How to get better

[Coach2K]

I see a lot of threads devoted to a lot of what is wrong with the game. A lot of it is true. There's no doubt the game could get better but I think a lot of us could get better too.

For my game personally, I am kind of stuck. Don't feel like I can get any better and have been less than a .500 player in my league so I'm looking for ways to improve my game to compete better against a lot of players who are better than I am at this point.

So, I thought I would start a thread about how to get better.

Now this doesn't mean I think I am better than any of you. My guess is that a lot of you could easily beat me and a lot of people confuse my challenge to get better to mean I think I am better but I'm not. I just know that a lot of you could get better if you open your mind to it.

What I don't see a lot of is an organized strategy for getting better. Most of it is a thread here about shooting, a thread here about momentum another there about how the game stinks, etc.

You'll find some good advice in a lot of those threads about how to get better. More often than not, you'll find information that more represents the frustration some have with the game and less often "how to" do it step by step.

Since I have no idea where people are in their development, I will just start at the beginning.

I always recommend that people select a team and then set out to master it. I see a lot of complaining about online quick match and how everyone uses the "elite" teams. The reason they do is because everybody hates losing so much, it's just what you do to win.

It doesn't have to be that way. You can win with A LOT of different teams in the league if you know it inside and out. It doesn't mean that you will win every game, but it definitely gives more variety to the online game if we can get more people open to using squads they study closely and learn how to get the most out of them.

For me, my team is the Pacers. I chose them because I live there and have watched them all of my life.

What team you chose doesn't matter. I think if you live in Utah, you should pick the Jazz. I don't think anyone will ridicule you if you pick the Heat if you are from Miami, but if you are from Houston, maybe it might be fun to just see how good you could become with them. After all you are from there.

So, I'll be back later to start breaking down the Pacers. In the meantime, pick your team. Post it here if you want. If you have suggestions on what you would like help with put it here too and we'll start working on it.

[Coach2K]

Re: How to get better

The Overall Rating

Once you have your team, the next step is to check it out and see what kind of talent you have. The best place to start is with the overall rating.

Now for most of you this won't be new information. You know the better rating the better the player so I'm just covering this to be thorough.

As a general rule, you can do good things with a lot of players because some players can do some good things in spite of having lower overall ratings. Steve Novak is a good example, he's rated 53 overall but 92 from three. People do everything they can to find Novak spotted up to hit the three and he can do it.

This is a key concept and it's the heart of winning with the team you pick. You have to find the things the guys on your squad do well and then make them do them. What most people try and do is make them do the things they would like to do while that's not something the player can and this is where most of the frustration takes place in 2K.

Rule number one is this : Find out what your players do well and then use them to do that.

I've got a picture of the top rated guys on the Pacers. You'll see my best players are Danny Granger and Paul George rated 83 each.

A good guide is this.

90+ - Awesome player
80+ - Great player
70+ - Decent player
Everyone else - role player

The other point I want to make about the overall rating is this. The higher the overall rating, the more impact they have on the momentum of the game. This is why it is harder to win with teams that have fewer higher rated guys. They don't impact momentum as well. You can dominate with a 70 rated player and not win because of this.

[Coach2K]

Re: How to get better

The Shot Ratings

Once I look at the overalls, I start working on the offensive side of the ball.

I do that by looking at the shot ratings.

Again the same rules apply as far as ratings:

90+ Awesome
80+ Great
70+ Decent
Everything else don't shoot lol.

An easy example, Granger is 84 rated from three. Roy Hibbert on the other hand is 25. It should be fairly obvious that you shouldn't shoot three's with Hibbert but should take a lot with Granger.

The shot ratings are broken down into categories:

Inside - in the take charge circle
Close - just out side the take charge circle to the free throw line distance
Med - 15 feet out to the three point line
3PT - behind the arc
FT - free throws
Layup - how well they shoot layups
Dunk - how good a dunker they are

Each time down, your goal is to get the highest percentage shot. Ideally, this would be a dunk. Aside from that, if you can't get a dunk, you should shoot a wide open set shot with your highest rated players in their highest rated ranges.

Rule number two : Shoot with the best shooters

[Letemburn]

Re: How to get better

Looking forward to reading the rest. I follow Pacers pretty close, living in Louisville they are the closest NBA team

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Re: How to get better

I read these threads all the time . I sware they never include advice about myteam. That's a whole different ball game altogether .

[knick9]

Re: How to get better

I read these threads all the time . I sware they never include advice about myteam. That's a whole different ball game altogether .

