Grizzled GM Basketball is a single-player basketball management simulation game. Set your roster, make trades, draft prospects, manage your finances, and try to build a dynasty. Play it in your browser now, completely 100% free!
September 9, 2020 - New Feature
In order to make game planning a little more seamless the Game Plan page now shows your next opponent with some other helpful info, including your teams head-to-head record vs your opponent.
September 8, 2020 - New Feature
Previously when behind you could directly adjust your team's tempo based on how far behind you team was and how much time was left. You now have another option for that when behind. So you can handle different time intervals differently and/or to recognize that if the game got too out of hand it may make sense to reduce the tempo instead of increasing it.
You also now have those options for when ahead. So you can better manage different time and point intervals should you choose to.
September 7, 2020 - New Feature
Similar to the prior options when behind that automatically increase tempo, there are now options that give you control of how your team's tempo will be reduced once your team has a big enough lead.
September 6, 2020 - New Feature
Using Coach Mode you now have greater control of when your team will naturally increase its tempo near the end of the game.
Whereas the existing option could allow you to speed up or slow down your tempo, this one is limited just to speeding up, but gives you much more control over how that process unfolds.
September 5, 2020 - New Feature
Using Coach Mode you now have the ability to adjust your team's tempo based on how the game is going. In particular, if you are behind near the end of the game you can choose to increase the tempo, or if you are really behind you can choose to slow it down to prevent injury.
September 4, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which teams have had the lowest scoring games.
September 3, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which teams have had the longest games.
September 2, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which teams have had the wildest games.
September 1, 2020 - New Feature
For historical NBA draft classes players are who they are. So isn't much uncertainty about outcomes. We know how it turned out.
For future NBA draft classes the uncertainty is still there. Previously we took their current draft positioning as how they would end up. Now we have introduced the same type of fuzzing that is used for fictional leagues. So in one play through the #1 pick may be a HOF player and in another he may be a bust.
One difference compared to fictional leagues is that with real draft classes, that #1 pick player will always be the #1 pick. The draft will always look generally the same, but the careers of each of the players will be different from league to league.
August 31, 2020 - New Feature
The NBA 2020 draft class has been updated to better reflect the latest player rankings.
August 30, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which teams have had the closest games.
August 29, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which teams have come back from the biggest deficits to start the 4th quarter.
August 28, 2020 - New Feature
Expanding on yesterday, player pages now show a summary of key career playoff stats. They also now show career highs in key stats for both the regular season and the playoffs.
August 27, 2020 - New Feature
When you click on a player page there will now be a quick summary of some key career stats between the player image and the start of regular season stats.
August 26, 2020 - New Feature
You can now modify how much fuzz impacts player ratings using God Mode. This is particularly important for Fictional leagues where there is a lot of uncertainty in how players will develop.
If you decrease the the ratings fuzz you are less likely to have first round bust and also second round steals. Similarly, if you increase the fuzz you are more likely to have both.
August 25, 2020 - New Feature
Player ratings have a fuzz around them that represents the leagues, and your, ignorance of that player. It is automatically disabled when God Mode active. This can create a huge advantage when playing given how much fuzz currently matters to player progression.
However, you may want to play with God Mode active and not have such a huge advantage. If so, you can now enable this ratings fuzz while God Mode is active.
In addition, when you go to edit a player you can now see the ratings fuzz a player has and edit it. You can also now edit a player's city and state as well.
August 24, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which players have had the worst injuries.
August 23, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which players have had the most statistical feats. You can also filter this by season and team.
August 22, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which players have played with one team the longest.
August 21, 2020 - New Feature
The Auto Play Options page now has a section called Owner Mode, where you can try to direct the team as if you were an owner.
In order to speed up the rebuilding process you now can direct your AI GM to blow up the team through making trades. You can have the AI GM go for prospects, picks, or both.
August 20, 2020 - New Feature
Building on yesterday's ability to adjust resignings using the Auto Play Options page, you now have more control over how your team acts in free agency.
The two options together should allow your team to be blown up and then rebuilt all through Auto Play. So it is more like Owner Mode in that sense.
August 19, 2020 - New Feature
If you ever wanted to see how a team would do over the next few seasons, without handling all the resignings and free agency, you now can go to the Auto Play Options page and ensure that team is held together. Similarly, if your team is getting old you can force the resigning AI to not resign players until you get a youth infusion.
August 18, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which players were the most underpaid and most overpaid.
August 17, 2020 - New Feature
You now can adjust the game plan of your team by enabling Coach Mode. With Coach Mode disabled your team game plan will be managed by the AI coach like every other team. With Coach Mode enabled it is up to you. So your team could do better or worse than the AI coach.
There is no penalty from enabling and disabling Coach Mode. So you can handle the coaching for as few or as many games as you want.
The first Coach Mode option is the ability to control your team's tempo. The faster the pace the more possessions. So if you are already the clear #1 seed you may want to slow the tempo down to prevent injury. However, if it is game 7 in the finals, and you are the better team, you may want to increase the tempo to ensure you don't get a fluky loss.
August 16, 2020 - New Feature
If you don't want player contracts capped you can now disable max contract size using God Mode.
In addition, there is now a Frivolities page, Largest Player Contract Seasons, where you can see the highest paid players in league history and how they performed during those years.
August 15, 2020 - New Feature
The standard difficulty setting in the game impacts trading, signing, and revenue. However, sometimes you may just want to adjust one of those. You now can adjust them individually using God Mode.
