While it’s only been a few years since the 2015-2016 Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title, that squad will be one of the classic teams in NBA 2K 2020.
NBA 2K20 won’t hit stores until next month, when it’s released Sept. 6th, but it’ll be a big deal for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers when it is, because they’ll be able to play with the 2015-2016 Cavs, who were added as one of the classic teams in the game.
That’s according to them annoucing that via their Instagram profile, and that should be a really fun feature for fans of the Wine and Gold.
The 2015-16 Cavaliers are one of six new classic teams to get added, as the others are the 13-14 San Antonio Spurs, 13-14 Los Angeles Clippers, 09-10 Portland Trail Blazers , 06-07 Washington Wizards, and the 02-03 Phoenix Suns.
In the real world, the Cavs’ championship reign is over and they’re now obviously not a marquee team in the league, as they are in a complete rebuild, but in the 2K world this will give fans of the Wine and Gold a chance to take trip down memory lane a bit, and relive the best time in franchise history.
It will be really entertaining playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ championship core in LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love fully intact, along with key role players Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith, Richard Jefferson, Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye and Matthew Dellavedova.
Again this gives Cavs fans a chance to relive the best run in franchise history, and perhaps the best run in the history of Cleveland sports. The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are also a classic team, so if you want to go back in time and have a rematch with the 73-win Warriors, that is now possible.
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If you want to have a past vs current matchup like seeing how that Cleveland team matches with the current LeBron-Anthony Davis-led Lakers, that is also now possible.
Along with that, in NBA 2K20, Giannis Antetokounmpo is widely-considered the best player in the East now, and if you want to see LeBron from then and the 15-16 Cavs matchup with today’s Giannis and the Bucks, that’s possible, too, for example.
The Kyrie Irving past trade is something that still hurts Cavs fans, as his trade signaled the end of the Cavs being a legitimate potential championship-winning team.
Yes, the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to find their way back to the NBA Finals, the year following his being dealt, but it took seven games to beat the Indiana Pacers in the first round, and the Pacers outscored them in the series (per Basketball Reference) and seven games to be a Kyrie-less Boston Celtics in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals.
The Cavaliers without Irving weren’t the same and that’s why in the 2018 NBA Finals, they were one of the biggest NBA Finals underdogs in then-recent memory against the Warriors, then per Sportsoddshistory.com (and h/t ESPN’s David Purdum).
In “MyLeague” mode, you can swap out the current Cavs with the 15-16 Cavs and create an alternate timeline in which Kyrie isn’t traded, meaning LeBron and Kyrie play together for more years, extending the realistic team championship window and go and win more championships.
So again, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ championship-winning days are in the past, as they are in a complete rebuild, but it’s always fun to look back remembering the star power they once had and the reign they had over the Eastern Conference at one point, and NBA 2K20 will highlight that time even more for fans of the Wine and Gold.