Name Yr. Pos. A SPD REB DE BLK LP PE BH P WE ST DU FT TOT
Matthew Blair Sr. PG 73 89 1 80 2 1 51 79 76 32 64 45 B- 593
Christopher Mason Sr. PG 53 86 8 70 9 5 90 99 92 69 84 71 B 736


I'm struggling to decide which one of these guys will play PG and which will play SG. I run a motion / press. Blair's motion IQ is only B- because he was a JUCO guy. I am leaning toward starting Blair at PG and Mason at SG because I feel like Mason will be able to get more scoring chances at SG, but I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

For me, it has much less to do with who's a "better" pg or "better sg", and much more about matchups. For example, if you're playing a team where one guard is weaker defensively, I'd throw Mason up against him, etc.

I'm with girt25.  Switch them around based on the matchups.

I'd play mason at PG, one thing I do, just the opposite of these guys, is I hope they put some bum who can defend but can't play PG on Mason, as I win by 15 because the other team makes 5 extra to's and misses 2 or 3 extra shots.

I pick my PG & C first, based on all the core skills.

Now if I had another comparable guy to mason, just lacking say PER, I would gladly, preferably play mason at SG, but in this case, to me, this is so easy, it makes my head spin that top coaches would tell you otherwise.

Great thing about HD, you will get many opinions on the best way, from many coaches who have had a far amount of success.

+3, never pigeon hole your players into positions.

Interesting. I have one opinion shared by 4 very strong coaches and then OR with a different opinion. Not sure which way to go. Guess I will just go matchup by matchup and see how it goes. Thanks guys.

I would definitely leave Mason at PG.  20 points worth of BH and 16 of passing will make a huge TO difference at that position.

real life - if u watch on tv, a grad assistant / dobo / sometimes even a manager stands at the scorer's table during stoppage of play, and writes on a whiteboard the players coming into the game.  They then match up (or give the board to a coach who does it) their own guys, just before play starts.  They show the board to the players as they leave the huddle, or late in the huddle.

My son does this for his college these days, so I get to hear the logic behind the matchups, who guards who, how it gets screwed up, how it works, etc, somewhat interesting, not all that scientific, head coach at his school does not want to get involved with that at all, if he does get involved, it is not a good time for anyone on the bench within range of him.

Overall, the problem with HD vs real life, is real life, PG's usually plays offensive PG near 100%, and centers normally play offensive C near all the time, defensively, things can move around, and do move around all over the place, literally, my son's defensive stopper may guard 4 or 5 different guys in a game, even if they are playing an all horizon league pg ... this occurs for numerous reasons .... the only thing I could say I would do if I programmed this game, is eliminate the notion of DT, and add a notion of priority, which would allow the most attention to be given to player A, the least to player Z, I can picture how to program this in a HD context, would allow for more strategy, and would be realistic .... game planning would really matter then!

I'm no where near in the class with most of you but I didn't think this was close either. The athleticism, perimeter and ball handling of Blair make him an obvious choice at SG. With Mason's IQ, speed, ball handling and passing I really like him at PG. I don't see him turning the ball over much and he will still score.

I understand want to work the matchups, but when the difference is this big, I would definitely go with Mason at the point.  His BH/P edge is just so big.

I make adjustments on matchups very often, but the PG skills of Mason are just too much...Play him at PG

I think you should bury those two so far on the bench that they have to pay admission to get a seat in the arena.

So I figure we could use a little data here.  I had a pretty similar situation at Rhode Island this past season with these two players:

Name	Yr	Pos	A	SPD	REB	DE	BLK	LP	PE	BH	P	WE	ST	DU	FT	TOT
John Lowry	Sr.	PG	65	99	2	69	3	2	84	80	68	61	88	27	B+	648
Morgan Butler	Jr.	SG	50	93	17	60	4	47	99	90	93	93	99	56	B-	801

Also, I run motion just like the OP and both players are an A in the offense.  I platooned these guys at PG/SG this past season in Naismith:

Starting PG	# Games	Opp. RPI	Pts.	Ast.*	TOs	Butler TOs	Lowry TOs
Butler	25	131.6	79.4	14.20	12.32	3.08	1.52
Lowry	6	94.17	79.8	15.33	13.83	2.50	2.67

*Each player had 2 games in the new engine where assists were increased.

So, to be honest, I was a little surprised by the differential in TOs.  Unfortunately, I don't see an easy way to present the positives I thought I was getting by switching (either a worse defender on Butler OR a better defender on the opposing PG).  In any case, there you go.