Real 2K Rosters - The Modern Era (NBA 2K23)

[Real2KInsider]

Real 2K Rosters is celebrating it's 20th Anniversary of editing 2K rosters. If you are unfamiliar with Real 2K Rosters, the goal of every season is to provide daily updates that reflect the NBA as accurately as possible.



FILE (PS5)
Name: Real 2K Rosters - YouTube
User: real2kinsider

PLAYER RATINGS
All ratings are reviewed and updated throughout the season. These are my long-standing expertise & what my content has been known for over the past two decades.

BADGES
All player badges are reviewed and updated (whereas 2K Sports only adjusted 21 players last year). 2K23 dropped & revised many of last year's badges, so this won't be a straight port and will need review.

POSITIONS & OTHER VITALS
Positions are the most accurate in the 2K Community and updated regularly.
Injuries will be managed as necessary (for minor injuries, I won't sideline a player unless they miss 3 consecutive games).
Height, Weights, Jersey Numbers are kept updated in line w/ the NBA's official data.
Force Non-Starter is regularly applied.
Play Initiator is updated as necessary.

TENDENCIES
Some tendency editing is done based on data I collect, but this is not a daily focus. I don't pretend to be a game designer and prefer leaving re-scales to the developers who get paid for it.

MY STAFF
This is my first season on next-gen and I will need to convert my spreadsheets from old-gen. I am certainly excited by the depth and customization options here. Definite work-in-progress here.

PLAYER CONTRACTS
These will be kept up to date. 2K is better the last few years than they have been historically.

TEAM PLAYBOOKS
These are not a focus. I prefer to leave those to the experts.

PLAY TYPES
Play Types are an eventual focus (working Synergy data into my spreadsheet).

CLASSIC & ALL-TIME TEAMS
I look at these as more of a long-term project and low priority (especially this year w/ MyEras). Managing LIVE in-season content is quite an undertaking and there simply isn't enough time to manage both. While I might make tweaks here and there, you are better off seeking out more focused content for that experience.

MY ERAS CONTENT
My Eras content will be available once I start tackling it. Any rosters will be posted in a separate thread and linked to here.

MODERN ERA UPDATE HISTORY
10/29: Tightening up team rotations. Grizzlies ratings cleaned up.
10/17: Strength Ratings complete. Also adding extensions on Deadline day.
10/12: Completed Foul Draw & Intangibles ratings
10/10: Completed Post Control ratings. As w/ Ball Control I took many notes that will eventually be part of an expose.
10/8: Deactivated (Injured) players in the FA pool playing overseas. Also assigning players to their respective G-League clubs.
10/6-10/7: Re-scaling Post Control ratings
10/5: Consistency ratings updated league-wide.
10/3: Contracts fully updated. More preseason lineup/position adjustments
10/2: Preseason tweaking
9/30: Blake Griffin signing
9/22 - 9/29: Been working on a written piece analyzing Ball Handle rating. Refining my scale and adjusting the attribute league-wide. Also the 8-player OKC/HOU trade as camp starts..
9/21/22: Wrote some words analyzing the Consistency attribute. Along with Intangibles, these are the only attributes 2K changes drastically on a year-to-year basis. Confirming that I'm sticking with my system & will be implementing accordingly.
DSJ to Hornets, Rob Williams out a month
9/20/22: Note that Micah Potter (Two-Way) can't be added to Jazz due to them being over the roster limit.
9/19/22: Sixers badges updated.
9/17/22: No update to the file but did my first badge work in the sheet. Right now I'm re-learning 2K's badge scales as they have been greatly reduced across the board.
9/16/22: Spreadsheet is now updated to account for 2K23 Badge changes (new, rebrands, removed). Dennis Schroder & James Johnson added to teams.
9/15/22: Added the Pelicans 2-Way guys to the roster. Today was mostly spent on spreadsheet maintenance.
9/14/22: Tweaked Intangibles and applied Force Non-Starter to improve rotations & depth charts. Simulation lead to Tyler Herro Sixth Man, Alperun Sengun MIP
9/13/22: Updated all player positions based on projections + lineup data. This improves the quality of simulations ten-fold.

9/9/22: The default roster. 2K Sports released this game in such untested condition that in MyNBA...
1. Trae Young was coming off the bench behind DeJounte Murray in MyNBA because they both shared a position (and still making All-NBA teams).
2. Ben Simmons is Sixth Man of Year because he shares a position with Kyrie
3. Luka sets the 3PM record (434 threes) due to 45% shooting.

