You have financially prepared your team and are now sitting on piles of money. You have heard people talk about different aspects of training but you still feel a little lost. There are some basic ideas that go into designing your training regimen; Who, Why, What, How long, and sometimes When. Most of these will over-lap each other, Why dictating Who for example - your bench is weak in Shooting Guard "Quality" depth.

Who, deals with "eligibility" and "return". Training players with small gaps is normally not efficient use of your time and resources. A new young player with mid or low over-all gap and a short term contract may not be the best candidate for training. Gains from training will generally be small, the effect limited on their performance, and yet has the potential to raise their contract demands. Older players that are preparing for their slide may or may not be suitable. This is where the Why greatly influences Who. A few
examples or tactics here might help express a little more concrete foundation to these ideas: A 22yr old 2 year player with high over-all potential gap, and a few high gaps in vitals that your trainer shows you (if you have a trainer), who is "locked in" to a 8 year contract is an almost mandatory trainee. You defiantly want to "get the most out of your money" with that player and train him to the point of being a saving against his cap value. (unless you somehow already developed the player into E satisfaction...) 32yr old vet with mid gaps and a 0 -1 year contract that probably don't expect to re-sign, and you are in a Title hunt... Yeah, you train them 'til you can sniff at F satisfaction - It's a coin toss as to if they will go up or down in vitals the following season, and if you really don't have them "earmarked" as part of your "future" you might as well get the most out of them while you can. 34yr old "solid vet", with great gaps, on a team that is mid-way through rebuilding or developing - most likely a waste of time and resources, unless you believe you can sell/trade them and feel that a slight vital increase would help make them more "marketable".

Since I am already blurring between Who and Why, I should probably move towards more Why reasoning. Normally need will influence, if not dictate, Why you are training. This can be as simple as your Starting Small Forward can't hit the broadside of a barn, or your team is generating too many Turnovers. Just as important as reasons to train are reasons NOT to train. This starts blending into What. Just because a player has a high gap in a vital doesn't mean you necessarily should train that vital. Your Shooting Guard has 4 balls in Shooting and shoots over .500 has a high gap in Shooting, BUT shoots few shoots and suffers from Turnovers because he only has a 1.5 Off - Training his Shooting probably isn't as effective as increasing his Offense. He's already shooting "lights out", he needs to work on things that will help him get the ball and be able to do things with the ball when he gets it. Make sure when you are training a player you have a clear idea about what you are wanting from the player in the future. Every point of vitals increases a players asking price, and you can't un-train a player in a vital if later you'd like to have better shooting but can't afford the cap space due to having increased another vital that isn't as key to a higher level. I believe it is best to think of "over-all" concept of a team when looking at why to train. Individual need may alter that, but it's best to work on a facet of game play for the team at a Time. That way it is easier to identify when a player needs extra attention, and in what vitals he needs help. Stats do not "lie". When you are looking at Why, DO NOT be blinded by vitals. When you are looking at Why train a player it will often lead you to What. A starter throws up too many bricks, so you train his shooting some - answering both Why and What.

What to train is often dictated by Why, or Who. A development project that you have earmarked for a role, definitely would need to be trained in those vitals as much as possible. You will be able to train their other vitals as need arises without inflating their cap hit. Also it will help you determine IF the player will be able to fill that role someday, and IF you need to re-think the player and your projection of them. Your over-all team system or concept should help you determine What to train. It may not be in your best interest to train a player in a vital just because they have a "High" Gap there. It is a good idea to keep in mind the different vitals interaction with each other when you start training. If you start boosting a players FAT and they have poor Foul/INJ you may be loosing their efficiency. Every extra minute they spend on the court will give them more time to get injured or create fouls.

