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But you always lose more than you gain by playing a focused offense, you also risk having the opposing team guess right. So using your example (and acknowleding that we're playing with made up numbers) you're suggesting that gaining a 4.7% advantage on outside scoring in exchange for losing 23.8% on inside scoring is going to win most games? That makes absolutely no sense. (Keep in mind as well that the ratings are abstractions from the game engine that correlate to game action but are not in a causal relationship with it)

in combination, that you take moost shoot outside with this strategy i would say you gain a advantage out of it.

Obviously you'll never face a totally well balanced, totally evenly balanced opponent who will always play man to man offense, but if that were to hypothetically happen why add extra risk? What happens if your SG goes down injured or gets in foul trouble? (or more realistically, what happens if they go 1-3-1 or 3-2 zone...) Why not default to the most flexible offensive option so that the game engine will exploit any opportunities that arise during the game?

I know a lot team, where the prohability of a Zone is much lower then man to man, so i would go for the better chanche of the "perfect" tactic and try to adjust to his man to man defence.

But i understand your low risk approach, but i choose them when i got the superior team and don't want to make a big failure.

My earlier rating example doesn't support your notion that you lose more than you gain in a focused offence. I increased the outside shooting rating by the same amount that i decreased the inside shooting by. So you gain as much as you lose.

The original poster asked what tactics were best against particular defences. The only real way to answer that is by comparing 2 teams that are exactly the same in every way. I.e. Control the variables. Which you are arguing is too abstract to consider.

I never said not to play a neutral offence against man to man. I never said that it wouldn't work well. Push the ball can be great against some teams if they play man to man.

But in answering the original posters question, i have to consider that all variables are the same. Hence playing push the ball vs man to man will not help you as you will match up exactly.

I never suggested new players should always play a focused offence against man to man. I said quite clearly in the original post that i was assuming a balanced team that is exactly the same as the opponent.

From the Game Engine section of the Game Manual...

"The offensive schemes that we give you can be broken down into combinations of two aspects, pace and focus. Pace is either faster, slower or normal, and focus is either inside, outside or normal. A faster pace means that the team will lower its standards for which shot to take and take less time to get it up the court…resulting in more possessions in the game. Slower pace means just the opposite. Having an inside focus both increases the overall quality of the looks you get near the basket and decreases the quality of looks you get away from the hoop. It also skews the distribution of looks that you get towards inside looks. Outside focus does exactly the same, but for longer range shots. In general the marginal gain you get is outweighed by the loss, so it only makes sense to focus one way or the other if you really feel you have an advantage in that area."

Thanks for your replies everyone!

Yeah, Naker, I think chris902 is right about the base offences. If you don't know what they're going to play, or you don't know if there is a weakness you can exploit, and you don't have a specific strength, then the base offences are the way to go (due to the lower reward vs higher penalty ratio). This is why it is recommended that new users use those offences until they work out a strategy.

It looks like I won't receive any quantitative data... I wasn't really expecting to, but one can hope, right? ;)

The opinions are well received, though, thank you.

peace out- Axis