I have wondered for a long time about the logic of how some game plans look, but have thought the question to be stupid.

I have asked so many questions lately, why not one more.

Why do people who have two guards with speeds of 88 plus (normally in 90's) use a "slowdown" offense as the main offense?

What advantage do you think uptempo would provide someone who has fast guards? It is my understanding the tempo only affects the pace of play, or in other words, how quickly into a possession do their players look to score. Kind of like, do they take the first opportunity they have to score or do they try to stay patient and wait for a better opportunity. To what degree the engine simulates this, I don't know. What I mean by that is, if teams run out the shot clock more on slowdown or a slowdown results in a higher shooting percentage with less turnovers per possession- or other related play results.

I have always assumed that in an "up tempo" game you would eventually have 65 to 72 speed guards not able to keep up with game flow and provide defensive lapses. Perhaps that is why I have lost about as many games as I have won.

I had to come back to this because it really got me thinking and sometimes I'm not always good at communicating what I really want to say. As far as I know, speed only affects a players ability to steal the ball or get open for a shot or beat their man off the dribble - and those things are calculated on any single possession and have nothing to do with the tempo the offense is running.

As I said before, I believe that tempo only affects how long the average possession of your team lasts (ie. faster tempo = quicker possessions). I have only ever charted the first-order effects but I have never even thought to consider the second-order effects like whether you turn the ball over at a higher rate while running up tempo. Or if up tempo results in more layups, but slowdown yields a better 3 point shooting percentage (ie. being patient for the right shot on the perimeter). This is interesting stuff. Thanks for bringing it up.

wvufan, Up tempo definitely does cause your opponent to fatigue faster, thereby reducing their effective speed - but as far as I can tell, the effect is linear, meaning is does not result in a greater negative impact for those guards who start with a lower speed.

One thought that does bring up for me, and maybe the most interesting so far, is to try and determine if a physically dominant player can "wear out" a less physically gifted player guarding them. Hmmmm....

That "eventually" is more tied in with stamina than speed. The question of tempo is probably solely related to the number of possessions per game and your own team's fatigue levels (with some small impact on the opponent's fatigue due to the change in the number of possessions).

So, you can increase variance by decreasing possessions (good if you are the underdog). You can limit fatigue (good if your team lacks depth and stamina relative to your opponent). I don't think it through much further than that. However, variance probably increases either way (from normal to uptempo or normal to slowdown). There is also an issue with getting very weird substitution patterns with a mix of slowdown and fatigue substitutions.

However, a speed advantage in your PG compared to the defender is a speed advantage that will show up on the offensive end and in steals. Tempo irrelevant.

Posted by rogelio on 10/12/2016 3:16:00 PM (view original):
That "eventually" is more tied in with stamina than speed. The question of tempo is probably solely related to the number of possessions per game and your own team's fatigue levels (with some small impact on the opponent's fatigue due to the change in the number of possessions).

So, you can increase variance by decreasing possessions (good if you are the underdog). You can limit fatigue (good if your team lacks depth and stamina relative to your opponent). I don't think it through much further than that. However, variance probably increases either way (from normal to uptempo or normal to slowdown). There is also an issue with getting very weird substitution patterns with a mix of slowdown and fatigue substitutions.

However, a speed advantage in your PG compared to the defender is a speed advantage that will show up on the offensive end and in steals. Tempo irrelevant.

I would imagine that you are correct that tempo does not result in the second-order effects I was talking about, but it's interesting to think about. I'll probably never try and chart data that deep.

Depth plays a significant part in this. If I have an elite starting 5, but a bunch of bozos on the bench, and you have a good team with some depth, then I want my elite 5 to stay on the court as long as possible. As long as my elite 5 face your good 5, I should win. Obviously stamina is going to play a role here, and tempo does effect shot selection as well. Slower tempo is supposed to take better shots (at least that's what the guide used to say, but not sure if that's ever changed).

More importantly, you need to look at athleticism and defense. Teams with inferior ath and def are going to be at a disadvantage over the course of several possessions. Slowing the game down helps minimize possessions, thus giving the inferior team a better chance to win.

Posted by darnoc29099 on 10/12/2016 8:12:00 PM (view original):
More importantly, you need to look at athleticism and defense. Teams with inferior ath and def are going to be at a disadvantage over the course of several possessions. Slowing the game down helps minimize possessions, thus giving the inferior team a better chance to win.

Except if the ath, def teams is weak offensively and your team is amazing right?

I would play slowdown for 2 reasons.

1) I need less possessions because I am inferior to the opponent. Less possessions means less shots and the game stays closer. It also means a lower sample size, which leads to more variance in a RNG based game. You need that variance to try to win against a superior opponent.

2) My depth is too young or not very good. In that case, I play slowdown and set the starters to getting tired or tired so they see the bulk of the minutes.

zorzii-I'm not sure it's a black and white thing. I'd have to see the two teams before saying if I'd run slowdown or not.