Florida Strat World Presents The:

Second American Basketball League

SABL

Scott Ellis, Commissioner

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The SABL BS

Issue 117 August 2004

FROM COMMISSIONER SCOTT ELLIS, SECOND AMERICAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE

Chuck Taylor All-Star Basketball League needs you!

Brooklyn Coach Steve Feldheim has sent me this to share with you:

Hi guys,

I have two openings for expansion teams in my draft retro PC Action basketball league, The Chuck Taylor All-Star Basketball League (CTASBL).

We're about to enter the 68-69 season. If you're interested please apply for membership to the following group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/CTASBL/

New league forming - Strat Pros Internet Basketball Association

Richmond Coach Frank Rowley has asked me to let you all know about another league forming that is using a "salary system." If you would like to see a very basic and preliminary web site, and to reach the "commish" for additional info, type in the following address. Here is the address www.spibl.com/spiba

Frank is a member of this new league as is another SABL alumus, Ron Karbowski, who coached the Great Lakes Magicians - now the Scottsdale Sun-Burns.

League dues of $15 are due Sept. 1

My, how time flies. It's that time once again. Time to send your annual $15 dues check, made payable to yours truly, the commissioner, Scott Ellis.

A friendly reminder - the dues are due Sept. 1. Remember, you can't play in the SABL if you don't pay. Get 'em to me ASAP, and thanks!

For all of you that have already paid, double-thanks!

Time to order your Strat basketball computer game and cards

I ordered mine a month ago. If you order early, you will get your cards and computer game in the first shipment, which is slated for mid-September for the cards and late September for the computer game.

Here's Strat's phone number: 1-800-645-3455. And you can visit their website, too, at www.strat-o-matic.com

I'm Harold Richman and I approve this message.

Strat-O-Matic Basketball Primer - how to win and have fun doing it!

After years of procrastination to both Akron Coach Dave Scott, New Orleans Coach Jeff Perigoni and others in our league, I'm finally getting started on this epic. It will be a continual work in progress, based on my time and mistakes in writing it. It will also grow and evolve based on questions and comments I'm sure you will have about it.

And I'm sure I'll learn some new things along the way, as well.

To me, trading is fun. Drafting is fun. Analyzing teams is fun. Devising instructions is fun. Playing the games is fun. But most of all, to me, winning is fun. I play to win. And the beauty of our league, is that anyone can play to win, too. No stupid and restricting rules are in the way, like they are in most leauges. To me, the Second American Basketball League is the most all-American league I know.

I hope I can help you all to win more, too.

PROGRAM YOUR TEAM TO WIN

Building your team through good trading and drafting is crucial, but just as crucial is programming the Strat basketball game to win. If you don't know how to do that, you can lose in the playoffs to somebody that does, even if your team is better.

Now I don't have the game on my computer now due to recent computer problems, so I'm writing this all from memory. If I name some of the screens wrong, bear with me. The principles I'm talking about will still apply.

It's not enough to merely set the most optimum team lineup grid. You also must go to the next screen, where you actually program your players' minutes at their respective positions, to make sure that the game substitutes the guys you want substituted at the positions you want them substituted at.

For instance, let's suppose you have four point guards on your team - Stockton, Brevin Knight, Pack & Kidd. But you want to play Kidd at shooting guard most of the time, using Pack and Knight to back up Stockton. If you look at all three of them, you'll see that they have all their minutes but one at PG, with only 1 minute at shooting guard.

If you start Stockton at PG, the guy with the next most minutes at PG (Kidd) will be the guy the computer always substitutes first when Stockton gets in foul trouble or gets fatigued. Then, since you are playing Kidd at SG, too, Kidd will get weak because he is playing all the time when Stockton gets in foul trouble or gets weak. Bad news.

What you have to do is move Kidd's PG minutes to the SG column, taking care to leave at least 1 minute for Kidd at PG (for those times when you do want to play him there). If you do that, Knight and Pack will get their substitute minutes at PG and Kidd will get to play at shooting guard.

INSIDE/OUTSIDE & STEAL SHOOT PERCENTAGES

A couple of other important columns are the Inside and Steal Shoot percentage columns. If you have a player that is rated 80% on the Inside column, that means he'll play Inside 80% of the time.

But what if you have Kevin Garnett, who sometimes is a better outside shooter than inside shooter? Change the percentage to 10%, and he'll shoot outside most of the time.

Same principle applies to the Steal Shoot column. The best way to describe what this column means is by example:

When a player that has a 100% Steal shoot rating steals the ball, if his team is running a fastbreak offense, that means he's gonna run down the court and shoot it, without passing it to another teammate. If he's rated 50%, that means he'll shoot it half the time and pass it off half the time.

You'd be surprised how many bad fastbreak shooters and good fastbreak shooters get a 50% rating. Stockton, who was always a good fastbreak shot, got a 50% Steal Shoot rating in his later years. I always changed that to 100% for him.

Conversely, there are many lousy fastbreak shots who also get 50%, too. I take 'em down to zero.

DEFENSIVE PROFILE

You always want to study your opponent and program how you are gonna defend against them in this screen. Even if you do the offensive things I've mentioned above, if you miss this, you can lose.

You can guard folks close, normal and sag here, along with deciding who to and not to double team.

There's a controversy about whether double-teaming makes any difference at all. It does in the board game, it may not in the computer game. I think it helps in the computer game if your opponent only has one good rated shooter. If he has more than one good rated shooter, it probably doesn't make much of difference.

More importantly, what you should watch out for in this column is how Strat programs this. They invariably leave good shooters open with -1 or -2 ratings. You must change that to zero if you want to win.

