Why is this game so difficult? (How can I improve?)

[Prime]

Before anyone says "lol git gud", keep in mind, I'm more of a casual basketball fan, and I haven't played an NBA 2K game since playing an NBA 2K13 demo. I don't know how to call plays, what plays to call, or which ones are most effective. I haven't really figured out how to work the dribble, and I'm not always sure when to take shots. I started out on Pro difficulty, and got my rear end handed to me by the CPU. I wanted to keep trying on Pro though. I started a MyLeague with the Dallas Mavericks, 7th on offense, 22nd on defense, and the first game was against the Suns, who are 27th on offense, and 28th on defense. I tried on 3 different occasions to beat them on Pro because I refused to drop the first game of the season, but I could not beat them. I lost by less than 5 points each time. It felt impossible to defend on defense, and 90% of the shots I took, I had someone in my face, cause the CPU sticks to me like glue no matter what. I really didn't want to, but I gave in, and dropped the difficulty down to Rookie, and then I beat the Suns quite handily, 49-38 (5 min quarters). But now it seemed a bit too easy. I feel like a chump playing on Rookie, but as a newer player, I just can't beat anybody on Pro :( Why is this game seemingly so punishing on new players? There's also a TON of detail, and it's so overwhelming. Not that this amount of detail is bad, but it's quite a lot to take in when someone just starts out. What can I do to improve, and figure out just the basics of this game? I'm struggling mightily.

[Freeze011]

Maybe it could help if you first play some MyCareer. Having only one guy to think about while you learn the game might be easier.

Though you have to sit through some godawful acting in a horrible plot by Spike Lee...

[HŽV]

Don't get too fussed about the PC AI. As any sports game the PC AI is made so that it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you into hard games. Making the game annoying and stressful instead of close and amazing. I suggest you download some sliders for offline gameplay. Check wich ones have the most downloads and try them out. I cant play league on the hardest diff. without sliders simply because it's not enjoyable and makes you fight ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. That being said. It's all in practice. Don't try to rush it all the time, find your own style. Many youtubers just spam 3balls and drive the baseline, and people copy that. That's easy to counter, go slow, see who's open, pass to the post, set up a zone in defense and get some easy breaks. It's all about reading the game. But for offline, def. do some search and research on sliders, the defaults are BS.

[Le_Pro]

2k16 is harder than any of the previous ones, you cant make stupid shots anymore, so get practice with all different players so you know how to make quality shots with everyone

[Or-SuperFast]

Originally posted by Freeze:

Maybe it could help if you first play some MyCareer. Having only one guy to think about while you learn the game might be easier.

Though you have to sit through some godawful acting in a horrible plot by Spike Lee...

add me please

[Dark Shadow]

Don't be so hard on yourself, any game is difficult when you first start out. First things first, I suggest you read over all the controls and do your best to memorize them. There's obviously different types of shots and dribbles and you won't be able to memorize everything but at least generally you'll know what to do in any given situation.

Also go to controller settings and make sure you put the defensive assistance and box out strength to max and put the shot contest on always, that'll make defense way easier for you.

Once you feel comfortable with the controls, practice. Practice, practice, practice. Do 5v5 scrimmages 1v1 on black top, shoot around,and etc and just get a feel for the game and you can begin to create your own style of play that you like and gets you W's. To me 2K came easy when I first started but even then I struggled myself to learn how to play even though I knew basketball well. It's all about just trying to be solid all around.

Passing is probably the most important skill you can learn, if you become a good passer the game becomes like 20x easier in some cases because it takes pressure of you and your team plays better ball. Next I'd say is defense, learn to play inside and out. I usually use LT (intense defense) a lot because it makes good contact with opponents and you move quicker on your feet, right stick can be pretty useful sometimes but on the perimeter it's really bad because you get stuck in one spot and opponents can easily move around. Rebounding couldn't hurt, boxing out is something a lot of people don't do on here for whatever reason but it's pretty simple so shouldn't be too hard. Scoring is obviously important. Depending on how you play jut work on trying to do pick and rolls, shooting 3s, maybe some play in the post, once you feel comfortable with the basics try more advanced stuff like step backs and fadeaways. It's a learning process, no one becomes amazing at the game when they first start out, even if it comes easy there's still a ton of work to do to be a good to great player.

