A Dallas Mavericks fan's guide to NBA 2K24

For years NBA 2K has unanimously dominated the basketball sports game market, and this year is set to be no different. Given this, Dallas Mavericks fans interested in simulating games with their favorite team in a video game format will assuredly be looking ahead to NBA 2K24's release date of September 8.

2K has come under flak in recent years for repetitively putting out the "same game" year after year, but could this be the year that finally breaks the mold?

Only time will tell, nonetheless the game has a variety of new features and changes for single-player game modes such as the renowned MyCareer mode, as well as some cool Mavericks-specific wrinkles that may shift the perception of Mavs fans looking to buy NBA 2K24.

A Dallas Mavericks fan's guide to NBA 2K24

We aren't here to convince you to deploy all your resources toward a game that will be priced at $69.99 on next-gen consoles just for the standard edition ($99.99 for the "Black Mamba" edition, and $149.99 for the "25th Anniversary" edition).

However, 2K24 has garnered lots of positive reviews from content creators and video game talking heads so far. We simply want to give you the pros and cons to look ahead toward if you are a Mavericks fan buying this game, because this is the first time the game has looked this promising ahead of launch in quite some time.

Mavs fans should be excited to play this game as their favorite team, as stopping Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving will be hard for your opponent. Dallas also added plenty of solid role players and defenders that will make playing with the Mavs an effective and fun strategy.

It's not going to be the same excitement that Mavs fans had for NBA 2K22 when Doncic and Dirk Nowitzki were on the cover, but it should still end up being a good game.

Every Mavs-related wrinkle in NBA 2K24

The first question you are probably asking is one that is related to the ratings of everyone on the Mavericks' roster. Fear not, as the Mavericks' starting lineup, along with their ratings, has been leaked.

Unfortunately, this list excludes everyone off of Dallas' bench, but it's nice to see that 2K hasn't given the Mavericks any unjust ratings thus far.

2K has also added "NBA templates" for fans wishing to build the archetype of their favorite players within MyCareer mode. This likely won't every single NBA role player as that would be tedious and redundant, but it seems like it will feature every All-Star, along with some other intriguing players. If that's the case, Mavericks fans will have the opportunity to create a Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving archetype for their MyPlayer.

They'll get all of Luka or Kyrie's animations and play-style segued to the court right away, not needing to reach a threshold within a certain attribute to unlock how that player plays. Of course, the player won't be nearly as good as a basic build with a higher overall.

But the aspect of bypassing the animation and attribute selection process, en route to being able to create a Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving prototype to play against other players online could be a really immersive Mavs experience with one of your favorite players.

Unfortunately, that feature is only on next-gen consoles and won't be applicable to the Xbox One or PS4, but Mavs fans still have multiple renditions of classic and all-time teams to look forward to if playing on outdated consoles.

The Mavericks 2002-03 team, 2011 championship team, and all-time team (best players in franchise history), will still be available in PlayNow and PlayNow Online modes regardless of console.

New features for the overall game, and things Mavs fans can look forward to in general with NBA 2K24

NBA 2K24 is poised to have extremely enhanced gameplay and graphics. It will also be bringing back signature game modes MyNBA and MyTeam, along with a 'Mamba Moments" game mode that will be a commemorative simulation of Kobe Bryant's historic career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

2K is making tons of changes to their MyCareer mode as well, which has come under fire by critics for getting worse over the last couple of years.

They will still carry "The City" over on next-gen consoles and "The Neighborhood" over for current-gen consoles. But per developers and game changers, tons of tweaks to the animations, progression system, and badge system for MyCareer seem to be in play for this year's 2K rendition, as well as the re-introduction of affiliations.

2K24 is also set to feature celebrity appearances court-side once again, as they've made the fanfare ultra-realistic in this year's game. Mavs' owner Mark Cuban can even be seen court-side in one of the Mamba Moments' games, as the Mavs' throwback green jerseys and Cuban's younger appearance are truly emblematic of the mid-2000s.

2K had done its disservices to the Mavericks in the past, as they continually flail on Dirk's longer hair and undervalue certain Mavericks' role players year after year. However, with the gameplay and MyCareer mode already looking as realistic and enticing as ever, along with the other cool features the game is looking to provide, it might be worth a shot this year.

I would advise you to make the effort to get the next-gen version of the game instead if that is applicable for you though, because the current-gen rendition of 2K24 has a very good chance of being of the same ilk as the current-gen 2K23 product.

The current-gen version has been diminishing in value year after year at this point, and 2K will only put less and less effort into it going forward.

NBA 2K24 looks extremely promising thus far, but time will only tell if it can fill the entire void of the endless amount of demands and tweaks that fans have every year for the game. One can only hope it draws back on games of old, such as 2K16 or 2K17, en route to becoming the true immersive NBA video game experience that a Mavericks fan could hope for.