just to comment on defense and the like..
defense to me is stellar, and very rewarding. you actually have to box out. you have to perfectly time your steals, and you have to time and have great position on your blocks. defense is a 10 in my eyes.
post offense is reflective of real life post offense, meaning the new breed of big man is not a back to the basket player. yet there is enough diversity in the post to still get the job done. the inside game is also stellar, with bigs dunking when they are supposed to, nice aggressive putbacks, easily scoring over smaller players, and on and on. every big man in the game legitimately scores down low, hustle players get their points on hustle and putbacks, etc.
the game is such a simulation it's almost ridiculous how on point it is.