Tips for Defense in Online Play?

[RockBanditPhil]

Hey guys,

Note: I am not a good on-ball defender yet. I am working on it but for now I am trying to find defensive settings that at least help me out a little as I get better.

I am trying to work on my online skills in NBA 2k21 (Xbox One). I feel okay with my offensive skills but my defense certainly needs work. I have watched several YouTube videos on defensive settings and over time I have gotten pretty in-depth with my pre-game settings. I have recently started setting on-ball and off-ball assignments for each player. However, I still struggle with defending the drive to the basket with beast guards. In my last game, ultimately won but the guy had 40+ with Damian Lillard just running up to the basket and either dunking, laying it in, or drawing fouls. I mean he had several dunks over a James Harden + Deandre Jordan double team! Is there a breakdown on defensive settings somewhere on this forum or elsewhere online? Several of the "top players" on the YouTube videos have highly conflicting approaches on defensive settings. Here are a few concerns I have found throughout my testing of defensive settings online:

Zone defense - I have been terrible when using zone if the opponent can shoot at all from 3. I'm pretty sure zone defense is terribly broken. I have ran both 2-3 zone and 3-2 zone with adjustments set to allow no threes and I have still have guys on the corners getting wide open for 3.

Help defense settings - YouTubers were conflicted when it comes to changing the help defense slider. Some said set it to 0, some said leave it 50, some said set it to 100. What is the best setting here? I tried 100 and it really messed my defenders up but I'm not sure otherwise.

Smother on-ball, tight off-ball - This is the preference of several YouTubers. It works for me sometime. I played Pelicans vs. 90s Bulls and stopped MJ driving to the basket with Eric Bledsoe using that setting but the opponent may have just been bad. The guy I mentioned using Damian Lillard just ran right by James Harden and dunked over my bigs.

Double team in the post - I think this is one of the biggest assists I have found but it still isn't perfect. I have been setting this to automatic.

[m29a]

Smother on-ball, tight off-ball in theory should be preferable against high threat shooters and the weakness to that strategy should be easier drives because the defender is giving up angles (and reaction time) due to always playing so close.

Against drivers, moderate pressure (or even sag to see if they can actually drain some jumpers first). That way you'll be shrinking the floor and clogging up the paint which should help. Of course there will be more open jumpers, but some players insist on driving all the time and aren't as good with jumpers (esp with online latency at times).

Know that there is no perfect defense that covers everything optimally. Some players oddly expect to never give up open shots, and yet also be able to bump along the perimeter to prevent drives and that simply isn't how basketball is played. Always a give and take.