To add to the wisdom displayed here by oldresorter (which is something like giving a Micaelangelo a touch up):
ATH and SPE seem to be the stats that make a good player great, and a great player unbelievable. Personally, I will not recruit ANY player that does not have easily improvble stats in these areas (25+).
Stamina is like durability. When evaluating players, I also subtract stamina from their totals. Considering the premium I put on SPE and ATH, I will undoubtedly put a lot of practice minutes into Conditioning, which will improve stamina and durability anyway. I will take lower core stats if I can get better SPE and ATH. These stats improve slower than core stats -- saves lots of development time if you can get them high to start.
Get guys that know either your offense or defense already (preferably both). Their IQ will be a year ahead than if they did not know that offense or defense at all.
Guys that can hit FTs already are nice. High school FT shooting % is often an overlooked factor. Considering how important a good FT shooting team is (critical!), you can save yourself a lot of practice time if you pay attention to this as well.
As far as base skills for post players go, I think that Rebounding is considerably more important than LP. Better rebounding = more possessions and more possessions = goodness.
For the SF position, I also like a good rebounder. I tend to look for balanced LP/PER skills, but REB is still the most important factor in my book for the entire frontcourt.
As far as WE goes, I will second icouldbelion's opinion on the value of WE. If you are trying to build a dynasty, WE will really come into play -- particular for that freshman that you redshirt and then start for four years.
Thanks much oldresorter for all of your contributions to the game. I read many of your posts (as well as a few others) when I was a newbie and it made the game much more enjoyable. Good job.