Hey,

So my team is quite good, but I'm struggling with who to play at C? Brazil will get to 100, but I'm wondering at what REB the community would start him

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=4591384

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=4617265

Ugh, worst feeling is seeing people post about players that you had hoped to sign. Brazil would have looked good over at S Arkansas.

I'm not really qualified to be giving advice here but if I was I'd likely say it's really dependent on the structure of your team. Assuming you don't need scoring from the position regardless (based on you being #1 and the first player only scoring 4 and change per game), I'd be close to giving Brazil the nod.

Thanks- yeah I don't need the scoring but I do need the rebounding.

He's a really nice player.

I think these two are nearly identical in terms of rebounding ability (very slight edge to Kowalewski for the better IQ) but think in general Brazil is a much better player especially since you have a number of scoring options in your starting lineup. I'd start Brazil and let Kowalewski lead the scoring for the 2nd unit.

I think without a doubt, Kowalewski is the worst of your bigs. You play press so don't get too hung up on rebounding - you get extra possessions via turnovers. Focus on shutting down the other team defensively. Also, you will have some rebounding from Freeman and Crouse at SF so that helps overall.

I was about to say Brazil for sure at starting center but that Stamina at 62 is rough for press. I don't really like those low stamina starters, if I can help it but he does have elite Ath/Def for D2 with good rebounding. I'd give him a shot at starting C and monitor his fatigue. Overall your stamina isn't very good for an elite (i.e. championship level) press team so I'm thinking you'e likely going to be playing a lot slowdown and maybe some normal tempo so he could be fine - maybe.

Try out

PF: Kenny Williams, Kowalewski
C: Wilkerson, Brazil.

You can flip brazil and wilkerson possibly, I can see the argument both ways. But Wilkerson does have elite offense potential and MUCH better stamina so I'd lean that way.

Bottom line - don't force kowalewski minutes because of his rebounding. Your other bigs are very good, ride those hogs to the tourney.

I like Wilkerson/Williams/Brazil the best

Thanks all- I'll give the Wilkerson idea a try. It's a very guy, but flawed team. Have never hoisted a trophy so curious if this team gets it done.

I do think there's value in Wilkerson leading the second unit's offensive pace

A couple other things.

Try to get Blake some more shots - especially from 3pt land. And you can put Ledoux, Calahan at -1 or even zero for sure. Even though you have some great low post scorers, you want to take enough 3 points to keep the other team honest. Single digit 3pt attempts is just going to make the other teams (I'm talking the good ones) go heavy minus which will reduce the scoring effectiveness of your bigs.

I think you have a really good team and could possibly win it all. The biggest knock is the stamina like I mentioned. I'd probably go slowdown if I were you.

Thanks- Callahan is....i've been struggling with Ledoux because I really just want him to live at the line. There aren't enough shots to go around the starters

Contrarian thought...? (without trophies to support it) My Tx Tech team plays FB/FCP; whenever I have a lower(ish) STA guy that I want to get meaningful/almost starter like mins, I start with a Fairly Fresh setting. My idea is that he is getting his best mins as a starter and at Fairly Fresh, but because of STA then my backup will also get meaningful mins.

Well I'm 0-2 with this change so shifting back.

I think you need to go slowdown. Check out your play by plays.

Look at your last game. You had a 12pt lead with 3 minutes left and your lineup was Tiring, Tiring, Very Tired, Very Tired, Tired. You ended up losing by 2.

Just sayin.

I missed that. Great point- I thought the depth would superceed the stamina

Posted by sportstar6ms on 10/7/2020 5:04:00 PM (view original):
I missed that. Great point- I thought the depth would superceed the stamina

reading the pbps is not really essential, its mostly for fun. you can get some good insights from it, but i wouldn't really consider reading the pbp to be *required* for elite teams trying to win titles. however - checking the pbp to get a sense of your depth/fatigue situation, i would consider that a baseline requirement. its important for anyone but with a press team its absolutely critical to have that information so you can act accordingly.

great press teams tend to be 12 deep, even losing the 1 can be painful. however, as long as its 4 bigs and 7 1-3 players, or something along those lines (some players are able to play sf and big, etc) - you can still get by pretty well. you have this situation, the 4 bigs. so you should be doing more OK, i'd think.

i do see the insane fatigue (just in a quick scroll by) that benis mentioned, but some of that was the fb/fcp which is always going to be a problem for you with just decent depth (11 deep + a little subpar stamina). however the game vs SIUE is a good example for you to look into. to face another straight press team (as opposed to fb/fcp) while one of you runs normal and the other slowdown - that is not a very high pace / high fatigue game. its on the higher end than average, but as a press team yourself, its not remotely like 'exceptionally fatigue' like the other loss to that fb/fcp team.

you want to consider everything involved in the situation. benis's slowdown is a good suggestion, but there is often more than that. you need to make sure you are efficiently utilizing the full depth chart, so that when you have a combination of players with foul trouble, you are able to balance the fatigue as evenly as possible. you appear to have some guys with significant stamina growth potential - you probably want to be pushing conditioning hard, if you aren't already, for those guys. you could also start higher stamina players to help your depth. you could even pull the redshirt - if you think this is a legitimate title shot year and it is worth selling out a little long term success for the here and now (which is typically a bad idea most years, but a good one on your best title shot years).

bottom line - with your current fatigue profile - this is not a championship team. you cannot expect to chain together 6 wins when you are so vulnerable to foul/fatigue situations. my guess based on your NC game 8 and 9, is that you need to better organize the bottom half of your depth chart at the 1-3 to ensure you are using fresh guys whenever they are available, and are less vulnerable to specific instances of foul trouble. i didn't look closely enough to say this for sure - but the quick eye tests suggests there is stuff left on the table on that item. but hopefully you can find some combination of things to get your fatigue under control - i agree with benis that you have a really good team, if you can get your fatigue under control. but yeah. most important take away - make sure you are paying attention to fatigue with every press team :) its roughly impossible to overstate its importance! even 12 deep, 80 stamina press teams need to take care to manage fatigue.