Offensive Player Positioning (Advanced Game)

9.0 SETUP 

9.3 To set up offensively, both coaches must position their players "outside" or "inside." A maximum of two players may be positioned inside, or close to the basket.

This is one of those rules that makes perfect sense when playing head-to-head, as it adds coaching decisions to the game for the two players. Offensively, you get to  make decisions to try and maximize the offensive efficiency of the unit on the floor, by determining player positioning. Defensively, you get to make decisions on which tactics to employ to best combat your opponent's current offensive alignment (deciding whether or not to use a double-team, change defensive assignments, or play a Close, Normal, or Sag team defense). All great stuff when playing against a human opponent!

When playing the game solitaire though, I find that this is all unnecessary. You can't really "out-coach" yourself when playing solitaire, so why bother with all of the tactical decisions that go along with offensive player positioning? That being the case, I disregard rule 9.3 entirely in my solitaire games. Instead of positioning O/I rated players inside or outside offensively, I simply decide on a possession by possession basis whether or not I will have an O/I rated player attempt an Outside, Penetration, or Inside shot.

I find that, besides eliminating burdensome coaching decisions during play, disregarding rule 9.3 also lends a more realistic offensive flow to the game. For instance, when watching an NBA game, Kawhi Leonard might post-up his defender inside on one possession, and on his next possession he might shoot a three; all in the span of one or two minutes. Using rule 9.3 though, if you decided to position Kawhi inside, say at the start of a quarter, he would post-up his defender on EVERY offensive possession, until a stoppage of play occurred (or a timeout was called, if using optional rule 22.4), and you decided to change his positioning. So, when using rule 9.3 in solitaire play, O/I rated players will either be stuck playing outside or inside offensively for unrealistic periods of game time, OR you will spend an inordinate amount of time switching the positioning of O/I rated players at every stoppage of play; neither of which seems realistic, nor fun, in my opinion.