I'm a huge fan of basketball and I love management sims like Football Manager so this was an easy buy for me. I have played it for about 10 hours now and I've reached the conclusion that though it is imperfect, it is an excellent sim. This is a game that should attract a fanatical following and the community (like in FM) should improve it by adding content such as new tactics.

Well done stuff:

Unbelievably they have all the exemptions (except the injured player exception) correct.
You can balance out the play time and get advice from the coach. You will want to intervene here or the coach will try to play an older guy that is a star for 40+ minutes against even bad teams.
You can add plays and call them. This works really well if you have a bad defending but fantastic 3 pt specialist. You can make sure he is on the perimiter, drive a player to the paint and toss the ball to one side of the court to draw off guards, and then funnel it to your player on the 3 point line. It works really well.

You'll want to change your database to the uploaded ones with real player names in them. It is uploaded by users to the forums.

Rough edges:

There are a few small player management issues such as number of players in the off-season. I get the impression that teams don't have strategies for tanking if they are already eliminated which helps rebuilding.

I'd like to be able to scout upcoming draft classes.

There are some calendar issues with the game (for when a trade can be made).

What it's not:

It's not NBA jam. You don't have an immersive gametime experience (when they are on the court). The graphics - even in 3d mode - do not compare to playstation etc. The focus of this game is what happens off the court (though you also have a part of the game for calling plays which you need to beat strong teams.)

Conclusion:

All in all it's a great game. I'm super-satisfied with my purchase. Right now it's 40% off so if you love the NBA and sims you should grab it.

Such a pretty nice game for the basketball fans. The 3D is a great improvement, as well as the differents tactic options. My single complain is about the players' names (FAKES !!!).

Such a great game for sports gaming lovers. Undisputed leader of its own kind, if you really love the game of basketball and various details related to it, this game is for you! To be able to manage a basketball team in such a detailed way with the joy of choosing from many different countries (including women teams) is such a privilege for gamers.

This game has great potential. But it's essentially half finished (as of the build in mid Dec 2014), and should actually be labeled as an early access game.

Buy it if you like the concept and want to support the development team. Otherwise, wait another year.

This game isn't even close to being polished and ready to be sold. For starters the user manual is useless and I cannot find out how to sign free agents. Lots of spelling or grammar errors. Game randomly locks up and crashes. I wish Steam would offer refunds.

In one sentence, this is a good game for basketball fans.

From the 2014 version : The biggest defaults have been removed :
- The UI is now really nice and the new statistics pages are really good (ones with filters).
- No more loading times (I've selected 9championships while the game was advicing me to select only 5 and the game is really smooth).
- The online documentation isn't complete now but I found it really helpful in some cases (it helped me to understand how to make good trades for example).


Pros :
- Ability to create your own plays
- I'm not a big NBA Fan but I really like to play with a NBA team and manage the salary cap and exceptions
- Managing the arena and change every little detail is pretty cool (change the beers price for example)
- I really had the impression of having the ability to influence games with my tactics/substitutions.
- The ability to use "quick plays" in games is perfect (juste click on a player and say "take a 3pts shot on next possession"
- I like the scouting system, though it could be better with the ability to send a scout to observe a country/league instead of only individual players
- game's lifetime is huge
- Italian language has been review since last version (I play in Italian)


Cons :
- Games realism can be improved sometimes
- 3D a bit messy sometimes
- Players' tiredness in game and during trainings should be improved.


I'll update this review after playing more. I'm just waiting a real name patch to create a new game.

Good game so far, good simulations and good 3D games (if you can have it). Many things are improved : loading times, IU, systems... Way better than last year version !

Game is very, very unpolished. For starters, their is no tie in with the steam workshop. In my opinion workshop integration is a must have for sports management games. It allows users to tie in faces and databases to the game.

I changed the resolution settings accidentally and now it is impossible to change them back as I can't click the save button. I've tried uninstalling the game and Steam, and changing my PC resolution, nothing works. Don't download.

the game sucks fix it