Three positions may be assigned to every player (Tactics - Positions). These settings determine in which positions your particular players will play and how much playing time they will get. According to these settings, the substitutions are made during the game.

These abbreviations are used to describe player positions:
   PG – point guard
   SG – shooting guard
   SF – small forward
   PF – power forward
   C – center

Every player has its own primary position, where the player himself likes to play. This position is displayed in player‘s window, exchanges window and elsewhere. But this does not mean that you can not use this player in other positions. It does not mean that he will play badly if you assign different position. However, you should be careful by letting your players play in other positions. You have to take into consideration your player’s height and skills. Player’s weight has absolutely no influence at the moment. This feature is due to be developed in the future.

You have to assign 5 players in starting lineup. Their first positions have to be: 1-C, 2-PF, 3-SF, 4-SG, 5-PG

IMPORTANT!  You must not choose multiple starting five players with the same first position. If you do so, your starting five might not be assigned properly during the match, and your starting line up might differ from your choice in players’ individual tactics window. This is a common mistake of the novice users.

How substitutions are made

Let’s say, that there is a need to substitute PF that is on court.

1. Coach is looking at your players by their number in tactic. He starts from the top and goes down. First he is looking for a player whose first assigned position is PF, and who is not on court at the moment.
2. If there is no such player with PF assigned in the first position, he is trying to look for a player who has a second position assigned as PF (looks from top to the bottom as in previous variant).
3. If there is no such player as well, he looks for the player with third position assigned as PF(looks from top to the bottom as in previous variants).

If the substitution is not necessary, then the player that was intended to be changed stays on court. If the substitution is necessary (i.e. player has 5 personal fouls) the coach looks at the roster again and picks the first player who is not on court to take up the free slot. In this case, the player is not necessarily assigned with the desired position.

IMPORTANT! Be aware and have a few players that could fill in the possible free positions on court during the game. If the necessary player is not found, then any player will be let in to the court.

In this version of the game, players that are already on court can not swap positions. I.e. a player plays as C and he is not selected for substituting, he will continue to play at C.

The following situation might happen:

• C on court can play as PF, too
• PF on court has committed a 5th foul and was forced to leave the court
• There are no PF position players on the bench
• Any player is sent to play as PF, this means the C on court does not move to play as PF, and the coach is not looking for C on the bench

So it is very important to assign more than one position. Some of the users are afraid to do so, as they think that their bench players will get too much time on court. If you assign positions properly, this will not happen.

Let’s say, that there is a player on the bench, who has a second position assigned. In this case he will never be selected for substitution as long as some other player has same position assigned as first.

The selection criteria will be inverted on the end of the game if there is a blow out (and this option is selected in tactics).

During substitutions the player may not be let on court if:

1. His personal tactic is set to “save for the end“ and he tired or already has 4 fouls
2. Already has 4 fouls
3. Is very tired
4. Plays badly

Player setting: „Save for the end“

The players, who are being saved for the end of the game, sometimes play less than you would want, however they will almost certainly be ready to get back on court at about 4 minutes till the end of the fourth quarter.

These players are substituted sooner during the game if they get in to foul trouble or if they are getting tired.

Players’ time on court

The manager of the team can give recommendations to the coach - how many minutes each player should spend in the court during the match. The recommended time for each player can be set. In this case, the sum of all players' minutes have to be: 40min * 5 players = 200 min
If you trust the coach and do not want to give recommendations, simply do not indicate the recommended time and leave "0".

Of course, it is impossible to share time exactly as set and players won't spend exactly the recommended time in court. However, the coach will try to respect the recommendation of the club manager and follow the desired plan.

It is impossible to predict exact playing time of a player, because:

• Sometimes they collect personal fouls fast
• Sometimes players get tired fast
• Sometimes they simply play badly (player is changed only if recommendations are not given)

The playing time may vary during each game in accordance to any of the reasons above.