Mine is shot blocking and Free Throw shooting.  I just don't even look at them when recruiting.

FT shooting may surprise some people.

durability, stamina and shot blocking. although i run a zone, so i actually like to have a shot blocker or two inside. and generally speaking, i recruit free throw shooting. even though im a Tarheels fan, i use the Duke philosophy of wanting to win the battles of 3s and frees...

Shot blocking is by far the most underrated player rating in the game...  Passing is not all that far behind.

Posted by dahsdebater on 7/22/2014 3:14:00 PM (view original):
Shot blocking is by far the most underrated player rating in the game...  Passing is not all that far behind.

even though i think a good % of people do under value sb, its hard for me not to disagree. shot blocking is not useless at all, but you've said statistically its THE most important defensive rating even for guards, which is outside of the realm of what i consider reasonable! the scary thing is, at least three folks who mine data and run regressions have said the same. but, someone who i have a lot of confidence in ran the statistics and said that was definitely not true. of course, im biased towards his opinion because what he said actually made some sense, given the context of my understanding. i could be wrong, and sb could be the most important defensive rating for guards, but i seriously doubt it.

i think shot blocking in bigs is undervalued by some folks but over valued by others. its important, but defense is still substantially more important, as best i can tell. i do think some people only regard SB for the shots that get blocked, which is a mistake. i do agree passing is pretty undervalued, and so is stamina. 

back to the original question, outside of the obvious durability, for guards, i value sb not at all, but everything else is meaningful. depends on the role of the guard, what im willing to give up. obviously reb is lower than the other ratings, but ath, spd, def, lp, per, bh, pass, those are all hard to say you can give them up, without knowing the role of the guard.

for non offensive bigs, i value per and bh very little, while lp, ft%, spd, and pass are all pretty low on my list. for offensive bigs, pretty much everything is relevant. i would say sb, bh, and pass are the ratings i value the least in offensive oriented bigs. i've grown to value speed in my offensive bigs, for the impact it has on fouls drawn.

Related post:

http://whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=477028&page=1

Lots of great coaches commented on there about undervalued and overvalued ratings. (Incidentally, I don't think a single one said shot blocking was the most underrated rating.)

bhansalid (is that pronounced Ban Salad?) thread is awesome and worth a read.

But to answer your original post, it depends.

I IGNORE rebounding in guards.
I IGNORE PERIMETER in non scoring post players.
I pretty much ignore LP for players with very high PERIMETER scores.
I don't pay attention to STAMINA for a non-press team.

Posted by dahsdebater on 7/22/2014 3:14:00 PM (view original):
Shot blocking is by far the most underrated player rating in the game...  Passing is not all that far behind.

I disagree.  Most coaches dramatically undervalue stamina. Obviously it is more important if you are running FCP or FB, but it is very important to overall team success in all systems.

Posted by mduncanhogs on 7/23/2014 12:06:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dahsdebater on 7/22/2014 3:14:00 PM (view original):
Shot blocking is by far the most underrated player rating in the game...  Passing is not all that far behind.

I disagree.  Most coaches dramatically undervalue stamina. Obviously it is more important if you are running FCP or FB, but it is very important to overall team success in all systems.

This may be me. Other than durability (which can be a negative, at least in terms or recruiting), I value Stamina the least. Even less than Per in bigs.

Of course, I run a zone and still frequently have 10-11 guys who are in a rotation, so I'm happy to take the 60 stamina guy with better cores than the 90 stamina guy who even slightly lower ones.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 7/23/2014 10:34:00 AM (view original):
bhansalid (is that pronounced Ban Salad?) thread is awesome and worth a read.

But to answer your original post, it depends.

I IGNORE rebounding in guards.
I IGNORE PERIMETER in non scoring post players.
I pretty much ignore LP for players with very high PERIMETER scores.
I don't pay attention to STAMINA for a non-press team.

Not pronounced Ban Salad, but I'm cool with the sentiment!

I love shotblocking, currently I am the highest rated DEF/SBLK team in my conference, we also are top 3 in REB and ATH. What happens because of this? We are top 5 in STL top 25 in the nation on BLK Lowest PPG in the conference and we compete for rebounds, I believe top 5 as well in the conference. If my bigs are averaging 5BLKS as a team thats 10 points your bringing off the board, let alone if it is turned into points at the other end making it a 4 point swing, you take away 2 and get 2.

