Coach2K's Basic Defensive Philosophy

[Coach2K]

I played another user from OS yesterday and after the game he said I played really good defense and wanted to know if I had any tips.

First let me point out that I am not a lock down defender type of guy. In fact in 2k12, which was the first year I really started playing the game, I focused mostly on offense and played off ball on defense all of the time, I tried zones, messed with the settings and didn't really defend. It was funny when I would defend someone, I would get scored on especially vs the CPU.

When 2k13 came out, I decided this season would be the year of defense and I moved from off ball to on ball.

The first thing I knew I had to do was move to on ball and I made a commitment to myself that I wasn't going to play zone ever again.

I wish all of you guys would make this commitment.

At first I got beat off the dribble a lot. I still do but not as often. And it was tough on the ego just not be able to do it.

I watched a lot of guys I played and noticed they would pick people up in the back court and just harass the heck out of the guy bringing the ball up the court and like most of us morons, decided that it worked and tried to copy it but what I discovered was that people would beat that guy and then it was 5 on 4 and my other guys on defense just couldn't recover many times.

That strategy works when you are using it against George Hill but not when you ARE George Hill. Nothing against him. I like him.

Now there are teams you an use that you can be really aggressive with on defense and that you can afford to take chances and you won't get burned and you can always adjust your settings both in the coaches settings and defensive settings to help your cpu defenders know what to do if you make a mistake but in my view, my team the Pacers aren't that kind of team.

Once I decided to play on ball and play man defense all of the time, the next decision was should I adjust the coaching sliders and my defensive settings. Within my group, we have had tons of discussion about these things and many are in favor of doing exactly that and it works for them. And there are going to be cases where tweaking those can help tell the CPU what you want to have happen when things don't go the way you want them on ball.

So really when it comes to those settings, I don't want to give anyone the impression that they don't work or you can't put together an air tight defense using them. It's just not the way I do it because I am after just playing solid defense and only out to stop you 1 out of 2 times anyway.

So really there are two camps here on settings. Neither camp is necessarily wrong, this is just the way I do it.

1. Adjust the settings so the CPU knows what to do if you get beat and how to guard the guys you aren't guarding
2. Learn how to adjust your play and bring help manually

For myself, I leave everything on auto and try and do everything manually based on those settings. One of the reasons I decided to do this was because one of the guys in my group that basically never lost and I had many discussions on this.

And he never changed anything. And adopting that philosophy, I've beaten nearly everyone I've played in my group without doing that as well. I don't beat them all of the time. In fact, I get beat more than my fair share. But most of the gamers out there should beat me because I'm about 20 years older than most of you anyway...lol.

Let's face it too. When two players of equal ability play, the team with the higher rated guys makes that team the favorite anyway.

I figured that playing on auto and default coach settings would force me to make better decisions and here's how.

One of the first sliders people want to change is the crash boards slider. You take a bad shot, the CPU or human opponent punishes you for it and you are like wow, I got nobody back so you adjust that slider so you don't fast break as much so people will get back when you take a bad shot instead of taking better shots.

The next one people tend to want to adjust is the help slider and this is if you get beat off the dribble. Well I got beat off the dribble, and no help came, so what I need to do is adjust the help slider to bring help sooner. Instead of learning how to not get beat off the dribble with better positioning.

Anyway, again I am not saying that its right or wrong to adjust them and even I do from time to time, it's just that if you are just starting out on learning defense, don't adjust any of that and focus on what I am about to explain as a foundation for the beginning of learning defense.