The same applies really. One of the most important things to do is stick with the same group and playbook for awhile so you know how to maximize each player and always be able to recognize who is where on the court. You have to make even faster and better decisions in MyTeam so it's even more important to know your team really well.

[thedream2k13]

Re: How to get better

you start by saying you are less than a .500 player in your leagues then you start off by giving advice on how others can get better? I am confused I think we need to be giving you advice as well from what you wrote

[nip83]

Re: How to get better

Very nice work.Keep the posts coming...

One minor detail though.I think layups are in some kind of formula with inside scoring cause when inside is low and say a player has layups in the 90's ,your restricted area fg% goes down a a lot.I have experienced this with rondo and rubio that come up short somehow if they get slightly bumped going inside.On the other hand tyreke evans and harden with very high inside ,strength and finisher sig skill it's automatic.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Re: How to get better

The same applies really. One of the most important things to do is stick with the same group and playbook for awhile so you know how to maximize each player and always be able to recognize who is where on the court. You have to make even faster and better decisions in MyTeam so it's even more important to know your team really well.

I didn't read anything new or mind blowing it was all basic cliche stuff. But ok. Ill continue calling timeout that fixes everything.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Re: How to get better

The Overall Rating

Once you have your team, the next step is to check it out and see what kind of talent you have. The best place to start is with the overall rating.

Now for most of you this won't be new information. You know the better rating the better the player so I'm just covering this to be thorough.

As a general rule, you can do good things with a lot of players because some players can do some good things in spite of having lower overall ratings. Steve Novak is a good example, he's rated 53 overall but 92 from three. People do everything they can to find Novak spotted up to hit the three and he can do it.

This is a key concept and it's the heart of winning with the team you pick. You have to find the things the guys on your squad do well and then make them do them. What most people try and do is make them do the things they would like to do while that's not something the player can and this is where most of the frustration takes place in 2K.

Rule number one is this : Find out what your players do well and then use them to do that.

I've got a picture of the top rated guys on the Pacers. You'll see my best players are Danny Granger and Paul George rated 83 each.

A good guide is this.

90+ - Awesome player
80+ - Great player
70+ - Decent player
Everyone else - role player

The other point I want to make about the overall rating is this. The higher the overall rating, the more impact they have on the momentum of the game. This is why it is harder to win with teams that have fewer higher rated guys. They don't impact momentum as well. You can dominate with a 70 rated player and not win because of this.

I do like this post about ratings. Role players like Novak can light you upor guys like Tony Allen can shut you down .

[Streaky McFloorburn]

Re: How to get better

The Overall Rating

Once you have your team, the next step is to check it out and see what kind of talent you have. The best place to start is with the overall rating.

Rule number one is this : Find out what your players do well and then use them to do that.

A good guide is this.

90+ - If you use this player like a hammer, the game will say, "Way to go, John Henry!"
80+ - If you use this player like a hammer, the game will say, "I like the way you pound those nails!"
70+ - If you use this player like a hammer, the game will say, "I think this board is still loose."
Everyone else - If you use this player like a hammer, the game will say, "That's not what your shoe is for."

I prefer to think of it that way.

[Coach2K]

Re: How to get better

Free throw shooting

When I start working with a player, I begin with free throw shooting. I do this for a couple of reasons. The first is that I play in a 12 minute quarter league. There are times that I go to the line around 10 times a game and others where I go to the line over 30+ times.

While free throw shooting is often not critical in quick match, it is for me so I spend time working on it and am usually near the top in the league in free throw shooting.

The second reason I think free throw shooting is important is because it helps you understand the concept of releases.

The best thing about free throw mode is that it breaks down your shot releases into early, slightly early, perfect, slightly late and late.

I wish the free style practice mode had this same feature for jump shots but it doesn't.

Understanding release points comes into play when you are shooting. Getting a handle on them for each player increases your chance of knocking shots down.

The first step in practicing free throws is setting up the options. I practice on hall of fame mode, user timing and FT difficulty of 50.

Practicing on hall of fame mode gives you the least margin for error. That's why you want to use it.

You are also going to want to use the same camera mode that you will use in games.

There's probably debate on using real player percentage vs user timing. Personally I like the ability to have control over the result of the shot. I feel the variations in players shot animations and there "pre-built" shot release windows is enough.

Whatever you decide to use in games, just practice the same way.

Here's a pic.



Your goal is to figure out each players perfect release. I spend time watching a players hands, but you can watch for little "tells" that determine where the perfect release. While the perfect release does flash blue under his feet, I don't really do it that way. I watch the hands more. When they are ready to go forward that's when I release.

An example of a perfect release.



