Bucks' NBA 2K25 ratings that are 100% wrong

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NBA 2k25 is the top basketball video game in the market. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a freak of nature who seems like he comes straight out of a video game. He is a big reason why the Milwaukee Bucks are a fun team to play as in 2k, but the team’s depth and star power ensures that they are a must-play team in this year’s iteration of basketball video games.

With NBA 2k25 officially available to the public, many of the player ratings around the league have been criticized, and the Bucks are no exception. In this article, we are going to look at which ratings the 2k team got wrong.

Damian Lillard still deserves to be ranked in the 90s

The Bucks traded for Damian Lillard before the 2023 season, and the future Hall of Famer was supposed to take the team to the next level and get them back in the NBA Finals. It didn’t work out that way, as Lillard’s fit with the team wasn’t great, and he had one of his worst seasons since his early NBA days.

It all led to Milwaukee being knocked out in the first round for the second straight season. After the down year, NBA 2k25 slapped Lillard with an overall rating of 89. This rating comes in at five points lower than Lillard’s 94 from last year’s version of the game, and that seems like an overadjustment.

Lillard should still be in the 90s. He still put up 24.3 points and 7.0 assists per game in what was his eighth All-Star season last year. Those are elite numbers, and Lillard’s chemistry with his new team started to improve throughout the season, too.

Lillard is still among the most elite three-point shooters and most clutch scorers in the NBA. There are some good years left in the tank, and the point guard could remind everyone why it was such a big deal when the Bucks traded for him last season. At the time of the trade last year, we gave Lillard and Antetokounmpo the title of best NBA duo, and Lillard’s 2k rating should better reflect that, even after a down year.

Khris Middleton’s regression warrants a ratings drop off

Khris Middleton’s NBA 2k25 rating is 85, which is the same that it was for the last iteration of 2k. The wing and former champion has struggled with health and regression over the last two years, so we think that his 2k rating should have had a point or two knocked off of it this year because of that.

While Middleton’s end of season stats were similar in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, the year prior, the shooting guard was coming off of an All-Star season. Now, it has become evident that he isn’t the player he once was. Middleton is now 33 years old, and he is unlikely to improve in the coming seasons.

Middleton, who is the third option on his team, has the same rating as Scottie Barnes, Alperen Sengun, and Brandon Ingram, all of whom are more relied upon by their team to lead the way than he is. His rating is even higher than Mikal Bridges, a player who has proven himself as one of the best two-way stars in the NBA.

By no means do we think 2k needs to drop Middleton’s rating by a lot, but an 85 seems a little bit high right now, especially considering the other players with similar or worse ratings across the league.

AJ Johnson’s 69 rating is too high, even for a first-rounder

Most first-round NBA Draft picks get ratings in the low 70s. That wasn’t the case for the Bucks first-rounder, AJ Johnson, as 2k gave him a 69 rating. Unfortunately, we think that rating is still too high. Johnson is a developmental project for Milwaukee, so he likely won’t contribute to the team for a while.

There are a lot of rookies with more proven production who will be ready to make an impact sooner. Johnson played in the NBL last season, and he was only able to rack up 2.9 points and 0.7 assists per game. While he was playing professional basketball, it wasn’t a good sign to see Johnson riding the bench, and it surely doesn’t make anyone feel good that he will be great at the NBA level any time soon.

Johnson is raw, and we basically only have his high school tape to go off of. Additionally, Johnson’s body isn’t built for the NBA right now. He only weighs 160 pounds, so he will likely have a hard time guarding and scoring on grown men in the NBA. Players better suited to play right away, including Ajay Mitchell, Adem Bona, Baylor Scheierman, and Dillon Jones, were all given the same or even lower ratings than Johnson, and that doesn’t make a lot of sense. All of those players are older prospects who played multiple seasons of college basketball, and they were all drafted because it shouldn’t take them long to adjust to the NBA game.

Perhaps Johnson will develop into a solid NBA player one day, and we aren’t knocking on the Bucks selection of the guard, but getting any production out of the youngster seems to be years away as of now. For that reason, a 69 overall rating is too high for the rookie.

The post Bucks’ NBA 2K25 ratings that are 100% wrong appeared first on ClutchPoints.