Conversely, they also guard worthless shooters, too, by rating them zero. If a guy literally can't make a bucket and he isn't full of replays, make him a -3.

Guard guys close that can shoot good outside but can't penetrate. Sag on guys that can't shoot outside. Pretty basic deductions, but you have to study your opponent and do it every single time to win every game possible.

TEAM LINEUP

Final tweaks are done here. First thing to decide is fastbreak or halfcourt.

Pretty simple - fastbreak, if:

1. If you have a fastbreak dazzler point guard

2. A shooting guard or small forward that doesn't turn the ball over on their fastbreak passing column. One of them can turn it over, both of them can't.

3. Your PG is at least an average fastbreak shot.

4. Either your SG or SF must be a good fastbreak shot.

You got all four of those, it's just that simple, fastbreak. Your increased scoring will make up for any increased turnovers you get.

After that, think about how you can maximize the minutes and effectiveness of players. If Kobe Bryant can play 40 minutes, you better have him in there 40 minutes. If Brevin Knight is your best stealer, you better have him in there in the last quarter of the game, when Strat starts the press.

You always want your best defenders in the game in the last quarter. If you're behind on the road, that's the only time Strat starts pressing. Good stealers are crucial in this final period, along with fastbreak shooters. In the last two minutes of the game, you better have some good three point shooters in the game, too, 'cause that's when Strat starts launching them, if you're behind.

PRESSING

The great secret of Strat basketball. This is pretty simple, too. Do it every single minute of your home games, if:

1. You have good stealers and penetration defenders at two of three of these positions: PG, SG & SF.

2. Good fastbreak shots.

3. If you have three guys on the bench that can do the above two things, 'cause you may get in foul trouble.

4. If you have a good PF and C on your bench, 'cause you may get in foul trouble.

It took me 10 years of Strat computer basketball playing to learn this. I coulda' won even more championships if I'd done this earlier.

REBOUNDING

Strat gives the most rebound chances to centers. It gives the least to PGs. Put your best rebounder at center, the next-best at PF, and so on.

DEFENSE

Strat does its defense in pairs: guards vs. guards and PF/Centers vs. PF/Centers.

Example: If your guards are Kobe Bryant and Jason Williams, and they are playing against Mark Jackson and Michael Jordan, the computer will always assign your better defender (Bryant) to guard the better scorer (Jordan). Same thing goes for PF/Center matchups.

Small Forwards always guard Small Forwards, too.

At home, you can change this by the Assign function, but it's kinda flaky.

HOME VS. AWAY COACHING

All things being equal, in Strat basketball, your home record should be much better than your away record. Perhaps more than in any other Strat game, due to it's stupid programming, Strat basketball heavily favors the home coach.

When you are away, among other things, you can't choose assignments, when to press, when to shoot or not shoot three-pointers, or whether to shoot outside, inside or penetrate. The game gives you programming options for outside, inside and penetration options, but they don't work - I've tested it extensively.

WHAT KIND OF PLAYER IS MOST IMPORTANT TO WIN? THE TOP TEN

This is pretty simple, too, in this order:

1. A good rated shooting center that can score and rebound and a dazzler PG. They are equal in Strat.

You get those two things, you are an instant playoff contender. Just that simple.

You can't defend against a dazzler. That's an instant two points. You can't defend against an X. That's an instant two points.

You can't score against a blank on defense. That's an instant miss. And most of the time, you can't out-rebound Ben Wallace. That's more fastbreak shots for your team.

2. Another good rated shooter at any position.

3. Another good rated shooter at any position.

4. Good fast break shots.

5. Good passers.

6. Good rebounders

7. The best defensive players possible - blanks & stealers

8. Guys that draw a lot of fouls.

9. Three-point specialists.

10. Guys that don't foul much.

TRADING TO WIN

Patience and striking while the iron is hot. You have to give the other guy what he wants or you are not gonna get what you want.

An example: I had been trying to trade for Kevin Garnett for years. He was Akron Coach Dave Scott's favorite player. There was nothing I could offer him that would get 'em, and you can ask Dave - I really tried.

Then along came LeBron James, who is from Ohio, where Dave lives, and who plays for Cleveland, which Dave follows. He really wanted LeBron James. I obtained the first pick in the draft. I offered him that and Yao Ming or Jason Kidd for Garnett. He took Yao and the deal was done.

It was a fair deal for both teams (actually, I think Dave got more), but more importantly, it was what both teams wanted to do.

Let me make this point real clear - by just being a good coach and knowing how to program the game, you can be a playoff contender. But you can't win the championship without good drafting and trading. I really believe that's true in any league, not just ours, unless the league has Trading Committees that take your freedom away from you.

Except for Dave Plisko, who won the championship in the first two years of our league, every other coach that's won it has been a good trader and drafter. Dave Plisko was the exception, because his team was built on our initial draft from scratch. In fact, Dave Plisko didn't make a single deal during the three years he was with us. And by his third year, he didn't win the championship. And after that, he was gone.

You can't stand pat. Players get old, fat, complacent, drugged-out, traded into non-playing situations, charged with rape, etc. You can't get attached to them if you want to win. You have to move them and in basketball, where youth and quickness is so important, you have to move them more often than in any other sport.

I won my first championship with Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan & Shaq. I coulda' kept all three of 'em. I wouldn't have kept winning if I had.

DRAFTING TO WIN

There's only two rules:

1. Make sure you have enough minutes.

2. Draft the best talent available, regardless of minutes or how his card looks.

Steve Nash was drafted in the fourth round. Zach Randolph was drafted in the third round.

Don't tell me the draft is no good after the first round, because the evidence proves you wrong every year.