1) When the new engine came out, I played the press on
a) all of my teams
b) most of my teams - all but one, but like 95% of the season's ive played were with press (and every title)
c) some of my teams
d) none of my teams
2) In the new engine, I feel the press's ability to prevent scoring (fg% and 3pt%) has
a) gotten better
b) stayed the same
c) decreased slightly
d) decreased significantly - in the old engine, i felt the ability of a great press to keep fg% and 3pt% down is what made is so brutally effective at the high end. i am used to numbers like 38% fg and 31% 3s from my opponents running a -2 all year, with a best team in the country type team. now it looks more like 45%fgs and 35% 3s.
3) In the new engine, I feel the press's ability to force turnovers has
a) gotten better
b) stayed the same - although the # of steals has dropped a lot, i have no idea what is keeping the turnovers up... but it appears they are up
c) decreased slightly
d) decreased significantly
4) In the new engine, I feel the change (increase) to the foul rate of the press against quality teams is
a) good, but not quite enough
b) good, and the right amount
c) too much by a little
d) too much by a lot - still undecided between these two. against a quality opponent, it seems you are lucky to escape with a mere 20 fouls. it basically send volatility through the roof, giving the other team so many foul shots and losing players to foul trouble so frequently.
5) Overall, I feel the viability of the press among quality teams (top 30 in the country or so) playing each other has
a) increased slightly
b) stayed the same
c) decreased slightly - possibly D on this one, i have to reserve judgment until the new players get in play.
d) decreased significantly
6) Since the new engine came out, I will be
a) adding more press teams
b) not changing the number of pressing teams I have
c) dropping press on some of my teams
d) dropping press on all of my teams - undecided between these two at this point. with the new-engine type players, i expect the press to become significantly less viable.
Overall, here is my take. Teams can still be effective while playing the press, I know that is true. I have 3 teams right now that in the old engine would be roughly 1, 1, 5 in the country, and currently they are sitting at 1, 10, 3 on the rpi (respectively). So its not like press is dragging teams down to the extreme. But, at the same time, my confidence in beating a team I should beat handily is down to the extreme. Between the general effectiveness going down (from fg% and 3pt%), the volatility of foul trouble going up dramatically, and the negative effects of fatigue going up very significantly, its damn near impossible to be sure you would beat anybody. Teams I would expect my #1 type teams to beat say 97% of the time are down to 80-85%. And I honestly feel in #1/#2 type matchups, where I used to expect talent to give say a 65% advantage, now I am very possibly the underdog because if foul trouble goes my way, then I have a small edge still, but if it doesn't, I am a big underdog.
My feeling on the press prior to the new engine was that it was woefully inadequate at the lower levels of competition (outside the top 30 teams or so), where something like zone would massively outperform when you had young teams etc... At the very high end, press had a significant edge, but I feel that has been eliminated in the new engine due to volatility - which is enemy #1 for teams looking to win the championship. Plus, now that the impact of defense has went up, so that with poor defense you are screwed, but with great defense, you are still not in great shape, another of the great appeals of the press is wiped out - that you could survive focusing on 1 less category on defense while still building a great team. So you need defense, but if you have it, why not play man?
So overall, I guess my take is, why play press? You can still be one of the top teams in the country, but the volatility will make you want to shoot yourself. I see games, even games I win, where I should have pummeled the other guys by 20 on a bad night, and we win by 3. I suppose in the old engine, I knew what to expect - the game would throw you curve balls, but a fairly high % of games were within a reasonable variation off your average performance. Now, I have no idea what to expect. One night, the team looks like they could walk their way to a national title, next game they lose to a team I expect to beat 97% of the time by 15 on a neutral court. I don't have a great depth of experience with man defense but I just can't imagine the volatility is as bad on that side of the fence, so that is probably where i will wind up.
And, as the new players come out, with much more prominent strengths and weaknesses, I only see the press going one way... down. Today it is competitive with the other defenses in terms of average performance, but I suspect that is not going to be true 4 months from now. Also, with the most recent batch of changes, my personal opinion is its easier than ever to game plan against the press, so as people adapt to the new engine, I only see better game planning further hurting the position of the pressing teams.