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I seem to remember that 3-2 defense will have a slight penalty to rebounding. And seems that way to me after playing it this week. But the Game Manual only says:

"3-2 Zone: Increased perimeter defense at the expense of interior defense. Slow pace."

What is the reality?

And on the topic of zone defense, can anyone remind me what players need for a 1-3-1 zone?

PG/SG/SF = OD
PF = ?
C = SB

I seem to remember that 3-2 defense will have a slight penalty to rebounding. And seems that way to me after playing it this week. But the Game Manual only says:

"3-2 Zone: Increased perimeter defense at the expense of interior defense. Slow pace."

What is the reality?

And on the topic of zone defense, can anyone remind me what players need for a 1-3-1 zone?

PG/SG/SF = OD
PF = ?
C = SB

It's not written on the manual but empirically you will observe that 3-2 decreases rebounding and 1-3-1 decreases even more.

I'm not a specialist on 1-3-1 since it is rarely a good idea to use it, but I guess your PF will need high OD as well for the defense perform decently at least, and your C might have very high inside defense skills in order to minimally counterbalance the loss of inside defense overall.

The reality is that 3-2 diminishes rebounding skill just a bit, because players are usually all on the perimeter defending the 3 pointers, jump shots, and penetration that the opposition may utilize via Driving or Passing. What many teams have began to use is 3 strong perimeter defenders with very high OD, a PF with good defense and a mix of outside skills, and a brute defense big with a ton of ID, RB, SB.

This takes another notch in 1-3-1, as it is basically 3-2 on steroids. Still need great perimeter D on the positions 1,2,3. Your PF will also need formiddable OD as sometimes he will get stretched out onto the perimeter guarding opposition's wings and PG. The center will most certainly need SB, RB, and some ID to offset the lack of rebounding that is had throughout the floor.

3-2
PF: Some OD, ID, RB
C: ID, RB, SB

1-3-1
PF: OD, ID, a bit of SB is a plus
C: ID, RB*(Heavy), SB

Extra Information Below:

Another tactic that has been gaining popularity within past seasons is Outside Box and 1. The makeup of this defense is having 1 beast defender to lock down opposition's best player, and a team of savvy defenders around him. It's been financially appealing to have 2 shot blocking bigs at PF and C, to double the benefits of Shot blocking and Inside Defense.

Current planning to have clone PF & C maxed out around Superstar level and run a 3-2.

Think I'd be okay with only RB and SB so I can have IS? Planned for my backcourt to focus on defense and passing to get the ball inside. Maybe enough JS/JR to mix it up here and there once I have the funds to afford it.

Or would you recommend ID instead and let the offense come from backcourt? Or possibly ID instead of SB. But I like the idea of SB since it pads the stats.

Running a homegrown USA team so want my Utopia team to be competitive at highest level eventually.

Last edited by Gccsteel at 03/28/2024 21:44:08