I just started playing again and I was wondering. Are the 3 keys to winning recruiting Athleticism first then Athleticism and the finally Athleticism then if you happen to get some defense and speed it wouldn't hurt? 

 

IT helps with everything. Having superior ATH is certainly helpful.

You can have an elite team without high ATH but is rare.

Yeah, basically. This game is like most of the games on this site - there is a tried and true "cookie cutter" pattern that will generate some level of success if you do it correctly.

I think Defense is very important as well as ATH.

Yeah, I've recently been convinced, at least at D3, that it is more than possible to dominate with elite ath.

I would suggest ATH is the most important attribute, but as I've seen before in DIII, if you go in with elite ATH and nothing else, good teams will kick your butt.

Yeah, you can't win with ONLY ATH.

When I build a team, I try to have a PG (HIGH PA and BH), two rebounders (high REB and ATH), and two guys who can score, preferably at least one a 3 pt shooter.   If all those guys have high ATH and DEF then presto, I have a good team.

As a base you want ATH and DEF to be high - but you have to follow that up with other things as well.  

Posted by jsajsa on 6/27/2013 4:32:00 PM (view original):
I would suggest ATH is the most important attribute, but as I've seen before in DIII, if you go in with elite ATH and nothing else, good teams will kick your butt.

A few seasons ago in D2 I had a pretty experimental team with 3 starters that were >90 in both ATH and DEF, but not too great otherwise.  I made it to the sweet 16 but got destroyed by a #1 seed.  I would agree that elite ATH alone will only get you so far.  If that's all your team has to offer you won't be able to hang with the big dogs.

If you're team is top 10 in your world and level in ATH, DEF, BH, and PASS with adequate REB and SPD then you should make a deep tournament run just about every year if you know how to coach them.  If you also have a couple of guys with PER you're a title contender.  A lot of guys are going to disagree with me on the BH and Pass, I think the vast majority of coaches - even very good coaches, better than me - underestimate the value of passing in particular.  But I think that formula will serve you very well, and if you look at the E8 teams in D2 or D3 in any given year there will often be 2 with just an overwhelming number of ridiculously high-rated upperclassmen and an overall rating that blows everyone away and the other 6 teams or so will tend to be strong in the 4 categories I mentioned.

In the D3 final four of knight last season the teams had an effective ATH (minus walkons) of 57,56,51,43.

The first two were top 10 in the Division (5 and 8), 51 was probably top 30ish and 43 isn't in the top 100 probably.  Take that for what it is worth.

thanks

What others have said. You want to get competive in a hurry, recruit for ATH/D. This is a good starting place for lower prestige teams. You can usually find these guys. They'll be missing other core stats, usually scoring (because the higher prestige teams will be taking them), and other needed ratings. You'll smash SIM teams, and be competive and beat teams rated the same as you who aren't as athletic or defensive. You'll probably make the tournament when your squad turns to SR.
 
Then you'll hit the wall. You'll get smashed by teams that are actually well put together squads, that have rebounding, scorers, etc.  You'll need to do the same and start balancing out your team.

Also, what Dahs said about passing. As the seasons go by, I thought passing was really important. Then I thought it was ball handling. Now when I see my teams lose, I think it was passing again. I'm really looking at my teams and trying to figure out the cost benefit break point on ball handling and passing.

I wouldn't say it's
1. ATH
2. ATH
3. ATH

but I would put ATH at #1 always. DEF is just about always a strong #2. 
Factors #3, 4, and 5 need to be consistent with your style of play, and doing this well separates the great teams from the very good. 

Posted by sublightd on 6/28/2013 1:45:00 PM (view original):
What others have said. You want to get competive in a hurry, recruit for ATH/D. This is a good starting place for lower prestige teams. You can usually find these guys. They'll be missing other core stats, usually scoring (because the higher prestige teams will be taking them), and other needed ratings. You'll smash SIM teams, and be competive and beat teams rated the same as you who aren't as athletic or defensive. You'll probably make the tournament when your squad turns to SR.
 
Then you'll hit the wall. You'll get smashed by teams that are actually well put together squads, that have rebounding, scorers, etc.  You'll need to do the same and start balancing out your team.

Also, what Dahs said about passing. As the seasons go by, I thought passing was really important. Then I thought it was ball handling. Now when I see my teams lose, I think it was passing again. I'm really looking at my teams and trying to figure out the cost benefit break point on ball handling and passing.

you put it perfectly - that's an excellent way to start out with your team building.