CLE 15
OKC 17
UTAH 39
PHI 42
BOS 114
ATL 91
CHA 93
WAS 109
NY 111
MIA 105
UTAH 115
CLE 99
MIN 99
CHI 118
ORL 85
CHI 109
NO 112
IND 102
LAC 121
SAC 117
BKN 91
HOU 118
DEN 114
GS 93
DAL 89
UTAH 120
NY 106
SA 117
MIL 109
POR 103
NBA SIMS LEAGUE
New-look Spurs feat Zach Lavine, Myles Turner and Giannis appear locked in for opening night. ...  
Nov 21 7:22 pm

NSL Insider - Nels' Power Rankings!

by Nenjabin, updated on Thursday, June 20 2019, 01:15 am EST

Power Rankings #1 Post Mini Season, Pre Rookie Draft

The NBA has officially crowned a champion and the league in 2019-20 is already looking dramatically different following horrific injuries that will likely end the season before it begins for both Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. These two superstars were both first rounders in the NSL inaugural draft, Kevin Durant going 8th overall to Toronto (Jesse Dunn) and Klay to Denver pick 28 (Digga). The offseason is set to be one of the most exciting in recent history with significant player movement and a top heavy draft featuring potential “generational talent” Zion Williamson. How will the rest of the league see the draft and what moves will be made prior to the BDL rookie draft next fortnight?

Power Rankings #1 has been firmly influenced by the results of the mini-season, recent trades that have shaped contending rosters and has glimpses of “what-if” potential rankings based on who could break out in the NBA in 2019-20. As a new GM (technically a returning GM), I’ve acquired very little intel about current GMs, therefore managerial flaws will not be a deciding factor upon where a team is placed.

The mini-season saw a number of GM’s with strong awareness of the 2K engine achieve great success. None more-so than the Dallas Mavs who were almost crowned champs with Alex Len and Andrew Wiggins . Could they ever be starting members of a championship calibre team in the NBA? Who knows? One thing I do know is, heart is clearly not a rating in the 2K engine. Portland managed to edge them out in the final, led by MVP Harden and a stable of two-way talents. With such a showing from both teams it’s impossible not to have them at the pointy end of the Power Rankings and they will be amongst the “Contenders.” Considering all of this, let the speculation begin as we crown the pre-draft, post mini-season power ranking king.

Contenders





Defending Mini-Season champ, wordsmith, competitive beast and owns the reigning MVP James Harden . What more needs to be said? J-Mac will always be looking to make ripples in the league and shake up his roster to make it the best it can be. He will be in the mix, it’s that simple.





A Blockbuster trade brought Kevin Love to join what looks like an All-Star Team’s Bench line-up. Incredible win-now team featuring Lowry, Jimmy Buckets, Landry Shamet , Boogie Cousins and Kevin Love . Did I mention he somehow managed to sneak pick 9 in the rookie draft too? Danger.





An athletic roster with all the key skills to equal “winning.” How good can Trae Young be in his sophomore season? Does he keep up his late season run where he appeared to be a contender for ROTY or does he hit the Sophomore Slump? Another question mark is on Kristaps Porzingis. How will he translate in Dallas? Will the unicorn numbers come through and will he stay healthy? I personally love his fit there and see good things on the horizon for this Mavs team. Don’t forget about pick 11 in this draft, who do they take?





“Pushup” Pete Kingston has gone all in on the BIG Point Guard Ben Simmons . Will he break 2k and develop a jump shot? Another sneaky member of this solid, long line-up is Jonathon Isaac. He came home strong towards the end of 2019 and will look to go to the next level in 2019-20. Pete is a computer nerd and will certainly make the 1s and 0s work in his favour with a well-rounded and young roster.





Assets, assets, assets. The Bulls look to have drafted incredibly well with a team loaded with talent. His front court has more stars than Orion’s Belt… Will they opt to keep them together or trade to upgrade the wing position? Another talented team that has a quality pick in the draft and a superstar ready to prove himself in the NBA… Anthony Davis. Love this roster.





Pray for Klemm. If he can keep his current roster together for more than the first week of the season, he may be able to give Lebron that elusive last ring before he rides off into the sunset. Is Ibaka the missing piece? Can Lebron at the Point be stopped? Will Lebron still be in Sacramento by the time the season starts? All we can do is pray.





Sh Sheed has built a talented roster with a delicious pairing of two versatile and athletic stars, Kyrie Irving and Blake Griffin . Kyrie looks like he will make the move to Brooklyn this offseason where he will want to headline a young team. Will his ratings raise with opportunity? This roster has accumulated some nice upside players in BAM, Gallo and Dinwiddie (hopefully Kyrie doesn’t impact his role). He will look to add talent as he approaches the draft with pick 10.

RISING STARS

The Rising Stars bracket features teams that could go deep. There might even be a champion in here but a few things will need to go in their favour. They’re well positioned at this point of the season.

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Ben has assembled a nice roster led by CP3 and defensive duo Gobert and Siakam. Should Kawhi leave Toronto (I think he will), Siakam could turn into a superstar and propel this organisation into the upper rankings.





An athletic roster with two stars in Derozan and Embiid. Derozan is a handful in 2K and can score at will. He will affect winning in a big way. What can Dennis Smith add to his game in 2019-20 to raise this team?





