Advice on developing team chemistry...

[Jack Bauer GB]

Need desperate help here. My Team Chemistry is 7%! Granted, we're playing s**t. currently 18-22 in a 59 game season. My association is with the sixers and here is my line up.

PG Jameer Nelson
SG Shannon Brown
SF Andre Igoudala
PF LaMarcus Aldridge
C Lamar Odom

6 Marcus Camby
7 Raja Bell
8 Antonio Daniels
9 Songaila
10 Jodie Meeks
11 Tony Battie
12 (Forgot his name)

Morale is high in my starting 5 but I dont Camby or Bell aren't happy about being 6th man. I have them both as 6th man and they play 20 mins each. Does having 2 x 6th men cause a chemistry issue? Would I be better trading them for people happier to be bench players?

I'm also interested to know what people think of my starting 5. Would you play Andre at SG (even though he's and awful shooter) OR would you play Raja over Shannon despite his low rating of 70? Would you play Camby at C over Odom? Feel free to criticise and suggest changes.

I'm considering seeing who I could trade Andre for. My big man duo is pretty strong with Odom and Aldridge and I could perhaps get a very good trade for Iggy and someone else but this might drive chemistry down to zero!

[Patr1ck]

Camby over Odom, for sure. Best way to increase chemistry is to win. Maybe some weekly practices, too. If you make another trade your chemistry will drop again. When chemistry is that low, games can be very difficult, so getting some ratings boosts from weekly practices and development drills should help. With the weekly practices, set your focus to players who are low in morale to make up for the drop in their ratings.

[shadowgrin]

Having pissed off players will slow down the increase in your team chemistry. Also follow Pdub's advice, just don't expect to reach a very high team chemistry in just one season. It takes 2-3 seasons to have very high team chemistry if you keep on winning and keep a core group of players together, which is the way its supposed to be like irl. Exception of course is if you win the championship (or reach the Finals?), iirc there's a range of 10-30 % increase in chemistry if you accomplish it, it's not a guarantee though (players leaving in FA, trades during off season).

Having 2 6th man will not cause a chemistry issue. It's all about the minutes. 20 minutes is a bit less for veterans who are 6th man (yes, some vets are whiny).
Change Bell to a Role Player, he'll get a drop in morale but with the minutes you're giving him he'll be really happy in no time.
From my experience with association, here's my what I usually encounter based on overall ratings...

85+ : players want to be starters. They expect at least 30 minutes per game (screw what the help screen says). The higher the rating, the more minutes they demand. A 85 rated player may be happy with his 32 mpg but a 90 rated won't be. Age also plays a factor. A 37 year old 85 rated player maybe happy with 30 mpg but a 28 yr. old player with the same rating will not.

74-84 : players in this overall ratings range demand a player role of sixth man. At least 21 mpg. Same as with the starters, ratings and age are a factor if the demand for more minutes than 21.

68-73 : role player. At least 9 mpg. Same factors as above. 12 minutes already has a significant boost for their morale. Will even get a bigger increase in morale if you place them in the starting five. Going back to Raja Bell, he's not happy because despite his low rating (70) you made him a sixth man so he expects the corresponding minutes with his role. If you change him to a role player and give him 12-15 mpg he'll steadily increase his morale in due time, more so if you place him in the starting five.

67 below : bench warmer 1 or 2 mpg, the more minutes the better of course. No, players won't be automatically happy with a bench warmer role. It depends. Say you have player who's been a bench warmer initially because of his very low overall rating and yet he's still happy with his role, eventually his ratings improve over time. You can let him have the bench warmer role as long as his overall rating is below 68 and he'll still have good morale, but once he goes above 67 he'll demand a better role.
Another example would be a veteran, say he has 69 ovr and a Role Player and in the following season his ovr drops to 67 and you decide to make him into a Bench Warmer, he won't be happy about it. It's possible to keep his morale from declining if you let him keep his Role Player minutes even if you already made him into a Bench Warmer.

