In every year’s new version of NBA 2K basketball game, we will surely see the upgrades and downgrades on player ratings due to player’s performance in the previous seasons. In this posts, let’s talk about the biggest player rating upgrades in NBA 2K22 by reviewing the most improved players of NBA 2021 season.
Top 5 NBA 2K22 Player Rating Upgrades
Winning the award for the most improved player is one of the most challenging feats in the NBA, it takes sacrifice and hard work in the off season courage to break the mold and your perception as a player and then also getting the right opportunity to showcase your talent, we’ll talk about five players who seized their opportunities and whose games took a big leap this past season. Here are the most improved players of 2021, which will surely get rating upgrade in NBA 2K22 and worth your NBA 2K22 MT investment!
Top 5 – Jaylen Brown
There are several types of players who get into consideration for the most improved player, there’s the young player’s improvement that usually happens between the first and second year, then there’s the opportunity improvement where a player suddenly gets in the situation where his role is increased and his numbers skyrocket by default, and then there are players like Jaylen Brown who improve from really good to an all-star.
Brown’s numbers didn’t take a dramatic leap like some of the other players on the list, but he’s improved in almost every statistical category namely in scoring and assists the young Celtic star has averaged 24.7 points and 3.4 assists this season, a steady rise from 20.3 points per game and 2.1 assists in 2020, But it’s not just the raw numbers that stand out, you can feel that his entire offensive output is more polished and that Brown’s been working on his game in the short offseason, his handle is tighter enabling him to get to his spots more efficiently and he’s learned to manipulate defenses with his dribble, it’s clear that the game has slowed down for Jaylen Brown which led to an all-star selection the first of many.
Top 4. Christian Wood
Five years ago, at his draft party in Caesar’s Palace in Vegas, Christian Wood had his face in his hands soaking wet with tears, “I’m a failure” he said to his mother after he went undrafted in the 2015 draft, what was supposed to be the greatest day of his life turned into a misery – a misery that followed him everywhere he went, he tried to get a roster spot but was cut from the sixers, he was also cut from the hornets, bucks, and the pelicans. But the definitive low point was when he was cut from a roster in the Chinese Basketball League where American players usually average about 70 points per game, but Wood didn’t give up and he finally got a shot last year in Detroit where he blossomed into one of the most promising bigs in the league. He finished the last 15 games of the season with averages of 22 points, 10 rebounds and two assists with excellent shooting efficiency, the pistons thought that this 15-game sample size was just a fluke and that Wood would come back to earth and they chose to sign about 10 worst centers this last offseason.
A huge mistake, why? Because Christian Wood played this season like a madman, he’s grown into a modern big who can play multiple positions and is extremely switchable on defense, his jump shot has become a reliable weapon. Wood has also shown that he can be dangerous with a ball in his hands, he’s usable as a cutter as a roll man and his skill set is like a swiss army knife, he really can do everything. Wood averaged 21 points and just under 10 rebounds per game continuing his bid for the most improved player that started late in the 2020 season, he won’t win the award due to the fact he missed 31 games due to injury, but the Rockets got themselves a potential all-star and they did so at a bargain price.
Top 3. Jeremy Grant
The NBA league has about 500 players, of which only 20 to 25 can be called superstars, superstar players play with the ball in their hands the entire game and have the ultimate green light to shoot, and everybody else in one way or another is a role player. Jeremy Grant was a role player his entire career and a rather good one, he was established and proven as one of the better wing defenders in the league and his offense mostly came from cuts offensive rebounds and spot-up shooting, so when grant rejected denver’s offer to be the three and d role player, he always was with the dreams of becoming the first option in detroit, many people were taken by surprise. And we do think you should prepare some NBA MyTeam Points for getting his upgraded card in NBA 2K22.
But Grant decided to bet on himself and judging by the results in 2021, he bet correctly. By no longer sharing the floor with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, Grant began to show off dribble moves and a level of creation that we have never seen in his game, he went from 9 shots and 12 points per game to 17 shots and 22.3 points per game, doubling his assist rate and improving his free throws by 10 percentage points. Grant became a legitimate first option and the numbers show it, last year in denver Grant was assisted on over 84 of his made shots, in Detroit that percentage is down to 65 and that’s because he’s taking a back seat to no one injuries in the latter part of the season slowed him down a bit and the Piston’s second worst league record certainly didn’t help his case. But Grant has shown tremendous progress and i’m curious to see if he’ll keep it up next year.
Top 2. Michael Porter JR.
Due to a severe back injury which limited him to just 53 minutes of NCAA basketball, some NBA doctors believe that Porter would never play basketball again, the nuggets took a chance on him with the 14th pick in the 2018 draft and their investment has started to yield big dividends in 2021. Porter set out his entire first year in the NBA, but he started playing last season and he immediately cracked the nugget’s rotation due to his scoring prowess, his talent was evident to anybody with a healthy pair of eyes and the comparisons to Kevin Durant started to gain traction again. At 6 foot 10, Porter’s jump shot is as pure as spring water, and his ability and willingness to score from all three levels is extremely rare for such a young player. Although there were times when he looked like the next KD, there were also plenty of moments where MPJ looked entirely out of place, his defensive output was one of the worst in the entire league as he would often just look at the ball and completely forget about his man. This year that’s no longer the case, Porter is not exactly a lockdown defender but he doesn’t suck anymore with a full year of NBA basketball under his belt, his understanding of coverages and defensive rotations is much better and he actually gives a damn on D. Offensively, he’s taken another step forward and has somehow gotten even more deadly as a shooter MPJ improved from nine points per game to 19 points per game this season, on a ridiculous 55 percent shooting from the field and 45 from three and he finished the season ranked number seven in true shooting percentage. His scoring looks so effortless due to his height and a high release point which makes his shot almost impossible to block, MPJ knows this too and he’s not really bothered when his defender is guarding him tightly. With MPJ, Jokic Murray, and Gordon who are all 25 or younger, the nuggets have the best young core in the league and a legitimate hope to win a championship in the next few years.
Top 1. Julius Randle
After years of bloated contracts bad draft picks and frequent coaching changes, the New York knickerbockers finally have stability. For the first time in eight years, Madison Square Garden hosted playoff basketball and it’s mostly thanks to one man Julius Randle. Nix and Randle are the most pleasant surprise of the 2021 NBA season, as nobody expected the team to make the postseason and the player to make such a huge leap from the year before, because in 2020, Julius Randle was one of the least efficient NBA players and he and the knicks were playing the ugliest basketball in the league, Julius Randle admitted he wasn’t really prepared to be the first option on the team which turned into many bad shots, more turnovers than assists, and a lack of energy on defense.
Determined to turn things around and change the bad rep he was getting, Randle dug deep in the off season and returned as a completely different player. He extended the range of his jumper and became a 41 shooter from three which is almost as good as Steph Curry. Julius Randle also became a triple threat as he nearly doubled his assist average to 6.1 per game, and because of improved conditioning, he led the knicks to be the fourth best defensive team in the league. Randle also led the entire NBA in minutes per game and he improved his statistical output across the board with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, he was selected into his first all-star team and rightfully. So it’s very rare that a player makes such a leap in his eighth NBA season, and that’s why he won the most improved player award for 2021.