In addition, the impact of making signings easier is much stronger than the standard difficutly adjustment (truth be told, the standard difficulty adjustment has no impact on making signings easier). Along with that, making signings harder is more impactful as well than the standard difficulty setting (mainly in regards to resigning players).
August 14, 2020 - New Feature
There is a new Skill Options page under Tools that allows you to adjust player skill display cutoffs. You can adjust them individually or use the Master Skill Adjustment to adjust all of them at once.
The Advanced League Create menu also now has an option that allows you to change the Master Skill Adjustment.
August 13, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see which draft classes ended up being the best.
August 12, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see the top 100 seasons by players in your league by various stats, both during the regular season and during the playoffs.
August 11, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you can now see the season stats from the oldest players to ever play in your league.
August 10, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you now can see the franchises in your league that have had the most cursed periods without a championship using the Cursed Franchises page.
August 9, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you now can see your league's greatest teams.
August 8, 2020 - New Feature
For fictional players you can now modify how old they must be to enter the draft when you create a league and using God Mode after the league is created.
August 7, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you now can see your league's biggest playoff upsets.
August 6, 2020 - New Feature
If you go to the Frivolities page under Tools you now can see your league's biggest draft busts and steals.
August 5, 2020 - New Feature
You now can modify how likely draft busts (and 2nd round surprises) are when you create a league and using God Mode after the league is created.
Along with that, you can now do the same thing with how likely extremely good outlier players are in your league.
August 4, 2020 - New Feature
Why do draft busts happen? Why do some 2nd round picks become great players?
There are two ways of looking at this. Are players developing in some random way? Or are we just essentially ignorant about players in major ways?
Grizzled GM takes the view that a lot of the errors are from ignorance. That isn't to say it is realistic to have that knowledge. It is just that to truly know a player and how they will fit in at the NBA is just really complicated.
When you look at ratings in Grizzled GM Basketball there is a fuzz around those ratings that represents the ignorance your organization has about that player. So you are not seeing the true picture of a player. It is the best guess of your organization of where that player is at.
Now the game better reflects the ignorance GM's have when trying to make draft picks in particular. The fuzz in ratings, which represents ignorance, has been overhauled to be more in line with our view.
So when it comes to draft busts, 2nd round surprises, and general realism the game should be greatly improved.
August 3, 2020 - New Feature
Injuries before would happen based on playing in the game and age. It is now more realisticly tied to activity within the game. So big men that score, rebound, and play a lot of minutes are going to be more injury prone.
How injuries are handled during the playoffs has also been improved. The rest period between games makes it so the risk of injury is less. Also, the recovery in term of games is also less, given that there is greater spacing between games than during the regular season.
Another key thing is players now will benefit from having played together. So the older and more experienced teams should have an edge.
One result of all of these changes is the odds of a #8 seed upsetting a #1 seed in the playoffs should be less likely now. A significant cause of that has been injuries being treated as if it was still the regular season. So a slew of minor injuries for a few games could cause a #8 seed to upset a #1 seed. Now these players should more realisticly be able to heal and get back in time to prevent the series from being lost.
August 2, 2020 - New Feature
After further testing I'm comfortable bumping back up the team adjustment for real player league back to 100% when creating a league, which gets the league very accurate from both a player and team perspective. For the following years the the adjustment is then reduced to 25% to take advantage of that information, but not rely on it as much once teams start to become different than history.
I also added a bunch of stats to the league leaders page to better help with testing and you may find them helpful as well.
If you notice any areas you think could be improved, or if you have features you want added, feel free to reach out. The changes from the past week have been almost entirely user driven. Thanks!
August 1, 2020 - New Feature
Based on feedback I think the default for real player leagues should follow more of a career arc based approach. So I've reduced the impact of team (to 0%) and seasonal factors (to 25%). I think this is more in line with what people expect when they play a league.
If you really want your league to start with correct historical team strength then bumping up the team adjustment can make sense, but I'll let people do that on their own.
Similarly, if you want your league to follow the ups and downs of player career more faithfully you can alway bump up the seasonal impact on ratings.
In addition, I've also made some HOF (impacts players who retire soon after the league starts) and retirement (impact the likelihood of players playing into their 40s) adjustments.
July 31, 2020 - New Feature
The Frivolities page now lets you see how many players are playing each position and who the top player at each position is.
Along with that I've also adjusted the criteria for all the positions to make leagues more balanced.
July 30, 2020 - New Feature
I made some improvements to both pro and fictional draft classes. There were also some general ratings improvements.
July 29, 2020 - New Feature
The Game Simulation before let you adjust the level of points, assists, etc. for a typical game. You can now adjust how concentrated those stats are among individual players.
In addition, the default concentration for assists, blocks, steals, and rebounds has been adjusted so the league leaders for those stats are more in line with the NBA.
July 28, 2020 - New Feature
There is now an Auto Play Options page that allows you to determine whether your team(s) will make trades.
July 27, 2020 - New Feature
You can now find out how many players there are, and who was/is the best player, from each state and/or city by going to the Frivolities page.
July 26, 2020 - New Feature
You can now adjust the frequency of trades between AI teams from nothing to essentially a limitless amount using God Mode.
I have also added hometowns (city and state) for all fictional players from the US.
July 25, 2020 - New Feature
The period before the NBA was created now does not have a draft.
With the creation of the NBA the game will evolve into a draft format. That format will then evolve many times as follows:
All of these draft options are also now available using God Mode.
July 24, 2020 - New Feature
In Europe it is more common to have a ladder system rather than a draft system. With drafts the worst teams get the best players and eventually can become the best teams. Without a draft the best teams tend to stay the best because they have an easier time getting the best younger players through free agency.
