NBA 2K14 News Post

NBA 2K: Should Zone Defense Be Removed?

07:00 PM - April 29, 2014 by RaychelSnr

From the YMCA to the NCAA, zone defenses have become a go-to strategy for many amateur basketball teams.

But at the sport's highest level, the National Basketball Association, true zone defense remains as rare and successful as a Zach Randolph 3-point shot.

No current NBA team uses zone as its primary defense, and excluding outliers like the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and Toronto Raptors, who utilize zones in no more than 10 percent of their defensive possessions, few NBA squads show much interest in the scheme.

Read More - NBA 2K: Should Zone Defense Be Removed?

Game: NBA 2K14Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PC / PS3 / PS4 / Wii U / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 98 - View All

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# 1 Dr. Banner @ 04/29/14 07:15 PM

I never used zone, and won't! Feel like it's basically cheating in NBA 2k.

# 2 kevin young @ 04/29/14 07:19 PM

when is patch 5 coming with the shoe update??????

# 3 TalenT @ 04/29/14 07:58 PM

I would hate for them to remove something that can actually be used in a real game so I'm gonna say no. What SHOULD happen is they should fine tune it to where whatever zone you're playing has the same weaknesses as they do in real life.

# 4 VDusen04 @ 04/29/14 07:59 PM

I just posted about this issue in a separate thread so I'll deliver only the cliffnotes here. Since zone defenses, however rare, truly do exist in the NBA, I believe they have a place in NBA 2K. What I believe needs to be addressed, are the aspects of the game that allow zone defenses to be so effective and readily abused - defensive recovery speed, teammate logic, passing capabilities, specific offensive sets for countering a zone defense, and a host of other factors that'd allow teams to run zones, but also give users enough ammo with their own real life strategies and capabilities.

I think there's a laundry list of reasons zone defenses are so rare in the NBA in real life. It's just, a lot of those reasons do not hold true in NBA 2K.

# 5 XxSpiritHunterX @ 04/29/14 08:13 PM

Not at all. I agree with the usage of zone defense on multiple possessions, no more than a full quarter. I do believe that zones, especially 1-3-1, should be less effective.

1-3-1 Zone: players move too fast for the pace of the passing game
2-3 Zone: corner pieces lock on to wing players to easily
3-2 Zone: frontcourt can stop a corner-to-corner pass to easily and interceptions are too common behind the 3 line

Man-to-Man is the only true defense, but it needs to at least better than the zones. Just make all defenses have their strengths and weaknesses like they would in the NBA. Do I need to mention the 1-3-1 zone, the best zone in 2K, is the worse zone to use, even at college level?

# 6 Dr. Poe @ 04/29/14 08:33 PM

The computer runs zone too much. It's like it's scared to man up. They can have zone as an option, just reduce the frequency the computer uses it.

# 7 tril @ 04/29/14 10:13 PM

I like using zone defense when playing against another person.

Zone defense in the NBA2k series plays more like a college zone than an NBA zone, which is fine, cause zone defense is designed to mask a teams defensive weaknesses.
Its rare to play a human in 2k that can actually play great fundamental man to man defense (spamming the steal button does not count as good fundamental defense)

I dont mind that the close out speed is so quick when using zone. Its about making the extra pass. I personally believe the 2k devlopers just ripped the zone defense code out of CH2k8 and added it to the NBA series without making any adjustments to it.

# 8 BQ32 @ 04/30/14 02:41 AM

Can't believe there is a front page article finally calling out 2k on their basketball "sim" lol. Zone defense is a problem but only because of so many fundamental gameplay problems. The list is enormous so I will not bother listing but in summing them up, thhe game is made to look graphically realistic, pretty, and exciting at the cost of user control and authentic basketball. As a basketball buff and a competitive gamer this game and the series in general has been extremely frustrating due to its penchant for exploits and lack of gameplay authenticity especially seeing very high marks year after year which I believe is due to less basketball knowledgable fans being blinded by the pretty graphics and animation system.

