How important is this? I am new to the game and found myself losing to a team that was 30+ rating points lower than me, while I am running a 9 man rotation that would only bring my average up. I know my team has a pretty low IQ for the offense and defense I run, does that significantly contribute to the end result?

Thanks for the help!

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=14145035&tab=boxscore

As a general rule what I do each day is:


1. Check my teams offensive tempo
2. Check my teams defensive +/- setting
3. Check the defensive ratings of the other teams starters
4. Adjust distro based on 3


I like to think it wins me a few extra games a year.

It's particularly helpful in rebuilds when you play SIMs because they usually have an atrocious defender you can abuse.

I look at the match ups mainly! Like the man says, if Sim has a couple of poor defenders you switch up your best Scoring options, and tempo to take advantage. Some days, it is only a quick glance, and some days it becomes thoughtful hours. It is what you make of it.

I find game planning the part that drains my brain of all the stress of the real world, so I can replace it with stress from the digital world.

Gameplanning is what separates the good players from the average and the average from the mediocre.

IOW, if you gave me the same team as some of the better vets, they beat me by 20. Then I'd see what they did and, in the rematch, only lose by 17.

1- practice more on your primary defense and ignore the other ones.
2- why is your fastest guy, best ball handler, best passer not playing pg?! Especially against a press team! That's your biggest issue, IMO.
3- definitely adjust your team defense +\- based on the other team's three point shooting. (I'm being simplistic but generally if they shoot a lot- more than 1/3 of their shots as threes and if they do it well begin to increase the +. If they rarely shoot threes or will kill you on the boards, begin sucking in.
4- As you run man, you can occasionally switch your best D guys (D plus ath to be simple) to guard their best player if that player would play well there at the position you put him at.
5- as the other team runs a man, you might adjust your top scorers to their bad defenders if they're comfortable in that position.
6- tempo... with a nine/ ten man rotation, you probably will go slow most of the time, if the team you're against is more shallow (numbers of players) than you or if you're higher quality players with equal numbers, you should do a normal speed. More possessions normally means luck plays less of a part in the outcome normally means better quality team wins more often.

One more thing I noticed and forgot about your team.
You have really good interior d and awful outside d. This should lead you to play +1 or more than you normally would be inclined to play with a balanced D team. Not against sims, as they won't take advantage, but most humans who actually care and game plan will gameplay their guards to shoot more than their bigs against you. I sure would. And I also would be really glad you used you second best point guard as the primary ball handler when your best one is really good. My press would eat him up. Then again, you play your best pg (@the 2) way too long and he's getting tired. I'd guess he turns it over more than he should because he's playing too much.

Posted by Eric_Essian on 2/24/2017 7:34:00 AM (view original):
How important is this? I am new to the game and found myself losing to a team that was 30+ rating points lower than me, while I am running a 9 man rotation that would only bring my average up. I know my team has a pretty low IQ for the offense and defense I run, does that significantly contribute to the end result?

Thanks for the help!

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=14145035&tab=boxscore

First, don't get too hung up on overall rating points. They mean something, but what's more important is how the players are being used. A lower rated player who is maximized to take advantage of his strengths and avoid his weaknesses can be more effective than a higher rated player who is being misused.

Second, even though I'm still learning my way around, but I agree that game planning is a very important part of HD. Look at the PBP from some recent games of your opponents. Look at their stats. Try to understand their tendencies. Look for ways to defend against their strengths. Look for ways to exploit their weaknesses. If you can cut their offense down by 2-4 points, and you can improve your offense by 2-4 points via good game planning, that's an 4-8 point swing in the final score in your favor.

Also, keep in mind, that good opponents are doing the same thing (game planning) against you. So maybe you just need to game plan to keep up with your opponent.

I'm not huge on DAY TO DAY gameplanning. It takes me about 2 minutes to do by checking the things that TJ mentions. I don't try to overthink it or tinker with my lineup too much.

What's more important is overall roster construction and team philosophy IMO. If you recruit well and in an organized way thinking ahead to the future, the pieces usually fall into place nicely. I'm not thinking each game "who should start?" Or "should I play him at PF or C". I usually know going into the season what I want to do and hopefully only require tweaks depending on how things are going. Just the way I do it.

To the OP-

Running 9 man lineup can be tough even if doing M2M. Look at your PBP, your guys are getting tired and it's impacting how well they play. And yeah, IQ is important and can be undervalued.

Also, I saw you gave a RS to that SIM recruit. To be honest, I wouldn't bother with that guy and just cut him ASAP. Cut those guys with 10 ath/def. You can do better yourself.

"Also, keep in mind, that good opponents are doing the same thing (game planning) against you. So maybe you just need to game plan to keep up with your opponent."

They sure do.

I just played a guy late in the NT who had run a 3-2 zone the entire year, vs everyone, 32ish games. I take a huge gamble and start my backup SF who is a LP based scorer and hadn't start a game in 4 years. I jack his distro up thinking I can take advantage of it and my opponent switches to a 2-3.

Also might go in and change your user settings from overall to position roles. Could give a different perspective on where to play players. You can adjust it to fit your personal style of play

I'm from the aejones school of thought -- work on building a strong team first and foremost. As TJ says, game planning might mean a game or two.

And you can definitely overthink a game plan. I've packed it in on teams and ended up with maybe 2 more boards while not stopping their inside game much, giving up more fouls and turning their bad outsider shooters into pretty good ones. Similarly I've been lit up from outside playing high +.

I think it was Mad Magazine (or maybe Cracked) that had this "behind the scenes" feature. One example of this I remember was three gas pumps--regular, premium and super--but it showed the interior and the hoses were all connected to the same gas tank. I sometimes feel this way when I'm adjusting the game settings here.

Completely off on the Mad Magazine tangent, does anyone remember their "The shadow knows" feature? Google image it.

"I know my team has a pretty low IQ for the offense and defense I run, does that significantly contribute to the end result?"

Big time.

Gameplanning matters. I don't spend a ton of time on it anymore except for the CT/NT, but I have lots of experience.

Key things:

1) Rotation.....are your players getting tired? If so that is bad
2) Offensive distribution.....super duper critical, but I don't adjust it much. Players that shoot 55% with a low distribution will shoot 45% if you force them to take every shot. Optimizing this to optimize points per offensive possession is huge.
3) Tempo...I do adjust this...uptempo vs. weaker/shallower teams, slowdown vs. better/deeper teams
4) Positioning....I change this most days.

If you are roughly equal to your opponent, gameplanning matters. It won't make a 15 seed beat a 2 seed.