Following in the footsteps of College Football 25 and Madden, we’re simulating an entire NBA season in the recently released NBA 2K25. The NBA 2K series has been the cream of the crop when it comes to basketball simulation video games for nearly two decades now and has cemented itself in both gaming and hoops culture.
Since this is our first-ever NBA 2K simulation, let’s explain how it worked:
We simulated from the MyEras mode (2K’s version of franchise) starting in the Modern Era, with current rosters and the NBA Cup in-season tournament.
We were required to select a team to control during the simulation and randomly chose the Los Angeles Clippers.
All default MyEras settings were left intact.
CPU trade offers were disabled — although the Pacers and Pistons both tried to trade for the Clippers’ Norman Powell before the switch was made.
All G-League, prospect scouting and rotational decisions were set to automated.
Keeping that in mind, let’s jump right into a recap of how the virtual 2024-25 NBA season played out.
Mavericks finish with NBA’s best record
A year after losing to the Celtics in the 2024 Finals, the Mavericks were the class of the NBA. They finished with a league-best 63-19 record, edging out the Knicks (62-20), who had the top record in the Eastern Conference.
Jason Kidd was named NBA Coach of the Year for leading the Mavericks to the second-best win total in franchise history (Dallas went 67-15 in 2006-07). We’ll leave it at that, because there’s plenty more to talk about when it comes to the Mavericks.
LeBron, Bronny and the Lakers have long season
Bronny James did not play a single minute in the 2K simulation — which seems extremely unlikely to happen when the season actually tips off next month. On the opposite end of the spectrum, LeBron James played in all 82 games (again, almost certainly won’t happen considering he’ll be 40 in December and in his 22nd NBA season).
LeBron finished the season averaging 21.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 7 assists in a shade under 30 minutes per game. The MPG would be the lowest of his career and the points average would be the lowest since his rookie year in 2003-04. On…
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