Making the Knicks great (FBPB3 dynasty)

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 11:08 AM

I've decided to break out an oldie but a goodie, Fast Break Pro Basketball 3. I'm going to start from 1946 and recreate the history of the NBA as the Knicks GM. Some ground rules I will use: I won't leave the team unless fired. If fired, I won't take over another team unless they have a job opening. I will listen to my scouts. If they say Sam Bowie is a much better player than Jordan, Bowie gets drafted. However, if they say they are similar talents, well, we know what will happen. And finally, I will let the coach control game plans, but I will control rosters and depth charts. Let's see if I can lead the team to more than a paltry two championships in their long history.

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 11:35 AM

1946-47 SEASON - NEW YORK KNICKS

I've decided to start with a creation draft, letting all the teams start with the same chance of getting decent players. And decent players is a stretch. These guys are awful. It is a snake draft, so I ended up with the 4th pick in odd rounds, and 8th pick in even rounds. Here is who I have to start the season:

1. PF Joe Fulks. Fulks is considered one of the first "modern" players. He was a very high scorer, and was one of the first players to use a jump shot. He was the leagues best scorer in the early days of the NBA.
2. PG Belus Smawley. Not a lot of talent at the point guard position, so I wanted to get one before the pickings got too slim. Not a lot of info I could find out about him, but apparently he was another early adopter of the jump shot. My Knicks team will be innovators.
3. C Lee Knoreck. A good post defender. In the early days, everything went to the big guys under the rim, so a rim protector seems like a good idea. He was a Knick in real life as well. Fun fact: in official NBA records, his birthplace is listed as Warsaw, Poland, even though he was born in Ohio. He was fluent in Polish, and so as a practical joke, his friends had him convince everyone he was Polish.
4. C Elmo Morganthaler. Best player available. There is conflicting info on him. Some sources claim he was the first 7 footer in the NBA, but others list him at 6'9".
5. SF Johnny Norlander. Another guy I couldn't find a lot of info about. One of the better players left, and I need a small forward. We're getting to the point where there's not a lot of talent available.
6. SG Bob Mullens. Best shooting guard available. He was a Knick in real life, and at one point held the New York City Catholic league scoring mark.
7. PG Tony Kappen. Most of the top players left are big men, so I think I can get some of them later. Guards are hard to find right now. He was allegedly the first NBA player with no college experience.
8. PF Bob Duffy. I'm letting my scout do most of the picking from here on out, since all of the remaining players are garbage. Duffy led the SEC in scoring his senior year.
9. SF John Barr. Googling him just comes up with whisky. I couldn't find any interesting facts about him.
10. SF Ned Endress. The only interesting fact I could find about him said he was a lifetime member of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. Um, doesn't that happen by default?
11. PF Bob Fitzgerald. He was a little difficult to find info about since the play-by-play guy for the Warriors is also named Bob Fitzgerald, so I kept landing on him instead. As with many players in the league, he served in WW2.
12. SG Arnold Nelson. The first guy I couldn't find anything about.
13. SF Aubrey Davis. Only played one season in real life.
14. SG Jere Glenn. Another guy I couldn't find anything about.
15. SG Howie McCarty. A shooting guard with a career shooting percentage of .122. Yikes!

Note that I looked up the info on these players after the draft, as not to influence my decisions. Other than Fulks, I haven't heard of any of these guys. Fulks is the obvious superstar of the team, so I hope the coach decides to run the offense through him. One interesting fact, the coaching staff was already hired when I took the job, so I didn't have any say in them. Michael Adams is the head coach, and looks like he will be solid. I think we have a chance to be competitive, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 11:57 AM

PRE-SEASON

Our starting lineup will be as follows: C - Morgenthaler, PF - Fulks, SF - Smawley, SG - Mullens, PG - Kappen. Interesting that our coach moved Smawley to the 3. Also, he went with Morgenthaler over Knoreck. Norlander, Glenn, and Knoreck fill out the rotation. I'm not sure why the coach is so high on Glenn, as he looks terrible to me, but I will generally let the coach make the depth chart decisions, unless I want a young guy to get more minutes.

We go 4-3 during the pre-season, with Nelson getting a stress fracture which will put him out of action for a while. I'm not worried about that since I don't see him getting minutes.

REGULAR SEASON

We started out around .500 until Fulks got a minor groin pull in the 9th game of the season. Since he's averaging a whopping 56.6 ppg at this point, I'm concerned. We finish the November 5-6, with Fulks winning player of the month despite missing the last couple of games.

Fulks returns after the first game in December, and the team goes on a roll. He wins player of the month for the second time as the team sits at 14-8 going into the new year. We come back to earth a little bit in January, losing Norlander for a significant amount of time with plantar fasciitis. We finish January at 20-12, and Fulks wins player of the month for a third straight month.

February brings the all star game, and the Knicks have three representatives. Morganthaler, Kappen, and of course Fulks all get selected. Fulks led all players in scoring, yet the MVP went to Washington's Harold Kottman in a 147-131 Eastern victory. Kappen broke his finger right after the all-star break, and had to fight through that. We finished February at 25-16, with Fulks winning player of the month yet again.

Norlander returned, and immediately broke his jaw in his first game back, putting him out of action again. We continued to be mediocre, finishing March at 31-21, good enough for third place in the east, 2 games out of 2nd, and 4 games in front of 4th. The top three teams in each conference make the playoffs, so we are on the edge. Fulks wins player of the month again, and I can't see how he won't win MVP.

We play decently in April, and a late season swoon by Toronto is enough for us to sneak into 2nd place with a final record of 36-24.

I'm going to try and see if I can insert some HTML into the next post.

Chas in Cinti · 04-27-2021, 12:12 PM

Interesting concept... I'll be following!

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 12:29 PM

I couldn't figure out the HtML, so I'll do screenshots instead.

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 12:38 PM

POST-SEASON

Kappen was all defense 1st team. Fulks was 1st team all NBA and MVP. As you can see in the above post, Fulks led the league in scoring, setting a record that may never be broken. Offensively, we were the best team in the league, but one of the worst defensively.

1st round against the Toronto Huskies. We went 4-6 against them during the season. Game 1 win 125-115 behind 52 points and 12 rebounds from Fulks. Morganthaler injured his hip and is forced to miss game 2. That hurt us, as we lost game 2 121-108. Morgenthaler is available for game 3, but not starting. Fulks goes off for 67 points in a 135-121 win. Fulks doesn’t slow down in game 4, scoring 66 in a 140-116 win, clinching the series.

On to Boston for the conference championship against the Celtics. We went 4-6 against them during the season. Fulks continues to be unstoppable scoring 70 in a 126-116 win. Morgenthaler returns to the starting lineup for game 2, but it still results in a 132-124 loss. Fulks is held to only 48, but more balanced scoring from the rest of the team gives a 130-118 win in game 3. A strong defensive effort highlighted by a 30 rebound game from Morgenthaler gives a 133-94 win. Fulks scores 60 in game 5 in Boston, but it isn’t enough to prevent a 136-126 loss. Fulks continues to dominate, scoring 72 in a series clinching 136-121 win.

The first ever NBA championship will be against the Cleveland Rebels. They were the #2 seed from the west, but only went 30-30 on the season, with us going 2-0 against them. For the first time in the playoffs, Fulks wasn’t the high scorer in the game. That honor went to Cleveland’s star Ed Sadowski, but his 44 point, 22 rebound performance wasn’t enough as the Knicks won 138-125. Fulks was back to his old self, scoring 60 in a 127-109 win in game 2. Cleveland made a late run in game 3, stealing a 131-129 victory. Defense was optional in game 4, as we won 143-132. This is a 2-3-2 format, so game 5 remains in Cleveland. Fulks clinched the series in a nail biter, 124-123. Fulks won playoff MVP, and we're already halfway to the real life 2 championships by the Knicks.

I think we are going to be setup well for next season. All of our significant players are signed through next season, and the upcoming draft looks weak. Only one player (Red Rocha) looks to be a difference maker, so I don't expect any of the lesser teams to jump up and improve greatly.

Young Drachma · 04-27-2021, 02:20 PM

Love a good FBPB dynasty, following.

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 03:48 PM

1947-48 SEASON NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

The fledging league is not off to a good start as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Detroit all fold. When 3 of your 6 playoff teams go under, that’s not a good sign. However, that means that the league will have a dispersal draft, and there will be some good talent in there. Unfortunately, we only have the 6th pick. We picked up C Connie Simmons from Cleveland. He was a bench player for them, but he is only 23 with high potential. In real life, he was a solid but unspectacular player, and was the 2nd player to enter the league (behind Kappen) who didn't play college ball.

Baltimore is added to the league, leaving the league at eight teams for the upcoming season. Washington is switched over to the Western conference to keep balance. However, this means there will be an expansion draft, and we are required to expose three players to the draft. I choose to expose Duffy, Barr, and Endress, as they didn’t play for us much during last season, and none of them are involved in my long term plans. Duffy ended up being taken.

Next up was the rookie draft. Once again we have the 6th pick in both rounds. As I mentioned earlier, it is not a very deep draft. For our first pick, I was debating between PG Sid Tannenbaum (best available player) and SG Andy Philip (team need). In the end I went with Tannenbaum because he is only 21 years old, and that was my scout’s choice. He looks to be able to get to the rim and defend on the perimeter. In the second round, my scout was suggesting PG Joseph Riser, but he is 32 years old, and we just took a PG. None of the players look great, so I ended up taking SF Gene Vance, who looks like he can be a decent rebounder. In real life, he is a legend at University of Illinois, but didn't have an impactful NBA career. As expected, Red Rocha was the overall #1 pick by Washington.

During free agency, I needed to get another shooting guard. We are over the cap, so I can only sign someone to the minimum. None of the available players were much of a scoring threat, so I focused on defense. I offered the minimum for one year to Zigmund Mihalik who was a significant bench player with Detroit last year. He ended up signing with us. In real life, he only played in 7 games, yet is in the hall of fame as a referee. He's also Polish, so maybe he and Knoreck will bond. Philly and Boston were very active during free agency, so they will likely be tougher this season.

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 03:55 PM

PRE-SEASON

We are being picked by the media to finish 2nd to Philly this season. Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Fulks, SF-Smawley, SG-Tannenbaum, and PG-Kappen. Morgenthaler, Norlander, and Mihalik will be part of the rotation. I still feel like Knoreck has value, so I would like to trade him, but none of the teams have cap space, so I don’t know if that will be possible. We went 3-2 during the pre-season.

REGULAR SEASON

We started off well before disaster struck. Smawley ruptured his Achilles in the 6th game and is out for the season. Coach Adams decided to shift Fulks to the three, and have Norlander play PF. Meanwhile, Mullens, Mihilak, and Kappen were all willing to sign extensions, as they were all on their last season. They are all part of the rotation (Mullens since the Smawley injury), so I wanted to offer them all. However, Mullens wanted way too much money, so we couldn’t agree on terms. I gave another year extension to Mihilak at the minimum, and offered a 3 year extension to Kappen, which were both accepted. I would like to extend Morgenthaler and Norlander, but they both expressed their desire to test free agency. We finished November at 5-4, ½ game out of first, which isn’t too bad since most of the games were on the road. We continued to play well in December, finishing at 12-6, 2 games ahead of Boston.

We continued to play well into January when Morgenthaler went down with a bulging disc in his back. We finished January at 18-9, 4 games in front of Boston, and Fulks winning his first player of the month this season. Our best record got individual recognition as well, as Norlander, Simmons, Kappen, and Fulks were all selected as all-stars. Shortly after the all-star break, the unthinkable happened. Fulks tore a ligament which would sideline him for perhaps the remainder of the regular season. Simmons initially picked up the slack, and we entered March with a 22-12 record, still in first by 4 ½ games.

Morgenthaler returned early in March, and both he and Simmons were carrying the team in the absence of Fulks. We finished March at 26-16, still 3 ½ games up. Fulks proved to be a quick healer, and returned from injury in April. We clinched the #1 seed with 4 games left, so I used the opportunity to finish the season with some young guys getting more minutes. It didn’t affect the team, as we finished the season on a 6 game winning streak. Our final record was 32-16, best in the NBA.

Fulks was once again the leading scorer, but didn't put up the ridiculous numbers he did in his first season.

Umbrella · 04-27-2021, 04:38 PM

PLAYOFFS

The accolades poured in from our season. Kappen and Norlander were both named all defensive 2nd team. Tannenbaum made all rookie 1st team. Tannenbaum and Fulks were both all NBA 3rd team, and how the league’s leading scorer on the best team in the league was only 3rd team, I don’t know. It must have been the missed games due to injury. Kappen made all NBA 2nd team. And finally, Norlander was named the most improved player. In addition, I was GM of the year, and Adams was coach of the year. Milt Schoon from Philadelphia was the MVP, and Red Rocha from Washington won rookie of the year.

We had a first round bye, and waited as Boston swept Philadelphia in the first round, setting up a rematch from last season’s Eastern Conference championship. We went 9-5 against them this season. I screwed up and forgot to reset my depth chart before game 1, but it didn’t matter as we won easily 107-88. Our defense continued its strong play into game 2, winning 97-82. Boston continued to be no match even at home, as we cruised to a 94-74 victory. Game 4 was close, but we completed the sweep with a 95-92 win.

Our reward was a matchup with the Chicago Stags in the finals. We went 2-0 against them during the season. Game 1 was an easy 108-89 victory. Game 2 was slightly more competitive, but still resulted in a win, 95-87. Chicago showed more fight at home, winning 104-94. They managed to even the series in a 123-94 laugher. Game 5 continued their home cooking, as they took a 3-2 series lead winning 110-93. We had to win both remaining home games to repeat as champs. Unfortunately, Tannenbaum broke his foot in the first half of game 6, and we never recovered, losing 127-121.

A disappointing end, as I felt we were the best team this year. I'm not as optimistic about next season. We are losing some solid players to free agency, and we pick last in the draft. There are some solid players coming in next season, highlighted by George Mikan. However, by the time we pick, the talent will be slim.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 01:06 PM

1948-49 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

Four new teams joined the league; Rochester Royals, Indianapolis Jets, Ft. Wayne Pistons, and Minneapolis Lakers.

Closer to home, our head coach Michael Adams decided to retire at 66. In addition, our scout and two assistants had the contracts run out, so the staff was depleted. I hired Ahmed Nelson to a four year contract as our new head coach. He was the head coach of Detroit during the 46-47 season, and served as an assistant in Providence last year.

We need to expose 1 player to the expansion draft, and the only player who wasn’t a contributor last season was Vance. He was the last player picked in the expansion draft by Rochester.

In the rookie draft, we have the 12th and final pick in both rounds. A decent center, George Glamack, fell to us in the first round. He should be a good rebounder, as well as a shot blocker for us. The down side is he is 29 years old. The other downside I didn’t know until I looked up some info on him. His nickname was “The Blind Bomber” because he had terrible eyesight. He had to use the lines on the court to figure out where he was because he couldn’t see the basket. It’s actually amazing that he was a decent player, and one of the few retired numbers at UNC. Not much available in the second round, so I took a mediocre PF Odie Spears. He probably won’t get much playing time, but he was one of the premier free throw shooters of his time. Shockingly, St. Louis picked Joe Grabowski over Mikan with the #1 pick.

For free agency, I don’t see any glaring needs, other than a little depth at SG. I would like to try and see if Morgenthaler and Norlander will re-sign with us and try to make another title run. I don’t have a lot of cap space to work with, so we’ll see what happens. Morganthaler was asking more than we had cap space for, so he’s out. I offered a contract to Norlander, and also to SG Ossie Schectman, who is a two time all star and last season’s assist leader. I was way overbid immediately by teams with much more cap space. I offered a 1 year contract to undrafted SG Fred Lewis. He signed, and surprisingly, Schectman signed as well. In real life, Schectman has the honor of scoring the first official basket in NBA history. I feel like I need more depth at SF, especially not knowing if Smawley will be what he was before his injury, so I offered undrafted rookie SF Estes Parham a 2 year deal. We were overbid, so I decided to see if Mullens wanted to come back for another season. He immediately signed a 1 year deal at the minimum. The last thing I wanted was a big man who could defend in the post. I offered a 2 year deal to PF Virgil Vaughan who signed with us. Norlander signed with Fort Wayne for the largest contract in the league, and Morgenthaler signed with Indianapolis for the second largest contract.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 01:12 PM

PRE SEASON

We were picked to finish 4th this season, with Providence and new star George Mikan picked to win the east. Our lineup this season will be C-Glamack, PF-Fulks, SF-Schectman, SG-Tannenbaum, and PG-Kappen. Simmons, Smawley, and Lewis fill out the rotation. We finish pre-season 4-2, so hopefully we will do better than the media thinks.

REGULAR SEASON

We started the season winning our first 3 games before Fulks went down with patellar tendinitis. He’s expected to miss about a month. The next game Schectman went down with a sprained knee, expecting to miss a couple of weeks. Kappen followed that up with a minor knee sprain of his own, so the injury bug has hit hard early. In addition, all of the players I have interest in resigning want to test the free agency market. We managed to scrap by November with a 6-4 record, in a four way tie for first.

Fulks returned early in December and went on a tear, leading the team to an 8 game winning streak and winning player of the month. We were at 14-6, but unfortunately, Baltimore was even better, and sat in first place by a game. The team continued its hot play through January, compiling a 21-8 record, and pulling in front of Baltimore by four games. This was tempered by the loss of Glamack in the last game of the month with patellar tendinitis, which should sideline him for about a month. Fulks is playing like he did a couple of years ago, winning another player of the month.

Kappen, Tannenbaum, and Fulks all got selected to the all star game. The team continued to exceed expectations as they finished February at 28-9, with Fulks winning player of the month for the third time this season. Glamack got healthy, and the team reeled off an NBA record 13 game winning streak before losing to Philadelphia in a game where Simmons got injured. He sprained his knee and will be out a couple of weeks.

We finished March with a record of 39-12, 7 ½ games in front of Philly. Fulks won player of the month for March. We clinched the #1 seed with four games left, so I let the bench guys get minutes in the last games to save my better players. We finished 44-16, the best record for the second year in a row.

PLAYOFFS

Kappen made all defensive 2nd team. Glamack was 2nd team all rookie. Kappen was also named 3rd team all NBA. Tannenbaum was all NBA 2nd team, and Fulks was named first team all NBA. I won my 2nd GM of the year award. Mikan won both MVP and rookie of the year.

We had another first round bye, so we waited for Baltimore to take care of Philadelphia in the first round. They played us tough this season, as we had a losing record to them at 4-5. Baltimore continued their hot play, shocking us in game 1 114-98. We rebounded well in game 2, taking a 105-91 victory. We managed to grab home court advantage back in a game 3 blowout, 111-81. It seems that first game loss got the team angry, winning a second straight road game blowout 110-87. It got worse for them in game 5, as we won the series with a dominating 132-86 victory.

We would get a rematch with Chicago in the finals. Game 1 was a laugher as we won 129-78, although Tannenbaum broke his nose that game. Game 2 wasn’t a contest either, as the Knicks win 116-86. This was another costly win, as Mullens broke his arm, ending his season. Back in Chicago, we lost game 3 in a heartbreaker 106-103. Game 4 was a blowout Stags win, 106-80. I was getting flashbacks to last season at this point. We managed to change the tide, winning game 5 106-97. We just needed to win one of two games at home to take the championship. Game 6 was a defensive masterpiece, as we held them to 78 points in a 92-78 victory, winning our second championship. Fulks deservedly won his 2nd playoff MVP award.

Unfortunately, I forgot to export the data for this season, so I can't list any screen shots.

All of our starters are still under contract, so I think we can make another run next season. Our depth will take a hit but I'm hoping I can sign some of the players back during free agency.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 03:38 PM

1949-1950 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

Massive changes happened in the league. Providence and Indianapolis folded, leaving MVP Mikan available in the dispersion draft. Also, a whopping SEVEN new teams are entering the league; Sheboygan Red Skins, Anderson Packers, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, Waterloo Hawks, Denver Nuggets, Indianapolis Olympians (this is a completely different Indy team than the one that folded), and Syracuse Nationals. In real life, these 17 teams were split into 3 divisions, but the game is only having them in two.

We have the 17th and final pick in the dispersal draft. By the time we picked, there were only two players available, so we took PF Brady Walker from Indianapolis. Anderson had the first pick and took Mikan.

For the expansion draft, we have to expose a player. I went with Vaughn, since he didn’t play much for us last year. He was taken second by Syracuse.

We pick 17th in both rounds of the rookie draft. There are a couple of decent players at the top of the draft, but I don’t expect anyone that can help us by the time we pick. I picked C Al Miksis in the first round. He looks to be a good rebounder, but that’s about it. In the second round, I take SF Wayne See. I couldn't find any interesting tidbits about either player. Dolph Schayes was taken #1 overall by Rochester.

Depth was the name of the game for this season’s free agency haul, but we would be competing with a lot of expansion teams with plenty of cap space. We have Bird rights to Simmons, so he is one of my top priorities to sign. In addition, I offered deals to SG Mel Riebe, and PG Arnie Ferrin. Simmons was in high demand, so it took a 7 year max deal to sign him. I hope I don’t end up with buyer’s remorse on this one. Riebe is 33 years old, so I don’t want to sign him for more than 2 years. Other teams are willing, so I wrote him off as a lost bid. I offered undrafted rookie SG Paul Walther a 1 year minimum deal. Ferrin ended up signing a four year deal with us. Reibe signed soon after in a surprise, as did Walther. Other than Fulks, all of our key players are now signed to multi-year deals. In real life, Reibe also played minor league baseball, Ferrin was 4 time All American at Utah and later became their athletic director, and Walther served in WW2 and was an all star one season.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 03:48 PM

PRE SEASON

We were picked to finish fourth, with Baltimore, led by Clarence Hermsen, expected to win.

Our lineup this season will be C-Glamack, PF-Fulks, SF-Schectman, SG-Tannenbaum, and PG-Kappen, same as last year. Simmons, Riebe, and Walther round out the rotation. We go a perfect 6-0 in the preseason, and I think this team has the ability for another title.

REGULAR SEASON

We started out hot, winning our first 5 games, after which I traded Spears to Sheboygan for C Walter Budko. This was a trade to get an unhappy player off of the roster. In real life, Budko was actually a player-coach for a season with Baltimore. After that trade, I then made another trade with Syracuse, sending Miksas to them for PF Vince Boryla. We are deep at center, and while Miksas may become a good player someday, we are in win now mode. In real life, Boryla was a Knick player for three years, then became their coach, so it feels right to have him on the team. I wanted to sign Fulks to a long term deal, but he wants to test free agency, so this may be our last legit title run. All the trades didn’t mess of the team chemistry, as we finished November at 12-0, led by Fulks winning player of the month.

We continued playing fantastic in December, extending the winning streak to an NBA record 21 games before losing at Philadelphia on the last game of the calendar year. Unfortunately, Boston was also doing incredible, so we were only 2 ½ games ahead of them. Fulks won player of the month again, and I will re-sign him using my Bird rights at any cost next year.

January doesn’t bring any changes to our winning ways. We finish the month sitting at 31-3. It seems the sudden increase in teams has diluted the talent somewhat, which is helping us out. I’m a bit concerned that we’ve completely avoided the injury bug, and it will come haunt us at the worst possible time. Fulks wins player of the month again.

As a reward for our play, we get four players selected for the all star game; Fulks, Kappen, Glamack, and Tannenbaum. And for the second time this season, we have an undefeated month, finishing February at 40-3, now 8 games up on Boston. Fulks win player of the month yet again.

