Kevin Durant Favored to Win NBA 2K20 Players Only Tournament; Trae Young & Deandre Ayton Given Next Best Odds

• Basketball action returns in the shape of a Players Only NBA 2K20 tournament
• All-Stars Kevin Durant, Andre Drummond and Trae Young are headlining the bracket
• Durant is favored to win the competition with Young sitting just behind him in the opening odds

A few months ago, no one expected to be talking about an NBA 2K20 tournament between players in April. With the league on hold, however, the NBA has been looking for ways to bring some basketball action to the lives of fans, and a 16-player 2K tournament is what they’ve opted for. They are hoping to get it underway on Friday and run the event for 10 days.

There are some details that are yet to be confirmed, but we’ve already had a glimpse of the bracket with number one seed Durant matching up with 2020 dunk contest winner Derrick Jones Jr.

NBA 2K20 Players Only Tournament Odds

Odds taken Apr. 1

Durant and Demarcus Cousins have been sidelined all season. That’s an awful lot of time to be perfecting those 2K skills, perhaps using it as a replacement for the daily grind of the NBA. Unable to take the court for a whole year, Durant and Cousins might just have invested their spare time in schooling others on 2K.

Travel and off days give other NBA players plenty of 2K time, too. Durant and Cousins’ extra hours might be an advantage, but they are also among the eldest players in this tournament, which is a factor to consider.

Age Could Be a Factor

Younger people are more likely to play video games. There has been a Call of Duty tournament between NBA players running recently, featuring Ben Simmons, Zach LaVine, Donovan Mitchell and others. Mitchell and LaVine will be switching to 2K soon.

.@NBA2K's "Players-Only" tournament will air starting this Friday on @ESPN. Here are the brackets – who do you think is gonna take it all? pic.twitter.com/51ltOfjeqR

— Boardroom (@boardroom) March 31, 2020

Players who have grown up gaming, and grown up with 2K, should have a real advantage in this tournament. It’s common for NBA players to mention 2K publicly – a lot of the players in this tournament will have committed weeks of their life to the game. With gameplay barely changing year-to-year, skills accrued over the past few years will be useful.

Balancing between the extra time to practice for Durant and Cousins with the likelihood of younger contestants playing more video games is tricky. It might seem like guesswork, but there is some logic to be applied to this Players Only tournament, it’s just a question of practice vs youth.

Whiteside Loves 2K

Hassan Whiteside has been a topic of controversy when it comes to 2K. His 87 rating has earned him a high seeding here, and it led to a wave of Twitter mockery. The ratings aren’t intended to be a tool for ranking players, though. Whiteside always puts up numbers and this is reflected in his 2K ratings – a specialized player like him can always end up with a surprisingly high overall.

Whiteside got that real life 2K lag 🤣

(via @youngwhiteside) pic.twitter.com/EB3b5DFUmu

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 29, 2020

Against Pat Beverley in the first round, Whiteside is a name to watch out for here. That clash will be must-watch – the game chat is going to be better than any other. Whiteside loves his 2K – as he showed with a recent video mocking the game’s infamous lag – and should be considered a dark horse to win it all.

A good bet to get past Beverley, Whiteside is the best value pick to go all the way.

Pick: Hassan Whiteside (+800)