I wouldnt say its absolutely necessary, but it helps. it just slows the game down some and gets rid of a bit of the jerkiness in the animations. I even saw one of the developers say that they may implement it into their roster updates. I think that alone says alot. Players will still play like they are supposed to though, if thats what your worried about.
Also Cabrillo are you still seeing alot of the silly steals/steal attempts with your sliders? that is the one thing that keeps me from truly enjoying this game.