At the lower levels, it's also the best place to hide someone who's not as skilled as you want. I'll often promise a start and minutes to a future PG who may be in the 40s-50s in BH/PAS/DEF now, but will eventually become a star player. Those starts are super helpful for a freshman, and don't lead to a massive increase in turnovers when you use them at SF. Most opponents don't use their best offensive players at SF so the defense can be hidden too (and you can always shift them to a guard spot if need be for a game or two).

Posted by JayGarneau on 4/17/2023 3:54:00 PM (view original):
At the lower levels, it's also the best place to hide someone who's not as skilled as you want. I'll often promise a start and minutes to a future PG who may be in the 40s-50s in BH/PAS/DEF now, but will eventually become a star player. Those starts are super helpful for a freshman, and don't lead to a massive increase in turnovers when you use them at SF. Most opponents don't use their best offensive players at SF so the defense can be hidden too (and you can always shift them to a guard spot if need be for a game or two).

this is true, especially in the regular season and outside of deep NT play - and really at all levels (in the d1 through d3 sense). its definitely the filler position for less complete teams, that is why a lot of the advice along the way has been, like, literally anyone who is competent.

but, SFs are a very important position in the championship seeking circuit, at all levels. SFs have one of the highest ceilings of contribution, the amount an elite sf can contribute to a team is just ridiculous, second only to the truly elite PGs. an elite SF can do wonders to make up for weaknesses elsewhere, and they can be major contributors in every area of the game. they are very capable offensive leaders, can be great defenders - in zone, an elite defensive sf is unrivaled in its utility, defensively - they can contribute a lot on the bh/pass front, and on rebounding. they can contribute greatly to turnover generation in the press.

from a team building, team synergy standpoint, SFs are more often the lynchpin than any other position, especially in d1 i suppose, but having killer SFs is super important to title chasing in all formats.

I think most people underestimate the importance of SF because they don't really know what to do with that position. But it's really one of the most important positions in the game and an elite SF could turn a good team into a really great one.

The best and maybe worst thing about SF is the versatility. Your SF could be many different things - it could be an elite 3pt shooter, elite LP scorer, elite defender, etc. So many different types of players can really excel at the SF spot in D2/D3. But I think some people look at this versatility and say "well I don't know where to put this guy exactly so I'll just pop him into SF". You gotta remember that you're putting together your best TEAM and SF is a big crucial part of that.

When you're recruiting, don't look at a player and say "well he's not really good at anything but I guess I can play him at SF". I think that's the wrong approach. Try to think of it as - what does my team really need? Is it an elite defender, is it 3pt shooting, etc.

I think some people also struggle with not playing players 'out of position' - but this is what is nice about the SF spot - it's versatile. If you have several stud guards, then slide one of them into the starting SF spot instead of as a backup - even if they're not a 'prototypical SF'. You want to maximize the minutes of your best players so maybe think about what that really looks like when evaluating your depth chart.

To piggyback on some of these comments and to mostly rephrase others, I want my SF to do two of the following three things well:

1. Play defense (High ATH/DEF)
2. Score (High ATH/LP/BH or SPD/PER/BH)
3. Be the next guard in (High SPD/BH/PA)

This dude, is close to what I really want at D3.

Very good defender (70 ATH/SPD 80 DEF), and a decent scorer (40LP and PER). He's my third scoring option on a TRIANGLE team so he fit's my bill.


This dude is a "crap, it's year one but he'll get us to the NT eventually" type of guy. Almost D1 Defense (85 ATH, 60 SPD, 90ATH) and passable guard skills (60 SPD, 85 BH/PASS).

This guy, ultimately, is a mistake at D2. He's fine but not gonna win be a championship. I am hoping he becomes a backup. He'll be a good defender ( 85 ATH, 60SPD, 90 DEF) but probably won' be much of a scorer (25 LP 45PER) and his guard skills are gonna hurt but aren't gonna help ( 50 BH 40 PA). If this dude's GREEN PER had led to a 70+ PER instead of 45, he'd be a player on NC type team.

Posted by bpielcmc on 3/16/2023 4:51:00 PM (view original):

Posted by jdreid159 on 3/16/2023 12:55:00 PM (view original):
I'm brand new to this game myself, but my plan is to view both SG and SF as "wing" positions so I will rate them fairly similarly. The only real distinguishing factor that I will value SPD, BH, and PAS slightly higher for SG whereas I will value REB a bit more for SF. I really want both of the positions to be good at PER (though I am willing to overlook that stat if I have good shooting at other positions like PG and the target is, say, an elite defender).

