Blazing a New Trail | NBA 2K23 MyNBA Eras "What If?"

[HarkTheSound]

Game: NBA 2K23
System: Xbox Series X
Mode: MyNBA Eras
Rosters: 1983-1984 roster with edits to remove most of the fake/generic players
Difficulty: Default Superstar with small tweaks
Quarter Length: 9 Minutes (normalize stats/minutes to 12 minutes)
Sim Quarter Length: 12 Minutes

Season Length: 82 Games
Playoffs Format: 5-7-7-7
Regular Season Rules: Play 5-10 games in season 1, increase to 15-20 per season in future seasons
Playoff Rules: Play every game (with some simcasting if not competitive)
Team Chemistry: On
Morale: On

CPU Trades: On
CPU Trade Approval: On
Trade Override: On
Control: Only control the Blazers but periodically take control of CPU teams to fix rotations, make trades that make sense, and influence some free agent signings depending on the situation.

––––––––––––

NBA 2K23 is my favorite 2K since 2K20, and after playing it for the past month IMO it's the best 2K since the golden years of 2K11-14.

I've created a MyNBA Eras file starting with the 1983-1984 season and will be reliving NBA history... with a twist. I'll be usering the Portland Trail Blazers to start this association, but I'm leaving it a little open-ended in terms of what I'll do down the road when the expansion teams start joining the NBA. Now, for the twist: I'll be using combined draft classes from different eras while still maintaining some sequential order.

For the first draft class, I have combined the legendary 1984 and 2003 classes to form a super class of some of the greatest players in NBA history. Now we'll get to see what it would be like if Michael Jordan and LeBron James entered the NBA at the same time. These classes will feature all of the big names, of course, but I'll also make sure to include as many of the secondary stars and role players as I can to make them complete and to ensure there are as few "fake" players as possible on NBA rosters.

I have already mapped out 20 years worth of combined draft classes, but if anyone has better combinations they can think of or they would like to see, I'm all ears. I want this to be an interactive dynasty and your feedback as a reader could dictate the future of what this NBA landscape looks like. See below for a preview of future draft classes I've thought of...

Season 1: 1984 + 2003
Season 2: 1985 + 2007
Season 3: 1986 + 1996
Season 4: 1987 + 2014
Season 5: 1988 + 2018

and so on...

I'm reaching the end of the 1983-1984 regular season so I have some catching up do in terms of posting, but I wanted to give myself a runway with playing games/becoming engrossed in the Association before publishing here. I'm so fired up about this project and this will be documented here rather than the strictly YouTube series I previously posted here (which I hope to continue working on on the side but will cease from posting on this board).

Looking forward to showing everyone what I'm working on — I know it's not the most "realistic sim" experience out there but there are plenty of other great dynasty stories written here to get that fix. I'm hoping this will be a little more of a unique perspective on what the NBA will look like when you combine players from different eras and have them join the league together.

[HarkTheSound]

Future Table of Contents.

Still figuring one the right format for how I want to present the articles, I don't think you can just upload PDFs to posts or I'd do that. If anyone has a good idea for how to best present stuff from google docs please let me know.

[HarkTheSound]

NBA as Top-Heavy as Ever as 1983-1984 Season Tips Off
76ers, Lakers, Celtics Headline Shortlist of Contenders



Magic Johnson and the Lakers have won two championships in his four-year career, but they were swept by the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals in May.

By Adrian Russillo
Oct. 14, 1983

Parity is not expected to be a word used by members of the NBA community this season. Everyone knows who the contending teams are — there’s only a couple of “Haves” and a whole lot of “Have Nots.”

Such is life in the Association as the 1983-194 season is set to get underway.

The NBA’s reigning champions, the Philadelphia 76ers, are still riding high after an immaculate, and surprising to many, sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in May’s Finals.

The 76ers, paced by MVP Moses Malone, avenged their six-game defeat to the Lakers in the 1982 Finals in what was a tour de force playoff showing by the former Houston Rocket product. He averaged 26 points and 15.8 rebounds per game in the 76ers’ dominant 12-1 postseason record.

The 76ers will have some competition to get back to the Finals for the third consecutive year as the Celtics, Pistons, and Bucks are considered the teams with the most firepower to compete with Moses, Julius Eriving, and co. Larry Bird and the Celtics enter the preseason as the odds-on favorite to win the East despite being swept by Sidney Moncrief, Marques Johnson and the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals a year ago.

Meanwhile, the Lakers, led by Magic Johnson and an aging-but-still elite Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, will also look to get back to the Finals for the third straight season. Magic has won a pair of championships in his first four years in the league, and the Lakers appear without a significant challenger in the West Conference. The other teams expected to contend for playoff spots in the West — the Suns, the Trail Blazers, the Spurs, and the Jazz — are all vying for the No. 2 seed unless something goes seriously awry in Hollywood.

Elsewhere across the league, many eyes will be trained on the Houston Rockets, who are welcoming one of the greatest college basketball players of all time, Ralph Sampson, to the team. The rest of the roster around the former Virginia great leaves much to be desired, but Sampson, the No. 1 pick in the 1983 NBA Draft, is expected to dominate right away and could help lead Houston to many playoff appearances down the road.

