2K Sports/Visual Concepts
A blockbuster trade that brought Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder has been finalized which means it’s time for a roster update in NBA 2K18. With this being a video game, we don’t have to worry whether Russell Westbrook, Carmelo and Paul George will be able to all share the ball. In NBA 2K18, the Thunder look to be much improved and this should be a formidable team to play against online.
#NBA2K18 roster update went live last night, reflects @carmeloanthony to @okcthunder trade. Team will be fun in 2K @russwest44 @Yg_Trece
The trade now boosts the Thunder’s offense to 8th in the game while defense is 3rd best, making the Thunder the 5th best overall team in NBA 2K18. With the roster update, we’re looking at this as the default lineup:
- PG – Russell Westbrook (94)
- SG – Andre Roberson (76)
- SF – Paul George (91)
- PF – Carmelo Anthony (84)
- C – Steven Adams (82)
In real life, Andre Roberson is a great defensive stopper and is very important to the team’s success. In NBA 2K18, he’s just a liability on offense, as evidenced by is D- rating in both mid and 3pt shooting. If you’re willing to do some tinkering with your lineup, we think you might be able to get a more efficient lineup by using this:
- PG – Russell Westbrook (94)
- SG – Paul George (91)
- SF – Carmelo Anthony (84)
- PF – Patrick Patterson (75)
- C – Steven Adams (82)
This lineup allows you to drop the weak shooting Roberson and replace him with a better shooter in Patrick Patterson. You will lose out on defense but how many defensive slugfests do you end up playing in 2K online? By sliding George to shooting guard, the position he came into the league as, we are able move Melo to the small forward position and insert a better shooter and rebounder at the PF spot. Patterson is serviceable shooting the ball and he is a tad better rebounder in 2K than Carmelo is so we think we’re improving the lineup by doing this.
Another lineup you could try is this:
- PG – Russell Westbrook (94)
- SG – Alex Abrines (74)
- SF – Paul George (91)
- PF – Carmelo Anthony (84)
- C – Steven Adams (82)
This lineup will allow you to have three 3-pt shooters in your lineup with a B+ rating or higher. We keep Adams at center which will help clean with cleaning the glass as well as providing some rim protection. If you want a better shooter for your center position, you can switch Adams with Terrance Ferguson but we opted not to do that. This lineup allows players to drive with Westbrook, George or Anthony and then kick the ball out to open shooters with regularity. We imagine this will be a pretty annoying lineup to go against online.
NBA 2K18 is mostly a game about scoring points in bunches so we don’t have to worry about defense a whole. That’s not saying defense isn’t important but human player skill will probably be able to help you more on defense. Carmelo could be a defensive force in the right hands. The Thunder were probably already going to be a popular pick before they acquired Carmelo and probably even before they got Paul George. Now that the Thunder boast three offensive juggernauts in the starting lineup, the OKC Thunder will probably be an ever more popular pick in online matches.
