I have some recruits and other players that are actually rated higher at another position than they are at their recruited position. Is it better just to play them at their different position or should I change them in the Coaching/Player Positions page and then play them accordingly. I have also noticed that although they may not be better at another position but they are certainly better than anyone else on the roster at that position. I would just have them play where they help the team the most but I was not sure that hurt them

Where are you able to see this?

Under the Coaching Tab there is a Player Positions but it is only available during certain times at the beginning of the season. It has passed now but for next season I wanted to do a better job at trying to defeat other teams, besides I am really heavy at SG's with one team and C's with another team I have.

Unlike GD there are no "position penalties" in HD. The label on a player (PG, SG, SF, PF, C) is purely cosmetic. However, yes, shifting player positions can be helpful in evaluating talent using Player Roles. But there is no penalty if you play a player listed as an "SG" at C...outside, of course, if his attributes are poor for your O/D set as a center he's probably going to perform pretty terribly.

You should play players where you see fit based on their abilities/attributes, not based off the position they played in HS/JC.

positions given to players do not matter

look at their skills and how they complement other players - play them in accordance w their skills

I am new to the game, could you give me a hint on playing to complement other players? I real life I would play defensive players at the end of the game if ahead. I would have shooters on the perimeter SF and SG. PG to dish the ball. I'm not sure how HD substitution would allow complementing each other but I am all ears and you can message me if you don't want to give away your secret sauce to the rest of the world!

Thank you

Posted by beebster32 on 3/30/2021 12:18:00 AM (view original):
I am new to the game, could you give me a hint on playing to complement other players? I real life I would play defensive players at the end of the game if ahead. I would have shooters on the perimeter SF and SG. PG to dish the ball. I'm not sure how HD substitution would allow complementing each other but I am all ears and you can message me if you don't want to give away your secret sauce to the rest of the world!

Thank you

For a team to complement each other:

You need a PG who can pass, or if your PG is a big scorer, having a 2 with some passing isn't the worse.

You need at least 1 starting shooter, ideally 2. But you can also have a second guy be high volume off the bench.

You need some defenders who can slide around and matchup well if you're in a man. Guys who can play the 2-3 and defend well are some of my favorite guys to recruit since most teams have a top scorer at the 2-3.

You need some rebounders for sure.

And then you want your "role players" to compliment your stars. Let's say you have an elite passing/defending PG with 65 PER (Player A), some crazy ATH/SPD/DE/STA dude at the 3 with 30 LP/55 PER and ball skills (Player B), and an elite defending/rebounding big with 70LP (Player C). Well, you're lacking perimeter scoring, and you want to be able to move Player B around between the 2 and 3 since he can play both and you want him to defend a guy who gets as much volume as possible. So signing a guy (Player D) with 60 ath 75 spd 30 reb 50 de 95 per 75 bh 60 pa 90 sta suddenly looks REALLY good even though I would normally kind of scoff at the guy D2 and say you can do a little better. You know that (a) you really ******* need his scoring in general but also his shooting since Player A and Player B can't shoot and player C isn't an insane scorer, and (b) he doesn't need to be that good defensively since he will generally be taking the smaller defensive burden of the 2/3. If I were to choose 1 more role player it would probably be another guy who could shoot, and he could ideally play the 1. Your opponent won't be attacking your 1 anyways since player A is kind of a menace, so having a lesser defensive guy off the bench (think 50 ath 85 spd 50 de 85 per 80 bh 85 pa 85 sta) would be really effective.

agree with cubcub summary - these are the sorts of topics you need to consider. There is no one formula, but you need to cover each of these aspects of team success

Core skillsets critical for your post players:

athleticism, rebounding, defense, blocking, low post shooting.

Critical cores for guards:

speed, defense, perimeter shooting, ball handling, passing.

Low athleticism, though, will give you a guard who commits fouls. Low stamina at any position gives you a tired player when playing significant minutes.

These are cores. If you find, for example, a rebounding guard or a post guy with great passing, it will only help. Different ath/def sets also have utilization emphasis on different skills (so you may want to read up on your specific sets) but as a beginner if you focus on these cores, you have a great start.

