NBA 2K18: Greatest All-Time Team Tournament

[collegesportsfanms]

As if I don't have enough projects going on, aside from my 2 FBCB Interactive Dynasties, my DICE Baseball 2011 Tournament, and some involving What If sports that are unfinished, I'm going to add another one to the mix. The good thing about this one is that I can have the games playing in the background while I'm doing something else.

I just recently purchased NBA 2K18, and all 30 of the current NBA franchises have an All-Time Team in the game. So I thought, what a neat little idea to do a little tournament to find out where all the teams rank amongst each other. So here's the deal, we have 30 franchises, and they'll be split just like they are in the regular NBA. No changes. 2 conferences, 6 divisions total, 5 teams per division.

Each team will play every other team in their division twice, once home and once away (1 team in each division will have a bye in a given week). That makes 8 games per team. Then, we'll do some cross division match-ups for the next the weeks, in which the 3 divisions in each conference will play each other, top team in 1 division plays top team in another division and so on, to give each team 2 more games, making a total of 10. Then we'll get into the playoffs and placing rounds.

There it will become cross-conference. For the playoffs, it'll be just like the actual NBA. 8 teams from each division advance. The 3 division winners will be the top 3 seeds in each division, next best 5 teams will be seeds 4-8. Tiebreaker will be Point Differential. Top seed in the Eastern Conference will take on 8th seed in the Western Conference and so on. Winners advance, losers are eliminated from championship contention but will then be placed in a consolation bracket for final placing. All 30 teams will get a place from 1st place to 30th place. All series will be best of 3, with the higher seed always having home court advantage, meaning they'll get the 1st game and the 3rd game (if necessary game) at home. If we have matching seeds (which could happen later in the tournament if the top team in the east plays the top team in the west or something, then the overall record and point differential will decide home court advantage.

As for the teams that don't make it, teams 9-15 in their conference, well they will play for places 17-30. The 15th place team in the east will play the 15th place team in the west, and so on. Same home court rules applies, but here, it will have to be best record, with point differential as a tiebreaker. 15th place teams battle for 29th and 30th place overall, 14th place teams battle for 27th and 28th overall and so on.

For some of the franchises like the OKC Thunder, they'll have players not only from the Thunder but also the Seattle Supersonics. Before I have each team play a game, I'll post their all-time roster that NBA 2K18 is using. I have looked, and it is usually a mix of current and former players. Lots of all-stars. The 3 favorites in my mind have to be the Bulls, Celtics, and Lakers, but that's why the games are played. In this case it'll be CPU vs. CPU. I will just enjoying watching and/or listening to the games in the background while I do something else. Anybody totally confused, or have questions or concerns? If so, address them now. Should be a fun project, I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out with me having no control over any of the teams.

[collegesportsfanms]

For those that aren't aware, here's how the conferences break down:

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division

Boston Celtics
Toronto Raptors
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Brooklyn Nets

Central Division

Cleveland Cavs
Milwaukee Bucks
Indiana Pacers
Chicago Bulls
Detroit Pistons

Southeast Division

Washington Wizards
Atlanta Hawks
Miami Heat
Charlotte Hornets
Orlando Magic

Western Conference

Northwest Division

Utah Jazz
Oklahoma City Thunder
Portland Trailblazers
Denver Nuggets
Minnesota Timberwolves

Pacific Division

Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Sacramento Kings
Los Angeles Lakers
Phoenix Suns

Southwest Division

San Antonio Spurs
Houston Rockets
Memphis Grizzlies
New Orleans Pelicans
Dallas Mavericks

To start with, for the divisional play, I am going to randomly select the order in which the divisions will play every week. This is the order that will be played every week for divisional play. No changes.

The random order for divisional play is:

Pacific Division
Atlantic Division
Southwest Division
Northwest Division
Southeast Division
Central Division

So we start with the Pacific Division, and my goal is to try and CPU play 1 game each day. It may not happen, and some days may be 2 games, but that's the goal. The first 2 games that will be played are:

Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Clippers at Sacramento Kings

I am setting up the Warriors at Lakers game right now

[collegesportsfanms]

Something I just noticed is that there are a few players that are listed on multiple teams. For instance, Kevin Durant is listed on both the Warriors All-Time Roster and the Thunder All-Time Roster. There's a chance that we could see a Durant vs. Durant, so this could get very interesting.

[collegesportsfanms]

Gonna have to play the Warriors at Lakers game later, as I had the settings all screwed up and don't have time to play it now. Will have that game up later, and try to get the Clippers/Sacramento game done tomorrow so I can have the full results up. Trying to decide if I want to post game by game, or like I've done in all my other dynasties, all the games in a round at once.