What I posted above are just a guide, not exactly you would expect season after season. Like I said above, some players can be whiny despite their age and appropriate player role for their ratings, veteran or rookie. Once had a 37 year old 80 rated Brook Lopez who wasn't happy with his 28 mpg. with a player role of 6th man him and in the starting rotation even if his Foul Tendency wasn't that high (52). Take note of Foul Tendency, it makes your player foul more (duh shadow) making them play less minutes in simming games. So if you see a player with the appropriate role for his ratings and getting significant amount of minutes and yet he's still complaining, check his Foul Tendency to see if he's fouling out more from games rather than playing his assigned minutes.

Knowing what you just read above, you can use that to your advantage. You don't really need to have the exact amount of starters (5), 6th man (1), and role players (2) on your team. You can have 3 starters and 3 6th men with the rest as bench warmer or prospects, as long you give them their corresponding roles and minutes based on their overall rating. You can even have a whole team of Role Players if they suck that much. Just because you lost a key starter to FA/trade doesn't mean you automatically have to assign your 6th man into a Starter role, unless of course his ovr improves above the 6th man range.

I always set my starting 5 those with good basketball IQ (off. and def. awarness). I can assign a Role Player with good IQ in the starting rotation and have him play 9 mpg and have my lower IQ sixth man come off the bench but with more (starter) minutes assigned to him and they'll both be happy.

[rise]

Raja Bell is never happy in 2k11. he was trade dthree times in one season, because he "demanded a trade" every time. I was stuck with him after the trade deadline. I actually tried starting him and giving him 30 minutes a night for a few games. He still wasn't happy, then he got injured for the season. His morale had already dropped his rating to 57, and it dropped into the lower 40s after the injury. I think he's fucking our chemistry up and I couldn't trade him because the deadline was past and even if it wasn't, he was injured.

[shadowgrin]

I forgot that you can reset player morale for young players. Send them to the D-League and when you reinstate them back to your roster their morale will be back to normal (75%). You can only do this two times in a season though.

[rise]

Doesn't help me with Raja Bell, Acie Law, and J.R. Smith.

[Patr1ck]

If you think Bell just can't help your team, you can always release him.

[shadowgrin]

Waive him and try to sign him for the minimum. Waived players' morale always reset. So if you have a player who you would like to resign but impossible in doing so because of zero morale, waive him and he'll be willing to sign with your team during FA. You'll lose Bird rights though. So you need to have the cap space or mid-level exception to do that.

[Jack Bauer GB]

Thanks everyone. Some useful advise there which will certainly help.

I simmed the rest of my first season and began to concentrate on building a group of players and slowly building my chemistry. I did will in the draft. My previous trading left me with 3 first round picks at 7th, 20th and 25th. The Nets drafted Iman Shumpert 6th and I swooped in and traded Raja Bell and my 20th pick for him which I was pleased with. I then took Jan Vesely as the 7th pick. my 25th pickwas Keith benson.

I lost most of my bench in the off season and almost lost Shannon Brown but managed to resign him. Camby became very unhappy and wanted a trade so I traded him out for CJ Watson and Kyle Korver. now my Roster looks like this...

PG Jameer Nelson
SG Shannon Brown
SF Andre Igoudala
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
C Lamar Odom

6 Iman Shumpert
7 Jan Vesely
8 Keith Benson
9 Songaila
10 CJ Watson
11 Kyle Korver
12 ummm... a centre I signed for minimum because my salaries are high.

This season my plan is obviously to make the play offs. Realistically I'll be aiming for 7th or 8th spot in the conference. I've just started playing on Simulation sliders instead of default which is proving a very satisfying challenge but I am struggling to win games, I'm getting there though.

Sadly, my chemistry is now at 2%, so If I can have that at 25-30% by the end of the season I'll be happy. (too fast?) but I have no contracts due to expire this year so can keep these players together and carry any momentum into next year. I'm putting a lot of faith in my prospects and giving Shumpert and Vesely 20+ mins per game but this should help their development into solid players. I'm looking forward to it. Let season 2 commence.

[shadowgrin]

Sadly, my chemistry is now at 2%, so If I can have that at 25-30% by the end of the season I'll be happy. (too fast?)

