The very first thing you’ll be tasked with is creating your pro. After figuring your player’s look and style, it’s time to move on to his positional attributes. The position you play is up to your own personal preference, but each position has a few different types of archetypes you can fit your player into. All-around, Athletic, and Defensive appear in all five spots, but additionally you can pick to be a Shooting or 3pt Specialist as perimeter player, and a Slashing or Rebounding forward. While your first inclination may be to create an All-around player, it’s not the best option to pick for a rookie.
Every character created will start with an overall in the mid-60s. If you pick All-around, almost all of your individual stats will be extremely average. By picking a more defined specialization, you’ll have increased attributes in key areas. In that regard, the player you create will also be weaker in other aspects of his game, but it’s better to be great a few things as a rookie, than average at everything.
Since your player will be fighting for minutes early on, it’s best to make a player that will be valuable at multiple positions. The more roles you can fill on a team, the more you’ll be on the court. It’s easiest to earn playing time by creating a shooting guard/small forward hybrid. Any player in the 6’6”- 6’8” height range will work, but don’t forget to make your player a bit bulkier (say 225-240 lbs.) so they’ll be able to bang bodies near the boards. Additionally, assigning the Athletic role to your player will give them an advantage in key physical skills like hustle and jumping right off the bat. You won’t be able to shoot quite as well, but it’s much cheaper to build up shooting skills with experience than it is the more physical attributes.
