How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

[zten11]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Part 2: Post up tendency

As many of you surely know the post up is a much less used play in the modern NBA than in the past due to its lack of efficiency. The Nets only use 0.4 post ups per game this season.

The post up has experienced a slow decline, until this year, where for the first time in history the average post-up for each team is less than 5.

The idea is simple: less post ups, more ball movement, more pace, more triples.

So we must try to reduce the post up tendencies of some players, which are exaggerated compared to how they behave in real life, especially this year.

We'll take the Bulls as an example, one of the least post up oriented teams in the whole league. These are their post up tendencies (big men in bold):

Arcidiacono Ryan (0)
Carter Jr. Wendell (55)
Dunn Kris (10)
Felicio Cristiano (35)
Gafford Daniel (5)
Harrison Shaquille (0)
Hutchison Chandler (0)
Kornet Luke (20)
LaVine Zach (10)
Markkanen Lauri (30)
Mokoka Adam (0)
Porter Jr. Otto (10)
Satoransky Tomas (0)
Strus Max (0)
Valentine Denzel (0)
White Coby (0)
Young Thaddeus (45)

Average post up tendency is 12.94 (but we have a lot of 0s), and the average bigs post up tendency is 31.67, too high for us standards.

First of all we need to find the stats from nba.com (here), in this case post ups and minutes played, in order to calculate the post up per minute (we can once again use the criteria "at least 200 minutes played"):

Once this value is obtained we can multiply it by 250 (same number as the dish to open man tendency), and round it by the number closest to 5.

As you can see Embiid will still maintain a high tendency, same as Davis or Aldridge, while players who use the post up less frequently will be decreased.

Let's see the results with our Bulls (bigs are marked in yellow):

So we've globally reduce the post up tnndecy, that was too high for a lot of players.

Felicio only used 2 post ups in almost 400 minutes this year, LaVine has only attempted 9 shots from the post in the whole season. Young and Carter Jr. are used more as pick and roll/pop bigs than post up players, same for Kornet that shoots a lot of threes but never post up.

It's an important edit that makes the game smoother and less static, many teams will benefit a lot from it, while others will only need a few small changes (for example the Hawks below).

See you next post!

The CPU posts up a ton against me. Every time a player gets in the paint near the basket, he does anything to find a way to get a shot off in traffic. It seems unavoidable...even with minimizing post tendencies as you detail here.

Is that right or have you figured out how to remove that problem once and for all?

[26Belhanda]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Are you gonna continue this thread? I'm quite interested in the formulas and findings you came up with

[Vedreanu]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

After watching a ton of CPU vs CPU matches and making zillion of tiny changes to rosters, I am pretty much convinced the biggest impact on the synchronisation of gameplay to modern NBA trend lies in

SET PLAYS!

Every player has its own plays. Most have nonmodern plays set as default and this is where most of the problems rise from.

Plays slider for each team actually has no impact on the amount of plays that are used throughout the match, but according to some, it impacts the time it takes for the team to "activate" the individual play.

You can easily check this by choosing any two teams, putting all plays on all priorities for all players to NONE, and then starting the game. You'll see only Freestyle actions being implemented, making the game mostly dull and static as hell.



Also, another VERY IMPORTANT parameter for making the game look modern is

TOUCHES tendency!

If you set most of players to have 3pt as primary play (and set "get shooters open" + "shoot at will" for POINTS OF EMPHASYS), but you set the star player (one with biggest TOUCHES tendency) to have his plays set as ISO, cutoff, MID, PNR, etc...

The whole structure for that team would look pretty off.


And this is where things get very tricky, actually.

Because, according to my observations - touches values arent absolute. Touches of 80 for one position doesnt have the same effect as touches of 80 for another position.

I am constantly seeing wing players getting mostly ignored eventhough having a "decent" touches value of 70-80***. Why? Because the PG , SG or PF start has his tuoches set higher, at 90 or 100.

On the other hand, if you set a point guard's touches to 99 or 100, others will have a rough time trying to get into the contact with the ball.

This is where things get murky and so far I have not found the golden cut values, but I strongly believe that nominal touches should be set somewhere in this ranges in order to have the same amount of contacts at these positions:


PG 70-80
SG 80-90
SF 90-100
PF 70-80
C 60-80



I know this is not "my" thread, but I can see many people interested in achieving a modern look of the NBA simulation game we have infront of us, so...


