Fast Break / Transition Defense

[harryl]

I know this is an old topic and well-covered, but I don't think we've had a thread in this MyTeam subforum.

I have recently played a few games in which I was getting clobbered by opponent's fast breaks / transition offense. I don't know if I've gotten worse, have played better players, or maybe just never noticed this before, or what. But it has been driving me insane.

I've tried these measures:

• Make sure I'm using athletic guys.
• Sprint back with my Center.
• Set PoE to "Limit Transition Offense."
• Adjust defensive strategy to Half Court Press.
• Use Zone defense, at least initially, to diminish importance of defenders picking up the right assignment.

Half Court Press does help, because at least that keeps your PG from camping in the key like a jackass, only to give up a pull-up 3 to the opposing PG or, perhaps even worse, try to close out late, and give up a blow-by for a dunk.

But an opponent can still sprint around/past the defender.

For whatever reason, recently, I feel like I've been having a much bigger issue with this aspect of D. If I don't sprint back with my Center/Big, then I give up a long pass for an easy score. If I do sprint back with a big, then opponent too often/easily gets past my PG to create uneven numbers.

And, in general, my guys seem to be not picking up assignments. Doing stupid double-teams of the ball and leaving shooters to spot up and wait for a pass for an open three.

Is this too tired a topic? Does anyone have any more suggestions?

[jschmib]

Quote: Originally Posted by harryl

I know this is an old topic and well-covered, but I don't think we've had a thread in this MyTeam subforum. I have recently played a few games in which I was getting clobbered by opponent's fast breaks / transition offense. I don't know if I've gotten worse, have played better players, or maybe just never noticed this before, or what. But it has been driving me insane. I've tried these measures: Make sure I'm using athletic guys. Sprint back with my Center. Set PoE to "Limit Transition Offense." Adjust defensive strategy to Half Court Press. Use Zone defense, at least initially, to diminish importance of defenders picking up the right assignment. Half Court Press does help, because at least that keeps your PG from camping in the key like a jackass, only to give up a pull-up 3 to the opposing PG or, perhaps even worse, try to close out late, and give up a blow-by for a dunk. But an opponent can still sprint around/past the defender. For whatever reason, recently, I feel like I've been having a much bigger issue with this aspect of D. If I don't sprint back with my Center/Big, then I give up a long pass for an easy score. If I do sprint back with a big, then opponent too often/easily gets past my PG to create uneven numbers. And, in general, my guys seem to be not picking up assignments. Doing stupid double-teams of the ball and leaving shooters to spot up and wait for a pass for an open three. Is this too tired a topic? Does anyone have any more suggestions?

Changing your defensive PoE to "stay home" sometimes helps for me. Also changing off-ball pressure to Deny (all) in general helps guys stick to their man and not to stupid things like help off wet shooters.

As far as one goes, consider trying 3-2 zone if you usually do 2-3, and vice versa. When running zone I usually off-ball with the PF and SF alternate, to cover the corners which are the main weaknesses (for me) of zone defense. Also switching defensive PoE to "no threes" helps a lot for zone. I think.

I like to manually turn help off for any player on my opposing team who can shoot lights out, usually by pausing and doing it in the defensive settings menu before the game even starts.

Make sure "adaptive coaching engine" is turned off always.

In the coaching sliders, setting "help defense" to like 5 instead of 50, or even 0, will also help correct that terrible AI help defense. Although I confess I can't be 100% certain about any of this, because this game is such a goddamn buggy mess.

In general what I do to stop transition is off-ball with Kareem or ralph sampson and run up the court and chill in the paint as quick as I can, usually before they inbound it. Allowing the CPU to defend the PG and using a PF or C to hassle and block the path of whoever is spamming turbo works decently well.

As always, if you're playing against someone in a lower league and/or have the equalizer against you, all of this will not matter and all and you will lose. Really hoping they fix this mismatched difficulty crap in 2k18, holy mother of balls this game has pissed me off more than any other in sports history.

[harryl]

Quote: Originally Posted by jschmib

Changing your defensive PoE to "stay home" sometimes helps for me. Also changing off-ball pressure to Deny (all) in general helps guys stick to their man and not to stupid things like help off wet shooters.

