Franchise mode in 2K5 isn't really all that. You set weekly training and you have to talk to your players, but it's obviously stuff they tossed in without tuning it much.
In 2K5, the training thing for some reason causes all these 25 day injuries to your players even if you choose the light workouts. But if you don't train, attributes will go down. Annoying.
But Live's really isn't that great either in my book. Live's franchise at first looks like it's going to be as interesting as Madden's since it has that PDA interface, but really, underneath, it's just the same thing as last year's pretty much.
Gameplaywise, 2K5 seems much better this year and better than Live's. It really feels like basketball. Live still has way too many blocks even on the higher difficulties. I one blocked Shaq with Damon Stoudamire... twice... in one quarter. Which of course, happens all the time in real life. Damon is gonna challenge Ratliff and Big Ben for the block title this year.