all good advice. what TJ is saying in #3 is very similar to the "ability vs attribute" issue. don't recruit a player because they have a good rating - recruit them because they are good at actually doing something (preferably, two things). some people will say, i don't like that guard, his speed is a little low. ok, but how is he as a defender, scorer, and in terms of guard skills? if hes still very strong at 2/3, hes still a great player. abilities except for rebounding are the sum of at least 3 cores.
the rule of thumb for those seeking to compete at a high level, is to recruit players who are good in 2 abilities - scoring, defense, reb, and guard skills. for bigs guard skills isn't a core ability, for guards reb is not, so its really 2 out of the other 3. extreme scorers are the primary exception to that rule of thumb, if you get a guy who can score enough for 2 people, you can tolerate him not being strong in another ability. in d3 the rule of thumb is harder to follow than elsewhere, but its still a good mark to shoot for. if you think about, what makes a great team, if you had 10 ability strengths, split into 4 defenders, 2 strong rebounders, 2 strong guard skills players, and 2 strong scorers, you pretty much have all the vital pieces - you can improve on that, marginally, but taking anything away is generally a big hit (2nd guard skills player at lower divisions is probably a want-to-have, not need-to-have, but everything else is really a need-to-have). the math is pretty simple, its going to be very hard to hit those 10 abilities on your lineup, if you aren't recruiting guys with 2 clear ability strengths.