I just took over a team in Allen and I have a SF with really no skills, but has 90 ath and 91 def. He's slow as molasses, can't score, can't rebound, weak passer and ball handler and no room for improvement. Is it worth having a guy like this around just for defense? Or should I cut him and take a walk on to get a better recruit next season?

I'd keep him most likely. But it all depends on what your doing with the rest of the team. If you're a guy that cuts 10 players when you take over a squad, he's a keeper. I'm not a fan of decimating a roster upon arrival because you'll have heavy classes and will have down seasons when your big classes are frosh and sophs.

he can clog up minutes and won't hurt you. Although he won't help a ton either

I'd keep him. He could be a decent flex at the 3, 4, 5 in a man-to-man defense and could be really solid in double teams on post players. His athleticism will help compensate for his mediocre REB at the 4 against far less athletic big men. I had a similar kid (although he was a much better scorer) in Knight who was fairly effective at the 4 despite only having 25 REB. He probably would have been better in man than he was for me in FCP.

I'd keep your guy's distro at 0 or 1. He's almost definitely a bench player, but you could start him against bigs on teams that lean heavily on their 4/5 to score.

I also have a kind of similar player who will be set to a permanent 0-1 distro (unless his green PER explodes above 70) who is exclusively intended to be used as an off-the-bench shutdown defender in Tark. He should be 90+ ATH and 90+ DEF. He does have the perk of projecting to 60+ SPD though.

Posted by topdogggbm on 10/9/2020 9:13:00 AM (view original):
I'd keep him most likely. But it all depends on what your doing with the rest of the team. If you're a guy that cuts 10 players when you take over a squad, he's a keeper. I'm not a fan of decimating a roster upon arrival because you'll have heavy classes and will have down seasons when your big classes are frosh and sophs.

he can clog up minutes and won't hurt you. Although he won't help a ton either

I did cut 6 players but they were all freshmen and one sophomore with an 11 WE and I signed several JUCOs. I will have 6 juniors next season but I’ll balance out that class with redshirt players and maybe a JUCO or walkon later.

In D3 I'd keep him. His stats last season were awful, but he has value as a bench guy.

This dude's speed is so damn bad. I would never play him anywhere but the 4.

Posted by cubcub113 on 10/9/2020 2:36:00 PM (view original):
This dude's speed is so damn bad. I would never play him anywhere but the 4.

8.5.1

Yeah that's my problem with him is his speed. I don't want to put someone who can't rebound at the 4, but he's too slow to be effective at the 2 or 3.

i am one who cuts on new teams extremely aggressively, but i usually will not cut guys who are defensive stalwarts, because at least i can play them without them killing me.

i know i am a bit of an outlier on these things (i suppose that goes without saying?) - but i would not hesitate to play this guy at SF in d3, that is probably where i prefer him (you know, on a rebuilding team where playing him *somewhere* is considered reasonable). so what, he's slow. can you express a concrete, tangible problem with his performance as a result of this slowness?

you might say - man, that speed is going to hurt his defense. sure, a little - but defense is an aggregate. this guy is 90 ath/def in m2m. ath/def are significantly more important for the 3 in m2m than speed. so even if you average the 3 evenly, they come to about 70 - which is pretty great. this guy is a quality d3 SF defender, and of that, i have no doubt. if you have doubt, i encourage you to keep him, play him there, and find out for yourself.

seems like he doesn't have enough offensive skills to be concerned about the impact of speed. we know speed has zero impact on rebounding, and very minimal to no impact on the non scoring guard skills stuff, turnovers and passing and whatnot.

so, what is the articulable problem with this player's actual on the court abilities?

I would definitely keep him. 90's in ATH and DEF in D3 is excellent. And he only has 2 years left anyway.

Posted by npb7768 on 10/13/2020 3:06:00 PM (view original):
I would definitely keep him. 90's in ATH and DEF in D3 is excellent. And he only has 2 years left anyway.

I agree with this especially because of the second part. He only has two years left.

Year 1: He's either a decent enough starter or strong defender off the bench.
Year 2: He gives you the opening for cash / AP plus still has defense with now higher IQ (unless O/D was changed).

I'm an aggressive cutter, similar to gill, but I look to cut youth first. Incoming recruits, ineligibles who just sat the first year, and freshman are all getting the axe way before I cut someone who will be leaving soon enough anyway that can provide a relatively small plus on the court. I'd say you made the right call keeping him.

Definitely keep, on rebuilds a guy who can defend with great ATH is huge. He may not help you offensively but for 10-15 mins he locks down somewhere when he comes off the bench. Then gives you less to recruit for during your next 2 seasons until he leaves.