While not perfect, March went well too. We finished the month at 52-5, and Fulks still winning player of the month. We clinched first place after our first game in April, so the rest of the month I gave more minutes to our bench players. Even doing that, we still had a great month, and finished the season 62-6, the best record in the history of the league. Even playing sparse minutes, Fulks completed the sweep and won player of the month again.

Fulks lead the league in scoring again, while Glamack was second in rebounds.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 03:51 PM

PLAYOFFS

Fulks was named first team all NBA as well as MVP, surprising nobody. Simmons won sixth man of the year. He’s not happy coming off the bench, but he’ll have to live with it. Vern Mikkelsen won rookie of the year for Boston.

Philadelphia beat Boston in the first round, so that is our opponent. This could be a problem, because of our 6 losses this season, 3 of them were to Philly. We won our first game 88-72, but my injury fears were realized. Glamack broke his foot and will be out for the season. But Simmons shows he is up to the challenge, leading our team in scoring in a 104-83 victory in game 2. Philly is tough at home, and it shows in a 96-87 loss on the road in game 3. Home court continues to be a factor, as Philly wins game 4 114-105. We win game 5 in a laugher 116-88, but lose Simmons with blurred vision. Glamack has played his whole career with blurred vision, so I'm not sure why this is a problem for Simmons. Budko is going to have to start game 6 for us at center. He was pretty terrible, but Fulks and Tannenbaum picked up the slack with 33 and 26 points respectively, and we won a tight game 6 85-82.

This year, we meet #1 seed Rochester in the finals. Their 2nd year head coach started out as one of our assistant coaches. Rochester is led by Arnie Risen and Dolph Schayes, and with our injured big men, could prove a significant challenge. Budko follows his 1-8 game with a 0-8 clunker, but Fulks pours in 59 to lead us to a 114-96 victory. Fulks carries the team once again in a game 2 111-87 win. Simmons returns for game 3 in Rochester, and scores 20 with 22 boards in a 100-88 victory. Game 4 was a balanced effort, and we complete the sweep winning 108-75. Fulks continues to fill up his trophy case, winning playoffs MVP for the third time.

If I can't sign Fulks next year, our run of dominance may come to an end. I think we would still be pretty good, but he's the best player in the league right now, and that is impossible to replace.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 06:14 PM

1950-51 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

I was rewarded after the season with a four year contract extension. More wholesale changes in the league as six teams (Anderson, Sheboygan, Waterloo, Chicago, Denver, and St. Louis) all fold, dropping the league from 17 teams to 11. In addition, Tri-Cities moved to Milwaukee and changed their name to the Hawks. This years dispersal draft should have a lot of talent, but we probably won’t get any of them. Syracuse took PF Carl Braun from Denver with the first pick. Mikan went 2nd to Indy. We took PF Harry Boykoff from Anderson. He almost averaged a double double last year as a rookie. Fun fact about Boykoff, he was so proficient at blocking shots that the goaltending rule was introduced because of him.

In the rookie draft, we pick 11th (last) in both rounds. It is a weak draft that is extremely top heavy, so I don’t expect to get anyone who will contribute. I took C Bob Levoy in the first round, and PF Norm Mager in the second. A not-so-fun fact about Mager, he was part of the CCNY point shaving scandal, and was kicked out of and banned from the NBA for life.

It’s no secret what my strategy is this free agency period; sign Fulks at all costs. In addition, I’d like to sign another SF for depth, but it will probably have to be at the league minimum after signing Fulks. Luckily, he signed with us pretty quickly, a six-year deal that wasn’t even a max contract. It was then I noticed that 4 time all star Max Zaslofsky didn’t have any offers, even though he was only asking the league minimum. I don’t understand why, but I happily signed him to a 1 year minimum deal. The big free agency news was C Clarence Hermsen signing with Boston (from Baltimore) and SF Ed Sadowski signing with Rochester (from Washington). The teams that finished with the 2nd and 3rd best records last year both got significantly better.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 06:22 PM

PRE-SEASON

We were picked to finish 3rd this year with Boston winning. With Hermsen and Mikkelsen, Boston will be tough to stop on the inside.

Our lineup this season will be a little different this year. C-Boykoff, PF-Simmons, SF-Fulks, SG-Tannenbaum, PG-Zaslofsky, with Glamack, See, Riebe, Schectman, and Kappen filling out the rotation. This is the deepest team we have had. We went 4-2 during the pre-season.

REGULAR SEASON

I signed Zaslofsky and Kappen to 2 year extensions at a low price. A brutal early season schedule led us to our worst start in franchise history at 3-5 before Kappen broke his foot, and will miss around 5 weeks. We finished the month at 5-6, but considering 8 of those games were on the road, I’m not too concerned…yet.

Early in December, Tannenbaum broke his cheekbone, but should only miss 2-3 weeks. The home-road split leveled out in December, but we still weren’t playing great, finishing the month at 10-10. That is only good enough for 4th place, 2 games out of 3rd and 5 games out of 1st.

Early in January, Syracuse offered a trade which I couldn’t refuse. We got PF Carl Braun, one of the better players in the league, in exchange for Ferrin, who barely played for us the last two seasons. I think they felt he wouldn’t re-sign with them, and wanted to get something. In real life, Braun played for and then coached the Knicks, at one point held the NBA single game scoring record, is in the basketball hall of fame, and is believed to have coined the term “swish”. Braun immediately replaced Boykoff in the starting lineup, and I signed him to a 3 year extension. We continued to win at home and struggle on the road, and finished January 16-15, 6 games out of first. Fulks won player of the month.

Our middling record landed us only two all-stars, Fulks and Braun. The team started to click in February, and we finished the month at 24-17. We were only ½ game behind Philly for 2nd, but Boston is running away with the division, seven games in front.

In March, we resumed our “win at home, lose on the road” ways, and then Fulks broke his foot. I think we need to install new flooring at the Garden. He should be back for the playoffs, if we can make it. Braun picked up the slack, and we held our own, finishing at 32-23, which put us in second place. Braun won player of the month.

With 2 games left in the season, we were guaranteed second place, so I let my bench players get some more playing time. We finished the season 41-25, which was the second best record in the league, but still a full 8 games behind Boston.

Fulks was second in scoring, and Simmons was fifth in rebounds.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 06:25 PM

PLAYOFFS

Tannenbaum was named second team all defense. Lavoy was all rookie first team, and that was only because this years rookie class of centers was pathetic. Zaslofsky and Fulks were both third team all NBA, and Braun made second team all NBA. Interestingly, Ahmed Nelson won coach of the year in the first season he didn’t win the division. Mikan won MVP for Indy, and Paul Arizin won rookie of the year for Minneapolis.

We were going to have to play Philly in the first round this year. We went 6-5 against them this season, so this should be a tough matchup. Since I was able to rest Fulks towards the end of the season, he is fully healthy for the playoffs. He was rusty in game one, shooting 9-37, in a tough 75-72 loss. Our starts struggled again in game 2, losing 102-94, and now we have to head on the road with no margin for error. Game 3 saw the Fulks we have known to grow and love, as he scores 43 in a 89-76 win. However, our road woes came back in game 4, and we were eliminated 99-91.

Boston ended up winning the championship. Their star players are all signed for a while, so they will be a tough challenge for years to come. Of players who had significant playing time for us, Schectman, Tannenbaum, and Riebe are all free agents. Of that group, Tannenbaum is the only one I am looking to sign. We should still be solid next year, but I don’t think we are in Boston’s league right now.

Umbrella · 04-29-2021, 07:53 PM

1951-52 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

More instability for the league as Washington folds, taking the league down to 10 teams. Washington was pretty bad so I’m not expecting much in the dispersal draft. There were only nine players available, and we picked 9th, so I got C Jack Hewson by default. He’s played a combined 10 minutes in the last three seasons, so he will be a non-factor. Unfortunately, he still has two years left on his contract, and it isn’t a great contract at that.

We pick 9th in the rookie draft. It is an incredibly weak draft, with only 2 players worth anything. I picked PG Al McGuire in the first round. Yes, he is the same guy who coached Marquette and became an announcer. In the second round, I selected SG Ray Ragelis. In real life, he only played one season before joining the military. C Charlie Share was taken #1 overall by Syracuse.

In free agency, I wanted to sign Tannenbaum back, as well as another SF for depth. I have no cap room, so I will use my Bird rights for Tannenbaum, and sign someone to a min contract. Tannenbaum signed a two year deal with us. I then signed SF Dillard Crocker to a one year min deal. Crocker didn’t play much last season, but was a starter for Minneapolis the previous two seasons. The biggest free agency news wasn’t anyone signed, but the fact that Red Rocha is unsigned. Everyone is over the cap, and I guess he wasn’t willing to play for the minimum. In addition, I signed Coach Nelson to a four year extension.

PRE-SEASON

We were picked to finish third, with Boston being the favorite. Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Braun, SF-Fulks, SG-Tannenbaum, PG-McGuire, with Boykoff and Zaslofsky filling out the rotation. I didn’t think that highly of McGuire, but I guess Nelson feels he’s the best guy to run the team this year. After some tough thoughts, I decided to decline the team option for Lavoy. We have a lot of depth at center, and I don’t think he fits into my plans. We went 6-0 in pre-season, so maybe this team will be able to compete with Boston.

REGULAR SEASON

For the second straight year, the schedulers are not kind to us, as 9 of the first 11 games are on the road. Like last year, our road record is a problem, and we finish November with a 4-7 record, but that is still good enough for third place.

Midway through December, Tannenbaum gets a stress fracture which will sideline him for about 5-6 weeks. Three games later, Simmons breaks his leg. He may be back in time for the playoffs, but that is a big loss for us. This team is a middling team right now, and even though Fulks wins player of the month, we finish December at 10-13, which is only good enough for fourth place.

The injury bug continues to bite us, as we lose Fulks in the first week of January with a sprained ankle, which will put him out for about a month. Down three starters with a bit of ground to make up is not encouraging. We go 1-6 with Fulks out of the lineup. Both Fulks and Tannenbaum get healthy at the end of the month, but the damage has been done. We finish January at 13-21, which is fourth place, 5 ½ games out of a playoff spot.

Two games into February, Fulks gets a major concussion, which will probably finish his season. He could be back for the playoffs, but that is looking like a pipe dream at this point. However, at this point in the season, we’ve played 24 road games with only 12 home games, so the schedule should get better at some point. Tannenbaum and Braun both make the all star game. I wonder if Fulks didn’t make it because I have him on the injured list. Towards the end of February, I lose Crocker for the season with a broken foot as well. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, but with the injuries, he was part of the normal rotation. We finish February 16-28 as our nightmare season goes on.

We continue to struggle into March, as we have a franchise record nine game losing streak. Not much to say about the rest of the month. We continue losing, finishing at 20-37.

Fulks is eligible to come off the injured list early in April. However, we have been officially eliminated from the playoffs at this point. The upcoming draft is incredibly weak, with only 2 players being worth anything. Since we currently sit at the second pick, I’m in no hurry to activate him until he’s 100% healthy. To taunt me further, the team decides to play well in April, finishing with a record of 27-39, which will give us the #4 pick in the upcoming draft.

Simmons led the league in rebounding average, but that's a bit misleading as he only played in 20 games.

PLAYOFFS

Tannenbaum was named second team all defense. McGuire was all rookie second team. Braun made second team all NBA. Ed Macauley from Milwaukee won MVP, and Neil Johnston from Minneapolis won rookie of the year. For the first time we were not in the playoffs. Boston had a rough go, but ended up winning the championship over Milwaukee.

We have everyone of significance returning next year, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Injuries were a major factor this year, but finishing as poorly as we did doesn’t bode well for next season.

Umbrella · 04-30-2021, 10:57 AM

1952-53 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

For the first time in a little while, the league remained stable. I was informed that Hewson exercised his player option. He’s unhappy about his playing time, and I was forced to take him and his unreasonable salary when I didn’t want to, so I’m not pleased by this.

With the 4th pick in the draft, we took SF Don Henricksen. He’s pretty raw, but he projects to be a good defender and rebounder. In the second round, we took PG Jim Holstein. I found nothing particularly interesting about either of these players in real life. Syracuse took SF Eddie Miller with the #1 pick.

Entering free agency, I am over the cap, but I need to sign some depth at SG. I offered career backup Fred Lewis a one year minimum deal, which was soon outbid by Philly. I then offered Gene Berce, who has started for both Boston and Syracuse in the past. Berce signed with us, at which point I pulled the offer for Lewis.

The other big free agent signings were Harry Gallatin going from Minneapolis to Rochester, and George Mikan going from Indy to Baltimore.

PRE-SEASON

The media is not liking us, as they pick us to finish in last in the East.

Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Braun, SF-Fulks, SG-Berce, PG-Tannenbaum, with McGuire and Boykoff filling out the rotation. We went 3-3 in the pre-season, so I’m not convinced we are going to be a playoff caliber team this season.

REGULAR SEASON

We start the season losing our first four games, which doesn’t inspire confidence. Berce, Tannenbaum, and Boykoff all want extensions. I sign Berce to a 5 year extension and Tannenbaum for 2 more years, but Boykoff wants more than I think he is worth. While I don’t want to lose him, we are tight on cap space, so it looks like I will have to let him walk. After our slow start, we finish November at 4-6.

December brings a lot of road games, but we don’t do too horribly. We finish December at 9-11, which is good enough for a playoff spot. For now. Baltimore is pulling away, and Boston, Philly, and us are within a game of each other.

January starts off good, as we win five of our first seven games. But then we follow it up with a six game losing streak, to end the month at 14-19, which leaves us in third. Boston is beginning to solidify second place, and Syracuse has gotten back into the mix for a playoff spot. Even with our inconsistent play, Fulks wins player of the month.

Even though our record isn’t great, Simmons, Tannenbaum, Braun, and Fulks are all selected for the all star game. We finish February winning our last three games, which puts us at 20-24. We’ve got a 3 game lead over Philly, but Boston is still 4 ½ games away. Baltimore looks like they won’t be caught for the division.

In March, we show the ability to consistently beat the teams worse than us, and consistently lose to the teams better than us. Boston catches fire and moves to within 2 games of Baltimore. We remain in third at 27-30, but can’t quite shake Philly.

We play very well in April, considering that many of our games are against first place Baltimore. On the fourth to last game of the season, we beat Philly on the road to clinch a playoff spot. Baltimore and Boston are fighting for the division title, and we still have one game against Baltimore, but I want to protect my starters from injury, so they will rest the last three games. Possibly a good thing, because Zalofsky, who hasn’t played much this season until the last three games, broke his finger in the last game of the season. We finish at 35-35, third place, and in the playoffs. Fulks wins player of the month for April.

Fulks was the scoring leader for the fifth time in seven years.

PLAYOFFS

Tannenbaum makes all defensive second team. Henricksen makes all rookie second team. And finally, Fulks rebounds from a disappointing (by his standards) season last year to make first team all NBA. As I mentioned, this year’s rookie class was really weak, and that’s why Henricksen was selected. The rookie of the year was Eddie Miller from Syracuse with a 8.0/8.7/1.3 split. The MVP was Ed Macauley from Milwaukee.

Our reward is a first round matchup with the two-time defending champion Boston Celtics. We only went 4-11 against them this season, so I’m not optimistic. Boston won the first game fairly easily, 102-90. Game 2 was more of the same, losing 103-93. Back at home for game 3 didn’t change our luck, as we got whomped 96-76. Our playoff run was short lived.

Boston went on to win to win their 3rd straight championship.

I think we are in need of another star player to compete for a championship. There are some good players that will be free agents next season, but we still have some cap issues. Once again, next year’s draft is top heavy, and I don’t expect any game changers to be available when we pick. We were relatively injury free this season, so this year’s record shows what we are. We’ve reached a point where we’re too good to get help in the draft, but not good enough to contend for a championship. I think we will be mired in mediocrity for the next few seasons.

Young Drachma · 04-30-2021, 01:29 PM

Time to deal off whatever talent you have for scraps!

Umbrella · 04-30-2021, 04:02 PM

1953-54 NEW YORK KNICKS

PRE-SEASON

As we begin a new offseason, my lead scout informs me he is leaving to become the GM of Philly. Also, the Indianapolis Olympians fold, marking the second time a team from Indy has folded. They only have four available players and we pick 5th in the dispersal draft, so we don’t get anyone.

With the 5th pick in the rookie draft, we took PF Jim Neal. He is nothing special, as this is a terrible draft, but he is a decent defender and rebounder. His nickname is “Daddy”, in reference to his long arms and legs making him look like a daddy longlegs spider. In the second round, I select PG Ernie Barrett. He could be a good defender someday, but he’s pretty raw. The only thing I found interesting about him is that he has a restaurant named after him with a statue of him in front. Ft. Wayne selected PF Clyde Lovellette with the #1 pick.

I’m still over the cap, so this will be a boring free agency period. I would like sign three players; a center, a shooting guard, and then another warm body in case of injuries. The only player I have Bird rights to that I’m interested in signing is Boykoff, but he wants too much money for a guy who would be a backup for me. I started scraping the bargain bin, and settled on these three: C Bob Lavoy, who you may remember from a couple of seasons ago, C Howie Schultz, a defensive specialist who hasn’t had much playing time in his career, and SG Kenny Rollins, a good defender who has been a starter in the league for the last 5 seasons. Rollins immediately had interest from other teams, so I offered SG Bob Davies, who is older, but has been a reliable starter for several seasons. Davies also got attention from other teams, so plan C is SG Mel Payton. Looking closer at him, he should be plan A as he was all defense 2nd team last season. Rochester immediately trumped me with him as well. It’s looking bleak, so I am forced to offer career scrub SG Wally Osterkorn.

Schultz and Lavoy signed, all of the SG’s not named Osterkorn signed with other teams. Schultz actually played in the MLB for a few seasons before joining the NBA. Baltimore then outbid me for Osterkorn. At this point, all teams are over their cap, so I decided to see if SG Frank Brian would sign for a one year league minimum. He was first team all NBA last year, so I don’t know if he’ll sign, but he doesn’t have any other available options right now. He tells us he refuses to sign at that salary, but after a few days realizes he doesn’t have any other options, and takes the deal. In real life, Brian was a pretty good player, playing in the first two all star games.

In other signings, Baltimore signs reigning MVP Ed McCauley and also Red Rocha. They won the division last year, and have improved significantly.

PRE-SEASON

The media predicts another last place finish for us.

Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Fulks, SF-Brian, SG-Berce, PG-Tannenbaum, with Braun and McGuire filling out the rotation. We went 2-3 in the pre-season. Looking at the other team’s rosters, Baltimore is loaded and Boston looks good as well. I think we could possible compete with Philly, but Syracuse looks to be a little better than us. Avoiding last place would be a good accomplishment. I’m already looking ahead to next years draft class, which looks like it could be strong.

REGULAR SEASON

Of all the players who were on the last year of their contract, Lavoy, Schultz, and Braun were the only ones interested in signing an extension. I have no interest in keeping Lavoy or Schultz, and Braun want to paid like a top tier player. I decided not to offer any extensions and see what next years draft and/or free agency offers.

We had another road heavy November, but actually did OK, finishing the month at 4-5. Midway through December, Brian received a minor jaw injury, but should only miss about a week. We maintained our mediocrity through December, finishing the month at 10-9, good enough for third place. The east is tight so far, as the top four teams (Baltimore, Boston, NY, and Syracuse) are all within 2 ½ games of each other. Fulks won player of the month for December.

January showed me that this team is not ready. We had almost the entire month at home, and played terribly. We finished the month at 14-19, a distant fourth place. Baltimore, Boston, and Syracuse have all pulled away from the pack, and are within a game of each other.

I fished around for some trade possibilities to try and get some future assets, but couldn’t find any takers. Berce and Fulks were both named all stars. Then Tannenbaum had a hernia in mid-February, probably sidelining him for the season. Fulks followed him to the bench the next game with appendicitis. It doesn’t seem too severe, as he is only listed out for a week. We finished the month at 18-26, seven spots out of the last playoff spot.
March looks to be a brutal month, with a very busy schedule, and most of the games on the road. Fulks has a slight knee sprain, but Braun, perhaps playing for a contract next season, picks up the slack. Neal, who has been getting more playing time lately, also picks up a minor hip injury. Yet all things considered, we didn’t play too badly. We finished the month at 27-34, still five games out of the last playoff spot.

I think Fulks’ age is catching up to him, and he picks up yet another minor knee injury in the first game of April. We were eliminated from playoff contention on April 9th, so I let the youngsters play out the season. We finished the season at 30-42. We ended up tied with Milwaukee, so I don’t know if we will get the 3rd or 4th pick in the upcoming draft. Either way, there are only two players in the draft that will provide immediate help. Syracuse shocks everyone by running away with the East.

Fulks continues to be amazing, leading the league in scoring again.

PLAYOFFS

Berce was named 1st team defense, Neal was 2nd team rookie, and Fulks was 2nd team all NBA. Vern Mikkelsen from Boston won MVP, and Clyde Lovellette from Ft. Worth took rookie of the year.

Syracuse showed the regular season wasn’t a fluke by sweeping Boston, then winning a thrilling seven game series against Rochester to win their first championship.

I think it is time to tear this team down and rebuild. Fulks is still effective, but he’s getting old. Simmons never quite panned out like I had hoped, and is overpaid for his production. Unfortunately, they are both still signed through two more seasons. Henriksen could be a piece for the future, but still needs work. Nobody else fits into my long term plans. We’ll still be over the cap next season, and possibly the season after that if I can’t unload either Fulks or Simmons. Next year’s team looks to be pretty bad.

Umbrella · 04-30-2021, 06:34 PM

1954-55 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

For the second year in a row, we lose our lead scout to a GM position, this time going to Baltimore. In addition, this is the last year of my current contract, and with what looks to be a rough year ahead, my future in New York is uncertain.

We ended up with the 3rd pick in the draft. In my opinion, there were two guys who could help immediately, and one fell to us. We selected C Johnny Kerr. Yes, this is the same Red Kerr who was the Bulls announcer forever. Kerr projects to be a great rebounder, a good scorer, but not much defense. In the 2nd round we took SF Art Spoelstra. There is no relation to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, which surprises me. Ft. Wayne took Bob Pettit with the overall #1 pick.

We are still over the cap, so I have to be prudent again during free agency. I think from last year, I may wait until everyone has spent their money, and try to swoop in and pick up the scraps with 1 year min contracts. I need a SF, so I start with offering Paul Arizin, but Minneapolis is using their Bird rights on him. Next I try for SF James Owens. I’m soon outbid by Philly. Third time, I go for SF Ken Murray, but Minneapolis outbids me. Then I see Bob Cousy’s bids are all gone, so what the heck? While waiting for Cousy, Murray decided to sign with us. Sure enough, all the teams are out of money, so we get Cousy on a one year deal.

From here on out, I need to be careful. There are plenty of quality big men available, but I don’t think any of them will be better than Kerr at center, and I want to develop Henriksen at power forward. In the end, I’m hoping our coach decides to play Cousy at PG, Fulks at SF, and I offer PF Nat Clifton a minimum 1 year deal. He signs with us, as he has no other options. With the signing, Clifton becomes the first African-American player to play for the Knicks. In real life, he was the second African-American to play in the NBA.

Other free agent signings of interest include Minneapolis signing Mikan and Ft. Wayne signing Larry Foust. Former Knicks Brian and Braun signed long term deals with Ft. Wayne and Baltimore respectively.

