5 Ways to Improve NBA 2k

The NBA 2k series is probably my favorite sports videogame franchise. In my opinion, it's really only rivaled by the MLB: The Show franchise and I just find basketball games more fun to play. It just blows away on pretty much every level anything that EA Sports is offering right now.

This is not to say the game doesn't have its faults though. It just seems that 2k fixes them a little bit every year and in general makes you feel more connected to the game of basketball with each fix. The announcing and presentation are amazing and I just wish that the football games on the market were this realistic and fun to play. Here are a few ways 2k could improve upon this already awesome basketball videogame franchise.

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This is pretty awesome right? 

1. Passing – Nothing is more aggravating than watching your player throw a pass right into the defender. 2K needs to allow you to choose whether you're throwing a bounce, chest, or lob type of pass. 2K12 added a lot of emphasis on the defense being more in the passing lanes, so this year they need to allow the player to counter this defense.

Also, there's absolutely no reason that when you throw a post entry pass your player lobs the ball 30 feet into the air to let the defender get under it. What exactly is the thought process behind this being in the game at all? It's so frustrating to make this pass and watch your opponent casually steal it from you. I get that they wanted to make post entry not as easy as it has been in the past but this is absolutely a ridiculous way of going about that.

They also added somewhat of a delay to each pass thrown now and that's something that just really has to go. It's basketball, you should be able to reverse the court quickly to find the player the defense rotated off of. This is not the case when you play NBA 2k12 and allowing quicker and more accurate passes could go a long way in making this is a more realistic game.

2. Online Play – I am yet to buy an NBA 2k game where the online play actually works correctly. Even now almost a year after NBA 2k12's release, I still get lag when trying to play a game online. This is just inexcusable and I do not understand why it is never fixed. There's really not much else to say on this one but it is definitely a reason why people buy the game and there's no reason it doesn't work. Online gaming is something every other company has seemed to figure out except 2k Sports.

3. Fast Breaks – The fast break system in NBA 2k12 is simply broken. It's not based on the speed of your player and it is easily the most unrealistic thing in the game. Andrew Bynum should not be able to chase down Chris Paul on a fast break. It'd be one thing if the defender actually made a play on the ball but what happens is your player just gets inexplicably slow and gets pulled into the defender behind him like the defender has his own gravitational pull.

I understand that in previous NBA 2k games it's been a little easy to exploit the fast break and that's why the system is this way. That said, it doesn't make it any less frustrating or unrealistic for the player. I really hope 2k figures out a work around for this system because it's just dumb watching fast players not be able to go on a clear fast break.

4. Post play – Despite improving post play in NBA 2k12 it still has a long way to go before it makes any rational sense. If you have a defender who has literally no post play defense but high defensive awareness and block ratings you can play him at 4-5 with no problem. Dwight Howard should not be shut down by Andre Iguodala. It's just a stupid system and it feels like good post offensive players have never been rewarded in this sports series.

It makes the game pretty unrealistic when the person your playing against doesn't have to account for your post players. Basically the Lakers are Kobe Bryant creating havoc and Andruw Bynum and Pau Gasol just there for rebounding and defense. It's pretty ridiculous when even the CPU when you play against them doesn't throw the ball down in the post when you're playing against the Lakers.

5. Team defense – I would like to actually see rotations and real team defense as opposed to the gravitational pull defense NBA 2k12 has. If you have a player with high defensive awareness in the middle (Tyson Chandler, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnet, etc.) they will just suck up every player who goes into the paint no matter how wide open they are to the basket. Tim Duncan is easily my most hated sports videogame star due to this as he's not nearly the force on defense he once was.

It's ridiculously easy to get into the paint against even the most stingy defenders, but when you get by the original defender you either get an easy basket or you get sucked towards a player with high defensive awareness. It is just frustrating when you burn the defender and go for an uncontested lay up only to have a player warp over from 7 feet away to contest your shot. It's also ridiculous how that unless you have a star player you always miss those shots. I swear you have to be a very good player to ever get a 3 point play in the game.  

