Statis Pro Basketball - An Ultimate Season

[ColtCrazy]

My order of 3 of my favorite NBA season cards (84/85; 94/95; 11/12) has arrived and I've sorted every team into the 15 best players (And in some cases, best means the better card).

Ground Rules for selection:

Players with no secondary rating had to be selected.
Players with extremely low stamina/shots rating were automatically eliminated (so this removed people that had great cards but played little during the year..84/85 Nets' George Johnson is a great example)

Teams are now divided. I'll post previews to come. May still tinker with trades, something, because, as you'll see, there are some clear favorites.

[Simbo Klice]

I like the looks of this, and hope my 94/95 Rockets get enough help to hold their own against the Spurs and Lakers out West. Perhaps you could count 84/85 Akeem Olajuwon as a seperate player from Hakeem?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Central Division - Atlanta Hawks
Starters:
PG - Mookie BlaylockSG - Joe JohnsonC - Tree RollinsPF - Josh Smith SF - Dominique Wilkins

Bench: Steve Smith, Eddie Johnson, Zaza Pachulia, Sly Williams, Ivan Johnson, Grant Long, Al Horford, Craig Ehlo, Jeff Teague, Doc Rivers

Question for you: Isn't there some way that Cliff Levington (84-85) makes this roster? Led that team in rebounds, started 50+ of 70+ games played, etc. Seems like he'd fit in there somewhere. (Heck, so do a young Kevin Willis and even foul machine Antoine Carr but they weren't the contributers in terms of minutes that Levingston was)

For that matter, why Ehlo rather than Augmon from the 94-95 squad?

Of course I don't have the cards in front of me & only a passing familiarity with SP cards anyway, but it just seems like he belongs on the squad somewhere. House rules for selection blocking some of these guys maybe?

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Question for you: Isn't there some way that Cliff Levington (84-85) makes this roster? Led that team in rebounds, started 50+ of 70+ games played, etc. Seems like he'd fit in there somewhere. (Heck, so do a young Kevin Willis and even foul machine Antoine Carr but they weren't the contributers in terms of minutes that Levingston was)

For that matter, why Ehlo rather than Augmon from the 94-95 squad?

Of course I don't have the cards in front of me & only a passing familiarity with SP cards anyway, but it just seems like he belongs on the squad somewhere. House rules for selection blocking some of these guys maybe?

First off, thanks for the catch. I played the 84/85 season a lot in my youth (still have the original cards) and I remember Levingston now that you mention him. Went back and found him. He was listed in the "extra players" section, which I assume was by accident since he played 74 games. He's now in, and Ivan Johnson is out.

As for Plastic Man vs. Ehlo...which was actually a fight for one of the last guard slots, came down to their cards. In real life, we both know Augmon would have been a better defender. In the cards, Ehlo is much better (Minus 4 vs. Minus 2). Ehlo shoots better as well and his ability to take and hit 3s is a factor for what will end up being a role player on the team. The trouble is, the Hawks already have 2 G/F swingman ahead of them, Joe Johnson and Steve Smith, and Wilkins will get a lot of minutes at the 3 spot. My thinking ended up being that Ehlo might get used more as a defensive stopper or as a 3 point shooter late in a game.

Thanks again for the catch.

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by Simbo Klice

I like the looks of this, and hope my 94/95 Rockets get enough help to hold their own against the Spurs and Lakers out West. Perhaps you could count 84/85 Akeem Olajuwon as a seperate player from Hakeem?

Nice to see another Rocket fan. The reason I picked the 94/95 season is for the Rocket championship (my favorite of the 2 years) and the Pacers strong squad (not as good as the 98 or 00 teams but I liked how this team mixed better).

You do bring up a good point. We already have seen the 76ers hurt by the loss of Barkley. Drexler is on the Rockets, so that hurt the Trailblazers. There's smaller situations as well, Kevin Willis and Otis Thorpe come to mind. Should I just duplicate certain players that played on different teams?

As for guys on the same team (Jordan, Olajuwon), I'm probably going to consciously increase their stamina some. They were focal points on their teams both seasons, so increasing their stamina would reflect that. I'll also ignore forced rest readings on the cards for those 2 as well.

[ColtCrazy]

Those are the teams. I'll work on some trade proposals and then get to starting some games.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

First off, thanks for the catch. I played the 84/85 season a lot in my youth (still have the original cards) and I remember Levingston now that you mention him. Went back and found him. He was listed in the "extra players" section, which I assume was by accident since he played 74 games. He's now in, and Ivan Johnson is out. ... Thanks again for the catch.

Cool on all counts, glad I asked.

That era of Hawks is just about the final stage of me being interested in the NBA, saw a lot of (often bad) games in person in the late 80's. Looking at the original roster it just felt like somebody was missing, a guick check of the stats for '84-'85 turned the lightbulb on for me.

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Cool on all counts, glad I asked.

That era of Hawks is just about the final stage of me being interested in the NBA, saw a lot of (often bad) games in person in the late 80's. Looking at the original roster it just felt like somebody was missing, a guick check of the stats for '84-'85 turned the lightbulb on for me.

And I appreciate it. It actually made me go back through a double check the teams. Found another situation where someone was left of.

I did enjoy this year's NBA...but it'll wasn't anything like the teams I watched in the 80s. Even the 90s I basically had two teams I enjoyed watching (Pacers & Rockets) and a few scattered stars. The 80s just had a bunch of fun teams and players to watch (even if the teams weren't always the best like Wilkins' Hawks or (to a much worse extent) Kellogg's Pacers.

[korme]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Olajuwon is simply a beast, probably the best overall center in the game.

As he should be.

CC, this is awesome btw

[ColtCrazy]

Very entertaining game this afternoon. Denver hosted Memphis and came away with a 121-115 win. Denver had lead by as much as 22 at one point and Memphis made a furious comeback.

