Atlanta Hawks, Fixing the Mess

stevew · 08-08-2005, 11:04 AM

It was always my dream to be a part of the NBA. Unfortunately my athletic skills were not up to par. But thanks to good contacts, and a great education, I was able to work my way up through the ranks of the Atlanta Hawks front office, now serving as an assistant to General Manager Billy Knight, with my special focus being on scouting international talents. And now, midway through the 2004-05 season I just got a call from owner Colt Deloach prompting me to his office.

Deloach and I talked for a couple hours about the team, about its various strengths(few) and weaknesses. He and I both agreed that the roster was way too heavy on swingmen, and was lacking on any interior presence. We also were in dire need of a point guard, as our current one, Tyronn Lue, was more suited to bench play. The content of the conversation was odd, as Me and Mr Deloach had barely ever spoken in the past. In fact I only really remember him complementing me on my advisement to choose Boris Diaw in the 2003 draft. Finally as we were concluding he told me, stevew, that he had just fired Billy, and that I would be his new General Manager!

Some details now, for the Home Audience.

This dynasty will be simmed using Total Pro Basketball 2005. I am using a roster pack made by Irishhand, found here. This pack was updated to reflect NBA rosters as of the trade deadline in 2005. I have also updated the Draft picks around the league trading them around to recreate as real of a scenario as possible. I will be using fictitious rookie draft players, tho, as user created roster sets tend to be too strong(IMO).

Our record at the trade deadline is 14-38, and we are 20 games out of first in the NBA Southeast division. We are all but eliminated from the playoff race, currently 12.5 games back from the 8^th spot. Deloach told me that for the rest of the regular season I was able to do whatever I want with the roster, however he did mandate to me that we were not to finish behind the expansion Bobcats.

Immediately I contacted the Agents for Tom Gugliotta and Kevin Willis, and told both players that we no longer needed them this season. At 35 and 42, respectively, neither figures to be in our long term plans, and I figure both deserve the opportunity to try to latch onto a winning team for the rest of the season. We also release James “Yogi” Stewart, a useless piece of shit, who was completing the last year of his contract. Stewart had a great stretch of 20 or 30 games back in 98, which he parlayed into a 25 million dollar contract. We don't like his attitude, and don't want him corrupting our young players. I also placed veteran Tony Delk on the injured list, as we have other players to develop at his position, his only value to me being an 3.5 million dollar expiring contract next year, which hopefully we can trade during the off season.

Scanning the NBDL, we decide to sign a couple players, Brandon Armstrong, a
24 year old PG with some scoring ability, and Ken Johnson, a 26 year old PF who is pretty active on the defensive side of the ball. In our first meeting with me as GM, i informed head coach Mike Woodson that it wasn't likely that he would be back next year, although a strong finish to the year might change my mind. I prefer a coach with more experience, and a winning tradition.

Apparently Woodson didn't much care for his Job, as we finish the season on a 5 and 25 slide, slightly ahead of the Bobcats, but a still awful 19-63. Of the 2 players i brought in, Armstrong looked okay, but got hurt after 7 games(7.7 points, 2.6 AST, 22 mins). We will probably look to try to retain him for next season, if he signs for cheap. Johnson also played pretty well, averaging 5 points 5 rebounds in about 20 mins a game. He may be back, if we cant find any other big men.

Our team has way too much duplication right now, but i did identify 4 players that I hope to build the team around.

	PPG	G	Rebs	Ast.	Min	Age
SF Al Harrington	18.9	77	7.3	2.1	34.9	25
SF Josh Childress	10.4	70	4.9	2.9	32.4	22
SF Josh Smith	6.1	71	3.1	1.2	18.8	20
SG Boris Diaw	5.7	81	2.8	1.9	18.6	23

Harrington is clearly our best player, but unfortunately he ends up spending most of his time at PF, which he really isn't suited for. His contract expires in 2006, so we may move him next season, if we can get good value, or if he wants a pretty large extension.

Childress was a rookie, our top pick in the previous years draft. He's a solid defender, when Childress is our 6^th man, we should have a solid team. Until that point, and if he has to start, we may be in trouble.

Josh Smith is a nice player, straight out of High School. Like Harrington he is a bit of a tweener. I prefer a SF that can shoot the 3, but Smith definitely has starter potential. He is a good shot blocker as well, so he may be decent for the Power Forward void. But he is a pretty mediocre rebounder.

Diaw is a pretty versatile player, with great passing skills. He may never be an all star, but we think he can be solid member of a starting guard rotation. If we cant sign a point guard next year, we will look to use him in that role.

2004-2005 Hawks award winners

Josh Childress was named to the All-Rookie First team

The Spurs, much like in real life win the title. As we go to proceed to the next season, I almost made a huge error. Minutes before midnight on June 30, I realized that Billy Knight hadn't picked up Boris Diaw's 2006 option. I do that, and also I came to terms on a contract extension for Al Harrington. He only wanted a 5 year deal starting at 6.5 million, so I decided to give it to him.

