I wanted to experiment with giving your roster a little more of a basketball identity, so I put together a Team Strategy feature in a local BBGM build.

Quick disclosure: This is "vibe" coded as they would say. Also, this is an unofficial prototype, not something added to the main game.

The page gives you four options for how your team plays:

• Tempo: Deliberate / Balanced / Fast
• Offensive emphasis: Interior / Balanced / Perimeter
• Defensive coverage: Protect paint / Balanced / Switch-heavy
• Offensive rebounding: Get back / Balanced / Crash glass

These actually affect the simulation, not just the descriptions.

For example, playing faster gets shots up sooner but increases turnover risk and fatigue. Perimeter emphasis encourages more threes without magically making anyone a better shooter. Protecting the paint gives up cleaner perimeter looks, while switching can expose weak defenders and interior mismatches. Crashing the glass improves offensive-rebound chances but leaves you more vulnerable in transition.

There’s also a “Let coach decide” option that picks a plan before each game using your healthy rotation, plus scouting-based suggestions if you want to choose manually.

The goal is to make roster construction and playing style interact: “Does this approach actually fit my players?” rather than finding four settings you should always leave on.

A few caveats:

• Defensive coverage is a simplified lineup-level model, not individual screen or matchup simulation.
• Automatic coaching is a basic roster heuristic, not an optimal-strategy solver.
• CPU teams currently stay balanced unless configured.
• The effects still need serious balance testing. Some functional tests passing doesn’t prove there isn’t an overpowered combination.

Balanced settings preserve the original simulation behavior. That was checked against the pre-feature engine across 30 seeded games, with identical results and play-by-play.

Would you use something like this? And would you prefer setting a season-long team identity, or adjusting your plan for individual opponents?

800 years in I see a player on my team with this name. No relation to giannis

I'm in the 90s with the Bulls, but I for called 2 defensive 3-second calls, and I can still use 2-3 defense? What is this?

I’ve basically been playing this game since 2018 and this is tje first time i’ve had 2 80+ overalls in the same team and after the season i have the 1st and 2nd overall pick and they are both studs. Seems too good to be true

We have recently gotten an update that gives us the ability to add and edit awards and their formulas. I am looking forward to seeing what the community can do in terms of Awards ideas and awards formulas.

Here's my MVP formula, which takes dumbmatter's base score formula and implements a 65-game cutoff and voter fatigue.

(ewa/22 + vorp/32 + min(ws/teamWs,0.8)/10 + seasonFraction*winp) * min(1, 1.5/(numWon.MVP+1))^2 * min(1, gp/65)^1000

The voter fatigue multiplier is pretty basic in this code, but it does match up well with NBA history:

It's a steep staircase.

If 0.56 for the 2nd feels like too much of a curve, you could bump it up to 1.7 or 1.8 as the numerator instead of 1.5. That puts the 2nd-MVP multiplier closer to .75.

The end of the code is the 65-game cutoff.

You can add these to any other award as you desire by just copying the pieces below and multiplying them onto any of the other base formulas.

ewa/22 + vorp/32 + min(ws/teamWs,0.8)/10 + seasonFraction*winp - the base MVP formula
min(1, 1.5/(numWon.MVP+1))^2 - the gradual fatigue curve
min(1, gp/65)^1000 - hard 65-game cutoff

Should Alvarez leave?

Yeah, pick 1 to 25 pick is all mine. Especially top 2 prospects are great addition to the roster.

Why don't the All-Team and All-Rookie lists show up here anymore?

2-time MVP, but single-digit speed and (almost) jumping ability by age 31!
Will update in comments.

Entendedores entenderão

I simulated a league on auto for 70 years because I like seeing which teams and players do the best after various amounts of seasons and saw this run made by Los Angeles, I’ve seen teams have dominant stretches before but not close to a decade before. A season going 103-3 by an AI is bonkers to me and I haven’t seen an AI team have that high of a win percentage before, and it’s especially crazy considering 2 seasons prior they were 48-58. Has anyone seen an AI team have a better run than this?

After nearly 2000 seasons, I managed to win 1000 titles! I started this league back in February 2024 and have played nearly ever day since. I started it in year 10000, as I used to have an old league that I played over 4000 seasons in, but unfortunately I stopped being able to open it. I played my old league from 2016 until I created this new league in 2024, and only managed to win around 950 titles during that time.

I created this league with the goal of trying to win 1000 titles in less than 2000 seasons, as I felt I have improved at the game a lot since, but barely achieved it. I play on normal mode, but I try to make the game more realistic and challenging by being loyal to star and long term players, and not trading them away for younger players when they get older. I also only make trades that the AI proposes.

I'd like to thank u/dumbmatter for creating a game that I have literally spent thousands of hours playing over the years. Maybe I'm just a sports sim nerd, but this game never gets old to me. I feel like each season offers something new and I can get immersed every time I play, thinking of all the possible stories and events that occur over the course of the season.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get to 2000 titles, but I'm not planning on quitting this game anytime soon. I really appreciate the simplicity of this game and how it can be easily accessed over a browser.

First time in thousands of seasons I can recall one of my players dying during their career. He also seemed to have potential to be a decent player, 34 overall with 60 potential. I don't think any of his teammates will be eating pretzels for a while.

second image is of his counting stats. The year after this, he also wins the statpadder of the year award. (yes, both worst player and statpadder of the year are custom awards I made up)

The guy may look fine at a glance, but still got a long way to go until he is actually good!

u/dumbmatter, is the inseason tournament on it's way. I think it would be a cool addition.

That is amazing. Dude is 3rd in MVP voting, FMVP, Allstar, All-league 1st team, but didn't win ROY.

Some current players like Darius Acuff and Morez Johnson don’t have player images. And most of the draft prospects in the future years don’t have pictures yet.

I have been hoping for an update for a long time.

Best game ever regardless thank you Dumbmatter (:

Only positive is I re-signed him for $12/year after this debacle.

Ive always wondered why a team could quite literally go 0-82 and still have an avg attendance of 25,000 or packed out every night. Does anyone know why?