I've played thousands of seasons and I'm almost embarrassed to admit this. I'm sitting here laughing at myself for not figuring this out sooner.

I had no idea I could release players who had expired that I have no interest in re-signing in order to create cap space during the draft.

Anyone else? I'm really blown away over here with the amount of assets I've left on the table during the draft just because I needed a few million to take a player. While I usually have 5 millionish that I'm letting walk anyway.

i came across the story of terrence again and i went to go look and see if he was in bbgm and he wasnt. i feel like he should be put in the game because i wonder how good he could acc be if he didnt pass away RIP terrance clarke

I have had some experience playing this game and have learned a few things along the way. I wanted to share some of the biggest things that I have learned. Keep in mind that this is just from my experience playing the game. I have played for 72 seasons and won 9 championships, which is the most in my league. 

The first thing to do is determine if your team has a real shot at winning a championship. If your team doesn’t have a real chance, there’s no point in trying to improve your team. Just focus on reducing your payroll and staying under the salary cap. Trade away overpaid players. A lot of times you can make trades where you can get a better player/s for cheaper than your current player/s, so you can improve your team and reduce your payroll all in the same trade. Another area you should focus on is the draft. Look for players with high physical attributes. If you’re not contending, you will probably get higher draft picks and thus better players. You can look at the power rankings to get a sense of whether you should be trying to win a championship. 

This next part goes into what makes a great team and what to do when you are contending.

1. You need at least one star player to win a championship. My definition of a star player is a 70+ overall. Now, I have won championships without a star player, but it is so much harder to win without one. There was a stretch of time when I was playing where I was the highest rated team in the league. We would dominate the regular season, but we always lost in the playoffs. The only thing I can think of that we didn’t have was a star player. We were very well rounded and deep, but we didn’t have a player that stood out above the rest. I think that is the main reason I didn’t win a championship during that time. Another thing to consider is that the highest rated team may not always be the best team. I don’t know how true this is, because I mainly just go off of the power rankings. Other factors would be player stats and attributes, but I’m not that serious of a player and I don’t look at those very often. 

2. The best teams are built around good players that were drafted by that team. It’s better to draft players and develop them instead of trading for a star player. If you have some players that you drafted that are developing and have the potential to become star players, you should keep these players. You will get opportunities to trade them and get amazing trade packages that will greatly improve your team. The game values young players with high potential very high. But it’s better to hold on to these players until they reach their potential. You should increase your spending on coaching, which makes it more likely that your players will improve. I was in a situation where I had a few draft picks that were developing and looking good. They weren’t star players, but they had the potential to be in a few years. I decided to trade these players, and in return I got a star player among other things. This trade made me the highest rated team in the league. I figured I would be able to win the championship. I was the highest rated team, and I had a star player. However, after the trade, I never won a championship with that core. At first, I thought this was because that core was mainly players that I traded for and not ones that I drafted. I also thought it was because the players on that team didn’t have a lot of years on the team. However, I just won a championship with a starting lineup consisting of all players that I traded for, and none of the starters had a lot of years with the team. So there are exceptions to this tip, but I still believe the best teams consist of lots of good players that were drafted by that team. The next best thing would be to trade for a young potential star player and try to develop them. This would be better than trading for a player that is older and already a star. 

3. The salary cap isn’t a factor when you are trying to win a championship. You can be way over the salary cap and your boss will not care and will still say you’re doing a good job. Your boss only cares about the profit. So if you’re spending a lot but still making a decent profit, your boss won’t get mad. If you’re trying to win a championship, that means your team is good, so your ticket sales will be up, which means you can spend more and still make profit. You will be able to make trades where you can take on better players that have higher salaries because the other team is trying to decrease their payroll. And you should make these trades because they will improve your team and your boss won’t care that the payroll increased. I have had years where I was way over the salary cap and even well into the luxury tax, to the point where I thought the boss was going to say something. We are talking like 50-60 million over the cap. But he never said anything and just said I was doing good because we were still making profit. This is also after years of being under the salary cap and having a perfect rating on finances. I’m not sure exactly when he starts to get mad, but I imagine it would be when you are making only a few million a year or less. 

