So I'm just getting back into SL Basketball and I'm wondering what the deal with Usage % is. I know what it is, the percentage of plays the player either shot, was fouled, or turned it over. And I kind of understand all the talk of a usage % "penalty" to prevent teams from using high efficiency players. What i want to know is, so if I have a lineup, let's say, with player's combined usage % at 115%  does this now mean, since im assuming proportionate decreases in all the individual players RL usage %, that these palyers will play more efficiently now? (ie. shoot a better FG%) And does that work the opposite way too, where, say, if I substitue and that brings down the total usage % on the court to 90, will those players efficiency now be negatively effected? This would make it seem like its highly beneficial to have players with as high of a usage % as possible.

One other thing, I've seen forum posts that reference a "possession war." I don't understand what this is. Anyone who wants to help me get started again thanks a ton!

http://whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=360613&Page=9&TopicsTimeframe=30

god that thread needs to be stickied.  Read felon's link for a better understanding of usage.  As for your question of "do they get more efficient if you have more than you need?"  No.  Not at all.  They might have less total turnovers, but the percentage of their possessions that result in a turnover will be at least as high (higher almost 100% of the time).

paladin - as for the "possession war", it is exactly that... the battle to have more possessions than your opponent.  The main components of the possession war are rebounds (oreb% & dreb%) & turnovers (tov%, a stat NOT displayed on this site yet used as the driving force of the engine).  Simply put - if you have more possessions than your opponent, you have a better chance to win.

Thanks for the info guys. On a  relatively unrelated note, in terms of total minutes and GP, is player fatigure based solely on the number of minutes a player played in a season, or does the amount of games played and MPG play separate roles in determining fatigue?

 

I guess my question is:
Player A = 2400 Min (80 GP, 30 MPG)
Player B = 2400 Min (60 GP, 40 MPG)

 

Do both of these players fatigue the same?

Yes they fatigue at the same rate, the SIM doesn't make those type of distinction.  Both players will have a target of 29.2 mins per game and will fatigue the same.

Wow, surprising. Thanks for the information guys. I felt like I had to go back to the forums and ask some questions after my last paid team won like 20 games lol.

I think the key to having a team win more than 20 games is having the edge in rebounding (especially obtaining/limiting offensive rebounds), and balanced, efficient scoring. All the teams that I see win leagues have solid defense, very very good rebounding numbers and a balance between 3's and inside scoring threats.

You also should not buy the 19000 total mins the site recommends.  My last team just ended with the 2nd best record in the regular season and I only bought 16.7k minutes.  That was the lowest I have tried and probably wouldn't go that low again but it highlights how far off the recommended actually is.

As for Usage.  If it looks completely wrong from a real world basketball sense and you don't feel you have enough then you are probably on target.  It's pretty rare you see teams with too little Usage while the vast majority are over.  In fact going by the link it's actually hard to not buy "too much" Usage and still build a championship caliber team.  I doubt the "10 point" chart a little as I think you need a little more than that from experience but it will at least give you a good way of thinking it through.

The problems with Usage in the sim are also tied to the fact that double-team doesn't seem to do anything.  In fact double-teaming an opponent seems to help them from what I have seen.  You don't really need to worry about spreading the ball around the way you need to in real basketball.  As said above just make sure you have enough of a balance so that teams cannot shift their defense +/- because that does have a big impact.