FBB FAQ's
FBB FAQ's
What is Fast Break Basketball (FBB)? Why are we using it?
FBB is a simulation engine that was created in the early 2000s. It is a flawed, outdated and silly game -- but we love it. It is simple to use, easy to visualize and works well for these purposes. Only the simmer needs to own the game. Pretty much, pretend you are building a team in creator mode in NBA2k, but instead of competing against the computer...you are competing against 28 other GMs.
What are ratings? Give me the rundown
Every player receives "ratings" that are visible to all and give you a general sense for how good a player is. Public ratings are split into six categories: Inside, Outside, Handles, Defense, Rebounding, and Potential.
On a roster page, your player will look like this:
Name Pos Age Height Weight In Out Hn Df Reb Po
LeBron James SF 38 6'8 270 -------------> A B A- B+ B+ D
Here's the catch: while the ratings visible to everyone describe how a player looks, each player has more specific and descriptive "under-the-hood" ratings that inform how a player plays. These under-the-hood ratings are not visible to us and are the subtleties that drive the game and player value.
The INSIDE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Inside Scoring, Strength and Jumping. Inside Scoring is the most important of these attributes and drives scoring VOLUME. Strength is important, especially for bigs. Jumping is virtually useless and is a red-herring rating. A player's public "inside" grade could be juiced by a player with high jumping, and it will not impact how well the player performs.
The OUTSIDE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Jump Shot and Three Point Shot. Jump Shot impacts FT%. Three-Point impacts 3P% and 3P volume. The public "outside" rating is accurate and straight forward.
The HANDLE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Ball handling, Passing and Quickness. "Ball handling" (pause) impact your ability to limit turnovers. Higher handles, fewer turnovers. "Passing" impacts your ability to create assists. "Quickness" is a vague rating that does have some impact, but it's hard to tell how much. Some say it impacts scoring volume. Important tip: the public handle rating is extremely misleading because it overweights passing and underweights ball-handling. In this game, limiting turnovers is more important than creating assists. Be wary.
The DEFENSE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Perimeter Defense, Post Defense, Steals, Blocks, Drive Defense, Quickness and Strength. Depending on which position the player is listed at, the weights for each of those categories will change (e.g, if a player is listed at Center, Post Defense will play a bigger role in his public "defensive rating" than a Point Guard). This is another potentially misleading public rating because there are so many elements built into this one rating. Pro tip: DRIVE DEFENSE is a completely useless rating built into the game that serves no purpose and doesn't lead to more wins, steals, blocks, nothing. Don't camp it and don't worry about it.
The REBOUNDING rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Defensive Rebounding, Offensive Rebounding and Strength. Strength only plays a small part in this mix. Like "outside," rebounding is the other straight-forward and accurate public rating you see.
The POTENTIAL rating is a farce. Each player in the game has a SCOUTED POTENTIAL rating (which we see) and a TRUE POTENTIAL rating (which only the simmer can see). SCOUTED POTENTIAL is typically correlated to TRUE POTENTIAL, but the simmer can hide players with high upside and create busts by varying a player's true and scouted potential. This ambiguity keeps shit fresh and fun. True potential is what eventually causes a player to improve or get worse. The higher a player's true potential, the more certain that player is to improve over time.
What are Depth Charts? Walk me through this. Why is this shit so complicated?
In addition to General Manager, you are also your team's coach. You create your team's tactics and rotation. You must post it as follows:
Depth Charts (can have a max of 12 players active)
C - Starter / Backup 2 / 3rd String
PF - Starter / Backup 2 / 3rd String
SF - Starter /Backup 2 / 3rd String
SG - Starter / Backup 2 /3rd String
PG - Starter / Backup 2 / 3rd String
IR: (up to 3)
1. Player 1
2. Player 2
3. Player 3
Scoring Options: (who you want to have the ball)
1. Player 1
2. Player 2
3. Player 3
Tactics: (Choose one of the options below for each)
Pace - (Very Fast/Fast/Normal/Slow/Very Slow)
Trap - (Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never)
Pressure - (Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never)
Offense Focus - (Inside/Outside/Balanced)
Do you have any depth chart tips?
-Unless you have uniquely good inside scorers, you want to have an outside focus. This is a simulation. 3s are worth more than 2s. You are likely doing your team a disservice by attempting another path unless you have the right personnel.
-One of FBBs big flaws is that Bigs are MUCH more inefficient than they are in real life. Centers and Power Forwards will regularly shoot in the high 30 and low 40%s. As such, you don't want bigs to shoot or score much unless they are really good. In order for a big to transcend this, he has to have HIGH Inside Scoring, Strength, and Jump Shot,
-Pace/Trap/Press is up to you. It's kind of a black box. No one really knows what is best. We have seen good teams do all of the above. Typically, the faster paces benefit guards and lead to more shots by more players. Slower paces concentrate your shots to exclusively scoring options. Trapping and pressing lead to more steals and blocks but more fouls.
Other institutional knowledge
-Possessions matter a lot. It is extremely important that your team not turn the ball over much, force turnovers, and rebound well. Try to prioritize players that fit this bill.
-Another big FBB flaw: passing does not seem to matter much. Do not be fooled by a player with an "A+" public handle rating if he is averaging 12 assists and 4.5 turnovers. The assists don't seem to impact winning - or even improve a team's overall offense a ton -- and those turnovers will lose you games. It doesn't make sense. Sorry.
-Depth matters. Prioritize filling out a full roster. You can have one player occupying multiple spots as a backup. It's a way to find comparative advantages.
