The All-Underrated Team in NBA 2K13 - SteveM's Blog

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The All-Underrated Team in NBA 2K13 Stuck

Posted on February 18, 2013 at 02:28 PM.

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I have as much fun as anyone building a team around a few superstars in NBA 2K13. It�s fun to pick a different position of emphasis and then see what you can do building around young up-and-comers like Kyrie Irving or Anthony Davis (or both if you want some serious fast break fun). But inevitably, after the first few rounds of any fantasy draft, you have to start picking the bench, and not all benches are created equal. So what if you put together a whole team of these guys?

The All-Underrated Team doesn�t have a focal point on offense nor on defense, but instead is built around a set of players with very specific abilities using those abilities in very specific ways. The difficulty is that you have no player you can just throw the ball to to get points, but the result is a team that forces you to play a system if you want success.

(Note: Before we get into it, �underrated� in this case doesn�t mean that these players should be more highly rated, but more that the skills they do have don�t combine to give them a high overall rating. With two exceptions, everyone on this team is rated 75 or lower overall, despite having high marks in a few specific areas.)

Point guard
The starting point guard for the team is D.J. Augustin, who�s rated a 72 overall. But in addition to decent shooting (a 78 rating from three) and solid Passing (80), Augustin sports high marks in Speed (90), Quickness (93), Handle (93) and Off-Hand Dribbling (91). What this gives you is a nimble PG who can run the pick-and-roll very well and get into the paint to finish. Backing him up is Jerryd Bayless (70 overall), who�s a better shooter (90 from Midrange, 80 from 3) and even faster (96 Speed, 99 Quickness) although not as sure of a ball-handler.

Shooting guard
Starter Jamal Crawford is as close as this team gets to a star. Rated a 79 Overall, he�s built to penetrate with his 99 Handle, 97 Off-Hand Dribbling and solid Close (83) and Midrange (91) shooting. His backup is Nick Young, whose 73 Overall rating belies his nearly automatic touch from 3-point range. His 84 rating from distance combines with his Corner Specialist and Microwave signature skills to make a player who will almost always hit the open corner 3�a shot that should be readily available on this team built for driving and kicking.

Small forward
The small forward position on this team provides a few different options. Starter Danny Green has an 85 rating from 3, plus the Corner Specialist signature skill. He can also play shooting guard and defends well there thanks to his length (6�6�). Bringing Gerald Green (70 Overall) off the bench provides you with a great finisher on the break (92 Speed, 95 Quickness, 90 Dunk, 97 Vertical) while Steve Novak gives you the best 3-pt shooting in the game (92, plus Spot Up Shooter and Corner Specialist signature skills). With a 53 overall rating, Novak is almost always available for any team wanting him. He only does one thing, but he does it tremendously well.

Power forward
Down low, this team is not built for offense. Instead, the frontcourt is all about D. Larry Sanders (who's listed as a center but mostly plays PF) provides rim protection (90 Block) and decent rebounding (83 Offensive, 80 Defensive), while his backup, Troy Murphy (66 Overall), provides a surprising amount of rebounding (89 Defensive Rebounding) while also sporting an 83 in 3-pt shooting to deliver some good pick-and-pop options.

Center
Once again, defense and rebounding is the name of the game here. Tyson Chandler is legitimately underrated at 77 Overall given his ratings (90 Low Post Defense, 95 Defensive Awareness, 94 Offensive Rebounding, 82 Defensive Rebounding). Can he hit a shot outside the paint to save his life? Not really, but if he�s shooting from there, you�re misusing him. Likewise, if you use his backup, DeAndre Jordan (74 Overall), for blocks (92 Block rating) and rebounding (93 and 80 in Offensive and Defensive Rebounding, respectively), plus as a finisher on alley-oops, he�s fantastic.

This set of players gives you the freedom to run a traditional pick-and-roll offense, a spread pick-and-roll offense (with Chandler or Jordan at C and Murhpy or Novak at PF), work out of floppy sets, and set up isos. You won�t be able to do much with dumping it down low or running the break (you�ll end up with a lot of turnovers if you force it), but as long as you�re disciplined, this can be a fun team to run with. And of course, any of these players can be solid additions to any roster if you use them properly.

Who are some of your favorite underrated players in NBA 2K13?

Comments

# 1 BBallcoach @ Feb 18

I love Caron Butler at SF, I traded for him and DeAndre Jordan in my wizards assoc. Both are studs in 2k13

# 2 CarryTheWeight @ Feb 18

Terrence Ross (SG/SF) is unstoppable from long range. Now that he's received some notoriety from the Dunk Contest, I'm sure many more will aim to seek him out and add them to their roster. It's a wise move --- he'll put up a lot of points in-game, and that's why he's already playing Sixth Man minutes on my Raptors squad.

# 3 SteveM @ Feb 18

@CarryTheWeight: Ross is definitely another underrated player. I only left him off because as a rookie, it's natural for him to be rated lower and I assume that if you simmed several seasons he would improve, which is not the case with most of these guys. But he definitely outplays his rating, which I think is 70?

# 4 JazzMan @ Feb 18

Gordon Hayward, Enes Kanter, Andrei Kirilenko.

# 5 SteveM @ Feb 18

@4tyklug2013: Kirilenko's a weird case. I haven't found him to be a very effective player because I feel like the CPU AI isn't advanced enough to have him make the kind of cuts that make him such a good player. His shooting ratings are bad and so he rarely makes shots, which is really what video game basketball is about, most of the time.

# 6 jonducles11 @ Feb 18

Rudy Gay and Jrue Holiday

# 7 biznasty2point0 @ Feb 18

Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, Mo Speights

# 8 statnut @ Feb 18

Kyle Lowry is a beast.

# 9 paperclips @ Feb 18

Paul George is a monster. At 6'10 he can play the 2 or the 3 all while guarding the other team's best player.

# 10 SteveM @ Feb 18

@paperclips: George is a complete beast, but I'm not sure he's underrated in the game, although I think you might be right that he outplays his rating. I wrote up a profile of him for Hardwood Paroxysm here.

# 11 Cheetah Bird @ Feb 19

Michael Beasely

# 12 kunner @ Feb 19

If you wanted a sniper off the bench, although I agree that Novak is a beast, what about Mike Dunleavy? He is slow, and doesnt move that great on the court, but he can shoot the lights out in any game.

# 13 BullFan 23 @ Feb 19

I'll take Austin Rivers at the backup PG position. His 3 is deadly one you get his timing correct and he'll finish on the drive.

# 14 Get Blunted @ Feb 19

Jared Dudley is a great value wing player. In my Suns franchise I rain bombs from 3 with Dudley and Nick Young off the bench.

# 15 cincy14fan @ Feb 19

Two friends and I created an online association, since LeBron 2.0 was murdered by a teammate in our other association. A guy name Bryan Underwood was a 90 in his third year and then was replaced by a 58 player he couldn't sign, trade or cut. Which made us start a new one and set some rules to see how underrated we could get. Just a black story to my point. Best association we are in right now. We could only draft rookies for our team. Since it was only 3 of us we got most decent starters. I opted for Thomas Robinson instead of Lillard for my first pick so Lillard wasn't on anyones team, but it is hard and while the players were super inconsistent for basically the whole year we got high draft picks and second year we are storming through the league (8-2, 6-1, 6-1). Plus every team is way better than you the first year and just fun playing with rookies.

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