If you’ve ever played walk-on with randoms, you may know that it can be hit or miss on finding decent players. Here are some very common sense / basic BBALL IQ tips on how not to play like trash in walk-on/pro-am.
1) Stop Calling for the Ball 24/7 & Pass!
If you’re a total noob to the NBA 2K series, just stop calling for the ball 24/7. Â Let someone who knows what he’s doing run the offense. Â There are many point guards who don’t know how to run point, but they happen to chose PG. Â We see this way too often in walk-on.
 2) Spread Out
Spacing spacing spacing. Think the Golden State Warriors. You want to give your teammates driving lanes so they can drive and kick, take it all the way to the hoop, etc. It’s not all about you, so pay attention to the position of your teammates. Give them room to operate. This also includes centers who clog the paint when someone is trying to drive and dunk. Read your teammates and adjust accordingly.
3) Try a Different Camera Angle
Wonder why you keep running into your teammates or everyone cuts at the same time? Could be that your camera angle and your teammate(s) camera angle are polar opposites. ‘2k cam’ has the most advantages in 5on5 as far as seeing the passing lanes, playing team defense, and spacing. Change camera angle in park and pro-am by pressing D-pad right.
4) Stop Chasing Your “Who to Guard” Arrow
For basketball IRL, there are no arrows. Teams switch, rotate, play help defense, hedge, trap, etc. The ‘who to guard arrow’ is just a visual guide, not a be-all end-all to playing defense. If you see your teammate leave his man to trap or play help defense, have his back by finding the open man to guard, etc.
5) Stop Quitting
Playing vs the CPU sucks in pro-am! We all chose online multiplayer so that we could play vs other ballers, not the CPU.
6) Help Your Teammates
Do whatever you can do to help get the W. Set an off-ball pick, act as a decoy, move smartly without the ball, play solid defense, score, etc. If you show your value to the team by trying to get the win instead of only stats and glory, others will see this and trust the rock in your hands more.
I think a key point you missed is KNOW YOUR ROLE. This is not mycareer on easy difficulties where you can score upwards of 50 points and pad your stats. If you are primarily a shooter, stick around the perimeter and move, looking for an open shot. If you are a slasher, don’t shoot threes, stick closer to the paint or drive from the perimeter. Let playmakers run the offense, as they have the best passing and handles, and the same goes for shot creators. Centers, don’t sit in the paint, post up, and get three-second calls. Move around, set screens, then roll to the basket. If you are not a post scorer, I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT TRY TO POST SCORE. You will miss the shot 75% of the time on a decent defender. Just cut and let your teammates dish it to you.
Not being pessimistic but this is basically just saying “know how to play basketball IRL”
When they go for it to be a simulation style game people forget that it is still based on that thing you do for real LOL