This is now reflected in EuroLeague, Chinese Basketball Association, and Liga ACB leagues. So the best teams should continue to stay good and it is that much harder to turn a weaker team around. However, you now also have the option choose which style by using God Mode.
July 23, 2020 - New Feature
For our NBA leagues there is a team adjustment that brings teams in those leagues in line with how they were in real life. While the Euroleague, Chinese Basketball Association, and Liga ACB do not have real players, they do now have that team adjustment. So the relative strength of teams in those leagues should be in line with how they are in real life. In addition, you can choose to remove or weaken that team adjustment using Advanced League Create.
July 22, 2020 - New Feature
The Liga ACB (Spain) is now an option when creating a league.
July 21, 2020 - New Feature
The Chinese Basketball Association is now an option when creating a league. Some features of that league are:
The logos/names for these teams are very different than what is common in the US or even the EU. Some fun facts about the team names and logos are:
July 20, 2020 - New Feature
In Europe the naming convention of teams is very different than the US. There isn't a mascot in the name. So I've updated the names of teams and the display to better reflect that. I also made some adjustments to other areas, such as points scored, salaries/team finances, and game length.
July 19, 2020 - New Feature
The EuroLeague is now an option when creating a league. Some features of that league are:
July 18, 2020 - New Feature
When basketball was first created when players left the game they were not able to re-enter. It was only in 1944 that unlimited re-entry was allowed.
You now have control of this by activating God Mode. For real player historical leagues the game will naturally evolve.
July 17, 2020 - New Feature
When basketball was first created they decided ties by sudden death where the team with next field goal or free throw would win. It was only later changed to be the modern full period style of overtime.
You now have control of this by activating God Mode. For real player historical leagues the game will naturally evolve from no penalty to the modern rules.
July 16, 2020 - New Feature
Starting in 1954 the NBA wanted to speed up the game. This led to the introduction of the shot clock. However, in order to prevent teams from preventing the other team from being able to take a shot in time a free throw penalty after each foul was introduced if there were too many team fouls in a quarter.
Starting in 1966 the NBA lowered the number of fouls before the penalty started from 6 to 5. They also added the ability for the penalty to start after commiting more than one team foul within the last two minutes of a quarter.
Once you activate God Mode, Grizzled GM Basketball now gives you control over whether to include the penalty in your league, and it gives you control over when the penalty will start, for regulation, overtime, and the last two minutes of a quarter. For real player historical league the game will naturally evolve from no penalty to the modern rules.
July 15, 2020 - New Feature
Keeping team information (logos, names, regions) fixed is an advanced option when creating a league. However, you if change your mind or only want the league to evolve to a certain point, you can now choose to change whether team information changes after a league is created using the Options page. As with creating a league, you can handle your specific team and the rest of the league differently.
July 14, 2020 - New Feature
Prior to 1937 there was a center jump ball after every made field goal. Using God Mode you now have the option to change this in your league. Historical leagues will naturally evolve to the current rule, which is the opposing team getting the ball.
July 13, 2020 - New Feature
Prior to 1924 free throws were taken by the best free throw shooter on the team rather than the person who was fouled. Using God Mode you now have the option to change this in your league. Historical leagues will naturally evolve.
In addition, the number of fouls to foul out has increased over time from 2, to 4, then 5, until we got to the current 6. Now historical leagues evolve the same way.
July 12, 2020 - New Feature
For historical leagues, whenever there is a rule change or an expansion team you should get notified of it and it should get tracked in the event log (Tools/Event Log).
In addition, if your team's logo, region, or name is changed you should also get notified. These types of changes are now tracked for every team in the event log as well.
July 11, 2020 - New Feature
When basketball was created in 1891 there were 2 halves of 15 minutes each. This was increased to 20 minutes in 1906. Eventually the NBA brought the current 4 quarters of 12 minutes each format. The game will now evolve in the same way.
In addition, the Game Simulation page now allows you to switch between halves or quarters (or any number of periods in a game).
July 10, 2020 - New Feature
When basketball was created in 1891 field goals were only worth 1 point. In 1896 it changed to the current 2 points. The game will impliment this rule change for you as it was in history. However, you can also go to the Game Simulation page to enable and disable this rule yourself.
July 9, 2020 - New Feature
The Game Simulation page now allows you to make era adjustments to steals, blocks, turnovers, offensive/defensive rebounds, and personal fouls. In addition, I've improved the era adjustments before 1950.
July 8, 2020 - New Feature
When God Mode is active you now have more control over your league's era. There is a new Game Simulation page that allows you to turn era adjustments off and also allows you to input your own era for FGs, FGAs, 3Ps, and 3PAs.
July 7, 2020 - New Feature
The Player Development page has been expanded to include options to control specific rating changes. When combined with the base rating options you now have essentially complete control over player development in your league.
July 6, 2020 - New Feature
I have expanded the ability to adjust leaguewide player development. You can now control the base ratings changes as well as the noise around those changes. I have moved everything to a new Player Development page that becomes available when God Mode is active.
July 5, 2020 - New Feature
The base ratings change every year for players can now be adjusted using God Mode. You can now set your own player development career arc for the league. This primarily impacts fictional players and real players outside of the 1950-2020 period where season and team adjustments can matter a lot (unless you turn them off).
July 4, 2020 - New Feature
Previously you had to always choose whether to repeat a single year using the Advanced Play Menu. Now you can use God Mode to do the same in case you forgot when creating the league or used a quick league create option.
Using God Mode also now allows you to repeat a year that isn't the starting year of the league. So at any time during your league you can choose to do this now.
