Recently a user on the forums posted this "Suggestion: some visualization of player shooting & tendencies" This made me realize that maybe there is not a good understanding of just exactly how the information in Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 26 can be used. One of the many areas this game excels at is making each player come to life in a unique way. The combination of players will impact how successful each one is. Do you have a lineup full of catch and shoot players? That might not work out too well if you don't have willing passers who can create shot opportunities for those players. These are things you must think about in DDS:PB26 - it is not just a collection of OVR rated players.
Let's break down just what exactly we know from the player card. First players now have a player archetype which gives you a visual clue as to what kind of player he is. Hopefully the terms used resonate with most basketball fans - if not you can always ask for help in understanding them on our forums or discord channel or even a google search will turn up an answer because they are commonly used terms. So our player here, Frank Totten, is a point guard who is a "pick and pop hunter". I know right from this it means he's going to be a player who puts the ball on the floor frequently and looks for spots where he can dribble and get up a shot.
If I look under FLOOR RANGES in the bottom right I see that 69% of the time he is above the break, 21% in the midrange, 5% in the corner and 5% in the post. This makes sense as he's not going to be a guy sitting around in the corner waiting for a shot and at 5-11 he's in the post only because he has driven the ball to the hoop. That elevated midrange amount is going to be from his "pick and pop" tendencies - times he was able to get by his man but being 5-11 the paint may not be where he wants to be that often so stopping in the midrange for a "pop" or to dish to a teammate.
Lets go down further to BALL ACTIONS. 73% of the time he's just keeping the ball moving with a simple pass but when you figure that he's a point guard and has the ball in his hands more than others 27% is going to be a lot of action. 10% he drives & passes and 10% are pull up jumpers with 3% drive & shoot (aka getting to the paint). The 0% post up shot makes perfect sense and 4% he will catch & shoot.
Are you getting a clearer picture of this player? Can you envision him on the court? He's going to be outside the 3 point arc on the wing and top of the key alot. Obviously to initiate the offense but even after that he's going to be hanging out there looking for a return pass. When he gets it he's going to fire the occasional three off a catch & shoot action but most of the time if he's not quickly moving the ball to keep the offense moving he's going to be putting it on the floor. He's going to get that high screen and look to make something happen from it. Given that he only is in the post 5% of the time its not going to be too often he gets to the rim - when he attacks he's going to be looking for that drive & pass possibly to the screener or if the defense doesn't collapse on him the pull up J from the midrange. He's going to do most of his shooting from long range though - taking that screen and pulling up for three.
So lets take a look! We can see from his 8.4 APG he's doing a pretty good job distributing the ball to scorers and you can see from his shot chart the vast majority of his shots are above the break threes. He's a good shooter in the midrange and with 35 attempts at the rim in 33 games you can see that about once a game he does get to basket for a layup but close to 60% of his shots are going to be those above the break threes.
But...is the reason he only gets to the rim once a game purely a limitation of his size? Does he just not like to attack the basket? Maybe it has something to do with his fellow starters.
Turns out he's paired with two guys who are "paint orientated face-up big" players. These guys are always in the post or midrange. Hard to get to the basket yourself if the screener wants to roll back down to the paint himself! The last thing a guy driving needs is big bodies in the paint (from his own team and their defenders). But in this case, maybe its not a problem?
Totten is also a very rare and unique player with three of the "special traits" - most players don't have any! He's a "sharpshooter", "ball magician" and "playmaker" which tells me he's going to shoot it well from deep considering heavy volume, get his teammates involved and take care of the ball. His 276 assists to only 43 turnovers on the current season is incredible and his 37% on over 8 3PA per game bears that out. Given these traits Totten isn't trying to get to the rim that often anyways - a sharpshooter is going to focus on shooting threes so the pairing of Scales and Serraville doesn't really stop him from executing what he is a good at and with those guys hanging around the basket they're probably getting a few easy buckets a game from Totten being a "playmaker".
This is the beauty of Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 26 - Frank Totten is not just an 82 OVR player on a spreadsheet. You can envision him on the court and exactly how he would play if you could watch him. You can imagine what sort of players you would want to put around him. A corner 3 and D guy for those times he drives and kicks? Sure! How about a big man who could set that high screen and then pop to the top of the arc for a three? He's small at 5-11, better have some height with him in the backcourt to help for defensive matchups. Best of all knowing what you need you can examine the player cards of other players and find the ones who you think will fit best. When we say our game is all about franchise mode this is exactly what we mean. Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 26 puts you in the general manager's seat like no other game can making you truly think about how you construct your team and can expect realistic results from doing so.
So are you ready to try for yourself? Check out the game's webpage and try you hand at building your own dynasty.