Next, 2005 offseason

nfg22 · 08-08-2005, 11:28 AM

Illbe reading I like it...

stevew · 08-08-2005, 01:24 PM

Draft Lottery night, this will make or break our draft position. We have roughly a 1 in 5 shot at the top pick, and a pretty good chance at a top 3 pick. In a worst case scenario, we could draft 5^th. Picks 13 to 7 go in order, but when pick 6 is announced, the Hornets are not there. Meaning that they have one of the top 3 picks in the league. Their GM smiles. And i get a big knot in my stomach.

Pick 5 is called, and the Clippers logo is revealed. I rest easy, since we wont fall that far. And then pick 4 reveals the Hawks logo. I try to hide my disappointment's, but it is fairly visible on television. Pick 4 isn't bad, mind you, but its not where I was hoping to be. The Warriors won the lottery, with the Bobcats and Hornets taking 2^nd and 3^rd. I only hope that one of them has hired Billy Knight as their GM, so that the teams will stock up on Swingmen.

The coaching market in the league is getting tight, with a ton of vacancies across the league. As a condition of firing Woodson, I agreed to take over the day to day coaching duties of the team. The players I talked to seemed to support the decision, I was a fairly good assistant coach in college for a few years. The grave nature of our team also will make it nearly impossible for me to find a good head coach anyways, so I'll give it a shot, for awhile at least. This will also allow me to make my own rotations, and set my strategies. Once I think we are in better shape, i plan to step aside, and hire a great coach. For my troubles I will be given a 3 year contract, for 1.8 million per year.

The Charlotte Bobcats end the Bernie Bickerstaff era rather quickly and hire Phil Jackson, giving him a 3 year deal for 6.9 million per. I like the development abilities of Rick Pitino, who is once again trying to make his way in the NBA. Surprisingly he agrees to be my 1^st assistant coach, and i promise him the first shot at the head coaching job if I should quit.

Draft day is here, and Mock Drafts seem to suggest that we will be looking to take a PG. I concur, but still plan to take the best player available, even if it is another swingman. We hold workouts for 15 top prospects, hoping to weed out the bad apples. Our staff decides on a PG named Jimmy Harris as one of our key targets, and luckily he is available at #4. At 22 years old, he is almost developed, and should be able to step into a starting role almost immediately. At pick #13, the Nuggets nabbed a PG prospect we really liked. I'll be contacting them shortly to see if we can work something out. In the second we nab an undersized PF, Schea Eyes. We like his rebounding ability, though he looks to be a bench player at best. With the last pick in the draft, we take another PF named Kevin Deeter, who may or may not make the team.
The salary cap for 2005 was set at 51.5 million dollars. I decide to renounce Tyronn Lue, Royal Ivey, and Obinna Okezie. We will have approximately 27 million dollars to spend in FA, and currently have 10 players under contract.

Player	Position
Jimmy Harris	PG
Tony Delk	SG
Boris Diaw	SG
Josh Smith	SF
Al Harrington	SF
Josh Childress	SF
Schea Eyles	PF
Kevin Deeter	PF
Jason Collier	C
Predrag Drobnjak	C

Admittedly, we are very weak up front, and we hope to use much of the 27 million to sign impact front court players. I also plan to try to use the 2006 Boston 1^st round pick we acquired for Antione Walker(real life trade) and Josh Childress to obtain another starting quality PG. Our first rounder Harris looks solid, but we definitely could use another PG.

During the summer league i closely watch our players, and PG Harris looks like a lock to start. He worked on his defense a lot, and passed the ball well. Our rookie PF both look pretty average. We are committed to their salaries for next year, but its quite possible that i will cut one or both of them. Also we attempted to deal for the PG from Denver that we spoke of earlier, but they do not appear to want to trade him. As of now i regret not trying to trade back about 5 spots, and taking him. I grab my phone, and my cheat sheets, and get ready to board a plane to Philadelphia in an attempt to try to snag an promising young center.

Next Stage: Free Agency

Izulde · 08-08-2005, 01:48 PM

It'll be interesting to see how you manage to do compared with how I've done with the expansion T-Wolves using La Tulipe's 1990 roster set

stevew · 08-08-2005, 02:53 PM

As the plane lands in Philly, I place a call to the Agent of Samuel Dalemburt and arrange a meeting. I don't intend to leave Philadelphia without a commitment on a contract. Also my secondary targets have been contacted, and will also be receiving offers. We plan to chase Tyson Chandler of the Bulls, to a reasonable price, and also Joe Johnson of the Hawks. Yes, he is another 2/3, but we feel he can play the point if needed. Also he is a great scorer. If talks with any of those 3 don't work, we also look to contact Larry Hughes, and Zydrunas Ilgauskus. Big Z may be a bit older, but we feel he has at least 3 solid years left.

