After an extremely fun 2022, the NBA 2K League’s postseason is all that stands between us and a champion for both 3v3 and 5v5. Now that we’re heading into the last stretch, let’s combine our power rankings and give a final regular season overview for the whole league across both game modes. This will give great context as to who have been the most consistent and dominant teams in both game modes (hello WDG) and who struggled across the board (yikes Blazer5). Our last power rankings of the year, let’s go!

Final 5v5 Rankings

1. T-Wolves Gaming
2. 76ers GC
3. Wizards District Gaming
4. Warriors Gaming Squad
5. Bucks Gaming
6. Gen.G Tigers
7. Lakers Gaming
8. Knicks Gaming
9. Jazz Gaming
10. Heat Check Gaming

The 10 best teams in the league on the 5v5 side have one very key thing in common. Defense. 8 of the 10 finished tops in Defensive Rating this season with Jazz Gaming and Heat Check Gaming not far behind. Even those two teams have great defensive ceilings with Ria clogging up the lane in Utah and Miami having one of the best on-stage defenses in the entire league. From a broader perspective, defense ran the league this year. Controlling the pace and getting out in transition defined almost every great team. Add on to that fantastic shooting efficiency and/or elite rebounding and you’ve got yourself some pretty distinct title contenders.

The top 5 we have right now is as strong a top 5 heading into any postseason in league history. Heck, even one of the 6-10 teams could make a run, the league feels more wide open this year. Anyhow, T-Wolves Gaming has put together an arguably better team than they had last year while the addition of 630 to 76ers GC makes them the favorite right now in the Eastern Conference. Warriors Gaming Squad looks as good as ever with Mama Im Dat Man in tow and it’s silly that I’ve even gotten this far in this paragraph without discussing Wizards District Gaming. We’ll get to them in a second, but we do have to mention the upstart Bucks Gaming who is arguably the hottest team in the league in both modes heading into the Championships.

For the Wizards DG team, this season has been a complicated one, but it needs to be pointed out how special this season has been and how truly special this group is. JBM, the Finals MVP and likely the best player in the league last year, is not on this team anymore. And yet, they still made a 5v5 tournament finals and have the best Win% in the East. They have the best defense in the league (again) and have done this without a single player on their team averaging more that 15 ppg. It’s a remarkable effort, we may never see anything like this season again, title #3 or not.

11. Nets GC
12. Cavs Legion GC
13. Mavs Gaming
14. Kings Guard Gaming
15. CLTX Gaming
16. Pacers Gaming
17. Dux Infinitos
18. Grizz Gaming
19. Pistons GT
20. Raptors Uprising GC
21. Magic Gaming
22. Hawks Talon GC
23. Hornets Venom GT
24. Blazer5 Gaming

The rest of our teams had some pretty clear weaknesses all season long. Some teams peaked early, some never peaked at all, but the Ticket will be a great proving ground for players heading into next season. Some teams (like most years) are putting a lot of pressure on themselves to win the Ticket, but that’s always seemed silly. You’re in the Ticket, embrace the chaos. Anyone acting like a favorite just didn’t sit right for this kind of tournament. You could go team by team and pick apart their issues, and that may very well be our final article of the year, but in terms of a general take for this group, these teams were either really bad on one side of the ball, made a trade that basically blew up their season, or just played a ‘meh’ style of basketball. Retention will be fascinating this year, as it always is.

Final 3v3 Rankings

1. Pacers Gaming
2. Bucks Gaming
3. Wizards District Gaming
4. Celtics Crossover Gaming
5. 76ers GC
6. Hawks Talon GC
7. Pistons GT
8. Knicks Gaming
9. Lakers Gaming
10. DUX Infinitos

On the 3v3 side, it’s a much different story. The one thing in common among all these teams are kick-ass lead guards, Wiz DG being an obvious exception but Dayfri was a really fun experiment that nabbed them a banner. Outside of that, this mode has really come down to the best guards in the world being able to create their own points off the dribble. In terms of what this game mode is supposed to be from a broader perspective, this is it. The best guards going toe to toe in a battle of efficiency and skill. Now, beyond that, the other two guys on the court are what separates good from elite. Bucks Gaming is a great example. Cooks has been fantastic this season, but Dawsix and Seese fill in the blanks as well as any duo in the league. Go down the line of our 10 teams and they all have great sidekicks to the guards. That’s the real difference maker.

I think the 3v3 championships will come down to three things. 1, Scoring efficiency from the lead guards. 2, offensive rebounding, turnovers, and extra possession creation. And finally, Trust. Trust has always been important in the NBA 2K League, but 3v3 magnifies it 10x. Trust is what creates champions in this league. You can tell at this point which teams trust each other and which ones don’t. Which teams are bickering during broadcast after bad plays and which teams are cooperating and learning from each other. Watch it on-stage, it decides the winner almost every time. Crowning our first 3v3 champion is going to be very cool, I’m personally very excited to start creating some historical basis for 3s, but it won’t be the best or most talented team that’s going to win. It’s going to be the team with the best chemistry, I’m very confident in that.

11. NetsGC
12. Cavs Legion GC
13. Hornets Venom GT
14. Magic Gaming
15. Raptors Uprising GC
16. Warriors Gaming Squad
17. T-Wolves Gaming
18. Grizz Gaming
19. Kings Guard Gaming
20. Heat Check Gaming
21. Jazz Gaming
22. Mavs Gaming
23. Gen.G Tigers of Shanghai
24. Blazer5 Gaming

If you showed me this list on non-postseason teams in the offseason, I would’ve double-taked three times. Just some really stunning teams on this list that I figured would’ve been easy championship contenders. I think the biggest factor in this was something I like to call Lineup Anxiety. It comes in waves and when it hits you, you can’t stop it. Some of these teams have found their best lineup a little too late, so we view them as “Steal Open favorites”, but all of them suffered from Lineup Anxiety at some point this season and lost a lot of points because of it. I’ll be honest, I have no clue what to think about the Steal Open. We have a lot of historical winners in this field with some of the best players to ever pick up a controller. However, if they were that good in this mode, they wouldn’t be in the Steal in the first place! It’s going to be fascinating how this breaks down for the first time.

 

That’s it for Power Rankings for Season 5! Appreciate everyone following along and DMing me their takes this year. I’ll be putting together a Steal and Ticket preview soon, so keep an eye out for that. Enjoy the bye week everyone, Championships are right around the corner!