NBA SIMS LEAGUE
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New York (65 - 17) | Expert Pick 0% >< 0% |
Oklahoma City (51 - 31) |
Best of the Best
 I saw this week had a lot of top team matchups. So I had to pick up one of them for Game of the Week. I had a choice of MIL @ NY or NY @ OKC. I didn’t go with the Milwaukee game because I didn’t think Milwaukee without Mobley would be as fun as OKC without Deandre Ayton. When you look at the standings, Oklahoma City is the top team in the West with a record of 17-4. New York, on the other hand, is just 2nd place with a record of 16-4. For the first quarter of the season, we wondered which of these teams would be the last to lose a game. And it was New York. These are the best teams in the league. New York has the best player in the game, Kevin Durant who is on a historical run in the NSL. Oklahoma has Anthony Edwards who is the 6 best player in the game as of today, and this team is loaded with a very talented starting lineup. The unfortunate thing is the Knicks will struggle more with injuries this week than OKC. So we’ll see what happens. New York will have to resort to playing G League level point guards due to the injuries of Mike Conley and Josh Giddey. Lineups Below are the projected lineups for each team: New York
Oklahoma City
Matchups: PG: Isaiah Stevens vs De’Aaron Fox Isaiah Stevens (68 OVR): 2.6 PTS, 0.9 REB, 2.1 AST, 0.4 STL, 0.0 BLK, 0.260 FG%, 0.240 3P%, -6.2 BPM De’Aaron Fox (88 OVR): 24.8 PTS, 3.2 REB, 8.2 AST, 1.2 STL, 0.5 BLK, 0.430 FG%, 0.310 3P%, 10.1 BPM This matchup is a disaster. The unfortunate thing is that all of New York’s point guards are injured except Curtis Jones. Smokey had to petition for another point guard and ended up with Isaiah Stevens. Both Curtis Jones and Isaiah Stevens are unplayable players. They were in the free agent pool for so long because they were so bad. If you play either of these guys as your backup PG, there is a very good chance you will lose. But when you have either of these guys starting, the loss is guranteed. Especially when you are playing one of the best teams in the league. There is absolutely no way you are beating a top team with either of these nonplayable players in your starting lineup. De’Aaron Fox is an NBA/NSL star player. And what do star players do to G League level talent? They embarass the fuck out of them. De’Aaron Fox will have a career night against Isaiah Stevens, and that is no joke. He’s averaging 24.8 PTS this season. He could very well put up over 30 in this matchup. It’s very unfortunate, because this would have been an amazing match if Mike Conley or Josh Giddey were healthy.  SG: Jaylon Tyson vs Anthony Edwards Jaylon Tyson (78 OVR): 8.0 PTS, 3.6 REB, 3.6 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.5 BLK, 0.420 FG%, 0.370 3P%, 11.4 BPM Anthony Edwards (95 OVR): 29.4 PTS, 3.8 REB, 5.1 AST, 0.6 STL, 0.6 BLK, 0.490 FG%, 0.390 3P%, 8.8 BPM Anthony Edwards is the star player here. He is an MVP candidate and the best shooting guard in the game. Jaylon Tyson is just a regular dude. He matches well with other role players, and I believe he is good enough to guard Anthony Edwards, but he won’t outplay him. And I don’t believe he can hold Anthony Edwards below his 29.4 PT average.  SF: Kevin Durant vs Quentin Grimes Kevin Durant (93 OVR): 38.6 PTS, 5.9 REB, 5.3 AST, 1.2 STL, 1.2 BLK, 0.610 FG%, 0.520 3P%, 16.2 BPM Quentin Grimes (81 OVR): 10.7 PTS, 3.8 REB, 2.9 AST, 1.0 STL, 0.6 BLK, 0.510 FG%, 0.480 3P%, 10.3 BPM Kevin Durant is the star player here. He’s the best small forward in the game. And he might actually be the best player in NBA2K26. Quentin Grimes is a good player. I would say he’s something between a role player and a star because he’s more than a role player, but he’s not a star either. He’s something in between. But he’s on the short side for small forwards. Kevin Durant outsizes him by a lot. And he’s just going to have his way with Grimes. Despite Grime’s defensive acumen, he’s just severely outsized in this matchup. Durant will go above his yearly average and go 40+ in this matchup.  