So by this time of year I imagine most of you have settled into a slider set you roll with. Just curious where everyone ended up. Since slider performance is so interdependent with roster, play style, etc., it might also be interesting / informative to have that larger context. I'll start:
What I ended up rolling with: A modified Shady's.
Camera: Player Lock
Mode: MyLeague
Player/CPU: Player vs. CPU
Main team(s): Warriors, minus Wiggins, plus Embiid (mid-season 2020-21 trade sending Beal to Sixers, Embiid to Warriors, Wiggins + Wiseman + 2021 Top 5 protected Knicks 1st [which came from 2020 draft night trade-up so Knicks could get Lamelo] to Wizards)
Roster: My own custom roster, whose main gameplay-affecting differences from the default roster are (1) no badges, except personality badges and Quick Draw (for sig-shot reasons), and (2) RyanFitzmagic's tendencies, including streamlining all of the tendencies in his Position Scales (for instance, every PF has the same Contest Shot tendency), with the exception of Iso tendencies, which are unique to each player. Also I use the ATD coaching game plans, including adjusting Gap/Moderate/Tight/etc. for each player depending on their shooting abilities. In-game I set my team to Play Physical Defense and crash the O & D glass.
Play style / preferences: Overall I play to unwind after the wife and kid go to bed, and I usually get drunker as the game goes on, so I'm not actively trying to methodically master everything. I play pretty loose and prefer to just play hard and free without trying to manage fatigue (though I do realistic manual substitutions, with realistic Advanced Rotations for CPU). No right-stick dribble moves at all; I just play the angles and use screens.
Off of an opponent's made basket, I let the CPU call the play and make a good faith effort to execute it, usually shooting pretty early in the clock. The shot balance for me in these situations is something like 60% = catch & shoot; 30% = hitting a cutter/roller; 5% = posting up with Embiid; 5% = waltzing right to the basket (i.e., when the CPU brain-farts and rolls out the red carpet for me). In transition I just run and improvise. Pace ends up being very high (like 100-110 possessions per game). On defense I start off ball guarding one of the corners, but if my guy gets the ball, I usually stay on him. I also never try to steal, since I get too many reach-in fouls; I leave steals to my CPU teammates.
Results: The Warriors are good, so I usually win, but I always have close games with good teams, and I lose a decent amount of them. I might have a losing record to the Lakers. I never really get blown out though. The CPU's star player -- on good teams and bad -- almost always has a 30+ point game against me, but that's probably my fault for not adjusting (too paranoid that I'll leave role players open and they'll start killing me; would rather make the opposing star beat me all by himself).
Shooting %'s skew a little high for both sides. Nothing too crazy, I just see ~50% FG & ~40% 3PT a little more often than I should (maybe every 2 games or so). I've tried to dial the sliders back on a few occasions but even with the slightest nudge down, I and the CPU start bricking everything.
Good variety in shot distribution. None of the boneheaded, Leroy Jenkins-esque relentless driving into the paint. If anything, the way I get burned most often is by anticipating a drive and dropping back a little bit, only for the CPU to stop and pull up now that they have some space. CPU 3's run a little low in-game, 20-30 3PA, but not too bad.
Both me and the CPU usually end up with 9-13 turnovers; slightly low compared to real life, but high for 2k. We each get 3-4 illegal screens (good way to have turnovers without inflating steal numbers). My CPU teammates get steals for me and the CPU sometimes steps out of bounds. Most of my TOs are from over-ambitious passes in transition.
Rebounds are balanced.
Reasonable number of fouls, including at least 1 flagrant every 3-5 games (on my team usually Embiid or Draymond). In 30-40 games I've seen 2-3 ejections from getting multiple flagrants (Embiid once or twice, and for the CPU, Bledsoe one time). It feels like teams go into the bonus about as often they do in real life, and there is realistic variance from game to game, both in terms of myself and the CPU.
System: Nintendo Switch
