NBA 2K15: What’s Wrong With The Suns?

Honorable Mention:

Markieff Morris’ Three-Point Shooting

Markieff Morris is far from a knockdown three-point shooter, but the game definitely shorts him in that area. In the two three-point shooting categories, Morris has ratings of 67 and 62, following a season that saw him shoot 31.8 percent from long range on 179 attempts.

However, other players’ ratings seem to be a bit more forgiving. Nikola Mirotic, for example, shot just 31.6 percent from three last season, a percentage lower than Morris’. And in the playoffs, Mirotic’s numbers got even worse, as he shot just 7-of-30 (23.3 percent) from three.

Regardless, he “earned” the ratings of 67 and 67, which overall give him a 3PT Scoring Letter Grade (yes, the game is inconsistent in this regard, there are both grades and ratings) of D+. Markieff Morris, on the other hand, get’s a D- as his letter grade.

Then you look at a guy like Ryan Anderson. He gets a 77 and a 70, ahead of Morris by a combined 18 points in the two categories.

To look at it another way, he leads Morris by nearly an entire letter grade in each category. And that’s reflected in his 3PT Scoring Letter Grade, which is a C+.

However, Anderson shot just 2.2 percent better than Morris from three last year, and it appears that the game is just rewarding Anderson for his volume and past success. And that’s all fine and well, but then what’s the point of updating the ratings of the players if the ratings aren’t going to reflect how they play over the course of the last season, which for Anderson, involved 61 games played with a mediocre three-point percentage.

This, by the way, is by far my most nitpicky change I would have with the game. Obviously Ryan Anderson is a better three-point shooter than Markieff Morris, but I think it is something worth noting. However, a lot of the other changes I would make aren’t really nitpicky at all.

Alex Len’s Shot-Blocking Ability

I think we can all agree that Alex Len is still developing as a player, and has a long way to go. However, last season, he was absolutely phenomenal as a shot blocker, something the game doesn’t really recognize.

Here are the facts:

Alex Len finished the season ranked 19th in the NBA in blocks per game. However, he did so in just 22.0 minutes per game, which was lower than all but three players in the top 30 in blocks per game.

Len ranked in the top 10 in blocks per 40 minutes, and was in the top five of block percentage at the end of the year, ahead of players like Andrew Bogut, Roy Hibbert, Tim Duncan and Nerlens Noel.

However, Len isn’t even in the top 25 of the shot-blocking category in NBA 2K15, nor is he even the top shot blocker on the Suns. Instead, that distinction goes to Brandan Wright, who came in behind Len in the categories of blocks, blocks per game, blocks per 40 minutes and block percentage.

Now, I’m being a little particular here, since Len is an 86 overall in the blocking category, but Alex Len definitely deserves to be among the NBA’s elite in that skill, or at the very least have the Eraser Badge, which players like Wright, possess.

Moving forward, I do believe that will be something the game will fix, especially, if Len continues to post block numbers like he did this season. With some of the other changes, I’m not so sure.

Jeff Hornacek’s Hair

The pictures say it all. I mean… it’s not even the right color…

My tweet prompted the following reply… which I think really nailed the look that 2K was going for with how they created Hornacek…

Next: No. 3 -- Captain Clutch