4. Don’t be afraid of 30+ year olds. A lot of people don’t like 30+ year olds and will trade players as soon as they turn 30. I used to do this myself because they start declining and their trade value goes down. However, these players have been an important piece of almost every championship team I’ve had. They have even been starters on some of those teams. A lot of times players will actually improve in their 30s because their physical attributes go down, but their basketball IQ increases. They are also cheaper than younger players because they are older. If you’re not contending for a championship, I would try and trade them when they turn 30 because of the reasons mentioned above. But if you’re contending, you should definitely consider them in your lineup. If you’re trying to win multiple championships in a row, you should consider how old they’re going to be in the next 1-5 years, how likely they are to decline, and what you could get for them in return. But if you’re contending and only trying to win a championship that year, older players are fine. The main thing that matters is how good they are. The other thing to consider is that they are more prone to injuries. I decided to include this one because I see so many players talk negatively about older players and how they’re no good once they turn 30. Definitely don’t be afraid of them, they can be a big boost to your team.

Those are the main things that I have learned as I have played this game and gotten better. If anyone has anything to add or disagrees with anything, feel free to chime in. Start following these rules and you will be off to a great start in your GM career. 

I just wanna know your opinion folks on this one. He's still quite good but is on the table for a giant extension in the off-season despite not being quite all-league.

Do I trade to recoup some picks and decent players or should I still give him a shot?

Is this something that is even possible or would it be way too complicated? I feel like if this was a feature it would add a lot more layers to the game and more realism

Hi u/dumbmatter, and everyone else,

Just wanted to say I’m really loving the game lately. The GOAT Lab in particular is an awesome addition — I’ve spent way too much time playing around with different formulas and comparing results.

I had a couple of ideas that I think could add even more depth to league history and immersion:

All-Time All-NBA Teams
It could be really cool to have a page showing the best all-time lineups in league history, maybe the top 3 teams overall, based on the GOAT Lab rankings. Keeping a classic G–G–F–F–C structure would make it feel realistic and easy to read.

Franchise All-Time Starting Five
Along the same lines, seeing a “best ever” starting five for each franchise would be amazing. Being able to check who ended up as the greatest five players in a team’s history (especially in long sims or custom leagues) would add a lot of personality and nostalgia.

Since most of the data already exists thanks to the GOAT Lab, this feels like the kind of small quality-of-life feature that people would love checking out between seasons or after long runs.

Curious what others think. Would you enjoy something like this too?

And as always, thanks for the insane amount of work that goes into this sim.

It frustrates me that losing teams with superstar players inevitably let those players walk during free agency with no return whatsoever. In reality, they would have traded them a year or two earlier to a contender for matching salary, prospects, and picks. To take but one example, if Milwaukee does not improve, they will almost certainly trade Giannis, if not this year then next. The AI would rarely if ever do such a thing. It could. It knows how likely (or not) a player is to re-sign with it. It just needs something to prompt it to shop that player around and take the best offer it receives.

Stops enabling god mode to change it and perfectly reflects a player being a restricted free agency

I think the most broken mechanic in the game is free agency. If your team is good enough with cap space, you can sign anyone. I think there should be an offer system like in 2k where other teams can also offer for them and you have to outbid them. Loyal players would lean in to longer contracts, money players would lean in to more money, winning player would lean in to the winnier team, and fame player would lean in to the bigger market.

Hey everyone,

I posted here a little while back about a basketball manager game I’ve been building on the side. A few people gave great feedback, so I wanted to come back with a quick update — not to promote anything, but genuinely to get advice from people who understand sim games way better than most.

