Where would you ideally like to play this guy?  For reference, he still has high potential in PER and AVG in REB, DEF, BH, and Pass.  To me it's an interesting question of balancing strengths and weaknesses.  If you play him at guard his REB is underutilized and his speed is exposed.  On the other hand, if you play him at SF his BH, Pass, and to a lesser extent PER carry less weight.  In general I think that REB translates better than BH/Pass.  In other words, a great-passing SF still won't generate a lot of assists, which implies to me he's likely having less of an impact on his teammates' FG% than a great-passing guard (there should at least be some sort of relationship between FG%+ and AST, you would hope...).  There's also less turnover differential; compared to a replacement level D3 SG, Vec might save me 2 TOs a game, at SF it might be 1.  OTOH, my true SF playing all season at the 2 this past season grabbed more than 4 REB per game, and I doubt he would have been much over 5 as a 3.  Thus, I think playing Delvecchio as a guard maximizes his STRENGTHS - he shouldn't lose much REB as a guard as compared to an SF, really, but he will better utilize his BH and Pass.  OTOH, playing as a guard gives him a weakness - his speed is more than adequate at the 3, but definitely subpar at the 1 or the 2.  In general, I think that if someone asked me about a D3 strategy comparing strengths and weaknesses I would suggest that he lean towards minimizing weaknesses.

To clarify one thing, I have repeatedly stated that I absolutely do not believe that direct speed comparisons are ever made between players.  However, I do think speed is more heavily weighted in perimeter defense than interior defense, and I don't think a lot of coaches would argue with that.  Therefore, Delvecchio is a better defender as an SF than a guard.  It's questionable to me where he's actually going to be a better scorer.  It does seem clear that he will help more with his passing at either guard position; however, it is very questionable whether his speed might make him more of a turnover liability vs. replacement-level at a guard position than at SF.  How does this weigh against his BH/P advantage if he gets close to 80/80?

Ultimately, where, in a vacuum, would you play him?  I actually know where I'm going to play him, as several bad recruiting cycles in a row have really painted me badly into a corner with my Rochester squad next season.  So I don't need commentary on where he will help ME or THIS TEAM the most.  Instead, tell me where you think he could do the most to help a title-caliber team, or a rebuilding team, or any other team which in general can be assumed to have a full complement of players of similar caliber and Delvecchio is just an addition.

Since his defensive IQ is in zone, keeping him in the SF slot might be best, at least until the Per climbs a bit and he can be inserted with ease into an SG position, which is where I think he's ultimately destined for unless you've got a stud on the roster for that position. In the press, I've had luck playing guys with roughly his numbers at PG too. The BH/Pass ratings are definitely good enough and, while the speed ideally would like to be a bit higher, the Ath/Def combo in the press gets enough steals to make up for it in my opinion. 

Great knife sort of player with multi-position functionality. 

I'm fairly certain there is no meaningful correlation between any rating other than speed and steals in any defense.  Off-topic I know, but just worth pointing out...  In reality, I'd be much more comfortable playing a slowish guy like this as a guard in the zone than the press, I'd have a very hard time looking at this guy as a potential PG in a pressing system.

Posted by dahsdebater on 8/7/2012 5:25:00 AM (view original):
I'm fairly certain there is no meaningful correlation between any rating other than speed and steals in any defense.  Off-topic I know, but just worth pointing out...  In reality, I'd be much more comfortable playing a slowish guy like this as a guard in the zone than the press, I'd have a very hard time looking at this guy as a potential PG in a pressing system.

Nah, always love hearing others' views on the game (especially yours as I know you're a numbers guy who's put some time in analyzing)  -- gives me things to look at and consider. 

I'd play him at SF for sure, but I didn't look at your roster, he could play a little SG if needed as well.

Is that not just a SG?  I see that rating pattern and automatically see a SG.  SF before PG, yes.

I'll toss out the idea that I think is worth considering but has been overlooked so far - PF. His Reb might make it to 50 if you focus on it, and in zone you could compensate somewhat with an extra good rebounder at the 3. His D would be good at the 4, and he'd generate some steals there with the speed. The block is low, but I think it's worth considering because...

He would *kill* opposing PF on the offensive end. He'd end up with open threes thanks to the Ath/Spd advantage over his counterpart, and with the current rating and high potential, he's convert them at a high rate. Or, he'd just foul the opposing 4 out a bunch. Plus that extra BH/Pass would help against the top press teams.

This is just a theory of mine, but I don't think SPD matters nearly as much as people think it does defensively. For example, I had a guy with high 80s SPD , ATH, BH, and PER. He was going up against a guy who was 66 ATH 59 SPD, and 94  DEF. My guy got kind of shut down (shot like 3 of 9, and got like 4 FTA's, and was set on -2) and he had big distro. My team was playing slowdown, and his team was play normal. This was at D1, but your guy could be a DIII version of his guy, I don't think he'll be exploited, b/c he's so good defensively.

zbrent, I had meant to mention that he could play anywhere 1-4 in a pinch and defend anywhere 1-5.  PF had definitely crossed my mind.  Not on this team, but in general...  I think his potential REB might actually be marginally above 50, and some of his other averages are still pretty high as well.

I would move him between SF/SG depending on the matchup.  If he's completely outclassed in terms of speed, put him at SF, and potentially even PF in certain situations.  If the guard you're going up against has something like 70 speed or less, you could probably do with him at SG.  Possibly use him right now as a backup at SG or SF.  

At DIII especially, you can often get away with using a player like Delvecchio at an odd position to exploit a major strength you might have over another team.  I could honestly see him playing pretty much any position other than center.  With his potentials where they are, he should be a major threat as a small forward or a shooting guard.

I really, really, really don't think speeds are ever compared, so being up against a 70 or 80 or 90 speed guard really shouldn't mean anything without more context.  Being up against a great scorer or poor scorer is all I'd really look at.  I realize that most coaches disagree with me on that, but I'm saying up front that I will never, ever make coaching adjustments based on a speed comparison.  I don't think that's stubbornly cutting off my nose to spite my face, I think it's stubbornly insisting that the engine works in a different way than other people think and until I hear a rational argument with meaningful data to prove me wrong I don't plan on changing that.  I've never seen anything to suggest that a high-speed guard is any more effective against a low-speed poor defender than a higher-speed poor defender beyond what I would consider to be the overall defensive difference associated with being slower.  In other words, I'd expect my 90-speed scorer to do about the same, on average, against a 40/50/40 defender as he might do against, say, a 30/90/30 defender.  Obviously he'll do better against a 40/50/40 than a 40/90/40, but that really doesn't isolate the speed comparison at all.

So you're gonna play him at SG? I think you should.

I like zbrents idea - any time you can create a matchup disadvantage without sacrificing a whole lot, do it. I would use his versatility and jump him around between SG, SF, and PF - but in certain matchups, he would destroy the opponent at the PF position.