My very fast, very good bh (D3) guard has been shutdown by guys with awful speed (one with very good def, one with not good def) in the past two games.

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=5386692

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=5390976

I'm not ********, I'm really trying to understand how this works. Both teams ran slowdown/man (or man/press) against me, so there should have been a straight matchup against my SG.

I understand my SG's per is low, but with 80+ spd/bh/pass against guys with 30s spd, I would have thought he shouldn't have a problem going around them. I didn't even overload his distro (although it was probably in the 30-40% range with most combinations on the floor).

My question: why were these guys able to shut him down? Does the one guy's 70+ def make up for his 40-50 point deficit in speed? Does running slowdown against me have anything to do with it?

I would say his per plays a role, but he didn't have a problem scoring last season, and is shooting by far the worst of his career, despite no increase in distro. And even with the low per, shouldn't he have been able to get in the lane at will and use his 80+ passing to create for other players?

Thanks guys, appreciate the help.

without looking at the box scores, one question with a guy like that is whether you might do well to set his 3 point shooting at minus 1 or even minus 2 to push him to drive more

also keep in mind of course that

two games is a tiny sample

success in hoops is as part of a team - who is passing the ball to him, who is getting him the ball with rebounds so he can get fast break points, how is your defense doing so he can get points off turnovers, etc etc....even a very good offensive performer can look darn bad if he doesnt get those

Why is Dickerson even playing SG? He has a 16 PE (but 80s in both BH and PA). You have Hall playing PG with a 46 BH.

Also, he is fast, but not super athletic. ATH helps driving to the basket, which is the only way that he would score.

To me, he is more of a natural passing PG, rather than a scorer.

Good points guys.

He is at (-2).

hbmerlin - he is SG because Hall has, for both his career and this season, around a 2.5:1 A/T ratio, and that's pretty phenomenal for D3, in my experience.

I am going to put Dickerson back at PG and start Weitzman at SG because I think I need more per in my lineup.

fd - you're abosolutely right about all of that stuff, but I guess my bigger question is: does it make sense in any way that a 34 spd/37 def (or whatever) player can hold a 85 spd/85 bh player to 1-12 shooting and not commit a foul?

Is there one of your suggested items to look at that would account for that? I mean, to me, that's like a short version of sam perkins trying to guard michael jordan, at least in the speed aspect.

I'm having a tough time justifying (especially the no fouls thing) it with what I know about speed/def and the roles that they play, but I'm willing to listen to specfic ideas if anyone has one.

Oh, and I just don't think the sample size should matter for something like this. I'm all about understand fluky results - especially losing games. But there are some things that just can't be that fluky - speed and athleticism are constants. Even when you shoot poorly, you still have those things. I guess I'm fine with the 1-12 becasue sometimes that happens, but I'm just not okay with the feeling that the MASSIVE speed advantage didn't give me any benefit.

And let me say this also: I'm not ****** that I lost. Do I think I should have won? Yeah, but I'm taking that in stride.

I'm wondering specifically about the interplay between speed differential and how that affects a defender's ability to guard.

I'm also wondering what kind of an effect slowdown has on mitigating a huge speed advantage.

Individual player match-ups is not working as it should. This is something that is being looked at in the new engine.