Thursday, October 8, 2015

NBA 2K16 Dunk Ratings - Point Guards

NBA 2K is a great simulation basketball game, but for years has had issues with their dunk ratings (often leading to game breaking and downright abusive animations).  Last year I decided to examine how these ratings scaled with a players dunking statistics, and I'm following up on that research to see if they have these players appropriately scaled.

2K16 Dunk rating (Change from 2K15) Player (Dunk% of FGA) - Total Dunks (Change from 2015)

DRIVING DUNK
96-99 (GOAT)
96 (+8) Zach LaVine (6.2%) - 39 (NA)
86-95 (Elite)
90 (-2) Russell Westbrook (3.6%) - 48 (-0.8%)
86 (NC) John Wall (3.2%) - 37 (NC)
76-85 (Great)
85 (+7) Damian Lillard (2.4%) - 30 (+0.3%)
85 (NEW) Emmanuel Mudiay (Rookie)
66-75 (Good)
75 (+30) Jordan Clarkson (3.5%) - 20 (NA)
75 (NC) Derrick Rose (0.6%) - 5 (NC)
73 (NC) Austin Rivers (2.6%) - 12 (+1.1%)
73 (NC) Eric Bledsoe (2.0%) - 19 (+1.1%)
70 (NC) Tim Frazier (0.0%) - (NA)
69 (NC) Shaun Livingston (11.1%) - 40 (-0.2%)
69 (NC) Reggie Jackson (2.4%) - 22 (-0.8%)
69 (NEW) Jerian Grant (Rookie)
56-65 (Above Average)
65 (NC) Tony Wroten (3.7%) - 14 (-0.1)
65 (NC) Jeff Teague (2.4%) - 20 (+1.5%)
65 (NEW) Terry Rozier (Rookie)
60 (NC) Michael Carter-Williams (3.2%) - 27 (+0.3%)
60 (+20) Brandon Knight (2.0%) - 17 (+1.2%)
46-55 (Starting PG Average = 48)
55 (NC) Langston Galloway (2.0%) - 9 (NA)
53 (NC) Ronnie Price (2.7%) - 6 (-2.7%)
53 (NC) Norris Cole (0.4%) - 2 (-0.2%)
51 (NC) Mario Chalmers (0.6%) - 4 (-0.1%)
50 (NC) Elfrid Payton (4.1%) - 27 (NA)
50 (NC) Ray McCallum (3.0%) - 11 (-0.3%)
50 (NC) Marcus Smart (1.5%) - 6 (NA)
50 (NC) Ramon Sessions (0.9%) - 3 (-0.8%)
36-45 (Below Average)
45 (NC) Jerryd Bayless (2.9%) - 15 (+1.9%)
45 (NC) George Hill (1.9%) - 9 (+0.8%)
45 (NC) Darren Collison (0.9%) - 5 (-0.1%)
45 (NC) Dennis Schroder (0.9%) - 4 (NA)
45 (NC) Spencer Dinwiddie (0.6%) - 1 (NA)
45 (NC) Goran Dragic (0.1%) - 1 (-0.8%)
45 (NC) Deron Williams (0.1%) - 0 (-0.5%)
40 (NC) Brandon Jennings (0.6%) - 3 (+0.2%)
40 (NC) Jrue Holiday (0.4%) - 2 (-0.3%)
40 (NC) Jason Terry (0.2%) - 1 (+0.2%)
40 (NC) Isaiah Canaan (0.0%) - 0 (NC)
36 (NC) Donald Sloan (0.6%) - 1 (+0.6%)
36 (NC) Stephen Curry (0.3%) - 3 (-0.1%)
36 (NC) Jeremy Lin (0.0%) - 0 (-0.6%)
26-35 (Rating  35 required to dunk)
35 (NC) Bryce Cotton (3.0%) - 2 (NA)
35 (NC) Mo Williams (0.0%) - 0 (NC) - One dunk in NBA career)
35 (NC) Phil Pressey (0.0%) - 0 (-0.8%)
35 (NC) Russ Smith (0.0%) - 0 (NA)
31 (NC) Jarrett Jack (0.1%) - 1 (-0.2%)
30 (NC) Dante Exum (3.8%) - 16 (NA)
30 (NC) Erick Green (1.9%) - 3 (NA)
30 (NC) Rajon Rondo (0.6%) - 4 (+0.6%)
30 (NC) Kyrie Irving (0.3%) - 4 (+0.1%)
30 (NC) Ish Smith (0.3%) - 1  (-0.1%)
30 (NC) Devin Harris (0.2%) - 1 (+0.2%)
30 (NC) Patrick Beverley (0.2%) - 0 (NC)
30 (NC) Ty Lawson (0.1%) - 0 (-0.3%)
30 (NC Mike Conley (0.0%) - 0 (-0.2%)
30 (NC) Kemba Walker (0.0%) - 0 (-0.1%)
30 (NC) Trey Burke (0.0%) - 0 (-0.1%)
30 (NC) Shelvin Mack (0.0%) - 0 (NC) - One dunk in 4 years
30 (NC) Cory Joseph (0.0%) - 0 (one dunk in 4 years)
30 (NC) Shabazz Napier (0.0%) - 0 (NA)
30 (NEW) Tyus Jones (Rookie)
30 (NEW) Joseph Young (Rookie)
28 (NC) Greivis Vasquez (0.3%) - 1 (+0.1%)
28 (NC) C.J. Watson (0.0%) - 0 (NC)
28 (NC) Brian Roberts (0.0%) - 0 (NC)
27 (NC) Chris Paul (0.1%) - 1 (NC)
27 (NC) Isaiah Thomas (0.0%) - 0 (NC) - Zero dunks in NBA career
27 (NC) Kendall Marshall (0.0%) - 0 (NC)
25 (Minimum)
25 (NC) Tyler Ennis (Rookie) - 2 (1.4%)
25 (NC) Everyone else (0.0%) - 0