Denver's big guns, Alex English and Calvin Natt, struggled, shooting a combined 12 for 38. But Ty Lawson picked up the slack. He shot 10-14, grabbed 4 offensive boards, and dished out 6 assists. He ended the game with 27.

The real hero was Dikembe Mutombo. 17 points. 21 rebounds. 6 blocks. He had 4 blocks in the first quarter that really set the early tone and helped Denver build a big lead. His 7 offensive rebounds also lead to 10 points, a huge benefit in a close game. Denver's an exciting, fast paced scoring machine. This is going to be a tough team on nights that English and Natt can shoot better.

For Memphis, they can't be too upset considering both K-Love and Gasol fouled out. Love spent most of the game in foul trouble and suffered through a 4 for 13 shooting night. He scored just 11 points. Randolph did do well with 20 and Laettner came off the bench to add 15. Rubio, despite his horrible 11-38 shooting and plus 5 defense, was very productive. He's great at steals and has a tremendous assist rating. He only scored 7 points, but added 2 steals and 8 assists off the bench. He really sparked the rally with his passing.

[ColtCrazy]

Thanks korme. We are having such a tech push in my work right now that I'm a little on tech overload. Wanting something old school. I realize it'll take awhile to replay, but the teams are entertaining and I'll enjoy it.

Couple of thoughts moving on: I'll do all trades mentioned. The only one that bugs me is the Shaq trade...would never happen in real life...but I'll do it for two reasons. One, in a one season shot it makes sense for both teams. Two, it makes Orlando and Milwaukee considerably more interesting to play, which will help me in the long run.

Also, I'm wanting a little variety to the game. I love using the cards, but I don't want to be tied to the shot number on the cards. I'm going through the cards tonight and will buy some 8 sided dice to use to resolve shots from now on. I need to do % on how often blocks and fouls show up in the game. I might even add some more assist features. I'm averaging about 15-20 assists a game, which isn't bad. I added some assist factors to the cards already because a great point guard should matter.

[ColtCrazy]

Okay, after a quick review of the cards, I've come up with a way to randomize the shots and the fouls a little more.

Fouls happen at different times, usually a random event in rebounds or through passing. It'll be too difficult and tedious to come up with a dice way to pass. But for shots, I did find that fouls occur roughly 7% of the times on the cards. So, I'm upping that to 10% chance and add in the Fould Drawing on the card.

Also, blocks happen 10%. I'm upping that to 15% but adding in the randomness of shot blocking ratings, which should even out the percentages.

So, for every shot, I'll roll 2 8-sided dice for the shot result. A 20-sided die will determine whether a foul or block has occurred.

1-2 Foul (reroll two 8-sided dice to see if someone else fouled other than primary defender.
3 - Possible block by center, roll D10 and check Block Rating
4-5 Possible block by primary defender, roll D10 and check block rating
6-7 Use passer assist rating to help determine shot results (this should add assists to the game)
8-20 No change to shot.

When there's been a foul called on the normal cards (either a defensive foul on regular passes or on rebounds) I'll roll 2 D8 to determine foul number. If that doesn't resolve, a D20 roll will determine:

1-10 FD1 (Top rated foul drawing player) draws foul
11-15 FD2
16-18 FD3
19 FD4
20 FD5

I'm hoping this will randomize the game, making it realistic to have some games with low fouling or other games that are grindfests.

[ColtCrazy]

After a very extended absence from this site for various reasons, I'm getting back into this and will be picking the games back up.

Just a couple of update notes:

One, glad I found this thread, as I had lost my personal notes on improving fouls, assists, and was dreading crunching numbers again. Got lucky here.

My favorite teams are Pacers/Rockets and would like them to be fun to play. I'm ordering this year's cards and will do some tweaking (adding a better Paul George to the Pacers) but will do that for other teams as well. Games will kick up again once I get those cards.

[ColtCrazy]

I've ordered the 12/13 season. Today, I brought over the last remaining boxes from my old house and stumbled upon two seasons I didn't realize I had, 89/90 and 96/97. Now...I have a dilemma. With the added seasons, I can tweak the teams. There's a few players who can be added that were completely left out the first time (Iverson, Sabonis to name a couple). So, I'll probably do that. But...wanted everyone's opinion. I know have players that show up with productive years on two different teams (like Shaq) and in some cases 3 (Ray Allen, Charles Barkley) and my question is: Do I include them for EACH team they played for should they warrant a spot on the roster? Or should I pick one and leave it at that. I can see both ways, but since this is make believe I guess there's no harm in having a player in a league twice or even three times, especially considering some like Shaq were a huge part of their team's success in both places. What do you all think?
If a player has multiple cards for the same team, I'll simply pick the best overall card to add, though, I might take a lesser one of someone great and add them to the Pacers just to give them a boost

[ColtCrazy]

I've switched this project to a blog. You can follow along if you wish through here:
Statis Pro Basketball
I'll be resetting up the league now that I'm on summer break and adding things to it quite frequently now that I have time.

[ColtCrazy]

Teams have been set. First game is played. Happy to be underway with a bit deeper look for teams.

[ColtCrazy]

Season is underway with four games completed. Game capsules are up.

Statis Pro Basketball

[ColtCrazy]

Starting to get day two's game capsules up.

[ColtCrazy]

Need some thoughts on this. Do you all like this format? I'm enjoying the games...but it's also bringing me back to some names of players I remember but simply don't have the minutes for. Plus, there's the one off aspect of this. Should I continue with this OR

Start with the 1980 season and go forward from there with drafts, trades, etc as kind of an alternate history? I say this because I found my Statis Pro Football seasons from 1980 and could do a basketball/football what if starting with 1980.

Just curious as to some opinions.