Any inputs, observations on this topic are more than welcome, I am still in the process of learning the way game behaves...



*** Duncan Robinson is a great example. In CelticLG's roster, he has his shooting tendencies up through the roof, but his TOUCHES are set only to 45 if I recall well. Maybe slightly less or more, but its somewhere in that area.

This makes Robinson shoot only a couple of balls throughout the game (sometimes even with ZERO 3ps), eventhough he's the best 3p shooter in the team and possibly in the league!

[JoFri]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Spoiler

After watching a ton of CPU vs CPU matches and making zillion of tiny changes to rosters, I am pretty much convinced the biggest impact on the synchronisation of gameplay to modern NBA trend lies in

SET PLAYS!

Every player has its own plays. Most have nonmodern plays set as default and this is where most of the problems rise from.

Plays slider for each team actually has no impact on the amount of plays that are used throughout the match, but according to some, it impacts the time it takes for the team to "activate" the individual play.

You can easily check this by choosing any two teams, putting all plays on all priorities for all players to NONE, and then starting the game. You'll see only Freestyle actions being implemented, making the game mostly dull and static as hell.



Also, another VERY IMPORTANT parameter for making the game look modern is

TOUCHES tendency!

If you set most of players to have 3pt as primary play (and set "get shooters open" + "shoot at will" for POINTS OF EMPHASYS), but you set the star player (one with biggest TOUCHES tendency) to have his plays set as ISO, cutoff, MID, PNR, etc...

The whole structure for that team would look pretty off.


And this is where things get very tricky, actually.

Because, according to my observations - touches values arent absolute. Touches of 80 for one position doesnt have the same effect as touches of 80 for another position.

I am constantly seeing wing players getting mostly ignored eventhough having a "decent" touches value of 70-80***. Why? Because the PG , SG or PF start has his tuoches set higher, at 90 or 100.

On the other hand, if you set a point guard's touches to 99 or 100, others will have a rough time trying to get into the contact with the ball.

This is where things get murky and so far I have not found the golden cut values, but I strongly believe that nominal touches should be set somewhere in this ranges in order to have the same amount of contacts at these positions:


PG 70-80
SG 80-90
SF 90-100
PF 70-80
C 60-80



I know this is not "my" thread, but I can see many people interested in achieving a modern look of the NBA simulation game we have infront of us, so...


Any inputs, observations on this topic are more than welcome, I am still in the process of learning the way game behaves...



*** Duncan Robinson is a great example. In CelticLG's roster, he has his shooting tendencies up through the roof, but his TOUCHES are set only to 45 if I recall well. Maybe slightly less or more, but its somewhere in that area.

This makes Robinson shoot only a couple of balls throughout the game (sometimes even with ZERO 3ps), eventhough he's the best 3p shooter in the team and possibly in the league!

Great sharing! Appreciate the inputs too from Rashidi as well as CelticsLG for creating this thread.

I felt that the play sliders play a huge role in determining how the team plays in the game. Most teams are running default freelance 3 out 2 in. So when the CPUs are done with the Series plays, the next will be the plays from the team playbook, then freelance. Playing a full 12-min quarter will allow us to see more variations out of the series and the team playbook. Like u said, keep seeing the 3 out 2 in actions by the CPU is deflating. So the question is, what no is ideal to make the CPU play more team playbook? If I play against the classic bulls, I’ll probably make it at 50 as I love to see more Triangle freelance actions rather than playbook actions. Spurs? 75 will be ideal. Czar has a lot of love for the Spurs

Touches tendency matters. I have a different approach from Vedreanu. I watched a ton of NBA games and check on their plays, and try to ‘correct’ them in 2K. The default team playbook is hopeless. Thats what makes this thread cool.
How the CPU approach the game depends on the POE setting. For instance, I can set Play Through Star for CPU Denver, and I have to decide to put which player first in the priority sequence - G. Harris, J. Murray or N. Jokic. At assign plays to player page, I will assign Post plays to Jokic, PNR Point to Murray and Handoff + PNR WIng to Harris. When I watch the game IRL, Denver plays alot through Jokic. But it doesnt mean all the plays in 2K is Jokic-centric. FIST 21 DELAY and GIVE 5OUT actions are some examples. If I want to see more such actions, touches tendency has to be set higher for the 3 players listed, around 75 to 90 range. GIVE 5OUT actions have a lot of plays running through the center. It makes sense to incorporate those plays in Denver’s playbook so that everytime the CPU runs a play for Harris for instance, I’ll see Jokic to be at the top of key and not Millsap. However, FIST 21 DELAY actions slightly differ. When both Millsap and Jokic are on the floor, sometimes u see Millsap, sometimes Jokic at the top of the key. Want to see lesser of Millsap, set his touch tendency lower. Here comes the question, what happens when the reserves are on the floor? I’m not sure how 2K engine determines a star player, but I’m pretty sure this combo does not have a star - Morris, Craig, Porter, Grant and Plumlee. A lot of ball movement and PNR plays were ran when Jokic is out. It makes sense to set 75 to 85 range for Plumlee as having it higher on the center allows the CPU to run a good mix of PNR plays for the point guard and shooting guard.

