Ok, so this is a niche off season post is a niche within a niche. and if you don't like fighting games, I expect you to not care. If you do like fighting games, I expect you to disagree with all the archetypes I pick and to be annoyed with how much time I spend explaining the different archetypes.

Anyway, if the NBA was to release a competitive 2d fighter like Streetfighter or Guilty Gear, what would the roster be and how would each player play? I'm a guy who's ok at one fighting game so I'm an expert in these matters. let's figure this out. Be prepared to get bogged down in fighting game jargon.

So let's start:

Lebron James, Shoto: a shoto is typically the all arounder character and the main character in any given fighting game, and typically the first character designed in a game. I'm not even a Lebron guy but he's the protagonist of the NBA(also the only one who's been in a fighting game). Lebron is the Ryu of the NBA. There have been people playing Lebron in the NBA fighting game for 20 years. a Shoto will have three special moves that you've probably seen, a projectile(HADOUKEN) an uppercut or dragon punch(SHORYUKEN) and a forward advancing move (you may have seen that spinning kick that Ryu does, it has a long name). Lebron is probably made less in the Ryu mold(who relies on his projectile) as he is the Sol Badguy mold from Guilty Gear(that's his actual name, guilty gear is awesome). A heavy damage character who becomes nearly unstoppable once he gets in.

Kawhi Leonard, Glass Cannon: Ok, the injury jokes are tired at this point, and I know this is going to make some people weirdly happy because Kawhi and glass are on the same line, but it does fit in this case. A glass cannon essentially has everything but the trade off is lower HP. Typically these characters are small and fast but no one's really small in the NBA. Kawhi has best in class defense, offense and no significant weaknesses but yeah, will end up going down in two combos if everyone else goes down in 3 or 4.

Steph Curry, Zoner(with projectiles): Funny thing is people who play fighting games and love steph curry will hate this while steph fans who don't will think it's the perfect choice. Ok, so i guess I should describe what a zoner is. A zoner wins by keeping you out from range. These come in some varieties but essentially the zoner wins by never letting you take your "turn" to come in for an attack. While you may know from streetfighter the stretchy arm guy as one variety of zoner, there's also the type that is able to keep you out by filling up the screen with projectiles and often by playing Keep-away. You could see steph now, just throwing three ball after three ball and using one of his specials, moving screen, to get away as soon as you get in.

Luka Doncic, Mix-up: So in a fighting game, typically when you are blocking, you are typically going to hold back to block attacks coming in. but if an attack is coming in low, you hold down and back to crouch block or just back to stand block if an attack is coming in as an overhead. A mix-up character essentially makes you guess if an attack is coming from above or below. Luka feels like the ideal for this as he has so many moves to make him difficult to guard. He has so many moves to confuse you that makes it so it feels inevitable he's going to score. Sadly his poor defense hurts him and his special attack "complain to refs" seems utterly useless.

Devin Booker, Mid-range: So, yeah there's an archetype just called mid-range so Devin Booker has to be that. Essentially a mid-range character doesn't want to come in and give a big combo, they want to dance with you(or play footsies) and keep you at arms length. they are committed to this very specific range that's cool to watch when it works. Typically they have a bit of everything like a shoto does too.

De'aron Fox, Rushdown: I'm glad De'Aron doesn't feel out of place on this list. A rushdown character gets in fast as hell. They typically don't really bother with that projectile garbage. They are about speed and using that speed to force you to make a mistake by sheer pressure. It's short and sweet.

Nikola Jokic, Charge character: Ok, so this is a stretch. a charge character typically has a move where you hold the back button for a second, and then hit the forward button after and a move where you hold down for a second and then hit up, i.e charges in both directions. So they're often just holding down back. and then throwing out an onslought of attacks that you don't know what to do against. Think Guile from streetfighter. just holding downback and then throwing out three blasts and doing a flip kick. I was going to give this to Russell Westbrook because holding down back is called "turtling" but it didn't fit.

Domantas Sabonis, Grappler: Ok, so The Kings are the one team that gets two players because someone has to be a grappler and Sabonis lead the league in rebounds per game. Grapplers are typically slower and have one or two really strong grab moves. so they need to catch you blocking. but they do massive damage if they hit that grab. Rebounds are things you grab. Look, someone had to be a grappler.

SGA, Zoner (with normals): Ok, so remember how Steph was a zoner with projectiles? the other type is someone who zones you with his normals, so essentially, your punches and kicks go across the screen. SGA is a longboi and the definitive normal type zoner is Dhalsim who has stretchy arms but also has a bit of everything. I play these types of characters and I love SGA.

James Harden, Stance character: So, a stance character is usually a character who has a bunch of different stances with different goals, often with trade-offs. IN my limited experience, the stance character has like three stances, but they only end up using one. So Harden has normal stance, but also would have "looking for fouls stance" that he also relies on.

Ok, so there you go. DLC characters would be item throw Patrick Beverley, puppet character Giannis (with Khris Middleton puppet) and setplay Joel Embiid. If you read this far, I love you.