2k17 Player review thread

[GrimaceZ7]

It probably would have been a good idea to post this earlier in the season, but I thought this would be a good thread to have. I'd be really interested to see everyone's reviews.

Diamond Alex English - I didn't think I was going to lock in this collection, but it was dirt cheap and so I figured I might as well. Honestly, when I saw his defense, I never gave him a second thought and never really even looked at his atts.

He's actually pretty damned good. He's got a very quick, easy release. I can see why they said it was a Melo clone and that his nickname in the game is Melo. It's not the same release, but very similar. He has the same post animations as well, so if you know Melo's post fade, this one is money. I find the most effective fade animation the fake with the outside shoulder and then fade to the inside. So if you're to the right of the paint, fake right and then pull the right stick down and to the left and he'll fade toward the right elbow. The release window on that one is nice and early and it's hard to block.

His athleticism is very impressive. He's very fast (92 speed 95 acceleration 88 speed with ball) for a 6'7" 190lb guy with 88 strength. And that 91 ball control has him handling like a point guard with good quick dribble animations.

He's a very good dunker with very good dunk tendencies. His midrange game is insane. Mediocre rebounder, mediocre defender though his contest tendency and att are good enough that he'll close out on guys if you're off-ball when the shot goes up. He's got a 50 crash tendency - I haven't used him enough to notice that in game yet.

He's not going to make my lineup, but he's fun to play around with. And if you're the kind of psychopath that enjoys Blacktop, he's perfect for it.

[jschmib]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

It probably would have been a good idea to post this earlier in the season, but I thought this would be a good thread to have. I'd be really interested to see everyone's reviews.

Diamond Alex English - I didn't think I was going to lock in this collection, but it was dirt cheap and so I figured I might as well. Honestly, when I saw his defense, I never gave him a second thought and never really even looked at his atts.

He's actually pretty damned good. He's got a very quick, easy release. I can see why they said it was a Melo clone and that his nickname in the game is Melo. It's not the same release, but very similar. He has the same post animations as well, so if you know Melo's post fade, this one is money. I find the most effective fade animation the fake with the outside shoulder and then fade to the inside. So if you're to the right of the paint, fake right and then pull the right stick down and to the left and he'll fade toward the right elbow. The release window on that one is nice and early and it's hard to block.

His athleticism is very impressive. He's very fast (92 speed 95 acceleration 88 speed with ball) for a 6'7" 190lb guy with 88 strength. And that 91 ball control has him handling like a point guard with good quick dribble animations.

He's a very good dunker with very good dunk tendencies. His midrange game is insane. Mediocre rebounder, mediocre defender though his contest tendency and att are good enough that he'll close out on guys if you're off-ball when the shot goes up. He's got a 50 crash tendency - I haven't used him enough to notice that in game yet.

He's not going to make my lineup, but he's fun to play around with. And if you're the kind of psychopath that enjoys Blacktop, he's perfect for it.

I am that psychopath. I love running players like sapphire Marjanovic and bullying the living hell out of people because 90% of the time, they don't have anyone who can defend my 293lb serbian beast. Blacktop is less stressful for me if I need a break from intense full games. Plus it's honestly the best way to farm MT if you always win. Half my reward picks are those 175, 500 or even 1,000 MT cards. Gold shoes pop up pretty often as well.

If he really is dirt cheap I might pick up this English. I've noticed that players with high speed and acceleration are easy to play on-ball defense with, even if their ratings are sub-par.

He might be worth playing at SG.

[GrimaceZ7]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

I am that psychopath. I love running players like sapphire Marjanovic and bullying the living hell out of people because 90% of the time, they don't have anyone who can defend my 293lb serbian beast. Blacktop is less stressful for me if I need a break from intense full games. Plus it's honestly the best way to farm MT if you always win. Half my reward picks are those 175, 500 or even 1,000 MT cards. Gold shoes pop up pretty often as well.

If he really is dirt cheap I might pick up this English. I've noticed that players with high speed and acceleration are easy to play on-ball defense with, even if their ratings are sub-par.

He might be worth playing at SG.

Has the new patch changed Blacktop? When I used to play, I would dominate the post and then they would shoot threes and I would have to shoot threes to try to keep up. Then I'd lose. If jumpers and threes are unreliable now and the post game is more important, I might enjoy beating up on some fools.

