Another set of questions for the candidates, related to tactics:
Would you consider calling up a player and using a roster spot specifically because player can fit a certain offensive or defensive scheme? How many of these players would you consider having on your roster?
Secondly, the majority of national teams are super-conservative especially with defensive tactics. How likely are you to stick to m2m defense, compared to trying 3-2 or 2-3? Would you feel comfortable playing a 2-3 zone, for example, if the matchup suggested it?
Lastly, what are your opinions on the new tactics (the Iso's and Box-and-One's)? Would you EVER consider using them in international play? Or would you stick with the well known tactics, letting the standard leagues try out the newer tactics more instead?
Sidenote: You guys are really cluttering up this thread with useless posts, and really taking away from people like me and Jason trying to answer the questions. Please try to refrain from needlessly bashing each other or trolling. No one is going to take the time to read a 250 post thread with like 30 actual questions and answers. Anyway...
- Absolutely I'd call up a player for a specific reason. Defensive specialists, LI PG's, rebounding monsters, etc.
- I love playing zones, especially at the club level because I feel the game engine will put a more ideal defender on the shooter. If there's an elite player or 2 on a team, you don't want to get burned by having an inferior defender on them. Doesn't matter quite as much at the NT level, but yeah I ran 3-2 or 2-3 zones pretty often when I ran the New Zealand NT squad.
I like 3-2, but it's hard for our NT since we're not very good inside defenders so it's a bit risky. I have no problem with using a 2-3 zone if the time is right. I lobbied for and absolutely agreed with jfarb when we successfully pulled it off against Italy this season. Desperate times call for desperate measures, especially with our distribution of talent on the NT.
- I've run both of the Iso offenses and both Box-and-One defenses fairly extensively, as I said earlier. I had my reasons (had a few players with outstanding shooting or defense skills compared to the rest of the team) on my club team, and I was genuinely curious to their performance.
I like to use the Box defenses because I see it as a hybrid between man-to-man and a zone. If you're not sure where the star player will be lined up, or if they have a nasty SF, or if you don't know whether they'll go guard or big at SF, I think it's a great way to not get burned by guessing wrong.
The Iso offenses I'm not sold on, because I haven't noticed much of a difference between them and a Base offense, and I've done them quite a bit to experiment with.
I would love to try all of these for the NT in scrimmages or games against poor teams.