How to Determine What Offensive Sets to Use?

[BKL]

Any advice on:

(1) How many different offensive sets should I focus on? Right now I generally pick 2-3 sets, with about 33% to 50% for any given set.

(2) I know there is a description of what each offensive set is about, but what do you look at to determine what sets to use? Trying to figure out, what sets to pick - motion, high post, princeton, triangle, five out, etc. What do you look at to determine what sets for your team to use in any given season, etc.?

Any advice is welcome and appreciated.

[PointGuard]

Any advice on:

(1) How many different offensive sets should I focus on? Right now I generally pick 2-3 sets, with about 33% to 50% for any given set.

(2) I know there is a description of what each offensive set is about, but what do you look at to determine what sets to use? Trying to figure out, what sets to pick - motion, high post, princeton, triangle, five out, etc. What do you look at to determine what sets for your team to use in any given season, etc.?

Any advice is welcome and appreciated.

I think you will get different answers from different DDSCB game-players for both of these questions...but here's my input:

#1--I practice and use 3 different offensive sets for my teams. For the team I'm handling now, I've split that up with 20% of available practice time for one of the 3 and 10% for each of the other two...and with 50% of in-game use for one and 25% for each of the other two. But I've altered the percentage split differently for other teams I've handled. Of course, I also practice the 3 zone attack offenses (5% of the available practice time for each).

#2--I think different game-players will have dramatically different preferred offensive sets and ways that they choose them and alot time to each. I think you probably should just read the description for each offensive set, keying in on what is needed for each (e.g., good ball handling skills, good passing skills, where/how players will position themselves, what the offense best does, what kind of shooters are best for a given set, etc. Then you can base your decision on what the skill levels are for the players on your team (e.g. passing, shooting, ball handling, rebounding, etc).

Success with each set will definitely improve as your players' proficiency develops with the more they practice the sets. You can see their proficiency levels on their players cards.

Would be interesting to get other inputs...I think a lot of DDSCB players get back into the game as the college basketball season gets underway (November-ish).

[Your_Imaginary_Friend]

Working out the offensive and defensive schemes is one of the things that keeps me interested--and makes up for the disappointing bits.

First, the pace at which you play is ONLY set on the coaches screen. If you want/need to change that, you have to change your preference. There is no place else to do it.

Second, early in the season you can get away with trying new schemes, largely because the AI teams might be trying out new defenses, too. By the end of the season, you need to have a major offense that you use in big games. This is because your opponent will be well versed in their defense by then.

Third, adjusting the FOCUS and percent of offense schemes run is BIG. As the season goes on and your team learns the offenses, you should increase the percentage of plays run. I start at 55% for a new team and grow to 75-80% by the second half of the conference schedule. An exception appears to be if the opponent presses a lot. Then freelancing seems to produce fewer turnovers, but I'm not sure of that yet. I have had much success scouting the other team and adjusting my focus to hit their weakness on defense.

Pay more attention to the types of players needed in the descriptions of the offenses instead of thinking about inside/outside orientation. Also think about the types of players you want to recruit and how they will fit into the descriptions of the schemes. For me, I like to recruit big men and pound the ball inside. So I go with FLEX and TRIANGLE. FLEX makes the bigs who can pass better and TRIANGLE is the way to go for stone-handed bigs. Adjusting the FOCUS is how I control the inside versus outside shot selection.

Freshmen need to learn the system. Freshman with '10' in your base scheme is not going to be as good as a similar Senior with 85+ or so. Where the line shifts on talent, I'm not sure.

By the end of the year running a Senior/Junior experience offense at 85% set plays will produce very few turnovers.

In order to play a free-lance, low set play percentage offense, your players need to have high SCORING ratings (relative to your conference) in order to succeed.

[zzzz]

I have the same question as OP. reading the descriptions for each offense does reveal something but not much. Is that a mechanism in the game that informs me of the stats of using various offensive sets (similar to the lineup comparison)?

[PointGuard]

I have the same question as OP. reading the descriptions for each offense does reveal something but not much. Is that a mechanism in the game that informs me of the stats of using various offensive sets (similar to the lineup comparison)?

No, there isn't.