There comes the next question - how do I make the CPU substitution to follow IRL? Thats easy but it’s out of topic in this thread.

And I have one question. Suns D. Saric looks quiet IRL, less animated. However in 2K, after he shot a 3 or scored on and-1, he gets animated. How do I make him less animated? Can it be done?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[knicks2k]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

If your playing offline the 3-2 freelance option can easily be fixed.

Before the tip-off, swap controllers to the cpu side and go into the offensive settings. From there you can change the freelance options available to the cpu team.

I’ve found that these changes actually stick throughout a myleague if done while playing games in that mode. Set it once when you play a team and then every time thereafter they’ll run the ones you set up without having to change again.


I haven’t tried tested setting up the quick plays feature now that I think about it to see if it has any affect in actual plays called throughout the game. With the possibility to select who the play is ran for this may actually be worth looking into.

[vetmin]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

If your playing offline the 3-2 freelance option can easily be fixed.



Before the tip-off, swap controllers to the cpu side and go into the offensive settings. From there you can change the freelance options available to the cpu team.



I’ve found that these changes actually stick throughout a myleague if done while playing games in that mode. Set it once when you play a team and then every time thereafter they’ll run the ones you set up without having to change again.





I haven’t tried tested setting up the quick plays feature now that I think about it to see if it has any affect in actual plays called throughout the game. With the possibility to select who the play is ran for this may actually be worth looking into.

Im not 100% certain but I think quick plays (and their player assignments) are totally separate from cpu playcalling. I like to run plays like Punch 3 Hammer thru my center instead of my SF, but usually I leave offensive playcalling on auto and when the play comes up it goes thru my SF (even with the assigned center on the floor, IIRC). I also dont see my quick plays being called by the cpu any more frequently than other plays.

Re: freelances: do you know if anyone has made a list of which freelances are most realistic for each team or coach? Picking one or two isnt hard but I wonder if anyone has identified a realistic 4 freelances for every team/coach

[Vedreanu]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Seems to me Freelances are a much oversought part of the game.

To be honest, I dont I understand them well. Are they just another type of set plays, or is it just a general structure under which players behave according to their tendencies?


For last hour or two I've been trying to deconstruct the play/freestyle part of the game. Its been an experiment that was conducted this way:

(IMPORTANT NOTE: this was done in a CPU vs CPU mode)

1) I set plays for all players to NONE, except for BEN SIMMONS.
He got only one play assigned at "priority 1" slot. Other priorities got NONE.

2) I upped Simmon's TOUCHES to 100, and lowered it for all other four players to zero.

3) Turned off FATIGUE, put starting five players for Philly at 48 minutes to have a maximised sample.

4) Put POINT OF EMPHYSIS for Philly's attack to "Pick'n'Roll offense"

5) RUN PLAYS slider in COACH SETTINGS was at first set to 20

---

The point of all this was to Isolate that one only play that the whole team (actually only one player) got assigned. And through its occurence to study how do tendencies like DISH, LAYUP, FINNISH, actually impact that player's behavior.


I must admit my headache only got worse after some time.

I learned ****.

After all this adjustments, what happened? Simmons got his PLAY called once in maybe 6-10 actions (eliminating transitions and semi-transitions from the equation).


Ok, so I though i should invest some effort into FREELANCE SETTINGS.

So...

6) I changed all the freelances (4 of them) to suit modern basketball and the team. I believe the four chosen were:
- Philly Elbow
- Warriors
- Pace
- Pelicans


What bothered me here is I COULD SWEAR I saw a play executed from previous FREESTYLE OFFENCE settings!!! I think it was Richardson running around the screen and shooting catchup three at left-centre.

I am 99.99% sure I saw that "play" executed before, when different 4 freelance types have been set.