PF: Jaden McDaniels vs Deni Avdija Jaden McDaniels (81 OVR): 11.7 PTS, 5.2 REB, 3.7 AST, 0.6 STL, 1.6 BLK, 0.550 FG%, 0.470 3P%, 16.0 BPM Deni Avdija (86 OVR): 13.0 PTS, 7.6 REB, 5.9 AST, 1.2 STL, 1.4 BLK, 0.550 FG%, 0.390 3P%, 6.4 BPM I think these are very similar players. Jaden McDaniels is a better defender than Deni Avdija, but not by a lot. They are both similar level scorers. But Deni adds an additional element to the offense that I really like, and that is his passing. Generally teams will run pick and rolls with their point guard and shooting guard, but when your small forward and power forward can also run pick and rolls, that really opens up the offense. And Deni does this. Jaden McDaniels will be asked to do a lot more since Josh Giddey is out, but I just don’t think he is built for the task.  C: Jarrett Allen vs Adem Bona Jarrett Allen (84 OVR): 16.8 PTS, 9.3 REB, 2.9 AST, 1.0 STL, 1.5 BLK, 0.790 FG%, 0.00 3P%, 13.1 BPM Adem Bona (74 OVR): 4.6 PTS, 4.4 REB, 1.3 AST, 0.6 STL, 0.7 BLK, 0.710 FG%, 0.00 3P%, 1.4 BPM Jarrett Allen is one of the top centers in the league. Adem Bona is just a backup center filling in for Deandre Ayton. He is an inch taller than Allen though. I was very surprised. I thought Jarrett Allen was 7’0, but he’s actually 6’9. Bona is 6’10. Allen has better rebound ratings and better interior defense, but Bona has better block ratings. Allen is a little more efficient with his field goal percentages. But end of the day, overall Allen is just a higher rated player with better tendencies.  Bench New York: Curtis Jones, Tre Johnson, Saddiq Bey, Tristan Da Silva, Oso Ighodaro Oklahoma City: RayJ Dennis, Anfernee Simons, Nicolas Batum, Kobe Brown, Kevin Love These two teams try to run a 9 man rotation to milk the minutes of their star players, but we know from the many games this season that the game will still dig down your roster for that guy with the same position as your star and play him backup minutes even though you don’t assign him minutes. So I’m under the belief that Tristan Da Silva and RayJ Dennis will still play even though they weren’t allocated minutes. New York has just one negative player coming off their bench, and that is Curtis Jones. Oklahoma has two negative players coming off their bench and that is RayJ Dennis and Kobe Brown. New York has one true vet coming off their bench and that is Saddiq Bey. Oklahoma has 3 guys: Anfernee Simons, Nicolas Batum, and Kevin Love. Anfernee Simons is still a little young and still a little unpolished, but he’s been in the league long enough to have veteran status. I think Oklahoma has the better bench due to their veteran presence. |
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| X-Factor |
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| The X-Factor is the fact that Knicks have to play an unplayable G League talent in the starting lineup. Isaiah Stevens might be the worst player in the game, if not, he's in the top 10 worst. A situation like this is just giving the win to OKC. But if someone can carry a team with a G League starter, it would be Kevin Durant. So we'll see what happens. |
| Injury Report | |
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| Injured Players: Dante Exum () - 35 NBA Games missed this season Deandre Ayton (--) - 5 NBA Games missed this season Landry Shamet () - 18 NBA Games missed this season DeAnthony Melton () - 24 NBA Games missed this season Terrence Shannon () - 12 NBA Games missed this season | Injured Players: Mike Conley () - 4 NBA Games missed this season Ivica Zubac () - 5 NBA Games missed this season Josh Giddey () - 4 NBA Games missed this season Nikola Jovic () - 9 NBA Games missed this season Craig Porter Jr. () - 4 NBA Games missed this season Returning Players: Jarrett Allen (returning from ) - 10 NBA Games missed this season |
| Prediction |
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| OKC |