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Different/Interesting Ways to Play Association Mode and Extend 2k13's Life

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Old 06-06-2013, 04:25 AM   #1
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Different/Interesting Ways to Play Association Mode and Extend 2k13's Life

Hey guys, I like many of you I assume, enjoy playing association mode and building/rebuilding teams more-so than any other mode in NBA 2k13. However, by this point in the year where the game has been out a while I often get burned out on playing the mode traditionally. By now I've already played multiple years with my favorite team, rebuilt young teams like the Cavs, Bobcats, Magic etc, and rebuilt aging teams like the Lakers or Mavs...I want to keep playing the game and building teams, but by now it has just gotten a little stale and repetitive.

So I have come up with a few alternative ways to play and challenge myself in the mode that I will share with you and you can feel free to suggest other unconventional ways to play as well so we can all keep enjoying the game until 2k14's release. I feel like this is one of the best ways to have fun and force yourself to do things differently than you normally would in association mode.

1. Expansion Team

My first idea was to create a brand new "expansion" team and build it from the ground up; literally starting with nothing. Obviously there is no way to add an extra team to association, but you can replace one by selecting league customization to "on" when you first start it up.

But before that, you can go into Options--> Manage Roster--->Create New Team to create your own unique new franchise. The options are fairly limited, but there are around 30 logos as well as any letter or number to choose from as well as changing the 3 main colors when creating the team logo and you can also edit the home and away jersey's to your liking. I decided to rid the league of the Sacramento Kings and create the Seattle Stars using a black/orange/white color scheme due to them actually almost moving to Seattle this off-season.

Now here is where your own preferences come into play, the next thing you do is to select your roster. The way I see it, there are a couple ways to go about doing this for an expansion team challenge:

1. Copy the Kings roster to the new team and take over that team as it is.

This is the most realistic, but also the most boring considering all that will change from doing a regular association is the uniforms/stadium/logo.

2. Set rules for yourself on what players could be taken from other teams in a real life expansion scenario.

For example maybe all players in the starting 5 and anyone over 75 OVR is off-limits, but anyone else is fair game to add to your team. Maximum 1 player to be taken from each team. I did not use this set of rules, but I think it could be fun for a medium type challenge as you won't have anyone high rated, but you can quickly gather young talent with potential in the first year.

3. Compose your team entirely of players in the Free Agent Pool.

First copy the roster of whatever team you took over to your new team and start the association. Next, flash fire sale! You must trade everybody on your roster away for as many draft picks as you can over the next 2 years get to start over from scratch. As you get rid of players, sign anybody in the FA Pool you wish to a 1 year contract to keep your roster above 12 until there are nothing but your free agents left. Anybody that can't be traded for a pick must be released. Your first year will be rough and you will be one of the worst teams in the league, but you will have multiple draft picks to help bring in a young core of talent over the next 2 years and start molding into a contender. You will also have tons of cap space to potentially lure somebody like CP3 or Dwight Howard to your franchise and get off the ground quickly. This is probably the second to hardest way to go, you will be terrible to start, but lots of draft picks and cap space will give you flexibility to turn it around quickly. This was the method I went with for my Seattle Stars.

4. Compose your team of only Free Agents (No trading method)

You start off with your old teams players, but have to release them all! Sign anyone in the Free Agent Pool to fill your team (not including the ones you released). Not only will your team be bad, but you will have just whatever CAP space is left over and only a 1st and 2nd round pick along with progression to get better each year. Also your opposing teams will be better since they can sign any of your former players if they have the money without losing any draft picks or players. This is the toughest challenge with the longest road ahead of you.

For my association, I used method #3 and replaced the Sacramento Kings with the Seattle Stars. Trading away Tyreke, Cousins, etc and starting over with these players in my first year:

PG - Delonte West / Sherron Collins
SG - Michael Redd / K. Azuibuike / Kyle Weaver / Darius Johnson-Odom
SF - Damion James/ Tyler Honeycutt
PF - Trey Thompson / JaJuan Johnson / Justin Harper
C - Hasaan Whiteside / Dexter Pittman

Naturally, after simming the first year my team ended up 3-11 and the worst record in the league. (14 game schedule is my preference with 3/3/3/7 playoffs, but that part is up to you). Luckily, I had accumulated 8 first round picks from trading away the Kings roster and had plenty of CAP space to turn it around the following year.

