How NOT to rate players 101

Hi class, welcome to "How not to rate players 101".

I just saw that the Insider edited Shaquille O'Neal. Let's analyze the changes, shall we?

Overall 77 (-4)
Inside 92 (-3)
Post Shot 84 (-7)
OffReb 70 (-12)
DefReb 74 (-9)
PostOff 87 (-6)
PostDef 77 (-2)
OffAwr 83 (-10)
DefAwr 62 (-2)
Quickness 30 (-6)

It shouldn't be lost on anyone that all of these are decreases.

Shaq's rebound ratings worsened on both offense and defense. I can understand offense since he is posting the worst offensive rebounding production of his career, but why on defense WHERE HE IS POSTING THE BEST PRODUCTION OF HIS CAREER?

Rating and DRB%
77 Varejao (23.0)
77 Ilgauskas (19.1)
74 Shaq (26.8)
71 LeBron (18.3)

In what universe does this make senes? You don't have to raise his rating, but you can very easily just leave him AS IS, since he OBVIOUSLY didn't get worse at it. Shaq is very obviously a better rebounder than Ilgauskas on the defensive end and always has been. Clearly the Insider is just editing players to get them to a certain overall rating, and is too lazy to verify whether his changes are warranted. Perhaps he should have started with Shaq's 63 FT rating since Shaq is shooting 44% on the year, is a notoriously bad FT shooter, and his career high of .622 came BACK IN 2003. But maybe that's just me.

Shaq is 31-66 (.464) on non-dunk Inside shots, so a 92 is still pretty damn high. He never should have been 95 in the first place, as said before, this ain't 2003.

Shaq still has better handle ratings than most power forwards. Hakim Warrick has a 48 for christ's sake. Shaq has better handle ratings than Joakim Noah (45), Antonio McDyess (43), Carl Landry (40), and Nene (40), just to name a few.

Shaq's shot blocking is improved and he stayed the same. Gerald Wallace's got worse and he went up. Just more proof they didn't want to raise Shaq's rating but couldn't figure out how to accurately lower it.

Here's what I changed on Shaq to get him to a 77.

First number is my rating, 2nd number is 2K's, 3rd number is the default rating if applicable.

Offense 75 (down from 80) (84)
Defense 73 (up from 68) (70)
Rebound 86 (up from 78) (90)

ATTRIBUTES
Overall 77 (81)
Inside 82 (down from 92) (95)
Close 78
Medium 35
3PT 25
LowPost 84 (91)
FreeThrow 53 (down from 63)
Layup 49
Dunk 58
StandDunk 90
OffDribble 38
InTraffic 79
Handle 45 (down from 48)
OffHand 33 (down from 36)
Security 42
Pass 44 (up from 34)
Block 79 (up from 69)
Steal 45
Hands 82
BallDef 31 (down from 36)
OffReb 70 (82)
DefReb 88 (up from 74) (83)
OffPost 87 (93)
DefPost 84 (up from 77) (79)
OffAwr 73 (down from 83) (93)
DefAwr 67 (up from 62) (64)
OffClutch 25 (down from 60)
DefClutch 25
Consistency 85 (down from 99)
Stamina 70
Speed 30
Quickness 30 (36)
Strength 99
Vertical 27
Hustle 55
Durability 70
Potential 99
Emotion 25

Notice how I still got him to drop 4 points despite raises in key areas? Being objective ain't all bad. 2K should try it some time.