July 3, 2020 - New Feature
The Advanced Play Menu gives you the option to adjust how much impact the year and team player ratings adjustments have for real player leagues. You can now adjust those using the Options page after a league has been created. Changes there will impact future player development.
Previously you also only had the option of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. The Options page now gives a custom option so you can try any adjustment between 0% and 100% instead of just those 5.
July 2, 2020 - New Feature
Having the full team real player ratings adjustment does produce the most accurate real player ratings. So that is the default setting. However, if you want the league to evolve in a more random way you now can turn it off or limit the impact it has in the Advanced Play Menu.
July 1, 2020 - New Feature
The team adjusted real player ratings improvement now also impacts real player development beyond the initial year the league is created. Before it just impacted the first year of a league.
The adjustment is applied based on the team the player would normally have been on and not the team a player may now be on due to the league starting to become different from the NBA. This should prevent massive team strength and player rating changes after that first year.
This adjustment now also makes the NBA career advanced option very realistic in terms of player careers, team success, and individual season accuracy.
June 30, 2020 - New Feature
The advanced team adjustment has now been added for all years for real player ratings. This should be an improvement even from the prior 1984 and 1985 adjustments previously made. This adjustment should produce team results consistently in line with the actual NBA for at least that initial year for Real Player / Real Team leagues.
June 29, 2020 - New Feature
I've added a pretty minor simplified team adjustment for real player ratings. It applies to all years except very recent years, where existing data already incorporates the adjustment fairly well.
Next I'll be looking to expand the advanced team adjustment, currently only used in 1984 and 1985.
June 28, 2020 - New Feature
The team based player ratings adjustments for 1984 and 1985 have now been brought over to Real Player / Real Team leagues. Before it was just for NBA Career leagues (and only if you started in prior years). Now they will be in effect when you start leagues in either 1984 or 1985.
June 27, 2020 - New Feature
Again, this improvement for now is only for the NBA Career leagues. If you create a league starting in 1983 or earlier you will come across the newly improved 1984 ratings and also the previously improved 1985 ratings.
June 26, 2020 - New Feature
This improvement for now is only in the NBA Career leagues. If you create the leagues starting in 1984 or earlier you will come across the improved 1985 ratings. I'll be looking to expand coverage in the coming days.
The main benefit of this improvement is improved relative team strength. Previously, by incorporating season specific stats in player ratings it can inflate players on bad teams. Also, if there are a lot of good players on good teams they may not appear as good as they really are. So this latest change incorporates team synergy that leads to wins that maybe isn't as obvious just looking at stats for individual players.
So I think the coming combined career based ratings, season based ratings, and team based ratings should make results pretty accurate on a player level, a season level, and a team level across all years.
June 25, 2020 - New Feature
For the recently added NBA Career option all players now should display the team they were drafted by.
June 24, 2020 - New Feature
For the recently added NBA Career option some players would not show a drafted team. All players now should display the team they were drafted by for leagues that are just a few season. It looks like the issue is still there for leagues that start in 1950 and go for decades. So I will review this more tomorrow as well.
June 22, 2020 - New Feature
Previously you could choose for a league to start as it did in the NBA for some particular year. Then over time the league would diverge from the NBA. The Advanced Play Menu now has an option that forces players to be on the actual teams they had for their careers. So Bill Russell will always be on Boston and Michael Jordan will always play for the Bulls, no matter when you start your league. Whatever changes happen during the year do not carry over to the next year.
June 21, 2020 - New Feature
Real Player Historical leagues have playoffs changes, new divisions, and teams that change divisions. All of these are now taken into account if you look at the history of the league. Here are some of the pages with changes:
Depending on how old your league is some of these improvements may not be fully supported. However, any new leagues should display correctly.
June 20, 2020 - New Feature
You can now keep the number of teams fixed for historical leagues. In addition, when using fictional players with real teams you can now have those league undergo normal expansion. These are both options when using the Advanced Play Menu when creating a league.
June 19, 2020 - New Feature
Historical leagues will now expand the number of divisions from 2 to 4 in 1971. Then again the number of division will expand from 4 to 6 in 2005. You can turn this off in the Advanced Play Menu when creating a league.
June 18, 2020 - New Feature
The default for historical leagues is for team cities, names, and logos to evolve over time as it happened in real life. However, the user's team(s) does not change. So if you wanted to be the Seattle SuperSonics the game won't change it on you.
The Advanced Play Menu now gives the option for you to keep cities, names and logos fixed or let them evolve. You can do this for the league as a whole and for the specific teams you control.
June 17, 2020 - New Feature
As we have expanded the number of options when creating a league it has made that process a little cumbersome if you just want something simple or are new to the game. So I have created:
The prior Create New League is now called the Advanced Play Menu.
June 16, 2020 - New Feature
The League Analytics page now has a dropdown that allows you to switch between current players and healthy players. So you can see how you should expect teams to perform now and in the future when they get fully healthy.
In addition, I've also added the ability to sort the roster page by purely overall ratings as well as the standard position adjusted sort.
June 15, 2020 - New Feature
I have added the real players of the first ever basketball game in 1891 to the 1891 league. So now every league type has real players.
In addition, I also reviewed the pre-1940 real player ratings and made some adjustments.
June 11, 2020 - New Feature
Now that we can test a single year repeatedly I thought it was a good time to review the 2020 real player ratings. I've made some pretty significant adjustments. I think the results in terms of player stats and team results are more in line.
