What do folks think about the choices we now have to make between spending practice minutes on core skills where potential is say average v noncore skills with high potential - do you maximize total improvement or focus on cores or some of each?

Lets say you have a big man, who has high potential for improvement in perimeter and ballhandling and average potential for improvement in rebounding and low post......He will add more points if you go 20 minutes each on peri and ballhandling and say 8 each on reb and low post.  BUT, for his position reb and post skills are more important.  I have not yet settled into a clear preference in this sort of situation - what do folks think?

I prefer the cores

I do cores first then the secondaries once cores are maxed out. I may put 7 minutes in to hold a skill from dropping (3 for LP/Per) if it is appropriate.

Yeah just go cores until he's maxed out then secondaries, even if that means initially taking a negative hit on the secondaries (such as losing BH for a C). Should make for well rounded seniors or juniors depending on WE and how soon he maxes out in the cores.

cores first was for sure the right answer historically - I am unsure whether say a 12 point gain in BH is worth more for a big man than a 3 point gain in REB...which may be the sort of choice presented here

I think work ethic plays a big role for a couple of reasons:

1. If you're going to wait until the Junior season to give minutes to the non-core categories, you probably aren't getting that 20 points of development unless the work ethic is above average.

2. If the work ethic is high enough, you can put zero minutes into a category and you typically won't lose much.  Sometimes nothing at all and typically it is just a point or two.  Whereas a low work ethic player can easily lose 5+ points without minutes.


A couple of other things I would be considering:

1. What's the starting category?  As a general rule, I will protect a category like Weena mentioned if the absence of minutes may cause it to dip below 10.  It's tough to get single digit ratings to increase and if you plan on eventually developing the category, you want to avoid the single digits.

2. Where is he on the depth chart?  If he's getting minutes as a post player, then I'd be much more inclined to focus on cores.  A guy like you describe might be #3 on my depth chart for SF however.  So I'd probably focus on the non-cores since he'll be getting some minutes at his non-core position.  And if he's buried behind some upperclassmen, I'd also give minutes to the non-cores.