Now if this happens on all 5 BLKS it becomes a 20 point swing in your favor. 20 Points is a huge margin, let alone even 10 when you are facing better or equal teams. Let alone I rarely have to worry about my interior defense and in turn my average 3p% against me is 29%.... I'm shutting people down from the arc and then blocking shots inside.... I love Shot blocking

However I have undervalued FT shooting and am paying the price this season. If I dont hit the shot I'm shooting less that 70% from the line and it hurts and keeps some teams in the game anyways. Honestly I would say durability is the least important, I have seen 1 injury in my 5 seasons on a wide range of durability rating... The injury also wasn't season ending.... So too me I could care less for durability as its such a rarity

Stamina has become pretty important, since I like running both umptempo and press. Durability is probably the least valued and possibly defense next. I think the Ath+Def component is slightly overrated at best. I will take speed over athleticism in guards any day.

I don't look at durability at all, but I did have a guy actually get a medical redshirt after starting 3 games and being up and down the rest of the season but never playing again.  For what it's worth, he had a 22 durability.  I've had lots of guys with low durabilty and not miss the season.

I am definitely guilty of focusing on cores and not paying as much attention to SBLK or pass/BH.  I try not to, but it happens at times.  I have a few zone teams, and try to emphasize shot blocking in my C, to a lesser extent my PF and SF if I lpay 2-3, but I'll happily take more ATH, DEF and REB and a mediocre shot block rating.

I do look at FT shooting, I really want C+ or higher, but it's hard to recruit as much for that unless I have a FB team.

Posted by bagger288 on 7/23/2014 2:51:00 PM (view original):
I love shotblocking, currently I am the highest rated DEF/SBLK team in my conference, we also are top 3 in REB and ATH. What happens because of this? We are top 5 in STL top 25 in the nation on BLK Lowest PPG in the conference and we compete for rebounds, I believe top 5 as well in the conference. If my bigs are averaging 5BLKS as a team thats 10 points your bringing off the board, let alone if it is turned into points at the other end making it a 4 point swing, you take away 2 and get 2.

Now if this happens on all 5 BLKS it becomes a 20 point swing in your favor. 20 Points is a huge margin, let alone even 10 when you are facing better or equal teams. Let alone I rarely have to worry about my interior defense and in turn my average 3p% against me is 29%.... I'm shutting people down from the arc and then blocking shots inside.... I love Shot blocking

However I have undervalued FT shooting and am paying the price this season. If I dont hit the shot I'm shooting less that 70% from the line and it hurts and keeps some teams in the game anyways. Honestly I would say durability is the least important, I have seen 1 injury in my 5 seasons on a wide range of durability rating... The injury also wasn't season ending.... So too me I could care less for durability as its such a rarity

you are over stating the value of blocked shots to a somewhat ridiculous degree her :) first off, its unclear if that shot would have went in without a block. second off, its unclear who would get the rebound. when you say 10 point swing, you are assuming all 5 blocked shots would have went in, and all 5 rebounds off the block shots would go to you. both are far from reasonable assumptions, for obvious reasons. and of course, double counting that 10 into 20 is just absurd. from them starting a play with possession, back to them starting play with possession, that is one full cycle. if the other team takes a shot on their trip and you block it (and pick up the rebound), you have possession now, yes. but that would also happen if you didn't block and they made it, or if they missed it, or really any concluding outcome to their trip. after your trip, its one full cycle. in that full cycle, the block can stop their two points, but its ridiculous to suggest that if you didn't block, you would have missed on your trip, and if you block, you would have made it - the two are not related. in real life, the chance of a fastbreak opportunity being higher off a block might cause a *very slight* correlation - but that does not exist in HD. so your trip down is not part of the equation here. you didn't get an extra trip down.

hopefully thats not too harsh, im not trying to be a dick here, im just trying to make it clear what a reasonable way to look at this is, and why your way is not reasonable.

on the other hand, the value of shot blocking is not just in blocked shots. you vastly overstate the value of an actual blocked shot, but there is also an advantage to having a shot blocker, on shots that are not blocked, and that can be pretty significant. altered shots or hotly contested shots can really reduce fg%, but no block is awarded, even though the benefit of causing a guy to miss a shot is basically the same as actually blocking the shot.

never underestimate FT shooting, especially for a team that plays close to the basket and drives a ton. I've lost too many games to poor ft shooting, and this season, it's kept my team from being 2 wins better (shot 44% in a loss out of 40 attempts!)