jodester - I'm late chiming in on your request but as you note, "the team’s overall lack of speed and athleticism will limit them". For what it's worth your speed is not a problem. 46 could be better but it is definitely acceptable and I'm currently ranked #1 with a speed rating of 48. But I do think your athleticism really does need improvement.
I'm not sure this helps but what I do in recruiting is decide what I must have, what I want to have, and what I don't care about. I actually think that last point is something to keep in mind at all times. I don't care if my post players have high potential in ball handling and I make an effort to acknowledge that I don't care so that I don't get distracted by the shiny blue color in the potential rating. It can be really easy to look at the potential and see a future 600+ rated player but if is a post player that has 250 of the points come from work ethic, stamina, and durability and another 100 comes from perimeter, ball handling, and passing .... well that just leaves 250 for the core ratings which means you are going to have a player that either lacks physicality or lacks core kills.
But the really important thing is to determine what you must have and by "must have" I mean getting specific. If a player doesn't have and doesn't project to have a certain number in a category, you don't recruit him. Period. I've become more and more rigid about this; that might be a luxury that I have with my prestige. For you there still might need to be some trade offs but I'd try to avoid going down that path. I've made trade offs in the past and I have regretted it just about every single time. You might say that every single one of your guards has to have 50 speed (they do) and that every one of your post players has 30 athleticism (they don't) and that every player needs to have a defensive rating of at least 35 (nope). Those are just some arbitrary numbers and you can adjust accordingly. Here are most, but not all, of the guidelines that I follow for my team that has A+ prestige. I'd lower these requirements if had a C- team. Note that I'm making rules based not just on numerical values but on roster composition as well.
Everybody: Work ethic above 25
Point guard -- must have one on the roster at all times that has at least two seasons experience (so for example John Bradley is my senior point guard so if I didn't have a replacement in the pipeline I needed to recruit one this season so I don't go into recruiting next season with a bare cupboard), 40 athleticism, 55 speed, 40 defense, 60 ball handling, 65 passing
Shooting guard -- must have one on the roster at all times, 40 athleticism, 55 speed, 40 defense, 80 perimeter
Combo guards -- 40 athleticism, 55 speed, 40 defense, 50 ball handling, 50 passing (I avoid these players in general but sometimes you do need to fill depth charts)
Small forward -- recruit 1 (and only 1) every other season, 35 work ethic, 40 athleticism, 40 speed, 40 rebounding, 40 defense, 30 ball handling, 30 passing
Post players (I make no distinction between PF & C for recruiting) -- 50 athleticism, 70 rebounding, 45 defense, 45 shot blocking
If I follow these guidelines, I should end up with a team every season that is strong in defense and rebounding and hopefully doesn't turnover the ball too often. I don't do a whole lot to encourage scoring on my team and that has come back to burn me a bit. But less than you might suspect and every now and then my team has enough athleticism and speed to somewhat make up for the lack of scoring at the free throw line. Stamina doesn't show up on my team at all because I play zone defense, if I was running press I would have minimum requirements. Depending on the team you want to have, your numbers could differ from mine quite a bit.
As it applies to you, I think it probably makes you think long and hard about a player like Donald Sydnor. He's going to be able to score for you. He also can't play defense too well and maybe (I honestly don't know) he's going to give up just as many points as he scores. That poor athleticism is going to make him turnover prone and along with the defensive rating is going to cause him to foul. I typed that last sentence before seeing that he's fouling at a very high rate, so much that he might not even be on the court when you need him. Maybe your requirement for SG is 90+ PER rating and nothing else. If so, Sydnor fits the bill. But if you have additional requirements, you maybe "can't" recruit him because, for example, he doesn't meet your minimum defensive requirement.
Using some of these minimum rules, I'd probably avoid signing Burmeister for reasons of ATH and DEF, maybe Sydnor for the same reasons - he's a test case although personally I wouldn't sign him, and probably also Marks and Smith for those same reasons. I might not have signed Mills because of his 19 work ethic, although if you plan on playing him a bunch over 4 years that probably just squeaks into acceptable territory. Mills also has some pretty awesome starting categories so he falls into that range of trade offs that I was talking about. You'll take a player with that poor work ethic because the speed is already at 50, the perimeter shooting is 80 and the ball handling is 60.
If one (or more) of those guys above doesn't meet your requirements, you don't sign them and if you can't find a player that does that means you take a walk on for a season. It really is better to do that because you don't need 12 players and it really isn't fun to be stuck with a player for four seasons that you regret signing. Sometimes you have to sign a player because otherwise you'd only have three guards but as long as you aren't in one of those situations, go ahead and take a walk on for the season and try again next time with an extra $3,000.
This is already a long post and I haven't mentioned the "want to have" qualities but the key thing with those is to treat them somewhat similar to the categories you don't care about. The want to have qualities can be tie breakers and often weighed even more than that, but you won't sign a player that has amazing want to have qualities at the expense of your cores. I love guards with high potential in rebounding or in low post (if they are both I'll make the player a small forward). But I'm skipping over a 40 rebounding guard if he doesn't meet the must have core requirements. It would be awesome to have a team with 5 players that are all dominate rebounders for their positions. But if they can't dribble, pass, or play defense it won't do a whole lot of good. At the same time, as long as the must have cores are met, I more than willing to look at that 40 rebounding guard and choose him over another guard that has better cores. So I can choose the 50 ATH, 60 SPD, 40 REB guard over the 60 ATH, 65 SPD guard but I couldn't if it was 25 ATH, 60 SPD, 40 REB.
Some of this is a bit basic so I apologize if it sounds like I'm talking down to you. At the same time I have 75 seasons of experience and I'd say I wasn't really following these rules strictly until the past 15 or so. Up to that point I was looking to recruit the most talent possible and figured I would compose a lineup with the various components. So every now and then I did have that team that had everybody rebounding and nobody knowing how to pass. I don't think that works nearly as well as figuring out what you want for each position and the team as a whole and making sure you stick to those rules.