My basic defense is built around the following concepts:

1. Take good shots on offense. Nothing kills you like poor offense. Defense starts on offense. Make them play defense against all five guys as much as possible. When I lose most games, this is the primary reason. Too many turnovers or bad shots.
2. Play man to man defense all of the time. Not only is it what they do in the real NBA, (I know you can argue they all play zone) but also it makes you more fun to play against if I can run an offense against you. Playing zone also just gives people and excuse as to why you won if you beat them. Don't give them that reason. No one ever screams "HE PLAYED MAN TO MAN THE WHOLE GAME!" and that's why he won! lol.
3. Keep all five guys inside the three point area, don't extend your defense beyond that line. When you do that your other CPU guys start looking at each other going. Crap, he is going to get beat and they start taking chances and getting out of position. Next thing you know, they give up easy looks and don't rebound. The great thing about this game engine and what I like about it is that your teammates take their cues from you. He is playing great, we will too. He's playing stupid we will too!
4. Draw an imaginary line between the ball and the basket
5. Control the on ball defender
6. Put your on ball defender on that imaginary line at all times
7. Don't hit square or triangle
8. Challenge shots
9. Block out

If you do this, you see less crap you don't like happen in the game. Most of that stuff happens because we play poorly not because the game sucks. Crap happens when you don't deserve possession or to hit that shot. It's just it can't always illustrate it properly. You can overcome most of that anyway.

So here are a bunch of still shots breaking down a possession and a video of the whole possession. Note the score of the game is 79-79 with under a minute to go. This is a 12 minute quarter game on HOF simulation sliders and trust me both of us know how to score so it's not like we don't how to put it in the bucket. I've had games where I have scored 79 in a half lol. Point I am trying to make is that this was a defensive game here on both sides.

Also notice there is no shot clock cheese when he takes the shot at the end of the shot clock....lol.

[raiderphantom]

Also, putting the CPU assist defense on zero gives you more control when guarding the ball. This is huge when defending the cpu's drive, crossover, stepback combos where all they need is an inch of space. In the end it comes down to reaction time though. The Y or Triangle button is the most overused and overrated button. Most of the time it causes fouls or breakdowns in your defense.

[Taer]

One important concept on defense is to give yourself enough room to react, but not too much to prevent you from closing in on shots being made.

This means that when defending against a Russel Westbrook you need more room then when defending a Derick Fisher. Which brings up another point. If you don't know the tendencies of the person you are defending, be a bit more conservative.

The way I learned this was by watching NBA footage and watching where guys set up their initial defense against others. Is the PG behind or in front of the three point line? You'll never see him near half-court unless it is a specific situation (such as game clock near end). So, if the real NBA guys don't do something, why do you?

[Coach2K]

Quote: Originally Posted by raiderphantom

Also, putting the CPU assist defense on zero gives you more control when guarding the ball. This is huge when defending the cpu's drive, crossover, stepback combos where all they need is an inch of space. In the end it comes down to reaction time though. The Y or Triangle button is the most overused and overrated button. Most of the time it causes fouls or breakdowns in your defense.

That game was also defensive assist 0. You are right about the buttons.

[raiderphantom]

Quote: Originally Posted by Taer

One important concept on defense is to give yourself enough room to react, but not too much to prevent you from closing in on shots being made. This means that when defending against a Russel Westbrook you need more room then when defending a Derick Fisher. Which brings up another point. If you don't know the tendencies of the person you are defending, be a bit more conservative. The way I learned this was by watching NBA footage and watching where guys set up their initial defense against others. Is the PG behind or in front of the three point line? You'll never see him near half-court unless it is a specific situation (such as game clock near end). So, if the real NBA guys don't do something, why do you?

Unless your coach is Mike D'Antoni. He loves pressing the PG a mile away. Toney Douglas suffered enough from all those screens he was obliterated by lol...

[Tybudd]

haha, awesome, my man Coach 2k has taken his knowledge to a better platform, the official 2k forums don't compare to all the resources that are here.

[Coach2K]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tybudd

haha, awesome, my man Coach 2k has taken his knowledge to a better platform, the official 2k forums don't compare to all the resources that are here.

Yeah I don't know why they don't have a better quality forum.

[return.specialist]

#3 on your list and spacing. Don't go for stupid steals if you're guarding the ball handler--just like in real life, stay in front of your defender. Maybe swipe at the ball if a player you aren't guarding dribble near you; often this they will change their dribble away from you leaving them exposed for one of your teammates to swat at the ball.