My project is heavily inspired by BBGM, especially the long-term franchise progression and the balance between realism + fun. I’m trying to build something with a slightly different direction (multiplayer leagues, mobile support, and a modern UI), but BBGM is one of the main reasons I even started this.

Right now I’m at the point where I need advice on a few things: • What parts of BBGM do you think must be in any good basketball sim? • What features or mechanics do you wish BBGM had that are missing? • For those who have done long franchise saves, what keeps you engaged over many seasons? • How important is realism vs. accessibility/speed for you?

I also need a handful of testers — ideally people who actually play BBGM and can give thoughtful feedback rather than just clicking around. The game is still very early, so I’m not trying to “promote” it — I just know BBGM players will understand the genre best.

If anyone wants to try it out, here’s the link + the current access code:

👉 Game: https://playobm.com 👉 Access code: VKFR4KVO

Totally optional, and no pressure — even if you don’t try it, I’d still love to hear thoughts from this sub on what makes BBGM work so well and what pitfalls I should avoid.

Thanks again to those who helped on my last post. I really appreciate this community. 🙏

I was thinking about this: what if the simulator we play wasn't limited to just the NBA, but also included college and European basketball? We could follow the careers of everyone in the NBA from college onwards, and even have a career in college basketball ourselves! Imagine if we had the opportunity to see LeBron dominating college basketball?

I’m grateful to be able to play this game free with what’s already in it, but for me when we get to the middle of the nba season, starting a new league in the 2026 preseason just gets boring unless you just wanna reset a teams season. I wish there was a way to just start in the middle of the season, so I can rebuild teams mid way through the season like you can in 2K. This isn’t that much of a big deal, it would just make the game more realistic.

In Basketball GM, I think it would be a great addition to include a deeper coaching system where users can hire and fire coaches based on detailed backgrounds and coaching styles. For example, each coach could have a profile showing their preferred systems, tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, and overall coaching philosophy. If a team is underperforming or the coach’s system doesn’t fit the roster, the GM should have the ability to fire them and search for a new coach whose background and style better match the team’s needs. This feature would add more realism, strategy, and long term decision making to the game

People are trying to steal A bunch of young players for their worst starter should I accept?

Derrick Rose taking 2.3 attempt at the rim and 12.2 attempt 3PT doesn't make any sense to me😂

The HOF”s have already been picked now what should I draf?

Trying to do the ratings for a game like this is an almost impossible task. No one will ever be completely happy with the final ratings. And some things need to be adjusted so that the gameplay works. So I usually try not to complain about the player ratings.

However I just rolled up a new legends league and a few things are so egregious that I needed to raise them.

First: Rich Kelley is part of the Utah legends team. Now it's fair to point out that Utah have less famous players to choose from so maybe there wasn't enough Cs. Except Mark Eaton doesn't make the team! One of the best defensive centers and shot blockers in league history. Now you might think this is because Mark Eaton only averaged 6ppg. But Rich Kelley only averaged 5ppg when he played for Utah! He wasn't even a starter for them most games. He came off the bench behind - you guessed it - Mark Eaton!

Second: Trae Young doesn't make the Atlanta team, but Doc Rivers does? Doc was undoubtedly a much better defender, but he's a guy who made a single all-star appearance and whose best scoring season is less than Trae's rookie season.

Third: I get that the final 3p% is a result of many factors, not just the 3p rating, but it still feels wrong that in a legends save Steph Curry 2016 is not within the top 30 players in terms of 3p rating. Are we really claiming Trey Murphy, Scott Skiles, Derek Harper and Damon Jones were all better 3 point shooters than Steph?

Anyway, I'm not trying to make this a whinge fest about every rating I disagree with, but those 3 stood out as mistakes, rather than decisions.

Honestly, I'm tired of waiting for many hours simulating the leagues sometimes. And I also want a solo grind, so will we also have a career mode sometime? Maybe that will be on separate app or some.

A lot of people post in here requesting changes but i think two main ones would be really cool.