I tested the new ratings for the 2020 season for 20 years. The championship results were:
June 10, 2020 - New Feature
You can now create a league and have your league repeatedly reset itself every year. Any change you make during the initial preseason using God Mode for that league should carry over to the following seasons.
In the past if you made a change during a particular year you could simulate it and see what happens. But in one year anything can happen. However, if you simulate that year over 100 seasons you start to get a better idea of what might have really happened.
So if you wonder, what would have happened if Jordan was on another team in 1991? Now you can really test that in a real way.
There is also nothing preventing you from repeatedly trying to win in a particular year. Maybe you just care about 2020. Now you can repeatedly try to win in that year without having to create a new league. It also keeps all your stats/results in one league so you can easily export it to save.
June 9, 2020 - New Feature
Currently our real player draft classes go until 2024. In the past after that draft classes used fictional players. Now you can choose to use historical real player draft classes starting in 2025.
When you create a league you are given the option to not loop historical real player draft classes, loop once (after the league hits the 2024 draft class again it would stop and revert to fictional), or infinately loop historical real player draft classes. It also gives you the option to determine what year those historical real player draft classes start. So if you pick 1980 the 2025 draft class would be the draft class from 1980.
June 8, 2020 - New Feature
With the recent real player rating changes incorporating season stats along with the standard player development we were using before it makes ratings very realistic. However, there were some situations where fluky things happened for some players. So I did a bunch of long term testing in order better handle these situations. I also fixed a retirement bug.
Looking at the HOF now I would say the biggest difference compared to real life is there are some players who got injured, or even were kicked out of the league, when they were still at the peak of their careers. One year they are NBA All-Stars and the next they are gone. In Grizzled GM Basketball you get to see what those careers may have been.
The biggest example of this that I found was Maurice Stokes:
Unfortunately, in the last game of the 1957-58 NBA regular season he fell to the floor and was knocked unconscious. He was revived with smelling salts and returned to the game. He then went and played a playoff game 3 days later. On the flight back from the game he fell ill. He later suffered a seizure and was left permanently paralyzed. He was only able to communicate by blinking.
His close friend and teammate, Jack Twyman, became his legal gaurdian. Jack organized the "Maurice Stokes Memorial Basketball Game" to help raise money for his medical expenses that the NBA stars of the day would come play in. Stokes died in 1970 and they actually made a 1973 film about him called Maurie.
So in Grizzled GM Basketball Maurice Stokes plays on.
June 7, 2020 - New Feature
Player ratings have changed over the past couple months as we introduced real players and then used those ratings to create fictional players as well. This had thrown off the position calculation for a number of players. I have now updated those calculations to better fit with the current ratings system.
June 6, 2020 - New Feature
Just yesterday I adjusted how real player leagues were created. Now I've adjusted how real player ratings development is done. I've also made it a new league menu option. So if you want to do something different you are free to.
Real players had followed normal player developement. I have now changed it to be 75% based on the particular year in the player's real career and 25% based on normal development.
So if in real life a player came on strong late in his career then in Grizzled GM the same thing will happen. Similarly, if the player faded quickly then in Grizzled GM he will fade as well.
Again, for those that don't want players to follow their NBA careers too closely, you can adjust this when you create a league.
June 5, 2020 - New Feature
I've adjusted how real player ratings are calculated. I've also made it a new league menu option. So if you want to do something different you are free to.
Previously, the Real Players / Real Teams option was based on how players had done on the particular year you were creating the league. Meanwhile, the random and drafted options were based on an alternate career path for players.
The benefit of doing it based on a particular year is that the league will represent that particular year really well. The downside is that players that had a great year may be inflated and those inflated ratings will carry on. Similarly with players who happen to have down years.
Alternatively, making it based on a possible career path of the player means it may deviate substantially if unusual things happened to that player. The benefit is it will be wrong a little differently than basing it purely on a particular year.
So by combining these two I think the ratings overall are a little more accurate with less extreme outliers. I've also made this apply to all types (real teams, drafted, and random)
For those that like those extremes, or want a different career path for players, I have added a new league dropdown that gives users the ability to have one or the other, or some different mix of the two.
June 4, 2020 - New Feature
The Team Analytics and League Analytics pages have a variety of information to help you manage your team. One of those is the synergy of the players on the court. I have now brought that to the Roster page. So you can adjust your starting lineup and watch how the synergy of your starters is changing.
June 3, 2020 - New Feature
I am following up the Team Analytics page with the League Analytics page. Now you can compare across teams things like the best players on each team, average overall of the starting five, and average overall of the depth players. This is along with the starting five synergy, composite ratings, and skills that were in the Team Analytics page. This should make it easier to figure out where your weaknesses are. It should also help finding trade partners that are strong in areas you are weak in.
June 3, 2020 - New Feature
If you play until 2100 you will now see the NBA expand in two phases. The first is European expansion during the 2050s. The next is Asian expansion starting in the 2080s.
You might wonder where this is all coming from. Well there are lot of companies trying to get us to space cheaply. The start of that is probably helping NASA, then space tourism, and then eventually it will be used to cut travel time of long distance trips substantially. We could eventually be able to travel essentially anywhere in the world in under 3 hours.
As an example, we went from two guys getting a plan off the ground in 1903 to having mass air travel by the 1970s. If you look at baseball that enabled the league to branch out in the 1950-60s from the northeast to more southern and western cities. The NBA wasn't around prior to the 1940s, but if you look at those older leagues they are very concentrated as far as location.
So if we are on a similar timeline by 2100 the idea of worldwide sports leagues become a lot more feasible. There are still challenges as far as time zone differences, but we have those challenges now as well. Eventually they will probably figure it out or at least make it worth tolerating. At Grizzled GM we are on top of it and the future is here.
