Coaching Basics
Attributes
Shooting The word rating shown will be the average ability of the player's 2FG, 3FG and FT shooting capabilities. It is definitely worth having a look at a player's percentages from each range as some "good" shooters might be an ace FT shooter, but average elsewhere. Conversely a "fair" shooting big man might be a dreadful three point shooter, but a great inside scorer.
Defending This covers shot defending as well as steals and blocks.
Handling The word rating shown will be the average ability of the player's ball-control (read turnovers) and passing
Rebounding The ability to grab both offensive and defensive rebounds.
Intelligence The first of the complimentary skills. Intelligent players make better shooting (may shoot less when having an off night, and more when shooting well) and passing decisions (more assists, less turnovers). There are theories that it also enhances rebounding and helps with zone defense. Is apparently the skill that determines whether a player inbounding the ball calls a timeout before receiving a 5 second violation. Has the most impact at PG and also SF (as they are the only player to inbound the ball)
Athleticism The second complimentary skill. Athleticism will enhance shooting, defending and rebounding. It is also attributed by some coaches to drawing more fouls and conceding fewer fouls.
Training
Training makes only a very small difference over the course of a player's career. It is not unusual to see only 1 player (or even no players) improve the word rating of an attribute one level every 3 or 4 season.
Tips
- Look to see if your underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) have a particular weakness that needs suring up and consider training that attribute.
- If you don't know what to train, train defending. You can get away with only a few shooters taking the bulk of your team's shots, but everyone needs to play defense.
Substitution Patterns
Substitution patterns are normally described by stating the starter's "sub out" (aka sub) setting and then the backup player's "sub out" setting. For example if your starting PG was set to sub norm and your bPG was set to sub more, the substitution pattern (aka setting) would be norm/more.
| Starter | Backup | Starter | Backup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norm | Less | 26 | 14 |
| Norm | Norm | 28 | 12 |
| Norm | More | 30 | 10 |
| More | Less | 20 | 20 |
| More | Norm | 24 | 16 |
| More | More | 28 | 12 |
| Less | Less | 28 | 12 |
| Less | Norm | 32 | 8 |
| Less | More | 34 | 6 |
Disclaimer: Some of the numbers in the above table are estimates, I've never actually run a Less/Less sub pattern.
Stamina Stamina is a hidden attribute that is not tied to any of the other attributes. If your team keeps hitting a brick wall in the last 10 minutes consider giving your bench more minutes. You might want to think about training stamina too, but that's a long term fix
Recommendations
- Don't run a starter on Sub Less all season
- More likely to fatigue and get an injury
- This might be viable if you can afford to rest the player in easier matches
- Run more than one substitution pattern
- This should make it less likely that your entire bench will be in the game at the same time
- I normally mix More/More and Norm/Norm
- If you have a particularly weak player consider subbing him out more
- Some players have lower stamina and your team may benefit by giving them less minutes
- You will have to watch games closely to try and work this out
- If your team is deep at 1 or more positions (or you've got 6 players you want to start) run More/Norm or More/Less at that position.
