Smoother, cleaner, and more responsive gameplay, powered by ProPLAY™.

ProPLAY™*, as you know it, is evolving on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. The revolutionary gameplay technology we introduced on Gen 9 consoles in NBA 2K24 has pushed the authenticity on the court to new heights—and in NBA 2K26 we’re taking it another step further.

Using actual NBA footage, we’re able to directly translate your favorite NBA stars’ signature moves and distinct movements to create thousands of realistic animations. Experience immersive gameplay that looks smoother, feels faster, and flows more seamlessly than any NBA 2K game to date. Let’s dive into this year’s all-new features and detail what makes NBA 2K26 such a game-changer.

ProPLAY powers all-new dynamic motion in NBA 2K26; generated from real-world NBA footage that influences all on-court movement—offense, defense, and off-ball. This new Motion Engine is the biggest change to player movement since NBA 2K21 and further advances the one-to-one realism in gameplay, which took a giant leap forward with the Dribble Engine introduced in NBA 2K25.

New machine-learning technology in NBA 2K26 on Gen 9 offers more precise, lifelike movement, which is noticeable in the most fundamental elements of the game. Dynamic lower-body pose matching adjusts the exact positioning of players' legs and feet on the fly to remove the “skating” seen in past games and ensure that players launch, plant, and cut realistically.

Together, these systems work in harmony to not only make motion look better than ever before, but also leads to improvements across all areas of gameplay to create a fresh and authentic feeling when playing—so you can compete at the highest level.

Watching so many of you discover and embrace the Rhythm Shooting mechanic to improve your shooting ability has been thrilling and rewarding. Seeing heightened competition has inspired us to push the envelope of Rhythm Shooting and bolster its strengths.

In NBA 2K26, Rhythm Shooting extends beyond mimicking each player’s signature shooting animation to giving you full control over every aspect of the shot. This shooting control method still relies on a DOWN-UP flicking motion with the shot stick, but now your Shot Timing and Tempo will actually manipulate the shooter’s upper body and impact how the shot looks throughout the complete motion by reflecting how you move the shot stick.

From the start, you’ll see and feel the difference between early, late, slow, and fast releases. If you flick UP early and rush your shot, you can do quick releases. If you flick UP late and slowly, you’ll see the effect with a delayed pushing motion and lazier release.

This enhanced feature grants more freedom than ever before to decide what type of jump shot you want to take. Counter a close-out from a defender by initiating a quick release and intentionally rushing your shot, and still knock it down by executing excellent Rhythm Shooting tempo. 

Overall, players who take advantage of the Rhythm Shooting mechanic will experience more responsive and authentic jumpshots that simulate a true shooting motion.

Develop a robust post game with all-new Signature Go-To Post Shots and become a lethal slasher with custom layups. Gameplay in NBA 2K26 has been improved to be more well-rounded and suitable for all archetypes.

Green or Miss Shot Timing

Green or Miss Shot Timing will be universal in NBA 2K26, so that each mode has an even playing field. This means on higher difficulties, including most competitive multiplayer modes,  only excellent timing “greened” shots will go in; however, shot timing windows scale by difficulty and will be less forgiving in competitive modes like Proving Grounds and Pro-Am, but more forgiving in team-control modes like MyTEAM where you have to adapt to different shot animations.

In addition, Layup Timing is permanently enabled to separate skilled finishers and make those highly contested finishes at the rim even more spectacular and impressive.

Ultimately, we wanted to emphasize skill-based, competitive gameplay where your actions on the sticks provide more control of the outcomes you see in-game. This renewed focus will be felt across multiple gameplay areas, from shot outcomes to successful blocks and steals, and loose balls and rebounds.

Signature Go-To Post Shots

It’s been encouraging to see players incorporate Signature Go-To Shots into their game and leverage real-world crossovers to create separation, like Stephen Curry and Tyrese Haliburton’s signature dribble-step-back jumpers.

While we’ve shown a lot of love to the elusive playstyles of the NBA’s greatest backcourt players, this year’s system is growing to better support the dominant big men we see in the modern NBA. Utilize all-new Signature Go-To Post Shots by holding the right stick UP while in the post. Lean into a host of new moves, including shimmy floaters, baby hooks, and up-and-unders.

