Good stuff! Funny you just posted this because I have spent the last 3 days just editing small tweaks like this in my personal file and like you HUGE difference. I think it's funny we don't share these things here and talk about them??? Anyways, I'm like you in looking for realism and to make CPU tougher. Thanks to Leftos for the mass editing tool!
1 big change for gameplay for me is dribble right tendency. Most guys are at 85-95 to go right and vice versa for lefties. I globally chnaged that to 50 for everyone then changed the bigs to 60 and lefties to 40-45. They will now look to attack both ways and take what defense gives them rather than force there way through to the 1 direction they can go. I mean this is the NBA and these guys can dribble both ways! All PG's left at 50. Now you see everyone go both ways off ball screens or over shading them 1 way. SO much better.
I redid the right and left fade aways and hooks for the whole league and put in the proper direction. Looks 1000x better! Not sure why this is backwards out of the box. Using their dominant hand an turning to proper shoulder 1st more often looks 1000x better and more realistic (they still use other moves). I eliminated the post hop shot. Looks horrible and just use setback for those players instead. Not sure how I feel about face up's yet either. As of now I put higher back downs to get them from facing up. I have seen some nice drives from post out of back down but the face up idle I don't like... Testing that still...
The no dribble moves was a nightmare. Al most like some teams were not even edited. I think T. Thompson had 0, Lebron 10, etc so they would do the and 1 moves. I eliminated the in and out globally along with double cross and behind back except low for superstars or elite PG's & wings. The stepbacks and spins look great on drives and the basic crossovers used 90% of the time irl... I don't really like the pull up's in game either. It's sluggish for a lot of guys. They go into weird hop. I prefer setback mid rage jumpers as most guys are doing this now too pretty universally across the NBA as it's a move worked on by everyone. Animates better IMO.
I redid the setup tendencies too. No setup, hesitation, or size up for the whole league. Made that add to 100. Same with Jab step and pump fake. Now you see the jabs and pump fakes like irl and less idle stuff and just standing. I then globally changed everyones idle. All PG's & wings have 0 idle so they either shoot or attack or pass, or shot fake and no just standing. The bigs have 0 if they are attacking or shooting bigs. The guys like J. Noah, etc I put to 15 idle. This was a big change but huge difference in realism.
I'm still finding balance in a few areas like the play discipline. I wouldn't go as low as 40 for everyone personally. I put the low shooting players between 75-85. JR Smiths at 20-25, and then 35-45 for superstars, then 65-75 for all role players depending on players. Need to test more in a few things and I will be tweaking the floaters as well as it's overdone Imo. I don't want to see everyone in the league doing this. Still finding right balance of attack and dish to open man but I'm close. 1 thing I have tried not to touch yet (but will) is player ratings but shot IQ, pass vision, and passing IQ will need to be edited too.
I will say one of my favorite things so far has been watching Boogie Cousins run the break and take it coast to coast. ISO and using his setup to attack strong to the rack and using spin move for a dunk. I have saved some clips and it's incredible! He had 22 in 1st quarter CPU vs CPU and I was like uh oh did I over do it?! LOL I did put higher ISO tendencies for superstars too like boogie where I put 95-75-55-40 for ISO vs Poor, Good, Average, and elite defenders to get them to use more during a game. Again, just went that high for superstar guys like Boogie or high ISO players like Melo...
Lastly making sure shot and drive off screen is balanced so guys are doing 1 or the other from mid and 3. As an example I got Tony ALLen at 100 drive off screen and 0 shoot so it acts as a cut.
Everything else is really player specific things to get them playing as themselves but all those tweaks above really has them playing great basketball and looks like something you see on tv without all the sauce. That's all I got for now. Hope it help's people. I'd love to hear other guys theories but I won't hold my breath...