NBA 2K17 Defensive Settings Community Wiki

[itchyroll_51]

Seriously 2K17's defensive settings is the most robust thing ever. The downside is that there is very little information around as to what each settings does. So in this version of our OS community "WIKI", we will focus on showcasing/explaining all that is to do with defensive settings.

*Shoutout to DC for his Freelance WIKI ! I am kinda obsessed with defensive settings so i will take up the challenge to take care of this settings WIKI for OS. Let's help each other out ^_^

AI Off ball defense issues on off ball screens (how to fix and adjust):



How Help Rules Work (from AlabamaRob):



How to create proper help defense for competitive games:



Tag the Roller (by Smirkin Dirk):



Screen Help Rules, Help Rules, and Pre-Rotate:





*Pre-Rotate example by ClintHC. He is correct that if we put pre-rotate to YES on player X and when player X is isolated to one side of the floor, an extra help defender would come over to help. The issue is that 2K CPU has this HELP way too aggressive. What we need is for that help defender to come to the nail an STOP, not fully committed to a double. Sometimes they do it right and sometimes they don't, so it can be frustrating

Pick and Roll defensive settings:



Extend pressure setting:



Help Rules (for isolation defense):



Soft hedge vs hard hedge:



*Notes by ClintHC:

Breakdown from OG's stream

Defensive Team Packages

• Junk: Show 2-3 or 3-2 Zone initially (dependent on team), and switch to man after the first pass.
• Shrink The Floor: Off-Ball will gap, Go Under and Hard Hedge on screens
• Straight Up: Moderate On-Ball and Off-Ball across the board, Help will still come
• Stay Home: No Help
• Focus on Stars: High pressure on stars and doubling
• Switch Everything: Switch all screens

Defensive "Focus On" Packages

• Boxes and Elbows: A man to man concept (can look like a zone when ran) where the player it is selected for will have his man guarding him and the other 4 defenders on the two elbows and just outside the paint on either side of the rim. You are giving up shots to get the ball out of the selected player's hands.
• Give it Up: Smothering on Ball, Go Over on screens, Double on Ball Screens, Double on drive, No Double on catch

The Defensive Settings (in the Gameplan menu) will override everything else!

Tag on Roll
Used for heavy rim runners (Deandre, young Dwight). He explained that this is used on wing pick and rolls in combination with Icing the pick and roll. The tag man (weak side wing defender in his example) comes from the weak side onto the nail to impede the path of the roller. You are giving up a skip pass from the tag man's original assignment to stop the roll man.

Catch Hedge
This option is based off of the NBA concept called "Weak Up Top". The hedge man is responsible for preventing a straight line drive from the ball handler, while also being responsible for not letting the roll man get behind him. Help defense will not come when this is selected.

Suggests staying away from hard hedge if at all possible. It was made more extreme this year.

Help Settings
The Screen Help setting pertains to pick and rolls, while the Help Rules setting pertains to drives.

"Help and No Rotation" means the help the helper concept is not there.
"Auto" can be thought of as "Help and Rotation". Help the helper concept is there.
"No Help" means no help will come on the roll man.


Pre-rotate is confirmed to do what we have in the OP right now (bring an extra defender over when there is an iso on the wing). No news on if we can select the help man with the settings in any way.

[LorenzoDC]

This is great, Sam. I've loved your approach to tutorials this year.

I will use this slot for OG's stream with notes for it if he does a stream, as Czar said he might.

[Sports fanantic]

Good Stuff. Can't go wrong in improving on Defense by learning and practicing

[itchyroll_51]

Quote: Originally Posted by LorenzoDC

This is great, Sam. I've loved your approach to tutorials this year. I will use this slot for OG's stream with notes for it if he does a stream, as Czar said he might.

No lie I am waiting on that OG stream like a new season of Game of Thrones lol I can't wait to hear OG explain this stuff, that knowledge gonna be GOLD. Yes i will add your notes to the OP for sure.

Thank you for the kind words but yes defense can be so tailored this year is crazy. Previously i was never able to do defensive tutorials like this, but now i can make a vid on just one settting. This stuff works and is super detailed. 2K is on the right track on these is just about explaining it and letting the CPU utilize it correctly.

[jeebs9]

Hahaha My terrible defense made the video lol

[itchyroll_51]

Quote: Originally Posted by jeebs9

Hahaha My terrible defense made the video lol

Input lag got you on a few of those, ain't all you lol The spin camera one maybe, but god that's a rough one on 2K's end (spinning camera is relative to direction change.... who can adjust to that ? That's why i just switch to C and run my butt back lol). Only the bravest of souls will try to on ball that during the spin, i command you for your courage.

[clinthc0003]

I think I was able to find out what the Prerotate setting does.

I know in Sam's video about help defensive settings, he says you should put it on the opposing center who you want to rotate off of but I don't think that this is what it does. I think you are having success with these settings because of the Help defense setting being set to Auto for the opposing big. (No offense Sam, I'm a big fan)

I've done some testing and what I think it does is causes an extra defender to come help when the opponent player with Prerotate set to Yes is isolated on one side of the floor.

I posted this in the other thread about Help defense being broken, but I think this is a more appropriate thread for it:

Quote: Originally Posted by clinthc0003

I was just doing some labbing for the Prerotate setting and I think I was able to figure out where alot of the seemingly random motion comes from. The Prerotate option brings an extra defender "to the nail". This can happen even in just a simple isolation play. In the example video (sorry for the poor quality) I set my help options to No Help for all players. I set Prerotate to No for all players except Lebron. For Lebron I set Prerotate to Yes. When the game starts, I switch over to the Cavs so I can study the defensive settings. There are four offensive possesions for me in the video: 1a. I iso LeBron on the right wing. Zaza comes behind KD since Prerotate is set to Yes for LeBron. 1b. I iso LeBron on the right wing again. This time, Draymond comes to help since he is closer to the action. 2. I iso LeBron on the left wing. Zaza comes behind KD again and Curry rotates down to cover Zaza's man. 3. I iso Kyrie on the left wing and no additional help comes since Preroate is set to No. 4. I iso Lebron again on the right wing and Zaza comes over once again. Sam seems to think in his setting sets that the Prerotate setting helps determine who will come to help, but I think this is really what it does. You aren't seeing any breakdowns with Prerotate to Yes on the center since the center is never isolated on the outside.

You guys test this out and let me know if you are seeing the same thing.

Let's hope we're still getting that ScottOG stream sometime this week!

[clinthc0003]

I found out that you have access to the defensive settings in the Practice Plays version of the practice mode under 2KU. Though it's not an ideal place to test the settings out since the plays end so quickly, it's something. I really wish we had access to this in the Scrimmage mode so we could really dig deep into how the settings function.