PRE-SEASON

The media predicts us to finish fourth, which is improvement, I guess.

Our lineup this season will be C-Kerr, PF-Fulks, SF-Murray, SG-Tannenbaum, PG-Cousy, with Simmons, Berce, and McGuire filling out the rotation. I was a bit surprised that our coach thinks Murray is a starter, and Clifton isn’t even in the rotation. Jim Neal looks like he is a bust, so I decline the team option on him. I’m not ready to give up on Henriksen just yet, so I keep the team option for him. We go 3-3 in the pre-season, winning all of our home games and losing all the road ones.

REGULAR SEASON

Both Murray and Cousy are willing to re-sign longer contracts, but I don’t have the cap space to sign them to the values they want. Since they were stopgap signings, Bird rights won’t apply next season. The team plays shockingly well in November, going 8-3, and in first place. Kerr wins rookie of the month, while Fulks collects another player of the month award.

Early in December, Murray picks up a minor jaw injury which sidelines him for a couple of games. On Christmas Eve, Fulks sprains his knee. When he is on the floor, he is still very effective, but injuries the last couple of seasons are starting to become a concern. Losing the last four games in December after the injury shows how much he still means to this team. We finish the month at 12-12, and Kerr gets another rookie of the month award.

We start well in January, then Cousy breaks his jaw. He’ll miss about 3 weeks. The team continues to fight and exceed expectations as we finish January at 20-17, which is tied for second with Syracuse, 5 games back of Boston. Kerr continues to look like a franchise pick, as he wins his third consecutive rookie of the month.

We enter February at full health for the first time in a while, but that doesn’t keep us from losing. McGuire picks up a minor knee sprain, but it shouldn’t keep him out long. And then I get the trade offer; Pettit for Kerr. Kerr has been phenomenal, but Pettit was my #1 guy in the draft. Looking at his stats, I feel like he was being underutilized in Ft. Worth, so I pull the trigger and accept the trade. We end up with four selections to the all-star game; Pettit, Tannenbaum, Fulks, and Cousy. Towards the end of the month, Murray picks up a minor hip injury. February was a weird month in that we lost 6 of the first 7 games, then won the last 6, finishing the month at 27-23, still in a distant second behind Boston. The winning streak happened right after the trade, so this is exciting. Syracuse and Baltimore are right on our heels though. Pettit won rookie of the month, and Fulks was player of the month.

March was a tricky month. 9 of the 12 games were on the road, yet we held our own. We finished at 33-29, still in 2nd. Boston has all but clinched. April’s schedule looks to be a little home friendly, so even though Syracuse and Baltimore are close, I think we have a real chance to finish 2nd. Pettit gets rookie of the month.

We start April winning our first three games, then the basketball gods frown on my optimism. Pettit breaks his foot, and is probably out for the season including playoffs. On April 14th, we lock up the #2 seed, so I plan on minimizing the minutes for my regulars the rest of the season. McGuire immediately gets a stress fracture with his starting time. We finish the season at 40-32, good enough for second, and home court advantage in the first round.

Fulks' scoring slipped a bit, but Cousy led the league in assists.

PLAYOFFS

Tannenbaum was 2nd team defense, Pettit was all-rookie 1st team, Cousy was 1st team all-NBA, and Fulks was 3rd team all-NBA. Pettit was named rookie of the year, which surprised me a little as I thought Kerr would take it. But then I looked, and after the trade, Kerr wasn’t starting for Ft. Wayne. I guess their coach doesn’t like rookie players. In a weird twist, Pettit was also named sixth man of the year. He did have more games off the bench than starting, so I guess that was the reasoning.

We get to start the playoffs against the defending champs, Syracuse. We’re still missing Pettit and McGuire, so this could be a tough one. Fulks scores 42 in a game 1 overtime thriller, as we win 106-102. We have no answer for PG Slater Martin in game 2, as he scores 30 in a 99-94 Syracuse victory. We weren’t competitive at all in game 3, losing 96-75. Game 4 was more of the same, losing in a 102-74 blowout.

Ft. Wayne broke the Eastern Conference’s dominance in the finals, winning the championship over Boston. Not bad considering they were the worst team in the league last year.

All in all, I was very pleased with this season. If Pettit had stayed healthy, I think we had a real chance of winning that first round series. Pettit is a franchise type player, and after next season we will have more flexibility to sign players. Cousy was a godsend, and I really want to sign him next season, but I don’t know if we have the money to do so. Taking a quick look at the other teams, it looks like everyone is in the same boat financially, so maybe I can pull the same trick again with Cousy.

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 10:46 AM

1955-56 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

I didn’t get an email about it, but I now have 5 years left on my contract, so I guess I was re-signed. In league news, Baltimore folded. I guess signed all those giant free agent contracts with no championships to show for it was their demise. In addition, the Milwaukee Hawks have relocated to St. Louis. I signed Coach Nelson to a 4 year extension. He has done well with not a lot of talent to work with, so I want him to stay. One of our assistants left to become the head coach for Minneapolis.

We pick 5th in the dispersal draft, and there are seven players available. Our old friend Carl Braun was available, but his contract is not a good one. I’ve been working hard to get out of salary cap trouble, so instead I picked PF Earl Lloyd. While his contract isn’t great, it isn’t as bad as Braun’s was. In real life, Lloyd was the first African-American player to appear in an NBA game.

This years rookie class has five or six players who could be special, so with the fifth pick, I am guaranteed at least one of them. To my shock, the #1 player on my board fell to me, and I happily selected SF Maurice Stokes. If you don’t know about him, his story is a tragic one. He was a very good player in real life, winning rookie of the year, and a consistent triple double threat. He played three seasons and was second in rebounds and third in assists during that time. However, in the last game of his third season, he fell and hit his head, getting knocked unconscious. Three days later, after playing in his team’s playoff game, he got sick on the team flight, went into a seizure, and ended up permanently paralyzed. He died at 36. In the second round I selected SG Ed Conlin. I didn’t find any interesting facts about him, but he looks to be a decent scorer, ball handler, and rebounder. In other words, a guy that can do a lot of things, but none of them exceptionally well. Philadelphia took SG Tom Gola with the #1 pick, and I thank them for that.

Syracuse is the only team that is under the cap, so I hope they aren’t looking for a point guard. I want to sign Cousy, then see who is available to sign my minimum one year deal. I have Bird rights to McGuire and Tannenbaum, and I may consider signing them both if they don’t want too much.

Of course, Syracuse offers Cousy a little more than I can, so this isn’t looking good for me. However, after they sign Charlie Share to a big deal, they pull the offer to Cousy. I offer a three year deal at just above the minimum in years 2 and 3. He isn’t happy with the offer, but I will wait him out.

Halfway through the free agency period, Cousy hasn’t budged, so I am starting to get nervous. I offer PG Bill Kenville a minimum deal. Kenville signs, and Cousy says he will only sign for 1 year at that price. I offer a 1 year minimum deal, and after sweating for a few days, he signs.

One of the stars, PF Neil Johnston is still unsigned, so I offer a 1 year min to him, which he reluctantly accepts. Finally, I offer C Al Miksis a 1 year min. He makes me sweat it out, but he finally signs at the end of the free agency period. The team is looking strong, and hopefully I can sign some of these guys to longer deals once Simmons and Fulks contracts are off the books next season.

PRE-SEASON

The media predicts us to finish second behind Syracuse. Our lineup this season will be C-Johnston, PF-Pettit, SF-Stokes, SG-Berce, PG-Cousy, with Miksis, Fulks, and Kenville filling out the rotation. It is really weird to not have Fulks in the starting lineup, but this is the new era New York Knicks. Whatever is in the water in the garden gets Johnston, as he breaks his foot during the pre-season, which will sideline him until December. We go 2-0 with Johnston in the lineup, and 0-4 after his injury. This doesn’t bode well.

REGULAR SEASON

Conlin joins the broken foot brigade the first game of the season. I swear, Bill Walton must be our trainer. I offer a 3 year extension to Cousy and a 1 year max extension to Johnston. After some haggling, I agreed to a 5 year extension to Cousy. I couldn’t reach an agreement with Johnston.

Meanwhile, we were playing terrible basketball. Then we lost Kenville for 2 weeks with a sprained knee late in November. We finished the month 3-8. I can’t believe how bad it is right now.

We play better in December, even though we keep fighting minor injuries to various players. Then we lose Miksis for 2 months to plantar fasciitis. We finish the month at 10-13, which is currently good enough for third place. Johnston wins player of the month.

We start the new year off well, winning the first three games, when both Cousy and Spoelstra get injured. Spoelstra’s is minor, but Cousy will miss a week or two. Seeing as they are the only two point guards on the roster, this is bad news. We limp along with minor injuries all over the place, but get out of January in second place at 19-17. Neil Johnston wins player of the month again, and I wish we could come to an agreement on an extension I can afford. I try one more time offering a five year deal a little under the max, which he finally accepts.

Pettit, Johnston, and Cousy are all selected for the all-star game. Unfortunately, Johnston injures his finger during the game, but it isn’t too serious. Kenville then goes down with a minor wrist injury. Throughout all the lineup changes, we continue to play fairly well, finishing the month at 26-21, second place 5 ½ games behind Syracuse, but only ½ game in front of Boston. Pettit wins player of the month.

Entering March, we are fully healthy for the first time all season, all though the lineup is littered with disgruntled players. We lose Pettit for a week with a jaw injury. Then we lose Cousy to a knee injury, which will knock him out of action for most of the remainder of the regular season. Syracuse starts to struggle a bit, while we and Boston make up ground. March ends with us at 34-27, 3 ½ games behind Syracuse, but still only ½ game in front of Boston.

We had a late season swoon, coupled with some more minor injuries to Fulks and Johnston, which knocked us down to third place. We finished at 38-34.

Cousy loses the assist title this season, but still finishes second. Berce also finishes third in steals.

PLAYOFFS

Both Berce and Kenville were named 1st team all-defense. They were unsung heroes this season. Conlin and Stokes both made 1st team all-rookie. Cousy and Pettit were both all-NBA first team, while Johnston was named to the 2nd team. Dolph Schayes won the MVP for Rochester, and Ken Sears won rookie of the year for Syracuse.

We enter the playoffs with Johnston and Fulks still not 100%. Boston absolutely destroys us 108-75, and we lost Berce in the process to a sprained ankle. Game 2 was a little closer, but not competitive as we lost 112-99. Johnston tried to play through his injury in game 3, and played well, scoring 31 points and grabbing 18 boards, but Vern Mikkelsen hit a shot at the buzzer to beat us 102-101.

Boston went on to dominate in the playoffs, winning their fourth championship.

The lack of success in the playoffs is starting to become an issue. We haven’t advanced in 6 years. However, I think we are set up well. Our stars are signed for a while, and we will have some cap space to maneuver next season. We fought the injury bug hard this season, and if we can get some better luck next season on that front, I think we could maybe break our playoff slump. I’ll have a tough decision to make with Fulks next year. He’s not the player he once was, but letting go the highest scorer in the history of the league will not be easy.

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 11:02 AM

We've completed 10 years of the NBA, so I might have a list of the all time and NY leaders at this stage of the NBA history. If anyone wants to know any info about any teams or specific players, let me know, and I'll list that as well.

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 11:25 AM

CURRENT NBA CAREER LEADERS

POINTS
1. Joe Fulks - 17949
2. George Mikan - 14023
3. Ed Macauley - 11151
4. Vern Mikkelsen - 11115
5. Dolph Schayes - 10999

REBOUNDS
1. Clarence Hermsen - 7460
2. Harry Gallatin - 7423
3. Milt Schoon - 6811
4. Vern Mikkelsen - 6337
5. George Mikan - 5921

ASSISTS
1. Dick McGuire - 2913
2. Slater Martin - 2198
3. Bob Cousy - 1967
4. George King - 1541
5. Bob Davies - 1407

STEALS
1. Saul Mariaschin - 1005
2. Ray Wertis - 1002
3. Gene Berce - 936
4. Slater Martin - 928
5. Ralph Beard - 924

BLOCKS
1. Milt Schoon - 2123
2. Clarence Hermsen - 1934
3. Harold Kottman - 1156
4. George Mikan - 1067
5. Vern Mikkelsen - 1021

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 11:34 AM

CURRENT NEW YORK KNICKS CAREER LEADERS

POINTS
1. Joe Fulks - 17949
2. Connie Simmons - 6110
3. Sid Tannenbaum - 4802
4. Carl Braun - 4106
5. Tony Kappen - 2732

REBOUNDS
1. Connie Simmons - 5235
2. Joe Fulks - 4474
3. George Glamack - 2256
4. Sid Tannenbaum - 2081
5. Carl Braun - 1862

ASSISTS
1. Sid Tannenbaum - 1106
2. Bob Cousy - 943
3. Connie Simmons - 732
4. Tony Kappen - 694
5. Carl Braun - 667

STEALS
1. Sid Tannenbaum - 871
2. Tony Kappen - 755
3. Gene Berce - 579
4. Mel Riebe - 278
5. Joe Fulks - 274

BLOCKS
1. Joe Fulks - 860
2. George Glamack - 432
3. Harry Boykoff - 241
4. Connie Simmons - 213
5. Sid Tannenbaum - 198

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 02:31 PM

1956-57 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

The post-Fulks era begins. For the first time in a while, I fell good about where we stand heading into the season. Our top 6 players are signed to at least two years, and we have more cap room than any other team. Johnston’s contact may be an issue in a few years, but he’s still an elite player for now. Depth is an issue right now, but that can be addressed during free agency. I hired an assistant coach who has a little head coaching experience. When Nelson retires, he seems like a good candidate to be groomed for the position.

This years rookie class has two guys who look to be can’t-miss franchise players, Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn. We pick fifth, and end up selecting SG Richie Guerin. In real life, he was also drafted by the Knicks, and was one of the most beloved players in team history by the fans, so it feels right he is on this team. With our second round pick, we take SF Dave Piontek. I couldn’t find anything interesting on Piontek. Russell and Heinsohn go #1 and #2 to Philadelphia and Minneapolis, respectively.

For free agency, I need a backup PF, and then just some all around depth to fight all the broken feet sure to come. It’s not a super deep free agency class, and the elite players are all asking for long term max deals that I feel they are too old for. For the PF, I offer James Owens a 2 year deal. I also offer two former Knicks, Nat Clifton and Al Spoelstra, 1 and 2 year deals respectively. Finally, I offer a 1 year deal to PF Jack Burmeister. Clifton, Burmeister, and Spoelstra all sign fairly quickly. Owens signs several days later, and I have them all on very team friendly contracts.

The only other signing of league interest is Boston signing PF Gene Conley. More interesting to me is Fulks signed a one year deal with Philly, and Simmons signed a one year deal with Minneapolis.

PRE-SEASON

The media predicts us to finish second behind Boston. Our lineup this season will be C-Stokes, PF-Pettit, SF-Johnston, SG-Berce, PG-Cousy, with Guerin and Lloyd filling out the rotation. Conlin is starting the season unhappy, and doesn’t look to get much playing time, so I may try and see if anyone is willing to trade for him. Unfortunately, nobody is interested at this time. We go 3-3 in the pre-season.

REGULAR SEASON

I notice C Eddie Miller is still a free agent, and is only asking for a reasonable 2 year deal. I offer it to him, and he accepts. He will go straight into the starting linuep, and Stokes will go to the bench as part of the rotation, replacing Lloyd. We start off slowly for the second season in a row, ending November at 4-7, even though Johnston wins player of the month.

December isn’t much better, as we finish 10-16, lowlighted by a 6 game losing streak. We are battling Philly for last place.

January continues to suck, as we fight several minor injuries. We sit at 15-24, still just ahead of Philly for last place. This is one of the better teams we’ve had in talent lately, so I’m pretty disappointed. I’m even considering firing the coach right now.

Miller, Cousy, Johnston, and Pettit are all selected for the all-star game. We finally start playing better in February, putting together a six game winning streak before losing Berce for a couple of weeks to a broken finger. This doesn’t slow us down, and we finish February on a nine game winning streak, at 25-25. Boston and Syracuse have both struggled recently, so this brings us 4 games back of first place Boston, and just ½ game behind Syracuse. Johnston takes home another player of the month award.

The winning steaks ends in Fort Worth during the first game in March. But the team is still making up ground before Miller gets a concussion in Boston, which will sideline him until into the playoffs. But the team plays well even with this loss, finishing the month in second place at 34-28, just two games back. Johnston continues his terrific play, winning player of the month yet again.

Going into what could be an exciting home stretch, we stumble hard, ending a six game winning streak with back-to-back home losses to last place Philly. Some mediocre play leaves us 4 games back with only 4 games left, and only 1 ½ games ahead of Syracuse. All of the remaining games are at home though, and 3 are against Boston, so it is still possible to win the division. We win the first two games against Boston to secure second place. However, Boston wins a game against Philly to clinch the division. With the last two games meaningless, I let the starters get some rest and have the bench play out the string. We finished the season 39-33, three games back.

PLAYOFFS

The awards poured in. Berce got 1st team all-defense, while Johnston got 2nd team. Guerin made 1st team all-rookie. Cousy and Johnston both made 1st team all-NBA, while Pettit got 2nd team and Guerin got 3rd team. Finally, Guerin won sixth man of the year. Mikkelsen won MVP, while Bill Russell won rookie of the year.

We start the playoffs against Syracuse, who we went 12-9 against during the season. The team is 100% healthy, so I’m hoping this is the season we finally advance past the first round. We immediately lose home court advantage in game 1, losing 117-109. We rebound with an angry 125-101 victory in game 2. Going to Syracuse, we get destroyed 115-82. With the season on the line, we trail for most of the game, but a furious fourth quarter comeback leads to a controversial finish, as Pettit is fouled just before the final buzzer. He hits the first and intentionally misses the second to secure a thrilling 107-106 comeback. We return home, and behind Pettit and Johnston, win our first playoff series since the 1949-50 season with a 108-99 victory.

The conference championship is against Boston, led by Mikkelsen, the MVP. We did OK against them this year, going 10-11. We were completely outmatched in game 1, losing 123-78. Game 2 was more competitive, but still resulted in a 103-93 loss. Returning home for game 3, we played terrible in the first half, but showed a lot of guts holding them to 37 points in the second half to force overtime. Unfortunately, Mikkelsen showed why he is MVP, hitting a late bucket to secure a 115-113 victory. The team showed some pride in game 4, leading almost wire to wire before withstanding a furious Boston rally, in a 91-88 win. Boston showed they were the better team, winning in Boston 86-75 to clinch another appearance in the finals.

For the third straight year, it was Boston vs. Ft. Worth in the finals. For the rubber match, Ft. Worth wins their second championship.

This season was really a tale of two halves. I don’t know if adding Miller late caused some chemistry issues that took a while to work through. We still have all the major players signed through next season, so I think I want to try and make one more run with this crew before deciding if it is time to go another direction. There aren’t any potential free agents next season which will be difference makers, and it looks to be a terrible draft, so I think another run is possible.

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 03:52 PM

1957-58 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

A bit of movement by teams this offseason. The Rochester Royals move to Cincinnati, while the defending champion Fort Wayne Pistons move to Detroit.

We pick fifth in the draft, and select SF Jim Krebs. He looks to be a very good rebounder, but probably won’t get a lot of playing time. In real life, Krebs is another player who died young at 29, when a tree branch fell and hit his head. There’s nobody in the 2nd round who will ever be part of our plans, but I take PG Jim Walsh. St. Louis took SG Sam Jones with the #1 pick.

For the first time ever, there was no need to do anything during free agency. The only signing of notice was Philadelphia signing SF George Yardley from Syracuse.

PRE-SEASON

The media predicts us to win the division. Our lineup will be C-Miller, PF-Pettit, SF-Johnston, SG-Guerin, PG-Cousy, with Stokes and Berce filling out the rotation. We go 5-1 during the pre-season, and expectations are high in New York.

REGULAR SEASON

I would like to extend Pettit and Miller as options 1 and 1A. Unfortunately, both want to test free agency. I will be able to use my Bird rights on Pettit, but not Miller next season. Early in November, Cousy sprains his ankle, which will put him out of action almost a month. Miller comes back to me saying he wants to sign a 5 year max deal. I offer 4 years instead. He insists on 5, which I think I will only get 3 years of max production, so I am willing to let him walk. The team continues to win, helped by a slate of home games, and then we lose Guerin for a couple of weeks with a sprained knee. We then lose four straight, all on the road. We finish the month at 9-5, good enough for the lead. Johnston wins player of the month.

The teams starts out great in December, putting together a 10 game winning streak before Cousy gets our first broken foot of the season. He’ll be out until sometime in February. We finish the month at 19-7. We’re still in first, but Philly is playing phenomenal as well, and is only ½ game back.
In January, we see how much Cousy means to the team. We can only play .500 ball, and we finish the month at 25-13. Philly continues their hot play, taking the lead by 4 ½ games. Johnston is still playing at an MVP level, winning another player of the month.

Cousy, Johnston, and Pettit make the all star team. Aided by a very favorable schedule, we are able to get healthy while making up some ground on Philly. We finish at 35-16, only 1 game back.

March looks to be difficult, as most of the games will be on the road. About midway through the month, we lose Miller with a torn ligament, definitely for the regular season and perhaps the playoffs. The loss of our big man, combined with the difficult schedule, results in the month ending at 39-25, 3 ½ games back.

On the first game in April, we lose Pettit for the season, and probably the playoffs, with a broken leg. What looked like a possible championship season is falling apart at the seams. We finally break a seven game losing streak, but Philly still clinches the division. We had nothing to play for at this point, so the bench players played out the string. We finished the season 43-29, six games behind Philly.

Cousy leads the league in assists, and Pettit and Johnston and 2nd and third in scoring.

PLAYOFFS

Johnston took home 2nd team all-defensive honors. Walsh somehow made 1st team all-rookie, while Krebs was 2nd team. Guerin and Johnston were both named 1st team all-NBA, and Pettit was 2nd team. And finally, Johnston was named the MVP. Sam Jones was rookie of the year.

We got a first round matchup with Boston, who we went 12-10 against this year. As beat up as we are, I’m not too optimistic. We get a terrific all around team effort in winning game 1 102-100. Boston takes game 2 108-90. Miller returns at less than100% for game 3, coming off the bench, but his presence isn’t enough to avoid a 115-105 loss. The crushing disappointment of this season continues, losing a tight one in game 4 113-108.

Philadelphia wins their first NBA title behind the play of star Bill Russell.

This season was a heartbreaker. We were as good as anyone in the league before all the major injuries occurred late in the season. I still think we’re close to contending. I intend on signing Pettit, and perhaps Miller if he doesn’t ask for too much. There are some good players available next year for free agency, but I’m sure their current teams will do whatever they can to re-sign them.

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 05:37 PM

1958-59 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

The assistant coach I was grooming to take over ended up being hired to the head coach position at St. Louis. Philly C Milt Schoon becomes the first member of the Hall of Fame.

Picking 6th in this year’s draft, we select SF Dave Gambee. In the second round, we take SG Arlen Bockhorn. PF Wayne Embree went #1 overall to Syracuse, and surprisingly, Elgin Baylor fell to #3 to Cincinnati.

