The "Shot Defense Strength" Sliders Explained

[Stefanpet90]

I'm a casual gamer, but I love NBA 2K and watching basketball in general. I was just wondering what I should set the defense Strength sliders to so it will make it easier for me to score, because this games defense is tougher than ever and I'm struggling to score even with my super Thunder squad which consists of Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook lol.

If anyone can help a new guy like me I appreciate it.

[Smirkin Dirk]

I set these at 50 or 60.

When maxed out, there is simply too much contact on lay ups.

[Mos1ted]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hot Kidd

I set these at 50 or 60. When maxed out, there is simply too much contact on lay ups.

You can combat this by lowering the contact sliders to zero. I personally play with the defensive strength sliders maxed out for the human and cpu and both contact sliders at zero for the human and the cpu. Even on Hall of Fame, I was still able to hold the Spurs to the 43% shooting with the Portland Trailblazers while I only shot 40%.

[chadeo23]

Can someone please confirm who's correct in this slider debate? Shady or eccentric?

[Swagger Jack]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shady Mike

Finished with my sliders, and after many hours I can confirm 100% that my original assessment was accurate. In terms of Real shooting % the only thing that effected the actual success of the shot was the Gather slider while the Release slider greatly effects the type of contests and the actual effort to get there: I ended up running with: Jump Shot Defense Strength (Gather) -10/5 Jump Shot Defense (Release) - 70/70 So now with a high release defense slider guys make every effort to contest shots, but with a low gather slider for guys with the Deadeye badge the defense will have virtually have no effect on them at all. Thanks for your help on the issue!

This...........

[EccentricMeat]

Massive update to the first post to reflect new information and test findings. Give it a read and let me know what you guys think!

[EccentricMeat]

I'm doing some more testing today. Right now I'm focusing on the Jump Shot Defense Strength (Gather) slider, and I've found that this slider greatly affects player interaction/animations as well as defensive decision making.

Player Interaction/Animations
With the (Gather) slider set higher, there are more animations triggered on the perimeter and during shots. Players react to defenders in both the way they move as well as the way they shoot. The higher this slider, the more of these "player interaction" animations. Therefore, with this set low, players do not react to each other very much on the perimeter (fewer bump animations, more gliding, etc.), and the game will often ignore the presence of a defender when choosing a shot animation (i.e. if a defender is right in the shooter's face contesting a shot, no animation will trigger to have the shooter react to the defender's presence). If this slider is set high, however, the shooter will change up his body positioning and shot animation if a defender is contesting his shot.

Defensive Decision Making
The higher the (Gather) slider is set, the more aggressive defenders will be (both on and off the ball) at sticking to their man on the perimeter. Shooters are played more closely and will often be blocked from moving freely (trying to get open) by their defender. Also, with this slider set high, the defense is LESS likely to collapse into the lane if the ball-handler attacks the basket, deciding instead to stick close to a perimeter shooter. If the slider is set low, perimeter defenders are MORE likely to collapse into the paint if the ball-handler attacks the basket, leaving a shooter open. This also has an affect on how the defense reacts to the pick-and-roll. With the (Gather) slider set low, the defense is more likely to ignore the pick player (if he is set to Fade) and will leave him open on the perimeter as they double team the ball-handler. With this slider set high, the defense reacts to the pick-and-roll much more intelligently and will only ignore the pick player if the ball-handler gets a free release. In simple terms, getting a wide-open shot off the pick-and-fade is more difficult/rare the higher the (Gather) slider is set.


So, in short, with the (Gather) slider set high, you will see more player interaction animations, a wider variety of jump-shot animations, the defense will "stay at home" on a perimeter shooter more often, there will be less defensive rotations (due to the defenders not rotating away from a shooter) and the pick-and-roll/fade is more intelligently defended. All of this on top of the affects I pointed out in the updated OP, the most important of which being that the CPU will be more likely to shoot in traffic/pull-up as well as more likely to take a contested jumpshot if the (Gather) slider is set low.

To save myself a lot of typing (and all of you a lot of reading), I will just state that the Layup Defense Strength (Takeoff) slider has the same affects, albeit on the interior of the defense rather than the perimeter. So a higher (Takeoff) slider means more player interaction animations down low, the game will trigger more animations showing the affects of nearby defenders on a shot/layup, the CPU will be less likely to force the ball into the paint, etc.

Now I'm testing to see the effects the (Gather) and (Release) sliders have on shots from the low/high post. It seemed as though with (Gather) set low I made more shots, but I'm still testing.

I will also post all of this information to the OP so that everything is in one place and people don't have to look around for answers.

[TheWood56]

Good stuff man. Very informative.

With all this in mind, where do you think these sliders should be set? I know you have your own slider thread... not sure if these findings have changed anything for you.