NBA 2K23 ratings: 14 players who should be higher, 11 who should be lower

The season must be close if people are arguing over 2K ratings.

The release of a new NBA 2K video game is the first sign that the league will soon return from its offseason hiatus. The franchise has become as much a part of NBA culture as the constant chatter on Twitter and the viral highlights on YouTube, but so much of the discussion around the game is about what it got wrong. This is particularly the case when it comes to ratings.

Every year, players ask digital marketing director Ronnie 2K for their rating, and every year they respond by saying they’re rated too low. Fans go through the same exercise with their favorite teams. Of course every player believes they should be rated higher, and every fan thinks their team should be better in the game. The thing is that sometimes, they’re right.

The new ratings for NBA2K23 have been slowly leaking out ahead of the game’s release on Sept. 9. The website 2KRatings has been chronicling every rating, and some of them are totally ridiculous. Here are the worst NBA 2K23 ratings to start the year.

Christian Wood: 84 overall. Too high.

Christian Wood got traded from the Rockets to the Mavericks for a late first round draft pick early in the offseason. While Wood has put up good counting stats on bad teams the last couple years, his all-around impact has never been near an All-Star level. That’s how 2K23 has him rated, though.

Wood’s 84 rating is higher than the following players: Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, Fred VanVleet, Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, and Evan Mobley. There’s many more where that came from. While Wood could certainly put up big numbers playing along Luka Doncic this year, he’s rated several points higher in the game than plenty of better players.

Here are other players who are rated too high in NBA 2K23:

• Chris Paul, 90 overall: CP3 is a legend, but the game has him rated higher than Paul George and Kyrie Irving. That seems like a stretch at age-37.
• C.J. McCollum, 87 overall: McCollum is two points better than teammate Brandon Ingram? That’s what 2K23 says.
• Clint Capela, 85 overall: Capela might not even be the best center on his own team this year with the emergence of Onyeka Okongwu. He’s had a great career as a rim protector and lob threat, but it feels like Capela’s play dropped off substantially last year.
• Tyler Herro, 84 overall: Herro couldn’t stay on the court for the Heat in the playoffs, which should have knocked him down several points.
• RJ Barrett, 84 overall: 2K has Barrett rated as the best player on the Knicks, which seems like a stretch to me. They also have him rated as better than Anthony Edwards, which is definitely a stretch.
• Wendell Carter Jr., 83 overall: It pains me to put Carter in this section as a long-time fan, but should he really be rated better than Marcus Smart and the same as Jordan Poole? I don’t think so.
• D’Angelo Russell, 81 overall: Russell is an all-timer in the genre of being a better video game character than real life player. Real ones know Jeremy Lamb is the captain of this team.
• Andre Drummond, 81 overall: Drummond essentially signed a minimum contract for the Bulls this offseason, yet he’s rated higher than guys on max contracts. He’s a perfectly fine backup center, but an 81 rating equates to a solid starter. He’s not that anymore.
• Serge Ibaka, 77 overall: The Bucks got nothing out of Ibaka after acquiring him at the trade deadline last year.
• Trendon Watford, 76 overall: I like Watford as a young player, but the game gave him the same rating as guys like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jae Crowder, and Kevin Huerter, who have proven to be much more dependable in the league to this point.

Draymond Green: 83 overall. Too low.

It’s hard to capture the brilliance of Draymond Green in a video game character. How do you get incredible basketball IQ on both ends of the floor to translate to an AI persona? Green’s special gifts are things that don’t always show up in the box score, or easily transfer to attributes assigned to video game characters. His excellent defensive communication skills or sharp rotational instincts are not exactly as sexy as an elite ball handler or shooter.

Still: this is Draymond we’re talking about, a four-time champion and sure-fire Hall of Fame inductee. His one of the very best role players of this generation, and he’s rated four points lower than C.J. McCollum. That’s just nasty work.

Here are other players who are rated too low in NBA 2K23:

• Zion Williamson, 87 overall: If Zion stays healthy, he’s going to be in the 90s before the All-Star break.

• Brandon Ingram, 85 overall: Ingram was so good for the Pelicans in the playoffs last year. Put some respect on that man’s name.
• Anthony Edwards, 83 overall: Edwards has all the makings of an all-time great video game character. No guard in the league is faster or more powerful going to the basket, and he’s also a very good outside shooter. Everyone loves Ant-Man. Why did 2K rate him lower than Christian Wood and R.J. Barrett? Makes no sense.
• Fred VanVleet, 83 overall: VanVleet made the All-Star team for the first time in his career last year, and should be primed for another huge season in Toronto. Something tells me this rating is going to be several points higher by the end of the year.
• Marcus Smart, 82 overall: Smart being rated worse than Malcolm Brogdon is a choice. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year is a huge part of what makes the Celtics so tough to beat.
• OG Anunoby, 81 overall: Anunoby made big strides last year, and continues to get more comfortable as a creator. He’s better than this.
• Franz Wagner, 80 overall: Wagner is going to make this rating look very silly by the end of the year. After an impressive rookie season and a killer run in EuroBasket, the big German wing is poised for a breakout second year with the Magic.
• Dorian Finney-Smith, 78 overall: DFS might have been the Mavericks’ second best player on their run to the conference finals last year, and should be an 80 overall at least. There aren’t many better pure ‘3-and-D’ wings in the game.
• Alex Caruso, 78 overall: Caruso is a one-man defensive wrecking crew. The Bulls ascended once they signed him, and the Lakers fell to pieces once he left. His impact is much greater than this rating.
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, 76 overall. 2K has KCP rated as the ninth best player on the Nuggets. He was already a huge part of a title team in Los Angeles, and he’s likely going to be on the floor at the end of games for a Nuggets team with similar dreams.
• Kenrich Williams, 76 overall: Would I really be a basketball blogger if I didn’t go to bat for the awesomeness of Kenrich Williams? There is no world where he is a worse player than Darius Bazley right now, but that’s how 2K has him ranked.
• Joe Harris, 76 overall: It feels like Harris was dinged a few points because of his ankle injuries, but if anything, his absence last season showed how valuable he is to the Nets. Without his marksman shooting and sturdy defense, Brooklyn completely collapsed.
• Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson’s three-point shooting, 88 rating: Durant has already complained about not being a 99 overall in the game. Now Klay is airing his own 2K rating grievances on social media as well. Both of them deserve to be in the 90s as three-point shooters as two of the best ever.