I lost a game yesterday because I chose to go target minutes since I promised a start to a SG... So I wanted to make sure he did not remain on the court too long. My center remained on the court, getting really tired, all the second half and It went sour. I lost by three but with substitutions being better, I was going to win it. I still don't understand why the SIM did not sit my center a bit... It looked as if the SIM wanted him to get all of his 28 minutes... which how I set the target minutes for him.

It made me change my idea about Fatigue... I normally only use it on Press teams. Now, how can you manage to get your players to play the number of minutes you want on Fatigue? I tend not to be able to do that. It's always 20-22 minutes starters, a bit less back-ups. It's great for press but when you zone or you do man to man... What's there to do?

Thanks for your tricks about it.

you didn't mention what off/def or tempo you normally play - and they all affect minutes, especially tempo...normal or slow tempo will maximize your starters minutes. i play fb/fcp and always play fatigue. you could always list a starter as a 3rd (and/or 4th string player at a different position) that will provide additional minutes - but there's not much you can do, if you promised a start, except to start him for 80% of your games (until the conf tourney, then have him come off the bench) - or he'll bolt next season. i have a pg that has 94 stamina, and list him at a couple of positions (but do not start him) and he's avg about 20 minutes per game.

What happened, I would guess is this -- you have your foul strategy set for the player to either "take out sooner" or "normal"...Hathaway picked up two fouls in less than 4 minutes of floor time to start the game, which triggered his removal from the floor. He basically sat for the entire first half until the sim sneaks him back in for the final 3 minutes and change. So at the half, he'd had basically 7 minutes of playing time. The Sim looks and sees you want the kid to play 24-28 minutes...well, the only way to do that since he's only got 7 minutes to his credit is to play him into the ground. Which is exactly what happened in the second half. And since the kid was your starter and the game was close, the Sim aimed for the higher end of the 24-28 spread because, hey, we all want our starters on the floor in close games, right? 

It sucks and shows the danger of using the higher minute settings under playing time. 

If you keep using playing time, under-allocate the minutes...I always set my team for around 170-180 minutes total. In close games the extra minutes will go to the starters. In blowouts to the guys lower on the charts as they get their extra floor time. It was the best defense I could find for scenarios like this, but it isn't a catch-all. When you have that rare game where your PG picks up 2 fouls in the first 90 seconds of the game or something, you still risk having someone run into the ground in the second half to make the minimum end of their playing time window. 

Thanks Rednu. It really makes me understand the problem and the logic behind what happened. I am trying the fatigue on that zone team next game. Hopefully I don't drop another one.