Several different things should help tell you how long to train a player (and in what); Capspace - you don't want to train yourself into an impossible situation for your team, Statistic results - these will help tell you the effectiveness of any training you have done or how much more is needed, Vital Gap - this of course is the limit at which the Vital can be trained currently, Success/Fail - a good indicator as to how much gap you may have IF you don't have a trainer to see a gap. Under cap space consideration also falls contract satisfaction. Having a player with only 1 year left on their contract and they are down to D or E satisfaction could be quite costly for their next contract. Having a player with 3+ years at D or E satisfaction saves you cap space, BUT limits how much more training you
can do to that player until they refuse to suit up and play. It is always best to have at least an idea about what you want from a player before working their contracts/training them. Especially since training is 3-4 season project if you are wanting to train up a project, and can quickly reduce satisfaction on a vet who you are "polishing up". Generally training a project who hits LOW gap in a vital isn't really worth your time. There are only a few points left at that point less then 5, more often 3 or less. Which might still be worth pursuing on the 32 year old vet you are polishing, but make sure you realize you could be throwing away money on potential that isn't there. Realizing that the rate of Failure increases with the higher the vital, it is still viable to train a vital in a field through a few FF results. At lower vitals (3 and lower) you might want to stop on a vital after the second or third FF result, but at higher levels you may want to pay for the patience to see success.

Do not train until financially you can afford to be spending the cash on the program. Also waiting for good gaps before you start training players will help you not to have as much frustration, because you'll be able to see results. Remember it is probably best to train in a program, or team theme - that way you can get specific results that are easy to track and should be increased because everyone you are training is working on the same or similar things.

A quick look at some of the Vitals for training:

Offense - Fastest way to help any team score, and reduce turn-overs. Works in tandem quite a bit. A PG with 5.5 balls in Off is hobbled by his teammates if everyone else has 1.5 Off. *personal observation*: This effects passing, Receiving passes - Receiving "Looks", Driving and getting more open shots. Slightly helps reduce OFF fouls.

Defense - Helps reduce your opposition's shooting, helps generate blocks and steals. *personal observation*: Helps "Cover" a guy so that they don't receive as many passes, helps prevent driving the lane, helps remove Open shots. Slightly helps reduce DEF Fouls.

Shooting - Number one factor on affecting shot completion. *personal observation*: probably the biggest vital affected by "Underachieving and Overachieving". Also "system" can greatly affect this - if the majority of shots that a player takes are when he is open from a dish, it makes it easier for them to complete.

Rebound - Helps affect rebound results. *personal observation*: in the past I didn't train rebound because I had seen enough info to show that it wasn't "worth it" for the results. now that shooting %s are up and fewer Rebounds happen, it should have increased the value of each rebound.

Stamina - a factor on ALL other Vitals, helps determine not only the amount of minutes a player plays, but also the Quality of those minutes. *personal observation*: Many Owners don't believe over 2.5 - 3.0 stamina is needed for a starter, and I have seen systems work with that mentality - especially since others are copying so everyone is in the same "boat". I have also seen systems where they players on the team had higher stamina and seemed to "get more" out of there time on the court. One thing is for sure you increase Stamina you increase a players chances for being injured or committing fouls as their minutes go up. So if you intend to make an "IRONMAN" (like Shon "Hardcase" Hardcastle from L007) make sure you have high INJ and Foul vitals to go with that 4.5+ Stamina.

3Pt Shooting - primary perimeter Factor. *personal observation*: pick and choose who you train here. It's of questionable worth when your Center can shoot .500 3Pters if he is in a system that rarely asks him to do so. A personnel Favorite for 3Pt shooting is Small Forwards - it helps the "average" Small Forward add a few points per night, and may help take some "heat" off of the Guards.

Foul - helps keep a team from giving away games, helps a team play more aggressive without fouling out, or worrying about too much contact. *personal observation*: a higher Foul vital MAY help reduce some injuries because it may help remove some "contact". Especially on Offense.

Injury - If your players see a lot of minutes or play in a physical system you might want to think about investing some time and money into over-all team health. *personal observation*: Injuries WILL happen. That is the nature of the beast. When I look at Injury vitals for players I judge a lot by their "value" to the team (how easy will we get by without them, while they take vacations to Florida, the Bahamas, or Hawaii ). I still haven't decided what way I feel on INJ over-all, I tend to take it on a case by case basis, but make sure you have plenty of it if a player is "The Team".

*the experiences and opinions expressed herein are those of Rich Rawson and not necessarily factual information, but rather one owners experiences.