2K League Monday Notebook: Happy Memorial Day! - NBA 2K League

Search Jr NBA

2K League Monday Notebook: Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope everyone had a chance to relax and enjoy the long weekend. Week 3 ended last Friday and with it, a whole new set of storylines emerged. Pistons GT, CLTX Gaming and Jazz Gaming each made their season debuts and the rookie class of point guards continued to improve with some massive performances and buzzer-beating shots. Let’s get right into it!

STORYLINES

Each week, we’ll sort through the top storylines that emerged from the previous week of games. This can be team performances, standout players, new lineups, or anything that made a huge impact on the week.

1. Can anyone beat Raptors Uprising GC?

They are heading into their bye week, so it’s a perfect time to talk about them without creating a Monday Notebook curse. It’s hard to put into words how good this team is, so let’s use numbers instead. As a team, they lead the league in PPG, FG%, 3P%, Offensive Rating, made 3-pointers, attempted 3-pointers, total Team Efficiency, and would be #1 in Defensive Rating if Warriors Gaming Squad hadn’t edged them out by 4 points. They have a front-runner for MVP in Kenny Got Work. Timelycook, Sick One, Legit 973, and Reecemode could all make strong arguments as the best player at their position in the league. At 6-0, it’s fair to start wondering if this team could go undefeated. Obviously, we haven’t seen them on stage or in a tournament yet, so it’s also fair to pump the breaks a little bit on long-term expectations, but man, this team is so good and even more fun to watch. They run the break as good as anyone in the league and it’s no surprise that the best 3-point shooting team is also the best team in the league. They play a brand of team defense that we frankly haven’t seen in this league before. They have 4 of the top 15 players in total steals this season and Sick One is leading the league in blocks, just in case you needed more bonkers stats about how good this team has been so far. We’ll stop writing about them when they stop dominating, so expect them to be a weekly feature in the notebook!

2. Jazz and CLTX Gaming impress in Season 3 debut.

“But Harris, CLTX Gaming lost in their debut, how did they possibly impress?” Thank you for asking! Basketball has always been more than just wins and losses; it’s about how you play between the lines and we’ll just say this now: CLTX Gaming is going to be a problem this year. Through massive internet problems, lag outs, and an inability to shoot the ball because of those issues, they still pushed a very good Knicks Gaming team to 3 games and still almost won the series entirely. Yes, they lost. Yes, oFab shot 3/24 from 3-point range in that series. But, we all know Fab can shoot. Once they get those issues squared away or even when we get back to the studio, this team is going to be incredibly tough to beat. They are solid defensively 1-5 and as long as they have Fab, should be plenty potent on offense. Don’t give up on the boys in green just yet. On the other side of things, Jazz Gaming made their debut and looked like the team we all thought they’d be coming into the season. Ria was flat-out dominant against Magic Gaming and their team defense was excellent. Moving Yeah I Compete to lock was a great move. His energy and pasty history playing PG makes him the perfect keystone for their defense. Beezus is a quality piece next to Ria down low and we all know that Lotty can shoot the heck out of the ball when given space. The key to this team though is their rookie PG, Splashy. He had some jitters at first, but his 3 to win Game 1 was what made us so high on him coming out of the draft. The kid loves to shoot 3’s. The deeper the shot, the better! In Game 2, he was struggling to shoot, so to mitigate that, he turned into an electric play-maker and finished with 11 assists and helped get Ria to a 23-19 line. This Jazz team is pretty fun, but they have a tough Week 4 coming up against Kings Guard Gaming and Blazer 5 Gaming to give them a proper test in Season 3.

3. Rookie PGs continue to dominate.

Young talent is never a bad thing. Ever. Draft classes can get competitive with one thinking they are better than the other, but the fact that we can even have an argument year over year is great. With that being said, this rookie Point Guard class is unreal. We said in the pre-season that this PG class has the potential to take over the league, but for it to happen this fast is nothing short of amazing. Of the top 20 leaders in points per game, 8 of them are rookies, with Regg, Shiftykaii, and SAV leading the league as #1-3. In assists per game, they have 3 of the top 5, and 6 of the top 10. It’s a great class, but we’ll ignore for now that the rookie PGs are shooting 38% from 3 as a class, more than 7 points below the league average. What’s left for this class is picking up wins. Teams with rookie PGs are 20-23 on the year, not surprising considering most teams with a rookie PG had top picks in the draft, but you always want more wins. This class is absurdly talented and puts up numbers at a huge rate, but it’s fair to wait and see what this class is like until tournaments come back and we see what they are like when the chips are down. Alas, so far so good.