But like I said, this is my first season through the game so I'm not really in a position to give any advice. For the most part I'm just trying to adapt the information that was provided in the HD Player Guides on this forum.

You can totally do this but in my experience (and keeping in mind that I mainly play zone), I've had more success thinking of the PG and the SG as the same mold, and then thinking of the SF and PF as "wings". If I were to sum things up generally, the SG is a PG who can't pass and the SF is a PF who can shoot (keeping in mind that shooting relies on speed, ball handling, and perimeter).

As someone already mentioned, I also recall that for d3, SF usually ended up being where I would stick the guy I recruited for his elite defense only. Nowadays in D1, I still take 90+ ath and 90+ def potential projects with limited other skills to play bench minutes at SF.

Yes... WINGS... wings are the key to HD success. You can also use the SF position to play the guard or PF that you made a promised start to, but he's probably not ready to start. That's like 90% of my roster building haha.

System does matter as well. If you're playing a zone, you probably want more of a guard-oriented player in a 3/2 and a PF-oriented player in a 2/3. If you play man or press, you want someone more balanced with some rebounding and ball skills.

I am closely aligned with mlitney on this question. Here are my starting SFs on teams that at least got to the championship game in D3. Zone defense. Sometimes the lineups are malleable so I included a few who started at other positions but could've played at SF in those years.


(the image looks broken but if you click it will open)

This guy was on a team of mine at the DII level. I played him at SF. I'm not saying he's the best, but he was good and would be a prototype of what I would look for at DII.


The team he was on was good enough to win the championship, they just needed a better coach! You can still be solid at the three with a player who isn't quite as good, or who is good in a little bit different way.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerHistory/Ratings.aspx?&pid=5109951

I just scouted SF's only for my DII school and these were guys I was going 'all in on'. Meaning I'll have 11 guys on my Man to Man team next season so I'd only pick up a SF if he were beyond exceptional. Things I was looking for, in order were Ath, def, speed, LP.

Anything else is a bonus. Obviously if the guy had speed below 50 I don't want him, but for me a high ATH high Def SF is just perfect for me.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 4/18/2023 3:23:00 PM (view original):
To piggyback on some of these comments and to mostly rephrase others, I want my SF to do two of the following three things well:

1. Play defense (High ATH/DEF)
2. Score (High ATH/LP/BH or SPD/PER/BH)
3. Be the next guard in (High SPD/BH/PA)

This dude, is close to what I really want at D3.

Very good defender (70 ATH/SPD 80 DEF), and a decent scorer (40LP and PER). He's my third scoring option on a TRIANGLE team so he fit's my bill.


This dude is a "crap, it's year one but he'll get us to the NT eventually" type of guy. Almost D1 Defense (85 ATH, 60 SPD, 90ATH) and passable guard skills (60 SPD, 85 BH/PASS).

This guy, ultimately, is a mistake at D2. He's fine but not gonna win be a championship. I am hoping he becomes a backup. He'll be a good defender ( 85 ATH, 60SPD, 90 DEF) but probably won' be much of a scorer (25 LP 45PER) and his guard skills are gonna hurt but aren't gonna help ( 50 BH 40 PA). If this dude's GREEN PER had led to a 70+ PER instead of 45, he'd be a player on NC type team.

Nice, all of the comments are great, but liked this one especially.

a few other things, I use custom ratings ALOT. imo it’s hard to figure a custom formula for SFs, because as you stated, it’s great to be a pf like sf, or great to be a guard like sf. So I tend to recruit SFs or guys listed at sf, by looking at sf, pf and sg custom ratings all 3 of them.

My actual sf formula for sf only, does not include lp or per. So for that position, the sf formula has ath, sp, def, reb, bh, pa, we in the proportions I deem fit, no blk, no lp, no per. But then I also look at the SFs sg or pf rating too, in order to assess their offensive skills. My sg and pf custom ratings include hi amounts of per and lp.

I often have 2-3 SFs in my ten man rotation, but I often play 1-2 of them at pf.

I do think sf CAN be a low usage glue guy, hi def,, hi ath, decent reb, pa, bh, sp type player. Or can be a promised start frosh, who usually are low impact. But if so, it’s important to have enough offense from at least 3 of the 4 other starters.

finally, I I do like using a guard and a pf as my two SFs, allowing me to attack the opponent from both directions. But if you made me pick, I’d pick guards b4 pf’s at sf.

like much of HD strategy, it’s all about trade offs imo.

great question, topic and input from users. Enjoyed it.