Is it just me or is it less fun?

Part of the enjoyment for me is getting a guy on the school's all-time leaderboard. With slowdown, it's just less likely to happen because of fewer possessions. At least, with HBD, you can play in an extreme pitcher's park and tailor your team to win the 1-0, 2-1 games but still get pitching records. With slowdown offense, there are no records to get.

And, yes, I know overmatched teams, like UNC-A, should play it exclusively.

What I find interesting is when dominant teams play slowdown against far inferior teams. I dont understand why, which is probably why I ultimately suck...but Ive won a few games when I shouldnt have and I attributed it to them running slowdown and keeping my weaker team in the game. I get it when you are the weaker team, it does keep you in the game especially if you have a dominant defense.

I do agree though, not a huge fan of slowdown just from a fun perspective.

Here's the one thing about playing slowdown that I'm not quite understanding.

One of the reasons to play slowdown is to "shorten your bench", because it keeps your starters on the floor for more minutes and therefore gives your (presumably weaker) bench fewer minutes.

But wouldn't that also work against you, as it keeps your (presumably better) opponent's starters on the floor for more minutes also?

Asking for a friend.

Posted by tecwrg on 2/14/2018 1:10:00 PM (view original):
Here's the one thing about playing slowdown that I'm not quite understanding.

One of the reasons to play slowdown is to "shorten your bench", because it keeps your starters on the floor for more minutes and therefore gives your (presumably weaker) bench fewer minutes.

But wouldn't that also work against you, as it keeps your (presumably better) opponent's starters on the floor for more minutes also?

Asking for a friend.

Yes, it would also work against you. Which is why Im always puzzled when better teams run straight slow down against clear weaker teams.

Although I suppose if the opposing team ran a fast paced/ press it wouldnt really affect them as they would still have more fatigue and use more of their bench?

Slow down is good if you have a good team but no depth. Say you have 9 guys, your 5 starters (or 4 of them) are REALLY good and the other guys are developing. These teams go slow down so their starters play 27-31 minutes instead of 21-25.

Posted by crabman26 on 2/14/2018 1:13:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tecwrg on 2/14/2018 1:10:00 PM (view original):
Here's the one thing about playing slowdown that I'm not quite understanding.

One of the reasons to play slowdown is to "shorten your bench", because it keeps your starters on the floor for more minutes and therefore gives your (presumably weaker) bench fewer minutes.

But wouldn't that also work against you, as it keeps your (presumably better) opponent's starters on the floor for more minutes also?

Asking for a friend.

Yes, it would also work against you. Which is why Im always puzzled when better teams run straight slow down against clear weaker teams.

Although I suppose if the opposing team ran a fast paced/ press it wouldnt really affect them as they would still have more fatigue and use more of their bench?

I look at the difference between starters/starters and bench/bench.

IOW, if my starters are slightly worse but my bench will be dominated by their bench, I'll run slowdown. Using my two teams as examples, I felt like I was pretty deep on my WCSU team so I seldom ran slowdown. I'm not very deep on my UNC-A team so I've ran slowdown in 4 of 5(one team only had 9 on schollie and I hoped to wear him out)

A couple of different - and at times inconsistent - perspectives on tempo

1. Better team should go fast or normal - so that there are more possessions and a reduced probability that random abberant results lead to an upset. Lots of "events" make "true" outcomes more probable.

2. Deeper teams should go fast or normal - if I like my 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th guy more than the opponent, thats a reason to go fast

3. Better teams that lack depth need to make a choice.

I’ve been using slowdown with my Wooden Colorado team because I have really good starters and only decent backups. It’s been working pretty well for me.

Posted by MonsterTurtl on 2/14/2018 2:41:00 PM (view original):
I’ve been using slowdown with my Wooden Colorado team because I have really good starters and only decent backups. It’s been working pretty well for me.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say earlier!

Is it beneficial to use slowdown when you have a high ath/def team but low bh/pass? I always thought that slowdown was for high bh/pass teams that had low ath/spd. I always have run at a fast pace and I've wondered if I could win more with a different strategy.

I don't think low bh/pass has any sort of influence. I would go slow down against a team that tries to create fouls though.

Not sure if this is a different thread (and sorry for the hijacking if it is) but how does the "system" handle fastbreak offense with a slowdown tempo? If I run fastbreak offense but am facing a far superior team, should I keep it at uptempo/normal? Or go with slowdown? It seems like that would be counterproductive, but I have no idea.

I don't think you can run slowdown with FB.

correct, cant go slow w FB

not to derail, but I can never tell when to go uptempo. I ran it in the first round with my UNLV team against Pitt because they always run slow down and I thought if I jumped out to an early lead it would be difficult for them to come back...of course that plan completely failed because I couldnt make a friggin shot...which maybe the uptempo attributed to?