4. Wizards District Gaming are starting to figure it out. Don’t let them figure it out!

When this team was graced with the #1 overall pick in the lottery, we all knew they were going to be good. Adding a player of that caliber to a team that already has Dayfri and ReeseDaGod is a coup. Seeing it happen live, we were all very right. JBM was the perfect fit for this team. His playmaking and calm demeanor in big moments is exactly what this team needed and it’s no surprise the rest of the team is flourishing because of it. Dayfri is setting personal records for PPG, RPG, and FG% while being a horse on defense. ReeseDaGod has taken step back in his PPG this season, but he’s been arguably the most efficient shooter in the entire league this year, leading all players in eFG%. Their corner players of Brich, Newdini, and Just_Awkward have filled their roles very well and this team is primed for a great year. Since they took Raptors Uprising to 3 games, they have only lost a single game in the 4 series since then, with a very impressive win coming against Hornets Venom GT on Friday night. Dayfri has mentioned he’s been mad about his past seasons and lack of playoff appearances, but they keep playing like this and they are going to cruise into a top 5 seed. They still have room to improve, too. JBM needs to take some steps as a spot-up shooter and their team 3-point numbers could improve as well, but for now, this team has a certain quality to it that few have shown so far this season.

5. Debut of Command Center!

As the league continues to evolve, we want to improve the league as much as we can and since we got a lot of feedback about wanting to watch whole games at once, you now can! If you watch our games on Twitch on either mobile or desktop, you will see a prompt that say “Command Center is Live.” Hit the “Watch Now” button in the top right hand corner and BOOM! All the NBA 2K League games that are happening are right at your fingertips! If you’re on mobile, turn your phone horizontal and click the same “Watch Now” button. From there, you’ll see a box with a + in it. Once you click on that, you’ll see all the available streams and can switch back in forth at your pleasure while still staying active in the Twitch Chat! Yay for availability! We hope you guys enjoy it, it’s a really cool feature.

Highlight(s) of the Week

Putting it a 2nd time cause it’s just such an insane shot!

Hornets Venom GT lost this game, but this team is relentless in end-game situations.

SO MANY BUZZER BEATERS THIS YEAR!

https://twitter.com/Cruuushy/status/1264010250220273664?s=20

The reaction from Crush and Yusuf on Kings Guard Gaming is as good as the shot!

4 Games to Watch in Week 4

1. T-Wolves Gaming (3-1) vs. Mavs Gaming (4-1) (Tuesday, May 27 – 9 pm/et)
1-on-1: BearDaBeast vs. Dimez

Two of the best teams in the league so far clash to tip things off in Week 4! It’s always an event when you have two of the faces of the league square off, even more when it’s Dimez and Bear. Both teams run similar systems with a secondary ballhandler and a horse of a Center down low. While Bear and Dimez is the title card, Feast vs. PeteBeBallin is a war that may decide the whole series. Both have had excellent season so far, this is definitely a match-up to circle coming off the long weekend.

2. Gen.G Tigers of Shanghai (2-2) vs. Bucks Gaming (2-2) (Thursday, May 28 – 7 pm/et)
1-on-1: Shiftykaii vs. Regg

A battle of two of the best rookie PGs and the top two scorers of Season 3 so far! Shiftykaii vs. Regg is going to be a big rivalry their whole careers and we get the first taste of it on Thursday night. Both have tremendous talent scoring the ball and can do so at will, but it’ll be their playmaking that decides this one. Whichever gets their teammates more involved will win this game and both will need plenty of defensive help to slow down the other. It’s going to be an epic scoring battle, one that may end up going a long way during the Rookie of the Year race.

3. Nets GC (0-0) vs. Mavs Gaming (4-1) (Friday, May 29 – 7 pm/et)
1-on-1: Choc vs. Sherm

At long last, Nets Gaming Crew will make their Season 3 debut during Week 4 against Mavs Gaming. We’ll get our first look at Choc as he mans the PG spot as one of the most hyped prospects in league history. A match-up against the very defensively sound Mavs Gaming is not an easy debut, especially following Rando’s suspension, but this Nets GC team should still put up a good fight. All eyes are on Choc though, it’s his time to shine.

4. Blazer5 Gaming (2-0) vs. Jazz Gaming (1-0) (Friday, May 29 – 9 pm/et)
1-on-1: OneWildWalnut vs. Ria

I’m cheating and putting 4 games down because our Game of the Week is too good to ignore. These West Coast foes clash in a battle of two of the most talented teams in the league. While Mama Im Dat Man and Splashy will get some headlines, this might be the best Center match-up of the year so far. Ria is coming off a great performance in his season debut and he goes 1-on-1 with Season 1 MVP and DPOY OneWildWalnut. Nothing better than two great Centers going at it, it should definitely live up to the hype as the Week 4 Game of the Week.

More News

July 2, 2024

NBA 2K League Update

June 26, 2024

NBA 2K League Playoffs Presented by Google Pixel &

June 24, 2024

NBA 2KL Playoffs Presented by Google Pixel –

Partners