I'm pretty sure when players join my team their aggression goes through the roof. Every season since I started I have been in the top 2 for fouls per game.
It doesn't help that I draft players that seem to be ultra aggressive.
Church = .138 fouls per minute Career which is legendary IMO.
Harrison = .102
Dussan = .081
Alvarez = .077
By contrast my current starters:
Zepeda = .072
Velesco = .065
James = .062 (However, James currently ranks #378 in PF/Game in the World.)
Anderson = .057
Koenig = .026
Granted Church's defense is horrid, but the other trainees have pretty good defensive stats.
That is some pretty strong aggression there. I've got several guys who get fouly when the mood strikes them, with Busch the one most frequently in a nasty mood. Cheek can also pick up a lot of fouls quickly, and occasionally Namo (and Menard, when he gets enough minutes) have been on the edge a few times. I also know that there's some bad influence going on in the locker room, because Jack Poirier, who moved on from my team about a season ago, had never had a five foul game before I purchased him but eventually he did foul out once while on my team. (Still, not bad for the several seasons I got from him).
The thing that's maddening is that the defense could in theory be a part of it, but that doesn't help. Anecdotally, I'd much rather Busch face a strong big man with decent to good ball skills than a scrub or a tree - I think a lot of his fouls are cases where his OD and aggression causes him to reach in for fouls because the opponent doesn't handle it well. That may be ascribing too much sensibility to the game engine by a factor of 42, though.
