NBA 2K23: Best Young Stars to Build a Franchise Around in MyNBA and MyTEAM
One of the most interesting topics surrounding the upcoming release of NBA 2K23 is the wealth of younger stars who just keep getting better with each annual release.
Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, the game's cover star, is the perfect example. He wasn't the highest-rated player in the game a few releases ago. But now he's up over 90 at a 91, putting him just outside the top of the video game's hierarchy.
For context, the game's top 10 players:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, 97
- LeBron James, 96
- Stephen Curry, 96
- Kevin Durant, 96
- Nikola Jokić, 96
- Joel Embiid, 96
- Luka Dončić, 95
- Kawhi Leonard, 94
- Ja Morant, 93
- Jayson Tatum, 93
Booker's a great star to build around in game modes like MyNBA this year, but he's also 25. When thinking of the younger generation of non-rookies (Paolo Banchero, for example, is only a 78 overall in his debut), qualifiers like 24-and-under and a rating at least above 80 would make sense.
Three great examples already exist on that top 10 above. Look at Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, already a three-time NBA All-Star and Eastern Conference Finals MVP. Building around him in a mode like MyNBA or MyTEAM is a no-brainer move that many outside the greater Boston area will surely do.
It's a similar story with Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies. Already an NBA Rookie of the Year and NBA Most Improved Player, Morant just turned 23 years old this August and ties Tatum at a 93 overall.
Rounding out that list, of course, is Luka Dončić of the Dallas Mavericks. Still just 23 and an MVP contender atop a long list of NBA and international accomplishments, he's already at a 95 and a likely bet to keep climbing toward that LeBron tier, if not surpass it.
Besides those top-heavy examples, players who want to squeeze even more untapped potential out of even younger superstars need look no further than New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson (22 years old), who is already the owner of an 87 rating.
Right there at that same rating is LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets, but he's a year younger and one of the most dynamic wings in the league already.
Even younger still is Cade Cunningham (21 by late September) of the Detroit Pistons, the first pick in the 2021 draft who earned an NBA All-Rookie First Team already and has huge upside at the point.
No matter what stars players decide to roll with as franchise cornerstones, there are some interesting ways to make it happen in NBA 2K23.
Take MyTEAM, where the collect-a-thon mode again gets some interesting tweaks to make things even more engrossing. Besides collecting the various iterations of these players released as cards, players can then deploy teams in the first edition of Triple Threat online co-op, a long-running request of players each year.
And then there's MyNBA, which is a whole different sort of beast of a mode.
An expansion of other modes in the past, 2K Sports has stepped up big this year to let players engage directly in different eras from the sport's history, all faithfully recreated.
While that could mean just playing in the current era, it could also mean heading back to the 80s to throw down with the likes of Dr. J, the 90s at the onset of the Jordan era or even the early 2000s during the Kobe Bryant era.
Seemingly every single feature players might request for such a broad-encompassing mode has made the cut, too.
“Created rosters are available here, and user-created draft classes are available for those diehards out there who want to, maybe, fill the holes where we couldn’t [get] certain players,” executive producer Erick Boenisch told Polygon's Owen S. Good. "Everything is available for people to build your own universe.”
It's fun to think about the possibilities beyond the modern era, right? Crafting a new team around Dončić in the 80s sounds like a good time and isn't out of reach as 2K Sports continues to blend the last 50 or so years of the sport's history to digital form.
While the actual names of young superstars worth building around in any era right now won't surprise most fans, it's the annual updates and seeing them progress in real time that continues to make the basketball juggernaut such an annual treat.
