas, this information can be found on basketball reference.com under Shooting for each player since the 2000-01 season. The scales for each of these shot types are vastly different and they are based on the difficulty of each shot as discussed in last week’s news. Now these statistics were not available prior to the 2000-01 so each player that played prior to that season has to have there shot numbers determined by a player that had the same shot percentage and similar play style to the player I am rating. Finding the player that has these similarities can be time consuming and makes establishing the shot ratings for these players a bigger unknown because I’m not sure what player model I’m going to use until the research is done and I’m only gonna do the research if you want the players season change.

 

Shot Tendencies are also very important as well. If you have a 60% shooter, but he doesn’t take but 6 shots every 40 minutes then what good is he? Shot Tendencies are determined by the amount shots a player attempts per 40 minutes played in that shot area then multiplied by 10. For instance Gilbert Arenas attempted 540 three pointers in 2005-06 in 3384 minutes of playing time. To get his 3pt tendency rating we taking minutes played (3384) and divide by three pointers attempted (540) and that will give us 6.2667. So with that number we know that Arenas will attempt a three every 6.2667 minutes played. So how many will he attempt every 40 minutes? To get that number we take the number 40 and divide by 6.2667 and come up with 6.3829. Now multiply that by 10 and it equals 63.8294 or rounded up 64. So Arenas has a 64 three point tendency. As for old school players that don’t have three point numbers because the three point rule was not in effect at the time they played, I have now given them the ability to be three point shooters. I have given this ability to most of the guards and wings from back in the day so you won’t see Bill Russell or Kareem launching three’s.

 

There’s so much more to discuss about the spreadsheet and the ratings that I will continue this next week but I will post all this information to our website NationalBallersAssociation.blogspot.com so you can always have this information for reference.

NATIONAL BALLERS ASSOCIATION NEWS 5/20/13

The Philadelphia 76ers are the 2012-13 World Champions! Game Seven came down to the very end in a back and forth matchup in OKC but the 76ers seized control of the game late by keeping the Thunder bigmen in foul trouble. Tracy McGrady was the MVP despite his struggles thru out Game Seven shooting the ball. He did make a huge shot late in the 4th quarter to seal it and was awarded the trophy. This was the 76ers second championship in National Ballers Associations third year of existence. Sorry for the delay in Game Seven. We both wanted to make sure we got together to watch it and it tooks a few weeks to get our schedules together so we could.

I would like to thank all of you for a successful third season and hope that you will all come back for NBA 2k13. If you are not able to commit to another season please let me know as soon as possible so a replacement can be found. Right now we are at 15 members which is perfect and we don’t want to go over that amount or lower than that.

This off season I hope to keep you all informed of everything going on in the creation of next season’s league so you can be well informed for this year’s upcoming draft. For the first three seasons of the league either the Thunder or 76ers have won the title and I want to give you all a better chance of creating a team that can be a title contender by keeping you informed. I think the new way players will be created and having a draft while we all get together is the start to doing that. It is your responsibility though to make sure you keep up with everything going on for reference when it’s draft time. If you don’t you will find yourself behind the 8 ball trying to catch up and believe that never works.

Speaking of the draft it is time to reveal the order of the teams drafting. There will be a total of 12 rounds in the draft and this year will be a snake type draft with the CPU teams always drafting in the latter part of each round.

Rounds One, Three, Five, Seven, Nine & Eleven
1.OKC Thunder
2.Philadelphia 76ers
3.LA Clippers
4.Boston Celtics
5.Phoenix Suns
6.Atlanta Hawks
7.Denver Nuggets
8.Indiana Pacers
9.Los Angeles Lakers
10.Washington Wizards
11.Orlando Magic
12.Brooklyn Nets
13.New York Knicks
14.San Antonio Spurs
15.Sacramento Kings
16.Dallas Mavericks
17.Portland Trailblazers
18.Houston Rockers
19.Golden State Warriors
20.Utah Jazz
21.Chicago Bulls
22.Detroit Pistons
23.Minnesota Timberwolves
24.Milwaukee Bucks
25.Cleveland Cavaliers
26.Toronto Raptors
27.New Orleans Hornets
28.Memphis Grizzlies
29.Miami Heat
30.Charlotte Bobcats

Rounds Two, Four, Six, Eight, Ten & Twelve
1.Sacramento Kings
2.San Antonio Spurs
3.New York Knicks
4.Brooklyn Nets
5.Orlando Magic
6.Washington Wizards
7.Los Angeles Lakers
8.Indiana Pacers
9.Denver Nuggets
10.Atlanta Hawks
11.Phoenix Suns
12.Boston Celtics
13.LA Clippers
14.Philadelphia 76ers
15.OKC Thunder
16.Dallas Mavericks
17.Portland Trailblazers
18.Houston Rockets
19.Golden State Warriors
20.Utah Jazz
21.Chicago Bulls
22.Detroit Pistons
23.Minnesota Timberwolves
24.Milwaukee Bucks
25.Cleveland Cavaliers
26.Toronto Raptors
27.New Orleans Hornets
28.Memphis Grizzlies
29.Miami Heat
30.Charlotte Bobcats

The Draft will be held on Friday, September 6th at a location that has yet to be determined (Preferably somewhere with some food and adult beverages). For those who are not able to attend you will have to do so by skype, email, text message or just give me your picks. Of course there will be more info on this to come. Also loads of more information over the next few weeks and months about the how the players will be rated this year the Summer League and much more.

