Did the 8/28 update create this monster? Topic

I have the joy in trying to defend Harold Baldwin www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Stats.aspx?tid=7826&pid=1520010 in my next game.  He's pretty good. 

He has 29.3% offensive distribution and he's averaging 27.5 points a game that leads D3 by almost 5 points a game.  He averages more than a point a minute, he only plays 24 minutes a game.  He has a huge distribution regardless, but even more so for a guy that only plays 60% of the minutes.

More than half of his shots are 3 pointers.  He shoots 10.5 a game and is making them at a 41.6% clip.  We're 17 games into Allen so the sample size is not terrible.  Here is how he is doing game-by-game from worst to best:



FG3M FG3A FG3%
4 12 33.3%
2 6 33.3%
4 12 33.3%
5 14 35.7%
4 11 36.4%
5 13 38.5%
7 17 41.2%
5 12 41.7%
5 12 41.7%
8 19 42.1%
3 7 42.9%
3 7 42.9%
4 8 50.0%
4 8 50.0%
6 11 54.5%
5 9 55.6%

With the exception of the 54.5% game and the 55.6% game, he was never more than one make/miss away from his season number of 41.6%.  And as a general rule, the more shots he takes, the closer he ends up to 41.6%.

I think that's the point of the 8/28 update.  Full disclosure, I hate the 8/28 update.  But does a player like this take the impact of that change and manipulate it to achieve an unrealistic result?  He's one of the best players in D3 right now.  I don't have the ability to scrape everybody's roster but I wouldn't be surprised to find out he's the only player in D3 with 70+ ratings in athleticism, speed, perimeter, and ball handling.

But in the old engine if you used a guy this much, it would start to have an impact on his percentages.  With the 8/28 update it seems like it just reinforces the fact that he's going to drill about 42% of this three pointers.  And the more he shoots, the less likely it is he is going to have an off night.  By taking three times as many shots as anybody else (next highest distribution is 9.3%) it seems like it just confirms he's going to have an excellent night every time he's on the court.

I obviously can't look at the numbers from last season.  But he had a pretty high distribution then too -- he averaged 21.8 points a game in 21.7 minutes per game.  And I think he was maxed out last season as well, or at least he ended the season that way.  This season, the speed and athleticism have both developed a point but the ball handling and perimeter rankings are both at zero growth.  Unless something really goofy happened during the offseason, he's been the same player for two seasons now.  This season with the super-high distribution he's still making 41.6% of his threes.  Last season?  41.2%  For both numbers to end up being as close to one another is likely a direct consequence of the 8/28 update.

I think that's what the 8/28 update set out to accomplish.  But I find it frustrating that even in the games where he's being double teamed, it still doesn't do much (anything?) to stop him from hitting his target percentage no matter how often he's gunning it.  I'm not even sure I'm going to bother with a double team in my gameplan even though this is a player that screams for it.

Thoughts?

11/9/2010 5:18 PM
put shoemaker on him, no double team and watch those numbers drop. tada!

put a double team on boelter. tada!

11/9/2010 5:30 PM (edited)
Doubling this guy may help, but my personal experience says it won't help much.  I doubled a guy that had a huge distribution like this and averaged 20+ points, and he still shot over 50% and had 20+ points. 
11/9/2010 5:47 PM
Hire Uncle Vito to wait outside the locker room with a baseball bat.

That's a scary ,scary D3 player.
11/9/2010 6:12 PM
https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Stats.aspx?tid=13645&pid=1602296 is technically better, but I was disappointed as he never put up the numbers he could/should have. :-/
11/9/2010 9:08 PM
This post has a rating of , which is below the default threshold.
Since were comparing players...check this D3 player out. He will be a SR this coming season. The guy can literally play any position on the floor very well. :)

http://whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=1633226
11/9/2010 11:48 PM (edited)
damn dude!
11/10/2010 12:10 AM
Might be too late to prevent the hijack but honestly how good the player is wasn't really the point of the thread.  Although my original point might have been silly and/or trivial and if that's the case .... continue onward with the hijack.

