This week on Operation Sports Fact or Fiction, one of our resident Canadians TD St. Matthew-Daniel is set to disagree -- at least we hope -- with old time OS'er Matthew Coe. Both guys will be discussing patches, NHL and NBA 2K10, as well as Ricky Rubio.  Stay tuned for the results after the jump.

#1 Patches have resulted in developers growing lazy since they have become part of the development cycle on consoles.

TD St. Matthew-Daniel: Fiction – Although it can be argued either way, I don’t believe patches have allowed developers to be lazy. What patches have done is given the developers more flexibility with their product and the ability to try some things. They know if a new feature doesn’t pan out, they can fix it up within a few weeks. Think back to NBA2K9 and the whole 2k Camera fiasco.

Matthew Coe: Fiction - I do believe some developers now make decisions on issues based on whether or not they can "patch it in" later. The other side of the issue is that we have been able to get a better experience in our games with the ability to download a patch to address issues that are found post release. In the past we've been stuck waiting for next year's game or a community workaround to resolve major flaws.

#2 NHL 2K10 will catch up to NHL 10 in terms of overall game quality.

TD St. Matthew-Daniel: Fact – Not because 2k Sports is necessarily going to put out a classic hockey game, but NHL 10 has been the king of the rink for a couple of years now. So NHL 2K10 would take advantage of NHL 10 resting on its laurels.

Matthew Coe: Fiction - NHL 2K is still another year away. The EA NHL series has been on a roll since the '08 game and that enables them to refine and tweak their game. 2K's game is still being built back up from the foundation and still has a lot to prove. 2K's hockey reputation has been damaged in the past few years and they need a very strong showing with NHL 2K10 to regain some of that trust.

#3 NBA 2K10 will be the best sports game released this year.

TD St. Matthew-Daniel: Fact – Being the avid NBA 2K gamer I am, I’ve noticed 2k sports takes two years to produce a quality game with little flaws. There might not be as many new features as they were in NBA2K9, but this year’s version would be more fine-tuned fixing all the minor issues 2K9.

Matthew Coe: Fiction - I expect the competition from Madden, NBA Live, and FIFA to be much stronger than last year. Having played every 2K basketball game since 2k2 on the Dreamcast, I'm just not sure where Visual Concepts is going to take the game from here. I'm not as excited as I have been in year's past for 2K10. With the major improvements I expect from Madden 10, Live 10, and FIFA 10, not to mention NHL 10, NBA 2K10 won't be able to bring home Sports Game of the Year.

#4 The Minnesota Timberwolves made an incredibly stupid move drafting Ricky Rubio while knowing the cost it would take to bring him there.

TD St. Matthew-Daniel: Fiction – I had tons of debates about this topic and also blogged about it. Whenever you can draft a highly valued player for both basketball and commercial reasons, you HAVE to do it. The dumb move the T-Wolves made was picking another point guard, Johnny Flynn, right after him. Yes, the state of Minnesota isn’t exactly attractive to a young Spanish kid, but they could have done a better job with their second pick. They could have selected a player Rubio would feel more comfortable playing with (Stephen Curry anyone?) not a player he would need to compete with for playing time.

Matthew Coe: Fact - I was left slack jawed when Minnesota picked PG Rubio at #5 and then PG Flynn at #6. I get the business reasoning behind it and I see the marketing opportunities. But it reminds me of Milwaukee taking Yi Jianlian at #6 in 2007. It just isn't a good fit. Minnesota will end up trading Rubio's rights to another team and not getting fair value for those rights, as other GMs know he isn't thrilled about the possiblility of playing in Minnesota. That said, I wouldn't say it was an incredibly stupid move, just a very short sighted one.