BuzzerBeater Forums

Hi all, as far as I searched the forum I got the feeling that general opinion regarding Full Court Press is negative. But I'd still want to get your opinions regarding its usage for relatively lower level matches. (like my current league)

At relatively lower leagues offensive flow of opponents are not that high, or nothing very special. I thought it's possible to take advantage of this cheaply with training my team with the focus of FCP. FCP basically needs high OD and high stamina (and some SB?). I can focus heavily on OD, but it's just one skill to focus heavily. Stamina is an easy skill to train. I can dump ID and REB since we don't really need them for FCP, which might be an opportunity to focus other skills easily.

What are your opinions regarding this point of view?

My opinion is that the general forum opinion is wrong. I think it would work at any level though I had more success in d2 than in d1 but I blame my off court management for that and not my defence.

I do agree though that lower offensive flow will be better for running fcp. I think you're on the right lines looking for high OD and ST but I wouldn't disregard ID at all. I also think your opinion on SB is worth thinking about. FCP causes a high incidence of blocks as well as steals. Dumping RB is interesting because certainly the big weakness of FCP is rebounding.

One thing about fcp, it will enable you to pay lower salaries in general as it suits all round players who are mostly defensive and therefore cheaper in salary terms.

Thanks for your reply, I have already scimmed through the seasons that you completely used FCP.

Here's what I think:
Well I don't actually want to disregard ID completely but with this defensive tactic, 95% of the defence is outside the paint. So I am, at the moment, weighting OD much much higher than ID.

I've already read discussions regarding the importance of SB. That's one area I'm going to focus too.

Dumping RB is interesting because certainly the big weakness of FCP is rebounding.

Here's what I think: There's a big penalty for rebounding while playing FCP, so why bother with it?

Let's assume that FCP tactic has 20% rebounding penalty.
If originally I have level 5 rebounding, my rebounding drops to 4. So I lose 1 level of rebounding.
If originally I have level 10 rebounding, my rebounding drops to 8. So when I want to cover the rebounding penalty of FCP, I lose 2 levels of rebounding.

Higher I try to cover the rebounding penalty of FCP, higher I lose. Plus we are trying to avoid opponent offences even before they can shoot, am I wrong?

So considering that I want much higher OD than ID and less REB, here's the line-up I thought of:

- At PG position -> Plays PG
- At SG position -> Plays SG #1
- At SF position -> Plays SG #2
- At PF position -> Plays a balanced SF
- At C position -> Plays a PF

Offensive tactic is obviously mainly RNG but I can mix things up a little.

But since I am not very experienced, maybe I am very wrong and this can end up with a catastrophe. :P
What are your thoughts regarding this setup? Would it work - at least against teams at my strength?

Thanks again.

Here's what I think: There's a big penalty for rebounding while playing FCP, so why bother with it?

I had normal rebounding I think for my level, and mostly got destroyed. I think you're probably safe not to worry about it. The higher your SB the less you need to worry about RB in my opinion.

Higher I try to cover the rebounding penalty of FCP, higher I lose. Plus we are trying to avoid opponent offences even before they can shoot, am I wrong?

You're not wrong. Having said that you can't stop every possession before the shot. I'm not sure but I suspect fcp might be able to lower the quality of the shot.

- At PG position -> Plays PG
- At SG position -> Plays SG #1
- At SF position -> Plays SG #2
- At PF position -> Plays a balanced SF
- At C position -> Plays a PF

Definitely a C is probably worthless so I like your lineup. Two PGs could work, as could two SFs though that can be expensive. I think passing is helpful everywhere.

Would it work - at least against teams at my strength?

Definitely.

One last thing, don't necessarily just look at steals. The important thing is opposition turnovers. A lot of the success with FCP comes when the opponent throws the ball out of play. You don't get credit for a steal but its the same as far as possessions go. Ideally you want 20-25 TOs forced a game, or perhaps more at your level if the average TOs are already high.

Gully said it already and I can give you a second confirmation. FCP works, if you have all four defense skills at a high level.
OD, ID, SB and Stamina will lead your team to an average of 20 stls and 20 blks per game. I tried it several seasons ago in my PL with my allround defenders. It is really cool.
In my opinion your players need at least stamina 7. FCP burns the stamina faster than the other defense tactics. And if you play a fast offense (LI or RnG) it will go down even faster. On the other side, your opponent will have big problems to hold your pace and his stamina will also be influenced.

Thanks for your reply.
In which seasons you played FCP?

Season 27, the private league games in April. I tried only 4 of 5 games for testing, but the defense worked

@Gulley: what level of OD did you have at your bigs?

I can't remember specifically how much, but it wasn't as much as you'd expect. I had a rule for every player though, including backups. No less than 7 in any defensive skill. I think maybe one player on the entire squad may have fallen below that. I had the same bigs in D1 as in D2 and I'm fairly certain both were PFs. If I was forced to guess I'd say not less than 8 but no more than 10. Interestingly one of my backups in the Cup Final had higher OD than either of them.

On OD in general what I would say is I'd rather have someone with lower OD who has ID and SB than one with even 20 OD but with low ID and SB.

As long as most of your players have highish stamina you can get away with one or two lower stamina players. I bought players during my time playing fcp and though they must have dropped off a bit as the game went on the high levels of the other players seemed to cover it. I would agree with Nachtmahr though, minimum 7 and ideally you want 9.

Certainly I think you'd walk away with D2 with those levels of skills and certainly be able to compete in D1.