June 1, 2020 - New Feature
I was getting a lot interest from users in being able to calculate certain game simulation information such as team synergy. You can do this by exporting data from the game and doing the calculations yourself, but even getting it for only the starters of each team is a ton of work. I simplified this by creating a page that shows this information for the most likely combination of players that are the on court for a team in the new Team Analytics page.
May 31, 2020 - New Feature
Real player prospects for the 2024 draft class have been added.
May 30, 2020 - New Feature
For the real player 2023 draft class the number of prospects has been expanded to over 50.
May 29, 2020 - New Feature
The top 20 real player prospects have been added to the 2023 real player draft class.
May 28, 2020 - New Feature
For the real player 2022 draft class the number of prospects has been expanded to over 60.
May 27, 2020 - New Feature
The top 30 real player prospects have been added to the 2022 real player draft class.
May 26, 2020 - New Feature
For the real player 2021 draft class the number of prospects has been expanded to over 60.
May 25, 2020 - New Feature
The top 30 real player prospects have been added to the 2021 real player draft class.
May 24, 2020 - New Feature
For the real player 2020 draft class the number of prospects has been expanded to over 60. Also, the ratings for the entire draft class have been refined.
May 23, 2020 - New Feature
The top 30 real prospects have been added to the 2020 real player draft class.
May 22, 2020 - New Feature
Real players before the 1940 (and back to the 1890s) now have pictures and colleges.
May 21, 2020 - New Feature
I have extended the real player draft classes back to 1895. Now when you play those pre NBA leagues the teams will have real players and the drafts will include real players.
May 20, 2020 - New Feature
It was only 7 years prior to the creation of the National Basketball League (NBL) that basketball itself was created. So to be thorough I added a league type in 1891 that is only two teams and represents the start of it all.
The team names are the Gulick Skins and the Naismith Shirts. That is because while James Naismith did invent the sport it was actually his job to do so because Dr. Luther Gulick, head of physical education at the Springfield YMCA (now called Springfield College), thought he could use an "athletic distraction" for Naismith's rowdy students during the harsh New England winter.
May 19, 2020 - New Feature
Grizzled GM Basketball has now added the National Basketball League (NBL) which was started in 1898. It was the first professional basketball league ever created. In honor of those initial teams I've kept them all even though two of them only played 5 and 7 games respectively that first season (the most any team played was 21) before leaving the league. In fact, the league itself was only around for 6 years and had 23 different teams, but only had between 5 and 8 at one time.
So now you can start in 1899 and watch the NBL convert to the ABL and then eventually to the NBA.
May 18, 2020 - New Feature
Grizzled GM Basketball has now added the American Basketball League (ABL) which was started in 1925. Aside from two years during the peak of the Great Depression in 1931-33, it operated until 1953. Ultimately the NBA did surpass it, but in Grizzled GM Basketball it just becomes the NBA for now.
Scheduling and who was even in the ABL was constantly in flux. I've given it a 35 game schedule which eventually expands to 72 and then 82 as it becomes the NBA.
Teams in the ABL were also constantly coming and going from the league (even mid season). A lot of teams back then were like the Harlem Globetrotters. They just played whoever they wanted. Many also did not survive very long. What I did was take 8 of the top teams through the league's history to use. The teams are:
May 17, 2020 - New Feature
I added two more significant years to the League Types dropdown. I added 1950 because it captures the start of the peak years of George Mikan. I added 1947 because it is where our real player draft classes start.
Here is some background on George Mikan for those who aren't that familiar with him:
May 16, 2020 - New Feature
Extended the real player database improvements from the 1980s to 2020.
May 15, 2020 - New Feature
Across all years there were weaker player that could get excluded from teams. I've rectified this along with doing some other database improvements.
May 14, 2020 - New Feature
I continued to do work on the real player database by including missing players and fixing other issues, such as bad names. This time it was more focused on the 1960s and 1970s.
May 13, 2020 - New Feature
Some people have mentioned missing players. So I have gone back and filled in the gaps in some of our data. For this update there were gaps filled in the 1940s and 1950s. Real players now start to show up in draft classes as far back as 1945. So if you create a 1945 league real players will start showing up in that 1945 draft class.
May 12, 2020 - New Feature
A user mentioned that some of the older leagues had too many centers and not enough gaurds. The solution to that was was just putting in some era adjustments for the players. This should improve ratings and also team balance.
One issue with that is some changes from era to era are just the players may be better in 2020 than in 1947. So era adjustments can mask that. On the other hand, when it comes to team position balance the era adjustment is a huge benefit. So I think it deserves to be there and I can always adjust how large it should be going forward.
May 11, 2020 - New Feature
The historical league draft classes could be missing some of the top players in some years due to a bug. This is now fixed. Michael Jordon should always show up in the 1984 draft class.
When starting historical leagues sometimes there would be two of one player on some teams. It is because that player was drafted twice in real life. I have now corrrected for this.
The historical league drafts would include undrafted players where they were drafted in real life. Now they will just be undrafted.
The playoff adjustments had thrown off the historical league average points scored. I've now corrected this while also maintaining playoff historical accuracy.
Lastly, I tried to preserve leagues that didn't have the evolving salary cap, but I may have failed on my initial attempt. I made some changes that should be more robust in preserving those older league from having their salary caps changed.
May 10, 2020 - New Feature
Yesterday I had been reviewing contracts. So today I decided to bring the era adjustments to contracts and the salary cap as well. These changes will only apply to new real player historical leagues. If I didn't break anything older leagues should continue as they were.
