SportsGamer features the work of community writer Fern in this article. Fern gives you different scenarios involving the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA 2K9. What if the Lakers didn't have Andrew Bynum again due to injury? Or if the Lakers weren't "given" Pau Gasol last season? Read on to find out. When you're done stop by the forums and give him some feedback.
The NBA season has started and there are plenty of predictions and simulations out there from big-name sports sites such as who's going to win the title, MVP selection, or sixth man of the year. I am going to be doing something similar as well, using NBA 2K9, but with a different spin. I am going to be using different NBA teams and simulating different situations over a full season.
The first team I am going to be simulating with are the Los Angeles Lakers. They opened the season with a win over the Portland Blazers but let's go ahead and see how they run a full season with different situations. I won't actually be doing trades since I don't want to completely change the team. I’m just showing you what would happen if certain circumstance was changed.
#1 Regular Simulation:
Let us take a look at how 2K9 plays out this season with no change. This is a real Lakers team with default rosters.
- Record was 42-40 and made it into the playoffs as the 7th seed.
- Kevin Garnett won MVP, OJ Mayo won ROTY, Rashard Lewis won Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive player of the Year went to KG, and Most Improved went to Bobby Jackson.
- Lakers beat Suns in the first round, 4 games to 1. They played Rockets in the next round and beat them in six games. Finally they played the Spurs and lost in five games.
- Pistons played the Spurs in the Finals and beat them 4-1 to win the NBA Championship.
I found it odd that a very stacked team only finishes with a 42-40 record, but it is a sim after all. I can definitely see KG winning the MVP if Boston has another great season again and stays healthy. In the playoffs the Lakers played well but lost a tough series to the Spurs in what was a rematch of last season’s playoffs.
#2 No Andrew Bynum Again:
Let's see what happens if Bynum wasn't able to come back after his injury. The Lakers would have to play the season without their starting center.
- Record was 43-39, making it into the playoffs as 7th seed.
- Record was 43-39, making it into the playoffs as 7th seed.
- KG won MVP and DPOTY, OJ Mayo got ROTY, Andre Miller was Sixth Man of the Year, and Bobby Jackson was Most Improved.
- Lakers played Clippers in the first round and beat them in seven games. They went on to play the Spurs and lost in five games.
- Rockets played the Heat in the NBA Finals and won the title in an exciting seven game series.
They actually finished one game better without Bynum but did a little worse in the playoffs than the previous year. Garnett seems to be a lock for the MVP according to NBA 2K9 as well as O.J. Mayo having a great rookie season. The Houston Rockets were strong in the playoffs as well with their three big players (Artest, Yao, and McGrady) and won a title in their first year together. McGrady finally got out of the first round of the playoffs.
#3 No Pau Gasol:
It was a steal of a trade for the Lakers. Some might say he was given to the Lakers for nothing. What if this never happened? According to NBA 2K9 this is how their season would have ended up in 2009.
- Finished with a record of 45-37 and made it into the playoffs as the 3 seed.
- Chris Paul won MVP, OJ Mayo got ROTY, Louis Williams got Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year went to Dwight Howard, and finally Bobby Jackson was Most Improved Player.
- Lakers beat Suns in first round in seven games. They played the Spurs in the second and swept them in four easily. The trouble came with the Rockets who stomped them down in five games.
- Rockets went on to play Magic and lost in six games with the Orlando Magic becoming NBA Champions.
An increase of about three games without Gasol and actually made it to the Western Conference Finals. Chris Paul finally receives his MVP award and the Orlando Magic come out of the East to win the Championship. The Rockets look strong with their current team as they went very deep into the playoffs once again.
#4 Odom's Gone:
Lamar Odom was somewhat of a disappointment in the Finals last year. He was also in the thick of many trade talks during the off-season. Let’s see how things turn out if Odom was actually traded from the team.
- Record was 48-34 and made the playoffs as the 3 seed.
- Kevin Garnett won MVP, ROTY went to Mayo, Beno Udrih got Sixth Man honors, Dwight Howard was DPOTY, and MIP went to Bobby Jackson.
- Lakers played the Mavs in the first round and lost in seven games.
- Spurs played the Celtics in the Finals and swept them cleanly 4-0.
Well, Laker fans I guess the team is that much better without Odom. They ended up six wins better during the regular season but didn’t do as well in the playoffs. The Spurs and Celtics seemed kind of boring in the Finals. The Spurs had the better defense to win another championship.
#5 Kobe's Gone:
We shouldn’t think of such harsh things but there were talks before last season. What if Kobe wasn’t on the Lakers? Not only would the Lakers lose arguably the best player on the planet, but what would happen?
- Their record was 35-47, of course didn't make the playoffs but got the third pick in the draft.
- Chris Paul won MVP, Kevin Love got some ROTY love, Beno Udrih was Sixth Man of the Year, D-Howard won the DPOTY award, and Bobby Jackson was MIP.
- In the Finals, Celtics laid the smack down on the Spurs in five games to win another NBA Championship.
It was interesting to see the Lakers weren't that bad of a team without Kobe. They certainly weren’t better, but still competitive and respectable. Without Kobe they still have some good pieces but they couldn't even get to the playoffs. Kevin Love earned ROTY honors which is also interesting. Celtics won the title again beating the Spurs with more offense then defense than in the simulation with Odom gone.
The majority had the same results and we could come up with a few conclusions. It looks like Lakers should make the playoffs, KG will win MVP, OJ Mayo is going to have a great rookie year, and Rockets should become a contender...finally! Oh, and look out for Bobby Jackson to bubble up.
Of course this is just a game simulating with game logic but it’s still interesting discussion. I will be doing more of these and will put up polls for people to vote on the next team is featured in Fern’s What Ifs…
