Pocket GM: Basketball Sim
Manage a Basketball Dynasty!
Ratings
Age
4+
Category
Sports
Languages
English
Thu Jul 17 2025
Updated for 2025/26 Season:
- New Salary Caps
- New Contract Demands
- Improvements to AI Draft Logic
- Improvements to Draft Display
- Bug Fixes.
Pocket GM: Basketball Sim is a comprehensive front-office simulator for basketball enthusiasts. As General Manager, you have total control: scout talent, negotiate contracts, manage the salary cap, and set game-day tactics. Experience a realistic trade engine, dynamic player development, and deep historical tracking of every season. Build a legacy and see if you have what it takes to win multiple championships in the most realistic basketball sim available on mobile.
Dinsun Expert Review
Our Expert Score
Pocket GM: Basketball Sim is the 'Football Manager' of the basketball world, and it is glorious. For a stat-head like me, this is pure digital bliss. It manages to capture the nuance of the NBA experience—the tension of the draft, the complexity of the luxury tax, and the high-stakes chess match of a mid-season trade—all within a clean, fast interface that works perfectly on a phone.
What sets it apart from other mobile sims is the 'personality' of the AI. Players have actual career arcs; some are late bloomers, while others are injury-prone stars who can bankrupt your franchise. The trade engine is remarkably realistic, often requiring you to package picks and young prospects to land a superstar. It’s a deep, rewarding simulation that you can play for years without it feeling repetitive. Whether you’re trying to build a dynasty or just survive a rebuild, this is the gold standard for mobile sports management.
Features
Realistic trade and contract logic
Deep scouting and drafting system
Comprehensive stat tracking and Hall of Fame
Fast simulation engine for multiple seasons
Tips & Walkthrough
Avoid 'maxing' too many players at once. Look for high-value 'glue players' with high chemistry stats on cheap contracts to round out your bench; this allows you to afford two true superstars.
Gameplays
Pay close attention to 'Physical' stats for rookies. Skill stats can be trained, but a player with low 'Athleticism' will almost always hit a lower ceiling in the simulation.
Screenshot
Q&A
The game uses fictional players by default, but you can import custom community rosters that feature real-world names and stats.
Ratings & Reviews
Best Sports Sim on the platform, but…
Tue Jul 22 2025 JgsghjvbhhI’m really picking nits here, because this game is easily the best GM sim on iPhone that I have played. And this review is coming before updated to the July 2025 updates. However, there are a few places for improvement and one huge issue. The issue I keep running into is my team just collapsing from injuries at an absurd level. Especially if you make it to the finals, you might have so many injuries that you have to cut guys who log real minutes in the finals. That just doesn’t happen irl and it grinds the momentum of this game to a halt. Smaller things around trade values and contract stuff are minor, but the injury thing is a save file killer. Worth saying again, this game is fantastic overall. Thanks dev(s)!
Almost there
Fri Oct 17 2025 Dre2426I know this is just the first installment of pocket GM basketball compared to pocket GM football three and there’s so much more improvement needs to be done but this app is really really fun. It’s really addicting just like pocket GM. It’s just needing an improvement in a lot of areas like the salary cap where it doesn’t go up at all and every single time you draft a player by the end of therefore your contract they want the $35.2 million extension for four years and you can only pay so many players because everyone over 80 overall wants $20 million plus so it makes it harder to build a team. I’ve won nine championships, but I had to trade and keep rebuilding the team after a couple of years because the role players were getting too expensive and I had to make decisions on the star players to see if I actually had to cut them or trade them add another thing is the injuries come up in bunches like very high probability of injury for almost all of the players where they’re getting hurt and even after a couple seasons with them being hurt and averaging like five points a game they’re asking for 20+ million dollars, so the app definitely has some stuff to work on. I still love it the same way I love pocket GM. I just wanted to get there quicker and I know that the developers are making sure it Happens.
Overall, Great Game. Few Recommendations.
Mon Dec 01 2025 Walkemdowm3313Dear Pocket GM Basketball, This game is fantastic and very fun to play, i am addicted!!! However, I believe there could be some improvements. For one, I think it would be great if you can put features in the game where you can; edit jersey colors, have secondary leagues (like the g-league but not really) so we can send players there to takeover and also win championships, maybe have variety of trophies for different awards, be able to hang up jerseys, all-star competitions, be able to assign mentors to players, have players demand trade, have players purposely play bad if they are not happy with team performance, etc.!!! Thanks! Hoping you guys the best. 😊
Avid fan, just some suggestions.
Thu Oct 31 2024 Doggy footholdIt’s what you’d expect to enjoy if you play PGMFootball; It’s a more Madden version of football for IOS. The current presentation for the layout is welcomed for viewing rosters, negotiating with players. It was something I very much enjoyed in PGMFootball. However simulating through weeks can be a bit disorienting when advancing through weekly games of every team in the league. If there was a filter to only see my own team match ups in a whole week it would make progressing through the season so slow. Overall though, I’m wading through to a championship, and to be the best GM in history. Thanks!
For the love of the game
Tue Jan 28 2025 MikeCBoomI’ve played about 5 seasons so far. It’s not bad, well designed, but not a lot to do during the season. Still, the rise and fall and rise again of a franchise is there and it’s well done. One positive for sure is that if you appreciate the game of basketball, all these little 1’s and 0’s procedurally generated basketball players will do everything in their power to be better basketball players. They aren’t spouting off about practice or politics or buying yachts or getting into trouble (okay, sometimes they fight or decide not to play for you when you tank), but mostly they just love the game they’d die for. It’s great!
A lot of big fixes
Thu Jun 19 2025 @griffinlavellOverall, the content creator does a very good job. But there are a lot of random glitches and both fixes. Specifically, when you added a player, a rookie to be even more specific, the rookie becomes draft eligible again. This completely messes up the whole point of the game. When you are able, please fix the bug fixes also I don’t know why three team trades are not available yet. Three team trades are the biggest thing in basketball when it comes to trading. This would open up the game even more. Overall, very good but must improve.
Must play game for basketball fans!
Mon Oct 28 2024 jdoandjsosnLoved the football game so went and tried the beta, even the first version of the beta was great. And only after a few months of hard work, Jon was able to make a casual basketball game that is super fun and easy to get the hang of. Due to the smaller rosters and draft it’s way easier to sim 5-10 seasons in the same time it would take for 1-3 in the football sim game. Easy game to get sucked into! The draft lottery is an amazing feature and if you go on the Reddit and download a custom nba roster it’s like 2k franchise mode on the go.
It's a lazy reskin of Pocket GM Football
Thu Feb 06 2025 Chiefknox 1This game is just a lazy reskin of the football gm game by the same creator. Everything is designed for a football sim game, not a basketball one. None of the things that make basketball unique are included here. Multiple team trades? Not included. Big market team vs small market? Not included. Players requesting trades? Not included. G league? Not included. Basketball is unique because the star players have so much influence on their team, but you can treat a start like a rookie. And free agency is bad, never anyone above an 80 is ever available because all CPU teams sign their stars and the star players never want to leave. If LeBron was in the game, he'd spend 20 years in Cleveland. Probably less because players retire at 36