SSBA

I already know that a player with A or B potential is likely to improve a bit.  

But what happens to potential?  Does it decrease with age?  

If a player has A potential, and then increases a couple levels (e.g. say from a C+ to a B), does his potential drop because he already improved?

Is potential totally random, and could change every TC?

There are no +'s or -'s in potential, it's onle A,B,C,D and F.

And there is NO way in telling wheter it will or will not change in TC.

Basically, A should show improvement. B will show less improvement. C is reaching the peak of his career. D will not show much improvement, and F is on the decline, unless of course it's a guy like Hoffa, who shouldn't show a decline of stats at age 20 or whatever he is.

I have a question that sort of goes with this.  Can a players other ratings (not potential) deteriate with age?

Potential determines what the other ratings do. If the guy has A potential, it's the other ratings that will change.

Potential has no affect with in-game situation. Potential affects the ratings that DO affect in game situations.

OK..  Does that mean that a C is not likely to improve, and a D is likely to slightly decline

Or that a C will make minor improvement, and a D will likely not move.

it's impossible to tell.

Honestly, I've seen D's improve more than A's in certain years.

In general, C will either not move, or make minimal moves, and D will not move, or decline slightly.

Age is a big factor too.

I think Reggie Miller has B potential in SSBA, yet he's 38 or something. Don't expect him to improve as much as Lorenzen Ellis.

That makes sense...
Daryl Armstrong is a B potential too.. Doubt he will be getting much better then he already is.

Some years will be different, but the question is what is the average...

And, does anyone have an idea how often the true potential and the scouted potential matchup?  percentage wise

It's imposible to get a "percentage", because since every A potential changes differently, whos to say what an A potential should change to?

Know what I mean? Just because you have A potential as your "true" potnetial doesnt mean you will go up 3 ratings. You could go up 8, you could go up 1.

There are just too many random factors to even guess.

But A potentials will go up at least one category a certain percentage of time...  2 categories a certain lower percentage.... Just as B and C will.

It is not impossible... just not easy.

It is impossible.

You'd find that an A potetial goes up in Defense 10% of the time, and this and that.

You'd have to do a study of EVERY player before and after T.

Have fun with that :)

Oh, I know that each player wil go up in different things, to get that specific it is necessary to have to numbers of the actula 12 attributes that make up a player...

I may give it a try... depends on how bored I get at work.. lol

Potential does drop with time, yes.

Does the player's position have a bearing on which attributes improve?  For example I moved Stephen Jackson from sf to sg....will that effect his improvement in TC?

Nah, doesn't have a bearing.  players have 12 (I believe) attributes, ranging from shooting, 3 pt shooting, ballhandling, passing, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, etc.  Those are what changes in training camp.

By changing positions ratings can change because some positions need certain attributes more.  But you changing the position doesn't affect what improves.

In fact, changing a players position has no bering on the game.  It's really just you seeing how effective they'll be at that position.  If I change Okafor to a PG, but play him at PF in my depth chart, his effectiveness is still judged as a pf.

true.. but how often would you have a PG with an A+ inside and A+ rebounding....   :D

So what does that mean exactly?  Say a player with A potential improves this TC.  Does he keep his A potential next year?  Or do the improvements this TC then bring down his potential down to a B for next year (meaning, is there a set amount of improvement, and once that's exhausted, the potential decreases)?  

If he keeps his A potential, how long does that typically last for?  And when the potential drops, does it just go down from A to B and then down to C, or could it go from an A straight to a D?

Thanks.  I'm just trying to figure out how useful the potential indicator is, and what factor it should play in my evaluation of players.

I can't really answer those questions because it's a case by case example.

First, you have to understand how potential works.  It's not truely an A-F scale, it's a 1-100 scale.  The number grades are then converted to a less specific grade.  1-20 is an F, 21-40 is a D, 41-60 is a C, 61-80 is a B and 81-100 is an A.

So that alone changes how much time in between changing of a letter grade.  A guy with an 82 potential won't have to tap into much of that potential before he falls to a B.  A guy with a 99 potential could spent numerous training camps improving before ever falling to a B.  Because of that, it's hard to say.

