Yeah I guess being irrational is fair.

Personally I'm less likely to hate a low WE player because I know what I'm getting and don't expect too much out of him. I'm most frustrated when I have a player with a ton of potential but it's on the lower end of the potential - when Blue turns to black or Green turns to Blue after 0-2 pts gained. That ****** everyone off.

I'll try to kill two birds with one stone with an example

Here's Mr Steffey who started with 5 WE.

1. His cores were already really good so I didn't need him to improve all that much to be helpful to my team. I was rebuilding a D prestige team and he's definitely good enough for that level (and above). Ended up scoring 1700 pts and getting 875 rebounds in his career which included 1st team AA as a senior and a 2nd rd draft pick.

2. I battled a B+ team for him. (IIRC it was Miami, FL). His low WE actually helped me because he was less appealing to a lot of other teams. I had to go all in on him and I ended up winning a dice roll. Even though I had to battle for him, I definitely didn't hate him (see 1st point).

Posted by Benis on 8/7/2017 5:06:00 PM (view original):
I'll try to kill two birds with one stone with an example

Here's Mr Steffey who started with 5 WE.

1. His cores were already really good so I didn't need him to improve all that much to be helpful to my team. I was rebuilding a D prestige team and he's definitely good enough for that level (and above). Ended up scoring 1700 pts and getting 875 rebounds in his career which included 1st team AA as a senior and a 2nd rd draft pick.

2. I battled a B+ team for him. (IIRC it was Miami, FL). His low WE actually helped me because he was less appealing to a lot of other teams. I had to go all in on him and I ended up winning a dice roll. Even though I had to battle for him, I definitely didn't hate him (see 1st point).

You found a unicorn, and obviously I can't knock your results. Tip o' the cap to you.

Most of my experience is at D2, where I've found I simply lack patience with attainable players who won't develop.

He won't max out but that shouldn't matter. You can still be an elite player despite having growth left. If you can red-shirt him and start him for four seasons I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with how good he'll end up.

In 2.0 the two best D3 bigs I ever recruited had starting WE's of 16 and 25. They both ended with 70+ ath, def, and SB and 90+ LP and Reb. They worked out just fine.

While digging through old rosters looking for players with low WE that I had previously I saw so many D3 players that were awesome at the time yet I wouldn't even look twice at now. Makes me sad how much it's changed.

:(

Posted by Benis on 8/7/2017 5:06:00 PM (view original):
I'll try to kill two birds with one stone with an example

Here's Mr Steffey who started with 5 WE.

1. His cores were already really good so I didn't need him to improve all that much to be helpful to my team. I was rebuilding a D prestige team and he's definitely good enough for that level (and above). Ended up scoring 1700 pts and getting 875 rebounds in his career which included 1st team AA as a senior and a 2nd rd draft pick.

2. I battled a B+ team for him. (IIRC it was Miami, FL). His low WE actually helped me because he was less appealing to a lot of other teams. I had to go all in on him and I ended up winning a dice roll. Even though I had to battle for him, I definitely didn't hate him (see 1st point).

As I mentioned, there are good low work ethic people. And they MUST be able to contribute immediately. Already have good core attributes. In this case, it works.

however, the OP mentioned a guy who was not good at all but had great potential everywhere. That was his appeal. The downside is it's a low work ethic. This is an awful combination. Why? He will hurt you playing. And he will take forever to develop. And he will never fully develop. Stay away.

Just like everything, not make hard fast rules about work ethic or any other areas.why? This game is not played in a vacuum and there are always other considerations and variables. In this case, I would not sign a guy like that. But if he can contribute immediately, I'm OK with low work ethics as they don't hurt as bad.

The equation also involves what you've got on the team. Is your team ready to compete in the next season or two? If so, it may really hurt to start a guy like this. But depending on your sets, you may be able to "hide" him, if your aspirations don't include a championship run this season or next. With a starting WE of 25, which is absolutely not too low to consider, he could be a real asset to you by the end of his junior year, when his WE should be up to 40+ (assuming you've gotten him the starts).

Posted by Benis on 8/7/2017 6:35:00 PM (view original):
While digging through old rosters looking for players with low WE that I had previously I saw so many D3 players that were awesome at the time yet I wouldn't even look twice at now. Makes me sad how much it's changed.

:(

Yep. That's specifically why I specified "2.0" in my post.

"He won't max out but that shouldn't matter. You can still be an elite player despite having growth left. "

Darnocc is totally right. I think to many players worry about "maxing out" players. A good player is good no matter what. A 90 maxed out is the same as a 90 not maxed out.

In all honesty, I only max out like 10-20% of my players.

One thing I'll caution to noobs about low WE is to be careful about what growth to expect for Stamina. If you play Press, this is especially important.

Players typically lose Stamina in the offseason and since you will likely only gain a couple points during the season, you will likely net out neutral or only slightly ahead (or sometimes even lower!).

Net - if he's starting with a low stamina, don't expect it to increase all that much by the time he's a senior, even if green/blue. You're going to get less growth here overall than other stats.

for those low WE guys I also take a closer look at gpa. Nothing like needing 10 or more minutes of study hall for a couple seasons to slow down the rating increases. Plus the low WE combined with low GPA mean the increase in IQ is going to crawl.

I don't mind the 25-30 WE guys but I often like to redshirt them. They can pick up 40+ points that redshirt season if they have some nice potential.

I recruited a 28 WE guy to D2 with a 505 starting rating and 7 green categories and a blue in stamina. Ended up at 796 (+291) over the five seasons. He probably left 50 some points on the table but was a key player for a couple seasons.