Players & Makeup

Makeup is your staff's read on what a player is like between the ears: how well they know themselves, how they take coaching, and how they handle a bad night or a bad week. It comes as one of five grades, from worst to best: Red Flag, Shaky, Steady, Pro and Leader. Next to the grade the card lists two or three temperament traits, such as Fiery or Even, Talker or Quiet, Proud or Humble. Traits never change. They describe how a player comes across, and they aren't good or bad by themselves.

Like every grade in the game, makeup is a read, and a read can be a step off. How much you see depends on how well your club knows the player:

• Your own players: a new arrival shows a two-grade range. After about three weeks with your club, your coaches settle on one grade.
• Players on other teams: a two-grade range from the outside, from your scout.
• Draft prospects: nothing until you sit down with them. The card says "Interview first".

Makeup shows up in a lot of places. On the floor, players with stronger makeup choose better shots and are steadier with the ball late in close games. Over the years they get more out of training camp and hold on to their game longer. Away from the floor they stay out of trouble. A low grade isn't a reason to pass on talent, but it is a reason to know what you're signing up for.

From the second half of the regular season until the draft begins, prospects' agents start calling. An agent messages you in Messenger about one client, with a card: Take the meeting or Pass. The prospects who ask are the ones you have a scout on and the ones expected to go around where you pick. Each prospect asks a club once. You'll hear from a handful of agents each draft, and you can take up to four meetings.

Take the meeting and the prospect texts you themselves. You get five questions. Type your own or tap one of the suggestions. Your scout sits in, and after the fifth answer you get the write-up:

• your scout's read on the prospect sharpens by one extra look, and the card lists the grades that moved. It moves toward what the player really is and never lands on it exactly;
• the prospect's Makeup grade appears on their card, and stays there;
• your scout leaves a note in the staff room.

If you had no scout on the prospect, you still get the sharper read on file. Put a scout on them later and it picks up from there.

How you run the meeting matters. Taking it and finishing it both leave a good impression, and the way you word your own questions moves how the prospect feels about you. Draft a player you met and got along with, and they arrive glad to be there.

Passing has a cost. The agent tells their client, and the prospect takes it personally. If your club then drafts that player, they arrive unhappy: their morale takes a hit that fades over about three weeks, and they start out cold toward you. Their first message says so, with a card that shows the dip and how long it has left.

Not answering is different from passing. An ask you never answer stays open until the draft and then quietly lapses, with no hard feelings. If the draft is about to arrive inside your next advance, the agent sends one last reminder first.

AI front offices don't hold interviews.

You can message anyone on your own roster. Open the player's card and tap Message him. The conversation lives in your Messenger DMs, where players carry a Player or Prospect tag. They answer as themselves: a Leader reads the room and thinks team first, while a young player with weaker makeup takes the question at face value. They know what's public around the league and they know your team's plans, including their own role, minutes and contract. They won't put a number on anybody's ability.

Every player has a feeling about you, shown at the top of the thread: Cold, Cool, Fine, Warm or Tight. It moves a little with each exchange depending on how you talk to them. Checking in counts for something. Praise and trust warm them up, and harsh words cool them off. It only moves so far in one day, so there are no shortcuts.

That feeling matters. It's a small part of the player's morale, it nudges how willing they are to sign an extension, and a player who doesn't trust you has their agent on the phone sooner when they're unhappy. Minutes and winning still matter far more.

You can't cold-message a prospect or another team's player. A prospect talks to you in their interview, and that's it until draft night.

Now and then a player gets into mild trouble away from the floor: a missed team flight, late to shootaround or practice, a missed team meeting, a broken curfew, a league fine for what they said about the officials. It always fits your real schedule. Nobody misses a flight before a home game.

It happens more to players with weaker makeup, to younger players, to unhappy players and in a locker room that's already coming apart. It only happens in the preseason and the regular season, and the same player won't be in the news twice in a short span.

Each incident costs the player some morale and the locker room a little chemistry. Both fade over about two weeks. The whole league reads about it, and your player messages you first with a card. You choose how the club handles it:

• Back him: the player remembers it. The room likes it a little less.
• Fine him: the room settles faster, and the player cools on you a bit. It's club discipline only. It never touches your PP.
• Sit him a game: a one-game team suspension. The room respects it, and the player takes it hardest.
• Say nothing: the player notices.

If you don't answer after you've had a fair chance to, the player takes the silence as your answer. For AI teams it's just news and its effects.

The commissioner sets how often this happens on the Sim Config page: Off, Rare or Normal.

Rarely, the league office suspends a player for an incident, for anywhere from one to three games. Missed flights, curfew and comments about officials are the likeliest to draw one, and a repeat offender in the same season is more likely to be sat down. A suspension is counted in your team's games, so it follows the player if they're traded before it's served.

A suspended player is healthy. They show as Suspended, not injured, and they never appear on the injury report or count toward the injury limit. Their depth chart spot is held, the next player up fills in, and they come back by themselves once the games are served. Sitting a player yourself works the same way for one game. You can't sit a player who is already out.

Be as blunt as you like about basketball. Criticising a player's effort, defense, attitude, role, minutes or contract is all part of the job, and they'll answer it. What you can't do is get abusive, get sexual, pry into their private life (family, money, relationships, health, religion), or try to trick them into breaking character or giving up hidden numbers.

Cross that line and the player never sees the message. It's marked "Not passed on", and their agent answers in the player's thread instead.

• The first time in a conversation is a warning. In an interview, that question doesn't count against your five.
• The second time, the agent runs the rest of that conversation. Typing is off and you pick from what the agent offers: in an interview, questions the agent chose (you still get all five and your scout's read); in a discipline matter, the same discipline choices; otherwise a few simple options or a way to end it.

Every time it happens, three things follow. The player cools on you, and more so the second time. The agent tells the media: the team, the player and the fact that the agent had to step in, never your words. And your locker room's chemistry dips a little for about two weeks. Do it repeatedly and the dips stack, up to a limit.

The agent hands the conversation back when it ends. What it cost you with the player stays.