The data tells us a few things.

  • Many point guards who rarely dunk IRL are capable of doing so with regularity in NBA 2K16.
  • Dunk production in general does not fluctuate very much for point guards, and there are clear tiers one can derive from statistics.
  • A grand total of five players had their dunk rating changed over the summer.

I am also not sure why (beyond laziness) 2K has not adopted the 5-point scale (multiples of five) they use for Standing and now Contact dunk.  There is no measurable variance between single-digits increments.

CONTACT DUNK
45 Eric Bledsoe
40 Jordan Clarkson
35 Russell Westbrook
35 John Wall
35 Derrick Rose
35 Terry Rozier
30 Shaun Livingston
30 Tony Wroten
30 Michael Carter-Williams

Contact Dunk is a new rating, created explicitly with players like Zach LaVine in mind (he avoids contact on his drives).  Consequently, very few PGs have any attribute points allocated here.

STANDING DUNK
60 Zach LaVine
40 Michael Carter-Williams
40 Shaun Livingston
40 Terry Rozier
35 Derrick Rose
30 Russell Westbrook
30 Tony Wroten
30 Joseph Young
30 Brian Roberts

LaVine is the only PG who can perform a standing dunk in game  Standing Dunk has always been a dunk rating for big men, and you see the same handful of names as with Contact Dunk.

Bonus round!  See how many classic ratings you can get through before you throw up in your mouth!

CLASSIC PLAYERS
94 Spud Webb (86-ATL)
90 Robert Pack (94-DEN)
90 Dee Brown (00-TOR)
88 World B. Free (77-PHI)
86 Penny Hardaway (95-ORL)
80 Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (94-DEN)
70 Daniel Gibson (07-CLE)
68 Kenny Smith (94-HOU)
65 Steve Francis (08-HOU)
65 Isiah Thomas (89-DET)
64 Magic Johnson (87-LAL)
62 Aaron McKie (01-PHI)
62 Nate McMillian (96-SEA)
61 Walt Frazier (72-NYK)
60 Doc Rivers (86-ATL)
60 Ron Harper (96-CHI)
60 Ron Harper (98-CHI)
60 Ron Harper (01-LAL)
53 Norris Cole (13-MIA)
51 Mario Chalmers (13-MIA)
50 Magic Johnson (91-LAL)
50 Oscar Robertson (71-MIL)
48 Earl Monroe (72-NYK)
48 Brian Shaw (95-ORL)
47 Derek Harper (95-NYK)
46 Sam Cassell (94-HOU)
42 Gary Payton (96-SEA)
40 Larry Seigfried (65-BOS)
30 Lindsey Hunter (04-DET)
30 Rajon Rondo (08-BOS)
30 Sam Cassell (08-BOS) - This one took the cake for me....
28 Steve Nash (03-DAL)
28 Steve Nash (05-PHX)
27 Nick Van Exel (98-LAL)
25 Sam Cassell (04-MIN) - ...and this is why.

Stay tuned for more fun posts examining 2K's dunk ratings!