Agreed with your thinking, and I don't know the right answer but I'll try throwing a few things at the wall.... would FG% work better than ppg to encourage the player to take quality shots? Or assists or a team stat so they're not just playing for themselves?
A bonus for average minutes played might work if they actually get benched for not running the offense but if coach doesn't have a quality alternative to play they might not get benched until the last game of the season
* FG% - Do you take the 1/2 court shot and the end of the half? Do you take the contested shot as the clock winds down or pass, or eat the shot clock violation? Do you take the 3 vs the higher percentage, lower pay off 2? (If FG% vs. 2FG% and 3FG%) Do you take the slightly contested 3 vs. passing? e.g. Damonte before he got his confidence back -- he only took wide, wide, open 3s @50% passing up some pretty good looking shots.
*Assists - Do you take the shot or make a pass which may result in a worse shot being taken, but get an assist?
*Average minutes was partially addressed in my initial post - player/coach conflict of $$ for not being played enough.
Any individual performance goals will probably need consider the opponents strength: Q1/Q2 games vs. cupcakes. Better players can run up stats against cupcakes. On the other side, the coach may play the role players heavily against cupcakes to try and learn who are players 6/7/8/9, and get them more experience. This team based strategy will lower the average minutes for the starters.
My work expertise is in technical team productivity (not sports). Individuals behave much better, and teams consistently do much better when the rewards are for team performance (results) and for those who most helped the team succeed; i.e. team oriented individual performance. People are very careful to not try and push individual gains at the cost of the team when they know it will impact their pay, everyone else's on the teams pay*, and everyone will know whose fault it was. If they do try, the pushback is often swift and socially harsh.
* Any English majors? Is it "... everyone elses on the teams pay", or "... every else's on the teams pay" or ... ?
It was fun while it lasted.
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