Preseason Position Preview
(Parentheis denotes overall rating)

Top Point Guards

Magic Johnson (95) — Lakers
Isiah Thomas (92) — Pistons
Rickey Green (86) — Jazz
Gus Williams (85) — SuperSonics
Maurice Cheeks (84) — 76ers

Top Shooting Guards

George Gervin (91) — Spurs
Sidney Moncrief (90) — Bucks
Alex English (88) — Nuggets
Walter Davis (88) — Suns
Darrell Griffith (86) — Jazz

Top Small Forwards

Larry Bird (97) — Celtics
Julius Erving (90) — 76ers
Adrian Dantley (90) — Jazz
Mark Aguirre (90) — Mavericks
Bernard Kings (89) — Knicks

Top Power Forwards

Kevin McHale (89) — Celtics
Buck Williams (85) — Nets
Dan Issel (85) — Nuggets
Maurice Lucas (85) — Suns
Kenny Carr (84) — Trail Blazers

Top Centers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (95) — Lakers
Moses Malone (95) — 76ers
Robert Parish (90) — Celtics
Jeff Ruland (87) — Wizards
Bill Laimbeer (87) — Pistons

Awards Predictions

1st-Team All-NBA

Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Bernard King, Moses Malone

2nd-Team All-NBA

George Gervin, Walter Davis, Mark Aguirre, Adrian Dantley, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

3rd-Team All-NBA

Sidney Moncrief, Alex English, Kevin McHale, Kiki Vandeweghe, Dominique Wilkins

Rookie of the Year

Ralph Sampson

Defensive Player of the Year

Tree Rollins

MVP

Magic Johnson

[HarkTheSound]

Trail Blazers Take Aim at Getting Back to the Postseason

Published Oct. 21, 1983

Mychal Thompson (left) saw his numbers decline in 1982-1983 (20.8 points per game to 15.7 and 11.7 rebounds per game to 9.4) but is expected to help lead Portland’s frontcourt alongside Kenny Carr.

By Shams Schmitz | The Oregonian


It’s the Los Angeles Lakers and everyone else.

Just don’t tell that to Portland Trail Blazers players.

With the regular season set to start one week from today, most prognosticators feel the NBA’s Western Conference is the Lakers’ to lose, but based on media day interviews with Portland Trail Blazers players leading up the team’s season opener against the San Diego Clippers, they feel they’ll have to something to say about who will earn the conference’s spot in the NBA Finals come May.

Portland is coming off a 46-36 season in which they earned the No. 5 seed in the West. They swept the No. 4-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in the best-of-three series (this will be the first season of the NBA’s shift to a 5-7-7-7 format). However, the Trail Blazers were merely a speed bump for the Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals as LA dispatched Portland in five games.

It’s been a while since Portland has advanced past the conference semis — the last time they did so was in 1977 when they won their first and only championship thanks to Maurice Lucas, Bill Walton, and co. The good news for Blazers fans is Portland returns an experienced lineup that features many players still in their primes who are supplemented by rising and exciting talent.

The oldest players on the team are frontcourt mates Kenny Carr and Mychal Thompson who are expected to make up the starting power forward and center positions for the team, respectively. Carr, a seventh-year pro out of N.C. State, and Thompson, a five-year veteran out of Minnesota, are battle-tested but they’re also one of the smallest frontcourts in the league. Carr (12.0 ppg, 7.2 rpg) is an undersized post bruiser at 6-foot-7 and Thompson (15.7 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 4.8 apg) is playing at the center position although he’s a natural power forward at 6-foot-10.

Joining them in the frontcourt is small forward Calvin Natt. Natt, a fifth-year pro out of UL Monroe, is a strong finisher and rebounder at a sturdy 6-foot-6, 220 pounds. He averaged 20.4 ppg and 7.5 rpg a season ago.

When discussing the Blazers’ backcourt, it all starts with shooting guard Jim Paxson. Paxson was leading scorer for the Blazers a year ago, posting 21.7 ppg and 1.7 spg. Paxson is the go-to shot-maker for the Portland team and is a good passer — however, there is one big caveat. The fifth-year pro from Dayton is in his contract year, and sources with knowledge of his contract situation say Paxson is looking to join a bigger market and cash in on free agency next offseason. It’ll be interesting to see Paxson contract status has a negative effect on the team as they look to make another playoff run.

Paxson will be joined in the backcourt by Fat Lever, a 6-foot-3 pass-first and defensive point guard heading into his second season. The former first-round pick out of Arizona State started half of the team’s games a year ago and is expected to take over as the full-time starter with a year of experience under his belt. Lever averaged 7.8 ppg, 5.3 apg, and 1.9 spg in 1982-1983.

The Blazers don’t have a deep roster, but there are a couple of standouts who will come off the bench this season. Let’s start with point guard Darnell Valentine. Valentine was the team’s starting point guard a year ago but broke his left foot and only played in 47 games. He averaged 12.5 ppg, 6.2 apg, and 2.1 spg. Valentine will come off the bench to start the season, but if he outperforms Lever he could reclaim his starting spot. In the meantime, he should provide a nice boost off the bench, especially from a distributing and defensive perspective.

One player coming off of the Blazers’ bench who is expected to be an impact scorer right away is shooting guard Clyde Drexler. Drexler, who was drafted with the 14th pick in this year’s draft, averaged almost 16 points and almost 9 rebounds per game for Houston last year and helped lead the Cougars to a NCAA National Title game appearance. Drexler has impressed team officials early on with his athleticism and smooth mid-range game, and sources behind the scenes are saying it’s only a matter of time before Drexler cracks the starting lineup.

The rest of Portland’s bench is mostly made up of replacement-level big men and a decent wing player in Jeff Lamp (4.4 ppg last year) who will spell Natt, Paxson, and Drexler as needed.

Portland makes up Western Conference’s “second tier” of teams jockeying for position behind the Lakers, and expectations are that the Trail Blazers should contend for the No. 2-6 seed, depending on injury luck and if Drexler and Valentine can provide meaningful depth for a team that severely lacks it.

Portland Trail Blazers Roster Breakdown

[the_kevstaaa]

This looks like it's going to rule.

[Chicago Made]

love it will be following

[the_kevstaaa]

Love the write up! Also, Fat Lever was my dude!

[Pharcyde82]

Amazing concept you're putting into play. Looking forward to your updates.


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