Nick's MyLEAGUE player Progression/Regression sliders

[Nick]

Long time no see! Any NLSC OG's in the house?

Some of you may know me as Barnsey (or now Barncore) over at OperationSports, but NLSC is where my roots are. I moved from PC to console a bunch of years ago so OS became more relevant to me but NLSC was the very first online community i became apart of so it holds a special place in my e-heart. So i thought i'd share some ML sliders i spent a bunch of hours testing and tweaking here as well.

Some of you older cats might remember my fictional draft classes from 2K12? And you even older cats might remember my very mediocre cyberfaces from NBA Live 2001-2004. Speak up if you do, that would totally spin me out!

Anyway, I'm determined to create sliders that replicate the NBA landscape as much as possible. So far I've spent the most time testing the progression/regression elements. I've done a bit of contracts tuning and few bits and pieces in other places too.

A quick bit about me:
I was super excited to see that you can customize player progression in 2K19. I’ve been following the NBA for over 15 years, and have been religiously tracking player progression the whole time. Player development is the aspect of the NBA that fascinates me the most. Even when i was 12 years old playing NBA Live 2001 i used to love playing season modes and watching stars develop. This curiosity has made me pay close attention to player development in the NBA. I’ve seen all the trends. I’ve thoroughly analysed every draft crop since 2006 and watched their growth. It’s what i enjoy. These sliders are based on my observations over the past 15 years.

Slider Settings v3 (updated Sep 24th, 2018)

SETUP
Autosave: On
Season Length: 82 Games
Quarter Length: 6 Minutes
Simulated Quarter Length: 12 Minutes
Normalize Played to Sim Minutes: On
Normailize Played to Sim Stats: On
Fantasy Draft: Off
Draft Order: -
Draft Type: -
Player Pool: -
Allow Duplicates -

PLAYOFF LENGTH
All: Best of 7

FEATURES
Automatic League Expansion: On
Protected Players: 8
Progressive Fatigue: On
Team Chemistry: On
Rule Changes: On
-
MISCELLANEOUS
Draft Class Quality: 50 (default for now)


CONTRACTS
Salary Cap: On
Salary Cap Value(Millions): 102
Salary Cap Inflation Rate: 50
Hard Cap: On
Hard Cap Value(Millions): 190
-
SALARY EXPECTATIONS
Min Rating: 50
Max Rating: 50
Salary Curve: 50
Player Potential: 20
Player Durability: 35
Player Minutes: 80
Player Fame: 25
Player Non-Financial Ambitions: 55


TRADES
Trade Logic: On
Trade Deadline: On
Recently Signed Restrictions: On
Recently Traded Restrictions: On
Rookie Signing Restrictions: On
Financial Trade Rules: On
Stepian Rule: Off
Trade Override: Off
CPU Trade Offers: On
CPU-CPU Trades: On
Trade Approval: Off
Trade Frequency: 50
Previously Traded Draft Picks: On
-
PLAYER TRADE VALUE:
Team Style Importance: 27
Player Fame Importance: 5
Euro-Stash Discount: 95
New Player Premium: 25
Untouchable Premium: 50
Age Discount: Contending: 96
Age Discount: Buying: 98
Age Discount: Selling: 90
Age Discount Rebuilding: 93
-
PLAYER TYPE DISCOUNTS (all pretty much default for now apart from a few minor changes)
All-Around: 100
Two-Way: 100
Offensive: 99
Defensive: 97
Athletic: 98
Rebounding: 94
Playmaking: 99
Outside: 98
Inside: 97
-
DRAFT PICK TRADE VALUE:
Draft Pick Importance: 96
Draft Pick Importance: 93
Draft Pick Importance: 107
Draft Pick Importance: 105
-
PICK DEPRICATION (default for now):
Year 2: 90
Year 3: 80
Year 4: 70
Year 5: 65
-
LINEUP IMPACT VS NET VALUE:
Net Value: Contending: 35
Net Value: Buying: 30
Net Value: Selling: 85
Net Value: Rebuilding: 80


INJURIES:
Injuries: On
Use Roster Injuries: Off (i always have this as On, but for some reason it always saves as Off)
Injury severity: 50
Injury Duration: 50
Career-Ending Injury Frequency: 50


PROGRESSION:
Player Progression Rate: 54
Player Regression Rate: 68
-
IN-SEASON TRAINING:
All set at Default / 50 for now.


