Especially in M2M, is picking on a weak defender overvalued/undervalued? I'm curious to see what others think about this.

There's a zillion things that could play in to this. But say your 18ppg player with a 95 PER (with other good scoring attributes) is up against a 95 DEF (with other good defending attributes). And say, your 3rd scoring option is up against a 21 DEF.

How much does that alter what your normal distro would be?

I ask because sometimes with my teams, i have 2-5 guys that are basically similar in scoring ability, and no "Michael Jordan". Just balanced. And i feel like i may focus on trying to find the weak defender to pick on, more than i focus on the ability of my players.

Am i the only one that wrestles with this concept?

And to add to this, i know scorers in real life don't stop shooting because they have a tough defensive assignment that night. But does this game work that way?

I struggle with this as well. I generally don't do a huge shift in distro, but definitely move possessions around depending on defenders when facing M2M. I've been bit by a bait-and-switch M2M in the NT before - the team I was facing had a PG with like 30/40 A/D and great defenders everywhere else, so I shifted a large portion of my distro to my PG (my #2 scoring option at the time) and they ended up swapping their PG/SG on the depth chart. Not sure if that was the plan all along, but I got demolished.

I load up against crappy defenders. In your example I would bump a reasonable scoring option (or move some to pay against him) my player against a 21 defender to about equal with my #1 guy.

I change distribution EVERY single game. Its one of the few things we still have control over so I make the best of it.

Posted by mullycj on 3/5/2018 2:08:00 PM (view original):
I change distribution EVERY single game. Its one of the few things we still have control over so I make the best of it.

I do the same. I just wondered like how much that distro shift is for other coaches. I don't make my highest distro based solely on the fact that it's a weak defender. But i do sometimes bring it up quite a bit, and maybe dial back on some of my "better" scorers.

I just never knew if I was over playing it by doing so

I am more likely to move a player to take advantage of a crappy defender but I move distro around a lot.

Posted by mbriese on 3/5/2018 2:04:00 PM (view original):
I struggle with this as well. I generally don't do a huge shift in distro, but definitely move possessions around depending on defenders when facing M2M. I've been bit by a bait-and-switch M2M in the NT before - the team I was facing had a PG with like 30/40 A/D and great defenders everywhere else, so I shifted a large portion of my distro to my PG (my #2 scoring option at the time) and they ended up swapping their PG/SG on the depth chart. Not sure if that was the plan all along, but I got demolished.

Was it a random switch? Or did the coach move players around a lot?

If i play a coach that runs the same lineup every single game, I'll do what you did. But if i see starts from different players on the roster and players that are playing out of position, i tend to stick with my best scorers regardless. Just to avoid what happened in your game

yeah, if you play in the same world long enough you remember which guys do crap like that. I have spent way to long trying to anticipate who Coach X is going to play where, it's fun and frustrating at the same time.

Offensive flexibility is actually a great reason to play zone D, IMO. It allows you to move scorers around to pick at soft spots in any type of D without adjusting distribution, while maintaining your core defensive scheme.

I adjust distribution too, of course. In general, it pays to be at least a little unpredictable.

Posted by shoe3 on 3/5/2018 3:35:00 PM (view original):
Offensive flexibility is actually a great reason to play zone D, IMO. It allows you to move scorers around to pick at soft spots in any type of D without adjusting distribution, while maintaining your core defensive scheme.

I adjust distribution too, of course. In general, it pays to be at least a little unpredictable.

That is a very good point about the zone. Never looked at it that way.

Posted by shoe3 on 3/5/2018 3:35:00 PM (view original):
Offensive flexibility is actually a great reason to play zone D, IMO. It allows you to move scorers around to pick at soft spots in any type of D without adjusting distribution, while maintaining your core defensive scheme.

I adjust distribution too, of course. In general, it pays to be at least a little unpredictable.

I prefer the ability to put my best defender on their best offensive option in M2M.

Posted by topdogggbm on 3/5/2018 2:59:00 PM (view original):

Posted by mbriese on 3/5/2018 2:04:00 PM (view original):
I struggle with this as well. I generally don't do a huge shift in distro, but definitely move possessions around depending on defenders when facing M2M. I've been bit by a bait-and-switch M2M in the NT before - the team I was facing had a PG with like 30/40 A/D and great defenders everywhere else, so I shifted a large portion of my distro to my PG (my #2 scoring option at the time) and they ended up swapping their PG/SG on the depth chart. Not sure if that was the plan all along, but I got demolished.

Was it a random switch? Or did the coach move players around a lot?

If i play a coach that runs the same lineup every single game, I'll do what you did. But if i see starts from different players on the roster and players that are playing out of position, i tend to stick with my best scorers regardless. Just to avoid what happened in your game

The coach was in an AI heavy division, and didn't change his lineup or gameplan for a single conference game. I assumed he was a "set it and forget it" kind of guy, but based on the results it seemed like he not only switched defenders, but also may have double teamed the guy I was moving distro over to. His team was only favored by 1 or 2 points, but I lost by at least 20.

I remember being pretty bummed about it, as it was the last season I had with a D2 team that I thought would go deeper into the NT before I made the jump to D1. Pretty crafty stuff.

I used to run 2 deep and change my lineup a shitton. Now I run 4 deep and just spew players at 3 positions at people.

Edit: .0005 of a national Title per post ratio.

I don't know how many times I've seen coaches load up on distro with one guy, because that player was going up against a player with a defensive rating of 20 points below everyone else in the starting lineup. I've seen it backfire more times than not.