Daly's Agent is asking for a 5 year commitment at a starting salary of roughly 9 million. Since we had 26.6 million available to us, he looks to take 1/3 of our money, a figure we can deal with. We decide to start our offer at 10 million dollars, and to run for 5 years, with no raises. We may sacrifice some cap room in the short term, but it will make his deal much cheaper in years 4 and 5.

Initially, at least, Tyson Chandler appears to be out of our price range, as he is demanding a near max salary. Johnson's demands are also quite high, but we feel that he is worth the risk. Since there is no restricted Free agency in Total Pro, we don't have to worry about our offer being matched. Our offer of 99.1 million over 6 years leaves us with 3.8 million in cap space. Later on during the FA process, we will try to find some additional players to sign with that amount of money. We also trade SG Delk to the Bulls, and swap 2008 2^nd round picks with them. That frees up another 3.3 million dollars, and should leave us with enough for another good offer.

Since demands seem out of control, we will hold onto our money for now. The first week of free agency was painful, as no players signed, they were still looking over offers. Finally after 5 days, both Dalemburt and Johnson decide to come to Atlanta. We definitely overpaid, but we were short on talent. Now we have 7.2 million dollars left, and plan to be aggressive. Larry Hughes spurns us for now, but told us to call him back in a few days if he doesn't get something more tangible. I'm trying to get a bit more cap space, so that i can make him or Chandler a more sizable offer.

Unrelated to the Hawks, but the worst case scenario for a Celtics fan.

Boston Celtics re-sign Antoine Walker to a 7-year contract worth $145,672,465

Anyways, after that little tidbit, we look to make another trade. I also remember that I haven't renounced either Armstrong or Donta Smith, so i do so, and free up another 1.5 million in space. We manage to send Childress and a first rounder via Boston to Milwaukee for a promising PF prospect, Andrew Boardman. The trade AI in Total Pro is pretty good, although i think the AI has unrealistic demands at times.

We proceed a few more days, and then make another offer to Tyson Chandler, who now appears to be in our price range. We offer him a 6 year deal for 46 million, but he rebuffs us, and signs back with the Bulls. We probably handled him wrong, as a slightly more aggressive deal would have brought him in. Unfortunately Larry Hughes also resigned with the Wizards, so now we will likely scramble to nab another solid player. Clearly i don't have a feel for the market yet. I guess it will come with time.

I decide to split the 10 million we have remaining into a few offers. We offer a 20 million dollar deal to Stromile Swift, and smaller deals to SG Donta Smith, and PF Tskitiskvilli. They all sign, as do a pair of young PG, Chris Duhon, and Andre Barrett.

We head to camp, with 15 players under contract, and we have a good series of practices. But we do receive some bad news at the ticket stand, that we have sold a very poor allotment of tickets. We, however, are very aggressive with promotions for the first month of the season, as we try to rebuild our fan base.

After working closely with coach pitino, I decide to set our depth charts. At first i plan to play a 9 man rotation, with one clear backup at each position, but its possible that i may move to a 10 man rotation if the need arises.

Your 2006 Atlanta Hawks!

Position	Starter	Backup	3^rd String	4^th String
PG	Boris Diaw	Jimmy Harris	Chris Duhon
SG	Joe Johnson	Boris Diaw	Jimmy Harris
SF	Al Harrington	Josh Smith
PF	Andy Boardman	Stromile Swift	Tskitiskvilli
C	Samuel Dalemburt	Jason Collier	Stromile Swift	Predrag Drobnjak
Injured List	Donta Smith	Andre Barrett	Kevin Deeter

We decide to run a fast paced, high pressure game plan. I feel we have a decent amount of depth, and thusly can afford to cycle in and out players. Primarily we will run the Triangle offense, but we also plan to go heavy on other formations. If Boardman develops into the Scorer he was promised to be, we should be okay.

Next stage: Month One

stevew · 08-08-2005, 05:18 PM

My coaching career starts off poorly as we lose the first game of my career. And then we follow it up by getting destroyed by 32 points the next night. With 20 and 29 turnovers, it appears that my offense may need some help. I decide to hold off on the panic button yet, as its just the first 2 games, and we are a young team. After a victory in our 3^rd game, it becomes apparent to me that we shouldnt be working with such a high intensity. Diaw isn't really a PG, he's more of a great passing SG. So in order for him to be effective, we'll have to go to a halfcourt set. We also decide that we should try a bit more Zone defense.

After the first week of the season is complete, it has become apparent that rookie PF Andy Boardman is not yet ready for starter minutes. He carries his 21% shooting to the bench. Replacing him in the starting lineup will be rookie PG Jimmy Harris, as we plan to move Harrington to PF, Johnson to SF, and Diaw to SG. At least for the time being. We start to put feelers out on the league for Harrington, he's a good player, but he doesn't really fit our needs. I hope to trade him for an expiring contract and a rookie prospect at some point this year.