I could see how this might do something to push the AI to stick to their direct assignment. I have never used Deny off-ball pressure because I don't like the idea of opening up backdoor cuts, but people don't seem to use the Y-cut for backdoors so much as they pull give-and-go backdoor cuts.

(I *do* look out for Y-cut backdoor opportunities, from time to time, to discourage Deny All, so maybe that's why I'm paranoid about it.)

Quote:

As far as one goes, consider trying 3-2 zone if you usually do 2-3, and vice versa. When running zone I usually off-ball with the PF and SF alternate, to cover the corners which are the main weaknesses (for me) of zone defense. Also switching defensive PoE to "no threes" helps a lot for zone. I think.

Okay, thanks. This all seems sensible too. I really don't like running Zone except for a couple/few possessions just to throw in a momentary wrinkle, but I'll try Zone a little bit more as an initial defensive formation to address turbo transition offense.

Quote:

I like to manually turn help off for any player on my opposing team who can shoot lights out, usually by pausing and doing it in the defensive settings menu before the game even starts.

This is more to address bad P&R rotations, right? In any case, it makes sense. I had never been sure about whether this setting was to dictate use of the man's defender to help with other assignments, or to bump up chances that help would come from another man's defender, but I get what you're saying and it makes sense.

Quote:

Make sure "adaptive coaching engine" is turned off always.

Yep. It seems to me that this is one of the settings that actually stays persistent (as opposed to, say, Controller Settings, which frequently get set to something different).

Quote:

In the coaching sliders, setting "help defense" to like 5 instead of 50, or even 0, will also help correct that terrible AI help defense. Although I confess I can't be 100% certain about any of this, because this game is such a goddamn buggy mess.

Hunh. Yeah, I would assume this would be pointless with ACE off, but who knows. Shouldn't hurt to assume it's operative.

Quote:

In general what I do to stop transition is off-ball with Kareem or ralph sampson and run up the court and chill in the paint as quick as I can, usually before they inbound it. Allowing the CPU to defend the PG and using a PF or C to hassle and block the path of whoever is spamming turbo works decently well.

This is more or less what I do as well. Just sprint back on D with my best rim protector. And I've found that Half Court Press helps prevent my D from not picking up the ballhandler at all.

In general, I have not felt like I had a problem when doing this, but for some reason, in recent games, I do. I should probably record video and watch it more closely to get a better idea as to what the real problem(s) is, and how to address it/them.

Quote:

As always, if you're playing against someone in a lower league and/or have the equalizer against you, all of this will not matter and all and you will lose. Really hoping they fix this mismatched difficulty crap in 2k18, holy mother of balls this game has pissed me off more than any other in sports history.

Yeah, those artificial mechanics, I'm sure, can totally screw everything up and result in suddenly idiotic DIQ in my team.

But I'll posit this as well, as a theory: there may be a momentum game dynamic having to do with fast break success having a self-reinforcing effect.

In real life, there is such momentum. We have seen it in Warriors opponents a lot...the Warriors going on a scoring streak with a lot of their points coming in transition as their opponents fail to pick up assignments correctly, and such.

Maybe 2K codes the game to simulate this: if Team B gets a couple/few fast break buckets, suddenly Team A's DIQ's get nerfed to simulate their getting flustered and prone to making more mistakes.

In which case, one needs to call timeouts for this, not just to hopefully nerf heat momentum of a particular opposing player.

I have a gut feeling this might be the case, as I feel like this dynamic is streaky and the problems can end up feeling akin to the lag-like lack of responsiveness we feel when we talk about "equalizer" being in effect. I'm talking about switching to a defender and him feeling atypically unresponsive, slow to change direction, overshooting when sprinting to meet a driving ballhandler, etc. As well, as, of course, elite high-DIQ defenders acting like morons.

I think I'm not alone in not calling timeouts, for the most part, unless I need to use the substitution menu or maybe change some defensive setting. I run a 13-deep lineup, so player fatigue in MyTeam is kind of irrelevant to me. But I think, MAYBE, we really need to respect the need to call timeouts to blunt not just individual player momentum, but general team momentum, especially when it comes to a run of fast breaks.

