Garbage time triggers when your team is leading by at least 20 points at the start of the 4th quarter, and can also trigger on larger margins if a dead ball / substitution event occurs late in the 3Q. If the trigger occurs during the 3rd quarter, a log line will show in the viewer and play-by-play "It looks like that we're now in garbage time." If the trigger occurs at the start of the 4th quarter, no event is logged.
In either case, when the trigger occurs, the coach will attempt to pull every starter he can. If there are other non-starter players available on the depth chart for a position, he'll use those substitutes first (the same as the logic for determining who to sub in during the normal flow of the game). If there are no non-starter players available on the depth chart for a position, but there are non-starters active on the bench, the coach will randomly grab any available non-starter player. Generally if the coach starts substituting non-starters for a position, he'll change that position at basically every substitution opportunity (similar to how the substitution pattern happens if you leave a position fully blank on the lineup).
I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that garbage time changes the calculated effort (Take it Easy/Normal/Crunch Time) for your team -- but since generally your backups and reserves are less skilled than your starters, your team ratings will be lower because you had significantly more time with the less skilled players on the court than typical.
Last edited by Azariah at 2/10/2025 5:19:48 PM