Pettit is asking for a 5 deal a little under max, which I immediately offer. I’m willing to go seven years if necessary at max. In addition, Johnny Kerr is available, so I offer a 6 year max offer to him. I will need another PF, but I want to wait and see what happens with Pettit before I offer anyone else. Kerr is immediately offered a 7 year max offer by Detroit (Bird rights), so he’s gone. I offer PF Ed Kalafat a 3 year deal. Pettit signs the highest contract in team history. I offer PG Dick McGuire a 1 year min deal to backup Cousy, and he immediately accepts. Kalafat signs. I offer former Knick C Miksis a 1 year min deal.

PG Frank Ramsey signs with Philadelphia from Minnesota. Miller ended up signing with Boston.

PRE-SEASON

I don’t think Krebs will ever be part of the plans, so I decline the team option on his contract. We are picked to finish third this season, with Philly the favorite. Our lineup will be C-Pettit, PF-Johnston, SF-Guerin, SG-McGuire, and PG-Cousy. Stokes and Bockhorn will be the players getting minutes off the bench. I’m shocked McGuire is picked as a starter. We go 3-3 this preseason, with McGuire missing a little time with a broken finger.

REGULAR SEASON

Stokes is possibly the only player on his last year I would be willing to extend, but only for a reasonable price. He wants to test free agency, so more power to him. This is the last year of Lloyd’s awful contract. He’s the second player to hamstring my finances because I was forced to take him in a dispersal draft. We go through November doing well at home, terrible on the road, and finish at 6-6. Johnston wins player of the month.

We plod through December. Pettit misses a game with a minor finger injury. We end at 10-12, and this is looking like it has the ceiling of a first round exit.

Pettit wins player of the month in January, but we continue to be the definition of mediocrity. We end the month at 17-18. The division is beating itself up though. All four teams are within 4 ½ games of each other, with Boston currently leading.

Right before the break, McGuire picks up a minor eye injury. Guerin, Cousy, Pettit, and Johnston are all named all stars. We continue our trend in recent years of playing well in February, finishing the month at 25-21, still in third place but only two games out of first. Johnston wins player of the month.

March is a bit of a struggle, as Philly starts to pull away from the pack. Cousy goes down with a stress fracture late in the month, which should knock him out for a couple of weeks. Guerin follows right behind him with patellar tendinitis, also out for a couple of weeks. Because of the injuries, little used Walsh needs to pick up more minutes, and shows he can’t handle it, injuring his knee, probably costing him the rest of the season. We limp into April with a record of 31-29, still in 3rd, but only ½ game behind Boston. Philly is running away with the division. Johnston takes home another player of the month award.

We try to get players healthy, and play average basketball while doing so. Syracuse catches fire and is making up ground like crazy. With three games left in the season, we are tied with Boston for 2nd, but Syracuse is only two games behind. A road loss to Syracuse leaves us only 1 game ahead of them for the last playoff spot. A home win against St. Louis clinches a playoff spot Our last game of the season is at home against Philly, while Boston plays at Syracuse. They hold the tiebreaker, so we need a win coupled with a Boston loss to get 2nd place. Neither happen, and we finish 35-37, in third place. Johnston wins player of the month.

We have players all over the top of the leaderboards, although none of them actually finish in first.

PLAYOFFS

Pettit and Johnston both make 1st team all-NBA, while Cousy gets 2nd team. Johnston makes 2nd team all-defense, and Bockhorn makes 2nd team all-rookie. Detroit’s Clyde Lovellete wins MVP, and Syracuse’s Wayne Embry takes home rookie of the year.

We meet Boston in the playoff again. We were 10-12 against them this year, and we’ve lost four straight playoff series to them. I’m not very optimistic. Game 1 results in a 126-118 loss. Game 2 is more of the same, losing 122-110. We manage to avoid the sweep at home, winning 119-109. Things get interesting, as game 4 results in an easy 113-110 win, although we end up losing McGuire for the rest of the season with a dislocated shoulder. Game 5 is a defensive struggle, but the home team wins every game this series, and we’re eliminated 89-82.

Detroit avenges last year’s championship loss to Philly and gets the franchise’s third championship, the first since moving to Detroit.

We just are not good enough to compete with the champion level teams. It may be time to blow this up and start over. There are a couple of free agents available who could help, and it looks like we should get a decent player in a top-heavy draft, highlighted by perhaps the greatest prospect ever, Wilt Chamberlain.

Umbrella · 05-03-2021, 07:46 PM

1959-60 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

Joe Fulks becomes the second member of the Hall of Fame.

With the 4th pick in the draft, we take SF Bob Ferry. There’s not much left in the second round, so we select PG Tony Windis. Bob Ferry is the father of Danny Ferry. Wilt Chamberlain goes #1 to St. Louis. I’m glad he’s not in our division.

Stokes isn’t asking a ridiculous amount, so I offer a four year deal. In addition, I offer two years to PG Cliff Hagan, and three years to SG Dick Garmaker. Detroit outbids me for Hagan, so I increase my offer, and extend it to four years. Philly offers Stokes a 6 year deal for more money than I am willing to spend, so I let him go. Detroit tries to outbid me for Garmaker, so I up his offer to four years. I also offer C Joe Grabowski a two year deal, outbidding Detroit. Garmaker signs, but Grabowski takes Detroit’s offer instead. After losing Grabowski, I offer C Jim Browne a three year deal. Hagan decided to take St. Louis’ offer instead of mine, and now I’m frustrated. I offer PF Tom Heinsohn a three year deal, and then our old fried Art Spoelstra a one year minimum offer. Nobody wants to sign, as Browne goes to Philly instead. Syracuse outbids me for Heinsohn, so I increased my offer, and extended to four years. It wasn’t enough, and he signed with Syracuse.

With decent centers all signed, I decide to see if Lloyd wants to return for a one year minimum deal. I also outbid St. Louis for SG Ed Fleming. Lloyd signs, but Fleming signs with St. Louis. Since it seems only ex-players are willing to sign with me, I offer a 1 year min deal to Miksis. Soon, St. Louis outbids me for Spoelstra. I increase his offer, but he signs with St. Louis anyways. Miksis signs with us. Krebs looks like the best available player, and I am now regretting cancelling the team option on him. I offer him a two year deal, and he accepts.

I have no idea why I couldn’t get anyone to sign. This really messed up my plans, and makes it look like it will be another rough season. For other teams, Ken Sears went to Philadelphia from Syracuse, and Tom Gola went to Syracuse from Philly.

PRE-SEASON

We are picked to finish second this season, behind Philly. Our lineup will be C-Pettit, PF-Kalafat, SF-Johnston, SG-Garmaker, and PG-Guerin. Ferry and Cousy complete the rotation. We go 3-3 this preseason.

REGULAR SEASON

Guerin wants a five year max extension to stay with the team. He’s a stud, so I agree. Johnston breaks his cheekbone which costs him two weeks. We struggle in November, finishing 4-7.

We continue to struggle without Johnston, but he returns the second week of December. We win the next three games before Pettit gets a minor knee sprain. We then lose Bockhorn to a stress fracture which will take him out of action for about a month. We start to play better, and manage to enter the new decade at .500 with a 13-13 record. Johnston wins player of the month.

The new decade doesn’t start out any better on the injury front, as we lose Guerin with a hyperextended knee in the first game. We then lose Johnston in the second game with a finger injury. We muddle along, get everyone healthy, and then lose Garmaker for over a month with tendinitis in his knee. With that injury, everyone in the starting lineup has gone on the injury list. However, we somehow get hot, and finish the month on a 6 game winning streak at 22-18, which propels us into first place, 1 game in front of both Boston and Syracuse. Pettit takes home player of the month honors.

Guerin, Johnston, and Pettit all go to the all-star game. The first game after the break, Johnston dislocates his shoulder, which might take him out for the remainder of the regular season. We struggle without him in the lineup, and finish the month at 27-25, tied for first with Syracuse. The East is a tight battle, as Boston is only ½ game back, and Philly is only 1 ½ games from the lead.

Johnston’s injury is healing well, and we should have him back late in the season. In the meantime, the team continues to battle, and we finish March at 35-30, still tied for first, but with Philly. Boston and Syracuse are 4 games back.

I initially think it’s an April Fools joke, but we are healthy for the first time all season. This corresponds with a nice winning streak, but it doesn’t last long, as Ferry breaks his cheekbone, and is out for the rest of the regular season. He should be back early in the playoffs. Johnston breaks his finger the next game, but hopefully won’t miss much. Guerin injures his hip, and the losses are starting to mount. Both injuries are minor, so I’m trying to hang on for dear life. With four games remaining, we have a two game lead. A win over Syracuse clinches our first division title since the 1949-1950 season. We finish the month at 43-33, and secure a much needed first round bye. Pettit was terrific, winning player of the month. Everyone should be healthy when we play our next series.

PLAYOFFS

Nelson won coach of the year for the team’s success this year. Pettit and Guerin were 1st team all-NBA, and Johnston made 3rd team. Windis was 1st team all-rookie. Wilt Chamberlain won rookie of the year and MVP, and broke Fulks’ single season scoring record he recorded in the first year of the league.

Philly defeated Boston 3-1 to set up our series for the conference finals. We only went 10-12 against them this year, so this will be a difficult series for us. We were able to win game 1 in a tight contest, 113-108. Disaster strikes in game 2. Both Pettit and Johnston are injured in a 126-120 loss. I cannot believe our bad luck with injuries this season. The injuries are too much to overcome, and we get slaughtered in game 3 142-108. Game 4 is just as ugly, losing 135-90. We play slightly better at home, but still lose rather easily 120-106. At times, I feel like this franchise is cursed.

St. Louis goes on to defeat Philly in the finals. Wilt looks unstoppable.

I don’t think we would have beaten St. Louis in the finals, but the fact we cannot stay healthy is mind boggling to me. I look at the other teams, and their star players don’t seem to be missing as much time. Next year’s draft is a good one, but we pick next-to-last. All of our important players are signed for the next two years, so maybe with a little luck, we can find the one piece that can put us over the top.

britrock88 · 05-12-2021, 05:04 PM

Reading. Keep the faith!

Umbrella · 05-15-2021, 11:39 PM

1960-61 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFFSEASON

The struggling Minneapolis Lakers move across the country to Los Angeles.

I was given a 2 year extension to my contract. Coach Nelson’s contract expired, but I decided to rehire him, giving him a three year deal. There didn’t seem to be any other coaches out there.

With the seventh pick in the draft, I took a flyer on a high ceiling PG, Lenny Wilkens. In the second round, I took SF Howie Jolliff. SG Jerry West went #1 overall to LA.

I don’t have a ton of cap room, but I want to sign a SG and a C. I offer Miksas another 1 year minimum deal, and I offer a young SG Hal Greer a two year deal. They both sign.

Other signings of interest are Larry Foust signing with St. Louis from Detroit, Joe Grabowski signing with Syracuse from St. Louis, and Phil Jordan signing with Detroit from St. Louis.

PRE-SEASON

We are picked to finish last this season, with Philly as the favorite. If that’s true, next year’s draft is a weak one, with only three players looking to be impact players. Our lineup will be C-Pettit, PF-Johnston, SF-Garmaker, SG-Greer, PG-Guerin, with Gambee, Ferry, Wilkens, and Cousy getting minutes off the bench. We go 4-2 in the pre-season, so I hope the media is wrong about our team.

REGULAR SEASON

Johnston is the only player I want to extend, but I need to be careful. He is still playing at a high level, but he’s 31, and that’s around when things go south. Greer injures his back early in the season, and misses two weeks. Johnston decides to test free agency next season, so he won’t sign an extension. Right around the time Greer returns, Garmaker tears a ligament and will miss about 6 weeks. Even with the injuries, and a long road trip, we finish November with a 9-7 record. Johnston wins player of the month.

We begin December with a 6 game road trip, losing all 6 games. The losing streak extends to 8 games before finally beating Philadelphia. The losing continues, and then we lose Pettit for two months with a severe concussion. The very next game, we lose Johnston with a broken finger, and he’ll miss 2-3 weeks. The injuries in this game are starting to piss me off. And as I say that, Ferry gets a pinched nerve THE VERY NEXT GAME!!!! We finish December at 11-19, in last place.

We make a trade with Boston, sending Krebs in exchange for SF Bob Peterson. We are on a four game losing streak when Garmaker returns. His return doesn’t stop the losing. The losing streak is at 9 when Ferry returns. His returns results in our first win of 1961. After losing another couple of games, Johnston returns. We end the month at 13-30, and our distinction of being the only team in the league to never finish in last place is in serious danger.

At the beginning of February, we trade Wilkens to LA for fellow rookie PG Al Attles. Attles immediately enters the starting lineup. Greer, Guerin, and Johnston all get selected to the all star game. With the addition of Attles, the team starts playing better. And then, of course, he breaks his foot, sidelining him for a month. Pettit returns late in the month. We finish February at 19-35, still 8 games out of third.

If we don’t start quickly in March, I may begin playing the youngsters, and seeing if we can get the #1 pick. We win our first two games, then Guerin dislocates his shoulder. He’s probably done for the season. Attles comes back right as Greer strains his back. Greer heals quickly, and I see if we have a chance to climb out of last place. We don’t play badly, and finish March at 27-42, still five games out of a playoff spot.

We lose the first four games in April, and then Pettit breaks his arm. Gambee breaks his foot the next game, and I decide to shut it down for the season. Miksis immediately sprains his ankle. Just to piss me off, we win the last four games of the season, giving us the third pick in a draft with two impact players. We finish at 32-48.

Obligatory leader board

PLAYOFFS

Johnston and Guerin both make 2nd team all-NBA. Peterson makes 1st team all-defense, while Johnston makes 2nd team. Jolliff and Attles both make 2nd team all-rookie. Wilt Chamberlain wins MVP, while Elgin Baylor wins rookie of the year.

St. Louis and Wilt Chamberlain steamroll to a second straight title.

Right now, the injuries are infuriating me. We finished last, my seat is getting warm, and we're losing Johnston. We have cap room to work with next season, but I don't think we'll get an impact player in the draft, so I'm not optimistic we'll be any better.

Young Drachma · 05-16-2021, 12:59 AM

Oof, yeah....that's not a great followup to an almost Finals run. Hope next year is a rebound year.

Umbrella · 05-18-2021, 03:18 PM

1961-62 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

The league is expanding, adding the Chicago Packers as an expansion team.

I have to expose one player for the expansion draft, so I choose to let Joliff go. He was the last player taken.

For some reason, we end up with the 2nd pick in the draft. I don’t know why we are picking ahead of Cincinnati, but I’m not complaining. We take PF Ray Scott. In the second round, I take SG Donnie Butcher. The Lakers take C Walt Bellamy with the #1 pick.

Center is the biggest priority in free agency. As of now, I’m not interested in signing anyone we have Bird rights to, although if Johnston wants to sign a friendly contract, I would consider it. I offer 37 year old George Mikan a one year minimum deal, as he looks to be the best available center right now. I also offer a team friendly three year deal to SF Woody Sauldsberry. Boston outbids me for Sauldsberry, so I up the deal to four years, and increase the offer. Boston ups their offer, so I do the same. While I’m waiting for the decision, Mikan signs. Syracuse and LA jump into the Sauldsberry sweepstakes. I decide to up the offer one last time and extend it to five years. Syracuse and Boston drop out, but LA increases their offer. I give up on Sauldsberry and begin to look elsewhere.

I offer PF Jim Krebs a three year deal, which he accepts. I then offer PG Lou Tsioropoulos a one year min deal, which immediately gets outbid by LA. I then turn to SG John Rennicke with a one year min deal, which gets accepted.

Johnston signs a max four year deal with Chicago. Cousy signs a one year minimum deal with Detroit.

PRE-SEASON

I decide to decline the team option on Ferry, as he doesn’t figure into our long term plans. The media picks up to finish third this season, with Syracuse on top. Our starting lineup will be C-Scott, PF- Pettit, SF-Guerin, SG-Garmaker, PG-Attles, with Gambee and Greer filling out the rotation. We go 2-4 in the pre-season, so I don’t have high expectations this year.

REGULAR SEASON

We start off by losing the first two games, with Scott dislocating his shoulder in the second game. He’ll be out over a month. Honestly, I think the injuries in this game are broken. Chicago offers to trade the #3 pick in the draft, SF Lee Schaffer, for Gambee. While I think this will hurt us short term, Gambee’s on the last year of his contract, so I pull the trigger. Greer wants a five year extension, and I agree to it. We actually don’t play too bad in November, finishing at 7-8, with Shaffer taking home rookie of the month.

Scott returns early in December, but only plays in four games before spraining his ankle, which will sideline him for almost another month. This immediately starts an eight game losing streak, and we finish December at 10-19. Even though he barely played, Scott takes home rookie of the month.

Scott comes back early in January, and we begin to play a little better. Towards the end of the month, Pettit breaks his finger, but shouldn’t miss more than a couple of games. In the last game of the month, we lose Ferry to a broken foot, which puts him out about five weeks. We finish the month at 17-26, which is still good enough for third, but we are in a battle with Boston to avoid the cellar. Scott takes home rookie of the month.

About the time we get Pettit back, Attles sprains his knee, which will put him out of action for a couple of weeks. Garmaker turns around and gets a dislocated shoulder the last game before the all-star break, which will take him out for about 6-7 weeks. Guerin and Pettit both go to the all-star game. We continue our battle with Boston for the last playoff spot, finishing February at 22-33, two games from the basement. Scott wins another rookie of the month.

We start strongly in March, and Ferry returns. Garmaker returns to the lineup late in the month. We end up with a good month, and finish at 32-38, 6 ½ games in front of Boston, but still 9 ½ games back of Philly. Scott continues his strong rookie season, winning another rookie of the month award.

Even though we start April out terribly, Boston isn’t playing any better, and we clinch a playoff spot with four games left in the season. With our spot locked in, we rest our starters to avoid injury. The first game after I bench the starters, Greer injures his knee, which should knock him out for the rest of the season, including playoffs. This forces me to bring back Garmaker. The next game, Krebs injures his back, and I have to activate Scott. We manage to survive the rest of the season with no further injuries, and finish at 35-45.

I derped and forgot to export the data before ending the season. I can go into the archives to get the standings, but the leaderboard is specific to the export.

POST SEASON

Pettit and Guerin both make 2nd team all-NBA. Somehow, Schaffer makes 1st rookie team while Scott only gets 2nd team. Probably because the first team center was rookie of the year Walt Bellamy. Oscar Robertson wins MVP.
We get Philly in the first round, and although they finished 12 games ahead of us, we did go 11-12 against them this season. We play poor defense in game 1, and lose 141-129. We manage to steal game 2 126-118 behind Pettit’s 28 points and 21 boards. In game 3, we survive a furious comeback attempt, squeaking out a 120-119 victory. With a chance to pull off the upset in game 4, Scott shows why he was our first pick, scoring 40 in a 133-120 win.

We get Syracuse in the conference finals, and avoiding a sweep would be an accomplishment. We went 5-19 against them during the season. Krebs is back for game 1, although not 100%. The game doesn’t go well as we lose 137-120. Game 2 isn’t any better, and we lose 133-116. Home court advantage continues to hold, as we win game 3 easily 113-90. Guerin missed a triple-double by one assist. Game 4 was a shootout, but Pettit was the star, scoring 42 in a 147-142 victory. We still have no answers on the road, as Pettit injures a finger in a 119-106 loss. He plays through the injury in game 6, and we force a game 7, winning 127-101. Pettit comes up huge in the first game 7 in franchise history, scoring 41 and pulling down 19 boards in a 131-120 upset. The win is slightly costly, as Ferry picks up a minor hip injury. However, we are making our first finals appearance in 12 seasons.

Our reward is to face the two-time defending champs, and #1 team St. Louis Hawks, behind superstar Wilt Chamberlain. Amazingly, we did beat them once in our two meetings this season. We don’t put up much of a fight in game 1, losing 137-123, as Wilt scores 74. Although we hold him to 58 in game 2, the result is even worse, going down 144-123. Our undefeated home record in the playoffs ends in game 3, losing 142-129. Game 4 is our best game in the series, but it’s not enough to avoid the sweep, losing 124-120.

It was a great playoff run, but right now, St. Louis is unbeatable. For next season, Ferry is the only player who got minutes who isn’t signed. I’m regretting decline the team option for his contract, as he had a solid season for us this year. Next year’s draft is deep, so we should be able to get a player that can help us. We had a fluky run in the playoffs, so we still have a long way to go before we are challenging for a title.

Umbrella · 05-18-2021, 04:29 PM

1962-63 NEW YORK KNICKS

OFF SEASON

A lot of offseason news to start the latest update. First, Chicago realized that calling themselves the Packers was a terrible idea, and renamed themselves the Zephyrs. Second, Philly is continuing the western migration, moving to San Francisco to be the San Francisco Warriors.

Closer to home, I was given a two year extension. As it turns out, that would be the last official duty of owner Frank Davis, as he then sold the team to Gong Dai. He’s got to be better than Dolan, right?

Even with our nice playoff run and finals appearance, we were still terrible during the season, so we pick 4th in the draft. Chicago threw everything off with a surprise #1 pick of SG Terry Dischinger, who was projected to go 5th. I thought maybe I could get lucky, and have Dave DeBusschere or John Havlicek drop to me, but I wasn’t that fortunate. This forced a tough decision between me and my scout. I ended up taking PF Len Chappell, although my scout wanted SF Bill Bridges. In the second round, I took PG Kevin Loughery, a raw talent with a very high upside.

I have a decent amount of cap room and there are some absolute studs available in free agency. I’m sure Bird rights will be used on them, but it won’t stop me from trying. I start by offering a 6 year max deal to C Wayne Embry. I also offer a 5 year max deal to PF Elgin Baylor. They both sign with their original teams, so I then go after PF Connie Dierking. I also offer a very low two year contract to SG George Lee. I get underbid on both, but they prefer the better team, and indicate they won’t sign for me. I then offer a 2 year deal to SG Gene Shue, and a 1 year min offer to PF Jackie Moreland. George Lee changes his mind, and signs with us, so I pull Shue’s offer. Moreland signs soon after, and my roster is now full.

For our previous players, they all signed one year minimum deals. Mikan to Detroit, Peterson to St. Louis, and Ferry to San Francisco.

PRE-SEASON

The media predicts a third place finish again. Our starting lineup will be the same as last season, C-Scott, PF- Pettit, SF-Guerin, SG-Garmaker, PG-Attles. The bench rotation is a little different, with Chappell, Lee, and Greer slotted for minutes. We start the pre-season 1-2, and then I get the trade offer; Oscar Robertson for Ray Scott. I love Scott, but when you have a chance to get the reigning 23-year old MVP, I can’t turn it down. Syracuse decides they want more of my team, and I make my second trade with them in a week, giving them Shaffer for C Rudy LaRusso. We finish the pre-season at 2-4.

REGULAR SEASON

Our season starts off as road warriors, as we have 11 of the 17 games on the road. The Big O is great, and we hold our own, going 8-9 for the month. We then get offered Elgin Baylor for Pettit. I did consider this, but Baylor’s contract is very long, and I think it will outlive its usefulness, so I declined.

December has a lot of home games on the schedule, so I feel if we’re going to be any good, we need to make a move this month. A couple of games into the homestand, Robertson truly proves he’s a Knick by breaking a rib. It doesn’t seem too severe though, and he should only miss a couple of weeks. The injury leads to Chappell getting his first career start, which in turns leads to Chappell getting his first career injury, a dislocated knee. He’ll be out over a month, and here we go yet again. I mean, this is getting so ridiculous that I don’t even want to play anymore. And then, in the very next game, Garmaker sprains his ankle. Three games, three injured starters. This isn’t even realistic at this point, and I’m taking a break from this dynasty to save my sanity.

