Defensive Scheme

[jk31]

Can anyone help me regarding the defensive settings?

What I want in general is, that I have a functioning help rotation (at least to the extent that is possible in 2k) and sag off/help off of bad shooters. In general I want to make sure, that the paint is prohibited area for any opponent and I'd rather give away the 3 pointer by a average/below average shooter than the high percentage layup in the paint.

First I played around with the settings myself and always used the following:
Top 3/Top 4 Shooters (80+ 3pt rating): Offball = Tight, Onball = Moderate
76-79 3pt Rating (and 80+ when player is not Top 3/Top 4): Offball = Moderate, Onball = Moderate
74 and below: Offball = Gap (PG/SF/SF)/Leave Him (PF/C), Onball = Gap

Additional to that I use Go under/No Hedge for Pick and Roll Defense in combination With Stay Attached = Yes, which is working exactly like I want it to be.

I was doing okay with this but found that help side often times was just to slow to react and checked for tutorials on defense. I found Sam Phams recommended settings and used them. The main difference to mine being that he sets Drive Help and Screen Help to "Help and No Rotation", which I didn't to, as in my opinion help the helper is essential for a working defense.
With his settings, everything was much worse than before. I tried out using both Leave Him or Gap on non-shooting Centers (DeAndre Jordan, Steven Adams,...) and my players were playing deny defense on him in the weakside corner while completely neglecting any help rotation. As soon as I got beaten on the ball, the way to the hoop was completely open for the ballhandler...

What am I doing wrong? Can anyone recommend me anything else for a working Helpside?

[Coach2K]

Quote: Originally Posted by jk31

Can anyone help me regarding the defensive settings? What I want in general is, that I have a functioning help rotation (at least to the extent that is possible in 2k) and sag off/help off of bad shooters. In general I want to make sure, that the paint is prohibited area for any opponent and I'd rather give away the 3 pointer by a average/below average shooter than the high percentage layup in the paint. First I played around with the settings myself and always used the following: Top 3/Top 4 Shooters (80+ 3pt rating): Offball = Tight, Onball = Moderate 76-79 3pt Rating (and 80+ when player is not Top 3/Top 4): Offball = Moderate, Onball = Moderate 74 and below: Offball = Gap (PG/SF/SF)/Leave Him (PF/C), Onball = Gap Additional to that I use Go under/No Hedge for Pick and Roll Defense in combination With Stay Attached = Yes, which is working exactly like I want it to be. I was doing okay with this but found that help side often times was just to slow to react and checked for tutorials on defense. I found Sam Phams recommended settings and used them. The main difference to mine being that he sets Drive Help and Screen Help to "Help and No Rotation", which I didn't to, as in my opinion help the helper is essential for a working defense. With his settings, everything was much worse than before. I tried out using both Leave Him or Gap on non-shooting Centers (DeAndre Jordan, Steven Adams,...) and my players were playing deny defense on him in the weakside corner while completely neglecting any help rotation. As soon as I got beaten on the ball, the way to the hoop was completely open for the ballhandler... What am I doing wrong? Can anyone recommend me anything else for a working Helpside?

First, I'd check to see that you have ACE off.

I'm not sure what mode you are playing in or what team you are using but I would consider guarding shooters tight on ball and moderate off ball instead of the other way around.

That would be my first adjustment.

Then I'd see how things play out in the actual game.

The other thing that's important is whether you are scoring or not on the offensive end. If you are not scoring, your defense suffers.

If you aren't scoring effectively, then your settings won't matter.

If one guy is killing me, then I would focus my defense on that person to stop what they are doing specifically in the time out screen.

I've been an all auto defense guy for sometime but finally caved this year into using the defensive settings. I tried Sam Pham's defensive settings and struggled as well. Making that adjustment I suggested above helped.

I made some other changes but did keep help and no rotation at this point.

I have a shot blocker in Tuner on the Pacers which helps as well. (sometimes lol)

[jk31]

Yes, ACE is off of course. Even though it is really frustrating, that I have to turn it off at the start of every game (online league player here...this bug is in this game since ACE was introduced).

My team at that point was Dellavedova-Beal-Anunoby-Aldridge-Turner. After a trade for Rudy Gobert I moved Turner to the 4 and start Gobert now at the 5. Really interested to see, how that will work out.

Interesting point of yours with swapping onball and offball coverage, I will definitely try that out. Also that you say, if my offense is bad, then the Defense will suffer, too, is really interesting. Usually I am a pretty solid defensive team, but struggle to score more than 90 points (10 min quarters) regularly, so I still end up with a positive differential over the season.

So you recommend me sticking to Sam Phams "Help and No Rotation"?


Is Turner blocking shots for you? I have on my team him since 2k17 and for the last 2 years he is just not blocking shots anymore and averages close to 1 block per game... He still is such a bad defender in the game and lacks most defensive ratings besides blocking and help defense...