New Gm, has mixed proven vets with up and coming prospects. Team headlined by PG13 should be dangerous if an appropriate strategy is discovered. Can Jaylen Brown go to the next level in 2019-20?





A promising roster with a number of starters entering their prime or still young. Damian Lillard is a monster and Steven Adams will anchor down the paint. Success will be closely linked to the rise of Aaron Gordon . Will he finally break out?





Took me ages to figure out who was actually on this fucking roster because he has not updated it. I think he has Giannis and Dray and pick 3. That’s pretty tasty. If it wasn’t so hard to figure out who is on this roster they’d probably be higher.





A nice roster with two franchise players. Kemba Walker could see his ratings climb should he remain a hornet, what happens if he joins Lebron and Davis in La La land? Drummond is a hippo. Will gobble boards for days and keep sneakily getting better. What is the next step for Hart and Zubac?





Interesting young core with two genuine talls; Vucevic and Nurkic. Devin Booker and Lonzo Ball should continue their growth and add to their 2k ratings in the coming season. I like the long-term look of this team.





Stephen Curry and Buddy Hield, Splash Brothers #2. Aldridge is a tall talent adding to the well-roundedness of this roster. Depth might be a problem at the wing but there’s a lot of time until tip off.





KAT will look to take his team to the promise land as he’s back by a bunch of underrated youngsters. Delon Wright is an interesting prospect. What is his role on a youthful Memphis squad next year?





Led by a nice young pairing of Russell and Capella, this squad seems to have a nice mix of offense and defense. Ingram will step into a larger role in New Orleans and could prove to be a steal from draft night. This roster passes the eye test but is a little shallow as you look down the roster spots.





A mixture of win-now talent and youth movement. Fox and Markkanen are the young cornerstones of this franchise with complementary vets such as Khris Middleton and Gordon Hayward . I’m excited to see what they can pull off with picks 8 and 20 in the upcoming draft.





They have Kawhi Leonard . After that things get a bit wishy-washy. But they have Kawhi Leonard .

TWEENERS

The ‘Tweeners section feature potential playoff, potential rebuild teams that seem a little without direction at this point. With some smart management they could climb into the playoff race.





A nice young duo of JJJ, Beal and Smart. These three seem to complement each other’s skills as well. JJJ’s development will be important here as Beal should continue to produce in a big 2019-20 season without Wall.





Spud has drafted some interesting pieces around Bagley and Dipo. How will they fit? How will free agency playout for Rozier? Will Dipo return to full strength? Who do they take at pick 7?





Cleveland have a really underrated young core. Brogdon, Covington and Green are some of the most overlooked wings in the competition. Their franchise centrepiece Nikola Jokic is a delight to watch and he will have to pull all the stops to carry this side to the playoffs unless they can find a slashing type to attack the basket.





I feel like there’s a couple of players missing on this roster. I can see Westbrook and Jonas Val. I’m pretty sure they have Tobias Harris as well. Depth may be a problem here but the top end looks promising.

EYES TO THE FUTURE

These teams will be approaching the season with eyes on adding to their youthful core and there’s certainly some talent amongst the projected cellar dwellers.





A young core built around Ayton. TJ Warren is an underrated young guy but the rest of the roster doesn’t spark excitement. A few moves may be required?





The Suns have gone all in on Donovan Mitchell and this year’s draft, after making some big moves via trade to accommodate Ja Morant (probably) with pick 2. I wonder if Fultz ever returns and what to expect of him? Very guard heavy.





Some savvy vets in this line-up including Millsap and Dragic who will be playing for a contract. Though he is not an offensive juggernaught, Myles Turner made a case for DPOY this year. He will be relied upon heavily as the Thompsonless Nuggets fight it out through the regular season to give try to give him another playoff appearance.





Kevin Durant is down, I repeat, Kevin Durant is down! It’s a shocking block just days before the conclusion of the season. Arguably the best player in the league is gone with an Achilles. What’s the next step for Jesse? Does he trade off his assets and take up meth for a few years or fight through it, on the back of gritty guard C.J McCollum and rebound inhaler Sabonis. Feel for you Jesse xx





Nic loves youth. His favourite band is youth group, his shoes are a youth size 4 and he is very immature. Therefore when the opportunity to steal ROY Luka Doncic off the draft board came along, he simply barred up, thought about it for a few hours, watched some highlights, jerked off, cleaned up, ate a sandwich, slept for 8 hours and selected him with pick 4. I’m jealous as many other GMs around the league are. Nic has cleverly surrounded Luka with a stable of upside youths and will be erect for the next decade as he strategically adds to it through the draft.





Toby has said it out loud, “I have fallen in love with this draft.” Is it a love affair worth pursuing or will it quickly become complicated for the strapping bachelor. Looking to add a third piece to make Jayson Tatum and John Collins a Menage a trois.





ZIOOOOON! The future has arrived for the bucks as they add a potential perennial superstar in Zion Williamson. Will he live up to pick 6 in the draft? Joining 2K stud Lach LeVine and future star Shai Gilgeos-Alexander, a year or two down the bottom would make this franchise a dynasty in the making.

That concludes the super early power rankings. I hope you’re not too offended and please add to the discussion as we approach the rookie draft.

Archive

· NSL Rookie Mock Draft V1

· Nels' Power Rankings!

· "Grower or Shower?"...

· Draft breakdown

 

 

 

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