The Brooklyn Nets are not Contenders

The Brooklyn Nets aren’t ready to compete yet. I know that’s not the narrative you’re going to be hearing on ESPN or the New York area as the media tries to milk this Brooklyn-Manhattan rivalry as much as humanly possibly, but it’s the truth. I live 5 minutes from the Barclay Center and as much as I’d love to stroll down Atlantic Avenue and watch a contender play, I just don’t see it happening. This team quite frankly has a lot of holes and relies on stars I’m not totally sold on.

Deron Williams - Superstar?

This is a team that is going to be as successful as Deron Williams makes them and I’m just not sure how successful that is.  Eclipsed by the inconsistent season that Carmelo Anthony had across the river was the poor season that Deron Williams had. To Williams defense the Nets were atrocious and really put nothing around him outside of a mid-season trade that gave up their lottery 1^st round pick for Gerald Wallace. While Williams stat line looks as good as ever at 21 PPG – 8.7 APG – 3.3 RPG – 1.2 SPG, he did it while shooting the most he’s ever shot in his career 17.5 FGA while shooting .407% from the field.

Those aren’t very efficient numbers and Williams’ is a .455% shooter from the floor in his career so I would expect him to shoot more efficiently next season. This doesn’t mean there isn’t reason for concern though because what this shows is that when Williams has to carry the load, he's not as effective. He also has not been nearly as efficient as he was in Utah since he’s been a Net. Considering Williams is most certainly Brooklyn’s crunch time scorer, this is something we might be reminded of throughout the year.

One thing completely ignored about Deron Williams is his lack of initiative to play defense. While he certainly has the big lengthy frame to defend pretty much any point guard in the NBA he sometimes lacks effort to get through screens and just plays rather lethargic.[1] Notably he defended Jeremy Lin when “Linsanity” broke out by allowing Lin to get to the basket at will scoring 25 points on .526% shooting. Williams did torch Lin the next time the two met for 38 points but he still allowed Lin to score 21. Mario Chalmers absolutely shut down Lin when the Knicks played against the Heat so I'm not sure what that says for Williams' defensive ability. 

It also has to be taken into account that Williams had a falling out with legendary coach Jerry Sloan in Utah and hasn't always been the most agreeable guy. I have to think that Williams re-signed with the Nets in some kind of promise that he'd be playing with not just Joe Johnson, but Dwight Howard. How will he react to Howard not becoming a Net and how will he react if this team struggles to make the playoffs?

I really like Williams and he’s a great player to build a franchise around but I’m not sold on him being able to get the better of James, Wade, Rose, Anthony, Rondo or even Pierce at the end of a game. Until he proves that he can do that, the Nets are missing a big component in what it takes to win an NBA title. For a guy who's supposed to be a superstar, when's the last relevant basketball moment of his you remember?

Joe Johnson - Right Hand Man? 

Luckily for Williams his supporting cast should be quite a bit better than what he was dealing with last season. This is in part to the Net’s big trade acquisition of Joe Johnson. Johnson is a good and sometimes great shooting guard and will definitely open the floor for Williams with his solid outside shooting. Johnson has incredibly solid career numbers at 17.8 PPG – 4.4 APG – 4.2 RPG on .444% shooting from the field. He’s also a career .368% 3-point shooter, so that should help spread the court for Williams quite a bit.

Johnson’s downside mostly comes with his defense, age and contract. He’s 30 and if you’ve watched him play the last few years he appears to be declining rather than getting any better. Gone are the days of him averaging over 20 points a game and the Nets have him signed until he’s 34, when I don’t really know if he’ll still be the same kind of productive player. His contract is also absolutely ridiculous at almost 90 million over 4 years, including the last 2 years at 23 and 25 million. Joe Johnson is a good player but he’s simply not worth that kind of money.