NATIONAL BALLERS ASSOCIATION NEWS 6/3/13

With the help of a friend on the NBA 2k forum, we have finally cracked 2k’s Shot Ratings & Tendencies ratings. This is a huge development for our league because it now allows me to correctly rate those ratings which in turn creates more realism. These ratings where the most difficult to come by in the past and with this new development I am one step closer to creating the most realistic Basketball Sim League in our history.

With that being said, let me explain how these will now work so you can get an idea how to judge potential prospects. First of all let’s look at the Shot Ratings which are Inside, Close, Medium (3pt was figured out a few years ago). The problem with coming up with the ratings where what was the proper scale for each shot type? With this cracked, each scale is different because the difficulty of each shot. For instance with Inside Shot which is a shot directly beneath the Rim, a 50% shooter from that distance would rate out poorly compared to a 50% medium range shooter from that distance because of its higher rate of difficulty. Now you will notice in the upcoming player’s spreadsheet that most players with a high Inside Shot Rating are big men because they are more accurate from that spot than smaller players. That’s because a smaller player may be able to finish at the rim but not at the same accuracy as a big man. Big men can usually just dunk it thru or are tall enough to lay it up more effectively despite what defense is applied to them, but on the other hand the smaller players have a more difficult time because they have to finish against taller defenders. Even very athletic guards like Derrick Rose only finish at about a 56% clip which only rates out to an 80-81 inside shot rating. The Close Shot Rating, which is anything from 3 feet to a 15 footer, has a smaller scale whereas if you can shoot anything above 43% from that range you are guaranteed at least a 90 rating. Finally for Medium Range which is any shot from 16-23 feet out if a player can 50% from there that is guaranteed a 99 rating because that shot in the league is not an easy shot. If you want to get an idea on what a player shot from that range by looking at the ratings, just take the medium shot rating and divide by 2. So if you see a player with 88 rating that means he shot around 44% from there.

Now with that explained, what really matters is the players Inside, Close & Medium Shot Tendencies because you can have a player with a 99 shot rating but if he has a small tendency to shoot it then it really doesn’t matter! Always compare the two with each other so you will get an idea on how effective a scorer they will be. Anything below a 30 Shot Tendency in any area means the player rarely attempts that type of shot, but a player in the 70’s and 80’s will attempt that shot whenever open.

Shot Tendencies for each area was another hard rating to come up with but we found out that if you take the players shot attempts from that area per 40 minutes played and multiply it by 10 then you will get the correct rating. So if you see a player with a 68 three point shot rating, then you will know that for every 40 minutes that player plays he will shot 6.8 attempts from 3. If you want to know how many shot attempts a player will shoot for every 40 minutes played then add all the Shot Tendencies up and you will have your number. Easy enough right? I hope so cause these are very useful ratings in determining the scoring effectiveness of each player out there.

Next week we will go further into the new player’s spreadsheet. That’s right I said it, a new format to the spreadsheet that goes even deeper into players abilities, ratings & tendencies. Also I’ll give you some more pointers on determining the correct player for you.

NBA Summer League

This year before the draft starting on August 5th we will have the Summer League. This will give each and every one of you a chance to see almost all the draftable players in a team setting before the draft on September 6th. All of the top players will be play at least 2-3 games in a starting role so you can get an idea of there skills and capabilities. Kevin will post the results of each game and I will post the players stats on the blog site I used a few years ago that way you can track potential draftees.

There is a few things you have to consider when viewing the results of these games.

1.Teammates-Always consider who the player is playing with. Guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry, Kobe Bryant are volume shooters. They will take upwards of 20-25 shots per game so that could take away from the opportunities the player you are considering has.

2.Opponents-Consider also who his defending the player you’re interested in. Kareem, Dr. J, Jordan, Pippen are all defensive stalwarts you rarely ever let there opponent score very much. If you’re player is being guarded by a defensive player, don’t expect much. On the other hand, if your player has a good game against a very good defender this would tell you that this is someone to keep an eye on.

3. Overall team makeup-Consider if the team has a good point guard. Point Guards can make life so much easier for scorers because they give the ball to the scorers in a good position to put the ball in the bucket. Also, if a player is playing for a rotten franchise like the Bobcats, Magic, Suns, Hornets or Cavaliers this can affect your players output. 2k12 intentionally makes the Coaches for these teams bad so the teams can be just as rotten as they are in real life so beware.

All in all, the Summer League will be a very valuable tool in deciding some of those later round picks. Usually by Round 4-5, owners start to slow down in there picks because a lot of the good known players have been taken. You can still pick up some very good players in these latter rounds and these games will be a good reference point in selecting players that will make your team a winner. Remember no one creates the best team in the first 4 rounds, it’s the latter part of the draft where you do. Study long & strong!