Custom Layups

In the past, your single signature layup package determined all of your layup types. But in NBA 2K26, you can mix and match layup styles to draw inspiration from signature packages from around the league. These advanced layup types consist of:

• Normal and Reverse Layups
• Floaters
• Quick Scoops
• Euro Steps
• Hop Steps
• Spins

Wreak havoc on the competition by utilizing Steph’s graceful layups, James Harden’s shifty euro-steps, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s elusive hop-steps, and Nikola Jokic’s nimble spin moves to create a dominant custom package. Explore the bevy of post move and layup options when customizing your MyPLAYER and editing players in rosters.

Play freely and with physicality in NBA 2K26 using body-ups and collisions to antagonize opponents. 

Body-Ups & Collisions

NBA 2K26 uses system-driven technology to generate player-to-player collisions that are more reliable compared to previously scripted motion-captured animations. Coupled with new dynamic motion, this change improves the freedom of movement for both the dribbler and on-ball defender.

Interior Defense

Interior Defense has been redesigned so that it’s easier to get strong body bumps in the air when contesting finishers at the rim. Bigs will feel increased physicality when roaming in the paint.

New Rebound Timing Feedback

In NBA 2K26, a green meter will flash beneath your player’s feet to indicate a well-timed rebound attempt. The ideal time to jump for a rebound is just before the ball makes its final bounce off the rim, and higher rebounding attribute ratings will make it easier to nail your timing. Excellent timing can significantly boost your chances of securing the board.

Dictate every facet of the game with new and revamped controls for a more intuitive, deliberate, and free-flowing experience.

With this, overall game speed in NBA 2K26 is now sped up to reward players with faster decision-making, who can read the court, anticipate their opponent, and react quicker!

Quick Protect

Ball handlers can now tap the Left Trigger to initiate Quick Protect movements to shield the ball and evade steals. If you see a defender reaching for a steal and react quickly enough with a Quick Protect, you can counter it. This balances the steal system by introducing more skill-based outcomes.

You can also put defenders in a compromising position by using Quick Protect while driving to the rim. Decelerate and pin your opponent against your hip to trap them in defender jail. Some of the craftiest ball handers—Jalen Brunson, Luka Dončić, and Trae Young—all excel at this, making them incredibly challenging to guard.

No-Dip Catch-and-Shoots

Hold the Left Trigger when receiving a pass while standing still to square up, catch the ball high, and seamlessly transition directly into your shooting motion in rhythm to get the shot up quickly. Knock down shots like Klay Thompson and Ray Allen as defenders race to close-out before your release.

Revamped Signature Size-Ups

Signature Size-Up controls have been improved for a more intuitive experience. Now, you can rock the Pro Stick back-and-forth, left-and-right, or repeatedly flick the Pro Stick up to execute two different Size-Up combinations. These Size-Ups will help you create separation from your defender while retaining the realistic look provided by ProPLAY.

Slow Motion Euro-Steps

After initiating a euro-step, you can hold the Left Trigger at any point to deliberately decelerate mid-move to throw defenders off and create space with a slow-motion drag step finish. Slither through the lane and control the pace to send defenders careening past you.

Wrap Passes

Wrap passes now have a dedicated control by double tapping CIRCLE/B. This expands the toolkit for playmakers to determine when you want to do a wrap pass and ensures you aren’t throwing the ball straight into the back of a defender.

Alley-Oops

Catching an alley-oop now requires more skill. Once the pass is thrown, the finish button for the receiver will be randomized on higher difficulties to one of the four face buttons on your controller, instead of always being SQUARE/X.

Setting Screens

Screeners can now control which way you want to face. Tapping the left stick slightly left or right from the direction you are currently screening will turn your player 45 degrees, and tapping the left stick in the opposite direction will turn your player 180 degrees. This will help high IQ bigs who can help get your ball handlers open to stand out.

Enjoy enhanced AI that adapts strategically to your every move, regardless of whether you’re on offense or defense.

