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

Simulation #2

After the first simulation, I ran into the bug in 2K20 that does not allow the “NBA Today” feature to be used. As a result of this, I went through each game for Cleveland and gave them the appropriate win or loss that resulted at the time thus far going into the league’s suspension.

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With that being said, the records of every other team and the player stats will be varied greatly. Paired with that, though, it will add to more diversity on award winners, champions, and possibly even draft position.

In the second simulation, the Cavs had an improved record of just a single game from the first, making them 27-55 on the year, but that’s somewhat lofty even it seems, as the Cavs with the NBA on hiatus have a 19-46 record. Anyhow, yet again, LeBron was crowned MVP, Morant was the Rookie of the Year, and Adebayo was the NBA’s Most Improved Player.

Albeit in this simulation, Dennis Schroder of the Oklahoma City Thunder was the Sixth Man of the Year and Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz was the Defensive Player of the Year.

As a quick side note, it was great to hear recently that Gobert, who was the first NBA player/member of NBA personnel that tested positive for COVID-19, was, along with his teammate Donovan Mitchell, who also tested positive after Gobert did, was cleared of the novel coronavirus by the Utah Department of Health, per the Jazz. Plus, to add to that, the Detroit Pistons’ Christian Wood is “fully recovered,” from COVID-19 according to his agent, Adam Pensack, and h/t Detroit Free Press correspondent Dana Gauruder.

Swinging back to the second 2K simulation for the Cavs, Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. were the only Cavaliers to win yearly awards, but again, multiple Cavaliers winning awards this season; well then! At any rate, Garland, who really does have promise for Cleveland and hopefully can have a good offseason to help his overall (though the expectations this offseason could that make tough), made the All-Rookie First Team with a statline of 12.3 points and 6.4 assists per outing.

Interestingly, his assists in NBA 2K20 this season almost doubled the 3.9 assists he had in the actual NBA season. Also, Porter was on the All-Rookie Second Team with a statline that nearly mirrors the numbers he had in actual play thus far going into the NBA’s season suspension. In the simulation, he had 11.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

Sexton led the team in scoring with 24.5 per game, Drummond averaged a double-double with 15.2 points and 13.8 rebounds a game, and Garland in assists had his previously mentioned 6.4 per game.

To end the playoffs, the Toronto Raptors became back-to-back champions, defeating Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers in a 4-3 victory. Kyle Lowry won Finals MVP with 17.7 points, 7.0 assists and 1.9 steals a game.

Going into the lottery, the Cavaliers are now projected the third overall pick in the draft in the second simultion. Unfortunately, the lottery goes very poorly for Cleveland and they slip to the sixth pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. At number six, the Cavaliers interestingly choose another point guard in R.J. Hampton, who played this season for the NBL’s New Zealand Breakers.

Hampton is a talented playmaker but has some question marks in terms of shooting efficiency, even with a smooth stroke (he shot 40.0 percent this season, per the NBL), somewhat related to his lack of experience only playing 20.6 minutes per game, in which he scored 8.8 points per outing and dished out 2.4 assists on average.

This was a slight reach as Hampton is ranked 11th in ESPN’s latest mock draft. Also, it creates a log jam at the point and/or shooting guard position. This draft choice would seemingly force Cleveland to eventually trade Garland, Sexton, or Hampton down the road or one of them would have to come off the bench, which is something you ideally do not want for any top ten draft pick, but given Hampton’s 6-foot-5, and a ton of potential as an explosive athlete, it’s not too out there.

Lastly, we’ll take a look at how the third 2K20 simulation went for how the Cavs 2019-20 played out and touch on who they eventually selected in the upcoming draft, of which it’s currently uncertain as to when that will ultimately be.