If you have to be completely honest, how much of a "sim" basketball gamer are you? After all, most of us say that we want NBA Live and NBA 2K to be as realistic as possible, but how closely do we adhere to that philosophy?
There have been times when I've discovered that I'm not as sim as I thought I was, in terms of the strategies I was using. There are times when I've definitely been looking to play a video game, and not basketball, contrary to Da_Czar's creed. These days, I feel like I play a fairly realistic brand of basketball in franchise modes and the like, when I'm controlling all five players on the court. I like to distribute the ball in a way that resembles the real life pecking order, and I do run plays, though I will often leave it up to the AI by using each game's respective "best play" option. I won't pass up open dunks or layups, but I'm not always trying to pound the ball inside for the slam.
Interestingly, when I've gone back and played some older basketball games with the tactics that are now effective in today's games - more true to life strategy, in other words - I've found that quite a few of them will play along, to some extent. It's made me realise that I definitely wasn't playing some of them as realistically as I thought I was, back in the day! I think I've been able to develop an increasingly realistic style as the games have allowed it, and actually rewarded it.
That's in traditional gameplay, however. When it comes to MyCAREER, I find that I'm willing to play a slightly looser style, and try to dunk a bit more often. I figure that it's already unrealistic enough that I'm playing in the NBA, so it won't hurt to take a few more liberties. To that end, for the purposes of 2K Pro-Am and MyCAREER, my player has far more athleticism and dunking ability than I possess. Having gone back and attempted to finish some of the games in NBA 2K11's Jordan Challenge that I missed the first time around, I'm also going with whatever tactics will reach the statistical goals. If driving it in for a dunk or layup on every play will get MJ the required points, that's what I've been doing.