04-27-2021, 12:29 PM	#5
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	I couldn't figure out the HtML, so I'll do screenshots instead. Last edited by Umbrella : 04-27-2021 at 12:30 PM.

04-27-2021, 12:38 PM	#6
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	POST-SEASON Kappen was all defense 1st team. Fulks was 1st team all NBA and MVP. As you can see in the above post, Fulks led the league in scoring, setting a record that may never be broken. Offensively, we were the best team in the league, but one of the worst defensively. 1st round against the Toronto Huskies. We went 4-6 against them during the season. Game 1 win 125-115 behind 52 points and 12 rebounds from Fulks. Morganthaler injured his hip and is forced to miss game 2. That hurt us, as we lost game 2 121-108. Morgenthaler is available for game 3, but not starting. Fulks goes off for 67 points in a 135-121 win. Fulks doesn’t slow down in game 4, scoring 66 in a 140-116 win, clinching the series. On to Boston for the conference championship against the Celtics. We went 4-6 against them during the season. Fulks continues to be unstoppable scoring 70 in a 126-116 win. Morgenthaler returns to the starting lineup for game 2, but it still results in a 132-124 loss. Fulks is held to only 48, but more balanced scoring from the rest of the team gives a 130-118 win in game 3. A strong defensive effort highlighted by a 30 rebound game from Morgenthaler gives a 133-94 win. Fulks scores 60 in game 5 in Boston, but it isn’t enough to prevent a 136-126 loss. Fulks continues to dominate, scoring 72 in a series clinching 136-121 win. The first ever NBA championship will be against the Cleveland Rebels. They were the #2 seed from the west, but only went 30-30 on the season, with us going 2-0 against them. For the first time in the playoffs, Fulks wasn’t the high scorer in the game. That honor went to Cleveland’s star Ed Sadowski, but his 44 point, 22 rebound performance wasn’t enough as the Knicks won 138-125. Fulks was back to his old self, scoring 60 in a 127-109 win in game 2. Cleveland made a late run in game 3, stealing a 131-129 victory. Defense was optional in game 4, as we won 143-132. This is a 2-3-2 format, so game 5 remains in Cleveland. Fulks clinched the series in a nail biter, 124-123. Fulks won playoff MVP, and we're already halfway to the real life 2 championships by the Knicks. I think we are going to be setup well for next season. All of our significant players are signed through next season, and the upcoming draft looks weak. Only one player (Red Rocha) looks to be a difference maker, so I don't expect any of the lesser teams to jump up and improve greatly. Last edited by Umbrella : 04-27-2021 at 12:40 PM.

04-27-2021, 02:20 PM	#7
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Love a good FBPB dynasty, following. __________________ Current dynasty: OOTP25 Blitz: RTS meets Moneyball \| OOTP Mod: GM Excel Competitive Balance Tax/Revenue Sharing Calc \| FBCB Mods on Github

04-29-2021, 03:51 PM	#15
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PLAYOFFS Fulks was named first team all NBA as well as MVP, surprising nobody. Simmons won sixth man of the year. He’s not happy coming off the bench, but he’ll have to live with it. Vern Mikkelsen won rookie of the year for Boston. Philadelphia beat Boston in the first round, so that is our opponent. This could be a problem, because of our 6 losses this season, 3 of them were to Philly. We won our first game 88-72, but my injury fears were realized. Glamack broke his foot and will be out for the season. But Simmons shows he is up to the challenge, leading our team in scoring in a 104-83 victory in game 2. Philly is tough at home, and it shows in a 96-87 loss on the road in game 3. Home court continues to be a factor, as Philly wins game 4 114-105. We win game 5 in a laugher 116-88, but lose Simmons with blurred vision. Glamack has played his whole career with blurred vision, so I'm not sure why this is a problem for Simmons. Budko is going to have to start game 6 for us at center. He was pretty terrible, but Fulks and Tannenbaum picked up the slack with 33 and 26 points respectively, and we won a tight game 6 85-82. This year, we meet #1 seed Rochester in the finals. Their 2nd year head coach started out as one of our assistant coaches. Rochester is led by Arnie Risen and Dolph Schayes, and with our injured big men, could prove a significant challenge. Budko follows his 1-8 game with a 0-8 clunker, but Fulks pours in 59 to lead us to a 114-96 victory. Fulks carries the team once again in a game 2 111-87 win. Simmons returns for game 3 in Rochester, and scores 20 with 22 boards in a 100-88 victory. Game 4 was a balanced effort, and we complete the sweep winning 108-75. Fulks continues to fill up his trophy case, winning playoffs MVP for the third time. If I can't sign Fulks next year, our run of dominance may come to an end. I think we would still be pretty good, but he's the best player in the league right now, and that is impossible to replace. Last edited by Umbrella : 04-29-2021 at 03:53 PM.

04-29-2021, 06:14 PM	#16
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1950-51 NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON I was rewarded after the season with a four year contract extension. More wholesale changes in the league as six teams (Anderson, Sheboygan, Waterloo, Chicago, Denver, and St. Louis) all fold, dropping the league from 17 teams to 11. In addition, Tri-Cities moved to Milwaukee and changed their name to the Hawks. This years dispersal draft should have a lot of talent, but we probably won’t get any of them. Syracuse took PF Carl Braun from Denver with the first pick. Mikan went 2nd to Indy. We took PF Harry Boykoff from Anderson. He almost averaged a double double last year as a rookie. Fun fact about Boykoff, he was so proficient at blocking shots that the goaltending rule was introduced because of him. In the rookie draft, we pick 11th (last) in both rounds. It is a weak draft that is extremely top heavy, so I don’t expect to get anyone who will contribute. I took C Bob Levoy in the first round, and PF Norm Mager in the second. A not-so-fun fact about Mager, he was part of the CCNY point shaving scandal, and was kicked out of and banned from the NBA for life. It’s no secret what my strategy is this free agency period; sign Fulks at all costs. In addition, I’d like to sign another SF for depth, but it will probably have to be at the league minimum after signing Fulks. Luckily, he signed with us pretty quickly, a six-year deal that wasn’t even a max contract. It was then I noticed that 4 time all star Max Zaslofsky didn’t have any offers, even though he was only asking the league minimum. I don’t understand why, but I happily signed him to a 1 year minimum deal. The big free agency news was C Clarence Hermsen signing with Boston (from Baltimore) and SF Ed Sadowski signing with Rochester (from Washington). The teams that finished with the 2nd and 3rd best records last year both got significantly better. Last edited by Umbrella : 04-29-2021 at 06:15 PM.

04-27-2021, 11:35 AM	#2
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1946-47 SEASON - NEW YORK KNICKS I've decided to start with a creation draft, letting all the teams start with the same chance of getting decent players. And decent players is a stretch. These guys are awful. It is a snake draft, so I ended up with the 4th pick in odd rounds, and 8th pick in even rounds. Here is who I have to start the season: 1. PF Joe Fulks. Fulks is considered one of the first "modern" players. He was a very high scorer, and was one of the first players to use a jump shot. He was the leagues best scorer in the early days of the NBA. 2. PG Belus Smawley. Not a lot of talent at the point guard position, so I wanted to get one before the pickings got too slim. Not a lot of info I could find out about him, but apparently he was another early adopter of the jump shot. My Knicks team will be innovators. 3. C Lee Knoreck. A good post defender. In the early days, everything went to the big guys under the rim, so a rim protector seems like a good idea. He was a Knick in real life as well. Fun fact: in official NBA records, his birthplace is listed as Warsaw, Poland, even though he was born in Ohio. He was fluent in Polish, and so as a practical joke, his friends had him convince everyone he was Polish. 4. C Elmo Morganthaler. Best player available. There is conflicting info on him. Some sources claim he was the first 7 footer in the NBA, but others list him at 6'9". 5. SF Johnny Norlander. Another guy I couldn't find a lot of info about. One of the better players left, and I need a small forward. We're getting to the point where there's not a lot of talent available. 6. SG Bob Mullens. Best shooting guard available. He was a Knick in real life, and at one point held the New York City Catholic league scoring mark. 7. PG Tony Kappen. Most of the top players left are big men, so I think I can get some of them later. Guards are hard to find right now. He was allegedly the first NBA player with no college experience. 8. PF Bob Duffy. I'm letting my scout do most of the picking from here on out, since all of the remaining players are garbage. Duffy led the SEC in scoring his senior year. 9. SF John Barr. Googling him just comes up with whisky. I couldn't find any interesting facts about him. 10. SF Ned Endress. The only interesting fact I could find about him said he was a lifetime member of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. Um, doesn't that happen by default? 11. PF Bob Fitzgerald. He was a little difficult to find info about since the play-by-play guy for the Warriors is also named Bob Fitzgerald, so I kept landing on him instead. As with many players in the league, he served in WW2. 12. SG Arnold Nelson. The first guy I couldn't find anything about. 13. SF Aubrey Davis. Only played one season in real life. 14. SG Jere Glenn. Another guy I couldn't find anything about. 15. SG Howie McCarty. A shooting guard with a career shooting percentage of .122. Yikes! Note that I looked up the info on these players after the draft, as not to influence my decisions. Other than Fulks, I haven't heard of any of these guys. Fulks is the obvious superstar of the team, so I hope the coach decides to run the offense through him. One interesting fact, the coaching staff was already hired when I took the job, so I didn't have any say in them. Michael Adams is the head coach, and looks like he will be solid. I think we have a chance to be competitive, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

04-27-2021, 11:57 AM	#3
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PRE-SEASON Our starting lineup will be as follows: C - Morgenthaler, PF - Fulks, SF - Smawley, SG - Mullens, PG - Kappen. Interesting that our coach moved Smawley to the 3. Also, he went with Morgenthaler over Knoreck. Norlander, Glenn, and Knoreck fill out the rotation. I'm not sure why the coach is so high on Glenn, as he looks terrible to me, but I will generally let the coach make the depth chart decisions, unless I want a young guy to get more minutes. We go 4-3 during the pre-season, with Nelson getting a stress fracture which will put him out of action for a while. I'm not worried about that since I don't see him getting minutes. REGULAR SEASON We started out around .500 until Fulks got a minor groin pull in the 9th game of the season. Since he's averaging a whopping 56.6 ppg at this point, I'm concerned. We finish the November 5-6, with Fulks winning player of the month despite missing the last couple of games. Fulks returns after the first game in December, and the team goes on a roll. He wins player of the month for the second time as the team sits at 14-8 going into the new year. We come back to earth a little bit in January, losing Norlander for a significant amount of time with plantar fasciitis. We finish January at 20-12, and Fulks wins player of the month for a third straight month. February brings the all star game, and the Knicks have three representatives. Morganthaler, Kappen, and of course Fulks all get selected. Fulks led all players in scoring, yet the MVP went to Washington's Harold Kottman in a 147-131 Eastern victory. Kappen broke his finger right after the all-star break, and had to fight through that. We finished February at 25-16, with Fulks winning player of the month yet again. Norlander returned, and immediately broke his jaw in his first game back, putting him out of action again. We continued to be mediocre, finishing March at 31-21, good enough for third place in the east, 2 games out of 2nd, and 4 games in front of 4th. The top three teams in each conference make the playoffs, so we are on the edge. Fulks wins player of the month again, and I can't see how he won't win MVP. We play decently in April, and a late season swoon by Toronto is enough for us to sneak into 2nd place with a final record of 36-24. I'm going to try and see if I can insert some HTML into the next post.

04-27-2021, 12:12 PM	#4
Chas in Cinti High School Varsity Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Interesting concept... I'll be following! __________________ Email: [email protected]

04-27-2021, 03:48 PM	#8
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1947-48 SEASON NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON The fledging league is not off to a good start as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Detroit all fold. When 3 of your 6 playoff teams go under, that’s not a good sign. However, that means that the league will have a dispersal draft, and there will be some good talent in there. Unfortunately, we only have the 6th pick. We picked up C Connie Simmons from Cleveland. He was a bench player for them, but he is only 23 with high potential. In real life, he was a solid but unspectacular player, and was the 2nd player to enter the league (behind Kappen) who didn't play college ball. Baltimore is added to the league, leaving the league at eight teams for the upcoming season. Washington is switched over to the Western conference to keep balance. However, this means there will be an expansion draft, and we are required to expose three players to the draft. I choose to expose Duffy, Barr, and Endress, as they didn’t play for us much during last season, and none of them are involved in my long term plans. Duffy ended up being taken. Next up was the rookie draft. Once again we have the 6th pick in both rounds. As I mentioned earlier, it is not a very deep draft. For our first pick, I was debating between PG Sid Tannenbaum (best available player) and SG Andy Philip (team need). In the end I went with Tannenbaum because he is only 21 years old, and that was my scout’s choice. He looks to be able to get to the rim and defend on the perimeter. In the second round, my scout was suggesting PG Joseph Riser, but he is 32 years old, and we just took a PG. None of the players look great, so I ended up taking SF Gene Vance, who looks like he can be a decent rebounder. In real life, he is a legend at University of Illinois, but didn't have an impactful NBA career. As expected, Red Rocha was the overall #1 pick by Washington. During free agency, I needed to get another shooting guard. We are over the cap, so I can only sign someone to the minimum. None of the available players were much of a scoring threat, so I focused on defense. I offered the minimum for one year to Zigmund Mihalik who was a significant bench player with Detroit last year. He ended up signing with us. In real life, he only played in 7 games, yet is in the hall of fame as a referee. He's also Polish, so maybe he and Knoreck will bond. Philly and Boston were very active during free agency, so they will likely be tougher this season.

04-27-2021, 03:55 PM	#9
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PRE-SEASON We are being picked by the media to finish 2nd to Philly this season. Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Fulks, SF-Smawley, SG-Tannenbaum, and PG-Kappen. Morgenthaler, Norlander, and Mihalik will be part of the rotation. I still feel like Knoreck has value, so I would like to trade him, but none of the teams have cap space, so I don’t know if that will be possible. We went 3-2 during the pre-season. REGULAR SEASON We started off well before disaster struck. Smawley ruptured his Achilles in the 6th game and is out for the season. Coach Adams decided to shift Fulks to the three, and have Norlander play PF. Meanwhile, Mullens, Mihilak, and Kappen were all willing to sign extensions, as they were all on their last season. They are all part of the rotation (Mullens since the Smawley injury), so I wanted to offer them all. However, Mullens wanted way too much money, so we couldn’t agree on terms. I gave another year extension to Mihilak at the minimum, and offered a 3 year extension to Kappen, which were both accepted. I would like to extend Morgenthaler and Norlander, but they both expressed their desire to test free agency. We finished November at 5-4, ½ game out of first, which isn’t too bad since most of the games were on the road. We continued to play well in December, finishing at 12-6, 2 games ahead of Boston. We continued to play well into January when Morgenthaler went down with a bulging disc in his back. We finished January at 18-9, 4 games in front of Boston, and Fulks winning his first player of the month this season. Our best record got individual recognition as well, as Norlander, Simmons, Kappen, and Fulks were all selected as all-stars. Shortly after the all-star break, the unthinkable happened. Fulks tore a ligament which would sideline him for perhaps the remainder of the regular season. Simmons initially picked up the slack, and we entered March with a 22-12 record, still in first by 4 ½ games. Morgenthaler returned early in March, and both he and Simmons were carrying the team in the absence of Fulks. We finished March at 26-16, still 3 ½ games up. Fulks proved to be a quick healer, and returned from injury in April. We clinched the #1 seed with 4 games left, so I used the opportunity to finish the season with some young guys getting more minutes. It didn’t affect the team, as we finished the season on a 6 game winning streak. Our final record was 32-16, best in the NBA. Fulks was once again the leading scorer, but didn't put up the ridiculous numbers he did in his first season.

04-27-2021, 04:38 PM	#10
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PLAYOFFS The accolades poured in from our season. Kappen and Norlander were both named all defensive 2nd team. Tannenbaum made all rookie 1st team. Tannenbaum and Fulks were both all NBA 3rd team, and how the league’s leading scorer on the best team in the league was only 3rd team, I don’t know. It must have been the missed games due to injury. Kappen made all NBA 2nd team. And finally, Norlander was named the most improved player. In addition, I was GM of the year, and Adams was coach of the year. Milt Schoon from Philadelphia was the MVP, and Red Rocha from Washington won rookie of the year. We had a first round bye, and waited as Boston swept Philadelphia in the first round, setting up a rematch from last season’s Eastern Conference championship. We went 9-5 against them this season. I screwed up and forgot to reset my depth chart before game 1, but it didn’t matter as we won easily 107-88. Our defense continued its strong play into game 2, winning 97-82. Boston continued to be no match even at home, as we cruised to a 94-74 victory. Game 4 was close, but we completed the sweep with a 95-92 win. Our reward was a matchup with the Chicago Stags in the finals. We went 2-0 against them during the season. Game 1 was an easy 108-89 victory. Game 2 was slightly more competitive, but still resulted in a win, 95-87. Chicago showed more fight at home, winning 104-94. They managed to even the series in a 123-94 laugher. Game 5 continued their home cooking, as they took a 3-2 series lead winning 110-93. We had to win both remaining home games to repeat as champs. Unfortunately, Tannenbaum broke his foot in the first half of game 6, and we never recovered, losing 127-121. A disappointing end, as I felt we were the best team this year. I'm not as optimistic about next season. We are losing some solid players to free agency, and we pick last in the draft. There are some solid players coming in next season, highlighted by George Mikan. However, by the time we pick, the talent will be slim.

04-29-2021, 01:06 PM	#11
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1948-49 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON Four new teams joined the league; Rochester Royals, Indianapolis Jets, Ft. Wayne Pistons, and Minneapolis Lakers. Closer to home, our head coach Michael Adams decided to retire at 66. In addition, our scout and two assistants had the contracts run out, so the staff was depleted. I hired Ahmed Nelson to a four year contract as our new head coach. He was the head coach of Detroit during the 46-47 season, and served as an assistant in Providence last year. We need to expose 1 player to the expansion draft, and the only player who wasn’t a contributor last season was Vance. He was the last player picked in the expansion draft by Rochester. In the rookie draft, we have the 12th and final pick in both rounds. A decent center, George Glamack, fell to us in the first round. He should be a good rebounder, as well as a shot blocker for us. The down side is he is 29 years old. The other downside I didn’t know until I looked up some info on him. His nickname was “The Blind Bomber” because he had terrible eyesight. He had to use the lines on the court to figure out where he was because he couldn’t see the basket. It’s actually amazing that he was a decent player, and one of the few retired numbers at UNC. Not much available in the second round, so I took a mediocre PF Odie Spears. He probably won’t get much playing time, but he was one of the premier free throw shooters of his time. Shockingly, St. Louis picked Joe Grabowski over Mikan with the #1 pick. For free agency, I don’t see any glaring needs, other than a little depth at SG. I would like to try and see if Morgenthaler and Norlander will re-sign with us and try to make another title run. I don’t have a lot of cap space to work with, so we’ll see what happens. Morganthaler was asking more than we had cap space for, so he’s out. I offered a contract to Norlander, and also to SG Ossie Schectman, who is a two time all star and last season’s assist leader. I was way overbid immediately by teams with much more cap space. I offered a 1 year contract to undrafted SG Fred Lewis. He signed, and surprisingly, Schectman signed as well. In real life, Schectman has the honor of scoring the first official basket in NBA history. I feel like I need more depth at SF, especially not knowing if Smawley will be what he was before his injury, so I offered undrafted rookie SF Estes Parham a 2 year deal. We were overbid, so I decided to see if Mullens wanted to come back for another season. He immediately signed a 1 year deal at the minimum. The last thing I wanted was a big man who could defend in the post. I offered a 2 year deal to PF Virgil Vaughan who signed with us. Norlander signed with Fort Wayne for the largest contract in the league, and Morgenthaler signed with Indianapolis for the second largest contract.

04-29-2021, 01:12 PM	#12
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PRE SEASON We were picked to finish 4th this season, with Providence and new star George Mikan picked to win the east. Our lineup this season will be C-Glamack, PF-Fulks, SF-Schectman, SG-Tannenbaum, and PG-Kappen. Simmons, Smawley, and Lewis fill out the rotation. We finish pre-season 4-2, so hopefully we will do better than the media thinks. REGULAR SEASON We started the season winning our first 3 games before Fulks went down with patellar tendinitis. He’s expected to miss about a month. The next game Schectman went down with a sprained knee, expecting to miss a couple of weeks. Kappen followed that up with a minor knee sprain of his own, so the injury bug has hit hard early. In addition, all of the players I have interest in resigning want to test the free agency market. We managed to scrap by November with a 6-4 record, in a four way tie for first. Fulks returned early in December and went on a tear, leading the team to an 8 game winning streak and winning player of the month. We were at 14-6, but unfortunately, Baltimore was even better, and sat in first place by a game. The team continued its hot play through January, compiling a 21-8 record, and pulling in front of Baltimore by four games. This was tempered by the loss of Glamack in the last game of the month with patellar tendinitis, which should sideline him for about a month. Fulks is playing like he did a couple of years ago, winning another player of the month. Kappen, Tannenbaum, and Fulks all got selected to the all star game. The team continued to exceed expectations as they finished February at 28-9, with Fulks winning player of the month for the third time this season. Glamack got healthy, and the team reeled off an NBA record 13 game winning streak before losing to Philadelphia in a game where Simmons got injured. He sprained his knee and will be out a couple of weeks. We finished March with a record of 39-12, 7 ½ games in front of Philly. Fulks won player of the month for March. We clinched the #1 seed with four games left, so I let the bench guys get minutes in the last games to save my better players. We finished 44-16, the best record for the second year in a row. PLAYOFFS Kappen made all defensive 2nd team. Glamack was 2nd team all rookie. Kappen was also named 3rd team all NBA. Tannenbaum was all NBA 2nd team, and Fulks was named first team all NBA. I won my 2nd GM of the year award. Mikan won both MVP and rookie of the year. We had another first round bye, so we waited for Baltimore to take care of Philadelphia in the first round. They played us tough this season, as we had a losing record to them at 4-5. Baltimore continued their hot play, shocking us in game 1 114-98. We rebounded well in game 2, taking a 105-91 victory. We managed to grab home court advantage back in a game 3 blowout, 111-81. It seems that first game loss got the team angry, winning a second straight road game blowout 110-87. It got worse for them in game 5, as we won the series with a dominating 132-86 victory. We would get a rematch with Chicago in the finals. Game 1 was a laugher as we won 129-78, although Tannenbaum broke his nose that game. Game 2 wasn’t a contest either, as the Knicks win 116-86. This was another costly win, as Mullens broke his arm, ending his season. Back in Chicago, we lost game 3 in a heartbreaker 106-103. Game 4 was a blowout Stags win, 106-80. I was getting flashbacks to last season at this point. We managed to change the tide, winning game 5 106-97. We just needed to win one of two games at home to take the championship. Game 6 was a defensive masterpiece, as we held them to 78 points in a 92-78 victory, winning our second championship. Fulks deservedly won his 2nd playoff MVP award. Unfortunately, I forgot to export the data for this season, so I can't list any screen shots. All of our starters are still under contract, so I think we can make another run next season. Our depth will take a hit but I'm hoping I can sign some of the players back during free agency.

