How about a defend button?

I don't mean the steal button, because that's just stealing, which is only one aspect of defense. Basically, what the defend button would do is basically be a button that would make your player try to bother the player and worsen his shot. The effectiveness and the intensity of this defense button should be determined by defensive awareness and a "prone to foul"stat. This way, the def. awareness stat would have much more meaning and it would make you rely less on steals. (Because steals and blocks aren't the only way to defend, and it's actually quite rare considering the total amount of posessions...unless you're playing against a shitty team.) I know that the defenders sort of stick to the player sometimes when they're defending, but it's kind of random, and it looks kind of awkward.

That could be kinda cool if used in more ways than one.

Not only would pushing the button challenge the shots, but you can use the button in other aspects of defending. If you anticipate that your opposing player is going to drive, you could push defend and the player will take a step back and better position themselves to play for the drive. If you push it too late then you allow the easy drive. (To add a bit of risk/reward and skill to it) If you push it too early the player is open for the shot.

It would actually add some defensive knowledge to the game!

Interesting idea, but its functions could in theory be achieved with the moves we have at our disposal already. After all, we can position a player, hold our ground to try and draw a charge, raise the player's hands as well as jumping to block/challenge a shot. Perhaps I'm not completely understanding the functions of a defensive button but surely the same results could be achieved by making the current defensive moves more effective in bothering defenders.

Well in my eyes this feature would be used by positioning your player defensively with the joystick, but hitting the "defend" button only at the appropriate times.

In our current game when player's drive, the defender seemingly just sticks to the driver, rather than have the defense actually achieve anything. Maybe it's just my custom sliders though.

Well in my eyes this feature would be used by positioning your player defensively with the joystick, but hitting the "defend" button only at the appropriate times.

In our current game when player's drive, the defender seemingly just sticks to the driver, rather than have the defense actually achieve anything. Maybe it's just my custom sliders though.

Yea, that's what I meant. They just stick to the defender and don't do much. You can't have someone as Bowen or Artest who keeps on harassing the player to either steal the ball or make their opponents' shot worse.

I think Nick's idea would be a great addition as well.