I actually think this SIM is remarkably good. You see I think a good SIM is transparent and when used correctly this SIM approximates transparent quite nicely. I think owners that blame the SIM need to take a good look at their game plan and skill set. The SIM can be harsh about pointing out errors in team design and lack of skill level. Personally I let SIM teach me how to play the game, it's a pretty good teacher.

So... yeah... back to the actual subject at hand...

Benhoidal has won multiple rings using 120 ast% between his starting 5.  jlg & myself have had alot of regular season success in OLs with it but haven't gotten that elusive ring.  Logain has built a high ast% squad for the current funk52 league, so I'll reboot this thread when I have some more conclusive results of his squad, but I don't think it will really work in draft leagues... you have to sacrifice too much to obtain the ridiculous about of assist when you don't have the entire player pool to draw from.

You can certainly take the concept and apply it to your squads and see some success out of it, but I just don't see piling up 150 ast% and dominating better balanced squads consistently in the playoffs.

I might run another squad like this but probably not.  I'll stick to my usual 60-80 ast% unless additional testing shows it's worth it.

Thanks for listening despite the multiple distractions from the true purpose of the thread.  I apologize again for those who don't understand how to have an intelligent discussion about a subject.

I just built a 120% team and am thinking about running it.  Haven't entered it yet.

it's done

congrats on a job well done

I just built a team with 122% assist% that I am going to run in an OL. I'm interested to see the results. Usually my teams are more balanced, but this one has a lot more turnovers and a lot fewer threes than I'm used to. I'm interested to see how it goes.

If anyone cares, I'm tracking the performance of my own high ast% team. Through 23 games we are 16-7. Like I said in the last post, my starting 5 has a 122% ast% and my absolute worst unit still has about an 85-90% ast%.

So far my team (including rookies) has received an eFG% bump of 3.4%. 8/12 of my players have shown a drastic improvement in eFG%. 3 of those that haven't are my players with the least total minutes, which could be attributed to small sample size. The only significant rotation player who hasn't improved is 75-76 Bill Walton (eFG% decreased by 0.5%). We're leading the league in scoring and assists and shooting an outrageous 46% from the three point line. Turnovers are high (5th in the league), but the assist/turnover ratio is on par with other teams with fewer assists.

I think I'm far enough along to deem this strategy a success. It doesn't necessarily mean it is THE best way to go when building a team, but it works as advertised if you decide to go that route.

Posted by pfattkatt on 7/9/2013 7:42:00 PM (view original):
A few questions.  Ashmael, the team you show on P1, with Dwight Howard at C...Why him? Why not either a high(er) assist C, a ferocious rebounder, or a ferocious shot blocker? 2. Why not even higher assist% guards? 3. How important are players D ratings in the overall scheme of things?
  

Ash may chime in, but here's my take: 1- Howard is one of the best rebounders in the game. 2- Howard is an excellent shot blocker. 3- Defense is important, but it's not the first thing I look at.

Super high assists definitely increases eFG%. Foghats is the latest example.
There are still some interesting issues regarding assists I am exploring. Only been playing since December so obviously others may have already tested this.

Assist Floor:
I have a couple of teams with super low assists, and seeing how this works. What is the floor by which eFG% should remain the same? I.e. not suffer because of too few ast. Because the assist is determined after the player scores in the sim, it still seems usage outweighs assists in importance but there are penalties for having a lack of each.

Fg% Bumps by Zone:
I have noticed, but not studied, that it appears post players routinely have higher fg% than their RL stats. For whole seasons, 2-5%. Can't just be bad defense can it? Does seem that even before the insane bumps experienced by 120% ast teams, there are bumps to be had at lower assist levels and perhaps the upward curve starts with paint scorers first.

i recently put a team in an exhibition league as a test. my starting five is 89-90 stockton, 11-12 rondo, 90-91 magic johnson, 04-05 garnett and 74-75 boerwinkle. combined they have 177.6 ast%. i play my first game tomorrow. ill have to see how it does. i think that might be the max possible (or close to it) for a starting 5

Can't do tests in exhibition leagues.

It's a different sim engine.

Even if it was the same engine, that's lame. I love your concept, go for it over 82 games.

i never knew it was a different engine. how does it differ?

Ash, I've worked on a high ast  team design in the draft leagues as you well know. I don't bring 122%, but pretty often rank as one of the top ast teams @ +75% ast on the floor for 48 min's. I target 35-37 apg after the 1st round of normalization, this give my players a 3-5% FG% bump. I have found that bring solid ast in the front court, which is critial for bumping FG%, diminishes your rebounding as a rule. The inbalance this creates in the poss. battle is the real problem for me right now. I need to come close to matching my opponent in poss. so my superior FG% can win the game. I have corrected the inbalance by incorporating more steals, this tactic balances the poss. battle. In ODL XLIII my team averaged 13.5spg and the team worked out ok, but still had a slight deficit wrt shooting poss's. A new team I have in the Clash of the Titans (open theme) runs 39apg & 15.7spg and is actually winning the poss. battle by 1-2 per game. The team is 3 games off the league leader and doing just fine for 31 games. Most of the league is averaging 112-115% burn rate wrt FGA drafted...I'm at a burn rate of 103%. Second half of the season could be interesting. Somebody, I won't mention, is at 128% burn and league leader. (lol) I wonder how long he can keep that up. btw - I'm looking for some good natured discussion wrt team design and the ast aspect in particular. Congrat's on the tie with 98!