As fdny says, there is no one way, and I’m not contradicting anything cub says, he knows what he’s doing. I think about it a little differently, and this goes along with what he says, but for my brain gives me a better way to think about it.

When I’m putting a team together, I’m thinking about having guys who perform different tasks, and all attributes work together to tell me how the player does those tasks. The way I approach the game, there are essentially 6 tasks. Distributing, perimeter defense, perimeter scoring, interior defense, interior scoring, and rebounding. The set I’m playing changes the nuance in how I’m thinking about all those things a little (like am I going for steals primarily, or FG suppression primarily, or something in between) but in general, those are the tasks I want players to do on the court. Those are the tasks I’m thinking about when scouting and recruiting.

At any given time, ideally I will have a distributor on the floor, a perimeter scorer, an interior scorer, and 2 rebounders (important to note, one guy can give you multiple things). Having extra of any of those things, especially rebounding, is great, but not generally as important as having all the elements. I want everyone to defend at least adequately; depending on who I’m up against it might vary, but my preference is usually for 3 perimeter defenders and 2 interior defenders on the floor at any given time. Playing zone and press, I can easily get away with a couple roster spots devoted to mediocre defenders, as long as they bring something else important to the table, like excellent perimeter scoring or elite rebounding. With man, that trade off is a bit more costly, and poor defenders have to be carefully utilized to avoid being exposed.

So then the questions are, what attributes go into each task, and what constitutes acceptable, excellent, and elite at each level? And that’s all up for interpretation. I think of it like:

Distributing: Pass, Speed
Perimeter Defense: Def, Speed, Ath
Perimeter Scoring: Per, BH, Speed, Ath
Interior Defense: Def, Ath, Blk
Interior Scoring: LP, Ath, BH, Speed
Rebounding: Rebounding, Ath

IQ affects all of these, obviously.

I don’t necessarily advise using hard cutoffs or anything, but if guardrails help you, I consider roughly 65/75/85 at D2 (this can change a little through the months and years, it really depends on world and relative competition) as the acceptable/excellent/elite parameters, and you can move up 10 for D1 and down 10 for D3, I suppose. Your mileage will vary.

One other thing I’ll add, a couple things don’t show up here (much, anyway) but have a fairly big impact, depending on what kind of style you’re playing, and that’s passing, stamina, and FT. Trying to win with FB/Press without excellent stamina and good FT shooting, you might as well try to roll a boulder up a hill. And whenever I have a team that really seemed to underperform, and I don’t know why on the surface, lack of team passing is often the common denominator.

Thank you guys for all your input. A lot to consider here and implement in my recruiting. So far it has come down to who I can get to sign. Seems like everyone wants the same guys.

"everyone wants the same guys" is an excellent observation. Especially as one is building, need to avoid that

1. geography - can you go for guys who are geographically unattractive to others - depends on where you are
2. potentials - can you go for guys who are rather bad but will someday be good - some opponents wont be interested
3. flaws - can you go for guys who have flaws. Like - if you look back at the thread - how about a big who has just about no offensive game - but has pretty good ATH, DEF, BLK and REB. Some folks may not like him if he has pitiful LOW. Grab him and watch him anchor the defense for four seasons. Or how about a guard who isnt really great at PASS and BH - or has subpar DEF, but has killer PERI. If he is a weak defender for example, maybe you dont want to start him but might he be a great sixth man and score a lot per minute?

between geography, preferences, starts/mins and looking for guys with flaws, there are players out there - usually

Role players, role players! Think of the core skill sets as filling a role.

As a beginner, if you sign a class of 3... 2 role players (useful at distributing & defense or rebounding & defense) with 1 future star, you’re set.

The recruits all the coaches are piling up on are (usually) future studs. Recruiting can be a treasure hunt... there are plenty out there that go overlooked.

Also, don’t be afraid to battle.

I err on the side of too many battles, to be honest. But some coaches avoid battling like a plague... and I don’t find that a great strategy.

The key is knowing when to battle (and when not to.)

know when to hold em, know when to fold em - and know when to fight!