Next up with the Moments cards is a pink diamond Trae Young review and a pink diamond Kyrie Irving review. We are now at the no-defense portion of the player reviews, so let’s dig into these all-offense point guards.
Pink Diamond Kyrie Irving Review (Moments)
HOF Badges: Acrobat, Consistent Finisher, Contact Finisher, Giant Slayer, Pro Touch, Relentless Finisher, Catch and Shoot, Clutch Shooter, Ankle Breaker, Handles For Days, Quick First Step, Space Creator, Stop and Go, Tight Handles, Unpluckable
Gold Badges (include): Downhill, Floor General, Dimer, Bail Out, Range Extender, Quick Draw, Green Machine, Hot Start, Deadeye, Flexible Release, Fancy Footwork
Attributes: 89 3-point shooting, 89 speed, 97 driving layup, 89 draw foul, 88 speed with ball, 98 ball handling, 89 lateral quickness
Analyis: This card is just bad. Really, it’s bad. I think you can easily find diamonds are amethysts that are better than this card. You could even probably go down to ruby and find some winners there over this card. The fundamental issue with this card is obviously the lack of defense. But beyond that, Kyrie’s shot release does not click as much as it once did in the 2K games. It’s not impossible to read, but it’s just not as fast anymore, and it just doesn’t feel as smooth when you break out of a move and rise up. I still like it well enough from a standstill, but he’s a point guard. If he doesn’t feel good shooting off the dribble, then it doesn’t really matter if his spot-up form feels solid.
Beyond all of that, he’s not even some insane shooter if we look at the attributes. He’s not going to really dunk, and he’s not insanely fast. And, to be fair, this all lines up with who Kyrie is as a player. He’s a fantastic isolation player who can get any shot he wants overall, but he’s not the best shooter or most athletic point guard or anything. In MyTeam, plenty of liberties are taken with these players to smooth out those weaknesses, but Irving did not get that treatment here, and this is why he’s mostly a fake pink diamond.
Pink Diamond Trae Young Review (Moments)
HOF Badges: Acrobat, Consistent Finisher, Contact Finisher, Giant Slayer, Slithery Finisher, Tear Dropper, Catch and Shoot, Clutch Shooter, Deadeye, Difficult Shots, Flexible Release, Green Machine, Quick Draw, Range Extender, Slippery Off-Ball, Tireless Shooter, Volume Shooter, Dimer, Floor General, Quick First Step, Tight Handles
Gold Badges (include): Lightning Reflexes, Space Creator, Unpluckable, Handles For Days, Ankle Breaker, Bail Out, Hot Start, Corner Specialist, Fancy Footwork
Attributes: 95 3-point shooting, 93 speed, 94 driving layup, 92 draw foul, 93 speed with ball, 92 ball handling, 82 help defense, 86 lateral quickness
Analyis: Trae Young fits into the same box as Kyrie Irving in terms of the issues he creates by not having gold Clamps and thus being mostly a liability on defense. He does get gold Lightning Reflexes, and the other thing that at least makes him better than Kyrie is he does have a buttery smooth shot with HOF Range Extender. He’s not the ball handler Kyrie is, but that’s not as important when you’re not good enough elsewhere to make the ball handling matter.
Beyond the shooting, there’s not a great reason to use this card. Do I want to use this card in a game I’m trying to win? No. However, it’s sort of like Damian Lillard before he got some defensive boosts. He’s a very fun player to use in pick and roll, and if you want a challenge while still having a player who can go crazy some games from deep, Young is a perfect player to use. I would just say if you want that experience then just grab his diamond card and save some MT.
