By Richard Harris
The NBA Draft is over, and my least favorite part of the season has begun—free agency. This summer will be especially tedious because many big stars are available, and the mainstream media is going to constantly bombard us with useless minutia and premature conjecture, as these mega-stars decide where they are going to play. This process is quite the opposite of the draft—the players are picking the teams, and it mostly comes down to personal preferences. Do I like the city? Do I like the owner? Do I like the floor tile in the locker room?
So, what is a diehard NBA fan supposed to do for the next four months? I have a suggestion—dust off your NBA 2K14 disk and start playing in association mode. Now, you say (said in a Hubie Brown voice), “I did that this winter,and I became disgruntled when my franchise player, Nigerian center Stanley Berkowitz, suffered a career-ending injury at the end of the 2021 season. I was so close to making it to the finals, too.” I get that, but I am suggesting that instead of waiting for 2K15 to come out,you resume playing right now with fresh batch of realplayers, such as Andrew Wiggins, and not with thoseabsurd computer-generated guys like Stanley.
With the aid of Eurohopes.com and a number of other sites, I have created four draft classes for NBA 2K14. All 80 players in each class are real people, and they all have been well researched. The players’ ratings are based on actual stats, measurable skills (like vertical jump), expert opinions, and the all-important eye test. Players were excluded if I could not look at their stats or if I was unable to watch them play in some fashion. Luckily, that rarely happened—the Internet is a beautiful thing.
I estimate that the entire project entailed at least 500 hours of work. Of course, the process, like real scouting, is very subjective. When watching a player, you have to account for the surrounding talent on both sides and the style of play on both sides. I used a performance-metric system to convert the player stats into game ratings, but even that required tweaking at times. For example, AAU stats have to be taken with a grain of salt because those leagues aremainly showcases for college prospects—I am convinced that there’s unwritten AAU rule against defending. The same goes for mix tapes. If you watch Jahi Carson’s highlights from high school, he appears to be the greatest thing since AI. Unfortunately, he’s a bit of a knucklehead when it comes to playing team ball, and as a result, he just went undrafted.
If you click on the link below, you can view the complete lists of all four classes. The players in each class are ranked by a formula that I created. That formula uses thethree most important variables in 2K-association mode: age, current overall rating, and potential. I call theformula’s end result WAVE, which stands for weighted average, with potential being the most heavily weighted factor.
In NBA 2K14, the potential rating is more important than ever before. The number now represents the highest level a player can achieve (a cap on ability). You also have to keep in mind that a player’s progression (in the game) stopsaround the age of 29, so not everyone will reach their potential. Changing the effect of potential in 2K was much needed and long overdue, as it not only adds intrigue to the draft process but also realism to the game.
Not so ironically, the three variables used to calculate WAVE are probably the most important factors for the actual draft process, as well as drafting in the game. If you look at Zach LaVine and Doug McDermott in the 2014 class, you’ll see that their WAVE ratings are equal, but there is a big difference between the two players. If you are building for the future, you will want to draft younger guys with the highest potential, like the athletic LaVine. If you want to win now, players who have a high current rating, such as the proven McDermott, will have more value.
For each class, I have noted who received a top-5 2K grade for the following skills: inside scoring (IS), outside scoring (OS), perimeter defense (OD), post defense (ID), ball handling (BH), rebounding (RE), basketball IQ (IQ), and athleticism (AT). The game heavily favors point guards when grading athleticism, so I also noted the best non-PGoutside the top 5, meaning each class has six AT’s. Players with an asterisk (*) next to their “From” location means that the player has yet to pick a school, and I took an educated guess as to where they will land.
For those who like the game to be as realistic as possibleand want to go through the scouting process, I have not included the players’ overall ratings and potentials in the lists below. Cheaters can easily look at these numbers after they have downloaded the files. These classes were created on an Xbox 360, and can be retrieved by using the 2K-share feature and searching by gamer tag for files createdby “likesushi.”
Click here to view the 2014-2017 draft class rankings
Photo: Euroleague.net (Domantas Sabonis)
*Richard Harris has been professionally evaluating athletes and teams since 1996, specializing in performance metrics. His fantasy football columns have been featured on sites such as ESPN.com, SI.com, and USAToday.com. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to NBADraft.net. Richard can be reached at Richard_C_Harris@aol.com