[harryl]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Even if conversion rate is realistic for twos, the basic math requires you to convert ones at twice the rate, so Ones and Twos will always favor twos in Blacktop.

But if you're really good at clamping down on outside looks and oppomemt isn't incredible at timing, then maybe living in the paint is viable.

[jschmib]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Even if conversion rate is realistic for twos, the basic math requires you to convert ones at twice the rate, so Ones and Twos will always favor twos in Blacktop.

But if you're really good at clamping down on outside looks and oppomemt isn't incredible at timing, then maybe living in the paint is viable.

Unless your opponent gets lucky and pulls a team that can all shoot lights out, it's very viable. I win 90% of my games when I play off-ball defense on their weakest shooter and just camp in the paint (no defensive 3 second violation!), then on offense post the living **** out of them with Nurkic or Marjanovic (no offensive 3 second violations either muahahaha). Either drop-step or post-spin. It must be absolutely humiliating to get destroyed by someone who looks like a cave troll lmao.

You do have to keep an eye out for that ****ty automatic help defense that leaves people wide open for three's, but honestly it's not that hard. Defending 3 people is a lot easier for me than defending 5.

Slashers are also incredible in blacktop. Players like David Thompson, Reggie Lewis, Amy Kobe, Eddie Jones, Paul Pierce with a SWB shoe are all basically guaranteed wins if you play them right.

Another thing that's IMMENSELY fun in blacktop (and honestly in full games) is doing "katana" lobs. I will be eternally grateful to Sam Pham for showing me how to do this with very clear instructions here: https://youtu.be/lmMSf_2zlek?t=4m57s. I've never seen anyone talk about them on these forums, but if you find yourself getting bored of blacktop I guarantee this will start to make it fun. I've had games where literally 15/15 points were from lobs. It's honestly ridiculous how well it works once you get it down. I sometimes even forego calling the screen and just pass to one of my guys down low, let him hold the ball, and then toss it up whenever the player I'm controlling gets near the basket. It leads to incredibly exciting and cheesy moments like this: https://youtu.be/PZDWIAhyF3g?t=13s

Nothing is more satisfying and erection-producing than ending a game with a lob. And if you have any players with HOF Lob City Finisher, the cheese is multiplied by a factor of 69. Lobs like this are commonplace for my Stoudamire, Kenyon Martin and Deandre in blacktop: https://youtu.be/hVpiUAuaCSk

This one made me laugh out loud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUvfBNcwFBs

Also, I honestly have no idea if the 3pt patch has affected blacktop. I've been playing blacktop since this game came out and I haven't noticed much of a change, but I could be wrong.

[harryl]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Another thing that's IMMENSELY fun in blacktop (and honestly in full games) is doing "katana" lobs. I will be eternally grateful to Sam Pham for showing me how to do this with very clear instructions here: https://youtu.be/lmMSf_2zlek?t=4m57s. I've never seen anyone talk about them on these forums, but if you find yourself getting bored of blacktop I guarantee this will start to make it fun. I've had games where literally 15/15 points were from lobs. It's honestly ridiculous how well it works once you get it down. I sometimes even forego calling the screen and just pass to one of my guys down low, let him hold the ball, and then toss it up whenever the player I'm controlling gets near the basket. It leads to incredibly exciting and cheesy moments like this: https://youtu.be/PZDWIAhyF3g?t=13s

Yeah, lobs in general, in Blacktop, seem to be OP if you know how to generate the opportunities and execute them well. I think it's Spaceward Bird who is constantly just Lob City all the time in Blacktop.

One quibble: can we all agree to not play along with this "Katana" nonsense? It's a "Give and Go."

And the Give & Go lob is a nice weapon...I, unfortunately, find it really hard to do well, because it requires a different grip on the controller than I normally use, in order to hold down Pass and then double-tap Lob.

[GrimaceZ7]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

One quibble: can we all agree to not play along with this "Katana" nonsense? It's a "Give and Go."

I think we just became best friends.

And the Give & Go lob is a nice weapon...I, unfortunately, find it really hard to do well, because it requires a different grip on the controller than I normally use, in order to hold down Pass and then double-tap Lob.

SCUF should send you a commission check, because you just sold me on buying a SCUF controller.

[GrimaceZ7]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

I think people are sleeping on this Mark Aguirre card. I re-bought him on my main account about a week ago and started using him with my Ruby squad as someone to run my offense through for a challenge. He's so automatic that I now use him as my sole non-Ruby in MTO (and my team is still a 98 overall).

