The Help Defense Slider

[The 24th Letter]

I notice a good bit of slider sets have the Help Defense slider set around 75-100..

I havent gotten a chance to play with it that high, but does that not increase your already "help happy" teamates to help any more?

Ive had a lot of success with it a 25...my teamates help enough, but I am still not leaving any one blatantly open...

Just wondering, what is it that you guys see on higher levels?

[sword1986]

2K had the Help Defense slider originally on 75, then when the game was fully installed the slider was decreased to 45. After the third patch, the slider is now 50.

[Fcshuckers73]

I am not sure that is what the OP is asking. I have wondered this same thing as well.......the off ball or weakside defender will vacate their assignement (even if it is a post guy 3 foot from the basket) when there is penetration. When this happens, it seems like a layup is given up alot....Does the Hlep defense slider force defenders to abandon their assignement even if it gives up a layup...Not sure if I described it correctly, but let me know what your thoughts are.

[catfish9-5]

I play with it 15 and it seems there is more space to work to the lane. It's like you can beat your defender and not run into a double team every time. Basically the other guys will not leave their man as quick. I could be wrong. I don't watch a lot of nba but when I do that's kind of what I look for. To see how they're supposed to "react". I see a lot of guys beat their guy off dribble and have an open look. It's hard to replicate that with this game. It's either one extreme or the other. It must be the unknown coding.

[HOLLIDAY1183]

24th,

Been tinkering with this since last night I think it's a valid question. My findings:

It seems as if it does remedy the "help happy" teammates a bit by reducing it for HUM teammates. I currently have it at 35 for HUM and they aren't just running up beside me to "help" as soon as the ballhandler gets a slight step on me, while I'm still in decent position and leaving their man WIDE OPEN.

This was driving me nuts and I couldn't find any PoE combination to combat this (we NEED player-specific defensive settings back so bad). Never even thought of this slider. Having it at 35 and keeping a PoE on Limit Perimeter Shots seems to help a LOT with your CPU teammates' "help obsession" in my tests so far. Even with the PoE turned off it's inproved. I've only played against POR and GSW using CLE so I def need to test more though.

I'll try lowering it at some point, maybe to 0 just to get the extreme and move up slightly in increments of 5. The goal is to get them to help ONLY when the rim is at stake or the open lane.

Now for the CPU I had it at 35 too, but I found I was coming around screens and having seemingly the whole court to myself to shoot the J or attack freely. So I tried the opposite just for kicks and put it at 100. All of a sudden the CPU was now collapsing and leaving people to come help and it actually resulting in them having to give up open shots/rotation kickouts. Not the cheesy helping and being able to recover instantly, they are stepping in my way, and then I started actually seeing guys open where the CPU isn't magically recovering.

Because the CPU doesn't suffer from the help obsession our teammates do, it seems it's better to raise this for them to actually get them to *fully commit* to helping which opens up kickout/pocket pass options for you.

Gonna try against more teams today and see if this continues.

*I play SS/10 min qtrs

VZW NIII

[Smirkin Dirk]

They are some interesting findings. Ill try raising them aswell.

[catfish9-5]

I have been messing with this slider tonight and I played pistons vs pistons. Help d slider 0 for both teams just to try. CPU Jennings would get past hum Jennings and clear path to lane. Next possession, hum Jennings gets past CPU Jennings and CPU defense collapsed and 3 defenders cut him off. On ball and def awareness set sliders are set the same. Not sure what to try next. Any suggestions?

[stackzzz_chips]

I've been messing with the help defense slider recently and I like the game play better with it turned up (set at 88 right now for both). I see the defense collapse, but also get some free lanes to the hoop. I have on ball set to 55 for the CPU instead of the default 65. I'm not positive it is having any effect with off ball help, but it seems like I run into the 3 man wall less often with it down some.

I've also noticed that I tend to get better looks when I run plays instead of freestyling it. This is especially true if you can run the pick and roll well. I'm not an expert and I'm not sure if my findings are completely accurate, but it may help some.