“NBA 2K” finalized its rating release earlier this week with the top 10 rated players in the video game. With the launch of “NBA 2K25” right around the corner, fans of the video game franchise and general basketball fans will go back and forth about who was rated too high or too low.
For the second year in a row, among the top players in NBA 2K is Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The 26-year-old earned a 96 overall rating in NBA 2K25.
SGA: Too high, low, or just right?
Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey penned a list of the top 10 players in NBA 2K25 and gave his verdict for each player’s rating. Gilgeous-Alexander’s rating lags behind last season’s NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, fellow point guard Luka Doncic, and one-time NBA champion Giannis Antetokounmpo — three players that tied for first place with a 97 overall.
Did Shai deserve the one-point boost to tie for the top-rated player in the game? Should he have been a few points lower? Or is the rating accurate?
Bailey’s verdict: just right, “and while it was once fair to wonder if his free throw-heavy attack would translate to the postseason, it may not be now,” he wrote . "The Oklahoma City Thunder were knocked out in the second round, but SGA put up 30.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.7 blocks, and 1.3 steals in his first playoff run in this role. He rarely looked sped up or rattled by the intensity of postseason basketball. And now that he has that experience under his belt, it's easy to see his steady offense and aggressive defense getting him back into the MVP mix.”
Is the top rating next?
Fans of the franchise typically overreact to the ratings before the annual release of the video game. While these ratings are based on the player’s performance from the previous NBA season, they can change throughout the following season depending on how they play.
For example, to start the 2023-24 season, Gilgeous-Alexander was rated a 93 overall. A few months into the release of “NBA 2K24," the point guard’s rating began steadily increasing, landing him at a 97 overall by the end of the year.
You may be wondering why his rating fell one point since last year’s video game. NBA 2K scales ratings a bit differently every year, and it is always relative to the other top players in the game. Similarly, Jokic was rated a 98 overall at the start of NBA 2K24’s life cycle and is now a 97 overall.
Another season like the last will inevitably bring Shai’s rating back up to 97. If he secures his first league MVP and perhaps even an NBA championship, he may just earn the highest rating of any player in next year’s iteration of the NBA 2K series.
Related: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander voted NBA MVP by ESPN experts
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