Also, I dont understand why the hell that one PNR play for Simmons was severely ignored, eventhough:

1) That was the only play assigned at the whole team level
2) RUN PLAYS have eventually been raised to 100
3) Simmons had his TOUCHES value set to 100 with other players at ZERO


So what the hell, can someone please explain?

[Vedreanu]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Also, another thing that makes my little head hurt is this part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWyBzkFTC-0

In this video you can see me going through:

1) Simmon's priorities in the first part of the video

2) Actual BS's assigned plays, shown at the right part of the screen
-----

You will certainly notice I had to scroll all the way to "P6 SLOT" to get to the first LOW POST UP PLAY!!

"Low post up" was set as third priority for Simmons, as you can see.

My questions here are:

a) What do all these P1, P2, P3... designations at the right part actually mean?
Priority1...2..3?
If yes, that doesnt make sense. According to that, Simmons would have his first almost 6 full priority slots filled only with PNR actions, which is not what was set at the left part of the screen!


b) What do priorites even mean? Do plays from higher priorities sets have higher probability of being called in game? Or plays are called STRICTLY sequentially according the order of priorities?

[Real2KInsider]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

You will certainly notice I had to scroll all the way to "P6 SLOT" to get to the first LOW POST UP PLAY!!

This is because you have two PNR plays assigned for him.

PNR Ball Handler is a conglomeration of P&R Point and P&R Wing. All you did is add the same plays twice by having both.

a) What do all these P1, P2, P3... designations at the right part actually mean?
Priority1...2..3?

You're getting ahead of yourself. "P" stands for "Page", as it would in any book. Note the D-Pad indicators.

Manually calling "Fist 14 Series 6" means going to Page 2 of the player's playbook and pressing UP. This is user interface and has nothing to do with how the CPU calculates a chosen play.

If yes, that doesnt make sense. According to that, Simmons would have his first almost 6 full priority slots filled only with PNR actions, which is not what was set at the left part of the screen!

When you set a playtype it is adding all the plays the team has of that type to the player's book. Priority is determining the order. You can Add/Remove plays from a team manually as you see fit, from the Playbook menu (the one before Assign Plays).

Sixers Playbook
34 Total
2 PNR Point
6 PNR Wing
8 PNR Roll
0 Iso Point
2 Iso Wing
0 Low Post
5 High Post
0 Guard Post
2 Cutter
6 Handoff
0 Midrange
3 Three

The lack of post plays here isn't necessarily "laziness" or "inaccuracy" on 2K's part, at least not at a surface level. DaCzar absolutely has someone scouting plays and sets for each team, so I don't doubt that this is an accurate assessment of what the team is doing. The issue rather, is that this information clearly does not get passed along to other departments. One hand doesn't know what the other is doing, and it creates a mess.

Default Playtypes
Joel Embiid: Low Post, Roll Man
Ben Simmons: PNR Ball, Guard Post, Handoff, Isolation
Tobias Harris: High Post, PNR Wing, Handoff, Guard Post
Al Horford: Roll Man, Low Post, High Post, Cutter
Mike Scott: Roll Man, Low Post
Furkan Korkmaz: Roll Man, Low Post
Kyle O'Quinn: Roll Man, Low Post
Glenn Robinson: P&R Wing, Handoff, Mid Range, Guard Post
Norvel Pelle: Guard Post, 3PT, Handoff, Isolation

Embiid doesn't have post plays assigned to him at default. He does, and yet, he DOESN'T. Joel ****ing Embiid. That's bonafide INSANE. It's a crystal-clear breakdown in their roster management.

It's one thing when we look at Glenn Robinson, who was traded from the Warriors. The Warriors have 7 Guard Post plays and 1 Mid-Range play. This serves to replicate how he felt less involved and lost w/ his new team.

Embiid and Simmons are NOT Glenn Robinson.
They've spent their ENTIRE CAREERS with the Sixers.
They've combined for 5 All-Star teams in the last 3 years.
Yet you can't even call Post plays for them using the default roster.

[Real2KInsider]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Also, to make matters even dumber, 2K's playbook list doesn't even add up correctly.

I manually counted the plays from each category. Their main team screen says 27 plays, yet I came to 34.

Here's what the Listed plays are

Sixers Playbook
27 Total (-7)
8 Pick & Roll
2 Isolation
5 High Post
2 Cutter
0 Low Post
0 Midrange
0 Guard Post
7 Handoff (+1)
3 Three

The Grand total doesn't include Roll Man. Apparently one of those Roll Man plays is miscategorized as "Handoff", accounting for the difference.

