Re: 2021 suggestions
Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 4:55 pmReign in AI's excessive spending.
It is unrealistic for teams to be paying $25+ in luxury tax year-after-year.
Part of the issue also seems to be the AMOUNT of luxury tax teams will play AND how many teams are paying. At the beginning of the game only 4 teams are paying luxury tax and the heat barely count at less than 72k. Only Golden State and Portland are paying more than $7 million. And Houston's the only other team paying and there at $3 million.
These numbers balloon as seasons pass by.
More interaction with the owner!
The owner/GM relationship is critical to your success as a GM, yet there are only two opportunities to communicate with the owner and they are somewhat limited. I would love to be able to negotiate for more money for staff or convince the owner to change his demands and/or influence their philosophies. It would also be nice if the owner could adapt his demands to the teams success or failure. For example: If I defy the owners demands to keep a specific player and stay within the cap, but win an NBA Title, I'd like to see the owner soften his stance or at least adapt his demands to what has made the team successful.
You CAN influence the owner on player budgets and season expectations. So that leaves staff budget/desire for star player. I think the star player demand is too simplistic when just having a 3 star guy covers this for an owner who only cares a little about having a star player. Owners should probably be demanding MULTIPLE star players. Say the owner wants a big 3, that would mean you need maybe 1 3 1/2 star player and 2 players 4 plus stars or something. Satisfying this demand with one player is too simple. Especially if it's just a 3 star player. Maybe that should be raised to 3 1/2 even with the current logic. I should need a potential all-star talent to satisfy that demand.
As for staff budgets this is where things get tricky. As it is right now in challenge mode, your only play is to game the system and sign the head coach you want as a 1st assistant and then promote him. And then you can't ever fire anyone if you want to make a change if you want to stay under budget.
I think the demands for star players should be increased to make things more difficult, while making the coach hiring process more meaningful and realistic. Maybe the owner will want me to fire a coach I don't want to fire. Or maybe we've just decided we need to make a coaching change to reach the next level. Right now it's just play it cheap and hope having the full training budget actually is worth it.
I also think the owner should be functionally eliminated from sandbox mode. The training budget hit for staff hiring is really unfair. And I actually think the owner phone call is counterproductive to challenge mode because you can use sandbox mode to gauge how an owner is going to react to your answers to the questions they're asking. This allows you to learn how to manipulate the owner if you want to play Challenge mode as well.
