In addition to the basketball players themselves, the team benefits from hiring different staff members to help out with various tasks, some being essential, others can best be described as secondary. A small fraction of the essential staff members also have a specialty, which enables them to help your team in an additional way. The level of the staff member does not impact the effectiveness of the specialty.
Essential staff
Doctors help reduce the severity of player injuries. Once a player is injured, a Doctor will also help him heal more quickly, but the effect is much smaller than the initial reduction in severity. Doctors can have the following specialties:
- Taping Injuries: There is a small chance that a player's minor injury can be taped up immediately, and he will be able to return to the game at the start of the next quarter.
- Massage: Players who play too many minutes in a given week will not experience as severe a drop in game shape.
Trainers assist the coach in making the most of the team training hours, both in-game and during the week. Trainers can have the following specialties:
- Career Extension: Older players will not experience skill drops as frequently.
- Fitness: The magnitude of the Stamina drops experienced by your players is decreased.
Public Relations Managers help market the team to the fans, encouraging more people to show up to games and be willing to pay more for tickets. Public Relation Managers can have the following specialties:
- Crowd Involvement: Your team will experience a slightly stronger Home-Court Advantage for your home games.
- National Appeal: When your team is on the road, your opponents will have a slightly decreased Home-Court Advantage.
Secondary staff
Youth Trainer will focus only 18 and 19 year old players, giving them extra training on top of what they learn from the main trainer. He'll give them that all important training boost that just might make them eligible for a NT call-up (eventually!). But to really feel the change, only top level youth trainers should be hired, and those will cost you a lot though.
Sports Psychologist will help with the the players' state of mind. Sometimes, no matter the minutes, some of your most important players just can't hit their best form in the worst of times, like the playoffs, etc... This is where this guy comes in handy - he'll make sure they have their heads straight and will help keep their form up, even if the minutes are suboptimal.
Nutritionist keeps tabs on what the players eat, obviously. And let's face it, stamina drops are a drag. Having to spend valuable training weeks on keeping the stamina up is even worse! This is where proper nutrition helps - having someone plan the meals can really slow down the stamina drop rate, and high level nutritionists can even stop the decay completely! The best ones can even give it a boost!
You can employ only one staff member of each type at a time. The quality of your staff member is indicated by his Skill Level, which ranges from "minimal" to "world-renowned". A Doctor with minimal skill might tell your player with a broken leg to take two aspirin, while a level world-renowned PR Manager can rouse up enthusiasm in a graveyard, and convince the inhabitants that all the cool zombies have luxury box seats to the 0-22 Loserville Rejecteds. Every new club starts out with a minimal skill Doctor, Trainer and PR Manager; the secondary staff are yours to hire.
At any time, you can hire a new assistant from the Staff Market, a tab of the Market. Everyone there is up for auction, and all of the other managers are looking too: your bid is the signing bonus you offer, and the highest bid when the clock runs out gets the assistant. When you sign a new staff member, your current one of that type is replaced: you pay him one week's salary in severance and he goes back on the market. You can also fire a staff member from your Staff page; you pay no severance, and a Doctor, Trainer or PR Manager you fire is replaced at once by one of minimal skill with no specialty, who stays until you sign someone better. Since good help is hard to find, your staff will charge a pretty penny for their services. Every week, each staff member will demand a small increase in salary, so it's in your best interest to keep an eye open for fresh staff.
There are some differences to the secondary staff from the essential ones: they don't really need to be hired at all, they never have a specialty, and they cannot be hired internally. You can let them go any time, which saves your team their salary. Replacing one with a new signing still pays his predecessor a week's salary in severance, so make sure to take that into consideration when hiring.
One more way to fill an essential role: once per club, you can hire internally, turning one of your own players into your Doctor, Trainer or PR Manager. You choose the role, a skill level from basic upwards and whether he brings a specialty, and you see the price and his weekly salary before you confirm. The player stays on your roster, and the staff member he replaces is paid his week of severance and put back on the market.