Best I can see, nobody suggests using a press defense. Is there a time anyone does, other than trying to play comeback at the end of a game? If so, does the success depend on your team's overall D ratings? In other words, do you need the proper personnel for it to work?

That does make sense. Thanks, Felonius.

For what it's worth, I've run press for an entire season with a very weak team in a progressive theme league, which is nearing its end.
Average defense on the floor was in the 50-60 range, though top to bottom it was 23-90.

on the good side
- #1 in steals (what a surprise)
- #2 in opponent's TO
- #7 in opponent's FGA

on the not so good side
- #21 in opponent's scoring
- #24 in fouls committed (nearly 150 more than #23)
- #24 in opponents FTA (nearly 300 more than #23)
- #20 in opponents FG% (at 50.2, where league average is around 48)

The point differential is -5.6, the bulk of which can be attributed to Free Throws.
I believe I came out slightly ahead on possessions per game, however (roughly +2).

What this all means in the grand scheme of things, and did it affect the record very much ?
I dunno 

Yeah, that's helpful too. I often wondered if it would require good defensive players to pull it off or if a press D would enable a not so good defensive team to defend better. In other words, it might be what's necessary for them while it's not necessary for an otherwise good defensive team. I guess I have some of that all answered with what Thohoops team has done, but I'm not sure if it matters much with an already good D.

progressives are not indicative of the sim due to limited player pool.  Most progressive teams would get absolutely stomped in even open leagues.  To be fair, thohoops did say for what it's worth, though, so I'm sure he knows this :D

indeed -- the relative improvement (or not) of applying the press is difficult to assess without running multiple experiments.

for instance, what attributes of a team (and its individual players) positively / negatively influence the press ?

e.g., are their tiers related to steal % (like with other metrics) ?

how does foul rate interact  ?  ( if you foul a lot does it compound this ?)

how does opposing TOV% interact ?   ( I would hope that a poor ballhandling team would be exposed, but who knows ... )

then there is individual and team defense, opposing offensive strategy,
et cetera, et cetera, and well, et cetera ...

Yeah, there's still some things the SIM doesn't account for in all sports. In football, nobody even drafts a good special team because the SIM doesn't let it become a difference maker. So, we all just draft horrible STs & live with the results.

Posted by drocman212 on 3/30/2014 12:38:00 PM (view original):
Best I can see, nobody suggests using a press defense. Is there a time anyone does, other than trying to play comeback at the end of a game? If so, does the success depend on your team's overall D ratings? In other words, do you need the proper personnel for it to work?

I've intentionally built a few "press" teams, my best made the 2nd round PO's in the ODL. First it's a bad idea to run a press def if you didn't build the team to run that way, turning it on at the end of the game may not be a very good idea. I have found that the key to a press def is your defense (duh). Any player under a def70 will badly increase the number of PF's @ press, therefore you 7 highest min players should be at least a def70, A def70 may increase they're foul rate by 1-1.5 PF/gm. Players over def80 about 0.5-1 pf/gm and def90+ no increase. If you have a team with 7 players over def80, your crazy if you don't run a press def. If you build a high def, high slt% team and run it @ press you generate a high tov rate wrt your opponent, this creates a fga differential wrt your opponent. Plus the fact you have a strong def doesn't hurt either. Fouls are your problem, use as low of a foul rate as possible while maintaining your defense @ +80, but also look for players with a high foul draw rate that go to the stripe a ton. ('96' Karl Malone works great). I've seen as high of a fga differential as +7fga/gm..plus it's fun to hear your opponent cry about the +30 to's. The trick to know is the +def80, and understand that your trying to create a postive FGA differential. The press defense is a viable way to build a team, it's not a great bailout stratagy for weak defenses. Owners turning on press def when they're desperate has given the press a bum wrap..it works fine.

I'm starting to think maybe it's time for another press def in the ODL...lol  watch em'...