Making 'playing tight' realistic

[2_headedmonster]

The problem with the play tight setting is that its overpowered and always has been. There is really no reason for a person to pick their poison and strategize when they can simply choose to play tight on everyone or "deny perimeter" ( or whatever that poe is called) and still be able to bump and wrestle people off of driving lanes and away from screens.

When you watch NBA games, on-ball defense is a game of taking away angles. Defenders are usually an arms length or more away, allowing time to react to the offensive player in an effort to make the path to the basket as wide as possible. Typically anything close to resembling what happens on nba2k and the defender is in the dust or the ref is blowing the whistle on a blocking foul.

But there are those few moments through out a game where a team will "lockdown". In an effort to disrupt an offense or spark a run they play much closer than usual, deny harder and generally exert more effort than they normally would for a spurt. Now of course elite defensive teams do it better, and can sustain this effort longer, but "playing tight" as a team does happen, and can be realistic.

The key to making anything realistic is conveying benefits and the consequences. That said, the consequences for playing tight individually or as a team should be a higher likelihood of blocking, hand-checking and off-ball fouls as well as a quicker loss of stamina. These, as they do in the NBA would keep the option from being abused.

Defensive Chemistry

Defensive chemistry is an idea I came up with to govern how well a team executes whatever scheme it employs. It drains throughout the game (a percentage is recovered through timeouts) and varies dynamically based on the line up on court and their stamina.

Example:

A line up of Rose, Butler, Deng, Boozer and Noah would have a defensive chemistry rating of 87.

Meanwhile a line up of Rose, Butler, Deng, Gibson and Noah would have a defensive chemistry of 93

In my perfect world where this rating exists, 'defensive anchors' and coaches also play a part in the rating as well as how fast it drains.

Now that the concept has been explained, a teams defensive chemistry would determine how big of a stamina drain playing tight would be. Good defenders would be able to slightly offset the stamina hit while weaker defenders would get gassed, and commit more fouls attempting to play out of character.

Welp that's my drawn out explanation of how id reform the "play tight" mechanic. Was it good? bad? got an alternative? What's your take?

[Kaanyr Vhok]

You lost me on your premise. Ive played every NBA 2k basketball game and I never considered Play tight to be overpowered onball or off.


My typical defensive settings were auto for anything but great shooters who cant dribble onball.

Tight was for average medium range shooters who didnt shoot the three well- offball

Deny for decent to good and great three point shooters offball

Auto for poor shooters

I didnt adjust pick and roll settings until CG 2k14 when I turned off all hedging to use the 'Freeze' defense in pick and rolls. I rarely doubled players on the drive but I did on occasions.

So my take is that it was never overpowered thus it never needed to be removed or changed. I used Auto onball and deny offball more than I did used tight so I cant go along with this theory that it was overpowered in any way.

I will say that Sag Off defense was underpowered which is why I didnt use it on guys like Deandre Jordan. That is whole other story.

[keshunleon]

Play tight was good and I don't think over powered.

If On Ball Defense is up so high you can't drive around anybody.

When a defender is playing tight you can beat him off the dribble at times plus back door cuts are there.

I play tight for players like Novak, Korver, Casspi, etc... Great shooter with little to no ball handling skills.
These players I want to get open shots. Players like Tony Allen, Brewer, Wallace, etc... I sag off to let them shoot.

[jaateloauto]

Playing tight worked as intended. If you play tight you can get easily beat on cuts and on pick & roll / plays that require help defense. A non-issue if I've ever seen one.

[2_headedmonster]

There are many others who share the opinion that the play tight setting is a overpowered, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. The on-ball defense allows too much contact in general compared to the real nba, but the feed back is good. Gives me an good idea on how many people share my point of view.

[stillfeelme]

I had a idea about this before.

• Play tight needs to have stamina debits if played for long durations. Without a fatigue impact it gets unrealistic
• Playing tight on the perimeter should be a risk reward that should make you susceptible to off ball cuts not just cutter plays but the awareness of the players to cut off ball when played tight on the perimeter. This is the real reason you very rarely see a team go to play tight everywhere except during brief stretches
• It should be a risk reward of blocking fouls, and blow bys, right now when you play tight I see too many animations are "won" by the offense for playing good d. They need to re-do physics so it matters to the dribbler as the offensive player just gets away with so much unrealistic things.
• Lastly please add or re-do the animations for dribbling when tight defense is played. The problem is there is not enough animations for tight defense, or they just decided to make the offense "win" the animation so the defense must be pushed back or warped to allow the offense to perform the dribble move. They improved what they could I guess in the latest patch but they need to start over IMO.
• The court ratio to size of the players is just not right. Players are just too big and it effects playing tight.

[2_headedmonster]

We clearly were thinking along the same lines. But I don't believe the player to court ratio is off. I believe the strides, foot planting, spacing and close shot animations and animation selection are to blame.

What I mean by close shot animations and animation selection are to blame is that often times the paint is shrunken by animations that misrepresent the dimensions of the court. Some cover too much ground without a dribble, ignore the angle the ball handler is taking and collectively that adds up.

also there are many instances where an animation will seemingly convey more momentum than a player actually had.

[stillfeelme]

Quote: Originally Posted by 2_headedmonster

We clearly were thinking along the same lines. But I don't believe the player to court ratio is off. I believe the strides, foot planting, spacing and close shot animations and animation selection are to blame. What I mean by close shot animations and animation selection are to blame is that often times the paint is shrunken by animations without a dribble, ignore the angle the ball handler is taking and collectively that adds up. also there are many instances where an animation will seemingly convey more momentum than a player actually had.

I agree about the animations but I still think the players are too big for the court, it isn't as bad as it has been but they have the scale still too big just scale it down a little I am nick picking but it is a little big. Live has the court size to players closer than 2k.

I still think they need to redo how tig defense is impacted by dribbling which is the worst offender of how you actually try to play tight defense. I hate to say it but they have to improve live ball further