# Pocket GM: Basketball Sim — user reviews > 64 indexed App Store user reviews of Pocket GM by Jonathan Howell, rated 4.90/5 from 936 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pocket-gm-basketball-sim/id6476059372/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pocket-gm-basketball-sim/id6476059372.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 886 · 4★ 28 · 3★ 13 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 7 ## What do users think of Pocket GM? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Fantastic Sim - 👍 Good to pass the time - 👍 Fun, New, and Addictive - 👍 Phenomenal Dynasty - 👍 Smooth - 👍 Must play game for basketball fans - 👍 JON THE DON - 👍 Never disappoints - 👍 Amazing Pocket Games - 👍 Great simulator - 👍 Perfect Basketball GM Game - 👍 Amazing sequel **Cons** - 🐛 Alright but oversights ruin it - 🐛 Massive work in progress, disappointing in comparison to PGM football - 🐛 PLEASE FIX 5TH YEAR ISSUE **Commonly reported bugs** - Players not getting awards or breaking records despite good stats - Combine percentages being multiples of 10 - Player position change boosting team overall significantly **Most requested features** - Ability to adjust cap space - Baseball game - Soccer version - Filter to only see own team matchups - Hockey game - NCAA Football game - MLB game ## Newest reviews (13 of 64) ### 5/5 — Salary cap *2025-07-08, version 1.5.0* In the next update can u put adjustable salary cap settings? ### 5/5 — I liked it *2025-06-23, version 1.5.0* i really enjoyed rebuilding my favorite team! we gonna win the chip baby ### 5/5 — A lot of big fixes *2025-06-20* Overall, 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. ### 4/5 — Good game *2025-06-18, version 1.5.0* Would love a baseball gm game ### 5/5 — After Rookie Contracts *2025-06-12* I love this game and want to hold a dynasty, but the next extended contract after the rookie one always seems to be 35 mil a year; Nothing in between. The next after that is 43 mil a year. Also, the salary cap never increases resulting in being trapped in the dreaded 2nd apron unless you trade in the final year of contract OR edit the player contract/salary. It would be cool if these issues were addressed. Still a great game regardless. ### 5/5 — Small Change *2025-05-24* Big fan of this developer and what he’s been able to do. With how perfect the football games are, it makes sense as to why this can’t match that very high standard. That being said, it’s been very fun to play and a good time waster. My recommendation for the stat screen is to include a FG%, 3P% and FT% automatically showing. Also injury history doesn’t show injuries, and you can’t poach other coaches to become your head coach (like you can in the football games). Thanks for the game there’s so much potential here! ### 4/5 — Great Basketball Sim *2025-05-21, version 1.5.0* So much fun. From having to keep your players healthy to planning next season, you will be hooked. Needs more to do during the season. There has to be something else to it. Right now it seems like theres not much to do. ### 5/5 — Best in the genre *2025-05-15, version 1.5.0* So glad he did a basketball version, loved the football one and this one is even better in many ways ### 5/5 — Best phone game ever made! *2025-04-17* Seriously the most amazing game I have played on a phone hands down. I always thought phone games were below console/pc games, but this one is way better than so many $60 games. Props to the developer who continues to keep improving it ### 5/5 — Please bring a pocket gm baseball next *2025-03-30, version 1.5.0* I love pocket gm football 3 and now basketball. If you could do a baseball one and maybe eventually branch out to other sports as well, like boxing, hockey, and soccer. ### 5/5 — Best Phone Simulation Basketball Game *2025-03-29* The developer keeps improving an already stellar product ### 5/5 — Love this game. *2025-03-13* Hi Jon, was such a big fan of PGM3 as it helped me to learn more about the game of football in general. i.e. the positions and all the stats that come with. I now enjoy watching football in real life and I love it. Now that you've released a game for basketball which is a sport i've enjoyed my whole life, I can't wait for all the improvements you will make for this game. So far it has been really fun though. Thanks for all the hard work you put into these games and also keeping active on the subreddit. Cheers! ### 3/5 — Falta tradução *2025-03-01* Jogo aparentemente é bem desenvolvido ( joguei pouco ainda) porém a falta da tradução atrapalha demais basquete e uma coisa complexa ( transições e afins, não é como no futebol )e os personagens não são os da NBa então vc fica um pouco sem norte ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not worth the money *2025-08-31* I’ve played a ton of basketball GM simulators. This one is by far well not by far, but it is the worst. Worst one I’ve played. Most other games are free and all of the perks are behind a pay wall, but this one cost three dollars just to play and unfortunately it’s not that great. You sim week by week. and it will simulate each game for each team each week. You cannot speed up the Sims or Sim by months is just a pain growing week by week, game by game Sim. The UI/UX isn’t great. You aren’t able to develop your players or coaches unless you manually edit their stats to whatever you want them to be. Which kind of defeats the purpose. **Developer response:** Sorry to hear you’re not enjoying it. The game is a pay once and get everything to avoid micro transactions which (in my opinion) ruin many gaming experiences. I appreciate this may mean it’s not to your taste and you can’t try it out - I’m looking into a free period first. Re sims, you can simulate multiple weeks from the GM screen. Player and coach development isn’t manually applied, but automatically based on combination of underlying