Want to be the champ? It all starts in the draft.
Last night, the 2016 NBA Draft was held in Brooklyn -- with the usual fanfare surrounding 60 new players entering the league. Some teams came out of draft night winners, and others didn't really advance an agenda towards championships. Let's look at some winners and losers with NBA 2K17 as our guide.
Winners
Oklahoma City Thunder - They're my hometown team and I just want to get this out of the way now. The Oladipo for Ibaka trade was brilliant and to add Domantas Sabonis to the mix as well for frontcourt depth is just a cherry on top. The Thunder appeared to get a lot better yesterday. The starting five of Westbrook, Oladipo, Durant, Adams, and Kanter are going to be about as good as you can get in NBA 2K17.
Boston Celtics - When you enter the draft with as many picks as Boston had, its really hard to mess up draft night. The Celtics got Jaylen Brown with the third pick then followed that up with two potential future front-court players in Guerschon Yabusele (PF) and Ante Zizic (C). Demetrius Jackson and Ben Bentil are both potential future rotation players and they were gotten in the second round. There's some projects here, but this draft could yield true dividends for the Celtics in the future. They're more intriguing to play as if your goal is long-term building in MyTeam.
Philadelphia 76ers - I won't lie in the sense I oftentimes don't know what the heck Philly is up to in building their franchise. There have been starts and restarts and restarts of restarts. However, Ben Simmons is a potential star and a couple of athletic guys who can fill up the bucket in Timothe Luwawu-Caborrot and Furkan Korkmaz. In terms of NBA 2K17 -- you've got a lot of young pieces to build a championship contender around now long term.
The Losers
Brooklyn Nets - The Nets hosted the draft and badly needed something good to happen. After mortgaging the franchises future on two over the hill players in Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce -- the Nets were rewarded by coming into draft night with a bad draft position but a desperate need to rebuild. Caris LeVert and Isaiah Whitehead may or may not be NBA rotation type of guys, but nothing moved the needle here. The Nets have a long way to go and don't offer much excitement except as a total rebuild in NBA 2K17.
Milwaukee Bucks - Thon Maker either is the biggest hidden gem in the history of the draft, which the Bucks stole -- or they just drafted a guy who may or may not be 19, who hasn't played anything beyond high school ball, and probably could've been acquired way down the line and probably with a favorable trade. In terms of NBA 2K17 -- its doubtful Maker is rated high at all and the Bucks overall trend seems to be sideways at best after the draft.
Dallas Mavericks - I live close enough to Dallas to see the agony DFW fans go through who aren't Rangers fans. Draft night is a reason for panic, and anytime news of roster moves hit you instantly fear the worst. The Mavs only picked A.J. Hammons from Purdue -- but the amount of 7' guys with no physcial athleticism who are successful in the NBA is very low. Really it feels like Dallas picked someone just to pick someone -- I've done that before in NBA 2K when I didn't need a pick and there was no trade which worked for me. But that was also a video game.
What do you think about draft night? How did your team do?
Winners
Oklahoma City Thunder - They're my hometown team and I just want to get this out of the way now. The Oladipo for Ibaka trade was brilliant and to add Domantas Sabonis to the mix as well for frontcourt depth is just a cherry on top. The Thunder appeared to get a lot better yesterday. The starting five of Westbrook, Oladipo, Durant, Adams, and Kanter are going to be about as good as you can get in NBA 2K17.
Boston Celtics - When you enter the draft with as many picks as Boston had, its really hard to mess up draft night. The Celtics got Jaylen Brown with the third pick then followed that up with two potential future front-court players in Guerschon Yabusele (PF) and Ante Zizic (C). Demetrius Jackson and Ben Bentil are both potential future rotation players and they were gotten in the second round. There's some projects here, but this draft could yield true dividends for the Celtics in the future. They're more intriguing to play as if your goal is long-term building in MyTeam.
Philadelphia 76ers - I won't lie in the sense I oftentimes don't know what the heck Philly is up to in building their franchise. There have been starts and restarts and restarts of restarts. However, Ben Simmons is a potential star and a couple of athletic guys who can fill up the bucket in Timothe Luwawu-Caborrot and Furkan Korkmaz. In terms of NBA 2K17 -- you've got a lot of young pieces to build a championship contender around now long term.
The Losers
Brooklyn Nets - The Nets hosted the draft and badly needed something good to happen. After mortgaging the franchises future on two over the hill players in Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce -- the Nets were rewarded by coming into draft night with a bad draft position but a desperate need to rebuild. Caris LeVert and Isaiah Whitehead may or may not be NBA rotation type of guys, but nothing moved the needle here. The Nets have a long way to go and don't offer much excitement except as a total rebuild in NBA 2K17.
Milwaukee Bucks - Thon Maker either is the biggest hidden gem in the history of the draft, which the Bucks stole -- or they just drafted a guy who may or may not be 19, who hasn't played anything beyond high school ball, and probably could've been acquired way down the line and probably with a favorable trade. In terms of NBA 2K17 -- its doubtful Maker is rated high at all and the Bucks overall trend seems to be sideways at best after the draft.
Dallas Mavericks - I live close enough to Dallas to see the agony DFW fans go through who aren't Rangers fans. Draft night is a reason for panic, and anytime news of roster moves hit you instantly fear the worst. The Mavs only picked A.J. Hammons from Purdue -- but the amount of 7' guys with no physcial athleticism who are successful in the NBA is very low. Really it feels like Dallas picked someone just to pick someone -- I've done that before in NBA 2K when I didn't need a pick and there was no trade which worked for me. But that was also a video game.
What do you think about draft night? How did your team do?
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