ATTRIBUTES PROGRESSION
-
GROWTH PHASE:
Standing Layup: 80
Driving Layup: 80
Post Fadeaway: 75
Post Hook: 75
Post Control: 73
Draw Foul: 95
Shot Close: 70
Contested Shot Mid-Range: 75
Open Shot Mid-Range: 85
Off Dribble Shot Mid-Range: 75
Contested Shot Three: 75
Open Shot Three: 85
Off Dribble Shot Three: 75
Free Throw: 45
Ball Control: 90
Passing Vision: 65
Passing IQ: 80
Passing Accuracy: 85
Boxout: 80
Offensive Rebound: 63
Defensive Rebound: 65
Lateral Quickness: 12
Pass Perception: 70
Block: 70
Shot Contest: 75
Steal: 70
Defensive Consistency: 100
On-Ball Defensive IQ: 80
Pick and Roll Defensive IQ: 80
Help Defensive IQ: 83
Low Post Defence IQ: 80
Standing Dunk: 45
Driving Dunk: 45
Contact Dunk: 45
Speed: 12
Speed With Ball: 38
Acceleration: 12
Vertical: 12
Strength: 85
Stamina: 85
Hustle: 15
Shot IQ: 88
Hands: 80
Reaction Time: 70
Offensive Consistency: 100
-
PEAK PHASE:
Standing Layup: 0
Driving Layup: 0
Post Fadeaway: 20
Post Hook: 5
Post Control: 20
Draw Foul: 15
Shot Close: 5
Contested Shot Mid-Range: 15
Open Shot Mid-Range: 20
Off Dribble Shot Mid-Range: 15
Contested Shot Three: 15
Open Shot Three: 20
Off Dribble Shot Three: 15
Free Throw: 0
Ball Control: 5
Passing Vision: 10
Passing IQ: 20
Passing Accuracy: 10
Boxout: 0
Offensive Rebound: 0
Defensive Rebound: 0
Lateral Quickness: 0
Pass Perception: 10
Block: 0
Shot Contest: 5
Steal: -5
Defensive Consistency: 15
On-Ball Defensive IQ: 10
Pick and Roll Defensive IQ: 10
Help Defensive IQ: 25
Low Post Defence IQ: 10
Standing Dunk: 0
Driving Dunk: -5
Contact Dunk: -5
Speed: 0
Speed With Ball: 0
Acceleration: 0
Vertical: -5
Strength: 15
Stamina: 5
Hustle: 0
Shot IQ: 20
Hands: 5
Reaction Time: 15
Offensive Consistency: 20
-
DECLINE PHASE:
Standing Layup: -30
Driving Layup: -38
Post Fadeaway: -17
Post Hook: -20
Post Control: -20
Draw Foul: -33
Shot Close: -31
Contested Shot Mid-Range: -20
Open Shot Mid-Range: 0
Off Dribble Shot Mid-Range: -35
Contested Shot Three: -20
Open Shot Three: 0
Off Dribble Shot Three: -35
Free Throw: 2
Ball Control: -20
Passing Vision: 0
Passing IQ: 5
Passing Accuracy: 0
Boxout: -15
Offensive Rebound: -35
Defensive Rebound: -35
Lateral Quickness: -45
Pass Perception: 0
Block: -31
Shot Contest: -26
Steal: -31
Defensive Consistency: -18
On-Ball Defensive IQ: -27
Pick and Roll Defensive IQ: -24
Help Defensive IQ: -8
Low Post Defence IQ: -25
Standing Dunk: -37
Driving Dunk: -37
Contact Dunk: -35
Speed: -33
Speed With Ball: -20
Acceleration: -45
Vertical: -40
Strength: 0
Stamina: -33
Hustle: -35
Shot IQ: 0
Hands: 0
Reaction Time: 0
Offensive Consistency: -20


DIFFICULTY
Gamplay Difficulty: All-Star
ALL: 50, except...
Morale Effects: 55
Chemistry Effects: 60
CPU Injury Frequency: 52
User Injury Frequency: 52

To stay in the loop with updates then probably best to keep an eye on this thread at OS.

If you're on PS4 you can download directly:
PSN: barncore33
Filename: BarnseyProgressions

[Nick]

Philosophy n shit:
Players are at their athletic peak at the start of their career, around the age of 20 to 24. Give or take a year or so. This is when they have the most bounce, but not necessarily the most mass/strength. As they build mass, their functional athleticism plateaus during their mid-late 20's. For the most part, players come into the league with their athletic identity set in stone. You can still add functional athleticism (more efficient movements, stronger core and legs, stuff like that) but the changes are more subtle than things like IQ and ball skill (especially IQ).

So which athletic attributes develop/regress the most/least and when?

• -Acceleration and lateral quickness regress faster in father time than speed and vertical. Think about Vince Carter, he can still jump high, but the QUICKNESS of his jump is what goes down. VC is an outlier athletically but there are many examples of this. Twitch-athleticism is the most important kind of athleticism in basketball (more than power-athleticism), and that’s the thing that decreases the most. Vets still have a decent top speed, but how quickly the get to that top speed is what decreases, and how much energy it requires to get to that top speed decreases too.
  
• -Strength doesn’t decrease in father time, but stamina does significantly. If anything, players in the decline phase are stronger than ever in terms of core strength and mass, but the energy required to move around the court raises, and they run out of stamina much quicker. Think about Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan or any other vet in father time phase, they don’t play less minutes because they can’t play anymore, they play less because their declining athleticism uses up more energy quicker. Hence the minutes decrease.
  
• -Vertical and Speed is at its highest around a player’s early 20’s. It plateaus through their peak phase, and declines slowly through their regression phase.
  
• -Strength is at its lowest in a player’s rookie year and slowly increases ever year through growth phase as well as peak phase (but especially growth phase). It doesn’t decline.
  
