Out of the 6 rounds I’ve tried in SuperMax, I’ve gotten to PD Tier 4 times (with the other two being Diamond and Amethyst, respectively). The first time I went like 11-1. The second time I went like 14-4. The last two times I went 17-5
Granted, I do have a GodSquad (http://2kmtcentral.com/18/lineups/378391/current-god-squad), but sense most people here believe in equalizer, it should pretty much be a null-point.
Here are the best tips I can give to those trying to win.
(1): Don’t approach any one game with a “win-or-go-home” mentality. 2K’s undeniable RNG & “end-game algorithm”, in conjunction with the likelihood of an “equalizer” effect, you just can’t take any one game too seriously. Stick to your game-plan, and live with the aggregate results. It’s not just about “being” or “playing” better than your opponent. You need to be considerably better than most of your opponents. If this is in fact the case, your win record will shape itself accordingly.
(2): You must find a way to stop the drive & the wide-open 3 pointer against a 5-out offense. This is where defensive settings are your friend.
Set your on ball defense to moderate (or sometimes even gap, depend ending on how your opponent is playing (if he likes to drive a lot more, I’ll play gap). If the player is a big who can’t shoot at all, I always leave it on gap. What this does is create a bigger “cushion”/amount of space between your A.I. defender and the ball-carrier. It makes it much harder for them to blow-by your defenders; which in turn, also takes out the wide open 3. Granted, smart players will take advantage of this with their 98 & 99 OVR Diamonds and PDs, by launching deep 3s in your face- but this result is better than just letting them run their 5-out how they want to run it. With good timing & predictions, you can switch to on-ball defense at the last second and manually contest their shot whenever you think they’re about to pull-up.
Set your off-ball defense to deny, unless they’re a bad shooter- in which case set your off-ball defense to “leave him”. This will lead to ideal passing-lane pressure & potential help defense.
Set your post to 3/4ths top (leads to even more steals, but you have to manually switch to your rebounders a lot- because they often won’t be in ideal rebounding position whenever you think a shot is going up/or has already gone up).
Set your Center’s Hedge defense to “Catch Hedge”. Bump steals galore.
Set all your on-ball and off-ball screens to “Switch-All” (side-note: you need to have built your lineup in such a way, for this to even be advisable). Do the same with your “Switch Rules”. This completely negates all plays & pick-&-rolls/fades, in favor of your opponent likely having defensive mismatches as a result. If you build your team right though, those mismatches will be non-existent.
Place your drive help to “no help”. This prevents a 3rd A.I. defender from coming to help (whenever you’re already helping, via off-ball defense), which then prevents a likely wide-open 3-pointer from that defender leaving his man to come help.
As for points of emphasis, I like to run “play physical” (tons of pressure, steals, & unfortunately fouls as well), neutral on defensive rebounding, and switch everything on the game plan.
After all of this is set, I basically let my great defenders do almost if the work. If they have a player who can’t shoot at all (Hassan Whiteside, Ben Simmons, Giannis, etc.), I’ll pretty much always just off-ball defend that certain player, and run around with that defender playing passing lanes & attempting bump steals. Because if this, literally every single time I’ve faced a player who had a PF &/or C who couldn’t shoot 3s, I won by a landslide.
If they blow by you; just try to predict whether they’re going to shoot off the drive, or pass out into a wide-open shot, and live with the results.
Offense in this game is a joke, but if you run these settings, you will see how much people will begin struggling. That’s where your offensive skills can sway the game even more.
(3): Master the Pick-&-Roll/Fade. Quick to call, gets the defense scrambling, & should be a “go-to” action for any player. Learn & master at least 3 plays (preferably with 3-point capabilities). Having go-to plays that lead to wide-open 3s in the 4th quarter is beyond invaluable. Having a god-said with infinite stats is irrelevant, if your players can’t get open.
(4): Play at a faster rate if you like, but don’t start forcing risky passes/shots. TBH, it’s a really inefficient way to play. People who glue their RT down before the game starts & then immediately start heaving half-court inbound passes, while zooming the ball up the court in an effort to get a wide open dunk are some of the worst/easiest to predict opponents I’ve ever played. I’ve also noticed that when I play these type of players, once I inevitably go up by 6-8+ points, I can literally see the results of their anger/frustration manifesting themselves within their game-plan, because they’ll start forcing absurdly risky full-court passes & being way too aggressive on defense. This causes me to go up even more.
(5): Build your team to be able to run a switch all defense. Shoot for a Lineup like this: http://2kmtcentral.com/18/lineups/404970/switch-all
I think most of you would have no problem building a lineup like that.
Height, defensive versatility, and ability to space the floor are all the most important factors.
(6): Set your offense points of emphasis to, “crash offensive glass”, “push the pace”, and “5-Out” (fight fire with fire).
Hopefully this proves helpful to some of you, as you continue throughout the next rounds of SM.