Prior to 1985 there was no salary cap. Then once it was introduced it gradually increased to current levels. Grizzled GM Basketball now does the same thing. If you go to the League Finances page you will be able to see how the salary cap evolved by looking at past years.
May 9, 2020 - New Feature
I was looking to make the playoffs even more realistic. A lot of the issue is low seeded teams doing unusually well. One solution to this is fixing the parity in the league. Why aren't the top teams even better? This comes down to AI roster contruction.
After reviewing the teams I made some adjustments that give AI teams the flexibility to become dominant teams. The top AI teams need to be able to keep strong teams together. They need to be able to sign good quality backup players to have depth in case of injury. Weaker teams should in turn also have a harder time getting cheap depth.
One of the more major changes was I adjusted contracts to be smaller so that AI teams have a little more flexibility until the AI logic improves enough to be able to more effectively navigate how the NBA really moves top players around (which is something for me to work on in the future)
In order to better track how accurately the game is handling playoff performance the League History page now shows how many #1 seeds, #2 seeds, #3 seeds, and #4-#8 won a championship and have been runner ups. For the most part it seems pretty accurate. There are still slightly too many weaker teams getting to the finals, but it is much better than a couple days ago.
May 8, 2020 - New Feature
In the NBA normally the #1 seeds are the ones who win the championships. And it is also likely another #1 seed was runner-up. Grizzled GM Basketball is more in line with this. Should an upset happen it should be a closer series, there may have been injury factors, or there just happens to be more parity that year.
Part of the change is the playoffs are different than the regular season. The best players are going to be thinking less of getting through a long season and more about not getting eliminated. It is going to impact when they rest and how much of the offense goes through them. Team cohesion is probably greater as well.
Also, when reviewing the playoffs I noticed that the ratings of top players might be a little low. So I did make some adjustments particularly in how strong the top players are in both real and fictional leagues.
May 7, 2020 - New Feature
The NBA has had a lot of changes over the years. Grizzled GM Basketball historical leagues change very similarly. So I've created a page that allows you to see those changes more clearly all in one place, a League Stats page. You can see the number of teams change, points scored change, the introduction of the three point shot, and more.
One other benefit is this page makes it that much easier for me to make sure the game is as realistic as possible. And sure enough, I did notice one area to improve right away once I created this page. So pre 1974 leagues are going to be even more accurate than before.
May 6, 2020 - New Feature
Right off the bat let me tell you that the new Team Player rating is not in the game simulation yet. You can also only see it with new leagues on the Player Ratings page for real players before the year 2000. So it is something on the horizon and this is a preview of it.
What it seeks to capture is all the things normal stats don't capture about a player. What a lot of people might call the make up of a team player. Good players can be team players and weaker player can not be. The key thing is these are players that are adding value to the team in less obvious ways.
Right now it is focused on years prior to 2000. That is partly due to the NBA not being what it was even 20 years ago when it comes to things such as the rate threes. Also, data has changed in the past 20 years. So I'll be handling those years differently.
I think the current rating does a good job prior to 2000 and I'll be looking to expand on it and eventually integrate it into the game simulation. For now it is there for your curiousity. Feel free to give me feedback on it.
May 5, 2020 - New Feature
In historical real player leagues all teams now will gradually change logos, regions, names, and abbreviations over time.
Here are some of the changes you will see:
May 4, 2020 - New Feature
More teams now will gradually change logos, regions, names, and abbreviations. In addition to Seattle/Oklahoma City, Utah, New Orleans, Brooklyn, Golden State, and Detroit will now evolve over time.
May 3, 2020 - New Feature
If you start a real player league before 1967, you will now see Seattle enter the league, and go through numberous logo changes, before they eventually become Oklahoma City.
May 2, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league there is now a way to enter what year you want. If you use the existing dropdown the year will automatically adjust. But you may not want to play 1981, but 1985. You can now do that. You can also go into the future and see who is still around or what prospect is now dominating the league. If you don't feel like using real players don't worry, it works for fictional player leagues as well.
You can also try creating a real player league before 1947 in order to be able to draft every pro draft class we have.
May 1, 2020 - New Feature
Previously Real Players / Real Teams was only for 2020. Now it goes back all the way to 1956. Again, this is the game option that is the most realistic for that particular year. The Drafted Team and Random Teams options are alternate NBAs where players may have evolved differently.
The combination of Real Players / Real Teams, expansion, era adjustments, and real player drafts, all back to 1956, should combine for a very realistic experience. If you notice any weaknesses do let me know.
April 30, 2020 - New Feature
Previously for historical leagues I had adjusted for the introduction of the three point shot (and the eventually widespread use of it). I also made adjustments for pace of play. However, a lot of aspects of the game are related. So I now have expanded those era adjustment to include other things such as the offensive/defensive rebound ratio. All together it just makes it that much easier for it mimic past eras. Check it out and let me know where I can get better.
April 29, 2020 - New Feature
The new default player mode is Real Players / Real Teams. However, it only applies to the Current NBA. For older leagues it will revert to Real Players / Drafted Teams. Of course, you can also play Real Players / Random Teams as well.
While the random and drafted types can be an alternative NBA, the new type is better reflective of the actual NBA today. Particularly when it comes to team strength. It also has things such as real contracts and long term injuries.
April 28, 2020 - New Feature
In 1958 the NBA only had a 3 round playoff and the first round was a best of three. In 2020 it has 4 rounds, each a best of 7. A lot has changed over the years. Now Grizzled GM Basketball historical leagues will change in the same way. If you go to the Playoffs page you can review the playoffs for each year your league has existed and track the changes.
