The CSL

What is Court Intelligence in DDS? Over the years of CSL existence we heard that IQ as it’s called supposedly helps the player make better decisions, maximise potential, helps the team win more games etc. Presumably then, a team with higher IQ should perform better vs the same team with lower IQ.

There has never been any evidence to show that this was true. So we at CSL StatStuff decided to run a little experiment. We decided to create a fictional default league in DDS3 and run a few simulations with the team’s IQ as-is, lowered to 30 and then changed to 90. This is just to see what happens. Will a lower IQ produce a worse record than default? Will we see improvement in wins with higher IQ?

First, we took over a team, Memphis Grizzlies, and did the following:
- Adjusted the player’s durability to 100 to reduce the impact of injuries (this was done for all players in the league). While durability is set to 100, however, injuries do happen and may have a slight effect on the results.
- Set the strategy to 5 for Zone, Press, Defensive Intensity and Pace. Both Rebounds were set to 8
- Rotations were all left as-is

We then ran two sims to set a baseline i.e. what is the default record with no adjustments.

Results:
NO ADJUSTMENT
......Record ..PPG ..FG% ..APG ..PTS/100 POSS
Sim 1 30-52 95.5 43.4% 19.4 96
Sim 2 32-50 99.4 45.1% 20 98.8

As we can see our Grizzlies performed slightly better in the second sim but overall the team’s record remained similar. Leading scorer for both teams was Rudy Gay averaging around 20 ppg in both Sims with an impressive 95% STP% and just under 3 TOs forced per game. Solid two way player.

Now lets see what happens to our Grizzlies if I reduce everybody’s IQ down to 30.

IQ = 30 for all players on Grizzlies
.....Record ..PPG ..FG% ..APG ..PTS/100 POSS
Sim 1 30-52 98 44.4% 19.9 98.1
Sim 2 29-53 94.7 43.1% 18.5 94.7

Somewhat unexpected but there was not much reduction and team’s overall record certainly reflects that. While the second sim showed a reduction in stats across the board, it only resulted in one extra loss. Rudy Gay again was the leading scorer and his stats are again around 20 ppg and impressive 95% STP% and 3 TOs forced.

OK

Now let’s see what happens if we raise the IQ up to 90. There has to be a difference between a team with all players at 90 and a team with all players at 30.

IQ = 90 for all players on Grizzlies
.....Record ..PPG ..FG% ..APG ..PTS/100 POSS
Sim 1 29-53 96.7 43.4% 19.7 96.5
Sim 2 25-57 96.6 44.0% 19.5 96.6

Well that is a huge surprise. Especially that second sim with the worst record of all so far. There was an injury challenge there but that was with Tony Allen being side-lined for some time. But how can this be that 90 IQ across the board did not help the poor Grizzlies.

We decided to continue to experiment.

Perhaps we did not put the team in the best position to succeed. Since IQ is supposed to help teams that run high pace offense, let’s see if we raise the pace to 9 and run a sim.

IQ = 90 for all players on Grizzlies and Pace = 9
.....Record ..PPG ..FG% ..APG ..PTS/100 POSS
Sim 1 27-55 94.9 43.1% 19.4 94.9

(Note: we ran two sims actually as in one of them Rudy Gay suffered an injury and was out for almost a month but records were the same)

So it looks like if the team is not meant to run IQ does not matter. Actually, does IQ matter at all?

For the final test, we decided to lower the Defensive Rebounds to 3 just to make sure the team is really running.

IQ = 90 for all players on Grizzlies, Pace = 9 and D-Reb = 3
.....Record ..PPG ..FG% ..APG ..PTS/100 POSS
Sim 1 33-49 98.3 44.3% 19.6 98.7

I’ll admit the sample size is very little. But we ran five sims with IQ at 90 and the results did not look impressive at all. Does IQ matter?



(All sim files are saved and available in a ZIP if you would like to see. Just send me your email. Also, I have a Word summary file with stat screenshots)

Great analysis Andrei and really interesting outcome.
Was never a fanatic of the IQ as some of the GM are around here but I still believe it influence the playing time of a player. Maybe an analysis focusing on a PF/C player who is supposed to play 36 minutes would show different results?

That was quite an impressive article and study that you performed andrei, major kudos!

I was always under the impression IQ mattered as it wouldn't be an attribute in the game if it didn't and it was always a means to use during trade talks etc for player value or as a way to blame players or teams for poor performance.

Very interesting indeed my man, excellent work.

Perfect time to trade for favors was 5 min before this article

I expect this article to be used in a lot of discussions moving forward

Mattybriand wrote:Perfect time to trade for favors was 5 min before this article

Wow, that's some very interesting stuff. If you could continue to hype the idea that IQ doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things then maybe Zhou Qi will gain some value around the league!

But honestly, I love these types of studies and while the sample size wasn't huge, you would have thought that there would have been some legitimate deviation from the "mean" in this study with the fluctuation of a global IQ for the team.

Favors playing 36 minutes a game with 43 IQ...

Mattybriand wrote:Perfect time to trade for favors was 5 min before this article

I expect this article to be used in a lot of discussions moving forward

Cousins, too he was the first player that came to mind when I clicked on the thread

As ive suggested all along that iq has no bearing

It does have a bearing. Usually in postseason (generally speaking, higher IQ players will have better numbers.) As you point out, sample size is an issue, and so is team talent. This would be much better run on an elite team like Detroit, Chicago, or Houston.

He didnt use our file for it, Tim. He used a standard DDS3 file.

I like the outcome and was sure IQ is the rating that matters the least. I mean, look at Hayward (a lot assists as SF despite being super dumb), Lowry/Teague or Favors..
However, I do believe high DI + high IQ in combination makes a huge difference. Like a 90DI 30IQ guy will perform way worse compared to a 90DI 90IQ

Jestor wrote:It does have a bearing. Usually in postseason (generally speaking, higher IQ players will have better numbers.) As you point out, sample size is an issue, and so is team talent. This would be much better run on an elite team like Detroit, Chicago, or Houston.

Yeah a test with a better team would be a good idea to see how things go.

But interesting..

Dennis wrote:He didnt use our file for it, Tim. He used a standard DDS3 file.

I like the outcome and was sure IQ is the rating that matters the least. I mean, look at Hayward (a lot assists as SF despite being super dumb), Lowry/Teague or Favors..
However, I do believe high DI + high IQ in combination makes a huge difference. Like a 90DI 30IQ guy will perform way worse compared to a 90DI 90IQ

Well I thought Teague IQ was the main reason for disaster season in Philadelphia

Great analysis right there! But I'd love to see how it affects players during postseason when it really matters.
Well thank god I traded for Jimmy Butler before this article lol

Great work there Andrei, very solid, good job! I never thought about it, for real

IQ for sure impacts efficiency and decision making. And I agree with the comment about post season play. It's one of my favorite attributes. I go out of my way for high IQ, DI and Consistency. My goal is to reduce, as greatly as is possible, losing that results from the "stupid" factor - as an example - Teague has 8 turnovers and his team loses by 2 points - that's just something that shouldn't happen, but does because he's retarded.

What a good idea for a test. We could use more of these to see what ratings actually have a significant impact on players. Good job here Andrei!

Very good read, great stuff here. I actually had my eye on IQ with Turner/Saric coming in, was curious to see if an elite IQ was a factor with things like TO's and shot selection. This was really worth a read and very informative.

Interesting.

Always thought though it was decision making or a variable that impacts other ratings.

Congratulations Andrei on a fantastic work. I know how time consuming these things are. Very well done and, yes, some surprising results.

Damn, this is good stuff. I have always thought IQ was huge in DDS, boy was I wrong!