Whereas jumpers were measured in milliseconds, some jumpers this year can take over a full second to get off leading to the defense being able to close out quickly. This leads to more misses due to contested shots, and on the higher difficulty levels slow shooting makes it nearly impossible to get a clean look off against the CPU. Faster shooters, like Steph Curry, will fare better than the slower shooters but even his lightning-fast release seems a touch slower this year. 2K has also seemingly nerfed the effect of contested shots to try and make up for the slower jump shots.
Another issue with shooting comes from down in the paint. While NBA 2K23 has shown love to slashers by upping the badges and animations to allow for above the rim play to excel, there are still way too many missed layups. Even the context of these missed layups is weird as a slashing guard can miss a lightly contested driving layup one minute, only to have a big with a similar layup rating make a smothered attempt the next. Also back this year are the instances of missed layup-offensive rebound-missed layup loops that seemed to occur all too often in 2K23. It's nothing that a patch wouldn't fix but it's still disappointing to see.
Post play is more satisfying than ever and is spot on in NBA 2K23. Post moves make sense and the animations are all really well done. Each interaction carries weight and it feels as if the two players are really struggling to establish position. Post hooks are well done as are hop shots and spin moves, but it's the post fade that is the star. The addition of the deep fades badge means that the post fade will be a strong go-to move for all types of players.
Passing
There are no two ways around it: passing is the worst part of NBA 2K23's. As someone who loves to play as a playmaking build, it pains me to see all of the issues that drag down the way passes function. Collision detection is extremely spotty and the ball will often clip through a player in one instance while being intercepted psychically from two feet away in others. That's right, psychic passing lane steals are still in the game. They are tied to an interceptor badge but enough players in the game have it that it will be seen often. Bounce passes are completely broken and will pass straight through bodies to get to the target in many cases. Rarely are these bounce passes kicked or deflected like they should be.
Alley-oops are still difficult to pull off and are inconsistent. Most of the time the player you pass to will simply not catch the lob and it will result in a turnover. Other times, it seems like the ball magnetically tracks the player you pass to even if the ball is on a line drive. It's an ugly animation and kills some of the immersion of the game. The developers talked about adding a contextual pass into the post but that has been implemented in a very half-baked way. Far too often the trajectory of the ball is too flat and can lead to turnovers if the defender is fronting the post player.
Another area of frustration with passing is on the fast break and on cuts. Jump stop animations and instances of halting player momentum on fast breaks happens far too often, as do passes that just sail out of bounds off a defensive rebound. Even when hitting a man in stride, the player will turn their body to get the pass, which often leads to a complete loss of momentum allowing defenders to catch up. On cuts, lead passing isn't as good as it should be and there are animations where both the pass recipient and their defender will stop in their tracks, which is a dead giveaway that an interception is going to occur.
