2K 2K
The information for NBA 2K22’s MyNBA will be coming next week, and if you’re a franchise-mode head, you’re anxiously waiting on the news, but probably not overly optimistic about what is in store for your favorite mode.
2K has left the info on the mode for the final days before the game releases on September 10, and it is sharing the spotlight with more popular features like MyCareer and The City.
Some feel this is a sign the mode will be seeing little-to-no major additions. Even with that bit of a disclaimer, let’s talk about some of the things we still hope to see added in MyNBA.
NBA 2K Community’s Design, Roster and Mod Enthusiast Weighs In on MyNBA Needs
2KRosters’ Da Infamous NY shared a detailed and expertly rendered brainstorm about how to improve MyNBA on his blog. He lit a fire with the following suggestions, and I’ll provide my perspective on the items he mentions.
Cross platform rosters, draft classes and scenarios. Give users the opportunity to play content made by the community regardless of what platform they play on.
MLB The Show 21 introduced cross-platform play this year, and they also allow the rosters and creations–including custom ballparks–to be shared across all platforms. While I agree with DINY, it’s probably not realistic to expect to see this in NBA 2K22 because cross-platform play hasn’t been included in the game. When that is in, we should begin to expect to be able to share community creations as well.
Improve the free agency logic. There should be a lower chance of superstars signing with small-market teams in Free Agency. Older players should agree to minimum deals in Free Agency more than likely especially if the team was a contender the previous year.
This is an accurate take as well, and there is less of an excuse for this not working properly in NBA 2K22. I haven’t had as much of an issue with this aspect in MyNBA, but I would say each player should have perhaps a more complex mental makeup/algorithm that dictates their most likely free-agent decision. Age, hometown, personal interest, quality of team, and of course money should all be factors in the decision with the possibility of a potential surprise decision to spice things up.
“Fix in-game injuries, they don’t exist.”
This one is pretty simple and indisputable. I played literally hundreds of games in NBA 2K21 MyNBA and no matter what we did to sliders, we almost never saw an injury. We finally got to the postseason and saw 2 in-game injuries. What was even worse, when those injuries occurred, the players were allowed to play through them and showed almost no ill-effects of their physical situation. I’m hoping to see injuries in MyNBA get a complete overhaul.
“Overall boost for players throughout seasons should be toned down especially for those that barely get minutes.”
This is one of the only areas I tend to disagree with DINY. There are other ways for players to improve besides getting a ton of minutes in games. This is where the mentor feature should come into play, or even an assistant coach who has been assigned to help a player improve.
“Improve the logic of trades, the majority of the CPU trades are just them doing a trade just to do a trade.”
Trade logic could definitely use some work. The deals are seemingly based too much on overall rating and not specific archetype fit, and there doesn’t appear to be any association with the players who are already on the team. An additional layer should be added to the trade logic.
Add Dynamic Player Tendencies. Dynamic player tendencies should change organically throughout a career, for example a big like Brook Lopez came into the league as post-up player, but by year 9 in his NBA Career, he started to shoot threes and those shot attempts increased each year after. Aging players should see a decrease in their dunking tendency and an increase in their layup tendency as they get into their mid 30’s. (unless you’re LeBron). I would love to see some cool random dynamic tendencies through out my simulations. Imagine what year-10 Ben Simmons’ three-point tendencies could be?
If you want to see NBA 2K simulations go to another level, implement a predictive element for aging that goes beyond simply dropping a player’s athletic-based attributes. Based on previous player comps and league history, the game’s algorithm could implement a function that creates a predicted trajectory for a player’s career. In an ideal situation, your own results in a MyNBA could alter the trajectory based on events such as over or underachievement and injuries that perhaps force a player to change their style prematurely, like Derrick Rose. This is the kind of thing that helps to create unique stories in each MyNBA users’ experience.
“Give coaches a numbers-based attribute system that includes an overall similar to the players. Let a coach with a good overall really make difference if hired by a team.”
In general, this concept has some potential, but more specifics would be necessary to bring it to life. There are currently grades for each coach that are supposed to have an impact on a player’s performance, but quite honestly, I cannot say that I can confirm I’ve seen the impact. Coach badges should perhaps work similarly to M-Factors in Madden, which is something I’ll get into in a second, but the impact from a coach should be situational. Some coaches excel in drawing up plays out of timeouts, or in making halftime adjustments. Some coaches are more defensive or offensive-minded. If those perks gave the players on the floor boosts in specific situations, it would make the men and women on the sideline more valuable in 2K.
Other Possible MyNBA Improvements
DINY’s list of suggestions is worth a read and we are almost entirely on the same page. Some of what I’ll list here is also on his list, perhaps with different verbiage, and other pieces aren’t mentioned.
Home-Court Advantage
Madden 22 isn’t a perfect game by any stretch, but their implementation of M-Factors was an excellent attempt at bringing in the home-field advantage dynamic. NBA 2K22 would be wise to follow suit in a way that relates to basketball since home-court is more powerful in their sport. Boosts for role players while playing at home, fewer foul calls and perhaps a stronger impact on low-awareness players from the road team are all examples of potential home-court advantage effects.
Technical Fouls
NBA 2K tried to incorporate this a few years back, but it was based on the user’s outbursts while playing the game. That was a bad idea. A better approach, exclusively for MyNBA play, is to have an emotion rating associated with each player. The guys who draw the most technicals like the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green might have the highest-rating. While there should be aspects of the game where this rating helps to boost their team’s play, these players should also be more prone to being called for technical fouls after being whistled for calls against them. As something of a counter, a player with a cooler head and a leadership personality should have some ability to buffer the situation. If there animations or sequences that show a calmer player getting between a hot head and an official or opposing player to prevent a technical, that would add an excellent layer to the presentation experience.
Create-a-Player Randomizer
Roster creators will likely vibe with this suggestion. I’d love to see NBA 2K add a button during player creation that allows you to randomize every aspect of the create-a-player process, or to completely randomize entire players from name to the smallest accessory. WWE 2K has had this option for the last two versions of their game, and with creation such a big part of NBA 2K, this seems like something that would be fun and useful for the hoops community.
We’ll find out all of the details next week with the deep dive and the official release on September 10.