As of right now, MyTeam is officially the grinder’s mode. Pay to win is still fairly in place and will likely become more prominent as the year goes on and more cards drop. However, right now, if you’re willing to grind, you’ll have one of the best possible teams as well as excess MT to handpick your lineup like your name was LeGM James. Here are some of the worthwhile current collection Ruby players that you should look into while they’re still semi-high tier cards.
Best MyTeam Ruby Collection
Grizzlies: Shareef Abdur-Raheem
Shareef is easily the best Ruby Power Forward in the game. The only knock on him could be his tendencies. Simply put, Spud Webb likely dunks in-game more than him. Although, I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. He finishes around the rim with finesse and gets many foul calls. His jumpshot form is easy and he’s a great rebounder at this point in the year. His finishing, post, rebounding, mid-range and three point stats are all in the mid to high 80s. I’m not sure there’s a more all-around option at the position currently.
Timberwolves: Isaiah Rider
To be honest, I almost left this name off the list out of shear respect for Our Lord and Savior, Kobe Bean. If you’re not familiar with their history, long story short, Kobe is his dad and had a hand in ending his career. To be fair, Isaiah Rider in his heyday was quite the baller and this card reflects that. He’s a great perimeter player to have. His defense is serviceable and he excels at most things offensively.
More than anything, he shines in transition or spotting up the corner. His threes are fairly inconsistent, but he’ll go on random streaks of knocking down 3-4 in a row. Then, follow it up with a mean cradle dunk on the break. Plus, getting him requires you to lock in Karl Anthony-Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler; three players that can contribute to your lineup. Wiggins and KAT are even a dynamic duo that pushes KAT to the sapphire tier. Overall, not a bad collection to improve your team early on.
Nuggets: Dikembe Mutombo
Initially, I was going to dub the Ruby Tim Duncan as the best big man collection to finish if you needed a center, but because people feel like Patty Mills and Danny Green are worth 7,000+ MT each, plans have changed. Assuming you like to have most of your offensive firepower come from your perimeter/wing players, this is the perfect man in the middle to balance the lineup. His job consists of rebounding, cleaning up second chance points, setting screens, help defense and rim protecting. If you try to post up with him even once, I hope you lose the game.
Mavericks: Jason Terry
If I’m not mistaken, The Jet currently has the highest three point ratings of any Ruby in the game right now (94 open, 92 contested). The only thing that throws me off about this card is the fact that he’s the size of a point guard and doesn’t have point guard badges. He’s meant to be your sniper but putting him at the two might not be defensively ideal. Likewise, if you’re one of those people that just know how to get open for a three, (the type that will recklessly sprint to the corner on a 3 vs. 1 fastbreak) this is your troll card. Although “wide open” and “good release” don’t really seem to mean much right now, Jet’s shooting stats are so high that he consistently makes what others don’t. To me, that’s what sets him apart.
Jazz: Darrell Griffith
I’d put anything on you probably not knowing who this is. And that’s the beauty of it. Imagine jumping into a game and dominating somebody so bad that they gotta look up who it is you were using? Happened to me before with George Gervin in NBA 2K13. Not only is this guy a goon, the collection should be fairly priced considering not many expensive players are on the Jazz. His defense is just about average but he’s rockin’ an 89 three pointer, 86 speed, 92 layup, 95 dunk and 85 contact dunk. Not bad for a name lost in the pages of the basketball history books. Go teach somebody else why they should know who he is too.
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