Using NBA 2K20 to finish Cavs season and determine their potential pick in 2020 NBA Draft

The 2019-20 season is currently suspended until further notice and it’s uncertain if the year will eventually be finished out or not. Meanwhile, I thought using NBA 2K20 was a particularly fun way to look at how the Cleveland Cavaliers might conclude their year, and who they could potentially pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

With the NBA’s current season being postponed indefinitely for the Cleveland Cavaliers and other teams, and it at this point being uncertain if the year will end up being played out due to concerns in regards to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it leaves fans wondering how 2019-20 would have hypothetically finished.

Luckily, NBA 2K20 provides us with a simulation tool that gives us insight into how the year could wrap up. Utilizing that, I ran three simulations to get semi-conclusive results and to cancel most outliers.

With the game being coded a certain way, there will be stage occurrences and possibly some unlikely results but that is also part of the fun. When hitting on the results of the simulations, I will be covering major events throughout the league as well, but primarily focusing on the Cavaliers final record and their moves in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Okay so we’ll move on how the first simulation played out then!

Simulation #1

In the first season, the Cavaliers ended up with a 26-56 record. While missing the postseason, they did pull off an impressive 97-96 win against the Milwaukee Bucks in the simulation. In the game, Collin Sexton scored an impressive 33 points and the team held Giannis Antetokounmpo to only 12 points, which is obviously showing it is 2K, folks.

In league-wide news, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers took home MVP, the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant won Rookie of the Year, the LA Clippers’ Montrezl Harrell was the Sixth Man of the Year, the Clips’ Kawhi Leonard was awarded Defensive Player of the Year, and the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo was named the Most Improved Player.

Two Cleveland Cavaliers were recognized in the yearly awards, as Andre Drummond continued his rebounding and defensive excellence and was named to the All-NBA Third Team, finishing the year with 17.8 points, 14.8 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 1.5 blocks.

Drummond being on one of the All-NBA teams is a stretch, but on the season at the time going into the league’s suspension, while he has had some issues fitting in with the Cavs since being acquired near the trade deadline, he still on the year has had 17.7 points,15.2 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.6 blocks per contest, as noted by Basketball Reference. So, his statistics simulation was pretty on par in that way at least.

Darius Garland was on the All-Rookie first team and finished the year averaging 12.6 points and 4.3 assists. Another bright spot for the Cavs was Collin Sexton seeing a slight uptick in scoring, going from 20.8 points per game at the season suspension to 21.2 at the end of the year.

To wrap up the season, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 4-2 in the NBA Finals. LeBron won Finals MVP averaging 29.0 points and 13.0 assists.

This takes us to the draft lottery where Cleveland is projected to land the fifth overall pick in 2K sense. However, the ping-pong balls fall in favor of the Cavaliers and they move up a spot, picking fourth overall, where they choose Deni Avdija, a small forward from Israel.

Avdija currently plays in the I-BSL for Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv where he averages 12.29 points, 5.90 rebounds, 2.43 assists and 1.05 blocks per game. While he is a natural small forward, he would be capable of playing a stretch four role with the team if they can trade Kevin Love down the road at some point, though.

While Love is a good passer in his own right, Avdija would also improve the teams’ passing issues in terms of perimeter players, as Deni despite his modest assist numbers, does have the passing ability of a guard and can definitely give Cleveland a big playmaking lift, and he is 6-foot-8. Moreover, this pick lines up with ESPN’s most recent mock draft where they have him projected to be drafted fifth overall.

Next up, we’ll move on to the second 2K simulation for how the Cavaliers 2019-20 season finished out, and discuss how their draft turned out in a further simulation.