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It's worth pointing out that for this strategy to work, you need to be able to post OD ratings that are *significantly* higher than your opponents' offensive flow rating. The reason heathens and SM have been able to pull this off is that they have/had multiple 20+ OD defenders, and passing has been relatively undervalued among high level players/clubs. I think if the rest of the NBBA started playing multiple 15+ PA guys, you'd see this strategy take a big hit. Problem is, those guys are hard to find, and harder to pay. They exist (and end up on national teams, which is why this strategy hasn't worked very well at the NT level, despite it being pretty easy to start 2 or even 3 20+ OD guys), but they're not yet prevalent enough to over come those massive perimeter defense ratings.

It's hard to put an exact number on it, but my guess is that for this to work consistently and effectively, you need to be able to put up a perimeter defense rating about 1.6-2x what your opponents puts up for flow, while playing m2m.

Thank you for the details. Just training more ID to counter other teams training more IS seems zero-sum. It seems that going against the flow is a path to long-term success and this tactic is intriguing.

That's probably sufficient ID for division III (of interesting note, you're in the same league that the Heathens and I once were), so for now I wouldn't worry about training it much higher. Since you're training bigs, those should be your main source of offense, so I would see IS and rebounding as a higher priority, and training secondaries is a great way to make your players more salary efficient and valuable on the TL.

I'd imagine there are several unique strategies that could have a lot of success, but most teams lacks the funds, time or creativity.

For example, one could design a patient offense with an offensive small forward (high JS/JR/DR/IS), and then buy a few high OD true point guards and some defensive bigs that could rebound and pass. A team like that would be great defensively, have great flow, an offense that would be a nightmare for most teams to stop, and be very efficient for their salary.

Hey... say something I didn't say in the post before, will ya?

Ha... a little leeway for the guy that's entering day 4 without power! I think I started typing before I saw you're response...

You make some good points. OD is both a very powerful skill, and relatively cheap. It's also more simple and straightforward to develop a strong look inside offense than an outside oriented one. However, I don't feel that the only way to success is by playing look inside with high IS bigs and good defensive point guards. With the right players I think any tactic could be dominant ... it's just that most teams don't have the right players.

For instance, to run princeton, you would want all of your players to have great jump range, inside shot, and passing. A team where everyone can score inside and knock down threes would be tough to defend against. But it's virtually impossible to find a guard with high JR and high IS, let alone one with high passing too. I think this holds true for most tactics, with the right players any can be effective, but it's more difficult and expensive to build an offense for princeton than an offense for look inside.

I also don't think OD is overpowered so much as there isn't enough willingness to create players that can overcome it. A 20 JS/JR/DR guard with 13 OD would be virtually unstoppable against most teams. If that player also had decent ID, he would have no problem guarding a SG in a look inside offense. Then surround that player with some balanced guards that can pass and defend, and bigs that can rebound, and you have yourself an outside offense that compete with a lot of teams.

All that said, I actually will be making a roster change or two later in the season, and may play LI against some teams.