Highlights
- NBA 2K24 offers extensive rosters spanning historical eras like Magic and Bird, Jordan, Kobe, and LeBron, with accurate recreations.
- Missing players like Rasual Butler, God Shammgod, and Jimmer Fredette can be downloaded from the community creations section.
- Important players like Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley are notable omissions, making them essential downloads for an accurate gaming experience.
NBA 2K24 has the most extensive roster the series has ever seen, including every currently contracted NBA player, as well as a plethora of historical rosters spanning multiple decades and eras of the NBA. Along with these rosters come new Eras options for most of the game’s modes.
NBA 2K24: Best Teams To Rebuild
For those wanting a true challenge in NBA 2K24, these teams are the perfect canvas from which to create your own dominant basketball dynasty.
Players can set their league in the Magic and Bird Era, the Jordan Era, the Kobe Era, or the LeBron Era. Each one comes with every team recreated as accurately as possible. However, when trying to rebuild so many teams from so many different years, there are bound to be missing players. Luckily, these can be downloaded from the community creations section. Many of them are even included in community rosters designed based on the year, to provide as accurate a reflection of that time as possible.
10 Rasual Butler
2010 Chicago Bulls
- Creator name: DATBOICJ2008
One of the pivotal figures in a Bulls team that became the LeBron led Heat’s conference rival, Rasual Butler is a journeyman shooting guard who was a role player on a number of teams throughout the Kobe era and the LeBron era.
His absence from the game could have something to do with his tragic death in 2018, but downloading this fan favorite player will help honor him while also bringing some more accuracy to two different playable eras.
9 God Shammgod
1997 Washington Wizards
- Creator name: SDOTizBACK23
While this player might not actually have enough historical significance to demand a download, God Shammgod’s fun play-style and move-set do warrant it. There is a famous crossover dribble now named after him. Shammgod was a famous street baller who had a short but memorable run in the NBA.
NBA 2K24: Best Centers, Ranked
Once thought to be a thing of the past, centers are now the definitive game-changers in NBA 2K24, making it hard to win without a great one.
He played for the Wizards during the late Jordan era, leaving right before Jordan himself would join the roster. Adding him to the team will simply add one more ultra-fun guard to an era full of flashy players.
8 Jimmer Fredette
2012 Sacramento Kings
- Creator name: bossdiesel1
At first glance, Jimmer Fredette might seem like a player whose omission is actually acceptable, but players need to remember just how big “Jimmermania” actually was in the early 2010s. This is a game about reliving specific eras, and the LeBron Era wouldn’t be complete without Jimmer’s short run in it.
Considering that Jimmer would go on to be one of the best G-League and China League players ever, adding him to a 2010s roster will change the course of history and allow him to have the superstar NBA career he never did.
7 Eric Bledsoe
2013 Phoenix Suns
- Creator name: i_am_legend933
The second option behind Goran Dragic and then, for some time, the de facto leader of the Phoenix Suns, Eric Bledsoe was a player vital to the 2010s. Even though he would have been an untested rookie on the Clippers at the start of the game’s LeBron Era, not having him available to rise and become one of the better shooting guards in the league just feels wrong.
NBA 2K24: Best Playbooks
Struggling to find a great playbook in NBA 2K24? Here are the best ones in the game that all players should consider.
Players can rectify that by downloading him and adding him directly to the Suns, or they can start him with the Clippers and potentially let history play out differently. Either way, he’s an easy choice to add to any 2010s roster.
6 James Jones
2010 Miami Heat
It seems confounding that 2K24 would be missing a player from the LeBron Era Miami Heat, considering that this team is the entire reason the game has an era named that to begin with. James Jones may now work in the front office for the Phoenix Suns, but in the 2010s, he was the small forward on multiple teams led by LeBron James. Even though he would come off the bench and never be “the” star, adding him to this Heat team is necessary if players want to really take control of or play against one of the best teams in NBA history.
5 Al Jefferson
2010 Utah Jazz
Al Jefferson was sneakily one of the most productive big men of the 2010s NBA. He was arguably the best player on a young Utah Jazz team at the start of the LeBron Era, he would go on to be the best player on the Hornets during one of their many rough stretches, then he would finally end his career as a strong bench contributor for the Indiana Pacers.
Adding him to a LeBron Era roster will undoubtedly fill a big blind spot, but will also likely lead to him bouncing among different teams, creating an immediate revisionist version of his journeyman career.
4 Rasheed Wallace
2003 Detroit Pistons
Playing the Kobe Era means players will pretty quickly find themselves facing off with the mid-2000s Pistons. This scrappy team played hard and played physical, becoming a beloved underdog team during a time in which the future of the NBA wasn’t fully set yet.
This team was beloved for conquering the Eastern conference and even battled their way to an NBA championship win against the Kobe Lakers. Rasheed Wallace was the Power Forward for this iconic team and playing through the Kobe Era without him is leaving out an incredibly impactful player.
3 Tayshaun Prince
2003 Detroit Pistons
Back to back Pistons. Tayshaun Prince also played for the underdog 2004 championship team. He was the small forward on the team and used his 7’2 wingspan to do the unthinkable, try to guard Kobe. He is just as important to the squad as Rasheed Wallace.
NBA 2K24: Mistakes Beginners Should Avoid
Newcomers to NBA 2K24 should try to avoid falling into these common beginner traps.
Luckily, players can download the 2004 NBA roster, or just grab this specific Pistons roster, and it will give them a created version of both of these Pistons players. Then, players can relive the iconic Kobe rivalry accurately.
2 Reggie Miller
1987 Indiana Pacers
Reggier Miller is one of the most enigmatic NBA superstars of all-time, and maybe the most famous Indiana Pacer of all time. The shooting guard who once scored eight points in nine seconds. He only played for the Pacers from 1987 to 2005, leading the team for most of that run.
This means players need to download him if they want to experience an accurate Jordan Era or Kobe Era. He is one of the biggest omissions in all of NBA 2K24, which also makes him one of the easiest to find in the community creations section.
1 Charles Barkley
1992 Phoenix Suns
Easily the biggest name on this list and biggest omission from the game is Charles Barkley. The arguably undsersized power forward that more than made up for it with physicality and skill was the face of the Philadelphia 76ers for the late 80s and then led the Phoenix Suns valiantly against Michael Jordan’s Bulls.
Barkley is a top five player from the Jordan Era and a necessary piece for players who want to take on Air Jordan’s decade. Luckily, players have painstakingly recreated Barkley’s build in the game, so there are plenty of accurate looking and playing versions of him to download.
NBA 2K24
- Released
- September 8, 2023
- Metascore
- 69