[jstidlly]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Hey guys. I like you alls input here and I got some nice results, very simple:

- increase every player dish to open man proportionately
- Lower all isolation tendencies by about half. I think this was huge in ball distro
- Adjust touches to bring them closer together
- make sure 3pt wingers have play discipline high

I used most recent roster. I have HOF sliders only adjusted for speed, blocking shots, and jump shot D. Keep ATB baseline 50, let the players individual tendencies for attack, pull up, or pass dictate.

Examples: 7 cpu vs CPU 3s for Middleton. Most on Ante and Bledsoe kick outs. Same for Annouby and Powell TOR.

[Vedreanu]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

This is because you have two PNR plays assigned for him.

PNR Ball Handler is a conglomeration of P&R Point and P&R Wing. All you did is add the same plays twice by having both.


You're getting ahead of yourself. "P" stands for "Page", as it would in any book. Note the D-Pad indicators.

Thanks for clarification, I really was convinced "P" standed for priority!
Maybe I should start play the game a bit (not only watching ) to get a grip around these things

When you set a playtype it is adding all the plays the team has of that type to the player's book. Priority is determining the order. You can Add/Remove plays from a team manually as you see fit, from the Playbook menu (the one before Assign Plays).

I knew about editing a Playbook. In one of previous posts I even described an experiment in which i removed ALL PLAYS from Sixers playbook except one.

The goal was to test under what conditions would that one play appear in gameplay and relation between its appearance to freelances.


I must say I still do dont understand the mechanics of underlying game structure to the full extent.

Currently it seems to me that FREELANCES are the core structure, and that each Freelance executes its own inbuilt plays!!

That would mean manually set plays in ROSTER EDITING area actually do not appear in the match itself (at least CPU vs CPU) no matter the priorities and whatnots.

This would make all the plays settings rather useless. Probably most users here could be pretty shocked by this "discovery".



Why and how have I come to this conclusion?
Well because of the experiment I was talking about:

=> I adjusted all the settings so the Simmons would get all the plays called for himself and get the maximum amount of touches. But only ONE PLAY was added in the whole Sixers playbook!

I put RUN PLAYS slider to 100 and still that onle single one play appeared very rarely or not at all?!?!


I think I should make a video about it to make things more clear, because its pretty complicated to write post about this stuff and also I have a feeling users of this forum have a tough time following my thoughts

[daveberg]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Most frustrating thing is the fact we can't select a teams' freelance plays when editing rosters outside of myleague. If I'm editing the roster in full, I should have FULL access to all players and team aspects.

Shouldn't have to pause them damn game everytime a match starts to change a teams freelance set ups - it's nonsense.

Incredibly difficult to also get classic teams to play in a specific manner in regards to mid range and post up play.

Even with sliders adjusted with post ups to the max, and some tendency tweaks, I still rarely see any stuff down low.

[Vedreanu]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Ok, I made the video. I was editing it for more than an hour to make it viewer friendly, then the program just crashed and, of course, everything was lost.

Instead of going through all that again, I uploaded the video:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fkzo-n1gs0E" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


And added detailed descriptions with TIME CODES underneath.


I will paste the descriptions here aswell, but I will put a spoiler around them, bcs of the lenght.

Please someone comment this. I'd like to here any explanation.

Spoiler

Take a close look at this experiment:

0:01 Simmons was set to 99 TOUCHES (in order to have his plays called all the time), 1 DISH (so he doesnt pass the ball at the start of possesion), 99 PLAY DISCYPLINE.
All other players got touches to 0 in order to maximise to theoretical probability of Simmons gettings his play called.

0:30 He got only one play assigned in Sixers' Playbook. That was also the only play in the playbook.

0:40 Play type: PNR; play name: '65 FIST 1 SIDE

0:44 All players that will be fielded got their plays removed. All priorities for all players in starting 5 (plus Robinson III) were set at "NONE". Except for Simmons, he got his only play assigned at priority1.

1:21 All starting players have 48 minutes assigned

1:49 "Fatigue:OFF, Foul out: off" in order to maximize play time and pertain the "experimental conditions".

2:36 Lets study the only play in the playbook: double screen for Simmons at the left side.
Positions 4 (Harris) and 5 (Embiid) involved in making screens.
Play DISCYPLINE is 100 for all except Simmons (99) so the play would not break when started.

