Challenge accepted, Chris! Derek here for more ‘Stache Talk. One thing I am always
trying to do with SOM is balance realism with fun. I want players to perform as
they did in real life, but not exactly. If everyone just replicated their results, what would be the point of playing? I might as well just go to the microfiche at the library and read the old newspaper summaries of
the previous night’s action (actually, that sounds kinda fun). No, I want to
control players a bit, and have them take more efficient shots, but also allow
them to play as they did in real life. I want to coach the team and try to get
the ball to the best shooter while also allowing the team to play similarly to
how it did in reality.
Sometimes you have a player who consistently gets the ball too much or vice versa, doesn't get the ball enough. The issue I want to address here is how to ensure
that the player with the highest Shooting rating on the team (everyone is rated
from 0 to 3) takes an appropriate number of shots. There are two sides of the
coin: (1) the player who doesn’t get the ball enough because he isn’t very
efficient and there is another more efficient 1+ rated shooter on the team; and
(2) when there is only one efficient 1+ scorer on the team and he gets the ball
too much.
I’ve named this rule after Gerald Wilkins, who in the
1987-88 season was graded as a 2 Shooter while his teammate Patrick Ewing was a
1. Ewing was significantly more efficient than Wilkins. If you had any choice as to which
player to pass to, such as the Opponent Defense FAC result of “Pass to any 1+
for pos. shot,” you would almost always choose to pass to Ewing. The big man ends up getting the ball too much and Wilkins not enough. It isn’t
realistic. Similarly, take any Chicago Bull team from the late 80’s and you
will see that Michael Jordan is the only efficient scorer and usually the only
1+ rated Shooter. So he gets force fed the ball. Now, he did put up a lot of shots
in real life and I don’t want to take too many away from him, but I want to
make it a little more realistic such that other Bulls are forced to take some shots.
When I get the Control reading of “RG [LG] [RF] PASS TO
ANY PLAYER FOR POSITION SHOT (Flip next Card)”, which occurs a total of FIVE
times in the deck, I roll the 20-sided die, and if the result is 1-10, the pass
goes to the player with the highest Shooting rating on the team, whom I call
the team’s “Designated Shooter,” and if the result is 11-20, the pass goes to
any other player. Of course, the passer must actually pass the ball and cannot
himself take the shot, even if he is the team’s Designated Shooter. If the
player making the pass is the team’s Designated Shooter, it is dealer’s choice
and the pass goes to whomever you like. If more than one player has the team’s
highest Shooting rating, then you choose which player is the Designated
Shooter.
This adjustment will force the Knicks to go to Wilkins on
at least half of those Control readings when he isn’t the passer. Similarly, the
Bulls will have to give the ball to someone other than Jordan on those Control
readings when the 20-sided result is 11-20. Don’t worry, Michael will still
light it up. I am currently playing the 1965-66 season (with cards I created
from the card images of the computer game). In real life, Jerry West averaged
31.5 ppg that season. In the opening 13 games for me, limiting his shots
somewhat by using this rule, he is averaging 35.8 ppg. Efficient scorers will
not be greatly affected by this adjustment. For me, and I bet for many of you, one of the great pleasures of SOM is when a player goes off and piles up buckets. This rule won't prevent that.
This adjustment
is not a panacea. For example, if your team has two players with a Shooting rating
of 2, and no other 1+, and one of the two is significantly more
efficient, obviously you will give the ball to that player over the less
efficient player in almost every situation. And even in the situation we have
with the 87-88 Knicks, Gerald Wilkins is not going to take as many shots over
the course of the season or per minute as he did in real life and Patrick Ewing
is going to take more. And I am okay with that too. I want SOME level of realism but I am fine with trying
to make your team better by adjusting shot attempts.
If you want to be
more realistic, you could roll the 20-sided die each time you get the Opponent
Defense result of “Pass to any 1+ for pos. shot” AND more than one of the four
players eligible to receive the pass is a 1+. So for the 87-88 Knicks with both
Wilkins and Ewing on the floor, no other 1+ Shooters, and another player as the passer, roll the 20-sided die and if the result is 1-10, Wilkins gets the shot and if 11-20 Ewing does. But that is
up to you and is more realism than I require.
That is it for
this edition of ‘Stache Talk. May your next roll be an X +!
