[Coach2K]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sir Duke 27

I dont see how choosing the Heat or Thunder falls under the umbrella of cheesing or bad sportsmanship. Thats really unfair to guys like me and a ton of other people who are hometown fans or lifelong fans of these teams. I lived in Miami my entire life, I was born literally two weeks after the Heats first season tipped off, my first Heat game was when I was 7 and we beat the 96 Bulls after the trade deadline and we were missing a ton of players. Ive been to everything from the Hardaway/Zo years to the D Wade is injured lottery team years. Ive had to deal with some pretty bad Heat teams over the years on NBA 2k and now because my team has the best player, a top 5 all time SG, one of the most versatile and underrated bigs in the game and a litany of 3 point shooters, its not fair for me to use the team Ive been rolling with since 2k6? Thats ridiculous. Secondly, I think its fair to address current NBA trends in terms of the effects of the spread of analytics movement and defensive trends set by post 2008 Celtics defense. First of all, one of the main themes in analytics revolves around the expected value of shot selection. Shots around the rim and 3 pointers therefore are the most efficient shots in basketball and long 2 pointers are the least efficient shots. That being said, NBA offenses have revolved around pace and space, motion offenses and heavy pick and roll diets such as the Miami Heat, Spurs, Rockets, Clippers. Teams are frequently going small, trying to run teams up and down and use motion sets and dribble penetration to find layups and open 3s. Thats why more teams are attempting are a higher number of 3 pt attempts than in any point in history. So to say that taking a ton of 3s and driving it into the paint every possession is cheese is clearly untrue because that is simply what NBA offenses have come to value. On the subject of defensive schemes, after Thibs defensive concepts spread through the league, teams have adopted zone heavy concepts. Heavy emphasis on overloading the strong side and mixing zone schemes to take away penetration and open looks from the arc. Teams like the Heat even play aggresively blitzing pick and rolls with double teams and trapping ball handlers to force turnovers and pressuring the ball and relying on fast rotations. Expecting traditional man to man defense in todays game is ridiculous. So I dont see how employing zone defenses falls under the umbrella of cheesing.

That's great. Not enough people use their local NBA team. Love to see that.