I put a silver speed/accel shoe on him and it made a huge difference. Now he's actually kind of explosive. Nobody has been able to stop his post game. With his animations and atts, it's seriously like having a post up center at the 3. He's a strong dunker, gobbles up rebounds (oddly enough), and his defense is better than his atts would suggest.

I'm averaging 21 points per game with him, along with 1.4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.2 steals.

He's a poor man's Worthy, and the perfect backup to Worthy if you like your backups and starters to play the same style like I do.

[isdatyt]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Ruby Jabari Parker: This card is the perfect small ball 4. My other ruby guy was Chriss but this Parker is amazing. He can do everything Chriss can do, except due to height, he's not as good at blocks and rebounding. However he's a better free throw shooter and his BC goes up to an 87 with a +9 shoe. I made a thread similar to this but specifically for cards I ran in BT and my number 1 was Ben Simmons and JP has a lot of the same qualities but better in everything. I know due to his height, temptation might be there to run him at the 3, but his lateral quickness is 72 and I think it's better to take advantage of his speed at the 4 rather than his size at the 3.

[anditbeg1ns]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

I think we just became best friends.



SCUF should send you a commission check, because you just sold me on buying a SCUF controller.

Pretty sure PC and PS4 has the same controls as Xbox. You don't need to do pass then double tap to lob. Simply hold X, move your cutting player, and press square when you're ready to lob, you could execute the whole play without lifting your finger from the X button. It's a pretty simple play I run routinely to catch people by surprise. I find it strange that no one else has used this against me in hundreds of online games yet.

[GrimaceZ7]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Pretty sure PC and PS4 has the same controls as Xbox. You don't need to do pass then double tap to lob. Simply hold X, move your cutting player, and press square when you're ready to lob, you could execute the whole play without lifting your finger from the X button. It's a pretty simple play I run routinely to catch people by surprise. I find it strange that no one else has used this against me in hundreds of online games yet.

The worst part about that is that I won't get home from work to try that out for another 4 hours.

[harryl]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

SCUF should send you a commission check, because you just sold me on buying a SCUF controller.

For the programmability of the undercarriage lever buttons? I didn't know about these, but took a look...brought back to mind that I thought about getting an XBox Elite controller (for PC, though if I play 2K18, it'll be on a console).

I think, for some things, if you can figure out two or three optimal actions to program to those switches, that could be a big deal.

I hold the controller with my index and middle fingers on the two shoulder buttons (on XBox, it's actually more like top is button, bottom is trigger). I've found two input issues with this that come to mind right now:

Running a Give-and-Go Alley-Oop: To do the give and go part, one has to press Pass and hold it down, but then double-tap Lob for the Alley-Oop lob back to the cutter one is controlling. Both buttons, in my grip, can only really be accessed by the thumb. From my grip, only possible if I contort my right index finger off the top shoulder button and use that for double-tapping Lob. I think the only reliable way to do this is to switch to grip with index and middle finger on top, which would require contorting ring finger to be able to use Turbo. I don't get how people could do it reliably, either way. But if one has bottom lever that is also Lob, with ring finger in natural position, then it could be easy.

Posting up with 1-4, and trying to call an action/play for the 5: To specify that you want to call an action/play for the 5, you need to hit L2, but you use that to post up. So, with normal controller, you need to very briefly let go of post-up to call something for the 5, which can leave one susceptible to a face-up steal swipe, but is at the least awkward.

There's other stuff too. One could maybe program Flashy Pass to a button so that it's a single button press, instead of a double-tap.

I think it'd be very interesting if one could program Shot Contest off of the Right Stick and to a button. It always feels slow to me, and I have always suspected the analog nature of Right Stick leads to a slight delay in actuation of Shot Contest, because the system needs to differentiate between incremental input and the absolute full input.

I think people are sleeping on this Mark Aguirre card. I re-bought him on my main account about a week ago and started using him with my Ruby squad as someone to run my offense through for a challenge. He's so automatic that I now use him as my sole non-Ruby in MTO (and my team is still a 98 overall).

I totally believe he's effective, and primarily to bully other guys at the 3. I think he was definitely worth it for non-god-squads, but it's hard to rationalize him for really high-end lineups. Ones well short of what you have as your A Team.

