Growing Players

Development happens at two points. During the season, young players who are getting real minutes improve a little at a time. At the end of each season, every player gets a bigger development pass that looks at their age, their playing time, your coaching staff and how they were used. After that come training camp and, for older players, the offseason check for wear and tear.

Growth isn't guaranteed or even. Players have good years and quiet years. Now and then something bigger happens: a breakout season, a shooting stroke that suddenly clicks, a strength year, a late bloom, or on the bad side a slump, a bust, an injury setback or a sudden drop-off. Big moments like these show up in the league feed.

Playing time is the lever you control most directly. Starters with big minutes develop fastest. Rotation players grow more slowly, and players who barely leave the bench mostly stall. If you have a young player you believe in, playing them is how they grow.

What a player does on the floor also shapes which skills grow. A wing who takes a lot of threes sharpens their shooting. A big who crashes the glass gets better on the boards. A guard who runs the offense improves their passing and handle. Position matters too: each position has skills that can grow high and others that top out lower, so a center won't grow into an elite ball-handler. A heavy-usage role can stretch that limit a little.

Your head coach's specialties push growth in their areas. A defense-minded coach develops defenders, and a shooting-minded one develops shooters. The same strengths carry into training camp. A strong staff also helps veterans hold on to their athleticism longer. Having no head coach at all hurts player upkeep.

Age is the biggest single factor. Players grow the most in their late teens and early twenties, keep improving into their mid-twenties, and peak in their late twenties. Around then growth levels off and most players hold steady. In their thirties, decline sets in, slowly at first and then faster. Quickness, leaping and stamina go first. Post players tend to lose their inside game and strength in their thirties, and perimeter defense fades late.

Not everyone ages the same way. Heavy mileage from a long season of games adds wear. Players with weaker makeup keep up their game less well and can start slipping earlier. Rookies are never hit by the offseason decline check. The commissioner can adjust how steep the growth and decline curves are for the league.

Every player has a ceiling, and development slows as they get close to it. A ceiling isn't fixed forever, though. At the end of each season it can move:

• Up: mostly for young players who grew fast, outplayed expectations, played real minutes and had a strong coaching staff. Players in their first couple of seasons sometimes turn out to have more upside than anyone thought.
• Down: for players who stalled for several seasons despite getting chances, players who got worse while playing real minutes, and players past thirty.

Most seasons, most ceilings don't move. A player has to appear in enough games to be considered, and once a player is in their late twenties, their ceiling can only hold or fall. Remember that you see your scout's read of a player's potential, not the true value.

Training camp is your once-a-year chance to steer each player. Every player gets a points budget, and your league's amount is shown on the camp page. You split it across six focus areas: Inside Game, Shooting, Ball Handling, Post Defense, Perimeter Defense and Conditioning. Each area mainly boosts a couple of skills and gives a smaller lift to a few related ones. You can change your plan anytime until the commissioner moves the league from training camp to the preseason, and that's when camp resolves.

Returns depend on age (young players gain much more), how far the player is from their ceiling, their makeup, your coach's strengths, and position fit. The Great Fit and Low Fit badges tell you which areas suit each position. Last season carries over as well: players coming off a breakout carry momentum, and players coming off a slump have more to work through. If you don't set a plan, the coach's recommendation is used, and it works slightly less well than a plan you save yourself. Pressing Recommend and saving counts as your plan.

Camp isn't purely mechanical. Sometimes a player has a breakthrough. It might just click for a sharp young player, a veteran might bloom late, a player with years in your system might get extra from knowing it well, or the coaches might take a special interest. Sometimes there's a setback: a minor camp injury, a young newcomer who shows up with the wrong attitude, a veteran whose body stops responding, a player who coasts through, or a plan that fights the player's position.

Putting every point into one area has a risk of its own. It can lead to overtraining, especially for players with less feel for the game. Every player gets a Camp Report afterward that explains what happened.

If you line a player up only at a different position on your depth chart for a long stretch of the season, they can convert to that position for good. Your scout sends a note and the league feed announces it. The player is then graded at the new spot. A conversion only moves up to two positions, so a wing can become a guard or a big, but a center will never turn into a point guard. If the player gets any slot at their natural position, the trial starts over.