Are there any rules of thumb, beyond "get the best ratings you can", for what you should be looking for in ATH and SPD for the various offenses and defenses?

For example, I believe SPD may be more highly valued in running a press defense over running a zone defense. Likewise, if running a fast break offense.

I'm just looking for rough guidelines, particularly with respect to ATH and SPD, for each offensive and defensive set. Not actual numbers, because that can vary by division, but just things like you want high ATH when running "x", but you can get away with lesser SPD, blah, blah, blah.

And also, are there any natural affinities between the combination of ATH/SPD and offensive/defensive sets? Such as "if you have a guy who's well suited to run X defense, he's probably also well suited to run Y offense. Again, I'm only talking about ATH and SPD, because I feel comfortable about all the other offensive and defensive player ratings.

Running motion/Man which is my favorite set it becomes good with the most wide range of players in my opinion. FCP/FB is great for high stamina SPD players and Flex works well with SPD as well for the perimeter game. However motion is a fluent offense that stresses BH / P so when you are trying to match players up with the sets you can take quite the range of players if you have stellar guards. I do believe the "affinity" question you have pertains more to the offensive game as if you find a player with great BH SPD DEF and PER. Naturally this player fits well with flex but if he is hamstringed in PAS he wouldn't fit great for my motion. You could also slot this player in FCP if he has good stamina. However If I get an athletically gifted guard with great ATH SPD BH PS but subpar offense this would work great in my motion / man as they don't need a primary scorer.

Idk if that mini-rant helped but I figured I'd throw some input in.

I guess it is hard to overall answer this without putting direct numbers involved

These are my positional expectations for speed at D3

Position	Minimum*	Elite
PG	70	90
SG	60	90
SF	50	70
PF	20	50
C	1	50

If I were running press or fastbreak I would add 10 or so to the minimum, if running both I would add 15ish.

* Minimum maxed score.

"And also, are there any natural affinities between the combination of ATH/SPD and offensive/defensive sets? Such as "if you have a guy who's well suited to run X defense, he's probably also well suited to run Y offense. Again, I'm only talking about ATH and SPD.

High SPD/ATH guys are good in every set but probably best in FB/Flex/Press and Man.

High Speed guys work best in Flex/Press and FB/Press

Low ATH guys (usually) fit in well in triangle/zone.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 12/14/2017 1:45:00 PM (view original):
These are my positional expectations for speed at D3

Position	Minimum*	Elite
PG	70	90
SG	60	90
SF	50	70
PF	20	50
C	1	50

If I were running press or fastbreak I would add 10 or so to the minimum, if running both I would add 15ish.

* Minimum maxed score.

Im curious as I know your a good coach, what are your minimums for D1?

D1?

Guards should be in the 90's but I'll take the 80's if they are stacked everywhere else.

SF should be no less than 70 normally.

PF I look for speed around 50 but will go down to 30ish.

C- I would probably still take a 1 speed center in rare cases but I like to have the speed near 40.

That's far less thought out though, D1 is a lot more blending of attributes because the #'s are bigger and you can't rely on ATH/SPD advantages.

With zone, the only absolute necessity is a center with good athleticism and excellent shot blocking. Everything else is about averages. You can take a player with low athleticism, so long as you have another player with excellent athleticism to bring the average back up. For example, if your goal was to have an average of 60 ATH, you can take a pure perimeter scorer with 45 ATH, so long as you have another player with 75 ATH. Same calculus for SPD and DEF. In that regard, it offers you the most flexibility in constructing a roster.

With man, your concern with ATH/SPD is whether the numbers are so low that a player will get torched defensively. You can't have any defensive liabilities among your starters.

With press, the more ATH/SPD, the better. You can sacrifice some ATH for SPD in guards (and vice versa for big men), but you want a swarm of top notch athletes disrupting everything.

I think Flex/press goes well together if you are willing to play a true guard at the SF (I have no problem putting single digit rebounding there if they give me other attributes). Aejones always said at D3 you wanted your ath/speed to have a sum of 120 or more, at D2 140 or more. Now those were the numbers for the previous version of the game and I'd argue now you'd be looking for a little higher (maybe 130 and 150). For my flex/press D3 teams I'll often have three starters that are all in the 70s+ in speed. This allows me to recruit a guard who is good Ath/Def but weaker passing or BH and play them at the three.