When I had the option to resign any of my players, about half of them decided to test Free Agency and I only offered a few contracts to the remaining half. Tyler Honeycutt, Darius Johnson-Odom, Trey Thompson, and Dexter Pittman all received contract offers.

Unfortunately, I did not get the number 1 pick in the draft lottery despite having the best chance at it, but luck was on my side in other ways as I had acquired picks 2,3,4,7,13,26,28,29 (LOL I know, but it's just for fun right?) I traded away picks 7,13, 26, 28, and 29 along with my 2nd rounders to get picks 5 and 6 so I would just have them all in a row after the first pick.

In the draft I selected:
Round 1, 2nd Pick - SF Shabezz Muhammed (78/A+ Pot)
Round 1, 3rd Pick - PF Nerlens Noel (77/B- Pot)
Round 1, 4th Pick - C Cody Zeller (78/B Pot)
Round 1, 5th Pick - PG Michael Carter-Williams (72/B- Pot)
Round 1, 6th Pick - PF Rudy Boert (74/C Pot)

All of the players I drafted turned out well in my opinion and I was excited about the future of the team; even if 5 of those players ended up being my starting line-up going into the year. But I did have Free Agency left and tons of CAP space to fill out the roster.

First I offered contracts to Brandon Jennings (87) and Chris Paul (94) thinking a great PG would be a solid start to a young team rather than going after Dwight Howard. Brandon Jennings accepted my deal, but he was a restricted free agent and the Bucks decided to match my generous offer.

Next I noticed that I also would need role players to fill out the roster so I went through and looked to see what was out there. To my delight, Victor Oladipo (Drafted 10th overall in the 2nd round) was not offered a contract by the Warriors after they took him in the second, so I quickly offered him a deal. Undrafted Free Agent Tim Hardaway Jr also caught my eye as a project player and I sent him an offer as well. I also found Brandon Wright, a 26 year old athletic Center that I thought could be a good back-up to Zeller and offered him a 4 year deal.

Luckily, Olidapo, Hardaway Jr, and Wright all accepted my offers rather quickly and my team was starting to take shape. Tyler Honeycutt, Darious Johnson-Odom, Dixter Pittman, and Trey Thompkins also decided my offer was the best they would get so they all decided to return to the team for it's 2nd year.

Happy with my team, but still lacking 1 true star, I decided to increase my offer to Chris Paul in hopes of bringing him in and making him the face of my franchise. A star role, 3 year contract with his option for a 4th, $18 million starting salary, gradually increasing to $20 million in the final year if he chose to stay, and of course, a no trade clause. The works, how could he turn it down?? Well, he couldn't, and CP3 took his talents to Seattle

And now going into the 2nd year my roster sits like this:

PG - Chris Paul (96, ^2) / Michael Carter Williams (74, ^2)
SG - Victor Oladipo (74, ^2) / Darius Johnson-Odom (71, ^2) / Tim Hardaway Jr (65, ^2)
SF - Shabazz Muhammad (80, ^2) / Tyler Honeycutt (68, ^1)
PF - Nerlens Noel (79, ^2) / Rudy Gobert (75, ^1) / Trey Thompkins (67, ^1)
C - Cody Zeller (80, ^2) / Brandon Wright (72) / Dexter Pittman (60, ^2)

I'm very happy with the progress I've made and am having tons of fun with the mode. I kind of got carried away with the details, but I hope to inspire other people to keep playing the game and try out new ways to make it interesting. I also did another association involving a fantasy draft and special rules so I will follow up this post with those details to keep this posts length down a bit.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and also be sure to post any other ideas for different ways to play association as well if you have any!
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Old 06-06-2013, 04:47 AM   #2
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Re: Different/Interesting Ways to Play Association Mode and Extend 2k13's Life

2. Fantasy Draft with Special Rules for the draft

For my 2nd unorthodox association, I decided to do a fantasy draft but follow special rules to follow throughout the draft and the following years. I considered doing these challenges:

1. Draft only players under or over a certain age.

See if you can bring a title to veterans by not drafting anybody under the age of 30, or alternatively, only drafted players age 23 or younger to see if you can develop into a contender despite lack of experience.

2. Draft players only from a certain college

See if you can make a dynasty full of nothing but former Michigan, Kentucky, or your favorite college's players. Or even try to draft only players that skipped college entirely and came straight out of high school!

3. Draft players only over or under a certain height

See if you can win by going small with your tallest player being 6 foot 7, or alternatively, see if you can by going tall with nobody under that height!

