I think Spd>Ath>Def at the 1-2.

At the 3 Ath>Spd>Def

At the 4-5 Ath>Def>Spd

As far as the guard spots, I have personally had more success with the higher ATH (70+) and  60-79 SP guys. I haven't really noticed any big difference with the elite speed guards (other than maybe getting a few more steals despite low Def ratings). It seems if they don't have at least 60 ATH then it doesn't really matter how fast they are. Maybe the speed would help with getting open shots like billyg said, but from a defensive standpoint I think ATH ranks ahead of speed in my guards. I think ATH ranks ahead of everything at every position actually.

ATH>Def>SP- guards
ATH>Def>SP - SF
ATH>Def>RB/LP - Bigs

I don't think speed matters with bigs unless you run a FCP I guess.  

Posted by grantduck on 9/18/2012 5:29:00 PM (view original):
I think Spd>Ath>Def at the 1-2.

At the 3 Ath>Spd>Def

At the 4-5 Ath>Def>Spd

are you talking about from a DEFENSIVE standpoint only, or in general? the last guy who said spd > ath and def in man was talking about in general, i believe. i have no problem if people want to talk about those ratings in general, instead of just defensively as i had intended - but if you could specify (and anyone else making similar comments) which way you mean it, that would really help! as i am getting confused, hehe :)

Posted by rednation58 on 9/18/2012 5:51:00 PM (view original):
As far as the guard spots, I have personally had more success with the higher ATH (70+) and  60-79 SP guys. I haven't really noticed any big difference with the elite speed guards (other than maybe getting a few more steals despite low Def ratings). It seems if they don't have at least 60 ATH then it doesn't really matter how fast they are. Maybe the speed would help with getting open shots like billyg said, but from a defensive standpoint I think ATH ranks ahead of speed in my guards. I think ATH ranks ahead of everything at every position actually.

ATH>Def>SP- guards
ATH>Def>SP - SF
ATH>Def>RB/LP - Bigs

I don't think speed matters with bigs unless you run a FCP I guess.  

very interesting, that you put ath above def from a defensive standpoint only, even for guards.

Here's my view (at D3, still working on D1)...

First, for me, it's much more of a sliding scale and depending on which range you are looking at, I value the ath/def/speed analysis differently. I have a baseline minimum for each that they must hit (these are absolute minimums and a player that just hit each of the 3 baselines would not intentionally be on any of my teams; if it just hits the minimum in one stat, they better be superior in one of the other 2). After that, I get into what I think is more valuable. I also have a point of diminishing returns, above which I start to value the other stats a little more

Baselines:
At the 1/2: Ath = 40 ; Speed = 60; Def = 40
At the 3: Ath == 45; Speed = 50; Def = 40
At the 4/5: Ath = 50; Spd = 10; Def = 40

Once the baseline is established, I value improvement in those attributes over the baseline as follows:
At the 1/2: Ath then Speed/def on a fairly even basis
At the 3: Ath then Def then speed
At the 4/5: Ath then def than way down in a canyon somewhere, buried under 100 feet of rock and molten lava, speed (that said, I like to have 1 or 2 bigs who are also fast for matchup situations, but they would get spot starts)

I do find that speed helps with steals in M2M, BUT, I don't think it creates a shutdown defender. For instance, I think a 45 Ath/90 Speed/40 def guard would get a lot of steals but a good opponent would also score a fair bit. On the otherhand, a 75 ath/70 speed guy with 75 def would get fewer steals but will make the opponent a much less effecient scorer.
I tend towards making the other team innefficient versus going for steals

Posted by gillispie1 on 9/19/2012 12:59:00 AM (view original):

Posted by rednation58 on 9/18/2012 5:51:00 PM (view original):
As far as the guard spots, I have personally had more success with the higher ATH (70+) and  60-79 SP guys. I haven't really noticed any big difference with the elite speed guards (other than maybe getting a few more steals despite low Def ratings). It seems if they don't have at least 60 ATH then it doesn't really matter how fast they are. Maybe the speed would help with getting open shots like billyg said, but from a defensive standpoint I think ATH ranks ahead of speed in my guards. I think ATH ranks ahead of everything at every position actually.

ATH>Def>SP- guards
ATH>Def>SP - SF
ATH>Def>RB/LP - Bigs

I don't think speed matters with bigs unless you run a FCP I guess.  

very interesting, that you put ath above def from a defensive standpoint only, even for guards.

It could be that I just haven't had enough elite speed guys to get a good sample size, but ATH just seems so much more important for everyone than just bigs. I've seen MTM matchups with guards having 90+ speed against 60 speed guards and you'd think the 60 guys would foul out more than they do, but I don't see the correlation with elite speed. On the other hand, high ATH guards draw lots of fouls and the slower guards may foul more but if the def rating is high enough, it seems to negate fouling a bit. I have a guard on a team I have in Knight now with 90+ speed and 55 def. He was National Fresh of the year. Second year he lead my zone team with 1.2 steals a game then bottomed out his JR year. I will pay more attention to any speed correlation this year, oh and he only has like 46 ATH so I think i can get a decent gage on his defensive ability.