advice for the NEXT LEVEL Topic

I am consistently making strong teams, at the top of my divison/conference. among the top seeds entering playoffs....but i always lose in the 2nd/3rd round.....

are there any tips from winning owners on handling their lineups and settings in the playoffs? do you guys change your lineups to match up with your opponent at all?

so far I keep pretty much the same lineups/settings
4/17/2014 2:56 PM
Sorry hboms, but with the SIM's absolutely outrageous variable rate (randomness), felonius' advise is the best anyone can offer - no matter what they may try to tell you. 
4/17/2014 6:23 PM
Are you talking about open leagues? or theme leagues
4/17/2014 7:06 PM
hahahaha..........but there are guys like ashamael who not only go to the finals, but win a freakin ring 1 out of every 3.5 seasons he participates in, so theres got to be a method to it
4/17/2014 10:16 PM
as good as he is ash has off seasons too

but be that as it may let's just say that when you get to a certain point where the level of team quality and coaching is pretty damn close and everyone is elite and there are really only so many coaching options at our disposal (and those having somewhat questionable efficacy) luck does come into play - you can extend minutes and game plan to double and position defensively but  at the end of the day we're playing with an engine (that was modeled after major league baseball statistical modeling which doesn't work like basketball even a little bit so if we were playing 3 game series all season long and our seasons were twice as long things might be a little more sensible) prone to more than occasional aberrational hiccups (shall we say) getting lucky does have something to do with it

more than winning 50 or 60 games in the regular season in fact (simply due to sampling size) - which is just a way to say that you seem to be doing the right things - just keep at it (although I would be interested in some insider tips if others think they have the recipe)
4/17/2014 11:09 PM (edited)
Several people have won titles at a high rate, so there isn't as much luck in a 7 game series as some will say there is.  A clearly superior team will almost always win a playoff series in the nba sim.  Keep something else in mind, winning 60+ games doesn't always mean u have a dominate team (weak teams in ur division can artificially inflate the number of regular season wins).
4/20/2014 11:56 PM

what I'm actually saying (having nothing to do with what you're assuming and everything to do with what he's actually talking about) is that once you get into the conference finals and then the finals where the quality of the teams tends to even out it really is almost all about luck - the closer the teams are in quality the luckier you have to get (obviously) since there are so few coaching options and those we have are of questionable efficacy

4/21/2014 11:03 AM (edited)
it's no coincidence that the top owners typically win at a pretty consistent rate.

It's also no coincidence that in a highly competitive league like the ODL or the funk52 that of the 24 teams, only 3 or 4 will win 50 or more games and only one or two will lose 50 or more games.  In situations like that, the playoffs are often a madhouse.

In conclusion: both nc & felon are right.

4/21/2014 1:24 PM
The top owners also play a lot than say one-off or casual players.  You certainly develop an idea of how to put together a strong core and eventually cross over from bad, to getting it to toying with it after perfecting it.  So it's like anything, practice and research makes perfect.
5/3/2014 3:33 PM
I think that's missing the point - practice and research get you to the point where you can win 50+ games pretty much consistently BUT here we are talking about the "next level" - the contention being once you get into the semis and further you tend to be playing other owners who have the same chops you do and have done the same research and practice and that's when things rely increasingly on luck - the closer to equal all the other factors are the closer you get to what is essentially a coin flip - that should be self evident really
5/3/2014 4:21 PM
Even when u look at the final four teams in the playoffs, those teams aren't usually equivalent in quality.
5/3/2014 4:57 PM
not always but anecdotal evidence aside I'd say more often than not by the time you get to the conference finals you do in fact have teams that are pretty close - unless you'd like to argue that random **** happens that allows inferior teams to get that far (I certainly wont get in your way if so but even I think that's the exception)
5/3/2014 8:43 PM
Posted by felonius on 5/3/2014 4:21:00 PM (view original):
I think that's missing the point - practice and research get you to the point where you can win 50+ games pretty much consistently BUT here we are talking about the "next level" - the contention being once you get into the semis and further you tend to be playing other owners who have the same chops you do and have done the same research and practice and that's when things rely increasingly on luck - the closer to equal all the other factors are the closer you get to what is essentially a coin flip - that should be self evident really
Have to totally agree. I've gotten to the point of consistently winning teams relatively quickly--6 seasons, no losing records, 4 playoffs, 3 finals (all thanks largely to ash's excellent advice in this forum)--but only 1 championship, which was really just luck. I'm confident I can put together 50-wins teams, but in the postseason I feel like I'm at the mercy of the sim. You just can't predict the stuff that happens in these playoffs. Particularly after the 1st round, it's a crapshoot.
5/4/2014 4:53 PM
Yes I agree with that, it's like it says in the trial league tips, a 10 game window is a small one so stats and numbers that don't match up to averages of a whole season and so the same is applied to the playoff series where randomness wins.  So to add onto what Ash said, it's the mastering the numbers initially and going to the playoffs with adjustments here or there and letting the randomness figure it out.
5/4/2014 10:15 PM
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