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Using NBA 2K20 to predict Sekou Doumbouya’s future

By Nicolas Henkel

DETROIT, MI - JANUARY 24: Sekou Doumbouya #45 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - JANUARY 24: Sekou Doumbouya #45 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images) /
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Detroit Pistons, Sekou Doumbouya
Sekou Doumbouya #45 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by Brian Sevald/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Year two

Heading into the offseason the Pistons had obtained the number one overall pick in the draft. Then it became a decision of either letting the computer make the selection for me or manually going in and drafting someone.

I chose the latter, that way I could draft someone who would specifically benefit Sekou’s development and wouldn’t take away any minutes from him. So, LaMelo Ball was the selection.

Heading into his second season, Sekou’s overall rating had been bumped slightly to 74 overall. He was at 72 in his rookie year.

At this point, I made sure to tweak his minutes a little bit, giving him 25 per game instead of 20. I also made him the default third scoring option behind Luke Kennard and Blake Griffin. This way he’s actually getting touches despite the games being simulated.

At the end of year two, Sekou’s hadn’t made much progress offensively. He was averaging just 5.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

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Year three

After sending him to rebounding camp following his rookie season, I made sure to increase Sekou’s perimeter abilities ever so slightly going into year three. I also wasn’t making any attempts at re-signing players. If they walked, they walked.

Both Kennard and Griffin saw their exit in Detroit, Luke going to Brooklyn and Griffin (declined his player option) and went to Phoenix.

While this is a pretty crushing blow to the Pistons chances at actually winning, it just gives Sekou more opportunity to grow as a player.

So, with year three on the horizon, I set him as Detroit’s primary scorer on offense.

This paid off tremendously. His overall rose to a 79 overall and wound up scoring 19.9 points and grabbing 7.8 rebounds per game on 48.8 percent shooting. This also landed him the Most Improved Player award at the end of the season.

His three-point percentage still wasn’t great at just 31.2 percent, and the Pistons had failed to win more than thirty games for a third consecutive year. But, this is substantial progress nonetheless.

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