In the past whenever I picked up a team in a world, the introductory email from the assistant coach has always listed that he "knows everything there is to know" about whatever offense and defense systems the former coach or SimAI had used prior to my hire and I've just run with it to save wasting a season building IQs in something different. I had always assumed the assistant coach's strengths in that first email were defaulted to align with whatever systems the current roster had the best IQ's in, sort of a strong hint to first-time coaches about what to run.
In my latest team pickup, the assistant coach has a skill set in flex/man while the team previously ran a fastbreak/zone setup, judging from the IQs. Obviously my assumption regarding the assistant coach's email has been wrong.
I'm not a fan of either the fastbreak offense or the zone defense, so there's a change coming. So, the question...Is there any sort of learning bonus inherent in the assistant coach's skill areas? Will this team "learn" flex/man quicker than it would learn, say, triangle/press (differences in learning progression rates for the various systems notwithstanding)? Or is the assistant coach's knowledge simply window dressing with no impact on the game?