With rumors dropping in January that an NBA Jam remake could be in the works for the game’s 25th anniversary, and with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster finally coming together after a busy trade deadline and weeks of injuries, now seemed like the perfect time to contemplate how the team’s key players would fare in an updated version of the arcade classic.
In order to develop a top-five list of the Cavs’ potential two-man tandems, I turned to NBA 2K. I fudged the game sliders to mimic NBA Jam physics as best I could, boosting relevant player attributes—jumping, three-point shooting, dunking, stealing, etc.