NBA SIMS LEAGUE
NSL Insider - Premium: Top 3rd-Optionsby Vitticus, updated on Wednesday, March 19 2025, 09:21 pm EST Top 3rd-Options We saw a lot of “Austin Reaves best third-option in the NBA” banter going on this week. And it gave me the idea to do a top third-option list for NSL.    So lets look at the list for NSL. And just a heads up, there’s many ways I could have gone about this, but I figure I go based off points per game. Seems like that’s what most of us care about. Generally when we say “3rd option,” we generally refer to the 3rd best scorer.   Dejounte Murray Ben traded for Murray about 2 months ago, and he’s only played a total of 8 games so far for the Philadelphia 76ers. In 4 games in Week 10, he was the top scorer without Paul George. And in Week 13, he was the 3rd option with just 2 points less than Jalen Green. With Paul George getting ready to shut down for the season, It is a toss up between Jalen Green and Dejounte Murray on who the top option will be. With all that said though, Dejounte is capable of being a top option. But when the Sixers are fully healthy, he is their 3rd option. It could ultimately end up being Jalen Green. But whoever it is, one of these guys is the top 3rd option in the league. Cam Thomas This is Rootsey’s latest big time acquisition. After so much banter of Grizzlies not being able to make their stars work, he manages to get another star without having to give one up. So with Jaren Jackson Jr and Bam Adebayo struggling to break 10 points per game, Cam Thomas immediately jumps up on their top scorer list behind Jaylen Brown and Malcolm Brogdon. Brogdon has been missing with injury though, so Cam Thomas will probably jump up causing Stephon Castle to become their next 3rd option. Cam has only played 4 games so far for the Grizzlies, but as of now, he is the 2nd best 3rd option in the league.  Nikola Jokic I wish Nikola Jokic was good enough to be a 1st option. Unfortunately 2K refuses to make him as good as he is in real life. As a result, I have to settle for him being a 3rd option. And not even the best 3rd option in the league. In real life, he’s the greatest player in the world, but here in 2K, he’s not even the best 3rd option. Frans Wagner Surprisingly, Austin Reaves didn't make the list. On the Jazz, he's a 5th option. Franz had a lot of hype in the NBA and made that All-star leap this season. For Jason’s team, he is still behind 2 NBA 2K legends in Joel Embiid and James Harden. But he could be a top option for a lot of teams here in the NSL.  Zion Williamson Surprisingly, Zion is behind Cade on this team. Cade is actually above Kawhi! And I’m fairly sure that Zion is a very favorable archetype in NBA 2K too. He could be a top option on a lot of teams here in the NSL. He does have a very high FG%, but his FT% is ass. Jalen Suggs Poor Jonathan. Suggs is has been a nice third option for him this year in Chicago, yet is missing most of this part of the season due to injury. Fred VanVleet Sacramento could be doing nicely right now with Fred VanVleet as their third option if their centers could just get healthy and they don’t have to rely on Alex Ducas as their center. Klay Thompson Klay is a 2K legend. And even at old age, he’s still good enough to be a 3rd option. He’s a big part of the reason why Digga’s team was near the top before Sabonis got hurt.  Karl-Anthony Towns I haven’t been following Towns as much since he left Houston. But I’d like to think he’s been a top option on most of the teams he’s gone to since he was last with us. This year, he has to share the court with Ja Morant and Demar DeRozan. You could argue that Towns is better than DeRozan, but 2K has historically loved DeRozan. As a result, Towns only averages 17 points a game. But that is incredibly nice to have as your third option. Shaedon Sharpe I know Laddas has to be happy about the developments his 2022 draft pick has made. He’s really nice in 2K. The CPU generally has problems stopping Shaedon. The only problem with him is he misses his free throws. Which is something you don’t want to see in crunch time. But the progress is there. He’s just a free throw improvement from jumping above Khris Middleton and gaining more wins for the Phoenix Suns. WORST THIRD-OPTIONS And here is the bottom of third-option list.  First I’ll say the most disappointing thing about these guys at the bottom of the list is they average less points than Portland’s third-option: Anthony Gill.  The biggest surprise is seeing Alperen Sengun on the bottom of this list. The guy is a gun in the NBA. I feel sorry for anyone that has to guard him. Sengun can score. Yet in NSL he struggles to get over 10 points a game.
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