Top five puzzling picks for the NBA 2K18 All-Time rosters

1. DeMarcus Cousins,  New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans don’t exactly have an illustrious past with multiple legends and All-Stars to include on their roster, but including Cousins here is kind of ridiculous. DeMarcus is a unique talent and one of the NBA’s finest players, but he has played only 17 games for New Orleans and has been a member of the team for six months. I repeat 17 games!!! And the Pelicans didn’t exactly light the world on fire during that stretch. When New Orleans traded for DeMarcus in February many analysts penciled them in for the No. 8 seed and even thought they could give Golden State some trouble in the playoffs. Well, that never happened.

Obviously the blame for missing the playoffs for a second straight season doesn’t fall on Cousins. He played well in New Orleans and the team was slightly better after they acquired him. Going from difficult to watch to somewhat watchable is a marginal improvement though.

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My point is that Cousins fails the two most important criteria of inclusion here. He hasn’t played in New Orleans for a long duration of time and the team hasn’t been successful during his time there. That could change next season and the Pelicans could have one of their best seasons ever. Or it could not and DeMarcus might bolt in 2018 free agency. In any case, 2K has included him on the Pelicans’ All-Time roster prematurely.