Thanks for the info. That's really disappointing. I skipped buying 2k for the first time in probably 15 years last year and it sounds like I'm going to skip it again. I'm surprised there isn't a bigger push for deep NBA franchise modes that go into the future like OOTP in baseball especially since 2K doesn't seem to want to fix pretty basic things that have been issues for years.
The most frustrating part is that it's so close. I agree the draft / scouting process needs a total overhaul, but even if they didn't do that, it wouldn't take a lot of testing or trial to come up with a reasonable estimate of how much players should progress over years to make the league realistic. Or to, you know, have CPU teams sign the second-rounders they picked. It just seems like 2K doesn't put any effort into any part of the game that doesn't generate microtransaction revenue.