Been a while since I have had a need to have a player serve multiple roles at different strings on a depth chart.  I want Brown to be my #1 SF off the bench and my #2 guard.  And things are even more unusual for me in that I don't want my #3 guard Bjorklund ever running the point.  Here is what my current depth chart looks like:
.

PG	SG	SF	PF	C
Bradley	Leininger	Wills	Paiz	Kerney
Myers	Myers	Brown	Vaden	Vaden
Brown	Brown	Brogden	Schweiger	Schweiger
	Bjorklund		Brogden	Brogden

Here is what I want to have happen:

If Bradley, Leininger, and Wills are all tired, Myers is PG, Bjorklund is SG, and Brown is SF.


Reading the play by play I think what is happening is that:

Some times it works like above.  And some times Myers is PG, Brown is SG, and Brogden is SF.  (And Brogden isn't  in the game playing at PF/C when it seems to work the way I want.)  Based on what I'm seeing in the play-by-play it seems like it might not be consistent but I really don't know for certain.

Brogden isn't a SF so I'm tempted to remove him from the depth chart at SF if that would help get things to work the way I want.  I'm also a bit nervous doing that because I'm not sure I could get away with having just two players on the depth chart at SF, especially since I want the backup SF to be playing guard a fair amount as well.  And since I'm so shallow at guard I'm also not sure how the sim would handle things if I ran into foul trouble, extreme fatigue, injuries, etc.

Any thoughts on how the sim handles this?  (Or thoughts on if it is ok going just two deep at SF?)

So I think the sim engine looks at the rank of your backups and tries to minimize the sum of their ranks.  In other words, when B, L, and W are tired, in your ideal case Myers will be PG (so 2 for being ranked 2nd), Bjorklund at SG (4 for being ranked 4th), and Brown at SF (2 for being ranked 2nd).  Add these values up and you get 8. 

When it substitutes with the other lineup, Myers still at PG (2), Brown will be SG (3), and Brogden at SF (3).  Add these up and you still get 8.

So, to the SIM, it seems like these are equivalent lineup choices.  Why it picks one over the other and vice versa when it does is unclear.

What you could do is list your SF like this:

Willis
Brown
(blank)
Brogden

By skipping the 3rd spot, you could force the sim engine to have Myers, Bjorklund, Brown at PG, SG, SF in your situation b/c the alternate lineup choice would have a sum of 9, which is higher than 8.

 

Really?

I'm not doubting you jdno, just surprised that listing [blank] #3 and Brogden #4 would make any difference whatsoever.  But when you explain things, it does make some sense.

If nothing else that's a tweak to the settings that won't hurt me in the slightest.

I'm with jdno on this one kujay

can you save a depth chart with a hole in it?

wow, looks like you can - I never imagined that could be done.....will need to think on that

I do it all the time, like if I play my 2nd string big at both PF and C and my 3rd string big is more a center than a PF he'll go at 4 for PF and 3 for C...(and I'll leave PF 3 open)

Posted by kujayhawk on 11/29/2011 5:01:00 PM (view original):
Really?

I'm not doubting you jdno, just surprised that listing [blank] #3 and Brogden #4 would make any difference whatsoever.  But when you explain things, it does make some sense.

If nothing else that's a tweak to the settings that won't hurt me in the slightest.

jdno is absolutely right. moving from 3 to 4 will accomplish what you want. the some of your ranks as is, is either you have #3 and #3 at sg/sf, or #4 and #2. the sum is 6 in both cases. I asked seble to change the formula about a year ago, to make 1 worth 1, 2 worth 2.01, 3 worth 3.05, and 4 worth 4.1, which would never impact anything except to make these tie situations consistent. he said he would consider it. actually i think that was the 2ndary proposal... the primary being to add 1 more spot to the depth chart, to give the coach greater control.

it is definitely something coaches should be thinking about. manipulating depth charts in this way is pretty valuable, i mean its probably not going to be a 5 points per game difference, but it can a couple for sure.

Brogden went from a 10 minute game to a 11 minute game .... to a DNP last night after I made the change.  Just what I wanted, Brogden only being used in a pinch.

Thanks for the helpful advice guys!