See what a player weighed, and a cutter found on the run

The replay has always shown what the players did. Now it can also show what they were choosing between. And on the court, a cutter running to the basket can be found with a pass before they get there.

Every option, at every decision

Press O, or the Options button, and pause on a play. At each decision the replay draws a line to where each option that goes somewhere would have gone (holding the ball goes nowhere, so it has no line): amber for a shot, green for a pass, violet for a drive. Each line is as strong as that option's chance of being chosen, and the one the player took is drawn in full. Beside it, a panel lists every option, what each was worth in points and how likely it was. These are the same numbers the game used to decide, read from what it recorded, so nothing on the screen is worked out again for show.

A decision usually weighs three or four options and lasts about a second, so at full speed it is a glance. Pause or slow the replay and you can read the whole choice.

Every wait

Players do not act the instant something happens. Press P, or the Pauses button, and a small bead appears over a player while they wait, shrinking as the wait runs out: amber while they decide, white while they look around the floor, cyan before a run starts. At any moment there is about one bead on the court, and each is up for between a third of a second and a second and a half, so you can follow them at full speed.

A cutter found on the run

A player cutting to the basket used to be passed the ball only once they had stopped at the end of their cut, and by then the chance had usually gone. Now the passer can find the cutter on the way: the ball is thrown to where it will meet the cutter's own run, the catch happens on the move, and the cutter carries on and decides what to do where the run has taken them. Almost every one of these catches ends in a shot, released about a second after the catch, much as real players do. Cutters are now found about as often as in real games.

A page for every player, and a card in plain words

Every player now has a way in: the Players page lists the whole league by team, each name linking to that player's page. And the card that comes up after a score or a rebound now says what it shows in plain words, top speed, acceleration time, jump height and release time, all from that player's own body.