ROSTER SPREADSHEET
DM on Twitter @real2kinsider for instructions on how to access my 2K23 Modern Era spreadsheet, which I built from scratch during the pandemic. This is the first time in 14 years I have made my data available to the public. It's $20 for season-long access, which is a steal & supports future/expanded content.

[mvpstax]

Rosters work cross-platform?

[XxKnicksRules215xX]

Finally, I am very much looking forward to these rosters.

[atlwarya]

I’m about to spend a lot of hours on 2k this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Real2KInsider]

BADGE OBSERVATION
I have been saying for a few years now that the team they have doing the Modern Era is ill-equipped for the job. Here's one more data point. 2K's badges are way pretty barebones in the Modern Era compared to the other Era Rosters.

The Kobe Era (2003) - Badges
Cleveland Cavaliers (17-65 record)
28 Ricky Davis
17 Zydrunas Ilgauskas
10 Darius Miles: 9.7 PER, 44 TS%, 19 USG%, 2008 mins
8 Carlos Boozer
7 Tyrone Hill
6 Jumaine Jones
5 Bimbo Coles: 6.7 PER, 41 TS%, 14 USG%, 691 mins
4 Milt Palacio: 8.2 PER, 47 TS%, 12 USG%, 1976 mins
2 DeSagana Diop
1 Smush Parker
4 Generic A
4 Generic B
8 Generic C
104 Total

The 03 Cavs were a heinous team that tanked their way to LeBron. Miles & Palacio in particular were actively negative assets. The team responsible for this content still found time to give them various badges highlighting the few strengths they did have. Cool.

The Modern Era (2022) - Badges
Philadelphia 76ers (51-31 Record)
31 James Harden
28 Joel Embiid
15 Tyrese Maxey
14 Montrezl Harrell
12 Matisse Thybulle
11 Tobias Harris
10 P.J. Tucker
3 De'Anthony Melton: 15.2 PER, 53 TS%, 21 USG%, 1657 mins
2 Georges Niang: 10.7 PER, 59 TS%, 17 USG%, 1736 mins
2 Paul Reed
1 Furkan Korkmaz: 10.2 PER, 50 TS%, 18 USG%, 1414 mins
1 Charles Bassey
0 Danuel House: 10.6 PER, 56 TS%, 15 USG%, 727 mins
0 Shake Milton: 11.9 PER, 52 TS%, 18 USG%, 1179 mins
0 Jaden Springer
0 Isaiah Joe
0 Charlie Brown Jr
0 Julian Champagnie
0 Trevelin Queen
130 Total

121 Badges are tied up in the top 7 players on the team. This is basically true of every team in the league. Unlike the Kobe era, whoever did the Modern Era straight up couldn't be bothered with the NBA's middle class.

De'Anthony Melton, who was the 6th man on a 56-win team, went from 8 badges to 3 in 2K23. He is obviously held in much higher regard than Palacio or a 35-year old Coles were. Yet not by 2K Sports.

Melton's Badges
Finishing (0): None
Shooting (0): None
Playmaking (1): Break Starter (B)
Defense (2): Glove (S), Interceptor (B)

Melton was SECOND in the NBA in Steal rate (3.0 STL%, which is his career average).
He was among the best rebounding guards in the NBA (4 ORB%, 17 DRB%).
He hit 139 threes (65th) last year on 37% shooting (69th). Not that they have shooting badges but Bimbo + Milt combined for 15-67 (22%)
He dunked 22 times in a variety of situations (Posters, Putbacks). Bimbo + Milt totaled 16 dunks in their CAREERS (16,629 mins).



We can break down the other backups and come to similar conclusions.

This is my roundabout way of saying that even with badge scales reduced it's clear that not enough attention was paid to the middle class. I could have just pointed to Harrison Barnes (0 badges) but a team-wide analysis is necessary to illustrate that these aren't isolated-individual cases.

Thus, expect badge counts to INCREASE in my roster for the mid/lower class based on the precedent set forth by 2K Sports in their other related content.

[bjb]

Hey dude, love your work. Had two quick questions for you:

1. Do we know what tendencies actually do? Or has 2K ever explained this? I do tend to edit these each year. The way I have rationalized these, is that it's the (in-game) AI's % of actually taking a shot or shooting the ball, and/or making a move (i.e. drive) per player. Whether they truly impact the simulation stats or not, I'm really unclear, but curious if you've done any analysis regarding these?