My main issue with him was Speed and Defense. I think Speed is fine, as you say, with a Shoe boost. But then that leaves his fairly poor defense, compared to elite cards.

Overall, I just couldn't rationalize him over running Pierce in his place, not to mention other options.

But I've always wanted to pick one up, really cheap, just to mess around with.

[harryl]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Pretty sure PC and PS4 has the same controls as Xbox. You don't need to do pass then double tap to lob. Simply hold X, move your cutting player, and press square when you're ready to lob, you could execute the whole play without lifting your finger from the X button. It's a pretty simple play I run routinely to catch people by surprise. I find it strange that no one else has used this against me in hundreds of online games yet.

Square on PS4 is "Shoot"? If so, then that's same position for XBox/PC and allows one to hold down Pass with middle/bottom of thumb and leave tip to tap Shoot.

Will try this out tonight, thanks!

[GrimaceZ7]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Posting up with 1-4, and trying to call an action/play for the 5: To specify that you want to call an action/play for the 5, you need to hit L2, but you use that to post up. So, with normal controller, you need to very briefly let go of post-up to call something for the 5, which can leave one susceptible to a face-up steal swipe, but is at the least awkward.

Isn't it R1 to call an action/play? R2 is turbo. At least on PS4 it is. I know I have my PG turn sideways to protect the ball by holding L2 while I call actions with R1 and whatever button.

I totally believe he's effective, and primarily to bully other guys at the 3. I think he was definitely worth it for non-god-squads, but it's hard to rationalize him for really high-end lineups. Ones well short of what you have as your A Team.

My main issue with him was Speed and Defense. I think Speed is fine, as you say, with a Shoe boost. But then that leaves his fairly poor defense, compared to elite cards.

Overall, I just couldn't rationalize him over running Pierce in his place, not to mention other options.

But I've always wanted to pick one up, really cheap, just to mess around with.

I think defense is so broken in these games that mid-80s defense and mid-90s isn't that big a deal. Especially if I really enjoy using the player. I'd love for him to be high 90s in defense, obviously, but it is what it is. His animations are so good and so easy that I find myself drawn to him over Diamond Melo and Pierce. I love Melo, but because the jab step is broken in 2k17 in two major ways, rendering it ineffective, that eliminates a key part of Melo's game. His defense seems worse than the atts would indicate.

And there's also something to be said for taking a dump all over someone with Aguirre. Everyone thinks the card is trash. I don't think they even look at his post game, and certainly don't understand the value of his hook. Hooks are so OP in this game.

Also, the Throwback Rewind packs made Ralph Sampson affordable, which was really nice. Like Aguirre, his hook animation is super super easy, and his shimmy hook is very effective if people start seeing the hook coming. And now it looks like he's got a Duo with Ruby Hakeem, who is almost a passable 4.

[harryl]

Re: 2k17 Player review thread

Isn't it R1 to call an action/play? R2 is turbo. At least on PS4 it is. I know I have my PG turn sideways to protect the ball by holding L2 while I call actions with R1 and whatever button.

By default, at least on XBox/PC, R1 is to bring up Icon Passing.

L1 is to Call Plays and what I mean is that, when posted up, one is holding down L2, but if one wants to call a play/action for the Center, then one has to let go of, and then push L2 again.

I think defense is so broken in these games that mid-80s defense and mid-90s isn't that big a deal. Especially if I really enjoy using the player. I'd love for him to be high 90s in defense, obviously, but it is what it is.

I get what you mean and there is a certain element of faith one places (or not, or to varying extent) in Ratings...or Badges, or whatever.

I think value of incremental change in something like Shot Contest is especially difficult to quantify or know. My assumption is that one could do some testing by having a defender with variable Shot Contest do a hands-up contest while taking some sort of replicatable shot with a fixed offensive player with shot success operating off rating, not timing.

And my guess is that going from, say, 80 to 90 Shot Contest is going to only have a very marginal difference in a game, if at all. Like...if someone defends Player A with Player B for X shots per game, then higher Shot Contest means that each shot has Y% less chance of going in. But each shot is a unique test and so differences can only be apparent over a large number of tests and, even if meaningful, will be marginal.

I just think that 80 to 90 is meaningful. Like...pulling this out of my @ss, defending some players shot 4 or 5 times, I think 90 vs. 80 might get me one more miss by my opponent.

I don't know. I *think* that I can sense difference between guys between games, but that could be confirmation bias, for sure.