ok - so i'm curious what people think about the first game of the year for my shepard team in phelan.

I thought I had the upper hand in this one - but i ended up getting pretty well dominated.

I know he had the best player on the floor, but i thought i had a chance at worst...

should i from 2-3 to a 3-2? or move players around? change distro?

who would you use at PG? baker?

and then backing up the frontline would be cespedes at PF and grier at C?

PG - Hatch/Baker (Baker has a better BH & Passer rating)
SG - Lanier/Sullivan (this was you have Sullivan, your best defending guard on their SG)

I would flip/flop Beamon and Arrington (Beamon is the better Defender/usually the PF scores more than the C and also has a better Perimeter rating and Arrington is your better LP player and your best Blocker).

Harris at backup Center and Schulman at backup PF.

Of the 3 guys left at the Forward position for your SF slot (Grier, Cespedes, & Renner), I would start Grier (Reb/Blocking/LP/ & Free Throw are all higher) and use Cespedes as his backup (Reb/Blocking & LP/Perimeter combo are higher than Renner).

My two cents...

I'd rate your guards in this order:

PG skills: Hatch, Baker/Lanier, Sullivan
Offense: Hatch, Baker/Lanier, Sullivan
Defense: Sullivan, Baker/Hatch, Lanier

So I think Hatch should start at PG.  Sullivan either (a) starts at SG if your opponent has a good scorer there or (b) backs up Hatch at PG if the opposing SG doesn't put up many points and the opponent doesn't run press.  If (a), then Baker backs up Sullivan at SG and Lanier backs up Hatch at PG.  If (b), then start Baker at SG and back him up with Lanier (equivalent offensively but Baker is better defensively.

At SF, I'd rotate Cespedes and Renner.  Cespedes is the better offensive player and rebounder, Renner is the better defender.  Start one of them based on opponent's strengths, back him up with the other.

I'd start Arrington and Beamon as the bigs.  Arrington is better offensively, Beamon the better defender; who starts where would be contingent on the opponent.  Start Arrington against the weaker defender and start Beamon against the better scorer.  Back up Arrington with Harris and back up Beamon with Grier.  Schulman is only a freshman, he can live on garbage minutes this season; he is your weakest big man and shouldn't play meaningful minutes.

I am a big believer in moving guys around based on opponent, as you can probably tell here!

PS with respect to distro - I adjust mine a lot from game to game, but it is clear that your guards and Arrington are your best offensive options.  Against zone, I'd be running pretty high shares for the guards; against man, Arrington would get an especially high share to keep the opponent honest (assuming there are defenders that Arrington can exploit).

Aside from any depth chart issues, I think both teams were fairly close in talent (ignoring WE and DU, overall ratings are about the same). USC Upstate had an advantage in guard PE and team DE, and I think those made a big difference in the result. In retrospect, going +1 could have changed the outcome.

thanks everyone for the help.

i don't feel like i have a true PG right now, and because of arrington's ATH and SPD he'd hard to place.

I like cespedes because of his allround - but he's not great at anything - grier is more natural at PF or C.

I'm not a fan of renner - he was a last second recruit after i had my pulldowns stolen by other schools.