The Nets acquired Johnson to win now but I’m just not sure if he brings the intensity on defense to win. I certainly don’t trust Johnson guarding Wade throughout a game and if you’re trying to win the championship in the East, this is something you’re going to have to do. He’s also one of those players whose attitude on the court never seems to match what’s going on in the game. Ask any Hawks fan you can find about him and you’ll see they mostly had an issue with his miserable looking facial expressions and body language.[2]


Maybe Joe Johnson will be a suitable side kick for Deron Williams but he's in no way shape or form a superstar. His track record with the Hawks certainly shows that he can't lead a team on a playoff run or put people in the seats, so why exactly did the Nets trade for him? He's your classic overpaid B level superstar. Joe Johnson's not a bad player but in similar fashion to Williams, can you remember one relevant basketball moment Joe Johnson's has had his entire career? It's not a good sign when your two highest paid players and "superstars" haven't been relevant in years.


Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace - What will they give you?

If the Nets stand any chance to contend next year they’ll certainly need big years from the previously mentioned Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, but also from their young recently re-signed center, Brook Lopez. Lopez has tremendous upside being a 24 year old 7 footer with the career stat line of 17.4 PPG – 7.5 RPG – 1.6 BPG. He can score, he’s a willing passer and it’s hard not to love everything you see out of him on the offensive end. He might be the most skilled offensive center in the game outside of Andrew Bynum and that’s saying something. Despite this, he’s been relatively forgotten in the Dwight Howard madness and because he missed all but 12 games last year with a broken ankle.

The question surrounding Brook Lopez is that while he gives you a ton of offense and can block some shots on defense, can he rebound or be the defensive enforcer in the middle like a Dwight Howard or Tyson Chandler? In today’s NBA, I would argue that these are much more important than being a productive offensive center. While he does block a few shots, he doesn’t really alter the way offenses attack you. When you have to find a way to defend guys who are prolific drivers like the East has, this could be a problem. He’s also been criticized in the past of being a bit soft and a nice guy, I never like to hear that regarding 7 footers.

While Lopez’s low career rebounding totals and questions on defense are certainly huge questions, it’s hard to argue he’s not among the top 5 centers in the league. Is that worth the 60 million dollar max contract he just received? We’ll have to wait and see but the Nets contention status is definitely going to have a lot to do with Lopez’s development this year. This is especially true because of the lack of front line depth the Nets have going into this year.

The Nets gave up their lottery pick in the NBA Draft to acquire Gerald Wallace from the Trail Blazers last year. They then went on to sign Wallace to a 4 year 40 million dollar deal making him a cornerstone of their team for years to come. Wallace had been a consistently underrated player for the Bobcats for years giving them elite defense from the 3-4 positions. Wallace can also score and his career line looks like 13.5 PPG – 2.1 APG – 6.3 RPG – 1.5 SPG.

While I’ve always found Gerald Wallace to be one of my favorite hidden gems in the NBA, he’s sadly on the downside of his career.  Wallace used to be one of the most athletic players in the NBA and entering his 12^th season in the NBA this athleticism is fading fast. He is only 29 but he’s been in the league forever and wasted his extremely athletic years playing for the Bobcats and not a contending team. Wallace is still an incredibly useful player capable of guarding bigger 3’s and pretty much any 4 but with him losing that athleticism, he’s really not an elite defender anymore.

Wallace has always struggled with his outside shot and has an awful shooting form that will allow defenses to really play off him and towards Williams, Johnson, and Lopez. While he will give you a big plus on the boards and on defense he might really hurt the Nets offensive efficiency, as teams will definitely live with Wallace trying to shoot jumpers. He also absolutely could not guard Carmelo Anthony whatsoever when the two teams met in April, which is a big reason why the Nets brought him on board. If he can’t guard Anthony what chance does he have to match up with Lebron James? Wallace is still a versatile 3-4 who can match up with a lot of guys but his days of guarding elite 3’s are behind him and that is potentially a huge issue for the Nets.

Wallace and Brook Lopez will be expected to have huge seasons in order for the Nets to be successful and just like their "superstar" teammates have not played relevant minutes in the NBA. I'm not just sure what you're going to get out of either of those players and that's going to be a huge problem for a team looking to contend this year.

And then there's the rest...

