I'd appreciate some feedback on how to best use the options in the OFF Auto-Adjust Tempo & DEF Halftime Adjustment. Or, if anyone can point me to a thread that already exists in the Forum that might be helpful, any info would be appreciated. TY

auto adjust tempo:

the answer is somewhat situational, but probably less than most things. most folks will want to go with anytime. the game only adjusts when things are fairly well out of hand, so there is usually fairly little downside in letting the sim adjust.

extended rambling:

i personally used to play with it on if losing, because if winning, i am not necessarily a fan of changing out of what works (i lost 1 game once from a bad auto adjust, and swore it off for the next 5 years). but i think 'anytime' is the right call for most coaches in most situations.

if you are really short on players, you may not want to run into uptempo, if you think the fatigue is going to destroy you. if you want to really analyze it, i would basically think, if im down nearly 20 points at the half, do i think its a good idea to run uptempo the rest of the half? (or possibly normal if you started slowdown). if you think the fatigue swamps you worse than the possessions help you, then don't do the if losing part.

on the other hand, i think the if winning is more likely to be something you don't want - like i said earlier, if you are crushing it, do you really want to stop doing what is working so well? most of the time, dropping possessions is going to be a good thing, but if you ran a foul-drawing offense, i would definitely not allow it. similarly, if you are an extremely good team or coach, you just may not think there are many scenarios in which you want the sim changing your plan. so i could see dropping the if winning part in those cases (and running if losing).

in the end of the day, this setting is going to swing, i would guess, less than 1 in 100 games - so im not sure its terrible important.

def adjustments:

this one is way more debatable and meaningful. this setting has a meaningful effect on a substantial % of games.

before getting into mechanics, the answer largely hinges on your game planning. for starters... do you do it? if you are skipping game plans regularly, like during the regular season, the 'always' setting is probably the best, or maybe 'if losing'. generally speaking, the sim is adjusting based on where the shots are taken, and the majority of the time, the sim auto adjusts in the right direction. on the other hand, i'd never in a million years use 'always' for the post season.

when game planning, to me the question hinges on a couple things. one, how confident are you in what your opponent is going to do? 95% of opponents, if not more, run the same general scheme every game. sure, they may tweak this or that, but its not like one day, they are going to target shooting 40% 3s, and the next, 15%. but still, you have to do the work of looking. the more you do this work, the more confident you are in what your opponent's scheme is, the less you want to auto adjust.

the second thing is, how confident are you in your own game planning? if you are highly confident your +1 setting is the right setting, go ahead and put it on never or if losing by 10. this is typically where i am in the NT. i used to run a lot of 'if losing' or 'if losing by 5', but the sim engine is really not that intelligent in the adjustment here, and its not hesitant to make its most extreme adjustments (+ or - 2, the game won't adjust by more than 2).

so, it really comes down to - how confident are you in the setting you are running - the less you are, the better to let the sim adjust. the more you are, the worse the sim adjustment becomes.

the adjustment runs on shots taken, not what is made, and definitely not what 'should be made'. so its a pretty rough measure. if the opponent sucks at 3s and is jacking them up and missing most, do you need to go out +2 more and give up all those boards and make the paint shots better? definitely not. also, the variance in a single half is huge. what is your opponent taking, like 30 shots? that's a pretty crappy sample. the opponent might take 9 shots on average, thats 30%, but taking just 3 fewer or 3 more creates a 2 factor range (6/30 to 12/30, 20% to 40%). so, the 'input' to the 'defense auto adjust' function, its just half garbage to start with. garbage in, garbage out.

hence my conclusion - if you are skipping game planning or really new, let it adjust - even if winning. if you are fairly new but have basic competence, maybe if losing by 5? if you are pretty good, and we are talking post season, i'd just turn it off. maybe if losing by 10 because who knows, at that point, you may not be able to screw things up that badly? i still favor 'never' myself for the post season, but can't knock if losing by 10 too hard.

Greatly Appreciated! TY