Ultimately I decided to do a franchise draft by taking players only age 23 or below and seeing how quickly I could become a contender. Each time one of my players would age a year, then players that age would also open up for use in following years.

I had a ton of fun with this and went through 4 years of both simming and playing some games. The first year my record was around .500 and I was swept in the first round of the playoffs. The 2nd year I have a much better record around 10-4 I think, but once again I was swept in the first round.

By the 3rd year my team had progressed a ton and was easily one of the best in the league. I once again cruised into the playoffs, but this time made it all the way to the NBA finals to face the combination of Russel Wilson and Dwight Howard. I managed to win the series in thrilling game 7 fashion for my first NBA title. After doing the off-season I simmed the entire 4th year and once again won the title over the Wizards for my 2nd in a row.

I don't remember my roster exactly throughout the years, but it changed very little and I can give the jist of it.

Years 1 and 2:
PG - Kemba Walker
SG - Klay Thompson
SF - Michael Beasley
PF - Blake Griffin
C - DeAndre Jordan
6th - Gordan Heyward

Year 3
PG - Kemba Walker
SG - Klay Thompson
SF - Michael Beasley
PF - Blake Griffin
C - Nerlens Noel
6th Gordan Heyward

Year 4
PG - Damion Lillard
SG - Klay Thompson
SF - Paul George
PF - Michael Beasley
C - Blake Griffin
6th - Nerlens Noel

I had fun with it, but feel like I accomplished my goal so I have stopped playing it and focused on the team in the 1st post, I may consider doing one of the other challenges listed when I get bored with that one. Let me know what you think
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Old 06-10-2013, 02:02 AM   #3
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Anybody else doing interesting things in association mode to keep things fresh?

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Old 06-10-2013, 03:26 AM   #4
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Re: Different/Interesting Ways to Play Association Mode and Extend 2k13's Life

sounds/looks like a lot of words telling us you like to trade overide and have every pick in the draft.
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Old 06-23-2013, 09:11 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by turty11
sounds/looks like a lot of words telling us you like to trade overide and have every pick in the draft.
Actually I didn't have trade override on; and I said it was different/interesting ways to play the game, not the most realistic... because we've all done that already after 8 months with the game.

That's the whole point, finding other ways to have fun with the game rather than doing the same old thing over and over. I guess some OS users just can't accept anything other than hardcore sim 24/7/365.

Excuse me for trying something outside the box to have some fun and sharing it with others who might want to do the same.
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Old 06-23-2013, 09:45 PM   #6
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Re: Different/Interesting Ways to Play Association Mode and Extend 2k13's Life

Or you can pick one association, stick with it and enjoy it. I don't get how you guys get tired and quit associations.
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Old 06-23-2013, 10:16 PM   #7
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Or you can pick one association, stick with it and enjoy it. I don't get how you guys get tired and quit associations.
For me I have the most fun building up teams, after 2/3 years I can usually have the team as either a championship contender or set personnel wise for the better part of the next decade.

At that point I just sort of lose interest. I don't enjoy playing as dominant teams for very long. That's just me though. If you can play one association for the whole year, more power to you, that's cool too.
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Old 06-23-2013, 10:36 PM   #8
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Re: Different/Interesting Ways to Play Association Mode and Extend 2k13's Life

I went through and added all of the players from the Legends teams that were 70+ overall to Free Agents, moved the entire Kings roster to the Seattle Sonics roster, moved the Bobcats roster to the Charlotte Hornets roster, and then did a fantasy draft so that it was a mix of the legends and the real players and had the Sonics and Charlotte Hornets in my association. I chose 4 teams (#1 pick, #10, #20, and #30 in the fantasy draft, with 2 from each conference).

For example, one team ended up with something along the lines of:
PG: Mark Price
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Dennis Rodman
C: Dikembe Mutombo

One team ended up with something along the lines of:
PG: Steve Nash
SG: Mitch Richmond
SF: Scottie Pippen
PF: Kevin McHale
C: Javale McGee

etc.

It's been refreshing to play with some of the legends, and I shrunk the season down to 29 games so that I can play the majority of the games while not feeling like it's taking me forever to get through a season.

At the same time, I also run an association where I control all 30 teams, and I just downloaded one of the rosters that somebody on this forum put a lot of work into, use vtcrb and CWSapp's draft classes, and added the custom arena sounds that someone else here had put together. The custom arena sounds and new player tendencies and stuff from the roster I'm using have really refreshed things for me a bit.
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