5 most overrated players in NBA 2K18 so far

With NBA 2K18 launching in less than a month, the franchise has been revealing overall player ratings over the past few weeks. Who are the most overrated players in the game so far?

The NBA 2K franchise has undergone substantial changes to its player rating system over the past few years. As Jordan Zirm of Bleacher Report noted in a piece last week, 2K brought Mike Stauffer on board in 2014 to redesign its player rating formula. NBA 2K15 was the first installment of the franchise to use Stauffer’s rating system and 2K has relied on his formula ever since. Stauffer’s formula is quite nuanced and takes into account far more player attributes than the old rating system.

In an interview with Zirm, Stauffer explained the overall rating calculations in some detail, “It’s not like as the ratings guy I say, ‘Oh, Kyrie? He’ll be a 90.’ We rate all the individual attributes, and whatever we put through our formulas that we constantly tweak gives us an overall value.” As Stauffer notes, 2K attempts to make the ratings as objective as possible by rooting them in statistical data provided by the league. Even so, the game’s designers clearly have some sense of the league’s player hierarchy in mind as they determine the individual attributes that constitute overall ratings.

Before diving in, let’s establish some basic guidelines of analysis. 2K has yet to release specific attribute ratings for players, so we can start by defining how overall ratings correspond to the NBA’s player hierarchy. For example, an overall rating of 90 or higher is the threshold that separates the league’s very good players from its superstars. These are the guys that compete for First and Second Team All-NBA spots; there are probably ten to twelve players that really deserve ratings in the 90’s. Ratings in the mid-80’s and above are All-Star or borderline All-NBA players. Lower 80’s are fringe All-Stars and effective starters, while players in the mid to high 70’s tend to be lower end starters, decent rotation players and specialists.

With these loose distinctions in mind (which are of course based on my perception of the rating system, so feel free to disagree!), here are the five NBA players that 2K18’s rating formula has overrated the most (according to a list compiled by the SportingNews).