2. Do you plan to edit/update equipment in your roster? One thing that is kind of a pet peeve of mine is shorts length. It feels like the default should be 8 for all players, instead of 10 (10 reminds me of like circa-early 2000's fashion - And 1 mixtape-ish)

[Real2KInsider]

Quote: Originally Posted by bjb

Hey dude, love your work. Had two quick questions for you: 1. Do we know what tendencies actually do? Or has 2K ever explained this? I do tend to edit these each year.

I can tell you what most of them do. 2K has never explained them because they're incapable of doing so.

Pete Toal (pjt8405 on here) goes pretty in-depth on them here.
https://forums.operationsports.com/pjt8405/

Quote:

The way I have rationalized these, is that it's the (in-game) AI's % of actually taking a shot or shooting the ball, and/or making a move (i.e. drive) per player. Whether they truly impact the simulation stats or not, I'm really unclear, but curious if you've done any analysis regarding these?

Some of them affect sim stats, but most of them don't.
Some of them work as a percentage, but most of them don't.

It would be more accurate to think of them as values (or a score) that gets added to game code running in the background. Tendencies help steer the car but they don't replace the engine.

There are plenty of instances where gameplay overrides tendencies. Perhaps the most prominent example, a zero 3pt tendency doesn't mean a player will commit a shot clock violation rather than put up a three.

You can also give a player 100 3pt tendency but that doesn't mean they are going to be jacking up shots if they're never in position to do so.

Quote:

2. Do you plan to edit/update equipment in your roster? One thing that is kind of a pet peeve of mine is shorts length. It feels like the default should be 8 for all players, instead of 10 (10 reminds me of like circa-early 2000's fashion - And 1 mixtape-ish)

I don't pay much attention to player appearances, as I spend about 99.9% of my 2K time managing the roster & expanding upon my NBA knowledge & philosophies.

[Real2KInsider]

Sixers Badges Updated
191 Total (+61)
33 Embiid (+5)
33 Harden (+2)
19 Maxey (+4)
18 Melton (+15)
15 Harrell (+1)
13 Harris (+2)
11 Tucker (+1)
8 Milton (+8)
7 Korkmaz (+6)
7 Joe (+7)
6 Reed (+4)
3 Niang (+1)
2 House (+2)
2 Bassey (+1)
1 Brown (+1)
1 Queen (NC)
0 Springer (NC)
0 Champagnie (NC)

I was very conservative in my application, more in line with 2K's updated philosophy.

The area where I found "difficulty" being conservative was the Shooting badges.
This is because I've done extensive data work here, and 2K has not.

Agent Three: 8 players (1 HOF, 1 Silver, 6 Bronze)
Catch & Shoot: 8 players (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 5 Bronze)
Corner Specialist: 8 players (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 5 Bronze)
Slippery Off-Ball: 8 players (2 Silver, 6 Bronze)

Even though Isaiah Joe is a low rated player, there are still a number of things he does that separate him from a stationary spot-up shooter like a Danuel House.

Isaiah Joe per 36
5.6 Spotups
2.0 Off-Screen/Handoff
1.2 Contested Threes
1.2 Midrange Off-Dribble
1.0 3pt Off-Dribble
0.8 Stepbacks

Danuel House
5.8 Spotups
0.0 Off-Screen/Handoff
0.2 Contested Threes
0.7 Midrange Off-Dribble
0.6 3pt Off-Dribble
0.4 Stepbacks

--------------------------------------

The biggest individual change was De'Anthony Melton. Based on my previous post, I am obviously much higher on him than 2K is. He's a better version of what the team got from Milton, Korkmaz, and Thybulle to an extent.

5.7 Spotups (3rd on MEM)
2.1 Off-Screen/Handoff (4th on MEM)
0.8 Contested Threes (2nd on MEM)
1.1 Midrange Off-Dribble (4th on MEM)
1.8 3pt Off-Dribble (3rd on MEM)
0.9 Stepbacks (3rd on MEM)

He does a number of things well. It's pretty dumb that he has zero shooting badges.

---------------------------------------

In the case of players like Reed, Bassey, and Queen I opted not to give them many (or lower quality) badges due to their low minute totals. That could change based either on an increased sample or continued "specialist" excellence.