Who is the 2016 Orlando Magic’s best NBA Jam combination?
It is getting to be NBA video game season. So we wonder, what would the Orlando Magic’s 2016 NBA Jam team look like?
NBA video games these days tend toward realism.
How can programmers create the most lifelike players and simulations with real playbooks and tendencies. The point is to put the player in a true NBA game experience in a fun and entertaining way.
They get things down to Stephen Curry chewing on his mouthguard for crying out loud:
Yes, NBA2K16 is going to be pretty awesome, as every iteration of the game seems to be. The game will be more real and true to the game, giving gamers a great NBA experience.
But who really wants that? The best NBA game of all time is still probably the most unrealistic. The one with the cartwheeling dunks and hoops on fire and turbo-glowed shoes.
NBA Jam still resonates in the NBA culture as much as any NBA video game. The original NBA Jam was created in 1993 with Tournament Edition released in the following year. It is a touchstone of the NBA video game experience with its crazy play-by-play calls, outrageous movements and simple gameplay.
If you want to see where the analytics movement was really first at work, the best NBA Jam strategy was always to get dunks or shoot 3-pointers. It makes a certain teams more effective in the video game than they were in real life — hello Reggie Miller and the Pacers.
CBS Sports’ Eye on Basketball recently tried naming its top-15 NBA Jam teams using the current NBA rosters. Considering how young and how bad the Magic’s record is, the Magic are not the most popular team to play in any video game. CBS’s crew declares the Warriors’ Splash Brothers of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson the top NBA Jam team in today’s NBA.
Hard to argue (I would go with the No. 2 team of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook personally).
So what about the Magic? What would their NBA Jam teams look like, and would you want to play them?
Let’s go about this exercise. We will use the same rules as NBA Jam Tournament Edition. That means we are picking three players total for the Magic and analyzing all the combinations.
Those three players are going to be Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic. If we want to expand the roster to five (I think the code is up, up, down, down, A, A, right, left), we will add Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja. Sorry, Aaron Gordon, you get left off despite your crazy dunking ability so we can have Hezonja’s shooting.
But the three key players for our NBA Jam team are going to be Oladipo, Harris and Vucevic — ostensibly the core of this team in real life.
Oladipo provides the dunking and rim attacking that every great NBA jam team needs. Not to mention the speed he would have when his shoes turn blue (that is the turbo function for those who do not remember playing the game). Oladipo would quietly be one of the deadlier young players in the game. He would be really difficult to stop in the wide-open NBA Jam gamestyle.
Tobias Harris makes the list because he is such an important player and scorer for the Magic. There is just no getting around putting him in the group as Orlando’s third-leading scorer and probably best scorer. He and Oladipo are the team’s best scorers at the end of the day and that is what NBA Jam requires.
Harris can shoot the ball a bit and make those in-between shots that nobody takes in NBA Jam. But if clutch factor is something that matters, you cannot go without Harris.
Vucevic gets included because the Magic need a rebounder. His ability to shoot jumpers also should help him be an asset in the game. But he is not your typical NBA Jam center. He is not a big dunker or a shot blocker. So his value as a NBA Jam center is actually pretty low.
Vucevic might be the Magic’s top scorer, but his place on a NBA Jam team is kind of shaky. Aaron Gordon would be the pick to replace him initially. He can do the dunking NBA Jam requires and projects to be a pretty good rebounder.
Dan Favale of Bleacher Report also took the mantle and picked his Magic squad for NBA Jam — choosing Oladipo, Harris and Gordon. He writes on Oladipo — the team’s “Alpha”:
"Sick-nasty 360-degree reverse dunks are permitted in NBA Jam. So, Victor Oladipo is the Orlando Magic’s foremost authority. Meteoric guards with a dash of playmaking and a pinch of shooting are qualified for such a responsibility."
And on his two other choices:
"Aaron Gordon started hoisting threes at the NBA’s Orlando Summer League, and he can already soar through the air irresponsibly. And rare is the stretch 4—even if still evolving—who can block shots. Tobias Harris will indubitably destroy some rims of his own, essentially giving the Magic a dunks-only offense."
As you can see, though, in NBA Jam as in real life, the Magic are an interesting bunch, but not quite ready for you to pick up the controller and play them. Not if you want to win and embarrass your friends. Not consistently at least.
The Magic are a growing team and so you probably play them early in your championship mode on Sega Genesis.
You better have that difficulty set pretty easily and just go at the rim. Use those fouls sparingly and go for steals to secure a win with the Magic in the new NBA Jam.