Hornets NBA 2K: Why Is LaMelo Ball’s Rating Only 85 Overall?

The Charlotte Hornets have been playing excellent basketball since the All-Star break. On the cusp of making the play-in tournament for the second consecutive season, the Swarm have been led by their incredibly talented young core of Miles Bridges and LaMelo Ball.

Bridges, who is in the middle of a career-best season, has drastically improved his NBA 2K rating due to his stellar numbers this season. Starting the year at 78 Overall, Bridges has risen up the ranks and now sits at 83 Overall.

While that is perfectly acceptable for a non-All-Star caliber player, Ball seems to have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to his rating. Ball started the season as an 84 Overall. Within the first month of the season, he jumped up to 87 Overall.

Since mid-January, Ball has steadily declined back to an 85 Overall rating. Why is his rating dropping? The Hornets have been winning games, and LaMelo has been a huge reason for it. He made the All-Star team for the first time in his career, and he is averaging 20.0 points per game, 6.8 rebounds per game, 7.4 assists per game, and 1.6 steals per game.

The only guards averaging more rebounds and assists are James Harden (92 Overall), Dejounte Murray (87 Overall), and Luka Doncic (95 Overall). Of these three, Murray is the only guard averaging more steals than Ball.

Overall (pun intended), LaMelo’s rating makes little sense. He should be at least at the 87 mark that he attained earlier this season. To offer my thoughts on where he should be improved, I think his playmaking and defending could stand to be bumped.

With an increase in Pass Accuracy, Ball Handle, Pass IQ, and Pass Vision, Ball’s playmaking can increase from an 86 to an 89. On top of this, his defense could receive a slight boost in Perimeter Defense, Steal, and Defensive Consistency. With these buffs to his attributes, Ball would climb the 2K leaderboards and sit closer to the 87-to-88 mark that it should be at.