Nah, just keep the wins coming and keeping your player's morale above 50%.

[rise]

If you think Bell just can't help your team, you can always release him.

It won't let me. Bell and Smith are both injured, unhappy, and killing my team's chemistry. When I try to release Bell, it says he's injured and cannot be waived.

[Jack Bauer GB]

Sadly, my chemistry is now at 2%, so If I can have that at 25-30% by the end of the season I'll be happy. (too fast?)

Nah, just keep the wins coming and keeping your player's morale above 50%.

Winning is the tricky part at the moment. I've always played My Player on Pro with default sliders. I'm finding it harder to score with simulation sliders. That said, the game is more realistic and more challenging and each bucket and victory are all the more satisfying! The biggest thing I'm struggling with is post play. My player was a shooting guard and never played in the post but it'll really pay off if I can get good at it considering the weapons i have in Aldridge and odom.

[Infernales]

Thanks everyone. Some useful advise there which will certainly help.

I simmed the rest of my first season and began to concentrate on building a group of players and slowly building my chemistry. I did will in the draft. My previous trading left me with 3 first round picks at 7th, 20th and 25th. The Nets drafted Iman Shumpert 6th and I swooped in and traded Raja Bell and my 20th pick for him which I was pleased with. I then took Jan Vesely as the 7th pick. my 25th pickwas Keith benson.

I lost most of my bench in the off season and almost lost Shannon Brown but managed to resign him. Camby became very unhappy and wanted a trade so I traded him out for CJ Watson and Kyle Korver. now my Roster looks like this...

PG Jameer Nelson
SG Shannon Brown
SF Andre Igoudala
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
C Lamar Odom

6 Iman Shumpert
7 Jan Vesely
8 Keith Benson
9 Songaila
10 CJ Watson
11 Kyle Korver
12 ummm... a centre I signed for minimum because my salaries are high.

This season my plan is obviously to make the play offs. Realistically I'll be aiming for 7th or 8th spot in the conference. I've just started playing on Simulation sliders instead of default which is proving a very satisfying challenge but I am struggling to win games, I'm getting there though.

Sadly, my chemistry is now at 2%, so If I can have that at 25-30% by the end of the season I'll be happy. (too fast?) but I have no contracts due to expire this year so can keep these players together and carry any momentum into next year. I'm putting a lot of faith in my prospects and giving Shumpert and Vesely 20+ mins per game but this should help their development into solid players. I'm looking forward to it. Let season 2 commence.

With your current line up, IMO it would be best if you play Aldridge as C and Odom at PF...good luck with your Sixers! (I have a Sixers assoc mode too)

[karlsanada10]

What sliders do you use anyway?

[Jack Bauer GB]

With your current line up, IMO it would be best if you play Aldridge as C and Odom at PF...good luck with your Sixers! (I have a Sixers assoc mode too)

Thanks man. Interestingly when I went to check Alrdridge's morale and pressed RT to scroll through the screen is said 'He grew up a sixers fan and couldn't wish to be anywhere else' hopefully that'll make him easy to keep hold of. I also thought it was an awesome piece of detail on 2k's part.

I'll try switching that PF and C and seeing how I do. I finally got some wins on the board. Currently 4-5 on a 3 win streak with victories against the Cavs, Thunder and The Spurs (delighted with the latter two as I've been struggling to win at all and the Spurs are the bain of my life!) Those victories have taken my team chemistry from 0% to 6% (looks like 2% increase per win, -2% per loss) but with that increase I have noticed a positive difference in my teams performance. I'm gonna love it if I can keep this streak going ... but check out my next 4 games...

Boston
Miami
Atlanta
Orlando

I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyone got any tips on stopping Paul Pierce? the guy tears me apart every time I face the C's.

[Jack Bauer GB]

What sliders do you use anyway?

Playing on 'Pro' difficulty and just started using Simulation sliders. It's more fun like this and I think the games are far more interesting as you have to play good D rather than just trying to outscore your opponent like you can on default (obviously outscoring your opponent is the whole point of the game, but I hope people know what I mean?)

