Doing some SERIOUSLY low-budget recruiting in R2.

Does anyone know what steals in “last season stats” for computer generated players (PGs and SGs most specifically) most correlates to? Does it reflect defense rating or is it for the most part speed/athleticism. I’m using “last season stats” to decide which players to take a deeper look into.

Those stats are just window dressing and have no impact on ratings.

FT stats were the only thing that was accurate. Not sure if thats still true or not.

There's a fun challenge for someone who's bored. Only recruit based off of the best high school stats, and see how far you can make it.

in general, treat all those stats as window dressing. you need to be scouting players before signing them. that's the advice i'd give to anybody, at any level of experience or success.

on the more theoretical side of the conversation - i'm not convinced that there is zero correlation between those stats, and the ratings. sure seemed poor when i looked 15 years ago. i do sometimes wonder if those stats give more than 0 information though, like, is a guy with 25ppg on average no better in lp or per than a guy with 5 ppg? maybe. definitely the size of the high school or something seemed to be a factor. i wouldn't rule it out, that there *could* be a coach out there who is able to make a more educated than random guess, but still, a not-that-educated guess, based on those stats. its very possible there is absolutely nothing there, i just can't completely rule out that there might be something. and i doubt there's even a single coach in HD, who uses those in anything resembling a constructive fashion. i'm not convinced there COULDNT be, though.

but to the OP - this is a theoretical issue. nothing i just said changes that you really need to be scouting players and signing them off their ratings. also, we know for sure - if you know the ratings, the high school stats provide zero additional info. if you end up being one of the rare folks who goes and investigates corners of the game to find a rock to turn over, that even the best coaches in HD history haven't looked for - maybe then, you could go down this path. i seriously doubt that i would find anything useful, if i went down that path. and if i did, i expect it would be at best quasi-useful, and would have no real impact on anything. this is a corner that is a theoretical curiosity too remote even for me, and i tend to take interest in remote corners basically more than anyone. so like - ignore those stats - but maybe after you've mastered the game, if you want to look back, you *might* find something?

Thanks! I appreciate it. I noticed that things like free throw percentage and three point percentage, definitely definitely are highly correlated to the scouting ratings for FT and PER. Assists is also highly correlated to pass, although to a lesser extent.

I was wondering mainly, because I only have a couple hundred dollars left, and looking for anything to help narrow down which players I will scout to LVLs 2 or 3. Not trying to replace looking at stats with traditional scouting methods per say, as much as I’m looking for any info that would help narrow down my search.

Although I’m sure there’s a non-zero correlation between stars and ratings, this is most definitely still a desperation question

Even if there is a strong correlation, without scouting you won't know the potential. There's a huge difference between a red 55 PER and a green 55 PER. If you're low on scouting funds, it's usually a good to look around and find players that several other human coaches are on. If you still have some recruiting funds, you can jump in and hope to steal them. If you're out of funds, you can try to make promises and hope for a miracle. It's just a rough position to be in so there really aren't any great solutions. You'll probably be chalking it up as a valuable lesson learned.

Out of curiosity, what is your scouting process? If you're not currently using it, I would highly recommend you research and learn the "assistant coach search" method. It's a great way for newer coaches to efficiently scout a ton of players, and once you get it down, you can do it within a few minutes.

i read the forum recruiting guide before my first recruiting session and also ran out of money that time too ?? I’m still figuring out my process, especially which divisions I want to stick to. It’s a work in process for sure but this season is much better than last— currently #6 on the recruiting rankings with about 36 hours left in RS2 (take that with a grain of salt since there are still plenty of coaches waiting for D1 recruits to open up to D3 coaches).

Also technically I’ve filled all my spots for this year! I still have a couple roster holes and would consider it good fortune if I can drop some of the players I signed blindly last year and replace them with contributors. (The blind signing technique was a 33% success rate!)

Level 1 only recruiting challenge sounds intense.

This gives me an Ed Harris in West World type vibe. Like you've been playing the game so long and know the normal ins and outs so well that you're now looking for the deepest experiences and meanings in the furthest corners of the park.