04-29-2021, 03:38 PM	#13
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1949-1950 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON Massive changes happened in the league. Providence and Indianapolis folded, leaving MVP Mikan available in the dispersion draft. Also, a whopping SEVEN new teams are entering the league; Sheboygan Red Skins, Anderson Packers, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, Waterloo Hawks, Denver Nuggets, Indianapolis Olympians (this is a completely different Indy team than the one that folded), and Syracuse Nationals. In real life, these 17 teams were split into 3 divisions, but the game is only having them in two. We have the 17th and final pick in the dispersal draft. By the time we picked, there were only two players available, so we took PF Brady Walker from Indianapolis. Anderson had the first pick and took Mikan. For the expansion draft, we have to expose a player. I went with Vaughn, since he didn’t play much for us last year. He was taken second by Syracuse. We pick 17th in both rounds of the rookie draft. There are a couple of decent players at the top of the draft, but I don’t expect anyone that can help us by the time we pick. I picked C Al Miksis in the first round. He looks to be a good rebounder, but that’s about it. In the second round, I take SF Wayne See. I couldn't find any interesting tidbits about either player. Dolph Schayes was taken #1 overall by Rochester. Depth was the name of the game for this season’s free agency haul, but we would be competing with a lot of expansion teams with plenty of cap space. We have Bird rights to Simmons, so he is one of my top priorities to sign. In addition, I offered deals to SG Mel Riebe, and PG Arnie Ferrin. Simmons was in high demand, so it took a 7 year max deal to sign him. I hope I don’t end up with buyer’s remorse on this one. Riebe is 33 years old, so I don’t want to sign him for more than 2 years. Other teams are willing, so I wrote him off as a lost bid. I offered undrafted rookie SG Paul Walther a 1 year minimum deal. Ferrin ended up signing a four year deal with us. Reibe signed soon after in a surprise, as did Walther. Other than Fulks, all of our key players are now signed to multi-year deals. In real life, Reibe also played minor league baseball, Ferrin was 4 time All American at Utah and later became their athletic director, and Walther served in WW2 and was an all star one season.

04-29-2021, 03:48 PM	#14
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PRE SEASON We were picked to finish fourth, with Baltimore, led by Clarence Hermsen, expected to win. Our lineup this season will be C-Glamack, PF-Fulks, SF-Schectman, SG-Tannenbaum, and PG-Kappen, same as last year. Simmons, Riebe, and Walther round out the rotation. We go a perfect 6-0 in the preseason, and I think this team has the ability for another title. REGULAR SEASON We started out hot, winning our first 5 games, after which I traded Spears to Sheboygan for C Walter Budko. This was a trade to get an unhappy player off of the roster. In real life, Budko was actually a player-coach for a season with Baltimore. After that trade, I then made another trade with Syracuse, sending Miksas to them for PF Vince Boryla. We are deep at center, and while Miksas may become a good player someday, we are in win now mode. In real life, Boryla was a Knick player for three years, then became their coach, so it feels right to have him on the team. I wanted to sign Fulks to a long term deal, but he wants to test free agency, so this may be our last legit title run. All the trades didn’t mess of the team chemistry, as we finished November at 12-0, led by Fulks winning player of the month. We continued playing fantastic in December, extending the winning streak to an NBA record 21 games before losing at Philadelphia on the last game of the calendar year. Unfortunately, Boston was also doing incredible, so we were only 2 ½ games ahead of them. Fulks won player of the month again, and I will re-sign him using my Bird rights at any cost next year. January doesn’t bring any changes to our winning ways. We finish the month sitting at 31-3. It seems the sudden increase in teams has diluted the talent somewhat, which is helping us out. I’m a bit concerned that we’ve completely avoided the injury bug, and it will come haunt us at the worst possible time. Fulks wins player of the month again. As a reward for our play, we get four players selected for the all star game; Fulks, Kappen, Glamack, and Tannenbaum. And for the second time this season, we have an undefeated month, finishing February at 40-3, now 8 games up on Boston. Fulks win player of the month yet again. While not perfect, March went well too. We finished the month at 52-5, and Fulks still winning player of the month. We clinched first place after our first game in April, so the rest of the month I gave more minutes to our bench players. Even doing that, we still had a great month, and finished the season 62-6, the best record in the history of the league. Even playing sparse minutes, Fulks completed the sweep and won player of the month again. Fulks lead the league in scoring again, while Glamack was second in rebounds.

04-29-2021, 06:22 PM	#17
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PRE-SEASON We were picked to finish 3rd this year with Boston winning. With Hermsen and Mikkelsen, Boston will be tough to stop on the inside. Our lineup this season will be a little different this year. C-Boykoff, PF-Simmons, SF-Fulks, SG-Tannenbaum, PG-Zaslofsky, with Glamack, See, Riebe, Schectman, and Kappen filling out the rotation. This is the deepest team we have had. We went 4-2 during the pre-season. REGULAR SEASON I signed Zaslofsky and Kappen to 2 year extensions at a low price. A brutal early season schedule led us to our worst start in franchise history at 3-5 before Kappen broke his foot, and will miss around 5 weeks. We finished the month at 5-6, but considering 8 of those games were on the road, I’m not too concerned…yet. Early in December, Tannenbaum broke his cheekbone, but should only miss 2-3 weeks. The home-road split leveled out in December, but we still weren’t playing great, finishing the month at 10-10. That is only good enough for 4th place, 2 games out of 3rd and 5 games out of 1st. Early in January, Syracuse offered a trade which I couldn’t refuse. We got PF Carl Braun, one of the better players in the league, in exchange for Ferrin, who barely played for us the last two seasons. I think they felt he wouldn’t re-sign with them, and wanted to get something. In real life, Braun played for and then coached the Knicks, at one point held the NBA single game scoring record, is in the basketball hall of fame, and is believed to have coined the term “swish”. Braun immediately replaced Boykoff in the starting lineup, and I signed him to a 3 year extension. We continued to win at home and struggle on the road, and finished January 16-15, 6 games out of first. Fulks won player of the month. Our middling record landed us only two all-stars, Fulks and Braun. The team started to click in February, and we finished the month at 24-17. We were only ½ game behind Philly for 2nd, but Boston is running away with the division, seven games in front. In March, we resumed our “win at home, lose on the road” ways, and then Fulks broke his foot. I think we need to install new flooring at the Garden. He should be back for the playoffs, if we can make it. Braun picked up the slack, and we held our own, finishing at 32-23, which put us in second place. Braun won player of the month. With 2 games left in the season, we were guaranteed second place, so I let my bench players get some more playing time. We finished the season 41-25, which was the second best record in the league, but still a full 8 games behind Boston. Fulks was second in scoring, and Simmons was fifth in rebounds.

04-29-2021, 06:25 PM	#18
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	PLAYOFFS Tannenbaum was named second team all defense. Lavoy was all rookie first team, and that was only because this years rookie class of centers was pathetic. Zaslofsky and Fulks were both third team all NBA, and Braun made second team all NBA. Interestingly, Ahmed Nelson won coach of the year in the first season he didn’t win the division. Mikan won MVP for Indy, and Paul Arizin won rookie of the year for Minneapolis. We were going to have to play Philly in the first round this year. We went 6-5 against them this season, so this should be a tough matchup. Since I was able to rest Fulks towards the end of the season, he is fully healthy for the playoffs. He was rusty in game one, shooting 9-37, in a tough 75-72 loss. Our starts struggled again in game 2, losing 102-94, and now we have to head on the road with no margin for error. Game 3 saw the Fulks we have known to grow and love, as he scores 43 in a 89-76 win. However, our road woes came back in game 4, and we were eliminated 99-91. Boston ended up winning the championship. Their star players are all signed for a while, so they will be a tough challenge for years to come. Of players who had significant playing time for us, Schectman, Tannenbaum, and Riebe are all free agents. Of that group, Tannenbaum is the only one I am looking to sign. We should still be solid next year, but I don’t think we are in Boston’s league right now.

04-29-2021, 07:53 PM	#19
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1951-52 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON More instability for the league as Washington folds, taking the league down to 10 teams. Washington was pretty bad so I’m not expecting much in the dispersal draft. There were only nine players available, and we picked 9th, so I got C Jack Hewson by default. He’s played a combined 10 minutes in the last three seasons, so he will be a non-factor. Unfortunately, he still has two years left on his contract, and it isn’t a great contract at that. We pick 9th in the rookie draft. It is an incredibly weak draft, with only 2 players worth anything. I picked PG Al McGuire in the first round. Yes, he is the same guy who coached Marquette and became an announcer. In the second round, I selected SG Ray Ragelis. In real life, he only played one season before joining the military. C Charlie Share was taken #1 overall by Syracuse. In free agency, I wanted to sign Tannenbaum back, as well as another SF for depth. I have no cap room, so I will use my Bird rights for Tannenbaum, and sign someone to a min contract. Tannenbaum signed a two year deal with us. I then signed SF Dillard Crocker to a one year min deal. Crocker didn’t play much last season, but was a starter for Minneapolis the previous two seasons. The biggest free agency news wasn’t anyone signed, but the fact that Red Rocha is unsigned. Everyone is over the cap, and I guess he wasn’t willing to play for the minimum. In addition, I signed Coach Nelson to a four year extension. PRE-SEASON We were picked to finish third, with Boston being the favorite. Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Braun, SF-Fulks, SG-Tannenbaum, PG-McGuire, with Boykoff and Zaslofsky filling out the rotation. I didn’t think that highly of McGuire, but I guess Nelson feels he’s the best guy to run the team this year. After some tough thoughts, I decided to decline the team option for Lavoy. We have a lot of depth at center, and I don’t think he fits into my plans. We went 6-0 in pre-season, so maybe this team will be able to compete with Boston. REGULAR SEASON For the second straight year, the schedulers are not kind to us, as 9 of the first 11 games are on the road. Like last year, our road record is a problem, and we finish November with a 4-7 record, but that is still good enough for third place. Midway through December, Tannenbaum gets a stress fracture which will sideline him for about 5-6 weeks. Three games later, Simmons breaks his leg. He may be back in time for the playoffs, but that is a big loss for us. This team is a middling team right now, and even though Fulks wins player of the month, we finish December at 10-13, which is only good enough for fourth place. The injury bug continues to bite us, as we lose Fulks in the first week of January with a sprained ankle, which will put him out for about a month. Down three starters with a bit of ground to make up is not encouraging. We go 1-6 with Fulks out of the lineup. Both Fulks and Tannenbaum get healthy at the end of the month, but the damage has been done. We finish January at 13-21, which is fourth place, 5 ½ games out of a playoff spot. Two games into February, Fulks gets a major concussion, which will probably finish his season. He could be back for the playoffs, but that is looking like a pipe dream at this point. However, at this point in the season, we’ve played 24 road games with only 12 home games, so the schedule should get better at some point. Tannenbaum and Braun both make the all star game. I wonder if Fulks didn’t make it because I have him on the injured list. Towards the end of February, I lose Crocker for the season with a broken foot as well. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, but with the injuries, he was part of the normal rotation. We finish February 16-28 as our nightmare season goes on. We continue to struggle into March, as we have a franchise record nine game losing streak. Not much to say about the rest of the month. We continue losing, finishing at 20-37. Fulks is eligible to come off the injured list early in April. However, we have been officially eliminated from the playoffs at this point. The upcoming draft is incredibly weak, with only 2 players being worth anything. Since we currently sit at the second pick, I’m in no hurry to activate him until he’s 100% healthy. To taunt me further, the team decides to play well in April, finishing with a record of 27-39, which will give us the #4 pick in the upcoming draft. Simmons led the league in rebounding average, but that's a bit misleading as he only played in 20 games. PLAYOFFS Tannenbaum was named second team all defense. McGuire was all rookie second team. Braun made second team all NBA. Ed Macauley from Milwaukee won MVP, and Neil Johnston from Minneapolis won rookie of the year. For the first time we were not in the playoffs. Boston had a rough go, but ended up winning the championship over Milwaukee. We have everyone of significance returning next year, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Injuries were a major factor this year, but finishing as poorly as we did doesn’t bode well for next season.

04-30-2021, 10:57 AM	#20
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1952-53 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON For the first time in a little while, the league remained stable. I was informed that Hewson exercised his player option. He’s unhappy about his playing time, and I was forced to take him and his unreasonable salary when I didn’t want to, so I’m not pleased by this. With the 4th pick in the draft, we took SF Don Henricksen. He’s pretty raw, but he projects to be a good defender and rebounder. In the second round, we took PG Jim Holstein. I found nothing particularly interesting about either of these players in real life. Syracuse took SF Eddie Miller with the #1 pick. Entering free agency, I am over the cap, but I need to sign some depth at SG. I offered career backup Fred Lewis a one year minimum deal, which was soon outbid by Philly. I then offered Gene Berce, who has started for both Boston and Syracuse in the past. Berce signed with us, at which point I pulled the offer for Lewis. The other big free agent signings were Harry Gallatin going from Minneapolis to Rochester, and George Mikan going from Indy to Baltimore. PRE-SEASON The media is not liking us, as they pick us to finish in last in the East. Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Braun, SF-Fulks, SG-Berce, PG-Tannenbaum, with McGuire and Boykoff filling out the rotation. We went 3-3 in the pre-season, so I’m not convinced we are going to be a playoff caliber team this season. REGULAR SEASON We start the season losing our first four games, which doesn’t inspire confidence. Berce, Tannenbaum, and Boykoff all want extensions. I sign Berce to a 5 year extension and Tannenbaum for 2 more years, but Boykoff wants more than I think he is worth. While I don’t want to lose him, we are tight on cap space, so it looks like I will have to let him walk. After our slow start, we finish November at 4-6. December brings a lot of road games, but we don’t do too horribly. We finish December at 9-11, which is good enough for a playoff spot. For now. Baltimore is pulling away, and Boston, Philly, and us are within a game of each other. January starts off good, as we win five of our first seven games. But then we follow it up with a six game losing streak, to end the month at 14-19, which leaves us in third. Boston is beginning to solidify second place, and Syracuse has gotten back into the mix for a playoff spot. Even with our inconsistent play, Fulks wins player of the month. Even though our record isn’t great, Simmons, Tannenbaum, Braun, and Fulks are all selected for the all star game. We finish February winning our last three games, which puts us at 20-24. We’ve got a 3 game lead over Philly, but Boston is still 4 ½ games away. Baltimore looks like they won’t be caught for the division. In March, we show the ability to consistently beat the teams worse than us, and consistently lose to the teams better than us. Boston catches fire and moves to within 2 games of Baltimore. We remain in third at 27-30, but can’t quite shake Philly. We play very well in April, considering that many of our games are against first place Baltimore. On the fourth to last game of the season, we beat Philly on the road to clinch a playoff spot. Baltimore and Boston are fighting for the division title, and we still have one game against Baltimore, but I want to protect my starters from injury, so they will rest the last three games. Possibly a good thing, because Zalofsky, who hasn’t played much this season until the last three games, broke his finger in the last game of the season. We finish at 35-35, third place, and in the playoffs. Fulks wins player of the month for April. Fulks was the scoring leader for the fifth time in seven years. PLAYOFFS Tannenbaum makes all defensive second team. Henricksen makes all rookie second team. And finally, Fulks rebounds from a disappointing (by his standards) season last year to make first team all NBA. As I mentioned, this year’s rookie class was really weak, and that’s why Henricksen was selected. The rookie of the year was Eddie Miller from Syracuse with a 8.0/8.7/1.3 split. The MVP was Ed Macauley from Milwaukee. Our reward is a first round matchup with the two-time defending champion Boston Celtics. We only went 4-11 against them this season, so I’m not optimistic. Boston won the first game fairly easily, 102-90. Game 2 was more of the same, losing 103-93. Back at home for game 3 didn’t change our luck, as we got whomped 96-76. Our playoff run was short lived. Boston went on to win to win their 3rd straight championship. I think we are in need of another star player to compete for a championship. There are some good players that will be free agents next season, but we still have some cap issues. Once again, next year’s draft is top heavy, and I don’t expect any game changers to be available when we pick. We were relatively injury free this season, so this year’s record shows what we are. We’ve reached a point where we’re too good to get help in the draft, but not good enough to contend for a championship. I think we will be mired in mediocrity for the next few seasons.

04-30-2021, 01:29 PM	#21
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Time to deal off whatever talent you have for scraps! __________________ Current dynasty: OOTP25 Blitz: RTS meets Moneyball \| OOTP Mod: GM Excel Competitive Balance Tax/Revenue Sharing Calc \| FBCB Mods on Github

04-30-2021, 04:02 PM	#22
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1953-54 NEW YORK KNICKS PRE-SEASON As we begin a new offseason, my lead scout informs me he is leaving to become the GM of Philly. Also, the Indianapolis Olympians fold, marking the second time a team from Indy has folded. They only have four available players and we pick 5th in the dispersal draft, so we don’t get anyone. With the 5th pick in the rookie draft, we took PF Jim Neal. He is nothing special, as this is a terrible draft, but he is a decent defender and rebounder. His nickname is “Daddy”, in reference to his long arms and legs making him look like a daddy longlegs spider. In the second round, I select PG Ernie Barrett. He could be a good defender someday, but he’s pretty raw. The only thing I found interesting about him is that he has a restaurant named after him with a statue of him in front. Ft. Wayne selected PF Clyde Lovellette with the #1 pick. I’m still over the cap, so this will be a boring free agency period. I would like sign three players; a center, a shooting guard, and then another warm body in case of injuries. The only player I have Bird rights to that I’m interested in signing is Boykoff, but he wants too much money for a guy who would be a backup for me. I started scraping the bargain bin, and settled on these three: C Bob Lavoy, who you may remember from a couple of seasons ago, C Howie Schultz, a defensive specialist who hasn’t had much playing time in his career, and SG Kenny Rollins, a good defender who has been a starter in the league for the last 5 seasons. Rollins immediately had interest from other teams, so I offered SG Bob Davies, who is older, but has been a reliable starter for several seasons. Davies also got attention from other teams, so plan C is SG Mel Payton. Looking closer at him, he should be plan A as he was all defense 2nd team last season. Rochester immediately trumped me with him as well. It’s looking bleak, so I am forced to offer career scrub SG Wally Osterkorn. Schultz and Lavoy signed, all of the SG’s not named Osterkorn signed with other teams. Schultz actually played in the MLB for a few seasons before joining the NBA. Baltimore then outbid me for Osterkorn. At this point, all teams are over their cap, so I decided to see if SG Frank Brian would sign for a one year league minimum. He was first team all NBA last year, so I don’t know if he’ll sign, but he doesn’t have any other available options right now. He tells us he refuses to sign at that salary, but after a few days realizes he doesn’t have any other options, and takes the deal. In real life, Brian was a pretty good player, playing in the first two all star games. In other signings, Baltimore signs reigning MVP Ed McCauley and also Red Rocha. They won the division last year, and have improved significantly. PRE-SEASON The media predicts another last place finish for us. Our lineup this season will be C-Simmons, PF-Fulks, SF-Brian, SG-Berce, PG-Tannenbaum, with Braun and McGuire filling out the rotation. We went 2-3 in the pre-season. Looking at the other team’s rosters, Baltimore is loaded and Boston looks good as well. I think we could possible compete with Philly, but Syracuse looks to be a little better than us. Avoiding last place would be a good accomplishment. I’m already looking ahead to next years draft class, which looks like it could be strong. REGULAR SEASON Of all the players who were on the last year of their contract, Lavoy, Schultz, and Braun were the only ones interested in signing an extension. I have no interest in keeping Lavoy or Schultz, and Braun want to paid like a top tier player. I decided not to offer any extensions and see what next years draft and/or free agency offers. We had another road heavy November, but actually did OK, finishing the month at 4-5. Midway through December, Brian received a minor jaw injury, but should only miss about a week. We maintained our mediocrity through December, finishing the month at 10-9, good enough for third place. The east is tight so far, as the top four teams (Baltimore, Boston, NY, and Syracuse) are all within 2 ½ games of each other. Fulks won player of the month for December. January showed me that this team is not ready. We had almost the entire month at home, and played terribly. We finished the month at 14-19, a distant fourth place. Baltimore, Boston, and Syracuse have all pulled away from the pack, and are within a game of each other. I fished around for some trade possibilities to try and get some future assets, but couldn’t find any takers. Berce and Fulks were both named all stars. Then Tannenbaum had a hernia in mid-February, probably sidelining him for the season. Fulks followed him to the bench the next game with appendicitis. It doesn’t seem too severe, as he is only listed out for a week. We finished the month at 18-26, seven spots out of the last playoff spot. March looks to be a brutal month, with a very busy schedule, and most of the games on the road. Fulks has a slight knee sprain, but Braun, perhaps playing for a contract next season, picks up the slack. Neal, who has been getting more playing time lately, also picks up a minor hip injury. Yet all things considered, we didn’t play too badly. We finished the month at 27-34, still five games out of the last playoff spot. I think Fulks’ age is catching up to him, and he picks up yet another minor knee injury in the first game of April. We were eliminated from playoff contention on April 9th, so I let the youngsters play out the season. We finished the season at 30-42. We ended up tied with Milwaukee, so I don’t know if we will get the 3rd or 4th pick in the upcoming draft. Either way, there are only two players in the draft that will provide immediate help. Syracuse shocks everyone by running away with the East. Fulks continues to be amazing, leading the league in scoring again. PLAYOFFS Berce was named 1st team defense, Neal was 2nd team rookie, and Fulks was 2nd team all NBA. Vern Mikkelsen from Boston won MVP, and Clyde Lovellette from Ft. Worth took rookie of the year. Syracuse showed the regular season wasn’t a fluke by sweeping Boston, then winning a thrilling seven game series against Rochester to win their first championship. I think it is time to tear this team down and rebuild. Fulks is still effective, but he’s getting old. Simmons never quite panned out like I had hoped, and is overpaid for his production. Unfortunately, they are both still signed through two more seasons. Henriksen could be a piece for the future, but still needs work. Nobody else fits into my long term plans. We’ll still be over the cap next season, and possibly the season after that if I can’t unload either Fulks or Simmons. Next year’s team looks to be pretty bad.

