Potential/Upside rating

I wish there were a potential/upside rating like there is in the NHL series, that way Carmelo could have the higher rating now, maybe a 84-85 with a potential rating of 93-94, and LeBron could have the lower rating for the first year, maybe 81-82 with a potential rating of 96-97. This would also help out with high schoolers or europeans, like Darko, who never get any better unless you control them. In the fifth year of one of my dynasties, he was still rated like 45 and wasn't even on the bench in DET. If he had a potential rating, he would eventually begin to move upward, even if he didn't actually play.

There is the careerpkg that makes players more or less likely to develop. In my roster I went through each player and adjusted this, I've never had a dynasty since then where Darko didn't at least make the All-NBA Second Team.

I've tried editing this too and it never seems to make a difference. Instead, it seems to make players retire younger. Anyways, I'd like EA to put this in the game as opposed to buried in a small dbf file. It would make the draft more interesting.

I know it already has the thing in the scouting report saying "Career Development: Excellent," but it doesn't seem to be that accurate. I once had the first overall pick from a trade, and my two options were players with no weaknesses, but the projected #1 overall had that career development status as low, while the #2 projected had almost identical comments, but his career development was excellent. Obviously I took the #2 guy. He started for my team at SF, while the other guy was on the bench of the wizards, yet both players were rated 79.

After three years, my guy averaged a decrease in overall of about two or three a year, and I eventually buried him on my bench. The guy on the wizards was now a first-team all-star and was rated 89. I then checked the careerpkg dbf file, and they had the same pkg, so I didn't understand why this happened. If there was a potential/upside rating, it would affect the players overall rating, even if he played very little for a good team.

After three years, my guy averaged a decrease in overall of about two or three a year, and I eventually buried him on my bench. The guy on the wizards was now a first-team all-star and was rated 89. I then checked the careerpkg dbf file, and they had the same pkg, so I didn't understand why this happened. If there was a potential/upside rating, it would affect the players overall rating, even if he played very little for a good team.

Maybe his ratings dropped because you didn't use him too much in your dynasty after he got drafted. Just like in real life, you can't expect a player to improve if you don't give him the right amount of playing time.

I like the sound of the Potential rating though.

Kwame Brown!

I would like it much more if drafting wasn't so easy. Most rookies drafted 1-5 have immediate impact in Live while usually taht is not the case(especially not averaging 20+ points a game)

Maybe his ratings dropped because you didn't use him too much in your dynasty after he got drafted. Just like in real life, you can't expect a player to improve if you don't give him the right amount of playing time.

EA maintain that the amount of playing time doesn't matter - it's all controlled by the CAREERPKG rating. It's not a bad system, but it can be too random. Even a player with a good CAREERPKG may not develop - they have great potential but just don't fulfil it. In that sense it's realistic, but as I said, pretty random.

A visible potential rating that has much more of an effect on player development would certainly be nice. With all the other improvements to Dynasty Mode, I'm sure this is one of the things EA is thinking about; if not for NBA Live 2005 then for future titles.