Its a shame you cannot win for losing, cause the Hawks would be king. We start off 1-9, before winning a clutch game versus the New Jersey Nets. Harris posts his first career triple double in the game, and Dalemburt has a monster game as well(19 points, 16 rebounds, 5 blocks). We think the media is getting to him, as he is already being labeled a Free Agent Bust.

We continue to get beat like a red-headed stepchild, running our mark to 2-14 thru the first month of the season. Surely we are not this bad. I decide that I will shake up the rotations one more time, and then if that fails, i will resign myself to the front office, and let a professional coach take over.
Over the next couple weeks, we play much better, and run our record all the way to 7-17. Joe Johnson appears to be playing well with PG Harris. However our SF, Al Harrington, hurts his abdominal, and will miss the next several weeks. We decide to bring Josh Smith into the starting lineup, as he needs playing time. PF Stromile Swift is one of the reasons for our resurgence, as he brings solid defense and decent offense every night.

After a nice stretch, to run our record to 13-23, we get word that C Dalemburt will miss the next 2 weeks or so. With him out, we manage to run our record to 16-25. It appears that our “Small” lineup of Harris/Johnson/Smith/Harrington/Swift is actually working quite well. I decide that I'm gonna attempt, at least, to trade Daly for a starting PG. He just isn't the fit for our team that I want.

And just like that, we make our big trade. We send Daly, Tskitiskvilli, and Chris Duhon to Sacremento for Mike Bibby, Darius Songalia, a rookie Center(who we cut) and a first rounder. We decide that its clearly a 2 for 1 type situation to our rotation, Songalia wont start, but he does play quality minutes. And Bibby will be our starting PG. However, the trade does not go as planned, we proceed to drop our record to 17-34. And I decide to bring in a new head coach, firing myself. I agree to terms with coach Jeff Bzdelik, and also make a trade, dumping Bibby and Harrington. They deserve better than this mess. And it will free up enough cap space to try to build(again) next season.

Next chapter: 2005, Part 2

stevew · 08-09-2005, 02:32 PM

After the Bibby and Harrington salary dumps , I knew we would be pretty bad the rest of the season. Unfortunately, I was correct. We finished the season on a 9-22 skid, running our total to a meager 26 wins. Johnson was worth every penny, finishing with 23 points per game. However, he is our only solid scoring threat. We hope to pick up another scorer in the Ammy draft this year. For those following at home, the Phoenix suns won the 2006 title. And PF Andy Boardman was named to the All rookie 2^nd team.

The draft lottery begins for this year, and we look to again receive a decent pick, but not a top one. The crowd is shocked when the Memphis Grizzlies are not called for pick 10. that means that they beat the odds, and got a top 3 pick with 1.7% odds. We, unfortunately pick 5^th this year, with the Bobcats capturing the top pick, followed by the Grizzlies and Bulls. The lottery is getting to me, we need to get lucky, unless this is a really deep draft.

This year we have 2 picks in the draft, #5 and #25. I hope to move the latter first rounder, as I'm trying to save cap space as much as possible. We chip in a second round pick, and move our pick for Dallas's in 2008. The odds of the Mavs making the lottery are small, but we can always use their selection to sweeten another trade.

At #5 we grab a High School player named Quoyn Presser. He's a rather odd, player, a SF who is one of the top rebounding prospects I've seen, and also a good shot blocker. But he's pretty weak on overall defense. Since our current PF of the Future, Board man is a weak rebounder, we hope that Presser will make up for that. Last year we had the worst team in the league in rebounding, and we need to improve that. The game rates Presser as a 5 star potential talent. Presser was impressive in Summer league, as was our starting PG Jimmy Harris. He was voted the MVP.

Since we made the late season salary dump, we are sitting in a pretty good position vs the cap. Hopefully i can grab a top notch FA talent. Currently we have 12 players under contract, and approximately 18 million in FA space. I look around the league to see if i can offload a bit of salary, and find the Bobcats to be amenable to picking up a couple of my smaller contracts, at the cost of a 2^nd round pick. Since I'm already finding the second round to be more of a nuisance than its worth, I gladly jump at it.

We have 20.3 million available to spend in FA. Next off season is the coveted Bron/Melo/Wade class, and its possible that one or more will slip into FA. I decide that I'll either do 1 year deals, or only bid on a special player. A quick search reveals there to be several top notch guys this year, including Amare Stoudemire, and Yao Ming. We decide to look for the one with lesser Loyalty, and try to bring him aboard. We decide to max Amare. We have less than 7 million to make another offer, for now tho, ill be holding onto it. Last years backup PF Darius Songalia wants 9 million a season, so we decide to wait on him. We still hold his bird rights, and did not renounce him. This year seems to feature a lot of players with unrealistic demands, so likely we wait.