April 27, 2020 - New Feature
There was a major draft bug in historical leagues with expansion. That is fixed now.
The initial release of expansion for historical leagues was very basic. The teams just entered the league haphazardly allowing the league to grow from as low 8 up to 30. I've now refined it so those team will enter during the actual expansion years.
I've also refined conference and division placement a bit for expansion teams to better ensure balance across divisions in leagues with more than 2.
April 26, 2020 - New Feature
The NBA has changed a lot over the years. It used to have 8 teams and now it has 30. Prior to 1979-80 there wasn't a 3-point shot. And even when it came it wasn't used much. In the 1989/90 season there were only 6.6 threes per game. Now we are at 33.9 per game.
One other big thing that has changed is scoring in general. During the 1961-62 season there were 118.8 pts/game. Then after falling for years it bottomed at 93.4 pts/game during the 2003/04 season. Now thanks to the increasing usage of the 3-point shot it is back up to 111.4 pts/game.
Grizzled GM Basketball now takes these things into consideration. So if you play in a league and it is prior to 2000 big men are going to matter more. If your league is in the 2010s they will matter less. You can check how the league has adjusted if you go to the Team Stats page in the game, which shows stats for every year you have played your league.
In addition to the above, I also made some adjustments to player development, contracts, league creation, and maybe more things. A lot of new features have come. So I'm refining still. If it isn't exactly how you think it should be let me know. I may be able to make an adjustment. Thanks!
April 25, 2020 - New Feature
Expansion is here, but in a very basic state. All that happens is new teams are added to historical real player leagues over time until they reach 30.
Nothing else in the league changes. The playoffs don't change. The logos don't change. Names don't change. There are just more teams.
You can start from as far back as 1956 (which is nice because there are just two divisions) or as late as 1996 (when there are already 29 teams). Either way any remaining expansion teams will be added over time.
April 24, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1955/56 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1961/62 NBA are:
April 23, 2020 - New Feature
You can now play with real players on the teams that originally drafted them. In this variation the historical draft will be in line with history. The game will then assume players stay with those teams.
This is now the default option when playing. You can still play with players on random teams and with revised historical drafts, but you have to change the player dropdown to this option.
In addition to the above, when you create a league you can now choose the 1961/62 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1966/67 NBA are:
April 22, 2020 - New Feature
We had just updated our real player development. I've now brought that over to our fictional players. So they both should now be more realistic.
One benefit of this, aside from generally being better, is that when the real player league runs out of real player drafts the new fictional players will have similar ratings and progression.
In addition to the above, when you create a league you can now choose the 1966/67 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1967/68 NBA are:
April 21, 2020 - New Feature
Real player ratings development has been overhauled to make real player ratings more realistic.
As reddit user legend023 pointed out, the ratings for modern players could be really off before. This was in large part due to some unrealistic player development elements in the game. I've adjusted these for the real player leagues.
This improvement will be most noticeable using the current year players. However, even for older leagues with older players there should still be some improvement.
In addition to the above, when you create a league you can now choose the 1967/68 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1968/69 NBA are:
If you notice any issues please do let me know. It can impact the order I work on things even if I am aware of it. Thanks!
April 20, 2020 - New Feature
The default league option is now Real Players / Random Teams with the league starting in 1980/81. What that means is the teams will have real players, but the teams they are on will be a recreation of how history could have gone instead of what really happened.
Similarly, once you start playing, each of the coming drafts will then have the real players up until 2019, but draft position will differ, so the league will be an alternate history of the NBA.
I've chosen 1980/81 as the default starting point, but feel free to start with an older league or newer. It should all work. Real player draft classes should be able to go back as far 1947.
This is the first release and it is still being refined. I wanted to release it because it is playable and I thought you could enjoy it. One caveat for now is that older player are more accurate than newer players (past 10 years or so). It isn't anything permanent. I just haven't gotten to it yet.
It seemed to run fine when I tested it. Please do let me know about any bugs you find or new features you want. Thanks!
April 19, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1968/69 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1970/71 NBA are:
April 18, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1970/71 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1974/75 NBA are:
April 17, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1974/75 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1976/77 NBA are:
April 16, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1976/77 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1980/81 NBA are:
April 15, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1980/81 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1988/89 NBA are:
April 14, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1988/89 NBA teams.
The main differences with the 1989/90 NBA are:
Also, the 89, 90, and 96 leagues now all have a 5 game first round playoff.
April 13, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1989/90 NBA teams without using a file.
The main differences with the 1995/96 NBA are:
Check out our subreddit to follow the latest updates and provide feedback.
April 12, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 1995/96 NBA teams without using a file.
The main differences with the 2004/05 NBA are:
In addition, when you create a historical league the season will be the same (so a 1995/96 league will start in 1996)
If you have suggestions feel free to reach out. Thanks!
April 11, 2020 - New Feature
When you create a league you can now choose the 2004/05 NBA teams without using a file.
The main differences with the current NBA are:
As always, please do let me know about any bugs you find. Thanks!
April 10, 2020 - New Feature
Our first major feature since we went live yesterday is finally here!
Of course, you could always upload a team file with the correct NBA team names, logos, jersey colors, and population. However, wouldn't be easier if it was already there? Now it is!
There is now a League Type dropdown when you create a league. It will default to the current NBA teams. However, if you want to play with the Grizzled GM teams that is an option as well.
It seemed to run fine when I tested. Please do let me know about any bugs you find. Thanks!