Those are the 4 players on the Nets who you can pencil in right now as starters. The remaining players on their roster are Mirza Teletovic, Reggie Evans, Jerry Stackhouse, MarShon Brooks, and Tyshawn Taylor. Obviously, the Nets may also re-sign Kris Humphries and will most definitely try to bring in some more pieces. MarShon Brooks is looking like he will end up somewhere else and there’s not any room for him at shooting guard with Joe Johnson stationed there for the next 4 years.

I’m not sure what Brooklyn is going to get out of Mirza Teletovic as he has really good numbers playing for his Bosnian team but he seems as a pretty unknown commodity at this point. Is he power forward or a small forward? He averaged 6 rebounds in Europe last year so I doubt he’s going to help with that need. At 3 years 15 million the Nets must love what they see in him and he’s a real wild card going into this season. It’s tough for me to say he will be a key piece to their team this year though when he hasn’t played a minute in the NBA yet.

The Nets have a pretty good foundation of players as of now but this team is not a contender yet. I don’t think Reggie Evans and Brook Lopez are scaring anyone from the paint and that is probably the biggest issue when you have Deron Williams and Joe Johnson defending opposing teams guards. Their bench is pretty much an unknown quantity at this point but as the Knicks found out with Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak, you can find some gems on the waiver wire.

Brooklyn still needs more size, rebounding, defense and depth at all positions really. MarShon Brooks looks like he could real in some quality pieces and there’s always the chance of picking someone up around the trade deadline, so this team is a work in progress. They also need ensure they get someone who can handle the ball when Williams is resting or they’re going to run him into the ground trying to make the playoffs.

So, what can we expect?

This is a team that is going to be better than the 22-44 team last year, but it depends on what they do from here before we determine by how much. Even if they do manage to solidify their bench and pick up some size and rebounding I can’t put them in the upper tier of the Eastern Conference. They have too many holes, unproven stars, and have to deal with trying to gel after having their roster completely overturned.

The Nets have failed to improve enough for the window they have on Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace’s effectiveness. They’re locked in a path where I can’t say the ceiling on this team is much higher than the 2^nd round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Unless they are able to pull of something dramatic with their remaining pieces, I think you’re going to see the Nets have a very similar season to what the Knicks had last year or maybe worse.

So are the Brooklyn Nets close to becoming contender this year? As much as I'd like them to be, I just can’t say I like the outlook of this franchise because they put a ton of weight in Joe Johnson being a 2^nd superstar. They just need a tremendous effort from him this year and I don’t think you’re going to see him raise his level of play, because he's just not a superstar. Outside of the holes I've mentioned, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, and Gerald Wallace need to shore up the holes in their games and that’s not something you can count on. The Nets will also have just about no flexibility going into the future outside of whatever MarShon Brooks can get them in a trade. They have made some bold moves so far this offseason but I don’t think it’s in the right direction and ultimately; I don’t think they're even close to becoming a contender.

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[1] A nice little compilation of Williams’ defensive woes

[2] Just look at his ESPN photo. This is pretty much what he looks like all the time.

Let's Not Pretend Billy King is a Genius

I came across this article from Ian O’Connor, which is basically calling Billy King a mastermind for the roster he’s put together in Brooklyn. I will tear this apart in one sentence, Billy King traded for Joe Johnson instead of waiting for Dwight Howard. Yes, I understand that Chris Broussard and ESPN are trumpeting the idea that Brooklyn will still manage to get Howard with a deal of Marshon Brooks, Brook Lopez, and three number one picks but I cannot imagine on what planet the Magic would accept this for the best center in the NBA.

The thing I keep hearing is that the Nets will simply sign Howard as a free agent next year but the only possibly way the Nets could afford to sign Howard is through a contract extension if they traded for him. Any other scenario would put them way over the cap because of a slew of savvy signings from “the genius” Billy King including Gerald Wallace for 40 million, Mirza Teletovic for 15 million, and the trade for Joe Johnson and his near 90 million dollar contract. Once you go over the cap in the NBA you basically only have your mid-level exception to sign players and I don’t see Dwight Howard signing for 5 million dollars.