Amare's agent tells us that he's received a ton of offers, and that he will mull them over. We survey the league cap situation, and the only teams that have sizable room to make him an offer are us, and the Suns. We hope he likes us. After day one, we get a call rejecting our offer. Amare seems destined to stay in Phoenix, we cant offer him a 7 year deal. The next day, Yao Ming's agent tells us the same thing.

And unfortunately, in the 3^rd day of free agency, we find out bad news. Amare decides to sign an extension with the Suns. Their offer was for one more year than ours, and for an additional 30 million. We don't blame him at all. We turn our attention to Ming, but not unexpectedly we get word that the Houston Rockets re-sign Yao Ming to a 7-year contract worth $130,524,277, the same offer that Amare got.

The best remaining player in FA is SF Peja Stoyjakovic. He's older than we like, at 29, but he's definitely a “star” player. We decide to make him an offer, and see what happens. Peja studies our 6 year, 90 million dollar offer for a few days, but we strongly doubt he decides to take it. Meanwhile we look for a few more decent FA options.

Peja calls us, and tells us he's staying in Sacramento. I guess that he couldn't turn down their offer of 7 years and 120 million. At this point, we are pretty screwed. I decide to make a small offer to Steven Hunter(3 years, 15 million), and make Ben Wallace a huge offer. He wants an average of 15 million a season, and a 4 year deal. A few days later, the Detroit Pistons re-sign Ben Wallace to a 4-year contract worth $57,208,556, which was at least 9 million less than our offer. Nobody likes Atlanta.

We find that the Pistons have renounced their rights to Darko Milicic, so we offer him a 6 year deal for 15 million dollars. If he continues to be a stiff, it wont hurt us that much, but if he's a stud, we will make out. Dejaun Wagner is another young player with potential. We offer him a small contract.

We finally make a signing, as Darko takes our 6 year deal, and Steven Hunter signs for 3. We also add SG Jiri Welsch for about 3 million a season. We hope he will add depth. Unfortunately, we screw around with Darius Songalia too much, and he decides to sing elsewhere, taking a 4 year MLE offer from the Mavs. There's no way we would have offered him that much, so its probably a blessing. Our remaining big FA offer is to Tayshaun Prince, for 1 year. We doubt he takes it, but he would be a good depth signing. We also talk to Ken Johnson again, hoping he will come back for the 3^rd straight year. He sucks, but he's a decent shot blocker.

We sign Prince, Johnson, and another center named Dan Gadzuric. Most important of anything, we still have a sizable amount of cap space for next year, if we can get someone to sign here. I really like our team for this year, but then again, coming out of camp last year, i thought we'd be around .500. Who knows.

We proceed through training camp, and coach Bzdelik announces his new starting lineup. Our back court will feature 2^nd year man Harris, along with Joe Johnson. Our front court looks to be on the small side, as it features Boris Diaw, Tayshaun Prince, and Stromile Swift, all playing one position above their normal one. Not surprisingly, Darko is the 12^th man on the bench. I talk it over with the owner, and he decides that we can will fire our coach after 30 games, if we haven't won at least 12 of them. I wonder if he is saying the same thing about me.

Next Chapter: 2006 Season

stevew · 08-10-2005, 01:28 AM

Surveying our contract situation, we realize that SG Diaw can become a free agent after this season. He's be a solid player for us, averaging about 10ppg for the last 3 years. But he wants a 5 year deal starting at about 6 million, which could seriously harm our ability to make a big FA offer after this year. We decide to wait on him, for now, and will do something with him after the season.

Two weeks into the season, surprisingly the Hawks now sit with a record of 4-2. I don't understand how we are winning, as we are one of the worst scoring teams in the league(26^th), and have the most turnovers. Our shot blocking is pretty top notch tho, as we lead the league in that category. Jiri Welsch is averaging 15 points off the bench, which is helping us out a ton. If he continues, we could win a lot of games.

After 20 games, the Hawks have a record of 11-9. Coach Bzdelik decided to go with a larger lineup featuring Steven Hunter at Center, and it's proved to work well. Unfortunately Joe Johnson injures himself for 2 weeks, so we hope to continue without him. Bzdelik passes the 30 game test, as we win 14 of those games. Midway through the season, we have run our record to 22-19, and all looks well.

One player that we haven't gotten much from is Josh Smith. Our scouts still view him as having 4.5 star potential, but he has yet to crack our rotation this year. Last year, he did play big minutes, but he's an incredibly inefficient scorer(37.5% shooter this year). We decide that we'll look to move him at the deadline, if we get in a position to help our front line, or if we can finagle a #1 draft pick for him. Smith is still young tho, at 22, its risky to trade him.

