NBA 2K18: Predicting The Roster For Every All-Time Team
Who would you pick?
EA Sports recently made a return to the world of NBA video games after two years, and the result is surprisingly decent. In turn, 2K's NBA titles will finally have some competition, and thus they've elected to add a little something extra to convince fans to remain loyal.
Apart from upgrading the graphics or GM mode, 2K have decided to add all-time teams for every NBA franchise.
There's not much more known about their rosters, either, which leaves a lot of room for speculation and predictions. Undoubtedly, a lot of very good players will not make the cut, simply because they've played for historically great franchises which had many - in their case, too many - great players. The hardest part of this task is to make the selection as fair as possible, and the criteria determining whether a player should make a roster may vary from team to team, but generally they are as follows:
- The rosters are more about impact than duration (for example, Kevin Durant is worthy of a spot on the Warriors' roster, despite playing for them for just one season).
- Players with their numbers retired by a franchise should, but don't always, make a roster.
- Contemporary players are generally favored to legends when their numbers are comparable, because of their relatability.
The result is a hopefully complete, accurate and fair list of 13-roster teams for 31 NBA franchises.
Yes, there's one extra team worthy of addition.
31. Atlanta Hawks
Centers: Dikembe Mutombo, Al Horford, Bill Bridges
Forwards: Dominique Wilkins, Bob Pettit, Kevin Willis, Steve Smith, Eddie Johnson
Guards: Mookie Blaylock, Lou Hudson, Pete Maravich, Doc Rivers, Lenny Wilkens
Starting lineup: Mutombo, Pettit, Wilkins, Maravich, Blaylock
Lou Hudson is a Hawks legend, the best player on the team that moved from St. Louis to Atlanta in 1968. Two years later he was joined by Pete Maravich, one of the best ball-handling shooting guards ever.
The Hawks have enjoyed a lot of equally-talented players playing the point guard position, with Rivers, Wilkens and Blaylock handling the ball-handling duties. Blaylock gets the nod over the other two because of his overall ability on the offensive and defensive end.
Hawks are a guard-heavy team, so Steve Smith and Eddie Johnson, who were shooting guards when playing for the Hawks, should be classified as forwards because they were too important for the team to be passed over for less talented forwards.