So essentially the ship has sailed for getting Dwight Howard in Brooklyn because Billy King really wanted Joe Johnson. Let me remind you that Joe Johnson was a player NOBODY was trading for because he has the worst contract in the NBA. He’s barely an All-Star caliber player, just turned 31, is owed almost 30 million dollars a year, and as Brooklyn fans will find out, he hates playing basketball for a living. The idea anyone would actually trade for him is beyond absurd to me, especially when you lost all your flexibility to get one of the best players in the league. The worst part about this deal is there was absolutely no hurry to make this happen. Did Billy King honestly think that Joe Johnson was going to make Deron Williams sign?

The Nets now have a roster of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Marshon Brooks, Brook Lopez, Mirza Teletovic, Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace. That’s obviously a better team than last year but without any roster flexibility for the next three years because of Joe Johnson’s ridiculous contract. While Ian O’Connor is trumpeting that King has it all together, it’s very obvious that without Dwight Howard, the Nets will not be a contender.

Not only does this team not stand a chance of competing with the Heat, Celtics, and Bulls but also I don’t think it makes them the best team in New York either. Say what you will about Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony but they both had the worst seasons of the respective careers last year and were better than Joe Johnson. It’s pretty much a given that both those guys will play better next year despite all the media negativity surrounding them.

So let’s congratulate Billy King for turning the Brooklyn Nets into a 6-8 seed with a huge payroll. Seriously, the guy is a freaking genius for trading for a guy nobody else in the league remotely wanted instead of waiting for one of the best players in the NBA. If the Nets somehow land Dwight Howard I’ll be eating these words but the league should just retract the Orlando Magic franchise if they trade for two non-all-star players and 3 low first round draft picks.

Chris Paul’s Temper Tantrum and Technical Fouls

How did Chris Paul not get a technical last night? With only a few minutes to go in Game 6 of the Memphis-Clippers series Paul was called for a pretty non-controversial foul on a Memphis fast break. After the foul Paul had what could only be called a temper tantrum and proceeded to leap right at a ref screaming at him. Somehow this wasn’t interpreted as a technical foul.

This is starting to get out of hand. What is and what isn’t a technical foul in the NBA? Amare Stoudemire had to sit out a game last year because he had so many technical fouls for clapping his hands in frustration after bad plays. Carmelo Anthony got a technical foul for throwing a bounce pass too hard to an official in Game 1 of the Heat-Knicks series. Rajon Rondo got ejected from the last seconds of Game 1 of the Celtics-Hawks series for reacting to an atrocious game changing call, then tripping into a ref. Rondo’s actions were seen as so egregious that he was even suspended for the next game of the series.[1]

These are somehow worse than completely losing it and going right after a ref? I actually don’t mind Paul not getting a technical in that situation. I hate when officiating helps decide the outcome of a game, especially when it’s an emotional player at the end of a hard fought game. The only reason it’s absurd he didn’t get a technical is because technicals are consistently called for way less. If the NBA’s new “Respect the Game” rules mean it’s a technical when a player claps his hands then Chris Paul throwing a temper tantrum has to be called as well.

A big problem with officiating in the NBA is players are clearly officiated differently. It’s nothing new. It’s been this way ever since I can remember watching. It used to be frustrating watching different rules apply to Jordan compared the rest of the league and it’s just as frustrating to watch different rules apply to Lebron, Wade, Rose, Pierce, Garnett, Duncan, Parker, Ginobli, or any other player that has “earned” the respect of the officials. Outside of flopping, this is probably the worst part of watching the NBA.

It’s just frustrating to watch Rondo get ejected and suspended from a game for having less of a reaction than Chris Paul had last night. That’s the NBA though. End Rant.

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[1] I found this to be completely absurd. I thought Rondo had every right in the world to be upset about that call, which essentially ended the game incorrectly. He clearly tripped into the official and did not mean to “bump him,” yet the NBA still suspended him for a game? Shouldn’t the official also be punished for ruining the end of the game? Why does the blame always have to be on the players?