Our off season signings seem to be producing quite well. NBA insiders thought we were insane to guarantee Steven Hunter 5 million a season, but thus far he is proving to be a solid starter. In 27 minutes a game, he averages nearly 10 points and 8 rebounds. The previous season we were paying Samuel Dalemburt twice his money, and still weren't getting that production.

Jiri Welsch has played a key role for our team off the bench, averaging over 12 points a game, and stabilizing our rotation. He might not be a starter, but he's definitely the type of player a good team needs on its bench. Darko Milicic is playing solid ball off the bench, and is proving to be pretty good at drawing fouls. We think that he could actually be a starter in another year or two. Tayshaun Prince has been solid as a rock, we look to try to keep him past this year, as I am kicking myself only offering him a 1 year deal.

Statistically wise, our team is middle of the road in most categories. We are a bit weak in rebounding, 23^rd overall, and are last in the league in turnovers. Defensively, we are pretty improved, as we are leading the league with 7 blocks a game, and are holding our opponents to 94.5 points per game. Which is promising, tho we are only averaging 93.5 ourselves. We have played 23 home games versus only 18 road games, so we know that the path in the second half will be hard. My goals are to procure us a PF upgrade, which hopefully will get us into the playoffs.

Next Stage: 2006 Part 2

stevew · 08-10-2005, 02:32 PM

It's an odd perspective right now, sitting comfortably in a playoff spot. Since i perceive us to have a pretty big hole a power forward, I decide to look around the league to see who is available. Andy Boardman, who we got before last year, looks good as a second year player. But to be honest, his scoring and defense just isn't there yet. It hopefully will be soon, but the ATL is thinking playoffs. We actually have a decent buzz around town, and I don't want to lose it.

Our first goal is to attempt to nab Al Jefferson of the Celtics. But they appear to be less than willing to deal him, as at age 21 he's posting 16 points and 10 rebounds a game. We offer Smith and the 2008 Raptors first rounder to the Bobcats for Emeka Okafor, and they decide to accept. Moving that Raptors pick is a risky venture, as they will likely be in the lottery that year. But Okafor adds a legitimate PF to our rotation. We also hate to give up on Smith, but we feel we have multiple guys that can play his position.

Coach Bzdelik and I are beginning to have some serious issues over the playing time of a particular player. PG Jimmy Harris has all the tools to be an elite point guard in this league, but the coach seems to think that Boris Diaw is a better option for starting point guard. I decide to let it go, for now, but there is no way that we'll go into next season with Harris only getting 22 minutes per game off the bench.

At the All Star Break, we sit comfortably at 28-23, 6.5 games back of the Southeast leaders Miami. We doubt we can catch the Heat, they are just too good. If the playoffs started today, we would be the number 5 seed. Thats a lot better than being the 3^rd worst team in the league.

In the All Star Weekend events, PG Jimmy Harris competes in the three point shootout. He is bounced in the first round, missing out on a tiebreaker to the finals. We hope he keeps the good 3 point shooting up in the second half of the season, he's shooting .402 from downtown thus far.

The Rookies vs Sophomores games features 3 Hawks. SF Prosser starts for the Rookie team, and scores 13 points and grabs 7 boards for the winning Rookie team. Jimmy Harris contributes 12 points and 6 assists off the bench for the Sophomores. Andy Boardman plays 12 minutes, but does not score. No Hawks make the grown up all star game, but ex Hawk(for 10 games) Mike Bibby does, and gets the DNP-CD.

Just as we are about to stand pat at the trade deadline, we notice a bunch of upper tier players that have been placed on the trading block. An attempt for Ron Artest was denied, as was our move for Kobe Bryant. We see that Memphis is looking to trade Shane Battier. We really like his defensive ability, so we make a trade. We send Prince, and a first round pick(originally Dallas's) and get back Battier, and rookie SF Rickie Monsoon. We absolutely loved Monsoon in the draft, and can't believe that Memphis will trade him. Looking on the transaction, it appears to be a steal for us.

A string of Away games after the trade deadline push our record closer down to the .500 mark, as we are not very good on the road(14-18). Our playoff position looks good however. We won't have much chance at getting anything but the #5 seed, as the first 4 seeds are all approximately 6 games ahead of us. But we do have a solid 5 game lead on the #9 team.

Looking ahead at our contract situations, we decide to negotiate with Diaw's agent on a possible extension. He's averaging 13 points, 5 assists, and 6 rebounds this season, which makes him definitely a keeper. The Battier deal ate all of our cap space for the future seasons, so we won't be able to make a play for Lebron anyways. Diaw signs for 5 years, starting at 6 million dollars, a fair amount for his contributions to our team.

We also decide to retain Emeka Okafor while we are dealing with contracts. His demands are reasonable, starting at only 7 million a season. Our payroll, once one of the smallest in the league, may push luxury tax levels within 2 years. We hope our owner has deep pockets. We will aggresively use our Midlevel Exception this off season, as its always good to accumulate tradeable assets.