3:29 RUN PLAYS slider lowered to 65 in order for play not to start immediately, but with delay. So we can observe what happens before.

4:34 We will add the play instead of "post up" to the portfolio. We will assign it to Simmons.
Freelances as default.

4:51 Series: Static (in order to observe the freelances more easily), Do not repeat (so each freelance/play could be played out in short time).
-------------------------------------------------------
MATCH START:
-------------------------------------------------------
5:11First possesion - Simmons with the ball, I think we had two plays inside this possesion. None was the assigned one (65 FIST 1 SIDE).

5:45 Second possesion - Simmons goes for early dish to the left side, eventhough he has DISH set at only 1?? Play ends soon with Embiids layup.

7:09 Third "normal" possesion - again the early dish to the left, few secs later Embiid pops to take the open 3. Not our play...

7:38 RUN PLAYS slider raised to 85 in order to eliminate most of the possible random distractions at the early phase of possesion/play.

7:50 We can see play activating almost immediately after Simmons stops at the perimeter. But that still is not our play. Why is he not calling the 65 FIST 1 SIDE play?

8:27 Simmons starts the play almost immediately, but again this is not what we were looking for! Play ends up with a nice open 3pointer from Robinson. Nice, but Robinson doesnt have any play assigned in Sixers Playbook :/

9:26 Richardson being the play initiator eventhough I've turned this off in his VITALS??

10:36 Simmons tries to pennetrate aside Kemba, he stopped and immediately dishes to ball to right. Wait? His "dish to open man tend" was set to 1, wasnt it? Let's check toegether: 0:01

11:16 Again Ben immediately sends the ball to the right. Ok, this is his EIGHT play, there are NINE plays in the in-game OFFENSIVE SETTTINGS menu, so maybe the next one will be the right one?? Remember, we have are series order set to STATIC... The next one should be it!!

11:36 Bloody hell. It looked good for a second, when Embiid went up to the perimeter to make a screen. But where was Harris? He should be making the first screen, before Joel, remember: 2:36
That's not our play, yet again!!

12:08 WTF?!! Again the early dish to right and run to the corner from Simons??? That was the 10th complete possesion, 65 FIST 1 SIDE just got ignored totally!!

14:24 Wait, I will push the CONTROLER to Sixers side, take control over the team to check wether the play is even in the quick-playbook... The hell, there it is 14:30!!!
Did you see it? I've chosen it with L1 button!
14:31 Holly molly, you can even see correct markings and play direction at the floor!!
THAT IS THE PLAY!!!

[Vedreanu]

Re: How to make players play like themselves - The ATD Guide

Most frustrating thing is the fact we can't select a teams' freelance plays when editing rosters outside of myleague. If I'm editing the roster in full, I should have FULL access to all players and team aspects.

Shouldn't have to pause them damn game everytime a match starts to change a teams freelance set ups - it's nonsense.

Incredibly difficult to also get classic teams to play in a specific manner in regards to mid range and post up play.

Even with sliders adjusted with post ups to the max, and some tendency tweaks, I still rarely see any stuff down low.

I agree.
Its also frustrating that defensive settings cannot be applied in CPU vs CPU matches, at least I didnt succeed!

And also that some TENDENCY SLIDERS are broken, it seems to me.
What are those:

- "attack the basket" is a strong candidate
- "look for post players" is another one, according to my observations

The most frustrating part might be the total entropy caused by all the bloody sliders and tendencies. I am pretty sure a bunch of those cancel each other out or make each other behave unpredictable even to developers.


Another big frustration is the hilariously low amount of non-shooting fouls.
I tried raising all the related tendencies and sliders to get somewhat realistic results there, no luck.

On the other hand - if you want to see half or 2/3 the realistic number of fouls in a match, that means 90% of them would be shooting fouls, which leads to players like EMBIID having foul trouble in almost every match played against any decent inside player.

I simmed 5-6 matches of Phila vs Milwaukee, in neither Embiid played his "programmed" minutes bcs of foul trouble.




I must be fair and also state that many sliders DO ACTUALLY WORK.
- 3p slider is a good example, lower it to zero and nobody will shoot the bloody ball behind the arc!
But it doesnt work the opposite way
Raising it to 100 is a precondition to get anywhere NEAR the realistic amount of threes shot in modern game.


So yeah, A LOT of work for DEVS if they want a better product next year.