NBA 2K22 Gameplay: What to Expect

NBA 2K22 gameplay director Mike "Beluba" Wang released a dev blog Tuesday detailing plenty of enhancements coming next week with the release of the virtual basketball franchise's next title.

After weeks of going over cover athletes, player ratings, new features and more leading up the upcoming title's launch, 2K has finally given out details about what the next NBA 2K title's gameplay will entail.

NBA 2K22 Gameplay: What to Expect

This year, 2K looked to target "faster-paced gameplay," centered around tighter and more responsive movement and more skill-based offense. Wang also said the team has made a "strong push" to make the same quality gameplay upgrades on both current and next-gen versions of the game in order to make the experience not as drastically different between the two as it has been in recent years.

Starting off with defense, which Wang claims was 2K's No. 1 priority when developing this year's game, NBA 2K22 is to feature a rebuilt shot contest and blocking system, along with a new defensive positioning logic and new hedge defender logic.

Especially for those who've played NBA 2K21 Next Gen, you'll know that the series has gone way off into the deep ends of isolation-centered offense, where the person with the ball has all the power in the world to score methodically on every possession. It will be very interesting to see if 2K22 truly has shaken up this dynamic, with Wang mentioning that the primary goal for improving defense was to give gamers the tools to be able to really change the outcome of the game on the floor and at the rim.

With dribbling, Wang claimed that "playmakers are going to have a field day with this year’s game." According to the post, 1-to-1 Basic Size-ups have been removed and replaced by 1-to-1 Signature Size-ups, essentially getting rid of the flick vs. hold right stick dynamic of last year's game. In addition to the return of the speed stick mechanic introduced in 2K21 Next Gen as well, the new experience is said to offer players the ability to have complete control of their dribble moves rather than it feeling like a preset movie.

Aside from new combos, cancels, and move chains, NBA 2K22 will reportedly feature around 50 unique signature size-up packages, 32 unique dribble sequences and 32 dribble styles. Additionally, taller players are said to have noticeably slower Speed with Ball ratings than shorter players.

For those who like to play in the post, there are new cancel and abort back-to-basket dribbles, new RT/R2 chainable fakes, new disengage faceup moves, new hop shots/fades/hooks and a better "pull chair" mechanic.

Lastly, shooting success in NBA 2K22 is said to be highly dependent on Shot IQ, while finishing will incorporate added timing meters to both alley-oop and aggressive skill dunk attempts on next gen.