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Again the importance of driving really does depend on the system. The rules classify driving as "the player's ability to create their own shots". So you assume for wing players this means pump fakes and crossovers in addition to being able to drive inside for an inside shot. This is a useful stat for slower offences like patient and low post, but in my experience in fast paced offences the players seem to hold the ball less, so the ability to create your own shot is less important. Also assuming you have a team, and in particular a point guard who can pass well this stat becomes even less important. I'd rather have those points spent in driving in OD and JS.

To back my points up with an example - my starting SF has atrocious driving. Yet in a fast paced system last year he averaged 18.0 points per game on 47% shooting in 32 minutes. It's also worth noting that my league is very outside-based, a lot of team's best players are wing men, so you assume they have high defence values. Also, my team racked up more assists than anyone in the league last year, so driving really didn't impede my scoring ability at all last year with the system I used.

As for defence - while you do want to have a balance between good defensive and offensive skills it's important to realise that for outside players that OD does more as a single stat than any other stat you can have. Let me explain - on offence a player has lots of stats which make up how good he'll perform - JS, JR, passing, handling, driving, inside shot, free throw. 7 in total. For an outside defender there is only one prodominant stat that determines how well he'll perform defensively - OD. Perhaps rebounding and handling come into it slightly, but as long as you have good rebounders elsewhere on the team it doesn't matter. So, the value of that one stat, ID, is much higher than the value of the offense stats, because the offensive stats are merely parts of the bigger picture, and OD *is* the picture for guards. That's probably why it's so hard to train.

In a PTB system you again would want your inside guys to have high defense rating, it's an important stat, but their defence also has other components. In general your inside guys would have 20 rebounding, high ID then balanced stats elsewhere.

Hope this has helped - and take all of this with a grain of salt - a lot of what i base my opinions on is only from my very brief experience playing this game!

Last edited by Soel at 3/16/2009 9:10:46 AM

RnG SG

Jump Shot: 15
Jump Range: 20
Outside Def.: 20
Handling: 7
Driving: 5
Passing: 9
Inside Shot: 1
Inside Def.: 1
Rebounding: 1
Shot Blocking: 1

Driving is very important if you're playing inside based tactics, no matter how much of inside shot player has...

thats also my theorie, i have wondering about the high values the player get here very often ;) I had severall PG with IS 1, who was better scorer then my guys with is 6//, and a bit lower driving and Jumsphot in Insidetactic.

Inside def would be a bit of a waste, assuming you play zone defence (he'll never need to guard inside if you do..)

I think that zone defense in BB does not work the way you think it does.

BB is always match-up based. So if your opponent's SG goes inside, he is being guarded by your SG. It does not matter if you are playing zone.

I play a slow, offense (like my team, the Wisconsin Badgers) with few shots and a lot of defense, so making the shots I take are important. I like driving because my team has poor passing and driving allows for people to create their own shot if they need to. also people foul on drives more often than on jump shots.

Yea, you would think that's true, the last part you said. However, in BB, you get fouled a lot by just shooting jumpers. So, I don't think driving gets you more fouls.

BB is always match-up based. So if your opponent's SG goes inside, he is being guarded by your SG. It does not matter if you are playing zone.

That's also the understanding I've got. But this leaves me with the qestion how zone defence really works?

But this leaves me with the qestion how zone defence really works?

The rules provide a pretty good description: (/BBWeb/rules.aspx?nav=Tactics).

driving is a skill that helps players to score. i guess soel is lookint at a guard as a defender and not as a scorer since he mentions that he wouldnt train jump range either... (skill needed for outside shooting)

I am training guards at the moment and want my guards to score (not my inside guys). i am trying to train them very well balanced. so either this way or

Jump Shot: 12
Jump Range: 12
Outside Def.: 12
Handling: 12
Driving: 12
Passing: 12
Inside Shot: 3
Inside Def.: 3
Rebounding: 1
Shot Blocking: 1

this way

Jump Shot: 12
Jump Range: 12
Outside Def.: 12
Handling: 10
Driving: 8
Passing: 10
Inside Shot: 4
Inside Def.: 10
Rebounding: 1
Shot Blocking: 1

or perhaps IS and ID more balanced...

i wanted to add to this as well that i believe (and hear most people mention on the forums) that a more balanced player costs alot less in wages than a guard with a skill like 18+ or so...

Last edited by Astragoth at 3/21/2009 1:53:04 PM

I'll start off using my SGs since they are well rounded (and the question was well rounded, not the very best possible, right?)

an average of my 3 well rounded SGs would look like this:

Jump Shot: 8
Jump Range: 8
Outside Def.: 9
Handling: 7
Driving: 6
Passing: 7
Inside Shot: 6
Inside Def.: 6
Rebounding: 7
Shot Blocking: 5

Now these is what I have. If I add it all I get to 69 points, so I can distribute 11 more.
I'd not add any to blocking, passing and handling. Blocking isn't realy worthless (guards with some blocking skill do block many shots in BB), but 5 is certainly enough for guards. respectable passing and handling should be enough too.
Rebounding is doubtfull, since every player adds to this in the team, even though guards add the least, they DO add to this rating. respectable is good, but I'd add 1, to make it strong.
Inside shot, also +1. Respectable inside shot is good for lay-ups, something they tend to do somethimes.
Inside defense, also +2. Strong inside defense keeps your opponent's guards from scoring too much inside.
Driving +2. Strong driving helps outside shooting as well as inside shots. If you are looking for a balanced SG, Strong driving is a must.
Jumpshot and jumprange, both +2. SGs should be able to shoot...from all distances.
The remaining points all go to outside defense. No need to tell the importance of OD for guards... unfortunatly, only 1 point left. So maybe I'd drop the rebounding point and add it with OD...

This brings my good balanced SG to this:
Jump Shot: 10
Jump Range: 10
Outside Def.: 11
Handling: 7
Driving: 8
Passing: 7
Inside Shot: 7
Inside Def.: 8
Rebounding: 7
Shot Blocking: 5

This SG can be used in any offensive tactic, and against any team's offenses.

Thank you. There is one interesting point your raise:

Blocking isn't realy worthless (guards with some blocking skill do block many shots in BB), but 5 is certainly enough for guards.

I notice the same: with blocking at level 4 or 5 my guards are in the top 10 of the BS/48 min stats.

What would happen if they had level 8 or 9? This is interesting as it is much cheaper to train Blocking rather than OD. What's your opinion on that? Anybody who has experience with a Guard with Blocking of 7 or more?