2k Shot Quality — Improving Your Basketball IQ
NBA2K21 just dropped. The emphasis on MyPlayer, ratings, and badges is overdone.
Be smarter. Let the competition get lost in the ratings madness — instead, let’s focus on improving your basketball IQ to be competitive in any setting.
Basketball IQ is an afterthought in such a ratings driven title.
Where there is a lack of emphasis on user basketball IQ, there is opportunity in running efficient plays, and selecting the best shots. The opportunities reside in mastering these aspects of the game that are not ratings driven. In doing so, your game will be on-point, irrespective of player builds.
The 2kSQ metric measures your quality of shot. It is premised on proprietary shot quality metric pro teams are using in the NBA, inspired by MIT Sloan Analytics Conference data and SportVu tools.
The metric is created with a number of variables: it measures your shot input, the spacing and defense of the shot (which includes defender ratings, arm-length, and proximity) and is blended with real-NBA analytics.
The key performance indicators chosen to build this metric were selected because of their ability to measure efficiency in your game. For example, taking shots with proper spacing, with feet set, and with excellent timing or shot stick accuracy results in higher shot quality performance under 2kSQ.
There are boosts given to shots taken within the paint, and when players set their feet. The real-world data and in-game data supports the formula weights we’ve applied to the numbers to create 2kSQ.
KPIs will need to be charted on a per game basis. After collecting a strong sample size, we can begin to recognize trends and identify areas to improve shot selection.
The weighted-metric works with current-gen, and will likely work on next-gen.
In summary, if you master the basketball fundamentals in 2K, you will be competitive on any court you step on, on any platform, year in, year out. The 2kSQ metric will help you identify patterns in your game and find areas to improve. This is especially critical and valuable to maximize efficiency in early games in MyPlayer.
If you’re interested in working on your game with this metric, I can be reached on Twitter @DreamCodeGames. We can dive into some analytics together.
Let’s work smarter. Let’s get to work.
