But there is no way to compare this to a player's top speed while dribbling the ball. The developers have stats from the NBA Draft Combine, which clocks a three-quarter-court sprint. Some ratings, however, do require a bit of human involvement. And now, ratings for more subjective categories like IQ or Strength, which always require a bit of guesswork, have additional, concrete support. Passing accuracy is determined by turnovers.īeginning in 2016, the NBA began tracking real-life " hustle stats," tallying the number of screen assists, contested jump shots, and charges taken per game, among other stats.
Durability is determined by a player's injury history, right down to the individual limbs and joints. This commitment, of tying a player's in-game rating to hard, real-life data, is omnipresent. A playmaking (secondary) defender (primary) point guard is going to be evaluated differently than a defensive (secondary) playmaker (primary) point guard.Ī player's steals per game or his mid-range shooting percentage will correlate to his in-game rating in those respective categories. The formula must account more for what type of player you want to be, rather than than just the player's position.
Now there are so many different types of player builds you get a primary and a secondary archetype, which determine the upgrade caps for your skills. It is a process that is both time-consuming and exhaustive. Stauffer and his team of developers have one of the most important jobs at 2K Games-to manage the raw player data under the game's 4K graphics hood. leads the list of the Top 10 highest rated SFs in #NBA2K18! /8RpSxBZddX We don't want him to feel slow, but at the same time, we don't want him to be overpowering on defense." "For example, a guy like Kyrie Irving has great lateral movement. "We have to balance the statistics," said 2K Games Producer Michael Stauffer in an interview with Complex. And this can get hairy, especially since many attributes complement one another and might inadvertently buff or nerf a player. The developers consider approximately 50 such attributes to get a complete picture of each player. James Harden, for example, has a passing accuracy of 78 this is a drop from 2K17, because last year, he led the NBA in turnovers per game.
It is a scientific process intended to eliminate as much bias as possible.īy digging through the menus, one can see that a player's overall rating breaks down into several smaller ratings. Rudy Gay, who was rated an 83, called the rankings a " crock of BS."īut the process of rating these players is not some backstage popularity contest, where the developers assign final ratings based on their gut instinct. John Wall, who was rated a 90, called out 2K marketing director Ronnie Singh on Twitter. Lonzo Ball was an 80.Īnd every year, these ratings are held up to scrutiny-sometimes by the fans and critics, but most often by the players themselves. When the game launched on September 19, LeBron James was a 97. In NBA 2K18, each active player in the NBA, along with a healthy number of legends, is individually rated on a 99-point scale.