potential, team mentors, coaching skills, personality traits etc. ### 1/5 — Who wins games is broken *2025-08-30, version 1.6.2* I have better coaching and better roster than other teams but I will finish 20-62 and have a better roster than the team that finishes 60-20. ### 1/5 — Starter not playing *2025-05-27, version 1.5.0* I enjoy the game but I noticed that in the final 4 minutes of a close game my starter are on the bench and don’t get subbed in until :40 seconds left to go in the game I wish my best players where on the floor in crunch time ### 1/5 — Glitches - want my money back *2025-05-25* I love PGM3 for football, and this has potential. But I’ve run into many glitches in the first 30 minutes of playing and would like my money back. For example, my first round pick (3rd overall) suddenly reverted to being “draft eligible” after the season started. These games take a lot of time and thought. I don’t want to waste my time starting a new game, scouting players, etc. only to have something like this happen that ruins all my work. ### 1/5 — Alright but oversights ruin it *2025-01-03* I go 72-10-0 none of my players get awards, none of them break any game stat records all there game stats suck aswell while being really really good players and no coach of the year even after winning title?? Make it make… sense all this ruins the immersion for me personally TLDR: Would not recommend if your especially interested in stats records etc **Developer response:** Thanks for the feedback. I’m constantly looking to improve the game, so this is super important to me. Can you share some more specifics on stats and expectations either on email at jon@pocketgm.io or on the pocketgm subreddit. ### 1/5 — Hmm *2024-11-15* Massive work in progress, disappointing in comparison to PGM football. **Developer response:** Thanks for giving the game a chance - I’d love to know more. I develop and improve this game entirely based on user feedback, so please drop me an email at jon@pocketgm.io and I’ll address issues you have. Jon ### 2/5 — Awesome But Runs Into Cap Problems *2026-01-15* Super fun game with clever, immersive details. The biggest issue right now is reminiscent of older Madden franchises where top players are left unsigned in free agency about 10-15 seasons in due to player salaries increasing and maxing out every team’s cap. This also makes trades near impossible due to each team being past the second apron. If the caps can be designed to adjust relative to the in-game salaries this game would be just about 5 stars. Very fun while it lasts. ### 2/5 — Sim logic is not great *2025-02-16, version 1.1.2* Would easily be 5 stars but the sim logic does not make any sense. It almost seems impossible to consistently build a roster that will win. Makes it very difficult and frustrating at times ### 3/5 — Almost there *2025-10-17* I 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. ### 3/5 — You’ll need to cheat *2025-10-16, version 1.6.2* To get the maximum amount of joy out of this I encourage you to make good use of the edit tabs. Feel no shame because the game itself doesn’t seem to really progress properly, or at least I hope this isn’t intended. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Tuff *2026-02-10, version 1.6.2* This game is fire best mobile nfl manger simulation game. But there’s plenty issues with salary caps i can’t make trades ever because teams suck with money, the the scouting system seem decent, but my main issue is trading, not being able to sim a full season, we need a new updated database and a way to get team logos would be fire too. But overall W. ### 5/5 — If possible (please consider) *2026-01-22* Love the game and the overall concept. I play both the basket and football versions and really enjoy them! *Since the in-season tournament is already apart of real basketball, I would love to see it included as well on your next update. Additionally, I would appreciate an option to control player rotations. In close games, top players are subbed out for bench players which can impact the outcome of the game. Would love to be able to control that. Thank you for your time effort and dedication to developing these games. Completely amazing. Can’t wait to see what you come up with next! ### 5/5 — Fantastic game *2026-01-01, version 1.6.2* These games are awesome. It would be even better if there was a baseball version as well. ### 5/5 — Overall, Great Game. Few Recommendations. *2025-12-02* Dear 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. 😊 ### 5/5 — Player Minutes regulations *2025-10-08, version 1.6.2* The game is amazing but we will live to manage game minutes to help in young players development please ### 5/5 — Great Game *2025-09-27, version 1.6.2* Overall a great game. Very enjoyable and fun, unlike other cash grab games. A couple suggestions: Coaches HOF seems too easy, and PF, C should be able to grab more rebounds. ### 5/5 — Can’t miss *2025-09-15, version 1.6.2* I’ve played every game since PGM1 Including the college games and they never miss. Even if a game isn’t perfect to start they update constantly and make a better management sim than any game I’ve played on any device. ### 5/5 — Jayson Tatum *2025-08-09, version 1.6.2* Great game But I can’t make players numbers, number 0 ### 5/5 — Some feedback *2025-07-27* I really love this game but I have a hard time playing last a certain point because everyone over 80 OVR wants 30+ million and every team is in the second apron making trades almost impossible. Another issue is players being to stubborn to accept smaller contracts which in conjunction with the cap issues mentioned above make them just sit in free agency to the point I’ve seen 85+ overalls sit in free agency. ### 5/5 — Best Sports Sim on the platform, but… *2025-07-22* I’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)! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-28.*