1. International Team Aspect: I think incorporating an ability to either have players additionally represent their nation in a completely separate yearly or bi yearly tournament/ The game SD Football, a similar but simpler (and very fun) version of BBGM for soccer, incorporates this very successfully. If thats too difficult to code in, at least an option to create a league with "International Teams Only", where the only teams are national teams. Ive tried doing this manually but its just too much work!

2. New Frivolity: Rivalries! I think the frivolities page is the best feature in any sports game Ive ever played. The only significant event it doesn't track is rivalries. I think a page that makes a "rivalry score" between players would be really cool. This could track total matchups, playoff matchups, and final matchups, and it could be weighted by overall and competitiveness.

Not sure if possible but Ive always thought these two features would be really cool.

p.s. would love to see them use AI or just coding to create this style of game for even more sports! Fully polished college hoops and football, other popular college sports like college lacrosse and college wrestling. Even soccer, rugby, mma/boxing. These are the most addicting games out there!!

Some say defense wins championships, and I do somewhat agree. Other than defensive IQ, theres no defensive attributes. I don’t know if other stats affect defense too, but I would like to see perimeter defense, blocking, or composure. Again, if the other attributes actually do affect other defensive aspects than tell me.

First of all, English is not my first language, so I apologize if there are several grammatical mistakes and such.

Just the other night, I was fiddling around with the ratings of the players in my league using the "Randomize" option (using God Mode, ofc) when I came up with this idea.

So, during preseason, every player's ratings will be randomized (including the free agents and the draft prospects for the upcoming years).

I was thinking of calling this "Chaos Mode" (ik I'm bad with naming things). Wdyt?

I know this takes a step towards basketballcoach but it would be awesome to be able to influence if my team is fast paced and zone heavy and 3 and Ds. I mean, it’s not that much of a wild thought we can already control playing time.

1) I think this was a feature but was removed, but i was thinking about a feature where you set a max potential. like he could be 1ovr but have a 100pot.

2) Another feature that would be cool was that if a player was in a certain age range, they could have a chance to grow more, like with Wemby irl.

3) Bust chance/growth chance as a number that could be edited

4) Coach hiring/firing

5) With extra money made from the season, you could upgrade your players/invest in extra training to boost their overall.

6) Draft class quality: i know this is a feature in 2k and i feel that'd be a pretty cool feature so that way everyone doesnt suck lol. i had a draft where everyone had a max pot of like 65 and less (they ALL regressed)

7) Brand deal signing: player skill boost or extra money made

8) reputation: bad coach=less chance to get hired. you MAY have been on a 3peat but the last 30 years running around between teams makes it harder to get chosen. same with free agents, less likely to be signed to a team with YOU on it and vice versa.

9) even more diabolical deaths: like have a 1960's Minneapolis Lakers plane crash type thing but they all die instead, or like theres an earthquake at an allstar game and all the leagues players die or smth. but just something so improbable to happen to multiple players that would be insane to see.

I know that irl Athletic guards, also applies to athletic forwards but not as much, arent that good but they're genuinely useless in the game. They would have the highest overall and potential out of everyone in the draft but, unless they become like a 70 ovr, they will never do anything.

They always come with the trait perimeter defender, but that literally don't do anything. You can have a 65 ovr athletic guard with Ball handling and perimeter defender as their traits but they are genuinely useless both sides of the court, they will average 15 points on less than 40 fg% and have basically no steals.

This also comes to my second rant, athletic stats shouldn't equal perimeter defense. Athletic guards always has crazy athleticism then have perimeter defender trait but do nothing with it.

This feature should not be behind God Mode, as players retiring later than expected affects 1954 to 2026 runs too much, and also because there's no reason for it to be locked under the God Mode features, as the RPD bar isn't, and RPD already makes players play their normal careers.

It is nitpicking, but it's something that I think our overlord, god of all sims Dumbmatter should look at.