[jschmib]

Quote: Originally Posted by harryl

I could see how this might do something to push the AI to stick to their direct assignment. I have never used Deny off-ball pressure because I don't like the idea of opening up backdoor cuts, but people don't seem to use the Y-cut for backdoors so much as they pull give-and-go backdoor cuts. (I *do* look out for Y-cut backdoor opportunities, from time to time, to discourage Deny All, so maybe that's why I'm paranoid about it.) Okay, thanks. This all seems sensible too. I really don't like running Zone except for a couple/few possessions just to throw in a momentary wrinkle, but I'll try Zone a little bit more as an initial defensive formation to address turbo transition offense. This is more to address bad P&R rotations, right? In any case, it makes sense. I had never been sure about whether this setting was to dictate use of the man's defender to help with other assignments, or to bump up chances that help would come from another man's defender, but I get what you're saying and it makes sense. Yep. It seems to me that this is one of the settings that actually stays persistent (as opposed to, say, Controller Settings, which frequently get set to something different). Hunh. Yeah, I would assume this would be pointless with ACE off, but who knows. Shouldn't hurt to assume it's operative. This is more or less what I do as well. Just sprint back on D with my best rim protector. And I've found that Half Court Press helps prevent my D from not picking up the ballhandler at all. In general, I have not felt like I had a problem when doing this, but for some reason, in recent games, I do. I should probably record video and watch it more closely to get a better idea as to what the real problem(s) is, and how to address it/them. Yeah, those artificial mechanics, I'm sure, can totally screw everything up and result in suddenly idiotic DIQ in my team. But I'll posit this as well, as a theory: there may be a momentum game dynamic having to do with fast break success having a self-reinforcing effect. In real life, there is such momentum. We have seen it in Warriors opponents a lot...the Warriors going on a scoring streak with a lot of their points coming in transition as their opponents fail to pick up assignments correctly, and such. Maybe 2K codes the game to simulate this: if Team B gets a couple/few fast break buckets, suddenly Team A's DIQ's get nerfed to simulate their getting flustered and prone to making more mistakes. In which case, one needs to call timeouts for this, not just to hopefully nerf heat momentum of a particular opposing player. I have a gut feeling this might be the case, as I feel like this dynamic is streaky and the problems can end up feeling akin to the lag-like lack of responsiveness we feel when we talk about "equalizer" being in effect. I'm talking about switching to a defender and him feeling atypically unresponsive, slow to change direction, overshooting when sprinting to meet a driving ballhandler, etc. As well, as, of course, elite high-DIQ defenders acting like morons. I think I'm not alone in not calling timeouts, for the most part, unless I need to use the substitution menu or maybe change some defensive setting. I run a 13-deep lineup, so player fatigue in MyTeam is kind of irrelevant to me. But I think, MAYBE, we really need to respect the need to call timeouts to blunt not just individual player momentum, but general team momentum, especially when it comes to a run of fast breaks.

Do you use auto or manual substitution?

[harryl]

Quote: Originally Posted by jschmib

Do you use auto or manual substitution?

I do manual subs.

[NoLeafClover]

The AI of the PG is so terrible in terms of picking up their man if you don't control them that I pretty much just set them to Extend Pressure on the other PG at the start of the game, every game nowadays.

I couldn't be bothered fixing 90 defensive settings per game these days so I just do that and switch constantly between on and off ball to make the moronic AI teammates actually stay near their players. It's tiring and not really even that fun when you win with how bad the AI is...

Sent from my SM-T810 using Operation Sports mobile app

[harryl]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoLeafClover

The AI of the PG is so terrible in terms of picking up their man if you don't control them that I pretty much just set them to Extend Pressure on the other PG at the start of the game, every game nowadays.

For what it's worth, Half Court Press seems to work pretty well for basically making sure that the ballhandler is met at halfcourt, regardless of who it is.

This brings to mind how ineffective Half Court Trap is, which reminds me how a lot of the problems in this game have to do with how high the success rate is with passes, even really dumb ones.

So many people bitch and moan about getting passes picked off, but passing is way too easy. Defensive strategies like doubling/trapping the ball are most often ineffectual and actually lead to the opponent having an easier time to score, because it is unrealistically easy to throw an accurate pass out of a double-team.