How-To Build a junior roster

Amazing work by @marco.tech

http://en.ibasketmanager.com/foros/hilo.php?id=14105

hen you start this game one of the most essential things you are faced with is your junior roster. Juniors are your future, can be your future senior team or the biggest source for money.
IBM is all about juniors, so if you want to have a great team quickly, invest into juniors.
But how do you do that and what things should you watch out for? Here a couple tipps:

What do I need?

First
 of all you need a junior coach. To have good results try to get one
with more than 80% (put your mouse over the balls and you can see the
percentage). The coach influences the forecast and training progression
of your juniors. The better, the faster they progress.

Junior roster

When
 you start you have 15 spots in your junior roster. You have the option
to expand the roster by paying 250 Golden Balls per slot. You can have
an additional 3 slots like this.
If you also decide to get the Pack
Manager Option you get an extra slot as well, so the maximum you can
have is 19 spots in your junior roster.

What do I train?

Training
 is so diverse in IBM that it's usually not a wise decision to train all
 positions in juniors. You should decide if you want to train backcourt
players (PG-SG-SF) or frontcourt players (PF-C).
If you have such a
specialized roster you can easily train the guys and make them progress a
 lot faster as you can focus your training.

See here how your training affects your position (thanks to djalminha08): http://us.ibasketmanager.com/foros/hilo.php?id=9018

What positions are better?

There
 is no answer for that question. PF-C progress faster and reach higher
averages faster, but are more difficult to sell in the market usually.
PG-SG-SF are slower, but good backcourt players draw great interest in
the market and can bring you good money. So this decision is totally up
to you.

How do I find juniors?

The
 easiest way to find juniors is the Market. You can find it under
"Transfers" and "Market". There a lot of guys sell their juniors and all
 you have to do is to bid for one of them.
Another option is to use
market chat. Managers sell their players there and can also give you
tips which other teams have good juniors, so you can contact the
managers with a private message and ask if they sell juniors.
You can
 also hire a scout who can search for juniors for you. Detailed infos
can be found in the following topic by HurricaneDitka: http://us.ibasketmanager.com/foros/hilo.php?id=12912

The
 last option is to build schools. When you are new it's probably too
early to invest into a school since they are expensive and cost you a
weekly amount of money. However, should you decide to build a school try
 to get it to excellent as soon as possible and build schools with 4+
balls since they give you much better guys. Puerto Rico, Lithuania and
Serbia are the favorites of the game.

For detailed info on schools, see the following topic by @moneyball7: http://us.ibasketmanager.com/foros/hilo.php?id=11730

What is important in a junior?

This
 is the most essential question that you have to ask yourself when you
start buying juniors. There is no clear path on how to find good juniors
 and the only way to find good juniors at a regular rate is to try and
gain experience with juniors.

For any junior that you buy (no
matter what position) pay attention to his mental average. You cannot
train mental, so the higher the mental is, the better because the
average of a player is calculated according to the following formula:

(Mental average + physical average + offensive average + defensive average ) / 4 = total average

All
 other averages except for mental average can be trained. Mental
increases in juniors by 3 each season. This is automatically applied at
the beginning of each season. So watch out and note that the mental
limits the potential of your junior.

The second very important
thing about juniors is their progression. You cannot see it anywhere
else than in schools. When you get a player from school he will have
these balls next to his name which stand for a progression rate in %.
Out of experience it is wise to take juniors with a progression 75% and
higher. They improve faster and have a higher potential. When you see
that a manager got his junior from his school, send him a message and
ask for his progression. You can see in the forecast curves of a junior
if he has a good progression or not (the slope of the curve will be
steeper). If you don't get any of this information, check the history of
 this player and calculate how many average points he gained per month
and check his training value for today and compare it to players for the
 same position in the same roster: is he better than others or worse?

What important things apply for the positions?

Each position requires special training and attention. You should keep the following tips in mind when you choose a junior:

PG-SG

These
 positions depend less on the mental because they are limited by 5
skills that are very difficult to train for them: Power, Jump, Rebounds,
 Blocks and Dunks.
Therefore, look for juniors who have good numbers
in these skills. As a first orientation point add them up and if the sum
 is greater than 100 then the chance is good that this player will have a
 good potential.
In addition, these players can be boosted very quickly with trainings such as fastbreak, shoot after dribbling or steals.
Good
 forecasts for PG and SG are 74 and higher. Average forecast is between
69- 72. Some outstanding SGs and PGs reach 78 and more in forecast.

SF

SFs
 are somewhat special. They generally have 3 difficult skills: Jump,
Blocks and Dunks. So watch for guys who have good numbers in these
skills.
An average forecast for a SF is 80 - 82. Everything below is below average. Very good SFs have forecast 83 and higher.

PF

PFs
 have the advantage of being easiest to complete all skills with 99.
Their forecast is mainly limited by the mental average, so watch out for
 high mental guys.
In addition, PFs have two skills which are difficult to train: Pass and Steals.
An average PF has a forecast of 82-84. Very good PFs have 85+

C

Cs
 usually have one of the highest forecasts in the game, however they
have 3 difficult skills to be trained: Pass, Steals and 3 Point.
Especially the last one is difficult.
Average Cs have forecast 82-84 and good ones 85+. On some occasions you find 88+

Can I find out the forecast without paying Golden Balls?

There
 are some simple tricks for C and PF to calculate an approximate
forecast. Since mental is the limiting factor for them, assume you can
train them 99 in all other skills you use the formula which I stated
above:

(mental average (=current one) + physical (=99) + offensive (=99) + defensive (=99)) / 4 = maximum forecast

This rule only applies to C and PF with a progression of 75%+. Players with less progression can have less forecast.

For
 SG, PG and SF there is no such formula. SFs can theoretically reach all
 skills 99, too, but this requires a lot of time. So mostly the forecast
 of a SF will be the forecast of a PF - 2-3 points.
SG and PG do not have a formula. For them you have to gain experience and watch the hard stats that I mentioned above.

So
 … now you can get started with building your junior roster. Don't
hesitate to ask any questions if you have. Your moderator team of IBM
will always be glad to answer them. Also if you need tips for training,
let us know and we will assist you.