There’s nothing that can start basketball discourse quite like the NBA 2K franchise. A quick internet search for the latest installment will bring up a smorgasbord of highly passionate opines, most of which will be about how bad the game has gotten or how it’s failed to evolve in a significant or acceptable manner. And yet, despite the endless stream of complaints, there’s no doubt that NBA 2K25 will be a wild success, at least in term of sales and revenue.

As both the NBA and the 2K franchise continue to grow concurrently, they’ve become more and more intertwined with each other. With 2K virtually holding a monopoly over realistic NBA gaming, it’s become the requisite authority for player and team rankings. With NBA 2K25’s release right around the corner, they started releasing the ratings for the top-100 players in the game and in the league.

These ratings have always been taken way too seriously and been a huge topic for discourse, but it’s becoming even more increasingly so. So far, 80 players’ ratings have been unveiled, and five different members of the New Orleans Pelicans appear in the top 100, but it’s clear that none will be in the top 20.

Zion Williamson appeared in 2K’s latest batch of leaks, landing at an 88 overall, which is tied for 27th with four other players: Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Pascal Siakam. None of these stars are bad company by any means, but it’s reasonable to say that Zion should be a tier above his fellow 88ers, especially Sabonis and Siakam.

Zion’s the only one in the group who could realistically be a number one option on a title team someday, except maybe Fox. There will be 26 players rated higher than him when the game comes out, but the confirmed ones are: Damian Lillard, Paolo Banchero, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Trae Young, and Tyrese Maxey. Dame and Jimmy Buckets are understandable, as they’re both future Hall-of-Famers who have padded their resumes much thicker than Zion has so far and haven’t shown huge signs of slowing down just yet. PG could be in that category, but, in the last few years, he’s proved to be more of a supercharged sidekick than a number one caliber player. Both Banchero and Maxey are way too unproven to be listed above Zion at this stage in their careers.

88 is lower than his 2K24 debut rating, 90, and his 2K22 showing, 89. Hopefully, Zion will make the 2K curators regret this decision early next season.

After Zion, 2K has Dejounte Murray listed as the next best Pelican at 86, then Brandon Ingram at 85, CJ McCollum at 84, and Herb Jones at 82. That concludes the list of New Orleans’s players in the top 100, which has Keegan Murray and Jaden McDaniels at 80 at the bottom. There’s a strong chance that there are several other 80s in the game, though, and possibly some Pelicans. Neither Trey Murphy III nor Jordan Hawkins should be far off. TMIII finished the season at an 81 in 2K24 and Jordan Hawkins was a 74.