[Groundhog]

I started work on a function to decide the outcome of the screen in my play above. As a screen is a fundamental part of many plays, the screen function could be used in this simple pick and roll play, or could be called during a longer set play, like a Triangle for example, which would then decide which step the play moves to.

One concept I'd like to build into my sim is that of good plays and bad plays. For example, a player runs off a screen, and the defender goes under the screen, leaving the ball handler with some space. The player has options here - he could shoot the long jump shot, try to drive past the sagging defender, or pass the ball. The sim should be able to look at a player's attributes and determine the best option, and then whether the player follows that option. An offensive awareness rating would be used to check this.

Down the other end of the court, the defensive awareness rating would apply in a similar fashion. The coach would decide defensive settings for each opponent on the court - depending on a coach's attributes, he may have a set philosophy that is applied to all players, or individual assignments for each. If the coach has decided that the "right play" for defending a particular player with the screen is to go under, the player's defensive awareness rating checks whether he acts as he was supposed to. Mistakes like this could be tracked against a player, and lead to coaches subbing off guys who continue to get it wrong. The settings chosen by the coach as "good plays" on this end of the court might not neccessarily be the optimal settings - that's where the coach's attributes would come into play.

It's all good and well calculating this, but it really should be in the PbP too. If a guy makes a bad decision, it should be clear in the PbP. If a guy gets yanked for making 3 or 4 mistakes, we fire up the RageSub function to get some commentary about the coach giving it to him on the sideline.