Early Decemebr: Turner hurts his hamstring but will through it.
We drop a few games while Turner is hurt, but once he gets back to 100% we run off 6 wins straight to end the month including a 105-70 demolishing of the Bulls on Christmas day.
We are 26-7 at the end of December.
However, no individual awards as John Wall and LeBron continue to dominate player of the month, winning both months.
The #1 pick is winning rookie of the month in Utah while both Donald Humphrey (Detroit) and Laurence Tiner (Orlando) have won it in the East.
Mayo's scoring has fallen down a tick, but Schultz continues to improve his assists average although his turnovers have come up a tick. Still, he's been great.
Ouch, early January Guy Ball tears his MCL and is done for the year. I need to try to find a back-up PG...
We sign Nick Gregory, a 30 year old PG who has only played minimal minutes in the NBA, but he can give us 5-8 minutes per night. He's a decent defender and ball handler.
We continue to roll with many 20 plus point wins. The only losses are to Atlanta and Utah. We are now 38-10 and pulling away from the East
Rose is tearing it up in Charlotte and just had a Charlotte record 55 points.
A look at the East Standings:
1. 76ers 38-10
2. Knicks 34-13
3. Bobcats 31-18
4. Pacers 29-19
5. Hawks 29-20
6. Nets 27-21
7. Pistons 24-22 (too guard heavy I think)
8. Celtics 24-23
9. Wizards 23-24
10. Raptors 22-26
11. Heat 20-26
12. Cavs 16-31 (teams are trying to get me to trade their 2021 1st round pick - could be a great pick)
13. Bulls 13-34
14. Bucks 11-33
15. Magic 10-35.
In the West:
1. Lakers 35-11
2. Spurs 33-14
3. Wolves 32-15
4. Hornets 31-18
5. Blazers 28-19
6. Suns 27-21
7. Clippers 26-21
8. Jazz 24-24
9. Nuggets 20-27
10. Kings 19-27
11. Warriors 18-27
12. Rockets 18-30
13. Grizzlies 15-31 - they have LeBron and not much around him now and his age is finally slowing him down slightly.
14. Mavs 15-34
15. Thunder 14-33 (Durant doesn't have as many pieces around him with Westbrook and Harden gone. Their 2nd best player is my former C Lloyd Madsen who is rated 76 overall. They don't have a decent true PG on the roster.)
Wall won Player of the Month in the East again, but Brandon Jennings won it over LeBron in the West.
Chester Cassell becomes the 3rd rookie to win rookie of the month in the East. The C Stelios wins it for the 3rd time in the West. Stelios is averaging 10 ppg, 9 rpg, and almost 2 bpg already.
The Bobcats want to trade me Rose for Mayo and Scott. I turn that down.
Heh. The Jazz offer me their star rookie C and Michael Beasley if I will give up Mayo. I turn them down.
We lose to the Nets and Celtics, but otherwise win every game before the All-Star break in Feb. We are 43-12 at the break. I'm glad the trade of Tiggs is working out for us
Our averages now:
Mayo: 25.6 ppg (career high), 8.5 rpg (career high), 1.6 spg (career high), 1.6 bpg (career high) and 0.9 apg (lowest of his career as he no longer has to distribute.)
Turner: 20.3 ppg (highest in 5 years), 6.8 rpg (career high), 6.6 apg (about where he usually is), 1.9 spg, and 1 bpg.
Schultz: 17.4 ppg (career high by 4 ppg), 7.9 apg (career), 2.0 spg, and 2.7 tpg.
Scott: 13.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 1.4 bpg.
Kelley: 11.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.1 apg, 0.7 bpg.
Walsh: 5 ppg, 2.4 rpg in 14 mpg.
Jordan 3.1 ppg and 3.5 rpg.
Redd: 1.3 ppg.
Thabeet: 0.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.3 bpg in 18 mpg.
First time in a long time, Rookis beat the Sophomores with Stelios starring. Maybe I should have traded Mayo for him ;-) He had 25 points, 13 boards, and 4 blocks.
A list of the All-Stars:
East:
Wall, Det (4th), Rose, Bobcats (7th), Harper, Bulls (2nd), Mayo!! (2nd), Cousins, Wizards (2nd)
The bench: Campbell, Atl (3rd), Owen Blake, Atl (4th), Wilson Rooks, Bucks (1st), Danny Walls, Celtics (1st), Spencer Hawes, Celtics (1st), Turner (3rd)!!, and Darnell Schultz!!! (1st) Wow. 3 All-stars for our first time ever
West:
Jennings, Spurs (7th), Paul, New Orleans (12th), LeBron, Grizzlies (13th), Durant, Thunder (10th), Howard, Spurs (12th)
Bench:
Marshall Samuel, Wolves (4th), Tyreke Evans, Kings, (7th), Paul George, Lakers (3rd), Patrick Patterson, Rockets (2nd), Billy Crawford, GS (6th), Deron Williams, Jazz (8th), and J.J. Stone, Clippers (1st.)