Rails -- agree with you on stamina as a whole but this player plays for a fastbreak/press team.  He does have 96 stamina but whenever I go up against this team in conference play, I run uptempo and with my zone I typically have the fatigue advantage up and down the lineup.  And even with the 96 stamina he's only playing 24 minutes a game.
11/10/2010 11:38 AM
kujay, when you look at his stats for all four years, they are pretty much in line (with an increase due to iq/skill development as a jr/sr, but not hugely so). That suggests that perhaps the 8/28 update isn't as big a culprit as you're thinking, perhaps?
11/10/2010 12:22 PM
I think you are underestimating how many stud players are out there. The thing that makes this case different isn't that the player is so good. But rather that he is able to perform so efficiently with such a high distribution of his teams shots.

I have 3 players of similar if not higher caliber that all perform extremely efficiently. But it's not exactly the same because with 3 of them none of them have over exaggerated distribution levels.

I don't think it is a problem that he is so consistent over the season assuming he is facing similar competition. I would start to suspect something is wrong when he goes against a lock down defender and puts up the same stat line. Please report back with how he does.
11/10/2010 1:32 PM
...i don't know what exactly everyone is talking about here.

the issue is that he had around the exact same 3pt % in each game! that really should not happen! he's not going to go 6/9 once, or 2/9 or 7/12 ever? it's pretty unrealistic.

11/10/2010 2:33 PM
its almost as if the game-to-game variance has been eliminated! even if he played the same team every game he shouldnt shoot that consistently
11/10/2010 2:33 PM
For the record I don't care at all that he's this good.  And I don't care if there are players that are better.  I probably shouldn't have been tried to say that.  I was simply trying to say that while I fully accept he's an excellent player, he shouldn't be producing these results.

The problem that I have is that he shoots more or less the same every game and I'm quite that's a direct result of 8/28.

More importantly, in my opinion, is the fact that a huge distribution percentage doesn't seem to be impacting his results at all.  Kobe Bryant is an amazing player but he doesn't shoot all that well (all things considered) because he doesn't just take shots that the offense gives him.  He forces things.  Allen Iverson even more so.  Right now Harold Baldwin is shooting way more than either of those players would.

Since Shaq left the Lakers, Kobe has taken .56 shots per minute played.

Harold Baldwin is taking .82 shots per minute playing these season.

Shooting so much hurts real life players.  It used to hurt players in the old version of the sim.  In the current sim engine since the 8/28 update, it seems such a high distribution doesn't impact things because the results of the next shot seem to be primarily tied to the effects of the previous shots of the game -- not at all paying attention to the fact that he's gunning left and right.

I really think there should be a penalty applied if you crank the distribution really high.  The penalty shouldn't necessarily be so severe that the player stops being an offensive threat if the player is clearly much better than the rest of his teammates, but there's a huge difference between that and no penalty at all.  Folks that follow Big Ten basketball probably are aware of Blake Hoffarber.  According to kenpom.com he was the most efficient offensive player in the country last season.  That's in large part because he went with the flow of the offense and only took 8 shots a game.  If Blake Hoffarber was in this game, I don't believe there would be any real consequence if he starting taking double or triple the numbers of those shots per game.  Because the next shot he takes is most likely to be (un)successful based on whatever result minimizes the variance for the game.

Regrettably I don't have an offensive threat on my team that is a true weapon.  All my guys are relatively the same  But if I did have a guy a cut above the rest I think I'd (1) crank the distribution super high, (2) sit back, (3) profit.
11/10/2010 4:28 PM
I'm not sure I see anything wrong here. I think Baldwin is a dinosaur (old-school generation), recruit, who RS'd his first season. RDB has maximized him is entire career.... and the guy soots 41% his career.... not just since the 8/28 update. He plays low 20's in minutes at high 90's in stamina.... he's allways fresh and is just melting the faces on the DIII kids guarding him.... The only problem here may be the lack of a 2-12 night... but he's sooooo much better than his competition,,, he may not really deserve that night this season.
The guy has passed the next best scorer in school histiory by like 500 points with alot of games left. RDB has been there since I was (a long time ago), and had alot of good players in that time.... this guy is really just that good, especially as the rest of DIII gets worse.

*Edit, and as I see it... the problem is all about the fact that he is that good. very little else. When there are no old generation recruits playing in DIII, I don't think there will be anyone to have this conversation about. (IMHO), of course

The guy is on fairly fresh,,,, he plays alot of his minutes against the other teams back-ups....kind of a perfect storm going on here and your about to get to see it up close 
11/10/2010 4:40 PM (edited)
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