Hope everyone enjoyed their July 4th holiday! No crazy injuries or overly embarrassing stories to share from my side. I did, however, take the auto train for the first time. 16 hours! But shoutout Amtrak – not a bad ride, and the steak I ate on there was surprisingly tasty.

 

Anyway, with the bye week about to be in the rear view mirror, I figured I would take some time and answer the many questions of the 2K League community. It’s a Bye Week Mailbag! Let’s get into it.

 

Best defensive player in the league? 

– shot blocker 

– on ball

 

Curious your opinion, feels like the league revolves quite a bit on getting stops when it matters most. – Ray Reese @RreeseCantSpell

 

Good question to start with, but I’ll establish some context first. This season, team defense is far more important than just one guy being really good. It’s all about 5 guys buying in and doing what it takes to get stops. You have your power positions like lock and PF that need to be consistently good, but it takes a team this year to get important stops.

 

However, the best shot blocker ever, and conveniently again this year, is OneWildWalnut. Leading the league in blocks again, he’s the all-time leader in blocked shots as well. No one comes off the weak side quite like Walnut does. On-ball is tough. We have a lot of great ones. I think the top 3 that come to my mind just from an on-ball perspective are TayZo with CLTX, Stick with Knicks Gaming, and LawRich with NBL Oz. That’s pretty East heavy, so I’ll toss Kenny Got Work in there, he’s been just insane on both ends this year.

 

Two for you:

 

1) Who are some marquee players you anticipate being on the move this off season?

 

2) Players to look towards that you expect a jump in production from this season to next. – Coach Big Face

 

That first one is tough to answer because honestly, that will likely be decided with the games the next few weeks. Never know which team will all of a sudden feel really good about their team due to a strong TICKET showing. If I had to throw a feeler out there, I wonder what Atlanta does with Ceez. Statistically, this might be his best 5v5 season. I think a team would be happy to have him if Hawks Talon looks to build around MDS. Also, just a thought. I wonder how Cooks is feeling with Bucks Gaming. This 5-out system has put him a bit on the outside looking in and he’s a guy who likes having the ball in his hand. Perhaps a team looks to pay a King’s Ransom to pry him away from Milwaukee.

 

On the second one, I really think all these rookie guards are going to be very good next year. Just look at this list. Ky, AntoineLove, Ryan1of1, CP, Leche, Greens, all of these guys are going to be sophomores next year with their teams committed to building around them. I think the league PG position is looking great for years to come.

 

Who took the biggest leap this year and who took a step back this year? – Coach Nick @ngartrelle

 

Biggest leap is an interesting one, I’ll stick with a rookie from last year to make it easier. I think BigReign deserves a shoutout. Played multiple roles across different game modes and the team is just flat-out better when he’s on the floor. He definitely gets caught in the mix at the position. Heck you could argue fellow second year center DJ has been even better, but Reign has had a great year and should be a part of Indiana’s core going forward

 

Step back feels a bit mean. Let’s shift it to “which guys role do I hate this year” and that award easily goes to Bsmoove. I don’t like how they use him at all. Ky is way, way, way too ball-heavy. Bsmoove, one of the best shooters ever and still at the top of his game, is down to 7.9 field goal attempts per game. 7.9. 2nd to last among qualified SGs. He has a 18% usage rate. I don’t blame Ky, I just think they might’ve given him the keys a little too aggressively.

 

How’s the mental aspect of doing broadcast/analysis – @DTeelace

 

It can be difficult at times. It’s 75 shows with only two bye weeks in between, so keeping your mental health in check is important. Myself and the other talent are always checking in with each other to make sure we’re okay and in a good place. We try to make it as friendly an environment as we can. But it’s exhausting, I won’t lie. Takes a lot of prep time and energy to put on the length of shows that we do and the amount of shows. Not to mention the travel/hotels, other work that comes up. It’s no different to other jobs that have their own specific issues. The friends you make along the way and the passion for the job is really what carries you through the tough times. Hardest part for me has been losing relationships with people due to analysis. Stinks when objectivity comes in the way of personal friendships, I’ve definitely been on the sour end of a few. Just part of the job!

 

Top 3 in the running for MVP, MIP, and DPOY? – seese

 

This is where my head is at, officially, heading into THE TURN Bracket Play:

 

MVP: Ant, ShiftyKaii, Greens

 

MIP: Killeyy, ReturnofDj, BagMotion

 

DPOY: Seese, Feast, KennyGotWork

 

What do the hawks do in the off-season? – @yoDicxy

 

It’s time to blow it up and start over! They don’t have their own first round pick for this year due to the Gradient trade, so I think we’ll see a few trades coming from their side. I think everyone is on the block and that may include MDS as well. Hard to build around a SG in this league, but I would be surprised if they actually let him go. 

 

1. Are there any new teams coming to 2K League in the offseason?
2. How would you fix the Lakers and Wizards? – prime time Scott 

 

No clue on expansion teams as of now! Probably won’t hear about those for a while anyway!

 

Both Lakers Gaming and WDG have similar problems. They have good enough players that you don’t want to get rid of them, but they just don’t work well enough together for it to make sense keeping them together. I would not be surprised if both teams blow it up this offseason. Only guy I think is safe on either side is probably Ryan1of1 on the Lakers Gaming side. Other than that, nothing would really surprise me.

 

1. What’s the future of the 2KL? (Open ended question)
2. Do u think sometime in the future there’s gonna be no “rookies” and almost every player in the league / in draft is some1 that was already in the league? – Cubehead

 

We’ll close with 2 good questions from my friend CubeHead here!

 

Firstly, these are my thoughts and opinions. These do not reflect the League’s stance and what it’s doing in the future.

 

I went into the first part of the question a bit in my last recap and I think the deal with FIBA all but confirmed my suspicions. I think the future of the league is less “season” oriented and will end up being more based around the life cycle of the game. Tournaments in different cities across the world starting on release date all feeding into one year long “league” that closes with some insane Grand Finals. I think we’re a few years away from it, but I can see it as if it’s tomorrow. Hopefully, I’m still around when it happens.

 

Second, no I think we will always have rookies. I think too many young kids like 2K and there is way more international talent that will find their “why” into the league than we know yet. There will always be new players, that’s what makes video games great.