[k1ngofny]

Quote: Originally Posted by jk31

Can anyone help me regarding the defensive settings? What I want in general is, that I have a functioning help rotation (at least to the extent that is possible in 2k) and sag off/help off of bad shooters. In general I want to make sure, that the paint is prohibited area for any opponent and I'd rather give away the 3 pointer by a average/below average shooter than the high percentage layup in the paint. First I played around with the settings myself and always used the following: Top 3/Top 4 Shooters (80+ 3pt rating): Offball = Tight, Onball = Moderate 76-79 3pt Rating (and 80+ when player is not Top 3/Top 4): Offball = Moderate, Onball = Moderate 74 and below: Offball = Gap (PG/SF/SF)/Leave Him (PF/C), Onball = Gap Additional to that I use Go under/No Hedge for Pick and Roll Defense in combination With Stay Attached = Yes, which is working exactly like I want it to be. I was doing okay with this but found that help side often times was just to slow to react and checked for tutorials on defense. I found Sam Phams recommended settings and used them. The main difference to mine being that he sets Drive Help and Screen Help to "Help and No Rotation", which I didn't to, as in my opinion help the helper is essential for a working defense. With his settings, everything was much worse than before. I tried out using both Leave Him or Gap on non-shooting Centers (DeAndre Jordan, Steven Adams,...) and my players were playing deny defense on him in the weakside corner while completely neglecting any help rotation. As soon as I got beaten on the ball, the way to the hoop was completely open for the ballhandler... What am I doing wrong? Can anyone recommend me anything else for a working Helpside?

I think your best bet is to manually use the player that's guarding the opponent's worst shooter (usually the opposing C) and manually bring help when there's penetration. If all you're doing is constantly defending the ball handler and hoping the CPU will correct any breakdowns on defense, that won't happen. Not saying you can't manually defend the ball handler, but you absolutely must switch to bring the help defender over manually when there's a breakdown.

[Coach2K]

Quote: Originally Posted by jk31

Yes, ACE is off of course. Even though it is really frustrating, that I have to turn it off at the start of every game (online league player here...this bug is in this game since ACE was introduced). My team at that point was Dellavedova-Beal-Anunoby-Aldridge-Turner. After a trade for Rudy Gobert I moved Turner to the 4 and start Gobert now at the 5. Really interested to see, how that will work out. Interesting point of yours with swapping onball and offball coverage, I will definitely try that out. Also that you say, if my offense is bad, then the Defense will suffer, too, is really interesting. Usually I am a pretty solid defensive team, but struggle to score more than 90 points (10 min quarters) regularly, so I still end up with a positive differential over the season. So you recommend me sticking to Sam Phams "Help and No Rotation"? Is Turner blocking shots for you? I have on my team him since 2k17 and for the last 2 years he is just not blocking shots anymore and averages close to 1 block per game... He still is such a bad defender in the game and lacks most defensive ratings besides blocking and help defense...

I’m not a defensive expert so I’m not sure what you should do with help and no rotation.

Turner did get 7 blocks his last game. Here is the box score and you’ll find a few others over there too.

https://twitter.com/thecoach2k/statu...891239941?s=21

Keep in mind, i haven’t used him past the current season. I’m using a custom roster with custom sliders from miiikemarsh. The Turner I use has rim protector and defensive anchor. I think it took nearly all season for him to get those in the official roster and your roster might predate that. But all of my defensive adjustments have taken place with this roster.

I also decided to send everyone to the middle instead of baseline and manually shade people towards Turner.

The guy I’ve been playing now is just as determined to score in the paint as I am on each possession which gives me more block opportunities.

One other change I’ve made is once he's started going inside with a certain player then I use the on the fly coaching to focus on the guy I think he’s taking in to nothing inside.

Sometimes I’ll change that on the fly to a different player on the same possession.

If he notices and reads the defense though, he'll know the three might be open if I leave it that way.

I still have players walk right by Turner and the paint always seems wide open down there to me though and I can get beat up pretty bad trying to get defensive rebounds lol.

I'm not sure how people do this but most people I play end up camping defenders in the lane which I never seem to be able to do even if I am set to gap on some of the players. So I've had more success stopping an individual player from scoring in the paint than from doing it versus the whole team.

And if the guy I'm playing turns up his defense, then I still have problems.

[TonyBake]

This is what I do generally:

Tight off-ball coverage on good shooters. I don't usually set anything for on-ball because I play on-ball defense myself.

Gap off-ball defense on bad shooters. I don't do "Leave Him" cuz then the AI sinks too low and sometimes gets def 3 seconds.

Catch hedge all screens. The switch defense mechanics/AI is inconsistent AF and I'd rather deal with the AI occasionally screwing up the catch hedge than trying to guess whether we're actually switching or not lol.

Help and no rotation on help D. I find it helps make the rotation on help D a lot better and how I want it. I'll set help and no rotation on screens too if I'm getting roasted by the P&R ballhandler.

The only other setting I do is I'll double team on drive if I'm playing somebody just trying to iso-drive spam me (say with Giannis or LeBron). It'll make people have to pass off and...get this...PLAY REAL BASKETBALL

[jk31]

Quote: Originally Posted by k1ngofny

I think your best bet is to manually use the player that's guarding the opponent's worst shooter (usually the opposing C) and manually bring help when there's penetration. If all you're doing is constantly defending the ball handler and hoping the CPU will correct any breakdowns on defense, that won't happen. Not saying you can't manually defend the ball handler, but you absolutely must switch to bring the help defender over manually when there's a breakdown.

Yeah but the Thing is when my Center is playing deny defense on the weakside corner regardless of his setting i just cannot bring the help over in time, because He is just too far away.

[Marvlus91]

we need a real thread that breaks down every defensive setting, because it’s a little confusing to me.

when i get a chance i’m going to use some of you guys tips.

you say if your offense isn’t scoring then your defense suffers, that makes sense to some extent. i’m using the mavs, i’ve made luka the primary ball handler in every situation to make things happen but i guess he gets fatigued and his scoring isn’t what i’m expecting him to do