How do I instruct my PG to do this?  He gets like 1 assist per game and shoots 3-for-16.  Stop shooting, start passing!  That's all I want to tell this guy.  How do I do it?

If you set his distribution to zero, or at least a lot lower than the other players, he won't shoot much.

If you're new to the game, the distribution can found under the 'Coaching' tab, then 'Player Game Plan'. 

Look at my Drury team in Crum.  My PG, Campbell, has only shot 41 times in 21 games.   His distribution is '1' while the other starters range from 10-23

Thanks.  So he wont shoot a lot, but will he handle the ball and set up his teammates with passing more frequently?  I guess if he's not shooting then he has no choice to pass, so by osmosis he'll get more assists when other guys shoot?

The thing that is problematic to me is I read somewhere else is that to beat the press for example you need to increase distribution to your best ballhandler.  But of course, then he's going to shoot a lot.

So it seems that there is no point to having a guard with high PE but low BH or Pass.  Likewise, can't have a high Pass/BH that can't shoot.  Is this about right?  

There doesn't seem to be a way to put the ball in a guy's hands for the purpose of beating the press, running the offense, and distributing the ball without also having the guy shoot all the time.  Is that about right?

The thing that is problematic to me is I read somewhere else is that to beat the press for example you need to increase distribution to your best ballhandler.  But of course, then he's going to shoot a lot.

Huh ?   I dont think you read that post correctly.   Distribution is shooting ONLY.

The thing that is problematic to me is I read somewhere else is that to beat the press for example you need to increase distribution to your best ballhandler.  But of course, then he's going to shoot a lot.

It's not that you need to increase distribution to your best ballhandler.    It's beneficial to lean more heavily on your BH/P guys among your scorers, not just anybody with high BH/P, necessarily.  Also, yes, distribution = shots, not the amount of time the player is in possession of the ball.

So it seems that there is no point to having a guard with high PE but low BH or Pass.  Likewise, can't have a high Pass/BH that can't shoot.  Is this about right?

A guard with lowish BH or P can work in the backcourt at lower levels, but they're not usually your best bet.  Sometimes you can stash these guys at SF and get some value out of them.  A high BH and/or P and no PER can be a very valuable player as a "pure" PG, or even a scorer.  Scoring can come from different combinations of abilities.  See Trentonjoe's recent notes on the topic.

There doesn't seem to be a way to put the ball in a guy's hands for the purpose of beating the press, running the offense, and distributing the ball without also having the guy shoot all the time.  Is that about right?

No matter what your distribution settings are, your PG still tries to bring the ball up the floor and initiate the offense.  He's going to have to pass out of the press at times, of course, so he's not going to be able to do this 100% of the time.

Hope this helps clarify some things.

Thanks everybody!  I've made some adjustments based on what you've put up here, so we'll see if we can't Mr. PG on the right track!  

is it clear that zero distribution works the way one would assume - I tend to go with 1 as my minimum because I have never been sure what happens with a zero.....

0 is 0 unless everyone on the court at the time has a 0, in which case the engine effectively apportions distribution based on who it thinks are the best scorers on the floor at the time.

Guys with zero will still shoot on tip ins.

yup, thats the issue for me with zero - ages ago I had three or four backups at zero, but then when 2 or 3 of them were in at the same time the engine made some odd - to me - distro decisions

at least if I have them all at 1 that says to the SIM give these third stringers equal distro

so long as my primary guys have distro in the 7-12 range, that sends very few plays toward a guy at 1 who is on the floor with guys who are at say 12, 12, 7 and 6

The last four guys on this team are set to zero.

ame	Yr.	Pos	GP	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	FG3M	FG3A	FTM	FTA	OFF	REB	AST	TO	STL	BLK	PF	PTS
D. Pennington	So.	PG	17	17	459	77	179	66	156	8	17	8	26	17	38	14	1	45	228
G. Small	Sr.	PF	17	17	462	65	122	0	1	33	54	38	130	13	34	13	11	30	163
R. Walker	Sr.	PG	17	17	445	54	116	0	3	62	90	12	32	60	21	16	1	25	170
B. Trevizo	Jr.	PF	17	17	401	52	112	0	1	27	35	20	83	14	20	12	14	42	131
T. Strauser	Sr.	PG	17	17	512	50	106	0	0	59	76	12	43	19	28	20	3	15	159
D. Johnson	Jr.	C	17	0	286	50	101	0	0	28	41	19	75	6	19	8	12	24	128
D. Troy	Fr.	PF	17	0	207	6	15	0	2	1	4	21	55	1	6	9	8	14	13
J. Graff	Fr.	PG	17	0	159	3	10	0	2	9	11	6	15	21	4	7	2	10	15
K. Ridenhour	Fr.	SG	17	0	241	5	10	0	2	6	9	4	13	16	11	3	0	12	16
N. Gunter	Fr.	PG	17	0	228	3	5	3	3	10	16	3	3	41	10	6	0	24	19
Totals						365	776	69	170	243	353	143	475	208	191	108	52	241	1042

Zero isn't exactly zero but it's very close.  They've taken roughly 5% of my teams shots.  Most of Troy's shots are probably tip in attempts but the others probably aren't.

The bottom 4 on this team have had zero  distro as well.

ame	Yr.	Pos	GP	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	FG3M	FG3A	FTM	FTA	OFF	REB	AST	TO	STL	BLK	PF	PTS
V. Sparks	So.	SG	10	10	240	74	171	49	132	16	28	4	13	18	26	10	1	21	213
M. Smith	Sr.	SG	10	2	189	68	142	40	92	30	43	7	23	17	18	9	1	13	206
J. Bethel	Sr.	PG	10	2	207	48	106	2	15	27	38	8	34	16	18	5	0	9	125
C. Edwards	So.	C	10	2	197	28	53	0	0	7	10	26	62	1	17	4	6	16	63
R. Reynolds	Sr/5	PG	10	8	229	24	51	2	9	16	26	10	26	28	12	7	0	9	66
E. Lucas	So.	PF	10	8	226	16	27	0	1	11	14	20	51	7	11	16	5	18	43
D. Weddle	Fr.	C	10	10	209	7	14	0	2	2	2	22	70	3	9	7	5	19	16
J. Henderson	So.	C	10	0	170	4	10	0	0	3	6	11	46	8	5	4	4	15	11
R. Cedillo	Fr.	SF	10	7	171	3	8	0	0	9	12	9	25	17	5	5	2	12	15
D. Ours	So.	SG	10	0	125	0	3	0	0	5	7	5	14	11	6	4	0	11	5
B. Baldwin	Fr.	PG	8	1	62	2	2	1	1	0	0	1	5	10	2	2	0	4	5

These guys have taken roughly 20 out of 600 shots.  Around 3.5%.

I believe they will also shoot towards the end of the half if they have the ball in their hands and the clock is nearing 0. Not as often towards the end of the game, unless it's close and those  players that are set to 0 happen to be your starters. More notably,  I also wonder if the same thing happens as the shot clock is winding down.