As a former basketball player and coach, I have coached the flex offense and also played in a motion offense. I also grew up as a fan of the Jordan led Bulls so I have watched the triangle offense in depth. As a result I have pretty decent knowledge of all 3 non-fastbreak offenses.
There are a few distinct differences in the how the offenses work... and I say this as in how they work in the real world and I don't know how well these are correlated in this SIM engine. I think everyone realizes that the fast break offense is less about half court game and more about creating a quick layup. I honestly have no clue aside from that how the Fastbreak offense works from a half court scenario in this SIM.
Motion - More designed for outside shooting and requires all players to be at a minimum pretty good passers. Post players are less important and shooters are more important. Runs best when all players are similarly talented and doesn't rely on a single player as a scoring threat, but works best when distribution is more equally dispersed, although a really good shooter can thrive as the main or secondary option. A motion at its best has 5 rotations of the same movement. In each rotation, a player will start a rotation in every position, Point, Left Wing, Right Post, Right Wing, Left Post, and repeat (or some similar rotation depending on the exact type of motion offense designed for that team). The motion works to create open jump shots or confuse the defense to create an easy layup.
Flex - More designed to get the ball inside and create penetration lanes. Geared more for creating screens for easy layups or 5 to 10 foot jump shots. Quick guards can also find open lanes for penetration to the basket. It also gives opportunities for jump shooters to get open shots when the defense overcompensates to close the driving lanes. Flex is also the best offense to run if you have a single stud offensive option because of the constant motion without having to go a full rotation of 5 players touching the ball before the play returns to the star. It basically is a motion that resets itself after 2 rotations. The flex is a hybrid of the motion, but because it restarts after 2 rotations, it allows for 1 or 2 great offensive players to be dominant because they will be in their natural position more often.
Triangle - More designed to move the ball inside-out. Works best when the big men are decent passers to pass to the open wing guys on a double team or if the lane closes. Triangle is more geared to having 2 or 3 key offense options. In a triangle, post players are always post players and wing players are always wing players. This offense works best when you have at least 1 solid post player and 2 solid perimeter shooters. The guard pushes the ball inside and the post player either scores or finds an open wing player, who then either takes the shot or tries to feed it back the post player. In the triangle, you will always have a strong side and a weak side, but wing players will almost always be wing players, post players will almost always be post players and the point will almost always be at the top of the key. The triangle has a more distinct role in offensive positions because post players will almost always set in the post, and wing players will almost always set up on the wing.
5/6/2012 11:58 PM (edited)