Second, there's the issue of scouted vs. real.  What you see on the website is scouted potential.  It sometimes varies from the players real potential.  If a player has an 83 scouted potential, but a 55 real potential, he could fall to a C within 1 training camp without ever improving.

Conversely, a player could have a D scouted potential, but truely have a 70 (B) real potential, and his potential could actually "increase" during a training camp (actually not increasing, just his scouted potential gets closer to his real potential).

Thanks.  That actually did answer my questions.

Thanks Nets GM! That is by far the best explanation I have read about 'potential'. It is something that is very hard to figure out for us newbies. But this really helped.  :wink:

People have been asking me how much I weight potential when ranking draftees.  Here's what I do.

Let's base this off of a 0-12 scale, 0 for an F, 12 for an A+.  Each increased increment is worth one point (for example, b is worth 8, b+ 9, a- 10, etc).  I won't weight any attributes to keep this simple.

So, would I convert an A potential to 11, then add 11 on to the players basketball skills stats?  No.  Why?  Because (outside of Giddens last year ;) ) there's never been a player in SSBA that's improved 11 rating scales.  It doesn't happen.  A person with C+ inside, C+ outside and C+ defense could have A-'s in all of those categories if it did.  If a player never improves that much when all is said and done, then adding straight potential to the socre would overvalue potential.

So what do I do?  Here's my formula.

I take a persons potential, divide it by 2, then subtract 1.  That's the number I think a player can OPTIMALLY improve.  Meaning that's what I think is the best case scenario.  Anything more than that would be extraordinary.

So, if I draft a player with A potential it would go like this.

11/2 = 5.5.  5.5-1 = 4.5.  So I would think, at best, he could improve 4 to 5 categories worth of attributes.  If I'm using his potential conservatively, I'd go for 2 or 3 increases.

for a player with b potential.
8/2 = 4.  4 - 1 =3.  So I'd figure in 3 attribute changes.

C:
5/2 = 2.5.  2.5 - 1 = 1.5.  Between 1 and 2 attribute changes.

Below C I figure he won't improve.

So, if I'm trying to determine whether to draft a player with D potential, or a player with A potential, if the player with A potentials ratings + 4 is still less than the player with D potentials ratings, there's no point in drafting the player with A potential.  He'll never be a better player.

Obviously, there are other things to take into consideration.  For example, if you need him to contribute now, the fact that he might be the better player 3 years down the road might not matter.  Also, all players might not reach optimum improvement.

Is my formula correct?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I don't have numerical evidence to support this.  It's just my guess.

Before this training camp I'm going to record everyone's ratings.  Then compare them to their post-tc ratings.  I'm going to calculate all the teams net improvements during tc, and I'll post which teams had the best and worst tc's.

I'll also figure out the mean and range of players improvements with A potential, B potential, and so forth.  So I know an average of what the improve, a min and a max.

I'll share with you the best/worst trainng camps.  However, you ain't getting your hands on my improvement data.  That's called competitive advantage biatches ;)

Well. I downloaded everyone's ratings during the season.  And am just waiting until after TC to check changes.  But that leads me to a question.  Is there an easy way to get all players data without going to each team page individually?

And I glad to see that my guess fro potetial adjustments of +5 for A, +3 for B and +1 for C is in the same range as you use, Nets.  I tried using a formula that adjusted using a multiplier (1.1 for A, 1.05 for B, etc) but then it added more potetial to a player with higher base ratings than a player with lower ratings.  Although the potential improvement for each player could be identical.

Nope, there's no way to do it outside of going to each team page.

and I'd probably wait until after free agency to get all of the players attributes, since rosters are still changing.

I thought TC was after the 5 day free agency period.  My bad.

it is after the 5 day free agency period.

Sort of rated to potential....
Do players who are not on a roster (still free agents) at the end of the free agency period improve/decline during Training Camp?

I believe so, but i'm not positive.

If I remember correctly from previous seasons, I think they do.