# 9 bottledwaterfan25 @ 04/30/14 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BQ32


	Can't believe there is a front page article finally calling out 2k on their basketball "sim" lol. Zone defense is a problem but only because of so many fundamental gameplay problems. The list is enormous so I will not bother listing but in summing them up, thhe game is made to look graphically realistic, pretty, and exciting at the cost of user control and authentic basketball. As a basketball buff and a competitive gamer this game and the series in general has been extremely frustrating due to its penchant for exploits and lack of gameplay authenticity especially seeing very high marks year after year which I believe is due to less basketball knowledgable fans being blinded by the pretty graphics and animation system.

"As a basketball buff and a competitive gamer this game and the series in general has been extremely frustrating due to its penchant for exploits and lack of gameplay authenticity"

I couldn't agree more. It's beyond frustrating when you play basketball the way it's meant to be played, incorporating ball movement, picks, calling plays, setting up defenders with one move, then using counters the next time. Then at the same time, your opponent can hang with you in a game when all they do is turbo to the rim with someone like lebron, shoot awful shot selection 3 pointers, and throw up unrealistic alley oops in transition that would probably never be successful in real life.

# 10 Jazzin @ 04/30/14 05:23 AM

To be honest, I loose all respect for someone as soon as they run a zone. The reason many players run a zone is because how effective it is in all areas, and how easy it is to play off ball defense

Your AI team mates do not make the defense pay for running a zone. I cant tell you how many times someone has ran a 1-3-1, leaving a good three point shooter in the corner, just to have the shooter motion cut to the paint for no reason and cause a turn over. If a team decides to run a zone against you, your AI team mates should position themselves where the zone is weak AND STAY THERE.

# 11 Caius101 @ 04/30/14 05:39 AM

For the PC version of NBA 2k14, I loved the zone when playing MyCareer because it was basically the -only- way to teams like the Heat, who because of how default sliders (or even sim sliders), plus the high difficulty level could be reasonably contained at all. lol

I wish the AI suffered from the same pass mechanics as players do, because in those instances, Greg Oden would be throwing the ball around from the 3pt line like Steve Nash in his prime. Splitting hair passes that landed perfectly constantly. If -we- could do that? Zone defenses wouldn't be so overpowered. Much the same with out AI teammates actually exploiting the weaknesses for each zone, instead of constantly diving for the paint for no reasonable reason. It's like playing with 4 kids who have no clue in the world what they're doing.

# 12 jaateloauto @ 04/30/14 09:45 AM

Zone defense should not be removed. However they should bring back zone killer plays and put it in every team's repertoire. They had them before.

What makes zone too effective (besides lack of offensive plays) are some of the closeout animations and the fact that on 2K's own sliders late arrival of defenders affects the shooting percentages too much. On jumpshots they should put more emphasis on what the defense is on the gather than the release. Some of the passing animations are too slow as well which helps zone recover a bit too well.

In fact the best option to handle it is probably if they came up with freelance offense plays that react specifically to the opponent running a zone. Also you really shouldn't be able to change the defense more than once during a possession as switching to zone often breaks plays and organizing a switch during a possession should often lead to confusion about assignments rather than everyone immediately knowing what to do.

# 13 TerryP @ 04/30/14 09:52 AM

Why would we want something that is part of the game, granted a very small part, removed from the game?

# 14 tril @ 04/30/14 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bottledwaterfan25


	"As a basketball buff and a competitive gamer this game and the series in general has been extremely frustrating due to its penchant for exploits and lack of gameplay authenticity" I couldn't agree more. It's beyond frustrating when you play basketball the way it's meant to be played, incorporating ball movement, picks, calling plays, setting up defenders with one move, then using counters the next time. Then at the same time, your opponent can hang with you in a game when all they do is turbo to the rim with someone like lebron, shoot awful shot selection 3 pointers, and throw up unrealistic alley oops in transition that would probably never be successful in real life.

in answer to this. there was version of NBA2k where a user would be penalized, fatigue wise, for spamming the turbo button.
If I remember correctly folks complained about the over-effectiveness of this. I dont know if 2k toned this feature down or removed it all together.
as far s making unrealistic 3's, again 2k at one point made the shooting more difficult and realistic, folks complained, and again they listened, and made shooting a bit easier.

