To focus on during the season.

The games aren't all that fun because i know its a near automatic loss (and wins aren't leading to something anyway).

What are some things i can invest my time into?

Fantasy Baseball. I normally recruit that first season and then go into autopilot. 

In the game or outside of it?

Try crazy strategies (like shooting all 3s and playing +5 or something) or crazy strategies, with you scoring guard playing the 4 or 5.  May as well take advantage of the time to experiment, you might find something!

Bet with yourself, wife, or kids on which player will rack up the most improvement points...

Posted by tkimble on 3/25/2014 2:13:00 AM (view original):
Try crazy strategies (like shooting all 3s and playing +5 or something) or crazy strategies, with you scoring guard playing the 4 or 5.  May as well take advantage of the time to experiment, you might find something!

This. When you know you're not doing anything good for the year, it's a great time to poke the boundaries of rationality within the sim and attempt some things that you've never tried before and/or wouldn't dream of trying with a team that stands a postseason chance. Play the extreme ends of the defensive spectrum...try two or three different distribution setups to find one that works best..leave gaps in your depth chart to understand how the sim differently treats 1-2-3-open vs. 1-open-3-4...play a power forward at the 3 or a small forward at the 4...test setting more guys to -2 and be a drive/slash/get hacked team and see if it works any better/worse than your standard 3-pt distro. All sorts of experimentation and knowledge can be gained from a "lost" season if you're already willing to accept that outcomes in the W-L column don't matter.

In the midst of season 1 of one rebuild and recruiting season 1 of another. It's long and hard, but I like to see (a) who can improve the most (obviously) and (b) if any players can set school, conference, or division records. Then I go for those.

On a team on another account, I had a player average 35 PPG and set a school record for points. That was fun.

I would experiment with positions the most probably. Maybe play a super speedy guard at SF or a super athletic forward at SG, something along those lines, and see how they do in your offense. I feel like this is a good way to check out what kind of ratings work at different positions and if you see something you like you can try and emulate it in recruiting the next year.

Set doubleteams, they work.