I am going to give 2k the benefit of the doubt here, but it still something that I would like to be addressed in the OS writeup. As specified in my post, I did mention that the Rudy Gay clip is much more representative of a living world. I don't deny that. Were you pointing out the positives in the Rudy Gay that I explicitly mentioned as a counter to why AD's block didn't have a reactive crowd? You say the AD block on Howard cuts away early, but so does the clip seen with Rudy Gay. Immediately after Rudy blocked Kobe, the crowd reacts. But not in the AD clip. There is still enough footage time after AD throws down the block.
Rudy's teammate also immediately caught the ball after the block. So the crowd could simply be reacting to the turnover. I don't know. Anyone's guess. Only the developers would know, which is why I posed the question/concern.
I know you like to give a lot of potential reasons for why certain things look off in 2k's screenshots and likely gameplay footage when other would bring up concerns, which is still opinion based because you don't have direct first hand access and experience in creating said product. Or maybe you do, I don't know. We're all here simply excited and all we can do is form an opinion and hopefully either the developers would take notice or acknowledge to themselves that they've already addressed it.
Let me say this so we don't have a misunderstanding. I enjoy reading your responses. You are an asset to this community. Cheers ( even though I don't drink ).