The rest of the way, we roll, going 16-6. And we finish with 48 wins. Unfortunately the Milwaukee Bucks have the tiebreaker, so they receive the #4 seed, and we do not have homecourt. The key matchup of the series will be Michael Redd vs Joe Johnson. If Johnson can outplay Redd, i think we can win.

In game one, we outplay the Bucks in the second quarter(30-17), and at that point the game pretty much becomes a laugher. We win easily, 89-70.

In game 2, we hold the bucks to 9 first quarter points. And sport a 20 point lead at halftime. Only 22 fourth quarter points by Milwaukee save them from finishing the game in the 50's, as we win 91-62. Apparently our defense is quite good, of late.

In game 3, 62 first half points give us a 20 point lead. The Buck give us a bit of a scare in the 3^rd quarter, at one point cutting our lead into single digits. But we finish strong, winning 100-87. Bad news in this game, though, as Steven Hunter gets a 18 day injury. We think we have enough depth to make up for his loss.

In game 4, a late Bucks rally keeps them from being swept. Shane Battier shooting 2-17 from the floor all but kills our chances. Now we return to Milwaukee for game 5. Our coach decides to start rookie SF Prosser at C, a strange decision. Also PF Okafor is hurt as well, so game 5 will be a good test.

Game 5 is close throughout, and both offenses are just off. Luckily Stromile Swift plays strong off the bench, scoring 23 points. A couple last minute free throws by Diaw close the deal. Diaw's having a miserable shooting playoffs, but is chipping in 7 assists and 7 rebounds a game. Next up for us is the Heat, which will be a strong test. A brief recap of our regular season performances, and our contract situation.

Next Stage: 2006 Playoffs, round 2

stevew · 08-11-2005, 02:56 PM

Playing the Heat without Steven Hunter is not something I'm looking forward to. Hunter isn't great, but he's a solid shotblocker, and most importantlym 6 fouls. Now we have to play Stromile Swift on Shaq, an obvious mismatch. The series will likely come down to whether Diaw can keep Dwyane Wade in check, as he's quite dangerous. If Shaq doesnt crap all over our frontcourt, there is a slight chance we can win this. After all, we got Darko!

In game one, Miami opens a big lead, and we trail by 15 points for most of the game. We cut the lead to 97-95, but never lead the game. We lose 104-99, Wade wins player of the game with 22 points and 8 assists. Swift does a reasonable job on Shaq.

Game 2 is all Atlanta, as we win on the road, 102-84. A massive run in the second quarter leads us to a 21 point lead, which we hold on for in the second half. Shaq gets his 25 points and 13 rebounds, but its not enough for the Heat. Joe Johnson takes the game over in the second quarter for us, and finishes with 33 points.
In game 3, we head back to Atlanta, with the hope of putting the Heat on the ropes. Unfortunately we cannot contain Wade, and the Heat win going away, 98-87. Its definitely a game we should have won, but poor performances by Joe Johnson(4-14 shooting) and Diaw(4 points, 6 turnovers, got killed by Wade who had 26 points) sink our ship.

Game 4 is all Miami, Shaq outscores Swift 30-0. We now trail 3-1, and pretty much know our chances of winning this series are zero. We lose by 20 points, but it wasnt even that close.

Game 5 is the Dwyane Wade Show, he scores 32 points, grabs 10 rebounds, and gets 7 assists. Not having Hunter probably killed our chances this series, but Diaw getting pwned by Wade continuously didnt help much either. We have some regrets about the big extension we signed Diaw too, as he only posts 6.8 points and 7 assists per game in the playoffs. The Spurs go on to win the title, beating the Heat in 7 games, after losing the first 3 games to the Heat. It is the biggest collapse in NBA playoffs history.

In the year end awards, Bzdelik gets robbed in the Coach of the Year voting, as Terry Porter gets it for taking a Bucks team to the same record as us. Small forward Prosser gets named to the All Rookie Second team. I decide that getting named to the All Rookie Team is an award slightly better than winning a gold medal in the Special Olympics.

Financially the team is not doing well, and unless we can make a lot more money at the gate, we will be in serious financial trouble. We lost 18 million last season, we will have to raise ticket prices for next year. My job could be in jeopardy.

Finally there is a draft lottery not featuring the Hawks. At pick #12, the announcer calls the Indiana Pacers. This means that the Golden State Warriors will jump into the top 3, in spite of their .9% chance. The Warriors go on to get the #1 selection overall in the draft, someone in their front office must have a lot of luck.

We receive word that the Salary Cap will be set at 54 million for this season, but we are way over the cap. We will only have a midlevel exception with to sign free agents, and because of cost concerns, we will likely forgo using it.

