If you promise a player ten minutes a game, are they going to only complain if their average minutes per game dips under ten, or if they get any series of games where they have under ten minutes? In other words, are they only looking at the cumulative or on a game by game basis?

It's all about the avg minutes. Keep it above 10 and it is all good.

If they complain, and ask for 2 or 3 minutes more, you get to start over.

They'll only complain again if their average, from that game forward, fall below their promise

Ok. So I i wanted to reduce their minutes in a few key games, as long as they still got their minutes overall, I could?

And in other words, if they complain, as long as after the point of complainant they get at least their ten minutes, they will be fine?

That has been my experience yes. Keep the avg. over the promise and you're in a pear tree.

Yes, all of that is a pretty good rule of thumb. Not an absolute guarantee, but I'd feel comfortable operating under those assumptions.

I thought that you could be off by a few, so if you promise someone 10 minutes a game they will be happy with 8.

I'm in a bad spot now where I promised a guy 10 minutes and am struggling to get his average up. I got a warning that I need to increase his minutes or he will be looking at other schools so I bumped him to 2nd string instead of 3rd. I'm hoping once he hits 8 minutes he will get the WE points back.

Quote: Originally Posted By mjp8 on 11/22/2009
I thought that you could be off by a few, so if you promise someone 10 minutes a game they will be happy with 8.

I'm in a bad spot now where I promised a guy 10 minutes and am struggling to get his average up. I got a warning that I need to increase his minutes or he will be looking at other schools so I bumped him to 2nd string instead of 3rd. I'm hoping once he hits 8 minutes he will get the WE points back.

I promise to pay you five $20 bills for your $100. But don't worry, if I only give you four, you should still be happy.

Sometimes you can get away with breaking your promise, but if you promise something, then expect to deliver.

In general, it's 90% for promised starts and minutes. It used to be 80%.

Well. Through ten games the player talked about is averaging 15 minutes a game, I was mainly figuring out if I could deemphasize him the rest of the way and just make sure he gets the total amount of minutes I need him to have. I was thinking that if he averaged 7 or eight minutes a game the rest of the way I might be alright. . . while I don't want to get RID of the minutes promised player, I want to emphasize another one and give him some extra minutes at the position the rest of the way,.

To average 10 minutes/game, your player will need 260 minutes in the regular season. Once he reaches 260, he should be happy regardless of the rest of his season.

At 90%, he'd need to play 234 minutes.

I had a player that I'd promised more minutes than I wanted to deliver. I started him against really horrible SIM teams, playing him 25-30 minutes. It didn't take long to reach his minutes quota for the year.

To follow on alblack56's point, if you're already 10 games into the season, that player should have 150 minutes. To meet the 260 minute target, he'd only have to average a little less than 7 minutes a game. To meet the 234 minute target, he'd only have to average a little over 5.

As long as you don't bury him too badly, you shouldn't have any problems.

That was what I was thinking, I just wanted to make sure it actually worked like that. Thank you for the information.

So lets say you wind up being a little short like a guy averages 8-9 minutes a game, what are the odds of him transferring?

I really don't want to lose this player but really f'd up early in the season and now can't get him enough minutes to make up for the lack of early season minutes. Especially with 3 of my last 5 games being difficult and me in a very close conference race.

Something I have always wondered, and which has never come up with me is whether conference tourney games count for promises.