Yesterday I wrote about how potential has changed in NBA2K14 (from previous versions of the game), to cut the long story short (although it will help if you read the article); potential now acts as a static cap (once a player reaches an overall level equal to his potential, the game will stop “growing” the player during the end-of-season player changes), previously potential would rise as a player improved, that is no-longer the case. Potential can only rise by putting a player through training camp. This change has had a profound effect on Association Mode (read the article for more info).

While writing about potential, I used last year’s no1 draft pick Anthony Davis as an example. I never really considered applying the potential cap to the 2013 draft, until now!

NBA 2013 Draft – NBA 2K14 Potential and Overall Rating.

(NBA 2013 draft, sorted by NBA2K14 Potential – high > low)

Pick Name Pos Team (original!) POT OVR 6 Nerlens Noel C New Orleans Pelicans (traded to Philadelphia)[A] 88 71 17 1 Anthony Bennett PF/SF Cleveland Cavaliers 86 76 10 2 Victor Oladipo SG/PG Orlando Magic 86 76 10 7 Ben McLemore SG Sacramento Kings 85 72 13 9 Trey Burke PG Minnesota Timberwolves (traded to Utah)[B] 85 73 12 10 C. J. McCollum PG/SG Portland Trail Blazers 85 72 13 11 Michael Carter-Williams PG/SG Philadelphia 76ers 85 69 16 3 Otto Porter SF Washington Wizards 84 74 10 8 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope SG Detroit Pistons 83 70 13 4 Cody Zeller PF/C Charlotte Bobcats 82 68 14 5 Alex Len C Phoenix Suns 78 62 16 13 Kelly Olynyk C Dallas Mavericks (traded to Boston)[C] 78 68 10 12 Steven Adams C Oklahoma City Thunder (from Toronto via Houston)[a] 73 57 16 18 Shane Larkin PG Atlanta Hawks (from Houston via Brooklyn,[b] traded to Dallas)[D] 73 70 3 17 Dennis Schröder PG Atlanta Hawks 72 66 6 23 Solomon Hill SF Indiana Pacers 72 62 10 24 Tim Hardaway, Jr. SG New York Knicks 72 69 3 29 Archie Goodwin SG Oklahoma City Thunder (traded to Phoenix via Golden State) [E][G] 72 68 4 30 Nemanja Nedović PG Phoenix Suns (from Miami via Cleveland and LA Lakers,[c][f] traded to Golden State)[G] 72 63 9 21 Gorgui Dieng C Utah Jazz (from Golden State via Brooklyn,[d] traded to Minnesota)[B] 71 64 7 14 Shabazz Muhammad SG/SF Utah Jazz (traded to Minnesota)[B] 70 65 5 15 Giannis Antetokounmpo G/F Milwaukee Bucks 70 60 10 19 Sergey Karasev SG/SF Cleveland Cavaliers (from LA Lakers)[c] 70 60 10 25 Reggie Bullock SF Los Angeles Clippers 70 64 6 20 Tony Snell SF Chicago Bulls 68 62 6 22 Mason Plumlee C Brooklyn Nets 68 61 7 26 André Roberson PF Minnesota Timberwolves (from Memphis via Houston,[e] traded to Oklahoma City via Golden State)[E] 68 63 5 27 Rudy Gobert C Denver Nuggets (traded to Utah)[F] 66 52 14 16 Lucas Nogueira# C Boston Celtics (traded to Atlanta via Dallas)[C][D] 0 0 0 28 Livio Jean-Charles SF San Antonio Spurs 0 0 0

Key:

POS – Positions player can play (taken from wikipedia – not all are reflected in game!)

POT – Player potential: the maximum overall level a player can reach.

OVR – Overall: the starting statistic for the player (not including any +/- for team chemistry)

Note: All values are v1 preseason stats and may change in future updates. Players with 0/0 are not currently in the game. Should you notice any mistakes please tweet me @NBA2KBlogger (in the current game database, please don’t contact me a month or more from now to rectify a stat, because in that first month+ of the season 2K has likely updated the stats to reflect the Zeitgeist!).

(draft information is from the Wikipedia NBA 2013 Draft page all other information is from the NBA2K14 game database).

How does this affect NBA2K14?

In the article yesterday the 2012 no 1 pick, Anthony Davis, had a potential of 93. I think the potentials above are a fair reflection of this year’s draft, if Davis had been available for this draft he would have been the favourite for the no1 pick again (although it will take a while to properly assess the 2013 draftees!).

Interestingly the only player who has a chance of hitting a true 99 overall without using Untapped Potential at least twice (and doing a lot of extra training) is Nerlens Noel, who would probably reach 99 with just a single Untapped Potential and a lot of training (he should hit late 90s with a single Untapped Potential if you use it in the first season, and with team chemistry he could hit 99 without training. But as a rookie you would probably put him through some drills/training anyway to smoove off those rough edges/increase his best stats! I showed yesterday that you can break the potential “cap limit” by using training camps/drills).

There are a lot of players who are already very close to maxing out their stats. Shane Larkin and Tim Hardaway, Jr. are only 3 points away from reaching their potential (so you will probably max them out in the first season, or see very little gain!). Snell will probably max out in a season or two, as will Shabazz Muhammad (which is a shame because he has some great dunks and a nice set of skills and even worse, I’ve just signed him on my Bulls save game!). It is arguable whether it is worth keeping these players at all! You can’t send them to training camp until after the first season has finished (and the rookie season usually sees the biggest boosts in stats), and even then the potential will only be high 70s/low 80s. They aren’t going to turn into superstar players (without cheating or a boost later in the year from 2K). They certainly aren’t first team caliber and you might be better to trade them for a player with higher potential or better base stats!

The biggest gaps (between starting rating and potential, effectively the players with the most room to grow; although you should note, that is NOT the same as a list of the players who will turn out to be the best! For example, Gobert is listed here as 14, but only has 66 potential, the difference is high because he starts with even more terrible base stats!) are:

Nerlens Noel (17)

Michael Carter-Williams, Alex Len and Steven Adams (16)

Cody Zeller and Rudy Gobert (14)

Ben McLemore, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and C. J. McCollum (13)

and finally Trey Burke with (12)

(the rest of the players from the first round of the 2013 draft are all 10 or under in overall>potential ratio).

So what have we learned about the 2013 draft? Certainly those players at the top of the list are worth getting. A team consisting of Burke, Oladipo (who isn’t listed as a PG in the game currently), Porter, Bennett and Noel would grow into a great team and you’ll have a lot of fun with them, especially if you can gain enough points to use untapped potential early enough in their careers (although you’d probably be better off picking one or two players from any one draft year, due to the limit on points available for Untapped Potential, expensive at 75 points a pop!).

I think the first thing I’ll be aiming for in my current game is a Davis, Noel pairing! As an aside, I wonder if Wiggins will enter NBA2K15 with 99 potential? (I believe only James has 99 pot’ in the current game. Durant has 98, I haven’t seen any others as high as that, although Paul George has had a nice increase with 95 potential and will become (already is!) a beast!).