Drive and Kick Intelligence

Offensive AI are now equipped with a new intelligence module that enables them to actively look for scoring opportunities through drive-and-kick plays to generate offense, completely outside of regular plays. This module helps the AI understand defender rotations to locate the open man and chain together drive-and-catch opportunities. It also helps the AI locate receivers in pick-and-fade situations.

With this, NBA 2K26 features three-phase offensive AI that can attack through plays, freelance, or drive-and-kicks, or a combination of all three!

Help Defense Intelligence

Help defense can now dynamically adjust based on both the off-ball defensive pressure you’ve assigned and the position of the basketball in relation to the basket, so that your off-ball AI defenders can help on drives in the paint more consistently. 

As the ball gets closer to the basket, defenders will now be affected by the gravity of the ball and adjust their positioning to help recreate collapsing NBA defenses to protect the paint and then recover back out to shooters.

These improvements work in tandem with the improved drive-and-kick intelligence and complement each other to create a secondary level of ball movement that gives you opportunities to attack close-outs on defense and to make the second and third pass on offense.

MyPLAYER Freelance Engine

When playing as your MyPLAYER, your AI teammates will now consider your position on the court even when you don’t have the ball, which helps them determine floor spacing outside of plays and isolations.

Together with the improved drive-and-kick intelligence, your AI teammates will find you off-ball more consistently when penetrating or running a pick-and-roll action with you. 

This allows for a new set of Quick Plays that can be called by you, when playing off-ball, to alert your AI teammates to scoring opportunities. For example, you can alert your team’s ball handler that you are coming to set a screen for them, or call quick post-up and floppy actions for yourself.

Improved Double Teams

Double team defensive logic in NBA 2K26 has been improved to better track moving targets. AI will identify dangerous players more effectively, better anticipate when to send a double team, and close out more intelligently.

Navigating Screens

AI defenders now have improved logic to choose the best route around screens and obstacles on the court. You’ll notice more decisive positioning and movement to go over, under, or through the screen, depending on your strategy.

Expanded Playbooks

Playbooks in NBA 2K26 have been expanded to hold up to 80 plays! This allows playbooks to more authentically replicate teams’ offensive systems that they use in the real-world.

AI Difficulty Improvements

Ten new variables have been added to even more effectively differentiate the AI’s abilities across lower and higher difficulties including awareness of help defense rotations, speed at which help defense will commit once called for, how quickly defenders can recognize when a pass was initiated to react for pass lane steal opportunities, and more. 

These are in addition to the variables introduced in NBA 2K25 and further improve how AI effectiveness scales with game difficulty.

AI Shot Timing Ability

In Play Now and MyNBA, a new AI/CPU slider called “Shot Timing Ability” allows you to separately adjust how skilled AIs are at timing jumpshots and layups. This is more effective than previous shooting sliders and leads to more expected results without impacting the AI’s intelligence in other areas so that you can fine-tune and customize your experience.

In NBA 2K26, a new Intermediate Tutorial bridges the gap between the existing tutorials and drills that cover beginner fundamentals and advanced techniques. You’ll learn about the different types of layups and dunks, how to execute simple plays like the pick-and-roll, and more. 

Learn 2K is the best place to grow your 2K skills, whether you’re a veteran who wants to practice this year’s upgraded Rhythm Shooting and refined controls, or a rookie who is learning how to play NBA 2K for the first time.

Gameplay in 2K26 is intended to feel smoother, faster, and more seamless than ever before. In the next Courtside Report, we’ll dive into this year’s Presentation enhancements and how they complement the gameplay for all-encompassing, authentic immersion. 

If you missed the Roadmap Courtside Report, be sure to check it out to see all of the key feature dates leading up to Early Access** on August 29. Get up to 7 days of Early Access when you pre-order the Superstar or Leave No Doubt Edition, and receive additional bonus content!

*Only available on NBA 2K26 for PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

**Early access only available for NBA 2K26 Superstar and Leave No Doubt Editions (Digital) only available on Playstation®5 and Xbox Series X|S and PC. Availability restrictions apply. For details, see nba.2k.com/2k26/faq/.