been almost a year.  Some wrong ideas floating out & about that need some context to understand why they're wrong.

slightly modified the original post.  Basically just updated some language & changed my stance on the massive ast% strategy (originally said proceed with caution, it was new & basically ringless for a long time, now it's almost THE way to go in OLs).

Wow. Great info.

Can you explain what's going to be the difference in performance between player A and player B.
Player A: RPG: 9.5 dReb%: 10
Player B: RPG: 9.5 dReb% 22.1

Is there any situation where having a guy like player A on your team is more convenient than having a guy like player B.

Also, do you get penalized for having the cumulative reb % too high like the cumulative usage? 

The short answer to both questions is no.

The second question requires a bit more of an explanation.  You aren't actually penalized for too much usage; you're just wasting salary on possessions you'll never get that won't increase the productivity of your offense beyond a certain (around 110%) point.  Rebounding will ALWAYS give you a better chance on each possession.  However, it IS an opportunity cost.  You can't just go and build an insane line-up with 150% dreb & 75% oreb and assume you'll win games.  More rebounding is always desirable, but you have to keep other things (the shooting struggle & foul factor) in mind. 

Hey ash, thanks to this post and your usage post, I'm surprisingly competent as a relatively new owner.  I can't say enough how awesome it is that a vet like you with your track record is so helpful and sharing with information.

Have you found a way to combat/defend the High Ast % teams?  I've managed to maintain about a 40% win pct. against those types of teams in the Regular Season in OL's, but in the playoffs they often smash me. 

As someone who has made the playoffs 70% of the time, but only one final and 3 conference finals, what can I do to get over the hump besides straight copy someone's team?  Thanks in advance.

Glad I could help, and congrats on your early success!

re: mega assist, ultrapass or the State Farm Concept... from a team building perspective, the best advice I can give you is to draft low turnovers, good defense & solid efg%.  Many of these assist monster teams use the 47 defense Boerwinkle as their starter (backing up with the 50-something D Sam Lacey), so a monster center can really apply a lot of pressure.  I just lost in the conference finals with a mega assist team to a team that had a shaq rotation.  That wasn't the only reason I lost, but it was a big part of it.  Most of the time, these teams will be solid everywhere defensively except for center, so I make sure that, if I'm not using a mega pass strat myself, I have a high usage, high efg% center to abuse them with.

As far as coaching strategies against it, that all depends on a ton of factors.  This thread has never really been about coaching strats, just building teams & analyzing them to improve your success later on.

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Getting over the hump... that's what this thread is all about!  Re-read that last section especially over again.  Do small tweaks to your squads and see what happens.  Pay very close attention to how just swapping one major part of the rotation affects your wins & losses.  Examine the top OL teams and see what they're doing to win & apply those same ideas to your squad.  You can do it.

Ash, you've been very generous with me since i first started in 2012. Thanks!

Final question.

Have you discovered that keeping the 10 usage points on the floor is less important than having your team;s cumulative average between %105 - %115? or vice versa?

I always strive to keep 10 usage points on the floor.  I try to get my starters to the sweet spot of cumulative usage & most of their backups in the same neighborhood.

I'm having a hell of a time keeping withing the 10-15 Usage Points and also getting 105% total usage... I'm not sure how the heck you keep only 10 usage points on the floor and consistently get total usg at 105% or better. I feel like the only way to successfully do this in an OL is to have 5 players above 20% and below 22.1%. 

How many minutes can Rookies usually play before becoming fatigued? Can you rely on drafting a 3300 Minute Wilt Chamberlain and get 600 minutes out of a rookie?

it's not keep only 10 points - it's keep at least 10 points

Posted by copernicus on 6/10/2015 11:06:00 AM (view original):
it's not keep only 10 points - it's keep at least 10 points

This.

And rookies are random.  Generally, you can bet on getting around 2,000 minutes out of your three rookies, but you never can predict the positions they cover, so it's a good idea to have positional versatility with your core rotation & scrubs.

Should you still follow the old advice of 10-15 Usage Points? Or is it just above 10 now with the 105%-115% total usage?

I guess I just saw the "I used to use the 10-15 range" and didn't read into it. So going above 15 is fine, that makes much more sense!! I was confused when I was looking at all my efforts to make a team comprised of this method and I was extremely struggling lol.