Bringing Back the Buzz: Zo & '92-93 Hornets

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by studbucket

I was thinking of letting them sit as free agents for some amount of time, as it would be more realistic for them to have been drafted by another team. How long into the 1st season before the CPU starts signing players? Or would you recommend I just assign them out as appropriate? .

CPU usually lets people sit in free agency until a need arises for the AI teams; they tend not to go out of their way to sign free agents otherwise, so as the injuries start piling up the AI will def take a look at them -- depending on their contract demands, the AI may or may not sign them. If you're doing a 30-team control MyLeague, I'd go ahead and assign the guys to whatever teams you want.

[studbucket]

4 of my former college guys got signed, leaving just 3 left in the free agent stack. It turns out I didn’t do a 30 team MyLeague, so I can’t add them to teams, and I don’t have the cap space to sign any to deals, so we’ll just have to wait.



I also made a trade, because it was offered to me. I gave up Tony Bennett, a PG who never played and cost me $3m/year, for Bryce Cotton, a PG who won’t play and costs me $2.1m less a year.

[studbucket]

The Hornets are 10 games into the season, and it’s been up and down so far. They sit at 6-4 and in 5^th place in the East and 2^nd in their division. The fans are happy and bought in, and the young guys on the Hornets are starting to buy into Coach J’s system.

The Hornets will have very solid games, like the 2^nd leg of a back-to-back with the Hawks that resulted in a 13 point win and Larry Johnson’s first triple-double (he has 2 through 10 games).



And then the team will turn around and play the Bulls 2 days later, turning the ball over 24 times, shooting less than 50% from the field, and going 4 for 21 from three. Dell Curry, who Coach J had expected to be a steady contributor, has been especially disappointing and went 0 for 10 from deep and making just 1 shot all game. However, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning continued to dominate the paint and Avery Bradley is starting to mesh well.

However, there’s one game that got Coach J more excited than the rest: a home match against The Knicks and rookie PG Joey Fletcher. Coach J was excited to see the young ball-handler again, but was also nervous to face him. He’d relied on his steady hand for years and he knew what Joey was capable of. Coach J spent 2 hours with Avery Bradley, teaching him the finer points of Fletcher’s game…to which Bradley responded “Coach, he’s a rookie.” Maybe Avery was right. This was a whole new ballgame. His Trees and Threes offense seemed to result in more turnovers than 3 point attempts and Johnson and Morning’s offensive numbers had dipped back down to last year’s numbers.

Could the team gain some momentum against the Knicks? Coach J decided to take an unusual strategy, and make Carmelo beat the Hornets. Lock down everyone else and hope that Kendall Gill can limit Carmelo’s effectiveness, forcing him to take bad shots.

The game turned out to be the Grandmama and Avery Bradley show, as the two combined with Dell Curry and Ramon Sessions to put on a show. The game was full of breaks and dimes, and the young Hornets (except for ‘Zo) thrived in that kind of game. By the middle of the 2^nd quarter, the Hornets were up by 15, and the game never got closer than 10 after that. Carmelo got his buckets, but Joey Fletcher was a non-factor, with just 4 assists and 12 points (all from layups, mostly in garbage time).

[studbucket]

Larry Johnson’s distribution has been the biggest surprise of the young season for Coach J. He’s had a 15-assist game and is averaging 7.4 dimes a game. That’s just slightly less than both point guards (Sessions and Bradley) combined. Running the offense through Johnson seems like a very viable strategy and Coach J is dreaming up ways to get some sort of 2-man game with Mourning and Johnson going. He’s also started ‘Zo working on his free throws, and has Johnson working on his 3 point shooting a bit.

Dell Curry and Avery Bradley are only shooting 27% from three and will need to drastically improve for Coach J’s Trees and Threes offense to have any hope of working.



Alonzo Mourning ranks 3^rd in the league in rebounds per game at 13.1, and Larry Johnson also stole a player of the week from LeBron.

[trekfan]

Sessions was a straight thief last game for you guys, that's some nice work defensively. LJs assist numbers are gaudy -- let him work that ball around, he's got the touch.

Nice set of wins against the Bulls and Knicks ...the Wizards and Cavs are gonna be tough games (no one wants to face LeBron).

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by trekfan

Sessions was a straight thief last game for you guys, that's some nice work defensively. LJs assist numbers are gaudy -- let him work that ball around, he's got the touch. Nice set of wins against the Bulls and Knicks ...the Wizards and Cavs are gonna be tough games (no one wants to face LeBron).

Thanks! The Joey Fletcher rematch is coming up soon, and the Cavs have Tommy Camper. I'm planning on prioritizing those games, where I play my former college players.

[megarover]

Wow this looks great. I'll be following. Nothing like beating up a former player either.

[studbucket]

The win over Joey Fletcher, Carmelo, and the Knicks had kicked off a 3 game winning streak and had them sitting at 6-4. Coach J felt that things were coming together, and felt the team had a very winnable stretch of games coming up. However, he couldn't get ahead of himself, they had the grudge match against the Knicks next. Carmelo got 32 points last game, but wasn't efficient and the rest of the Knicks never really threatened to do much. The loss would be fresh in the minds of the Knicks, Joey Fletcher would want to prove himself to Coach J, and this would be at the Garden. This wasn't going to be an easy game.

And easy it wasn't. The Knicks came out and played a great team game and the Hornets defense was non-existent.

The game started off well enough, with 'Zo throwing down 2 dunks to kick things off. Both teams shot very well in the 1st quarter, and it finished tied up at 29.

The 3rd quarter was where the wheels came off for Charlotte. Bad passes combined with bad defense resulted in a 9-point deficit heading into the 4th quarter. Despite being held to a quiet night the previous week by Robin Lopez, the 4th quarter was all Mourning. A huge 4th quarter helped him rack up 34 points and Avery Bradley got 17 assists thanks to a deadly pick and roll game. However, it wasn't enough, as Calderon hit a killer 3 late in the game that meant that the Hornets never got closer than 4 points.

Larry Johnson also fouled out partway through the 4th quarter, to wrap up a pretty miserable game that saw him net 13 points, 6 turnovers, 1 board, assist, and steal.

New York had 6 players in double digit scoring, and smart play from Carmelo, Lopez, and Calderon killed the Knicks all night. Joey Fletcher didn't have much of a performance against his old team, but he didn't need to.

The Hornets have a winnable stretch of games coming up before facing the league-leading Cavaliers, who feature former Wisconsin Badger and Coach J protege Tommy Camper at center. They'll need to see their defense and Larry Johnson step up if they want to stay in the playoff picture in the East.