The Philadelphia 76ers’ treatment in NBA 2K21 is mostly solid.
NBA 2K21 was released to a languid audience on Sept. 4, smack in the middle of playoff basketball and a global health crisis. While the early reviews (from Twitter, at least) are subpar, it’s difficult to resist the temptation of updated rosters and, when lucky, updated player scans.
Obviously, the circumstances are unique. 2K doesn’t normally release before the previous season ends, and rosters will change drastically over the course of free agency and the NBA Draft. In fact, I’m genuinely interested in how virtual seasons will unfold as free agency and the draft unfold. Tough luck for anyone who doesn’t have access to online features and updates.
The Philadelphia 76ers have a high general rating despite the disappointing end to last season. Joel Embiid is the 10th highest player in the game, while Ben Simmons‘ All-Star reputation has been upheld. On the whole, the Sixers are probably one of the more reasonably rated teams in the game.
With that said, 2K still didn’t nail everything. In fact, they rarely do — it’s an arbitrary video game with no way to properly account for a player’s real-life impact on winning. Take Ben Simmons, for example. He’s just a hard player to properly flesh out in a video game realm, even if 87 is a mostly fair number.
Here are the ratings for everyone on the Sixers roster.
- Joel Embiid — 91
- Ben Simmons — 87
- Tobias Harris — 84
- Al Horford — 80
- Josh Richardson — 80
- Alec Burks — 77
- Matisse Thybulle — 75
- Shake Milton — 75
- Glenn Robinson III — 75
- Furkan Korkmaz — 75
- Kyle O’Quinn — 74
- Raul Neto — 73
- Mike Scott — 72
- Ryan Broekhoff — 72
- Norvel Pelle — 71
- Zhaire Smith — 70
- Marial Shayok — 67
So, yeah, fine. Fine! By video game standards, there isn’t a ton to pick apart here. Tobias Harris is still better than he gets credit for, Al Horford is probably an 80 on a different roster, and Joel Embiid is, in fact, the Sixers’ best player — by a comfortable margin. Even Neto over Scott is the correct decision.
The only major bone to pick is probably the dearth of 75s, and even that is a minor dispute. I’m not sure Thybulle, Milton, Robinson, and Korkmaz are all operating on the same level. I might bump Milton and Robinson up a notch, and bump Korkmaz down a notch. Thybulle has the potential to move up if he can consistently hit 3s.
On a broader scale, my main issue is some of the players who were given 88s. Ben Simmons is better than Russell Westbrook and Trae Young. There is a compelling argument to be made that he is better than (or at least on the same level as) Pascal Siakam and Bradley Beal. In fact, he’s better than both of them. You heard it here first.
With that said, the difference between an 87 and 88 is too marginal and insignificant to truly complain about. If the game had dropped before the postseason, you might have gotten a verbose rant about the silliness of Donovan Mitchell over Ben Simmons, but frankly, you won’t hear that complaint after the Jazz-Nuggets series. We can reconvene next season.
In the end, solid marks all around. The Sixers are not perfectly rated, but compared to some other teams, 2K nailed Philadelphia. We will see how the roster looks by the time the 2021 season actually starts.