FBB is a simulation engine that was created in the early 2000s. It is a flawed, outdated and silly game -- but we love it. It is simple to use, easy to visualize and works well for these purposes. Only the simmer needs to own the game. Pretty much, pretend you are building a team in creator mode in NBA2k, but instead of competing against the computer...you are competing against 28 other GMs.
What are ratings? Give me the rundown
Every player receives "ratings" that are visible to all and give you a general sense for how good a player is. Public ratings are split into six categories: Inside, Outside, Handles, Defense, Rebounding, and Potential.
On a roster page, your player will look like this:
Name Pos Age Height Weight In Out Hn Df Reb Po
LeBron James SF 38 6'8 270 -------------> A B A- B+ B+ D
Here's the catch: while the ratings visible to everyone describe how a player looks, each player has more specific and descriptive "under-the-hood" ratings that inform how a player plays. These under-the-hood ratings are not visible to us and are the subtleties that drive the game and player value.
The INSIDE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Inside Scoring, Strength and Jumping. Inside Scoring is the most important of these attributes and drives scoring VOLUME. Strength is important, especially for bigs. Jumping is virtually useless and is a red-herring rating. A player's public "inside" grade could be juiced by a player with high jumping, and it will not impact how well the player performs.
The OUTSIDE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Jump Shot and Three Point Shot. Jump Shot impacts FT%. Three-Point impacts 3P% and 3P volume. The public "outside" rating is accurate and straight forward.
The HANDLE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Ball handling, Passing and Quickness. "Ball handling" (pause) impact your ability to limit turnovers. Higher handles, fewer turnovers. "Passing" impacts your ability to create assists. "Quickness" is a vague rating that does have some impact, but it's hard to tell how much. Some say it impacts scoring volume. Important tip: the public handle rating is extremely misleading because it overweights passing and underweights ball-handling. In this game, limiting turnovers is more important than creating assists. Be wary.
The DEFENSE rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Perimeter Defense, Post Defense, Steals, Blocks, Drive Defense, Quickness and Strength. Depending on which position the player is listed at, the weights for each of those categories will change (e.g, if a player is listed at Center, Post Defense will play a bigger role in his public "defensive rating" than a Point Guard). This is another potentially misleading public rating because there are so many elements built into this one rating. Pro tip: DRIVE DEFENSE is a completely useless rating built into the game that serves no purpose and doesn't lead to more wins, steals, blocks, nothing. Don't camp it and don't worry about it.
The REBOUNDING rating is a mix of the following under-the-hood ratings: Defensive Rebounding, Offensive Rebounding and Strength. Strength only plays a small part in this mix. Like "outside," rebounding is the other straight-forward and accurate public rating you see.
The POTENTIAL rating is a farce. Each player in the game has a SCOUTED POTENTIAL rating (which we see) and a TRUE POTENTIAL rating (which only the simmer can see). SCOUTED POTENTIAL is typically correlated to TRUE POTENTIAL, but the simmer can hide players with high upside and create busts by varying a player's true and scouted potential. This ambiguity keeps shit fresh and fun. True potential is what eventually causes a player to improve or get worse. The higher a player's true potential, the more certain that player is to improve over time.
What are Depth Charts? Walk me through this. Why is this shit so complicated?
In addition to General Manager, you are also your team's coach. You create your team's tactics and rotation. You must post it as follows:
Depth Charts (can have a max of 12 players active)
C - Starter / Backup 2 / 3rd String
PF - Starter / Backup 2 / 3rd String
SF - Starter /Backup 2 / 3rd String
SG - Starter / Backup 2 /3rd String
PG - Starter / Backup 2 / 3rd String
IR: (up to 3)
1. Player 1
2. Player 2
3. Player 3
Scoring Options: (who you want to have the ball)
1. Player 1
2. Player 2
3. Player 3
Tactics: (Choose one of the options below for each)
Pace - (Very Fast/Fast/Normal/Slow/Very Slow)
Trap - (Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never)
Pressure - (Always/Often/Normal/Sometimes/Never)
Offense Focus - (Inside/Outside/Balanced)
Do you have any depth chart tips?
-Unless you have uniquely good inside scorers, you want to have an outside focus. This is a simulation. 3s are worth more than 2s. You are likely doing your team a disservice by attempting another path unless you have the right personnel.
-One of FBBs big flaws is that Bigs are MUCH more inefficient than they are in real life. Centers and Power Forwards will regularly shoot in the high 30 and low 40%s. As such, you don't want bigs to shoot or score much unless they are really good. In order for a big to transcend this, he has to have HIGH Inside Scoring, Strength, and Jump Shot,
-Pace/Trap/Press is up to you. It's kind of a black box. No one really knows what is best. We have seen good teams do all of the above. Typically, the faster paces benefit guards and lead to more shots by more players. Slower paces concentrate your shots to exclusively scoring options. Trapping and pressing lead to more steals and blocks but more fouls.
Other institutional knowledge
-Possessions matter a lot. It is extremely important that your team not turn the ball over much, force turnovers, and rebound well. Try to prioritize players that fit this bill.
-Another big FBB flaw: passing does not seem to matter much. Do not be fooled by a player with an "A+" public handle rating if he is averaging 12 assists and 4.5 turnovers. The assists don't seem to impact winning - or even improve a team's overall offense a ton -- and those turnovers will lose you games. It doesn't make sense. Sorry.
-Depth matters. Prioritize filling out a full roster. You can have one player occupying multiple spots as a backup. It's a way to find comparative advantages.
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