I agree, I was not expecting that. Been a long time since I have played with a playoff game however this one free I'll need to get back into it. NBA 2K20 is no more than a giant casino with a great deal of p2w mechanics. Only a warning. It's also fairly buggy. Any difficulties with participant? I stay far from MP in games anyhow. I exclusively play MT 2K20 with the offline modes and I love it. The shooting is a bit annoying (playing hall of fame so that it could be that) since it feels like you have to receive a green release with anyone, discounting their rating, but it's really great. I totally love playing with defense. Matchups matter. Strength matters. It's really great if you only play offline.
Last time I played with MyPlayer mode (I cant remember which game it was) it was super grindy and pay to triumph, and I could never upgrade the stats on my dude. Is it still that way? It is very much so. I am not sure anybody plays it. I enjoy the 1 percent who performs the My League mode. I pick a team and play all 82 and go into another season lol.
Back in 2k12 I played the crap from internet association with my friends, it was a blast. It was enjoyable to each possess our own draft and teams and play a complete year, without the possibility of microtransactions. They kept making it worse and worse and it may not be in NBA 2K20 any more. At least at launch, the GM Mode was officially just a GM simulator. You could not make subs you played in which I thought my game was busted. So I changed to My League and it's a bare bones experience where you do not manage the participant's happiness and things like this. It's what it is I guess, although I personally liked that.
Never really played 2k20 since I got fed up with NBA 2K20s to Buy NBA 2K MT Coins after 2k17 however, the character creator is pretty in depth and supports multiple characters but what is after you finish the story(that I discovered is pretty decent). There's basically nothing to do but play online or you might play myteam that's pretty good as you get to perform challenges to get the get players and create your own team logo, pajamas, ect.. NBA 2K20 is also a fairly big grind if you opt to take things slow but you would have to eventually play on the internet on this too though.