Point Guards
If there’s one thing you can be sure of, it’s that the NBA 2K series is just as much of a basketball simulator as it is a current indicator of pop culture trends. Whether that means Spike Lee will direct the popular story mode that progresses into online play, or that Travis Scott will curate the game’s soundtrack — there’s always a fair share of pop culture influence in 2K’s decision making.
Therefore, who better to represent one of the game’s premiere players than Damian Lillard? Embracing the life of hip hop as Dame D.O.L.L.A. and even heading to Hollywood to join LeBron James in the cast of Space Jame 2, it’s hard to miss Lillard out there. His iconic hand wave goodbye to the Oklahoma City Thunder would have also made excellent cover material considering recent events.
That’s not to say his on-court play doesn’t justify the bump in notoriety either, Lillard proved last year that he’s a real baller and deserves being mentioned among the NBA’s pantheon of top ten players. While he finished last year tied with Kyrie Irving as the second-best point guard in the league, it makes sense for Lillard to get a bump this year and slide in right behind Steph Curry.
Projected Rating: 94 (+2)
Portland Trail Blazers fans will never miss an opportunity to tell you how enamored they are with the up-and-coming guard Anfernee Simons. He has the trust and adoration of the fans, organization and his teammates behind him and that’s only going to mean a larger role for Simons moving forward.
For now, he will continue to fly under the radar as a lesser known product simply due to the small sample size the national media has seen of him thus far. If his performance in last season’s finale against the Kings and this year’s Summer League is any indication, he will be rapidly moving up these rankings. For now, Simons will have to settle with a healthy bump in the ratings and hopefully an accurate ‘potential’ rating moving forward.