• -Acceleration and Lateral quickness is at its highest in a player’s early 20’s. It plateaus through their peak house, and declines quickly through their regression phase.

Since a player’s game stems from athletic profile, as a player’s athleticism starts to decline, as does their impact. But a player doesn’t lose their IQ or their ball skill as they decline, they are as strong as ever, the thing that declines is their CAPABILITIES given their athletic profile...
So what non-athletic attributes are affected by declining athleticism?

• -Shooting off the dribble is largely affected by athletic decline, but open shooting isn’t. Vets in father time can’t create as much space as they used to. Open shooting retains through regression phase. FT also retains.
  
• -Driving layup is affected by athletic decline. Less acrobatics.
  
• -All 3 dunking attributes are affected by athletic decline.
  
• -Drawing foul is slightly affected by athletic decline. Vets retain saviness, but defenders don’t bite on as much stuff as they did when the player had athletic edge. Also, refs don't call it as much.
  
• -Speed with ball. Self explanatory.
  
• -Post control goes down a bit. Less flexibility for footwork, less impactful movements.
  
• -Rebounding attributes are affected by athletic decline.
  
• -Steals and block success are affected by athletic decline.

What things DON’T get affected by athletic decline?

• -Open shots.
• -FT
• -Shot IQ.
• -All 3 passing attributes
• -Hands
• -Help defense IQ
• -Pass perception
• -Reaction time

What about offensive and defensive consistency?
In my mind, these attributes should be THE main difference maker between young players and vets. In my vision for the landscape, it shouldn’t be uncommon for a young star prospect to come into the league with a 50 for offensive consistency and be able to end up with a 90. A young player might have the athletic profile required to be a star but not have the experience required to make him a consistent scorer/defender. Some mental traits are instinctual and locked in (reaction time for example), but some intangible traits are developed from PLAYING in an NBA game. Consistency is one of those things imo. Therefore Off and Def Consistency (and some IQ ratings) is the thing that increases the most during growth phase.

Which attributes are the easiest to develop during growth phase?

• -Practice based skills (ball handling, shooting based attributes (especially open shot), hands, pass accuracy, boxout)
• -Game experience based attributes (draw foul, help defense, consistency)
• -Gym based attributes (strength, stamina)

Which attributes generally come naturally to a player and are fairly locked in with minimal progression or regression?

• -Passing vision
• -Reaction time
• -Maybe pass perception (i still gotta figure out what that affects in the game exactly)
• -Hustle

Any attributes i haven’t listed above is considered “normal” progression/regression.

These settings are made assuming people make draft classes where young players have less strength and consistency attributes than vets, yet athletic attributes that set their athletic profile from day 1.

Note: Player peak start and ends have a big impact on results, as does the team’s in-season training schedules for the individual player. Injuries also affect regression. Also there is an element of random at play too. Lots of variables.

[Rosque]

Yo! Did not realize that was you on OS. Best 2K12 DCs. Maybe on all 2K period. If you want you can take my contract/trade sliders and put yours as what I recommend for progression/regression, I've shared them here and on OS.

[Dee4Three]

Awesome to see you here as well (I'm retro Dee4three on OS).

I'll be swinging by and checking out your thread often.

Thanks man.

[dwayne12345]

Good stuff. The only argument that I would pose is for Reaction Time. As someone who was athletic his whole life (basketball and track) and is now in his 30s I can say that reaction time is absolutely affected by declining athleticism.

Not being able to quickly read and react to a crossover (as I understand that rating to impact) is part of an athlete's demise.

I would put it slower than straight up lateral quickness but definitely not something that you keep sharp like spot up shooting.

[Nick]

@Rosque - not really sure what you're saying there.

@Dee4Three -

@dwayne - Gonna have to agree to disagree on this one! I think that with NBA players the mental sharpness is always there, it's the muscle fibres that can't react as fast as the mental part intends as they get older, it's not the actual mental reaction time getting slow.
I'd say your mental reaction time is slower now for other reasons, like perhaps you don't play organised basketball as much as you used to in your 20's. You don't use it, you lose it. But a professional athlete wouldn't have that problem imo.

[suirad]

posts like this is why I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY. Just to know that there are basketball junkies just like me all over the place. My current rig is not strong enough to play 2k19 at max settings even though I own every iteration of 2k since its enception. I am ponying up this year to get a cpu stong enough to play this to the max as the franchise control and tweaks youa re able to make are a virtual bball lovers dream. Because of this feature, I have also decided to actually play a fantasy league and not control absolutely every move by every team as when I play I ALWAYS mimic real life moves and results (wins, losses,etc). The only thing I ever let be random is in game action. Because of what 2k has done this year I'm going to LET GO OF CONTROL lol. I am definetly gonna implement what you have organized here as what you say has made a lot of sense to me as someone who has followed bball yearly since 91 with draft classes, college basketball etc. IM AMPED!!!!!

[Nick]

^ How's the passion! Glad to hear it mate and i know the feeling.

Good luck giving up control, i'm not there yet lol