A bit of trial and error. When I first popped the game in, it only let me play a quick "skirmish" game. But once the whole game was installed and I could start the career mode, stuff started making more sense. It also helped to change the control scheme in preferences to "Casual" and the difficulty from Pro to Rookie. I dunno exactly what it did -- again, the manual is VERY sparse -- but I did a lot better. Not sure if I'll ever live down to 38 points Ellis scored on me in the Rookie game -- I only got 6. =/ But after changing the settings, I managed to score like 14 pts in the first career game the coach put me in for, and that was only 1 quarter.
Honestly, I see reviews for sports games and they sell me on the idea of playing them. But I wish they included tutorials for people unfamiliar with the sport. The problem you're having with NBA 2k14, I am having the same issue with FIFA 14. I want to enjoy that game so bad, but I know NOTHING about soccer, the positions, the rules, the lingo, or how to play the game.