04-30-2021, 06:34 PM	#23
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1954-55 NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON For the second year in a row, we lose our lead scout to a GM position, this time going to Baltimore. In addition, this is the last year of my current contract, and with what looks to be a rough year ahead, my future in New York is uncertain. We ended up with the 3rd pick in the draft. In my opinion, there were two guys who could help immediately, and one fell to us. We selected C Johnny Kerr. Yes, this is the same Red Kerr who was the Bulls announcer forever. Kerr projects to be a great rebounder, a good scorer, but not much defense. In the 2nd round we took SF Art Spoelstra. There is no relation to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, which surprises me. Ft. Wayne took Bob Pettit with the overall #1 pick. We are still over the cap, so I have to be prudent again during free agency. I think from last year, I may wait until everyone has spent their money, and try to swoop in and pick up the scraps with 1 year min contracts. I need a SF, so I start with offering Paul Arizin, but Minneapolis is using their Bird rights on him. Next I try for SF James Owens. I’m soon outbid by Philly. Third time, I go for SF Ken Murray, but Minneapolis outbids me. Then I see Bob Cousy’s bids are all gone, so what the heck? While waiting for Cousy, Murray decided to sign with us. Sure enough, all the teams are out of money, so we get Cousy on a one year deal. From here on out, I need to be careful. There are plenty of quality big men available, but I don’t think any of them will be better than Kerr at center, and I want to develop Henriksen at power forward. In the end, I’m hoping our coach decides to play Cousy at PG, Fulks at SF, and I offer PF Nat Clifton a minimum 1 year deal. He signs with us, as he has no other options. With the signing, Clifton becomes the first African-American player to play for the Knicks. In real life, he was the second African-American to play in the NBA. Other free agent signings of interest include Minneapolis signing Mikan and Ft. Wayne signing Larry Foust. Former Knicks Brian and Braun signed long term deals with Ft. Wayne and Baltimore respectively. PRE-SEASON The media predicts us to finish fourth, which is improvement, I guess. Our lineup this season will be C-Kerr, PF-Fulks, SF-Murray, SG-Tannenbaum, PG-Cousy, with Simmons, Berce, and McGuire filling out the rotation. I was a bit surprised that our coach thinks Murray is a starter, and Clifton isn’t even in the rotation. Jim Neal looks like he is a bust, so I decline the team option on him. I’m not ready to give up on Henriksen just yet, so I keep the team option for him. We go 3-3 in the pre-season, winning all of our home games and losing all the road ones. REGULAR SEASON Both Murray and Cousy are willing to re-sign longer contracts, but I don’t have the cap space to sign them to the values they want. Since they were stopgap signings, Bird rights won’t apply next season. The team plays shockingly well in November, going 8-3, and in first place. Kerr wins rookie of the month, while Fulks collects another player of the month award. Early in December, Murray picks up a minor jaw injury which sidelines him for a couple of games. On Christmas Eve, Fulks sprains his knee. When he is on the floor, he is still very effective, but injuries the last couple of seasons are starting to become a concern. Losing the last four games in December after the injury shows how much he still means to this team. We finish the month at 12-12, and Kerr gets another rookie of the month award. We start well in January, then Cousy breaks his jaw. He’ll miss about 3 weeks. The team continues to fight and exceed expectations as we finish January at 20-17, which is tied for second with Syracuse, 5 games back of Boston. Kerr continues to look like a franchise pick, as he wins his third consecutive rookie of the month. We enter February at full health for the first time in a while, but that doesn’t keep us from losing. McGuire picks up a minor knee sprain, but it shouldn’t keep him out long. And then I get the trade offer; Pettit for Kerr. Kerr has been phenomenal, but Pettit was my #1 guy in the draft. Looking at his stats, I feel like he was being underutilized in Ft. Worth, so I pull the trigger and accept the trade. We end up with four selections to the all-star game; Pettit, Tannenbaum, Fulks, and Cousy. Towards the end of the month, Murray picks up a minor hip injury. February was a weird month in that we lost 6 of the first 7 games, then won the last 6, finishing the month at 27-23, still in a distant second behind Boston. The winning streak happened right after the trade, so this is exciting. Syracuse and Baltimore are right on our heels though. Pettit won rookie of the month, and Fulks was player of the month. March was a tricky month. 9 of the 12 games were on the road, yet we held our own. We finished at 33-29, still in 2nd. Boston has all but clinched. April’s schedule looks to be a little home friendly, so even though Syracuse and Baltimore are close, I think we have a real chance to finish 2nd. Pettit gets rookie of the month. We start April winning our first three games, then the basketball gods frown on my optimism. Pettit breaks his foot, and is probably out for the season including playoffs. On April 14th, we lock up the #2 seed, so I plan on minimizing the minutes for my regulars the rest of the season. McGuire immediately gets a stress fracture with his starting time. We finish the season at 40-32, good enough for second, and home court advantage in the first round. Fulks' scoring slipped a bit, but Cousy led the league in assists. PLAYOFFS Tannenbaum was 2nd team defense, Pettit was all-rookie 1st team, Cousy was 1st team all-NBA, and Fulks was 3rd team all-NBA. Pettit was named rookie of the year, which surprised me a little as I thought Kerr would take it. But then I looked, and after the trade, Kerr wasn’t starting for Ft. Wayne. I guess their coach doesn’t like rookie players. In a weird twist, Pettit was also named sixth man of the year. He did have more games off the bench than starting, so I guess that was the reasoning. We get to start the playoffs against the defending champs, Syracuse. We’re still missing Pettit and McGuire, so this could be a tough one. Fulks scores 42 in a game 1 overtime thriller, as we win 106-102. We have no answer for PG Slater Martin in game 2, as he scores 30 in a 99-94 Syracuse victory. We weren’t competitive at all in game 3, losing 96-75. Game 4 was more of the same, losing in a 102-74 blowout. Ft. Wayne broke the Eastern Conference’s dominance in the finals, winning the championship over Boston. Not bad considering they were the worst team in the league last year. All in all, I was very pleased with this season. If Pettit had stayed healthy, I think we had a real chance of winning that first round series. Pettit is a franchise type player, and after next season we will have more flexibility to sign players. Cousy was a godsend, and I really want to sign him next season, but I don’t know if we have the money to do so. Taking a quick look at the other teams, it looks like everyone is in the same boat financially, so maybe I can pull the same trick again with Cousy.

05-03-2021, 10:46 AM	#24
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1955-56 NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON I didn’t get an email about it, but I now have 5 years left on my contract, so I guess I was re-signed. In league news, Baltimore folded. I guess signed all those giant free agent contracts with no championships to show for it was their demise. In addition, the Milwaukee Hawks have relocated to St. Louis. I signed Coach Nelson to a 4 year extension. He has done well with not a lot of talent to work with, so I want him to stay. One of our assistants left to become the head coach for Minneapolis. We pick 5th in the dispersal draft, and there are seven players available. Our old friend Carl Braun was available, but his contract is not a good one. I’ve been working hard to get out of salary cap trouble, so instead I picked PF Earl Lloyd. While his contract isn’t great, it isn’t as bad as Braun’s was. In real life, Lloyd was the first African-American player to appear in an NBA game. This years rookie class has five or six players who could be special, so with the fifth pick, I am guaranteed at least one of them. To my shock, the #1 player on my board fell to me, and I happily selected SF Maurice Stokes. If you don’t know about him, his story is a tragic one. He was a very good player in real life, winning rookie of the year, and a consistent triple double threat. He played three seasons and was second in rebounds and third in assists during that time. However, in the last game of his third season, he fell and hit his head, getting knocked unconscious. Three days later, after playing in his team’s playoff game, he got sick on the team flight, went into a seizure, and ended up permanently paralyzed. He died at 36. In the second round I selected SG Ed Conlin. I didn’t find any interesting facts about him, but he looks to be a decent scorer, ball handler, and rebounder. In other words, a guy that can do a lot of things, but none of them exceptionally well. Philadelphia took SG Tom Gola with the #1 pick, and I thank them for that. Syracuse is the only team that is under the cap, so I hope they aren’t looking for a point guard. I want to sign Cousy, then see who is available to sign my minimum one year deal. I have Bird rights to McGuire and Tannenbaum, and I may consider signing them both if they don’t want too much. Of course, Syracuse offers Cousy a little more than I can, so this isn’t looking good for me. However, after they sign Charlie Share to a big deal, they pull the offer to Cousy. I offer a three year deal at just above the minimum in years 2 and 3. He isn’t happy with the offer, but I will wait him out. Halfway through the free agency period, Cousy hasn’t budged, so I am starting to get nervous. I offer PG Bill Kenville a minimum deal. Kenville signs, and Cousy says he will only sign for 1 year at that price. I offer a 1 year minimum deal, and after sweating for a few days, he signs. One of the stars, PF Neil Johnston is still unsigned, so I offer a 1 year min to him, which he reluctantly accepts. Finally, I offer C Al Miksis a 1 year min. He makes me sweat it out, but he finally signs at the end of the free agency period. The team is looking strong, and hopefully I can sign some of these guys to longer deals once Simmons and Fulks contracts are off the books next season. PRE-SEASON The media predicts us to finish second behind Syracuse. Our lineup this season will be C-Johnston, PF-Pettit, SF-Stokes, SG-Berce, PG-Cousy, with Miksis, Fulks, and Kenville filling out the rotation. It is really weird to not have Fulks in the starting lineup, but this is the new era New York Knicks. Whatever is in the water in the garden gets Johnston, as he breaks his foot during the pre-season, which will sideline him until December. We go 2-0 with Johnston in the lineup, and 0-4 after his injury. This doesn’t bode well. REGULAR SEASON Conlin joins the broken foot brigade the first game of the season. I swear, Bill Walton must be our trainer. I offer a 3 year extension to Cousy and a 1 year max extension to Johnston. After some haggling, I agreed to a 5 year extension to Cousy. I couldn’t reach an agreement with Johnston. Meanwhile, we were playing terrible basketball. Then we lost Kenville for 2 weeks with a sprained knee late in November. We finished the month 3-8. I can’t believe how bad it is right now. We play better in December, even though we keep fighting minor injuries to various players. Then we lose Miksis for 2 months to plantar fasciitis. We finish the month at 10-13, which is currently good enough for third place. Johnston wins player of the month. We start the new year off well, winning the first three games, when both Cousy and Spoelstra get injured. Spoelstra’s is minor, but Cousy will miss a week or two. Seeing as they are the only two point guards on the roster, this is bad news. We limp along with minor injuries all over the place, but get out of January in second place at 19-17. Neil Johnston wins player of the month again, and I wish we could come to an agreement on an extension I can afford. I try one more time offering a five year deal a little under the max, which he finally accepts. Pettit, Johnston, and Cousy are all selected for the all-star game. Unfortunately, Johnston injures his finger during the game, but it isn’t too serious. Kenville then goes down with a minor wrist injury. Throughout all the lineup changes, we continue to play fairly well, finishing the month at 26-21, second place 5 ½ games behind Syracuse, but only ½ game in front of Boston. Pettit wins player of the month. Entering March, we are fully healthy for the first time all season, all though the lineup is littered with disgruntled players. We lose Pettit for a week with a jaw injury. Then we lose Cousy to a knee injury, which will knock him out of action for most of the remainder of the regular season. Syracuse starts to struggle a bit, while we and Boston make up ground. March ends with us at 34-27, 3 ½ games behind Syracuse, but still only ½ game in front of Boston. We had a late season swoon, coupled with some more minor injuries to Fulks and Johnston, which knocked us down to third place. We finished at 38-34. Cousy loses the assist title this season, but still finishes second. Berce also finishes third in steals. PLAYOFFS Both Berce and Kenville were named 1st team all-defense. They were unsung heroes this season. Conlin and Stokes both made 1st team all-rookie. Cousy and Pettit were both all-NBA first team, while Johnston was named to the 2nd team. Dolph Schayes won the MVP for Rochester, and Ken Sears won rookie of the year for Syracuse. We enter the playoffs with Johnston and Fulks still not 100%. Boston absolutely destroys us 108-75, and we lost Berce in the process to a sprained ankle. Game 2 was a little closer, but not competitive as we lost 112-99. Johnston tried to play through his injury in game 3, and played well, scoring 31 points and grabbing 18 boards, but Vern Mikkelsen hit a shot at the buzzer to beat us 102-101. Boston went on to dominate in the playoffs, winning their fourth championship. The lack of success in the playoffs is starting to become an issue. We haven’t advanced in 6 years. However, I think we are set up well. Our stars are signed for a while, and we will have some cap space to maneuver next season. We fought the injury bug hard this season, and if we can get some better luck next season on that front, I think we could maybe break our playoff slump. I’ll have a tough decision to make with Fulks next year. He’s not the player he once was, but letting go the highest scorer in the history of the league will not be easy.

05-03-2021, 11:02 AM	#25
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	We've completed 10 years of the NBA, so I might have a list of the all time and NY leaders at this stage of the NBA history. If anyone wants to know any info about any teams or specific players, let me know, and I'll list that as well.

05-03-2021, 11:25 AM	#26
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	CURRENT NBA CAREER LEADERS POINTS 1. Joe Fulks - 17949 2. George Mikan - 14023 3. Ed Macauley - 11151 4. Vern Mikkelsen - 11115 5. Dolph Schayes - 10999 REBOUNDS 1. Clarence Hermsen - 7460 2. Harry Gallatin - 7423 3. Milt Schoon - 6811 4. Vern Mikkelsen - 6337 5. George Mikan - 5921 ASSISTS 1. Dick McGuire - 2913 2. Slater Martin - 2198 3. Bob Cousy - 1967 4. George King - 1541 5. Bob Davies - 1407 STEALS 1. Saul Mariaschin - 1005 2. Ray Wertis - 1002 3. Gene Berce - 936 4. Slater Martin - 928 5. Ralph Beard - 924 BLOCKS 1. Milt Schoon - 2123 2. Clarence Hermsen - 1934 3. Harold Kottman - 1156 4. George Mikan - 1067 5. Vern Mikkelsen - 1021

05-03-2021, 11:34 AM	#27
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	CURRENT NEW YORK KNICKS CAREER LEADERS POINTS 1. Joe Fulks - 17949 2. Connie Simmons - 6110 3. Sid Tannenbaum - 4802 4. Carl Braun - 4106 5. Tony Kappen - 2732 REBOUNDS 1. Connie Simmons - 5235 2. Joe Fulks - 4474 3. George Glamack - 2256 4. Sid Tannenbaum - 2081 5. Carl Braun - 1862 ASSISTS 1. Sid Tannenbaum - 1106 2. Bob Cousy - 943 3. Connie Simmons - 732 4. Tony Kappen - 694 5. Carl Braun - 667 STEALS 1. Sid Tannenbaum - 871 2. Tony Kappen - 755 3. Gene Berce - 579 4. Mel Riebe - 278 5. Joe Fulks - 274 BLOCKS 1. Joe Fulks - 860 2. George Glamack - 432 3. Harry Boykoff - 241 4. Connie Simmons - 213 5. Sid Tannenbaum - 198

05-03-2021, 02:31 PM	#28
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1956-57 NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON The post-Fulks era begins. For the first time in a while, I fell good about where we stand heading into the season. Our top 6 players are signed to at least two years, and we have more cap room than any other team. Johnston’s contact may be an issue in a few years, but he’s still an elite player for now. Depth is an issue right now, but that can be addressed during free agency. I hired an assistant coach who has a little head coaching experience. When Nelson retires, he seems like a good candidate to be groomed for the position. This years rookie class has two guys who look to be can’t-miss franchise players, Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn. We pick fifth, and end up selecting SG Richie Guerin. In real life, he was also drafted by the Knicks, and was one of the most beloved players in team history by the fans, so it feels right he is on this team. With our second round pick, we take SF Dave Piontek. I couldn’t find anything interesting on Piontek. Russell and Heinsohn go #1 and #2 to Philadelphia and Minneapolis, respectively. For free agency, I need a backup PF, and then just some all around depth to fight all the broken feet sure to come. It’s not a super deep free agency class, and the elite players are all asking for long term max deals that I feel they are too old for. For the PF, I offer James Owens a 2 year deal. I also offer two former Knicks, Nat Clifton and Al Spoelstra, 1 and 2 year deals respectively. Finally, I offer a 1 year deal to PF Jack Burmeister. Clifton, Burmeister, and Spoelstra all sign fairly quickly. Owens signs several days later, and I have them all on very team friendly contracts. The only other signing of league interest is Boston signing PF Gene Conley. More interesting to me is Fulks signed a one year deal with Philly, and Simmons signed a one year deal with Minneapolis. PRE-SEASON The media predicts us to finish second behind Boston. Our lineup this season will be C-Stokes, PF-Pettit, SF-Johnston, SG-Berce, PG-Cousy, with Guerin and Lloyd filling out the rotation. Conlin is starting the season unhappy, and doesn’t look to get much playing time, so I may try and see if anyone is willing to trade for him. Unfortunately, nobody is interested at this time. We go 3-3 in the pre-season. REGULAR SEASON I notice C Eddie Miller is still a free agent, and is only asking for a reasonable 2 year deal. I offer it to him, and he accepts. He will go straight into the starting linuep, and Stokes will go to the bench as part of the rotation, replacing Lloyd. We start off slowly for the second season in a row, ending November at 4-7, even though Johnston wins player of the month. December isn’t much better, as we finish 10-16, lowlighted by a 6 game losing streak. We are battling Philly for last place. January continues to suck, as we fight several minor injuries. We sit at 15-24, still just ahead of Philly for last place. This is one of the better teams we’ve had in talent lately, so I’m pretty disappointed. I’m even considering firing the coach right now. Miller, Cousy, Johnston, and Pettit are all selected for the all-star game. We finally start playing better in February, putting together a six game winning streak before losing Berce for a couple of weeks to a broken finger. This doesn’t slow us down, and we finish February on a nine game winning streak, at 25-25. Boston and Syracuse have both struggled recently, so this brings us 4 games back of first place Boston, and just ½ game behind Syracuse. Johnston takes home another player of the month award. The winning steaks ends in Fort Worth during the first game in March. But the team is still making up ground before Miller gets a concussion in Boston, which will sideline him until into the playoffs. But the team plays well even with this loss, finishing the month in second place at 34-28, just two games back. Johnston continues his terrific play, winning player of the month yet again. Going into what could be an exciting home stretch, we stumble hard, ending a six game winning streak with back-to-back home losses to last place Philly. Some mediocre play leaves us 4 games back with only 4 games left, and only 1 ½ games ahead of Syracuse. All of the remaining games are at home though, and 3 are against Boston, so it is still possible to win the division. We win the first two games against Boston to secure second place. However, Boston wins a game against Philly to clinch the division. With the last two games meaningless, I let the starters get some rest and have the bench play out the string. We finished the season 39-33, three games back. PLAYOFFS The awards poured in. Berce got 1st team all-defense, while Johnston got 2nd team. Guerin made 1st team all-rookie. Cousy and Johnston both made 1st team all-NBA, while Pettit got 2nd team and Guerin got 3rd team. Finally, Guerin won sixth man of the year. Mikkelsen won MVP, while Bill Russell won rookie of the year. We start the playoffs against Syracuse, who we went 12-9 against during the season. The team is 100% healthy, so I’m hoping this is the season we finally advance past the first round. We immediately lose home court advantage in game 1, losing 117-109. We rebound with an angry 125-101 victory in game 2. Going to Syracuse, we get destroyed 115-82. With the season on the line, we trail for most of the game, but a furious fourth quarter comeback leads to a controversial finish, as Pettit is fouled just before the final buzzer. He hits the first and intentionally misses the second to secure a thrilling 107-106 comeback. We return home, and behind Pettit and Johnston, win our first playoff series since the 1949-50 season with a 108-99 victory. The conference championship is against Boston, led by Mikkelsen, the MVP. We did OK against them this year, going 10-11. We were completely outmatched in game 1, losing 123-78. Game 2 was more competitive, but still resulted in a 103-93 loss. Returning home for game 3, we played terrible in the first half, but showed a lot of guts holding them to 37 points in the second half to force overtime. Unfortunately, Mikkelsen showed why he is MVP, hitting a late bucket to secure a 115-113 victory. The team showed some pride in game 4, leading almost wire to wire before withstanding a furious Boston rally, in a 91-88 win. Boston showed they were the better team, winning in Boston 86-75 to clinch another appearance in the finals. For the third straight year, it was Boston vs. Ft. Worth in the finals. For the rubber match, Ft. Worth wins their second championship. This season was really a tale of two halves. I don’t know if adding Miller late caused some chemistry issues that took a while to work through. We still have all the major players signed through next season, so I think I want to try and make one more run with this crew before deciding if it is time to go another direction. There aren’t any potential free agents next season which will be difference makers, and it looks to be a terrible draft, so I think another run is possible.

05-03-2021, 03:52 PM	#29
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1957-58 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON A bit of movement by teams this offseason. The Rochester Royals move to Cincinnati, while the defending champion Fort Wayne Pistons move to Detroit. We pick fifth in the draft, and select SF Jim Krebs. He looks to be a very good rebounder, but probably won’t get a lot of playing time. In real life, Krebs is another player who died young at 29, when a tree branch fell and hit his head. There’s nobody in the 2nd round who will ever be part of our plans, but I take PG Jim Walsh. St. Louis took SG Sam Jones with the #1 pick. For the first time ever, there was no need to do anything during free agency. The only signing of notice was Philadelphia signing SF George Yardley from Syracuse. PRE-SEASON The media predicts us to win the division. Our lineup will be C-Miller, PF-Pettit, SF-Johnston, SG-Guerin, PG-Cousy, with Stokes and Berce filling out the rotation. We go 5-1 during the pre-season, and expectations are high in New York. REGULAR SEASON I would like to extend Pettit and Miller as options 1 and 1A. Unfortunately, both want to test free agency. I will be able to use my Bird rights on Pettit, but not Miller next season. Early in November, Cousy sprains his ankle, which will put him out of action almost a month. Miller comes back to me saying he wants to sign a 5 year max deal. I offer 4 years instead. He insists on 5, which I think I will only get 3 years of max production, so I am willing to let him walk. The team continues to win, helped by a slate of home games, and then we lose Guerin for a couple of weeks with a sprained knee. We then lose four straight, all on the road. We finish the month at 9-5, good enough for the lead. Johnston wins player of the month. The teams starts out great in December, putting together a 10 game winning streak before Cousy gets our first broken foot of the season. He’ll be out until sometime in February. We finish the month at 19-7. We’re still in first, but Philly is playing phenomenal as well, and is only ½ game back. In January, we see how much Cousy means to the team. We can only play .500 ball, and we finish the month at 25-13. Philly continues their hot play, taking the lead by 4 ½ games. Johnston is still playing at an MVP level, winning another player of the month. Cousy, Johnston, and Pettit make the all star team. Aided by a very favorable schedule, we are able to get healthy while making up some ground on Philly. We finish at 35-16, only 1 game back. March looks to be difficult, as most of the games will be on the road. About midway through the month, we lose Miller with a torn ligament, definitely for the regular season and perhaps the playoffs. The loss of our big man, combined with the difficult schedule, results in the month ending at 39-25, 3 ½ games back. On the first game in April, we lose Pettit for the season, and probably the playoffs, with a broken leg. What looked like a possible championship season is falling apart at the seams. We finally break a seven game losing streak, but Philly still clinches the division. We had nothing to play for at this point, so the bench players played out the string. We finished the season 43-29, six games behind Philly. Cousy leads the league in assists, and Pettit and Johnston and 2nd and third in scoring. PLAYOFFS Johnston took home 2nd team all-defensive honors. Walsh somehow made 1st team all-rookie, while Krebs was 2nd team. Guerin and Johnston were both named 1st team all-NBA, and Pettit was 2nd team. And finally, Johnston was named the MVP. Sam Jones was rookie of the year. We got a first round matchup with Boston, who we went 12-10 against this year. As beat up as we are, I’m not too optimistic. We get a terrific all around team effort in winning game 1 102-100. Boston takes game 2 108-90. Miller returns at less than100% for game 3, coming off the bench, but his presence isn’t enough to avoid a 115-105 loss. The crushing disappointment of this season continues, losing a tight one in game 4 113-108. Philadelphia wins their first NBA title behind the play of star Bill Russell. This season was a heartbreaker. We were as good as anyone in the league before all the major injuries occurred late in the season. I still think we’re close to contending. I intend on signing Pettit, and perhaps Miller if he doesn’t ask for too much. There are some good players available next year for free agency, but I’m sure their current teams will do whatever they can to re-sign them.

