Utah Jazz: Tony Bradley moving up in the world of NBA 2k

Utah Jazz center Tony Bradley was the biggest winner of NBA 2k20’s latest update to player ratings.

The third update has officially been released for NBA 2k20’s player ratings, and not much really happened this time around. In the past two updates, there were certain players that bumped up their ratings quite a bit due to surprisingly good play to start the year.

Now that we are 20+ games into the regular season, there shouldn’t be very many surprises for the rest of the year. There is still plenty of opportunity for change and growth to happen, which hopefully will come to our Utah Jazz as they are on pace to win 44 games right now.

The updates have happened once every two weeks, and the adjustments to player ratings have been moderated. So even though Mike Conley has been a major disappointment thus far for the Utah Jazz, the game still has him rated higher than Jazz alumni Ricky Rubio.

https://twitter.com/NBA2K/status/1203079949764055040

I appreciate the makers of the game for using moderation in changing the ratings of players, and not overreacting to the two-week span of how they determine who gets bumped up and who gets dropped in ratings. As for the Utah Jazz, Tony Bradley was the only notable player that got his rating changed. He went from 72 to a 75 overall rating, putting him in the same neighborhood as key rotation players Jeff Green, Dante Exum, Ed Davis, and Emmanuel Mudiay.

That surprised me at first, but given the extended minutes played in the wake of Ed Davis and Rudy Gobert‘s injuries, Bradley has been playing just as much as Exum and just as well as Green arguably.

Bradley has appeared in 16 games playing an average of 9.8 minutes a game, both of which best Dante Exum. Per 36 minutes, he is averaging 15.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks on 63 percent shooting from the field. The per 36 minute stat can be misleading at times, ballooning numbers of bench players that fill up the stat sheet. Nevertheless, I was still impressed by Bradley’s per 36 stat line.

If I had to make a prediction, I would guess that by the end of the season Bradley will not be used as extensively by Quin Snyder. He simply cannot protect the rim like Rudy or Ed, and lineups with him on the floor have continuously failed to hold a lead.

I am pleasantly surprised with his offensive potential he has shown. With some time, practice, and added muscle, a lot of his flaws and jitters can be ironed out on both ends of the floor. The Jazz right now are looking smart for choosing to pick up his option for the next couple of years.

Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Joe Ingles, and Ed Davis all had their ratings knocked down by one point. That’s understandable given the past two weeks the Jazz have been terrible, here is what the Jazz roster looks like on NBA 2k with the latest update:

C   Rudy Gobert, 87; Tony Bradley, 75; Ed Davis, 74

PF Juwan Morgan, 68; Jarrell Brantley, 67

SF Bojan Bogdanovic, 83; Joe Ingles, 76; Jeff Green, 74; Royce O’Neale, 73; Georges Niang, 72;

SG Donovan Mitchell, 88; Miye Oni, 69; Justin Wright-Foreman, 67;

PG Mike Conley, 81; Emmanuel Mudiay, 76; Nigel Williams-Goss, 72;

Former Runnin’ Ute Jakob Poeltl is sitting at a 78 overall, and is finally getting some playing time in San Antonio. He is averaging a career high 19 minutes a game and will be a key bench player if the Spurs plan on making a playoff run this year.

Kyle Kuzma, another Ute alumni dropped from an 81 overall to a 78. He has been struggling to adjust as a complementary player to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, as opposed to his previous role on the team where he attempted 15 shots per game. Luka Doncic has continued his MVP climb and is at a 96 overall rating. He started the season at 87.

It’s a little disappointing to see Mike Conley with the same rating as players such as Eric Paschall, DeAndre Jordan, and even JaVale McGee (!). But I can’t argue much with that, given that Conley has been in a funk all season and the Jazz have lost six of their last seven games.

*All stats are a courtesy of basketball-reference.com