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Rules > Tactics:

Substitution Pattern

The coach will sometimes use his own judgment to decide what the proper balance is between starters, backups, reserves, and even players on the bench but not in the depth chart at all. You can set the balance between how much coaches use their own judgment or defer to yours with the substitutions box. You can use entirely your judgment (Strictly Follow Depth Chart), entirely the coach's judgment (Let Coach Decide), a mix between the two (Coach Picks from Depth Chart), or you can use your depth chart strictly until the 4th quarter, then tell the coach to try and win the game however he thinks is best (Depth Chart until 4th).

Apparently the coach has decided that the player in question is not good enough to start. This is not a bug, unless something other than LCD has been used in the game that we're talking about.

Coach picks from depth chart? (Yes, even if he starts he can play less than a minute resulting in 0 minutes).

than there is a bug in the system!!!

As I stated before and if this is the rule You can use entirely your judgment (Strictly Follow Depth Chart), how can it be that choosing a starter and no reserve or backup player for him, in some games he only plays 46 or 47 minutes. (he didn't get injured)...

Did he foul out?

nope didnt foul out either

example game on the 6th december
PG J. Ortiz 47 6 - 15 1 - 7 0 - 2 2 5 3 1 0 1 1 13 7.0

game 22th november
PG J. Ortiz 46 18 - 34 2 - 9 0 - 8 1 10 4 0 0 1 0 38 7.5

Last edited by Astragoth at 12/10/2008 1:39:19 PM

Strictly follow depth chart - Starters starts and keep playing until they are in foul trouble (depends on your settings) or are tired enough that their become not as effective (it matters a bit how good the back up is, most probably). You can expect 24+ minutes (with poor stamina) or rather 30+ minutes for starters baring
a) blow outs - it influence lineup in 4th quarter if you are up by 20+ points; usually it tries to play your reserves and tends to try to get your dress but not assigned (to any of 15 slots of lineup) some minutes. It would be long pargraph about it because it can be complicating assuming how different patterns of lineups can be used. However I have one question - did someone try to use Player A - Player B (backup) - Player A (reserve) in blowouts often? (with strictly follow d.c.) Did player A play majority of 4th quarter?
b)you can fill the whole spot with one player, just enter his name multiple times (as starter, backup and reserve). He has a better chance to play 40+ minutes then (baring injuries, foul troubles,...)

This option is best to handle your players' minutes.

Coach picks from depth chart - From the three slots of lineup for each position coach tries to play the best one and backs up him with the second best one (actual tireness probabla already counted) - if any available. The starter should start but can be subbed immediately (not experinced that he would nto start at all but maybe it is possible) resulting in no (less than 1 minute) PT. Coach can let starter play iof he thinks it is a good(best?) option but can prefer reserve over backups and etc. Simply he creates his own hierarchy for the posiion and the match (how it turns out is inluenced by fouls tireness, injuries). In blow outs it is probable that he would play the last one in his hierarchy (but I have no experience with this). I guess coach would use a player outside of the assigned trio if he thinks he is shot of better options (=he thinks other player is better at the time) however it should not happen at first half at all. I guess 4th quarter, OtTs, blowouts and last minutes of quarters (defence, FT, 3PT) are cases when this can happen.

Let Coach decide -
quite the same as Coach picks from depth chart except the coach choses from max.12 players dressed for the match and distributes them among all five positions. Players don't stick to these positions as much as in other previously mentioned options and subbing can be more varied and players can fluctuate through lineup as game continues.

I can't tell how much coach respect any assignments of player to particular positions, to starting job etc. because I see no sense in any assignements in this option. If I have to have control over who should share minutes in this or that position it is better to use Coach picks from d.c. I guess it could have some influence on him but it's not wise to rely on it. Simply this is not the best option to control the minutges especially for training purposes.

Am I missing something or am I mistaken somewhere?

i understand... sounds very plausable. but if i read the rules in the rules for "strictly follow depth squad", and pick no reserve nor backup player or whatever you want to call it. in other words I have no backup for him what so ever, than why in some games my player only 46 minutes or 47 minutes, when not being in foul trouble. The stamina issue I can't buy and can't be true in this case, because I have never trained stamina and it happens randomly on players. i am sure we agree that even if a player would have decent stamina they would get tired playing many minutes, let alone 48 minutes. So why does it barely happen but it does happen??

Last edited by Astragoth at 12/10/2008 2:12:33 PM

I don't know I only wrote how I think it works. Repectively what is probale to hapeen when this or that. Why and if should be like this is another question, more suitable for suggestions board. Or main board (ask Juice).

Actually the main reason could be that those four options should be enough to get what manager wants. minutes, wins, best possible performances , scores runned up,...
There probably should be a way to let a player (not a foul prone one) the whole game. But then it should not be a sure bet. I think it is like this.

Let Coach decide -
quite the same as Coach picks from depth chart except the coach choses from max.12 players dressed for the match and distributes them among all five positions. Players don't stick to these positions as much as in other previously mentioned options and subbing can be more varied and players can fluctuate through lineup as game continues.

I can't tell how much coach respect any assignments of player to particular positions, to starting job etc. because I see no sense in any assignements in this option. If I have to have control over who should share minutes in this or that position it is better to use Coach picks from d.c. I guess it could have some influence on him but it's not wise to rely on it. Simply this is not the best option to control the minutges especially for training purposes.

Am I missing something or am I mistaken somewhere?

It's "something" like that, but not exactly. LCD gives the coach some freedom, but with limits also. I have played games with my pg playing center with LCD, and he started where I put him, even if he was NOT suitable at all for C, and the sub was WAY better than him. Then, why sometimes the coach follows your orders, even if they are extremely awkward and nonsense, and sometimes he does what he wants, even if you tell him to do at the start of the match is more logical than the other thing?? It's not that straightforward, there may be some other things.