So you want to bring that D? Ready to be the guy in your Crew, MyCAREER, at The Park, or Blacktop that locks up the opponents best player? Well here’s a great way to start when first creating and upgrading your my player.
Create a Defensive Small Forward Player Type
This is probably the obvious choice here for player type. When choosing a player type (i.e. athletic, slasher, defensive, etc.) you want to pick “Defensive.” While your offensive and athletic attributes will take a hit from this, what this does is allows you to create a beast defensive guy, which means higher defensive attributes caps and access to more and higher levels of defensive signature skills.
Small Forward is an ideal position because you get the best of both worlds – decent quickness and speed to keep up with smaller players, but also decent blocks, strength, and post defense for when you’re matched up versus a bigger guy. The key is to have insane defensive versatility while minimizing any defensive weaknesses as much as possible.
Create a Hybrid / Versatile Defender Body Type
Next is the body type – what height and weight should your player be? Think along the lines of LeBron James, Scottie Pippen, Taj Gibson, Josh Smith, etc. These players have the body type, length, and athleticism to guard multiple positions, doing a good job on both perimeter and post players. So mold your my player’s body type after a versatile defender and body type that already exists in the NBA. Josh Smith is good example. In the NBA 2K world, he has the perfect height (6’9″) that is short enough to remain quick enough to guard perimeter players, but also his size and build allows him to bang with power forwards and some smaller Centers in the paint. If you’d like a player mold to base your player off of, he or LeBron James would be a good place to start.
Load Up on Defensive Signature Skills and Personality Badges
As you probably already know, you’re allowed 5 signature skills for Xbox 360 / PS3. Here are the ones we recommend: Lockdown Defender (big surprise there!), Pick Pocket, Eraser, Interceptor, and Scrapper. After a substantial amount of testing, we found that this combo works best to be a versatile and beast defender. In this, you have Lockdown Defender sig to give you the defensive advantage, Pick Pocket for on-ball steals, Interceptor for passing lane steals, and Eraser for blocking. Chose Scrapper because it gives you the advantage to recover those 50-50 loose balls after poking the ball loose. What this signature skills combo does is give you a variety of ways to wreak havoc on the offense, as well as improved foot planting and quicker recovery when out of position.
For next-gen, with the 7 sig skills allowed, include these 5 and also add Active Hands and Chase Down Artist. For personality badges, choose Defensive Anchor and Enforcer. (Bonus Tip: when you get Signature Shoes, use the boost on Speed +3 to increase your my player’s ability to keep up with faster players).
And Then… Hone Your Defensive Skills
Of course creating the ideal defensive player is just one part of it, honing your defensive skills is another. You can check out these tips and tutorials — How to Get Steals and On-Ball Defense & Defensive Shading for more tips on how to approach defense and become a better NBA 2K14 defender.
Hope these tips helped your game! Let us know if this worked for you and check back here for more upcoming NBA 2K14 tips!
