Simulation Difficulty in MyLeague

[America's Next Top nae nae'er]

I have always loved the franchise building/rebuilding/contending etc elements of 2k, but I noticed this time around that there are options to how difficult the simulation is. I started a franchise with the Bulls where the slider was set to 50, thinking that it would be just as difficult as past iterations of the game (last i played was 2016). I found that the Bulls were actually competitive and a playoff contender. While I understand that there are sometimes flukes, it really just seems like the simulation is kinder now and I kinda wanted to work on rebuilding a team.

Tl;dr: Is there a setting that more closely mirrors reality in terms of simulation difficulty, or have my Bulls just gotten lucky in my current season where they are contending without having good players?

[BonPadre]

Fortunately for you, even after having already started your own league, you can still fiddle with many many adjustable slide bars to suit your taste. Will use edited scereens to guide you (sorry my game's in french)

Launch your save, hit [Esc] and then go to the options (1), should look like this
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180176689
Then look for User / AI set up (2)

And here simply already you could choose to go up from the base pro, to all star or whatever suits your taste (3)...
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180176706
Just don't stop here, as it will create a pre defined setup with those slide bars...
Change the AI OR the user slide bars (4)
Use them to create your own experiance (5)... like you like how you shoot ? but want a higher defending style on AI instead of just a tad more defense from AI but crappy shoots for you...

Then good thing is it doesn't stop here either...
Still in options (1)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180178770
Use the league setup (2)
And then scroll and adjust everything (3), from a weaker ranomized draft class, to a higher AI agressivity resigning it's free agents, etc...
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180178789
Just be aware that it may take you quite some time to find the stuff you like and dislike... so maybe also take notes somewhere at what numbers are the slidebars that affects the most how you like to play... From playing the game to simulating some parts of it.

Here you go, hope it helps, and you will find your fun