[rise]

Anyone got any tips on stopping Paul Pierce? the guy tears me apart every time I face the C's.

Try dunking on him. If you do it enough, they'll eventually pick up some fouls. For me, it worked on Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

[Patr1ck]

Set your individual defense to deny off ball.

[Jack Bauer GB]

Anyone got any tips on stopping Paul Pierce? the guy tears me apart every time I face the C's.

Try dunking on him. If you do it enough, they'll eventually pick up some fouls. For me, it worked on Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

Never thought about trying this out but it was a very good tactic against the Celtics and the Magic for me. I relentlessly drove at the rack and got Pierce and Howard (in the magic game) in trouble early on making them defend timidly for the remainder. My rookie draft Iman Shumpert scored a beautiful dunk on Howard!

Thanks for the tip!

The little stretch in my schedule went pretty well for me considering I was dreading it.

Cavs - W
Thunder - W
Spurs - W
Heat - W
Celtics - W
Atlanta - L (I got lazy and simmed!)
Magic - W

I've carried on strong and now sit 5th in the conference at 13-9. The Knicks lead with 13-7 which is gutting as I lost both games to them! grr. Chemistry is now at 18% and my rookies and bench players are doing at great job at both ends of the court. Vesely recently had a spurt in skill points and jumped from an OVR 70 to a 74.

Up next are the Lakers. Top of the Western at 14-2. Team chemistry of 89% vs. my 18. It'll be tough. Here's my next roadtrip...

Lakers
Warriors
Nuggets
Jazz

Luckily, the warriors and Jazz are playing awful right now. GSW are 9-10 so I feel confident going up against them, I'm not too worried about the Jazz. 4 out of 4 is a big ask form this road trip. I'd take 2 wins now, I'll be happy with 3. Reckon I can go 4/4?

[rise]

lol, I tried it again today in My Player against J-Rich in Orlando. He was on a tear so I got my player (6'7 230lb PG) to dunk on him hard. Didn't work as I wanted it to. Botched the dunk, was called for an offensive charge, and my player broke his ankle and missed two months!

So, yeah, use caution.

[Jack Bauer GB]

I always find j rich a tricky match up. He always sorts out so explosively and seems to be able to ghost past me whenever he likes. The problem is, he has a range game, so If you sit deep to stop the drivable just punishes you from range. I have the same
Problem facing tyreke Evans. Even now that my player is a 93.

Bad news about the broken ankle dude. Hope your team doesn't ruin your season in the time you're out. Who are you with ?

[Jack Bauer GB]

Just wondering has anyone else used the same 2011 draft class as me? Downloaded from some guy beginning with V. Can you recommend any players from
It?

[rise]

I always find j rich a tricky match up. He always sorts out so explosively and seems to be able to ghost past me whenever he likes. The problem is, he has a range game, so If you sit deep to stop the drivable just punishes you from range. I have the same
Problem facing tyreke Evans. Even now that my player is a 93.

Bad news about the broken ankle dude. Hope your team doesn't ruin your season in the time you're out. Who are you with ?

I'm playing on HOF difficulty with the Mavs. We were 9-24 before the injury. Th difficulty doesn't affect the defense of the opposing team much, it just makes the team mates ridiculously bad. So in the 19 games I missed, the team went 14-5. We're still 11th in West. The problem with that is while I was out, the team traded off Beaubois, Kidd, Terry, and Jones for Stephen Jackson, and a couple big men. I am now the team's only point guard, S-Jax is the only SG, and Dirk Nowitzki is playing a lot of SF to make place for the large amounts of big men that we have on the roster. Unfortunately, two of them are Diop and Mahinmi. They're black holes on offense. They can't shoot, won't score, and nearly every pass they make gets picked. Yet somehow Tyson Chandler only gets 17mpg and Diop and Mahinmo get 10 apiece.

[Jack Bauer GB]

Look for a trade! You gotta have some cool teams interested in you? whats your OVR?

[Jack Bauer GB]

btw... my chemistry is on the up.. it means I can do sexy ass sh** like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIAwy8wHVhk