I just realized that I never took a close look at badging up PD D-Rob, even though I’ve had him since…whenever it was that it was two weeks after he was first available to those who missed no Weeklies.
At the time, I still had DI Kareem with an Open 3/Accel shoe and, just like now, I was enamored with having Jokic come off the bench and be a giant offensive initiator. So D-Rob got very little PT with me. Shamefully, because The Admiral is the real deal.
He’s the best card that 2K has ever given players for grinding gameplay. Last year’s Weeklies PD’s (Wade, Baylor, Pettit) were all significantly flawed in some aspect or another. Infuriatingly, this year’s PD Nate Thurmond is just terrible. (When you search for Thurmond on the AH, Andre Drummond cards pop up. I think this tips us off to why PD Nate is so underwhelming.)
But The Admiral…for once, he is as tremendous as one would hope to be, looking at his stats on paper. Fierce rim protector, beast on the boards, able to run with the insanely fast bigs, and an absurdly effective and reliable 3pt shooter.
He’s well worth dropping big MT to badge up in an ideal, premium way.
He comes with 21 badges, so it’s not all that hard to decide on which badges to use. The main dilemma is determining how much one is willing to spend:
TOP 5 BADGES
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Corner Specialist: He’s a 7-foot center, so by 2K18 logic, he’s most useful on offense when shooting threes.
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Deep Range Deadeye: He’s a 7-foot center, so by 2K18 logic, he’s most useful on offense when shooting threes. And he has 74 Contested 3, which is definitely viable. And I bet a good number of threes one might take with him are lightly contested, or more.
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Limitless Range: You’re not going to want to take threes with Robinson from the logo, but this badge activates with threes that are not especially long threes. And…He’s a 7-foot center, so by 2K18 logic, he’s most useful on offense when shooting threes.
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Dimer: As always…everyone should have Dimer.
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Pick Pocket: He’s a 7-foot center with 97 Block and 98 Shot Contest, so by 2K18 logic, one of the most effective ways for him to defend the rim is to try to strip the ball when an opponent drives to the rim and rises up for a dunk/layup. He’s got 84 Steal, which is actually a little low for an endgame center, but it’s still good enough to be a viable move.
PICK 1 OUT OF 4
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Pick Dodger: With all the off-ball screens that go in in some cheesy plays, I like to have this on everyone, if possible. Certainly if you’re one of those weirdos who plays Twin Towers and will put D-Rob at the 4, then this is a must.
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One Man Fast Break: He has pretty decent speed with the ball. Quite good by center standards. The only 7-footers who have higher SWB are Thon Maker, KAT, and Dragan Bender. The centers with fastest SWB are DMC and Jokic, at 75, which is only +10 compared to Robinson’s 65. He also has similarly good-for-a-center Ball Control (65). Unless your opponent is a jackass, you’re not going to finish a fast break with Robinson, but this badge will give you a speed boost after he rebounds, and he can put that to very good use.
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Acrobat: Just because, sometimes, this activates when you get certain layup animations/reactions that can cause this to activate. And I think that this badge may help with contested layup finishes in general. The degree to which one believes the case, and whether or not you’re apt to finish with layups much, as opposed to dunks, should dictate how beneficial you think this is. It’s cheap, so it’s not a very big deal to just apply it and then see how often, or not, it activates for you.
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Tear Dropper: I guess…if you can actually remember, and are good, with using Teardrop shots with your bigs, say, if you get the ball on a roll and there’s a defender camped under the rim.
I think I would probably pick One Man Fast Break, out of the four above. And if you feel like Acrobat or Pick Dodger or Teardropper is more important than Limitless, or Deep Deadeye, I wouldn’t argue very hard with you. And omitting one, or both, of those shooting badges could be dictated by budget.
There’s are four other badges that he doesn’t have that I don’t mention at all, above, but they’re all playmaking badges and they’re all useless for him, unless maybe you’ve figured out how to produce a lot of big-to-big lob opportunities. But, even then, I wouldn’t lob lobs with D-Rob, as his passing ratings are low.
If you’re on a tight budget, but want to do the best you can with cheap badges, then the selection choice is pretty easy:
- Pick Pocket
- Pick Dodger
- One Man Fast Break
- Acrobat
- Tear Dropper
- Flashy Passer
I wouldn’t dish flashy passes with him, but maybe with the badge he won’t huck it out of bounds.
There you go. That’s how to make your Admiral the best he can be. Now, in honor of how he is one of the nicest, classiest, and most decent players to ever play in the NBA, be the best you can be. No 5-out, no wings or bigs at PG, no guards or wings at Center, no flash-pausing, no flop-griefing, no sub-glitching, no money-play cheesing, and no steal spamming.
Griefing, cheesing, and cheating is garbage. And Mr. Robinson doesn’t like garbage. If you’re into cheesing, griefing, and cheating, don’t get into his shoes. Mr. Robinson doesn’t like garbage in his shoes. If you’re into cheesing, griefing, and cheating, don’t go to his neighborhood. Mr. Robinson doesn’t like garbage in his neighborhood.