PowerPlay Žurnāls

Howdy all,

I am writing today about PPM's 4th sport: basketball. Some of you are having trouble finding wins and you don't know why. Some of you seem to be falling in the W column quite often and you're not sure why. For the later, don't change anything! For the former, this article will hopefully be of some help.

I'll admit, most of this advice is based on my limited experience with basketball. I've only played it as long as most of you and this is just my opinion on how to improve your odds at winning. It may not work for everyone but it has worked for me. In fact, I have no idea why it has worked so well (6 losses between league, playoff and NC since day 1 at the time of publishing which is roughly 75 games) but I'm certainly not complaining.

Below you'll find three key pieces of advice. I could certainly give more but I should really keep some info for myself. I'm sure by posting this my competition will get tough and in turn my team won't be as successful but thems the sacrifices you make.

1. Put the ball into the hands of your best player(s)
   Basketball is about as close to a one-man-team-sport as you can get in my opinion. Teams can have one superstar and a with a mediocre supporting cast really rack up the wins. I'm not a basketball superfan so many may argue this but it has worked for me in PPM. Use your best players to your advantage. They're not doing you any good if learn-to-shoot Jonny is trying 3pt shots all game with Michael Jordan calling for the ball.
    
2. Use your bench
   I see some teams rolling their starters and rarely letting their bench players play. Often there isn't much difference in in-game-rating between starters and bench players. Playing your bench players when you have a lead or are really losing will do two things. First, it will save your staters' in-game energy improving their performance for that game. Second, it will balance out seasonal energy loss leaving your top players better down the stretch and into the playoffs. Given we're all still using our day 1 players and all our rosters are very similar, this energy conservation can make a huge difference late in games (also here but that may just be good luck) as well as late in the season.
   
   
3. Watch your calendar
   As a new sport PPM basketball has been prone to inactive teams in many leagues. When one of these teams pops up on your calendar put in the extra effort to decrease your importance. It may seem like a pain in the butt but it will help. For those of you with ProPack, it is as simple as having a "League" and "League Inactive" tactic and simply setting the later weeks in advance of known inactive teams. For those of you without, it is only a couple mouse clicks on the day of game to go from N to L or VL.