With the NBA gearing up to start the 2021-2022 season in October, fans are eager to get their hands on some basketball action soon. Thankfully, NBA 2K22 is only days away and fans will be able to get started on another year of MyCareer and MyTeam. One of the NBA 2K22 new features is an upgrade for Seasons, which 2K promised would have more rewards and content for players that will be available free of charge. But what everyone wants to know about (or complain about) are the tweaks and changes to the gameplay. Thankfully, there’s a new post previewing these changes. We’ll go over the ones we think are the most relevant.

Three things that stood out from the list were improvements to the game’s defensive AI, the new shot meter, and improvements to motion-capture animations that leave drunk attempts nebulous. More nuance and uncertainty means that score attempts aren’t as certain, leaving players feeling disheartened and out of the game once a score lead is established. Hopefully, these NBA 2K22 new features will encourage players to stick around in games now that defensive plays have gotten a little buff.

Defense – According to Mike Wang, the gameplay director, both “shot contest and blocking systems were completely rebuilt, leading to several new snatch blocks and volleyball spikes that never happened before.” More options for your players’ defensive game should encourage equal aggression on defense than offensive, especially now that spacing and floor defense is easier to execute with much less sliding than we saw in 2K21. Players that mastered defensive stances and lane denial should feel rewarded more often. Steal animations also improved, which means that approaches beyond the three-point line can introduce a new series of mind games. 

Defensive AI – AI should stop ignoring the ballhandler in favor of their man in 2K22, which means no more random lanes opening up! AI should now be able to handle two offensive threats and assert priority on which threat to cover. Improved chase behaviors will allow off-ball defenders to maneuver screens intelligently to cover drives to the rim. 

New Shot Meter – The shot meter got some visual changes this year to better reflect defensive pressure on the shot. According to Wang, the “window will expand when you’re taking high-quality shots with good shooters, but will shrink when heavily contested, shooting with a low-rated shooter, or fatigued.” 

This visual change should better reflect a player’s Shot IQ and what the game understands as an open shot or a “smart shot.” Depending on what’s happening at the mechanical level, this could mean that smart shots on the player’s end routinely match up more with the game’s definition. 

Finishing – Changes have also been made to incorporate timing into alley-oops and aggressive dunk attempts. Instead of having these processes automated, players will need to time their oops and input their drunk attempts more precisely, making these satisfying shot attempts more hype when they connect. 

New Badges – Out of all the new badges that were previewed in the post, “Limitless Spot-up” caught our eye as it allows players to hit logo-range three-pointers off a catch and shoot. Floating passes until your sharpshooter is in logo range to hit near unbreakable threes seems broken. We’ll see how 2K handles this badge after day 1. 

Along with these NBA 2K22 new features, 2K also posted a new gameplay trailer highlighting these new animations and the game’s visual depth, as well as the game’s enhanced WNBA mode. As usual, 2K knows how to impress right before launch, but we’ll see if this year’s title will be free of last year’s poor reception from fans. 

NBA 2K22 is set to release September 10 or 2K Day if you prefer.