Hi all, after discussion with some coaches with more experience than me it’s become clear that I haven’t been focused enough on my bench’s scoring output.

With that being said, I’m wondering if this is a viable strategy some have employed:
-have my top scorer lead the starting 5

-bench my second best scorer (start his backup) so that he can anchor the reserves with some scoring

Obviously I’d still have to make sure that the #2 scorer gets solid minutes, but I’m wondering about that strategy as a whole and whether or not that’s something you experienced coaches use

I would think that this idea is one of those things that has merit in real life but not in HD. Could be wrong though, I'm not very good at this game.

ABG - there are several rosters where I have done this approach successfully.

Especially useful if the second player is not great at defense.

Yeah I agree with mully. If the dude is an all around great player there is no reason to bring him off the bench to “balance” things because the rotations aren’t like the NBA where there is a starters unit and reserves unit.

That being said, bringing high offense/BH low DE guys off the bench can be a great idea, especially because you can play a guy at two different positions (1/2) so they can’t be attacked as much in a man.

Posted by cubcub113 on 5/8/2020 11:01:00 AM (view original):
Yeah I agree with mully. If the dude is an all around great player there is no reason to bring him off the bench to “balance” things because the rotations aren’t like the NBA where there is a starters unit and reserves unit.

That being said, bringing high offense/BH low DE guys off the bench can be a great idea, especially because you can play a guy at two different positions (1/2) so they can’t be attacked as much in a man.

Cool, thanks guys. I'm gonna test this out. I got good depth in frontcourt, so gonna move one of my starters with lower D to the bench.

Posted by mullycj on 5/8/2020 10:53:00 AM (view original):
ABG - there are several rosters where I have done this approach successfully.

Especially useful if the second player is not great at defense.

Amen. I do this in two scenarios. One where I have a good scorer with poor defense and two when I have a younger player (typically a freshman) that I'm trying to get a start in for over a better veteran player for development purposes (or because of a recruitment promise). I set the frosh to fairly fresh and keep whomever is on the bench behind them at tired/very tired to keep them out there longer. Works decently well, particularly if that scorer ends up on the court more against your opponents' backups.

That's how I have been using Phillip Willis on my DePauw team this season and it's worked decently well: https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Stats.aspx?tid=13523&pid=4442579 It seems to even help his rebounding & block #'s being on the court against opponents' backups.