[*SMH*prettyboyboyd]

I think to get better on the gameplay prospective use your freetime working on the controls and learn 1 or 2 sets you like i like pace motion and 1 in 4 out then use your knowledge of basketball and the league to pick good teams then play mycareer it is the best to learn to play setting to use hall of fame defult sliders and 6 min qtrs practice on several teams so you can play against all teams and learn their schemes then second for fun go on mygm its every fans dream to controll a nba team,

[Prime]

Originally posted by HŽV:

Don't get too fussed about the PC AI. As any sports game the PC AI is made so that it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you into hard games. Making the game annoying and stressful instead of close and amazing. I suggest you download some sliders for offline gameplay. Check wich ones have the most downloads and try them out. I cant play league on the hardest diff. without sliders simply because it's not enjoyable and makes you fight ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. That being said. It's all in practice. Don't try to rush it all the time, find your own style. Many youtubers just spam 3balls and drive the baseline, and people copy that. That's easy to counter, go slow, see who's open, pass to the post, set up a zone in defense and get some easy breaks. It's all about reading the game. But for offline, def. do some search and research on sliders, the defaults are BS.

Change sliders? I thought about doing that briefly, but ultimately thought it'd also make it a little too easy. Does downloading community slider settings make things easier, or perhaps more realistic?

[Prime]

Originally posted by Apparently God of 2K:

Don't be so hard on yourself, any game is difficult when you first start out. First things first, I suggest you read over all the controls and do your best to memorize them. There's obviously different types of shots and dribbles and you won't be able to memorize everything but at least generally you'll know what to do in any given situation.

Also go to controller settings and make sure you put the defensive assistance and box out strength to max and put the shot contest on always, that'll make defense way easier for you.

Once you feel comfortable with the controls, practice. Practice, practice, practice. Do 5v5 scrimmages 1v1 on black top, shoot around,and etc and just get a feel for the game and you can begin to create your own style of play that you like and gets you W's. To me 2K came easy when I first started but even then I struggled myself to learn how to play even though I knew basketball well. It's all about just trying to be solid all around.

Passing is probably the most important skill you can learn, if you become a good passer the game becomes like 20x easier in some cases because it takes pressure of you and your team plays better ball. Next I'd say is defense, learn to play inside and out. I usually use LT (intense defense) a lot because it makes good contact with opponents and you move quicker on your feet, right stick can be pretty useful sometimes but on the perimeter it's really bad because you get stuck in one spot and opponents can easily move around. Rebounding couldn't hurt, boxing out is something a lot of people don't do on here for whatever reason but it's pretty simple so shouldn't be too hard. Scoring is obviously important. Depending on how you play jut work on trying to do pick and rolls, shooting 3s, maybe some play in the post, once you feel comfortable with the basics try more advanced stuff like step backs and fadeaways. It's a learning process, no one becomes amazing at the game when they first start out, even if it comes easy there's still a ton of work to do to be a good to great player.

Thanks for the descriptive response! Since posting this, I defintely have improved in most aspects. Passing, shooting, knowing when to shoot, and when not to. And I love the fade-away jumpers! Since I chose the Mavericks for MyLeague, I like to just feed the ball to Dirk Nowitzki when he's in the post and do his signature fadeaway from the baseline. He hits it, at least, 70% of the time. For the moment, I have playcalling set to Auto, and that makes it easier, cause my AI teammates will automatically set a screen/pick without me telling them to do so, and it's made life easier, but I still got a long way to go. After beating the Suns, the next game was against the Clippers, who are a much better team. I set the difficulty back to Pro. Although I went into the game thinking I was gonna get destroyed, I actually led the whole game... Then the 4th quarter came around.. I lost my lead, and ended up losing by a small margin, but I honestly could accept that loss. I'm gonna assume that when the AI is getting beat, they actually make adjustments to your style of play? Cause I was borderline dominating the Clippers in the first half, but the 2nd half was another story. They cut my lead down, and for the rest of the game, the lead was constantly changing, and in the end, I lost by single digits. It felt like the difficulty was slightly upped in the 2nd half, but if it's true that the AI is smart enough to adjust to play better, that's honestly really cool. I wish the Madden games had this much detail, since I'm a much bigger football fan than anything else.