Chris2K

It's hard for me to answer really, as I play as all the teams because I really enjoy doing the drafts and free agency side of things, so I've done all the drafts myself and used my knowledge of their future ability to draft players accordingly. You can of course do it as a true simulation and let the CPU do everything, you still need to play as one team I believe but can apply all the simulation settings to that team as well. It's also worth noting that the official 2K draft classes only contain players who are part of the NBPA and have signed up for their likenesses to be used in 2K games, so while you mention Charles Barkley, he's not in the game unless you use a user-created draft class because he's refused for his likeness to be used. Same with Reggie Miller and Anthony Mason (and some others listed here) for the same reasons as Chuck, and pretty much every second round pick or undrafted player (even some late 1st rounders aren't there) because I guess there's a limit to how detailed 2K are willing to go. Unfortunately this means that the draft pools are filled with fake, randomised players, some of which have the potential to be MJ/LeBron levels of talent and completely disrupt the accuracy of the simulation as a result. All of the above goes for the starting rosters as well, which have fake players in them to make up the numbers to a 15 man squad unless you start from the present day. You get the option to download user-made draft classes before every season which adds in the major missing players and, in the case of the ones I use (Huff Hoops), the fake players are still there but have their attributes lowered to rock bottom so the CPU never plays them. Unfortunately the level of detail still isn't there, as I can't get through the first round without having to start picking players from the fake player pool.

Shockingly, it's possible the defending champion Nuggets may be a better team than former Play In specialists the Timberwolves, especially when the referees seem to have been told to be much stricter than they were in the opening 2 games. Nuggets in 6 seems a guarantee at this point. Fun fact - the Timberwolves had the draft pick before the Nuggets selected Jokic in 2014, and we used it on Glenn Robinson III, currently starring for the G League's Wisconsin Herd.

Meanwhile the Pacers are absolutely obliterating the Knicks and the reserves are already out for both sides. Saying that, Jericho Sims has just scored a follow-up dunk to cut the lead to 34 with 8 minutes remaining, so the comeback is on.

I'm sure the Hawks will be happy, but I'm unreliably informed that this draft class is hardly spectacular. One year earlier and this kind of shock outcome would have had the conspiracy people going crazy. I'd say the Pistons lack of lottery success is a punishment for their constant tanking, but I think the Wizards were a worse team barely trying from Game 1, so their #2 pick rewards the tanking concept.

James Anderson to retire after the 1st Test this summer. Let's just say this doesn't appear to be a mutual decision, with the optics being that it's either "retire after the next game or you won't be picked to get a farewell match". The annoying thing is that he's still good enough to get in the team on merit. Anyway, that test against the West Indies in July is going to be an emotional one. It's at Lord's as well.

Heading into the 1996 playoffs in my 2K sim and I made a drastic decision - after 11 consecutive trips to the play-offs and no championships, I blew up the Indiana Pacers - which meant trading Michael Jordan. I offered him out and the best deal came from the Cavs (although I added a couple of extra draft picks manually), so now MJ is teamed up with a man named Shaq. For the Pacers, they have ended up with the second worst record, and multiple first round picks with a draft featuring Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen and Ben Wallace on the horizon... Thankfully for my sanity the Lakers/Blazers dominance in the West has ended, and now it is very much open with the Rockets, Spurs, Warriors, Lakers and Blazers all having good teams. In the East the Bucks have emerged as the big team and have won the last two NBA championships behind Mark Jackson, Danny Manning and Dikembe Mutombo, however a resurgent Celtics, the dream team Cavaliers, and a "where did they come from" Washington Bullets have taken the top 3 seeds, the Bullets had only made the play-offs once since 1985 and now they're the 3 seed. Also the Timberwolves were able to draft Kevin Garnett, which was nice. Here's the list of teams and their three best players:

Oh reality, how I hate you. The only glimmer of hope is that I don't think we could have played any worse.

Frank Vogel has been fired after one season with the Suns, because as we know, any defeat is absolutely not the players' fault in any way, shape or form.

Granted I play things to excess, but it took me 68 hours of gameplay before I had unlocked the final "????" item on the main menu. So yeah, lots to do...

Next week's drop on Wednesday will be the last one of the season. Sounds like a nice way to spend a bank holiday weekend...

Well X-Men '97 is escalating to monumental levels. @Colly I think the show may have got to the point of being a bit much for your 8 year old... Also, after weeks of trying to match the tune in my brain, I've just worked out that the end credits themes sounds a lot like the Crystal Maze theme.

He apologised afterwards which was decent, in those situations it's understandable that the emotion gets the better of you. His little boy going over to shake Jak Jones' hand may be the most adorable thing in the history of sport.

The Nuggets only scored 80 points. We didn't even have Rudy Gobert. We have a 2-0 lead without playing at home yet. What is happening?!

Perhaps my reaction was a little much, but I'm still pissed that Crofty "hilariously" chose to give Trump a name-drop when Lando crossed the line, meaning that any archive footage of Lando's first win will always have that dickhead mentioned as he wins.

From the "we can't have nice things" collection, we now have: (The quote is from Lando by the way)

Well this is quite insane. Captain America 4, formerly nWo, spoilers:

LANDO Every driver going past and saluting him is just amazing.

It does make it easier not to get affected by these results when the team evidently don't care either and have given up for the season.

It's difficult to know exactly what to say, but there's one thing I do know. NAZ REID.

K-Mag's driving is shithousery of the highest order. Weird place to use my wine price knowledge from 17 years of working at a wine storage facility, but: The Dom Perignon 2013 usually sells for £120-140 a bottle, so $150-175, making that over a 600% markup. The Dom Perignon Rosé Luminous is around £350, $440, for a mere 400% mark up. The only other one we would store is the Barolo Borgogno which is usually £70 a bottle, $88, for 625% markup. Do not buy wine at the Miami GP.

Darvin Ham has been fired by LeBron the Lakers, after reaching the WCF and winning the In-Season Tournament during the last twelve months. But he couldn't teach D'Lo Russell to shoot threes, so he's out.

Mark Clattenburg has left his position at Forest, citing that he had become more of a hindrance than a help. It's baffling to me that anyone thought hiring a former referee to actively criticise and undermine current referees was a good idea to begin with.

Wow. It's so blue. I don't know how I will be able to differentiate it from the Williams.

The fact that Eddie Jordan is the mastermind behind finding the loophole in his Red Bull contract that waives Newey's non-compete clause and allowing him to join straight up with a new team is an ingredient in the story I wasn't expecting.