Kushmir Hassan checks in over the next few weeks with 40 fixes that'd put NBA 2K11 completely over the top when it comes to gameplay. Check out his list over the coming weeks and see if you agree with all of his fixes!

1. Deflecting Passes Out of Bounds

This mechanic is perhaps the single-most important gameplay fix that could be implemented in next year’s version of the game. Backdoor plays are too effective in NBA 2K and need to be reined in a great deal. While it would certainly be nice to see more off-ball contact and defenders impeding and bumping cutting players, there is another aspect that is even more important: players being more aware of the ball.

If the players were more aware of the ball, then tipped passes that go out of bounds would dramatically reduce the ease that players pass into the painted area without turning gameplay into a sloppy turnover-fest. The introduction of this gameplay aspect would drastically reduce full-court and post passes and would also force offenses to operate late in the shot clock.

Here are two examples in NBA 2K10:

http://community.2ksports.com/commun...mediaid=142131

http://community.2ksports.com/commun...mediaid=144251

2. Ball Denial

It is great that we can finally play more effective off-ball defense. However, it would be next level if this mechanic was more dynamic. If we saw more passes deflected out of bounds and steals when someone tried to force the ball into a player who was being tightly covered off-ball, that would add a lot to the battle within a battle. On the other side of the equation, players (and specifically high-awareness guys) could attack this type of defense by going backdoor, slapping away the defender’s hand or by quickly separating from a defender trying to mirror their movements. Officials should also sometimes call grabbing fouls when a player is playing aggressive ball-denial defense to balance everything out.

(As a quick note, ball-denial defense does not always work when an offensive player sets a pick and during some dead-ball situations -- both of these things should be corrected. Also, when our user-controlled denying defenders are rubbed off by a screen or when an offensive player separates from them, the beaten defenders stand there motionless. It would be nice to see them return to their assignment instead of waiting for manipulation from the user.)

3. Auto Defense

This would be the perfect complement to ball-denial defense. Instead of the high-risk, high-reward denying defense, the user could click the R3 button to make a defender simply try to stay in front of his man. On defense, auto defense should allow our spotlighted defenders to simply follow their assignments. Therefore, the focus would be on taking minimal risks and staying with the assigned man. Auto defense would also allow our user-controlled players to stay with their men when their assignments are off the screen.

4. Challenging the Shot

Being able to use the right stick to make a defender put his hands up on defense is nice, but it would be great if these situations were more dynamic and included many more animations. There are way too many instances where non-shot blockers get blocks or cause offensive players to miss shots by just attempting to swat the ball.

It would be better to see shot blockers separated from the rest of the pack. Players like Jason Kidd, Rip Hamilton and even Kobe Bryant are not shot blockers and should be riddled with fouls when they attempt blocks. Those types of players should instead use the challenge-shot option to try and disrupt shots. Instead of one hands-up animation, it would be nice to see a bevy of light contact and disruptive animations that make shots more difficult for an offensive player.

At the very least, the challenge-shot option should allow us to play semi-physical defense without fouling like we see here: http://community.2ksports.com/commun...ediaid=1292497

5. Shot Difficulty

Many users complained that jump shooting this year was too difficult. Presumably, people want to play an NBA game where players hit shots when they are open, so it would be preferable to see open shots go in at a higher rate next year. On the reverse side, contact shots probably went in at a rate that was a little high. While it is understandable that better players like Kobe, LeBron and Melo will convert some difficult shots, defenders should be rewarded more often for properly contesting attempts. In short, open shots should go in more frequently and contested shots should go in less frequently.

This double-clutch layup by Ray Allen over three defenders should go in maybe one time out of 20. http://community.2ksports.com/commun...ediaid=1198987

6. Shots Behind the Backboard

This is the NBA, right? Players shooting the ball on the wrong side of the backboard for turnovers? Jump shots into the side of the glass? If gamers never see these animations again, it will be too soon. After all, NBA players are much too skilled to forget what side of the glass the basket is on.

View a clip of the nonsense here: http://community.2ksports.com/commun...ediaid=1198840

7. Equipment

While not a core gameplay issue, users clamored endlessly about their players wearing the wrong-colored headband and other unavailable accessory combinations. While I think this type of "fix" comes after gameplay, I understand their gripe from an immersion point of view. Hopefully, users have the ability to change the colors of all accessories in the future -- in addition to a separate section for home and away accessories.

8. Full-Court Passes

These passes are too accurate. In addition to that, many times the defenders are in a position to deflect or steal the passes yet they swing and miss at them. When attempting these passes, how about a much higher percentage of turnovers combined with more wayward and bad passes out of bounds?

9. Fix My Player

While this was a very popular new mode, the bugs associated with it were disappointing and almost too much to handle. Here is to a bug- and glitch-free My Player mode next year.

10. Foul Trouble Settings

Who is tired of watching their elite players pick up silly fouls when they are already in foul trouble? It would be great to see a "foul trouble" setting in the defensive-matchup screen that would allow players to play passive defense, which would stop them from picking up easy fouls.