Valley of the Suns
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Phoenix Suns: How season played out compared to NBA2K simulation

By Adam Stratton

PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 27: Visitors play the video game "NBA 2K 17" developed byVisual Concepts and published by 2K Sports on Sony PlayStation game console PS4 during the "Paris Games Week"on October 27, 2016 in Paris, France. "Paris Games Week" is an international trade fair for video games to be held from October 27 to October 31, 2016. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 27: Visitors play the video game "NBA 2K 17" developed byVisual Concepts and published by 2K Sports on Sony PlayStation game console PS4 during the "Paris Games Week"on October 27, 2016 in Paris, France. "Paris Games Week" is an international trade fair for video games to be held from October 27 to October 31, 2016. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images) /
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The 2019-2020 season has been far from predictable, but tell that to NBA2K. It had the Phoenix Suns essentially pegged from the start.

NBA2K has been all the rave since the actual NBA went on hiatus. The Phoenix Suns have been simulating their season, occasionally with players manning the sticks, and ESPN put on a 16-person tournament which was dominated by Suns video game gurus, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.

But before all that, prior to the start of the season, we here at Valley of the Suns simulated the 2019-2020 season the old fashioned way, by sitting back and letting the PlayStation do it on its own. The results were subsequently analyzed and looking back now, wow. They were actually unbelievably accurate.

Total Wins

The simulated season yielded a record of 31-51. Because COVID-19 robbed us of an 82-game season, the Suns ended up (currently have?) a record of 26-39. Since the final 17 games are left unplayed, the best we can do is extrapolate the same win percentage and apply it to those games.

26-39 comes out to a 0.400 win percentage and when you apply that to 82 games you get 32.8. Just to make that number look better, I’ll round down to 32 and claim the pre-season NBA2K calculation was only off by one game (two if you insist on proper rounding).

That’s…really…accurate.

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Player Stats

When it comes to individual player statistics, the predictions get into Ms. Cleo territory…except more accurate and less fraudulent.

NBA2K simulated Devin Booker to average 27.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists. In real life, Booker put up 26.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.6 assists.

How dare 2K underestimate Devin Booker’s passing prowess.

For Deandre Ayton, the simulation actually did undershoot him a bit. The game had him at 15.4 points and 10.2 rebounds when he actually finished with 19 and 12. Then again, the sim also had Ayton not getting suspended for 25 games so what kind of predictive analytics does it really provide?

Wait, what? NBA2K simulated Ayton to have 1.7 blocks per game and DA ended up with exactly 1.7 blocks per game? Okay, I see you, 2K.

The game also foresaw Ricky Rubio‘s scoring spot on. It had him at 13.1 points per game while in real life he ended up with…yep…13.1. It did underestimate his assists a bit, giving him 7.7 to his actual 8.8 per game. The gall.

All-Star Selection

When it comes to selected All-Stars getting hurt and the league subbing in a replacement who deserved to be there in the first place, the video game simulation was way off. It didn’t have Booker in the All-Star game when in actuality, this scenario was the most predictable thing of the season.

Sort of.

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Anyway, if this pandemic lasts much longer, I guess we can just stream a video game simulation for next season and pretty much get it right. At least you have that reassurance.

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