05-03-2021, 05:37 PM	#30
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1958-59 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON The assistant coach I was grooming to take over ended up being hired to the head coach position at St. Louis. Philly C Milt Schoon becomes the first member of the Hall of Fame. Picking 6th in this year’s draft, we select SF Dave Gambee. In the second round, we take SG Arlen Bockhorn. PF Wayne Embree went #1 overall to Syracuse, and surprisingly, Elgin Baylor fell to #3 to Cincinnati. Pettit is asking for a 5 deal a little under max, which I immediately offer. I’m willing to go seven years if necessary at max. In addition, Johnny Kerr is available, so I offer a 6 year max offer to him. I will need another PF, but I want to wait and see what happens with Pettit before I offer anyone else. Kerr is immediately offered a 7 year max offer by Detroit (Bird rights), so he’s gone. I offer PF Ed Kalafat a 3 year deal. Pettit signs the highest contract in team history. I offer PG Dick McGuire a 1 year min deal to backup Cousy, and he immediately accepts. Kalafat signs. I offer former Knick C Miksis a 1 year min deal. PG Frank Ramsey signs with Philadelphia from Minnesota. Miller ended up signing with Boston. PRE-SEASON I don’t think Krebs will ever be part of the plans, so I decline the team option on his contract. We are picked to finish third this season, with Philly the favorite. Our lineup will be C-Pettit, PF-Johnston, SF-Guerin, SG-McGuire, and PG-Cousy. Stokes and Bockhorn will be the players getting minutes off the bench. I’m shocked McGuire is picked as a starter. We go 3-3 this preseason, with McGuire missing a little time with a broken finger. REGULAR SEASON Stokes is possibly the only player on his last year I would be willing to extend, but only for a reasonable price. He wants to test free agency, so more power to him. This is the last year of Lloyd’s awful contract. He’s the second player to hamstring my finances because I was forced to take him in a dispersal draft. We go through November doing well at home, terrible on the road, and finish at 6-6. Johnston wins player of the month. We plod through December. Pettit misses a game with a minor finger injury. We end at 10-12, and this is looking like it has the ceiling of a first round exit. Pettit wins player of the month in January, but we continue to be the definition of mediocrity. We end the month at 17-18. The division is beating itself up though. All four teams are within 4 ½ games of each other, with Boston currently leading. Right before the break, McGuire picks up a minor eye injury. Guerin, Cousy, Pettit, and Johnston are all named all stars. We continue our trend in recent years of playing well in February, finishing the month at 25-21, still in third place but only two games out of first. Johnston wins player of the month. March is a bit of a struggle, as Philly starts to pull away from the pack. Cousy goes down with a stress fracture late in the month, which should knock him out for a couple of weeks. Guerin follows right behind him with patellar tendinitis, also out for a couple of weeks. Because of the injuries, little used Walsh needs to pick up more minutes, and shows he can’t handle it, injuring his knee, probably costing him the rest of the season. We limp into April with a record of 31-29, still in 3rd, but only ½ game behind Boston. Philly is running away with the division. Johnston takes home another player of the month award. We try to get players healthy, and play average basketball while doing so. Syracuse catches fire and is making up ground like crazy. With three games left in the season, we are tied with Boston for 2nd, but Syracuse is only two games behind. A road loss to Syracuse leaves us only 1 game ahead of them for the last playoff spot. A home win against St. Louis clinches a playoff spot Our last game of the season is at home against Philly, while Boston plays at Syracuse. They hold the tiebreaker, so we need a win coupled with a Boston loss to get 2nd place. Neither happen, and we finish 35-37, in third place. Johnston wins player of the month. We have players all over the top of the leaderboards, although none of them actually finish in first. PLAYOFFS Pettit and Johnston both make 1st team all-NBA, while Cousy gets 2nd team. Johnston makes 2nd team all-defense, and Bockhorn makes 2nd team all-rookie. Detroit’s Clyde Lovellete wins MVP, and Syracuse’s Wayne Embry takes home rookie of the year. We meet Boston in the playoff again. We were 10-12 against them this year, and we’ve lost four straight playoff series to them. I’m not very optimistic. Game 1 results in a 126-118 loss. Game 2 is more of the same, losing 122-110. We manage to avoid the sweep at home, winning 119-109. Things get interesting, as game 4 results in an easy 113-110 win, although we end up losing McGuire for the rest of the season with a dislocated shoulder. Game 5 is a defensive struggle, but the home team wins every game this series, and we’re eliminated 89-82. Detroit avenges last year’s championship loss to Philly and gets the franchise’s third championship, the first since moving to Detroit. We just are not good enough to compete with the champion level teams. It may be time to blow this up and start over. There are a couple of free agents available who could help, and it looks like we should get a decent player in a top-heavy draft, highlighted by perhaps the greatest prospect ever, Wilt Chamberlain.

05-03-2021, 07:46 PM	#31
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1959-60 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON Joe Fulks becomes the second member of the Hall of Fame. With the 4th pick in the draft, we take SF Bob Ferry. There’s not much left in the second round, so we select PG Tony Windis. Bob Ferry is the father of Danny Ferry. Wilt Chamberlain goes #1 to St. Louis. I’m glad he’s not in our division. Stokes isn’t asking a ridiculous amount, so I offer a four year deal. In addition, I offer two years to PG Cliff Hagan, and three years to SG Dick Garmaker. Detroit outbids me for Hagan, so I increase my offer, and extend it to four years. Philly offers Stokes a 6 year deal for more money than I am willing to spend, so I let him go. Detroit tries to outbid me for Garmaker, so I up his offer to four years. I also offer C Joe Grabowski a two year deal, outbidding Detroit. Garmaker signs, but Grabowski takes Detroit’s offer instead. After losing Grabowski, I offer C Jim Browne a three year deal. Hagan decided to take St. Louis’ offer instead of mine, and now I’m frustrated. I offer PF Tom Heinsohn a three year deal, and then our old fried Art Spoelstra a one year minimum offer. Nobody wants to sign, as Browne goes to Philly instead. Syracuse outbids me for Heinsohn, so I increased my offer, and extended to four years. It wasn’t enough, and he signed with Syracuse. With decent centers all signed, I decide to see if Lloyd wants to return for a one year minimum deal. I also outbid St. Louis for SG Ed Fleming. Lloyd signs, but Fleming signs with St. Louis. Since it seems only ex-players are willing to sign with me, I offer a 1 year min deal to Miksis. Soon, St. Louis outbids me for Spoelstra. I increase his offer, but he signs with St. Louis anyways. Miksis signs with us. Krebs looks like the best available player, and I am now regretting cancelling the team option on him. I offer him a two year deal, and he accepts. I have no idea why I couldn’t get anyone to sign. This really messed up my plans, and makes it look like it will be another rough season. For other teams, Ken Sears went to Philadelphia from Syracuse, and Tom Gola went to Syracuse from Philly. PRE-SEASON We are picked to finish second this season, behind Philly. Our lineup will be C-Pettit, PF-Kalafat, SF-Johnston, SG-Garmaker, and PG-Guerin. Ferry and Cousy complete the rotation. We go 3-3 this preseason. REGULAR SEASON Guerin wants a five year max extension to stay with the team. He’s a stud, so I agree. Johnston breaks his cheekbone which costs him two weeks. We struggle in November, finishing 4-7. We continue to struggle without Johnston, but he returns the second week of December. We win the next three games before Pettit gets a minor knee sprain. We then lose Bockhorn to a stress fracture which will take him out of action for about a month. We start to play better, and manage to enter the new decade at .500 with a 13-13 record. Johnston wins player of the month. The new decade doesn’t start out any better on the injury front, as we lose Guerin with a hyperextended knee in the first game. We then lose Johnston in the second game with a finger injury. We muddle along, get everyone healthy, and then lose Garmaker for over a month with tendinitis in his knee. With that injury, everyone in the starting lineup has gone on the injury list. However, we somehow get hot, and finish the month on a 6 game winning streak at 22-18, which propels us into first place, 1 game in front of both Boston and Syracuse. Pettit takes home player of the month honors. Guerin, Johnston, and Pettit all go to the all-star game. The first game after the break, Johnston dislocates his shoulder, which might take him out for the remainder of the regular season. We struggle without him in the lineup, and finish the month at 27-25, tied for first with Syracuse. The East is a tight battle, as Boston is only ½ game back, and Philly is only 1 ½ games from the lead. Johnston’s injury is healing well, and we should have him back late in the season. In the meantime, the team continues to battle, and we finish March at 35-30, still tied for first, but with Philly. Boston and Syracuse are 4 games back. I initially think it’s an April Fools joke, but we are healthy for the first time all season. This corresponds with a nice winning streak, but it doesn’t last long, as Ferry breaks his cheekbone, and is out for the rest of the regular season. He should be back early in the playoffs. Johnston breaks his finger the next game, but hopefully won’t miss much. Guerin injures his hip, and the losses are starting to mount. Both injuries are minor, so I’m trying to hang on for dear life. With four games remaining, we have a two game lead. A win over Syracuse clinches our first division title since the 1949-1950 season. We finish the month at 43-33, and secure a much needed first round bye. Pettit was terrific, winning player of the month. Everyone should be healthy when we play our next series. PLAYOFFS Nelson won coach of the year for the team’s success this year. Pettit and Guerin were 1st team all-NBA, and Johnston made 3rd team. Windis was 1st team all-rookie. Wilt Chamberlain won rookie of the year and MVP, and broke Fulks’ single season scoring record he recorded in the first year of the league. Philly defeated Boston 3-1 to set up our series for the conference finals. We only went 10-12 against them this year, so this will be a difficult series for us. We were able to win game 1 in a tight contest, 113-108. Disaster strikes in game 2. Both Pettit and Johnston are injured in a 126-120 loss. I cannot believe our bad luck with injuries this season. The injuries are too much to overcome, and we get slaughtered in game 3 142-108. Game 4 is just as ugly, losing 135-90. We play slightly better at home, but still lose rather easily 120-106. At times, I feel like this franchise is cursed. St. Louis goes on to defeat Philly in the finals. Wilt looks unstoppable. I don’t think we would have beaten St. Louis in the finals, but the fact we cannot stay healthy is mind boggling to me. I look at the other teams, and their star players don’t seem to be missing as much time. Next year’s draft is a good one, but we pick next-to-last. All of our important players are signed for the next two years, so maybe with a little luck, we can find the one piece that can put us over the top.

05-12-2021, 05:04 PM	#32
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	Reading. Keep the faith!

05-15-2021, 11:39 PM	#33
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1960-61 NEW YORK KNICKS OFFSEASON The struggling Minneapolis Lakers move across the country to Los Angeles. I was given a 2 year extension to my contract. Coach Nelson’s contract expired, but I decided to rehire him, giving him a three year deal. There didn’t seem to be any other coaches out there. With the seventh pick in the draft, I took a flyer on a high ceiling PG, Lenny Wilkens. In the second round, I took SF Howie Jolliff. SG Jerry West went #1 overall to LA. I don’t have a ton of cap room, but I want to sign a SG and a C. I offer Miksas another 1 year minimum deal, and I offer a young SG Hal Greer a two year deal. They both sign. Other signings of interest are Larry Foust signing with St. Louis from Detroit, Joe Grabowski signing with Syracuse from St. Louis, and Phil Jordan signing with Detroit from St. Louis. PRE-SEASON We are picked to finish last this season, with Philly as the favorite. If that’s true, next year’s draft is a weak one, with only three players looking to be impact players. Our lineup will be C-Pettit, PF-Johnston, SF-Garmaker, SG-Greer, PG-Guerin, with Gambee, Ferry, Wilkens, and Cousy getting minutes off the bench. We go 4-2 in the pre-season, so I hope the media is wrong about our team. REGULAR SEASON Johnston is the only player I want to extend, but I need to be careful. He is still playing at a high level, but he’s 31, and that’s around when things go south. Greer injures his back early in the season, and misses two weeks. Johnston decides to test free agency next season, so he won’t sign an extension. Right around the time Greer returns, Garmaker tears a ligament and will miss about 6 weeks. Even with the injuries, and a long road trip, we finish November with a 9-7 record. Johnston wins player of the month. We begin December with a 6 game road trip, losing all 6 games. The losing streak extends to 8 games before finally beating Philadelphia. The losing continues, and then we lose Pettit for two months with a severe concussion. The very next game, we lose Johnston with a broken finger, and he’ll miss 2-3 weeks. The injuries in this game are starting to piss me off. And as I say that, Ferry gets a pinched nerve THE VERY NEXT GAME!!!! We finish December at 11-19, in last place. We make a trade with Boston, sending Krebs in exchange for SF Bob Peterson. We are on a four game losing streak when Garmaker returns. His return doesn’t stop the losing. The losing streak is at 9 when Ferry returns. His returns results in our first win of 1961. After losing another couple of games, Johnston returns. We end the month at 13-30, and our distinction of being the only team in the league to never finish in last place is in serious danger. At the beginning of February, we trade Wilkens to LA for fellow rookie PG Al Attles. Attles immediately enters the starting lineup. Greer, Guerin, and Johnston all get selected to the all star game. With the addition of Attles, the team starts playing better. And then, of course, he breaks his foot, sidelining him for a month. Pettit returns late in the month. We finish February at 19-35, still 8 games out of third. If we don’t start quickly in March, I may begin playing the youngsters, and seeing if we can get the #1 pick. We win our first two games, then Guerin dislocates his shoulder. He’s probably done for the season. Attles comes back right as Greer strains his back. Greer heals quickly, and I see if we have a chance to climb out of last place. We don’t play badly, and finish March at 27-42, still five games out of a playoff spot. We lose the first four games in April, and then Pettit breaks his arm. Gambee breaks his foot the next game, and I decide to shut it down for the season. Miksis immediately sprains his ankle. Just to piss me off, we win the last four games of the season, giving us the third pick in a draft with two impact players. We finish at 32-48. Obligatory leader board PLAYOFFS Johnston and Guerin both make 2nd team all-NBA. Peterson makes 1st team all-defense, while Johnston makes 2nd team. Jolliff and Attles both make 2nd team all-rookie. Wilt Chamberlain wins MVP, while Elgin Baylor wins rookie of the year. St. Louis and Wilt Chamberlain steamroll to a second straight title. Right now, the injuries are infuriating me. We finished last, my seat is getting warm, and we're losing Johnston. We have cap room to work with next season, but I don't think we'll get an impact player in the draft, so I'm not optimistic we'll be any better.

05-16-2021, 12:59 AM	#34
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Oof, yeah....that's not a great followup to an almost Finals run. Hope next year is a rebound year.

05-18-2021, 03:18 PM	#35
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1961-62 NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON The league is expanding, adding the Chicago Packers as an expansion team. I have to expose one player for the expansion draft, so I choose to let Joliff go. He was the last player taken. For some reason, we end up with the 2nd pick in the draft. I don’t know why we are picking ahead of Cincinnati, but I’m not complaining. We take PF Ray Scott. In the second round, I take SG Donnie Butcher. The Lakers take C Walt Bellamy with the #1 pick. Center is the biggest priority in free agency. As of now, I’m not interested in signing anyone we have Bird rights to, although if Johnston wants to sign a friendly contract, I would consider it. I offer 37 year old George Mikan a one year minimum deal, as he looks to be the best available center right now. I also offer a team friendly three year deal to SF Woody Sauldsberry. Boston outbids me for Sauldsberry, so I up the deal to four years, and increase the offer. Boston ups their offer, so I do the same. While I’m waiting for the decision, Mikan signs. Syracuse and LA jump into the Sauldsberry sweepstakes. I decide to up the offer one last time and extend it to five years. Syracuse and Boston drop out, but LA increases their offer. I give up on Sauldsberry and begin to look elsewhere. I offer PF Jim Krebs a three year deal, which he accepts. I then offer PG Lou Tsioropoulos a one year min deal, which immediately gets outbid by LA. I then turn to SG John Rennicke with a one year min deal, which gets accepted. Johnston signs a max four year deal with Chicago. Cousy signs a one year minimum deal with Detroit. PRE-SEASON I decide to decline the team option on Ferry, as he doesn’t figure into our long term plans. The media picks up to finish third this season, with Syracuse on top. Our starting lineup will be C-Scott, PF- Pettit, SF-Guerin, SG-Garmaker, PG-Attles, with Gambee and Greer filling out the rotation. We go 2-4 in the pre-season, so I don’t have high expectations this year. REGULAR SEASON We start off by losing the first two games, with Scott dislocating his shoulder in the second game. He’ll be out over a month. Honestly, I think the injuries in this game are broken. Chicago offers to trade the #3 pick in the draft, SF Lee Schaffer, for Gambee. While I think this will hurt us short term, Gambee’s on the last year of his contract, so I pull the trigger. Greer wants a five year extension, and I agree to it. We actually don’t play too bad in November, finishing at 7-8, with Shaffer taking home rookie of the month. Scott returns early in December, but only plays in four games before spraining his ankle, which will sideline him for almost another month. This immediately starts an eight game losing streak, and we finish December at 10-19. Even though he barely played, Scott takes home rookie of the month. Scott comes back early in January, and we begin to play a little better. Towards the end of the month, Pettit breaks his finger, but shouldn’t miss more than a couple of games. In the last game of the month, we lose Ferry to a broken foot, which puts him out about five weeks. We finish the month at 17-26, which is still good enough for third, but we are in a battle with Boston to avoid the cellar. Scott takes home rookie of the month. About the time we get Pettit back, Attles sprains his knee, which will put him out of action for a couple of weeks. Garmaker turns around and gets a dislocated shoulder the last game before the all-star break, which will take him out for about 6-7 weeks. Guerin and Pettit both go to the all-star game. We continue our battle with Boston for the last playoff spot, finishing February at 22-33, two games from the basement. Scott wins another rookie of the month. We start strongly in March, and Ferry returns. Garmaker returns to the lineup late in the month. We end up with a good month, and finish at 32-38, 6 ½ games in front of Boston, but still 9 ½ games back of Philly. Scott continues his strong rookie season, winning another rookie of the month award. Even though we start April out terribly, Boston isn’t playing any better, and we clinch a playoff spot with four games left in the season. With our spot locked in, we rest our starters to avoid injury. The first game after I bench the starters, Greer injures his knee, which should knock him out for the rest of the season, including playoffs. This forces me to bring back Garmaker. The next game, Krebs injures his back, and I have to activate Scott. We manage to survive the rest of the season with no further injuries, and finish at 35-45. I derped and forgot to export the data before ending the season. I can go into the archives to get the standings, but the leaderboard is specific to the export. POST SEASON Pettit and Guerin both make 2nd team all-NBA. Somehow, Schaffer makes 1st rookie team while Scott only gets 2nd team. Probably because the first team center was rookie of the year Walt Bellamy. Oscar Robertson wins MVP. We get Philly in the first round, and although they finished 12 games ahead of us, we did go 11-12 against them this season. We play poor defense in game 1, and lose 141-129. We manage to steal game 2 126-118 behind Pettit’s 28 points and 21 boards. In game 3, we survive a furious comeback attempt, squeaking out a 120-119 victory. With a chance to pull off the upset in game 4, Scott shows why he was our first pick, scoring 40 in a 133-120 win. We get Syracuse in the conference finals, and avoiding a sweep would be an accomplishment. We went 5-19 against them during the season. Krebs is back for game 1, although not 100%. The game doesn’t go well as we lose 137-120. Game 2 isn’t any better, and we lose 133-116. Home court advantage continues to hold, as we win game 3 easily 113-90. Guerin missed a triple-double by one assist. Game 4 was a shootout, but Pettit was the star, scoring 42 in a 147-142 victory. We still have no answers on the road, as Pettit injures a finger in a 119-106 loss. He plays through the injury in game 6, and we force a game 7, winning 127-101. Pettit comes up huge in the first game 7 in franchise history, scoring 41 and pulling down 19 boards in a 131-120 upset. The win is slightly costly, as Ferry picks up a minor hip injury. However, we are making our first finals appearance in 12 seasons. Our reward is to face the two-time defending champs, and #1 team St. Louis Hawks, behind superstar Wilt Chamberlain. Amazingly, we did beat them once in our two meetings this season. We don’t put up much of a fight in game 1, losing 137-123, as Wilt scores 74. Although we hold him to 58 in game 2, the result is even worse, going down 144-123. Our undefeated home record in the playoffs ends in game 3, losing 142-129. Game 4 is our best game in the series, but it’s not enough to avoid the sweep, losing 124-120. It was a great playoff run, but right now, St. Louis is unbeatable. For next season, Ferry is the only player who got minutes who isn’t signed. I’m regretting decline the team option for his contract, as he had a solid season for us this year. Next year’s draft is deep, so we should be able to get a player that can help us. We had a fluky run in the playoffs, so we still have a long way to go before we are challenging for a title.

05-18-2021, 04:29 PM	#36
Umbrella High School Varsity Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Back in the desert	1962-63 NEW YORK KNICKS OFF SEASON A lot of offseason news to start the latest update. First, Chicago realized that calling themselves the Packers was a terrible idea, and renamed themselves the Zephyrs. Second, Philly is continuing the western migration, moving to San Francisco to be the San Francisco Warriors. Closer to home, I was given a two year extension. As it turns out, that would be the last official duty of owner Frank Davis, as he then sold the team to Gong Dai. He’s got to be better than Dolan, right? Even with our nice playoff run and finals appearance, we were still terrible during the season, so we pick 4th in the draft. Chicago threw everything off with a surprise #1 pick of SG Terry Dischinger, who was projected to go 5th. I thought maybe I could get lucky, and have Dave DeBusschere or John Havlicek drop to me, but I wasn’t that fortunate. This forced a tough decision between me and my scout. I ended up taking PF Len Chappell, although my scout wanted SF Bill Bridges. In the second round, I took PG Kevin Loughery, a raw talent with a very high upside. I have a decent amount of cap room and there are some absolute studs available in free agency. I’m sure Bird rights will be used on them, but it won’t stop me from trying. I start by offering a 6 year max deal to C Wayne Embry. I also offer a 5 year max deal to PF Elgin Baylor. They both sign with their original teams, so I then go after PF Connie Dierking. I also offer a very low two year contract to SG George Lee. I get underbid on both, but they prefer the better team, and indicate they won’t sign for me. I then offer a 2 year deal to SG Gene Shue, and a 1 year min offer to PF Jackie Moreland. George Lee changes his mind, and signs with us, so I pull Shue’s offer. Moreland signs soon after, and my roster is now full. For our previous players, they all signed one year minimum deals. Mikan to Detroit, Peterson to St. Louis, and Ferry to San Francisco. PRE-SEASON The media predicts a third place finish again. Our starting lineup will be the same as last season, C-Scott, PF- Pettit, SF-Guerin, SG-Garmaker, PG-Attles. The bench rotation is a little different, with Chappell, Lee, and Greer slotted for minutes. We start the pre-season 1-2, and then I get the trade offer; Oscar Robertson for Ray Scott. I love Scott, but when you have a chance to get the reigning 23-year old MVP, I can’t turn it down. Syracuse decides they want more of my team, and I make my second trade with them in a week, giving them Shaffer for C Rudy LaRusso. We finish the pre-season at 2-4. REGULAR SEASON Our season starts off as road warriors, as we have 11 of the 17 games on the road. The Big O is great, and we hold our own, going 8-9 for the month. We then get offered Elgin Baylor for Pettit. I did consider this, but Baylor’s contract is very long, and I think it will outlive its usefulness, so I declined. December has a lot of home games on the schedule, so I feel if we’re going to be any good, we need to make a move this month. A couple of games into the homestand, Robertson truly proves he’s a Knick by breaking a rib. It doesn’t seem too severe though, and he should only miss a couple of weeks. The injury leads to Chappell getting his first career start, which in turns leads to Chappell getting his first career injury, a dislocated knee. He’ll be out over a month, and here we go yet again. I mean, this is getting so ridiculous that I don’t even want to play anymore. And then, in the very next game, Garmaker sprains his ankle. Three games, three injured starters. This isn’t even realistic at this point, and I’m taking a break from this dynasty to save my sanity.