Other than that I completely disagree with the comment about lack of game-play authenticity. not making excuses for 2k, but as far as exploits, every game has exploits, and humans will always use those exploits to their advantage. . There has never been one game created without a user figuring exploits.

back to the topic-
Keep the zone in the game, its part of NBA basketball- it just needs to be tweaked to resemble an NBA zone and not a college zone

# 15 jaateloauto @ 04/30/14 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tril


	in answer to this. there was version of NBA2k where a user would be penalized, fatigue wise, for spamming the turbo button. If I remember correctly folks complained about the over-effectiveness of this. I dont know if 2k toned this feature down or removed it all together. as far s making unrealistic 3's, again 2k at one point made the shooting more difficult and realistic, folks complained, and again they listened, and made shooting a bit easier. Other than that I completely disagree with the comment about lack of game-play authenticity. not making excuses for 2k, but as far as exploits, every game has exploits, and humans will always use those exploits to their advantage. . There has never been one game created without a user figuring exploits. back to the topic- Keep the zone in the game, its part of NBA basketball- it just needs to be tweaked to resemble an NBA zone and not a college zone

I don't understand why 2K simply split online to two. One category would be called arcade/casual and it would be what the gameplay is now with turbo being king, bad passes never getting penalized and so on. Then the other category would be full on simulation as good as 2K can make it. Think 2K11 without spin dunks and eurosteps being op.

# 16 Gramps91 @ 04/30/14 12:29 PM

Why should they remove a feature unless they have to. It's clear people still use it, so I say keep it.

# 17 RipCityAndy @ 04/30/14 12:45 PM

Disclaimer - I didn't buy 2k14 this year. I was so fed up with 2k13 I decided to take a year off.

In 2k13 the 1-3-1 was killing me online. I found some great zone breaking plays that worked consistently. I had a go-to play for attacking each zone type that practically guaranteed an open shot or layup. I think the problem with zone defense is that most (not all) gamers don't take the time to find a good strategy for attacking a zone. It might be helpful if 2k put in some zone attacking tutorials or easy to identify zone attacking plays for the casual gamer.

I also agree with what a lot of you regarding fatigue. That has been an issue for a few years now. No excuse for not fixing it.

# 18 iki319 @ 04/30/14 01:02 PM

Dont know if im the only one who noticed but why are the all star jerseys sleeveless in the main photo?

# 19 RipCityAndy @ 04/30/14 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealHST


	As long as its legal in the REAL NBA, No it doesnt make sense to remove it. Because a bunch of causals fans cant beat a zone doesnt mean, hey lets remove it for them. The zone can be beat. Gamers are lazy as hell

YES!! The funny part is when you can consistently beat the other player's zone a lot of them are too lazy to switch out of the zone. Easy corner threes all game.

# 20 HowDareI @ 04/30/14 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealHST


	As long as its legal in the REAL NBA, No it doesnt make sense to remove it. Because a bunch of causals fans cant beat a zone doesnt mean, hey lets remove it for them. The zone can be beat. Gamers are lazy as hell

I'd say it's the complete opposite actually.

Casual gamers go online to find cheesy strategies to win: pick zone d, play offball. Turbo to the rim with posterizer, shoot 40 3's a game, etc.

Zones are still way too op. Zone is all about recovery speed and picking up the man in your zone, both of which are faster in this game then swinging the ball to an open man...which is how to break a zone.

If you can't break a zone by playing real basketball half the time, you're just cheesing back to beat the cheese. That's just as bad.

If they don't address how fast defenders are with their recovery's, than they need to take zone out of online at least.

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