[collegesportsfanms]

Pacific Division, Round 1, Game 1

All-Time Golden State Warriors at All-Time Los Angeles Lakers

Golden State All-Time Roster:

# in parenthesis is the player rating in NBA 2K18

Wilt Chamberlain- C (98)
Stephen Curry- PG (96)
Kevin Durant- SF (96)
Rick Barry- SF (95)
Chris Mullin- SF (94)
Nate Thurmond- C (92)
Tim Hardaway- PG (91)
Klay Thompson- SG (90)
Baron Davis- PG (89)
Draymond Green- PF (89)
Sleepy Floyd- PG (88)
Mitch Richmond- SG (87)
Jason Richardson- SG (87)
Latrell Sprewell- SF (86)
Monta Ellis- SG (86)

Los Angeles Lakers All-Time Roster:

Magic Johnson- PG (99)
Shaquille O'Neal- C (98)
Kobe Bryant- SG (98)
Jerry West- PG (97)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- C (96)
Elgin Baylor- SF (96)
James Worthy- SF (95)
George Mikan- C (95)
Wilt Chamberlain- C (91)
Pau Gasol- C (90)
Gail Goodrich- SG (90)
Jamaal Wilkes- SF (87)
Byron Scott- SG (87)
Michael Cooper- SG (86)
Derek Fisher- PG (84)

Game Recap

All-Time Lakers- 122, All-Time Warriors- 98

I'm going to have to see how the other games play out, but if ever there were an arcade mode, this game would be it. The teams combined for exactly 200 shots. Of course, I guess this really isn't much different than an NBA All-Star game. Anyhow, the Lakers win easily, as they led by 28 early in the 3rd quarter. Golden State got it down to 12, but couldn't get any closer. The 2 teams combined to shoot a whopping 81 three pointers. Yikes! As expected, the Lakers roll though.

All-Time Lakers Scoring Leaders

Kobe Bryant- 26
Jerry West- 17
Elgin Baylor- 14

All-Time Lakers Rebounding Leaders

Shaquille O'Neal- 15
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- 13
Wilt Chamberlain- 10

All-Time Lakers Assist Leaders

Magic Johnson- 8
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- 4
Jerry West- 3

All-Time Warriors Scoring Leaders

Jason Richardson- 15
Stef Curry- 13
Klay Thompson- 12
Wilt Chamberlain- 12

All-Time Warriors Rebounding Leaders

Wilt Chamberlain- 15
Nate Thurmond- 12
Draymond Green- 9

All-Time Warriors Assist Leaders

Baron Davis- 5
Wilt Chamberlain- 3
Klay Thompson- 3

See what I'm talking about? Wilt vs. Wilt in this one. Interesting stuff. This is gonna be fun. If this game is any indication of how things go, it's gonna be scoring and shot taking, and three point shots out the wazoo this entire project!

[collegesportsfanms]

Pacific Division, Round 1, Game 2

All-Time Los Angeles Clippers at All-Time Sacramento Kings

Los Angeles Clippers All-Time Roster

Bob McAdoo- C (94)
Chris Paul- PG (92)
Blake Griffin- PF (90)
World B. Free- PG (88)
DeAndre Jordan- C (87)
Ron Harper- PG (87)
Corey Maggette- SF (86)
Danny Manning- PF (86)
Bill Walton- C (85)
Eric Gordon- SG (84)
J.J Redick- SG (83)
Eric Bledsoe- PG (82)
Quentin Richardson- SG (82)
Jamal Crawford- SG (82)
Darius Miles- SF (80)

Sacramento Kings All-Time Roster

Oscar Robertson- PG (97)
Mitch Richmond- SG (94)
Nate Archibald- PG (94)
Jerry Luicas- PF (94)
Chris Webber- PF (93)
DeMarcus Cousins- C (90)
Peja Stojakovic- SF (88)
Mike Bibby- PG (88)
Vlade Divac- C (88)
Reggie Theus- PG (86)
Jason Williams- PG (84)
Antoine Carr- PF (84)
Tyreke Evans- SF (84)
Rudy Gay- SF (83)
Doug Christie- SG (83)

Game Recap

All-Time Kings- 130, All-Time Clippers- 90

Despite getting a double-double from Blake Griffin, the Clippers were badly overmatched in this one. They shot just 37% from the field and were outrebounded 72-43. They never could get on track, having a dismal first half before picking it up offensively in the second half, but it was far too late. Peja Stojakovic had a huge game for the Kings, picking up 28 points, and Chris Webber added his own double-double.

All-Time Sacramento Kings Leaders

Scoring

Peja Stojakovic- 28
Mitch Richmond- 14
Chris Webber- 14
DeMarcus Cousins- 13

Rebounding

DeMarcus Cousins- 13
Chris Webber- 12
Vlade Divac- 10

Assists

Nate Archibald- 6
Peja Stojakovic- 3
Mike Bibby- 3


All-Time Los Angeles Clippers Leaders

Scoring

Quentin Richardson- 22
J.J. Redick- 13
Blake Griffin- 11
Eric Gordon- 11

Rebounding

Blake Griffin- 12
Danny Manning- 8
DeAndre Jordan- 4
Bill Walton- 4

Assists

Ron Harper- 5
World B. Free- 4
Quentin Richardson- 3
Bob McAdoo- 3