In free throw mode, perfect releases go in every time. It doesn't work that way for jump shots. But you can tell that releases that aren't perfect also go in based on my stats in the picture.

I spend a lot more time working on free throws when I first start using a team but it's a good idea to work on it about once a week to stay sharp.

I shot a 100 with Granger. I chose a hundred because the percentages then tell me how many I had in each release point.

I know that I got a perfect release 35 out of 100. Definitely room for improvement. Each time I go into practice free throws, I'll be looking to improve on the previous number. So I'll try and get more than 35 perfect releases until I get to the point where I can't improve it anymore.

Granger is a good free throw shooter. So even if I don't get perfect releases, I'll still have most of those go in. He has more margin for error than other shooters on my team.



You can see here in the next pic that I shot another 100 with Granger and improved to 36 perfect releases and hit 98 out of a 100. With certain players, you'll need more practice time. Others you won't. How far you take it just depends on you. But keeping an eye on getting the excellent release is what you want to do.

The key is to keep sharp by going in a shooting a few. The games rosters change so if you are playing quick match, the windows could change from time to time and with some players fatigue and game situation could come into play. Normally you will always hit 1 out of 2 no matter what if you have worked at all on it, even with the worst shooters.

[buickbeast]

Re: How to get better

you start by saying you are less than a .500 player in your leagues then you start off by giving advice on how others can get better? I am confused I think we need to be giving you advice as well from what you wrote

You probably didn't know, but coach plays HOF/sim 12 minute quarters. Anyone that can hit 500% w/ the Pacers on that mode is a pretty solid player.

[Coach2K]

Re: How to get better

Set shots

Once I have spent some time working on free throws, I then go over to free style practice mode to begin shooting practice.

The first stop with a player is his ratings. Again the numbers to remember are:

90+ Awesome
80+ Great
70+ Decent
Everything else is iffy

Your goal on offense is to get the best shot possible each time down. Obviously that's a dunk if you can get it. After that then is a layup and then in my opinion is an open set shot with a shooter who can hit from that spot.

We are going to talk about what an open shot is later, but for now, let's just look at Granger's shot ratings.

Here's our picture from before:



Granger's ratings are:

Inside (the take charge circle) 80
Close (outside the take charge circle and below FT line) 85
Med (outside the ft line and inside the three point arc) 76
3PT (outside the three point line) 84
Layup 82
Dunk 65

Granger is a good shooter overall. It would be great if his mid range rating were higher but if he is open he is going to hit it.

The next thing I do is turn on the hot zones. Here's a snapshot of his hotzones.



You'll see from the screen shot that Granger has red blue and grey areas.

I consider the grey areas the "true rating", the red a +5 bump in attribute rating and the blue areas to be a -5 in attribute ratings.

I think this way because the shoes that are available often give a +5 boost. How it is exactly done isn't really known. What is known is that you'll have better results in a red area than a grey or blue area and worse in blue than grey or red.

Given a choice, I'm going to opt for the red areas whenever possible. Here's a breakdown of Granger's shooting based on my formula.

3PT Top 89
3PT Right 89
Close top 85
Close right 85
3PT Left Baseline 84
3PT Left 84
3PT Right Baseline 84
Mid range right baseline 81
Close left 80
Inside 80
Mid range left baseline 71
Mid range left 76
Mid range top 76
Mid range right 71

Now if Granger is open I'm going to shoot it from wherever but if I can control where I shoot from, I'm going to opt for the top two spots if I can. That's his highest percentage shot and avoid the mid range right if I can.

There's some talk here or there about ratings deciding everything but I like this set up and don't have any problem thinking in terms of getting my guy shots where he likes to shoot.

I know in real life, I like to shoot from the wings and not so much from the baseline or top. It's a good representation of how it really works. Guys prefer spots on the floor and do shoot better from them.

The next step is to go in and work on Granger's release and start shooting from spots on the floor to get used to the animations.

[Coach2K]

Re: How to get better

You probably didn't know, but coach plays HOF/sim 12 minute quarters. Anyone that can hit 500% w/ the Pacers on that mode is a pretty solid player.

Some of the guys in my league are pretty good. I've beaten all but one of them, but beating them every time is a lot harder. Against HOF CPU sim sliders, I can win but it's very tough for me still and I lose way more often than I win but can hang in there. When I say my record is under 500 I'm referring to games against my league opponents.

I'm a decent player. I'm open to learning as well and still learn some great stuff from guys in my league. I think there's always room for improvement no matter what skill level you might be.

12 minutes HOF sim sliders is a great mode with the right guys btw. Unless I play a quick match, I always opt for those settings.