Posted by rednation58 on 1/31/2014 12:24:00 PM (view original):
To my understanding, speed = TO's maybe even more fouls committed against. I've always been an ATH first type of coach, but now as I search for more understanding of the sim, I have started looking more into the effects of elite speed. If I recruite a lineup with the listed speed what type of production should I expect? Is there a cap on the effectiveness of speed in the FC? I know press teams really thrive on speed but would other defensive sets benefit from elite speed? Thanks in advance for any assistance.
SPD
PG - 90+
SG - 85+
SF - 75+
PF - 70+
C - 50+
to the original questions... first, is there a cap on the effectiveness of speed in the FCP, its not a simple answer, but if i had to give a simple answer, id say no. not at the positions where speed matters, anyway. having as much speed as possible at the 1-3 in press is awesome, and i don't think you hit an area of "diminishing returns". the one thing i have long wondered about is the 4. i dont see speed at the 4 helping my team, and im almost positive at the 5 does not. but i also wouldn't be surprised if there was a team-wide turnover generating ability equation that played into the press. because i value speed at the 1, 2, and 3 above all else on my press teams, maybe i did hit a ceiling of diminishing returns, making speed at the 4 and 5 useless. what i am pretty confident of is, on my best teams, having elite turnover creating abilities at the 1-3 resulted in basically just as good of a team as having it at the 4-5. but i cannot by logical extension rule out speed mattering at the 4, and maybe even slightly at the 5, for teams without elite speed at the 1, 2, and 3.
we know now rebounding has a team rebounding methodology, and i think there is good reason to believe a team stealing methodology could explain the results we see from press teams. by that logic, i'd expect the 4 and 5 to contribute, just much less than the 3, which is much less than the 1 and 2, just like rebounding (in reverse). however, i have come to love high rebounding guards, they are my favorite type of players - but largely that came out of my love of speed and guard skills at the 3 for my press teams, in the olden days. meanwhile, i have no love for speed at the 4-5, i frankly don't give a damn what the speed is of my bigs, except when considering if they could play SF for me should i fall into a situation where i am heavy on bigs. too many times if had single digit bigs perform at the top of big man performance, to really believe its important. however, i have learned i under valued per, and with it, bh, and by extension also speed, in terms of generating offense for big men. i think that is a by product of the types of bigs i used early in my career when i really paid attention to this stuff, now i have shifted from calling per, bh, and spd useless, to moderately useful for offense oriented bigs (and roughly useless otherwise).
in other sets than FCP, i think speed does increase turnovers some, but not nearly to the extent in the press. i think speed is more important as a component of defensive ability, than important in its own right. for example, taking a 95 ath/def 75 speed guard in d1 on a m2m team, up to 95 speed, i don't think it really buys you anything (on defense). however, if you have a 70 ath/spd/def guard in d1, going up to 95 speed is really important, it can take this player from unplayable, to playable (assuming hes got the goods offensively). so, in short, if you have the ath/def, i dont think you really need the elite guard speed, not on defense.
however, on offense, speed is one of the most important stats in guard jump shooting, and also is important in drawing fouls for driving guards/sfs. so i think it is pretty damn useful on the offensive front, even outside press. the basis for my great teams of old was that speed was both insanely valuable defensively in press, and insanely valuable on offense in any offense, especially if you shoot lots of 3s. of course, there were many other principles to how i built my team, but that synergy of speed being so valuable in 3pt shooting and in the press (for turnovers) was by far away the biggest driver of how i built my teams in those days.