I'm curious how folks are using the red / black / blue player ratings to shape their practice plan. Generally, I'm giving a lot of minutes to categories that are blue and high-value, like REB for a big man. After that, I focus on the remaining "blues" as well as any "blacks" that are important. I basically give just a maintenance amount - or even less - to red ratings.

But now I'm wondering if I'm better off giving mins to red catgeories, just to get them to max. Then I can get the "maxed-out" email, drop their mins to zero, and have more mins to give to blues / blacks. Thoughts?

For me it depends on what the category is, how important it is to that particular player, what the current rating is, and how many points of improvement remain. If the guy is a PG with a marginal ballhandling rating, and is red, but I know he has 5-6 more points of improvement to go, then I will probably still give him big minutes. If we're talking a big man with 96 LP and he has only 1-2 more points of growth, then I probably go to maintenance-level and use the time elsewhere, depending what his other ratings/potentials look like. Basically, it's case-by-case, depending on my needs for that player.

you often can safely move reds to 0, even before maxed. red means 5 points of improvement or less. you probably go from 5 to 2.5 five times faster than 2.5 to 0. and once you get around 2-3 points of improvement left, your rate of improvement/decrease are both so slow, that if you have anything to practice that yields substantial value, you should go with 0 in the red category.

I was under the impression that if you put less than 7 points into a category it dropped.

I was under the same impression that idf you went to 0 he would begin to drop. So i have always kept it at 7 when a player maxes out.

Posted by indyrider123 on 1/9/2012 3:50:00 PM (view original):
I was under the same impression that idf you went to 0 he would begin to drop. So i have always kept it at 7 when a player maxes out.

When he maxes out (assistant coach email) you can almost always drop to 0 and not see a decline. One will happen, but it is usually less than a point so you won't see any chance. Rarely, you will see the drop manifest in a single "point" visible decrease.

With red potential, there is still some potential growth and if you put in zero you will (likely) see a decline. That said, depending on how high/important the rating is for the player, there are certainly times where it is worth it to take that small decline in one rating to help boost some other rating.

At some point, seble mentioned 6.9 is low (i.e. will show up red).  That must mean that, in the background, players practicing at zero are declining by fractional amounts that, depending on WE & playing time, may never show up as a rounded point drop (however the ratings are rounded).  

So, unless you have received the maxed-out message, then it is possible that there could be up to 6 or, perhaps, 7 (depending on the rounding) points of potential increase remaining.   I'd have a tough time leaving that on the table in a core category.

Posted by rogelio on 1/9/2012 6:30:00 PM (view original):
At some point, seble mentioned 6.9 is low (i.e. will show up red).  That must mean that, in the background, players practicing at zero are declining by fractional amounts that, depending on WE & playing time, may never show up as a rounded point drop (however the ratings are rounded).  

So, unless you have received the maxed-out message, then it is possible that there could be up to 6 or, perhaps, 7 (depending on the rounding) points of potential increase remaining.   I'd have a tough time leaving that on the table in a core category.

That might be true. . IF you don't have any other categories that could be improved much quicker;  its a matter of tradeoffs;  if the minutes that would get you four or five more in ath, could get you say 12 or 14 more in rebounding?