Video games are fun.
And athletes care about their rankings in these videos. Before the season starts, it’s a way to grade themselves against other players.
Okay, just kidding. It’s a way for us to grade them against other players because we have no life and we can’t believe summer is almost over and we need something to do at work.
(Boss, I hope you are not reading this. I am super busy and have lots of stuff to do.)
The folks at NBA 2K18 have been releasing player ratings throughout the last month or so in anticipation for the game’s release on Sept. 19.
This is Timberwolves.com so if you guessed that a member of the Wolves was one of those players who had his rating released, that’s very keen of you.
That said player is Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns will start out the season with a player grade of 91 out of a possible 100. But nobody gets 100 because nobody’s perfect besides Bryant Reeves and he’s not walking through this door anytime soon.
How does Towns’ grade rank among the other 19 players who have had their rating released? Towns is third behind only Kevin Durant (96) and Stephen Curry (94). Both of those players play on the same team which seems unfair.
Towns is the best center among those released, beating out Joel Embiid (86) and Dwight Howard (81). He’s also higher than Kristaps Porzingis (86), who is listed as a power forward. Other notables Towns has edged include Kyrie Irving (90), John Wall (90), Isaiah Thomas (89), Damian Lillard (89) and Gordon Hayward (88).
Since today is really busy and I have so much to do, why don’t we go back to last year’s ratings? Towns ended the season with an 89 rating, so to go up two points seems equivalent to getting the “cost-of-living” raise at work. So, you could actually argue this grade is a little low for Towns.
Towns ended last season as the 17th-best player and a jump to 91 would tie him with DeMarcus Cousins’ rating, which ranked No. 10 in the league.
It’s worth noting Jimmy Butler finished last season with a grade of 90, 14th in the NBA, while Andrew Wiggins finished with a rating of 84, ranking 40th. Point guard Jeff Teague was rated 82, 52nd in the league.
Of course, ratings on video games don’t mean a whole lot as far as wins and losses go. I would imagine Thibs isn’t very interested in these ratings, although it would be kind of cool if he was. But it is a representation of players’ talents and just by looking at those four players, it appears as if the Wolves have plenty.