We have the 24^th selection in the draft, likely I will look to trade it for a future pick, especially if I can get a selection from a fringe team that may be in the lottery. We already have way too many young players, and we definatley could stand to save some money. We trade our selection to Miami for their 2009 #1, its quite possible they could suck by then. If not, at least it could be trade fodder in the future.
We enter Free Agency with only our exceptions to spend, and I gotta say, this is the best FA class I've probably ever seen. Lebron, Wade, Carmelo, Dirk, Bosh, Dwight Howard plus a ton of others for depth. We look to wait to make our signings, guys are asking for extreme cash, and we dont have it. I also decide that we need to trim some costs, and we ship out PF Stromile Swift for a second round pick.

Upon further review of how strong the FA class truly is, we decide to make some more cost cutting moves, I trade away Diaw and Jiri Welsch, and Darko, putting us in the position to make a 10 million dollar FA offer. We have more than enough warm bodies, and young kids with a lot of potential, so the chance to nab a special player here cannot be discounted.

On day 3, a few of our more obvious targets get huge contracts.

Cleveland Cavaliers re-sign LeBron James to a 7-year contract worth $137,462,783

Miami Heat re-sign Dwyane Wade to a 7-year contract worth $137,462,783

On day 5, Carmelo gets near max money, scoring 131 million over 7 years. We talk with Dwight Howards agent, he gets a offer for 6 years and 81 million from us. He decides to take less money to remain with the Magic. Which is good for us, because Chris Bosh has been available in our budget range, but we made our commitment to Howard, tying our money. Quickly we move on Bosh, but he decides to move to the New Orleans Hornets, much to our chagrin. We don't totally strike out, as we land a young promising stud PG in Shawn Livingston. We also sign Joe Smith to beef our frontcourt up. We fill our roster out signing solid minimum salary talents.

Next Stage: 2008 Season.

08-08-2005, 05:18 PM	#6
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	My coaching career starts off poorly as we lose the first game of my career. And then we follow it up by getting destroyed by 32 points the next night. With 20 and 29 turnovers, it appears that my offense may need some help. I decide to hold off on the panic button yet, as its just the first 2 games, and we are a young team. After a victory in our 3^rd game, it becomes apparent to me that we shouldnt be working with such a high intensity. Diaw isn't really a PG, he's more of a great passing SG. So in order for him to be effective, we'll have to go to a halfcourt set. We also decide that we should try a bit more Zone defense. After the first week of the season is complete, it has become apparent that rookie PF Andy Boardman is not yet ready for starter minutes. He carries his 21% shooting to the bench. Replacing him in the starting lineup will be rookie PG Jimmy Harris, as we plan to move Harrington to PF, Johnson to SF, and Diaw to SG. At least for the time being. We start to put feelers out on the league for Harrington, he's a good player, but he doesn't really fit our needs. I hope to trade him for an expiring contract and a rookie prospect at some point this year. Its a shame you cannot win for losing, cause the Hawks would be king. We start off 1-9, before winning a clutch game versus the New Jersey Nets. Harris posts his first career triple double in the game, and Dalemburt has a monster game as well(19 points, 16 rebounds, 5 blocks). We think the media is getting to him, as he is already being labeled a Free Agent Bust. We continue to get beat like a red-headed stepchild, running our mark to 2-14 thru the first month of the season. Surely we are not this bad. I decide that I will shake up the rotations one more time, and then if that fails, i will resign myself to the front office, and let a professional coach take over. Over the next couple weeks, we play much better, and run our record all the way to 7-17. Joe Johnson appears to be playing well with PG Harris. However our SF, Al Harrington, hurts his abdominal, and will miss the next several weeks. We decide to bring Josh Smith into the starting lineup, as he needs playing time. PF Stromile Swift is one of the reasons for our resurgence, as he brings solid defense and decent offense every night. After a nice stretch, to run our record to 13-23, we get word that C Dalemburt will miss the next 2 weeks or so. With him out, we manage to run our record to 16-25. It appears that our “Small” lineup of Harris/Johnson/Smith/Harrington/Swift is actually working quite well. I decide that I'm gonna attempt, at least, to trade Daly for a starting PG. He just isn't the fit for our team that I want. And just like that, we make our big trade. We send Daly, Tskitiskvilli, and Chris Duhon to Sacremento for Mike Bibby, Darius Songalia, a rookie Center(who we cut) and a first rounder. We decide that its clearly a 2 for 1 type situation to our rotation, Songalia wont start, but he does play quality minutes. And Bibby will be our starting PG. However, the trade does not go as planned, we proceed to drop our record to 17-34. And I decide to bring in a new head coach, firing myself. I agree to terms with coach Jeff Bzdelik, and also make a trade, dumping Bibby and Harrington. They deserve better than this mess. And it will free up enough cap space to try to build(again) next season. Next chapter: 2005, Part 2 Last edited by stevew : 08-10-2005 at 02:35 PM.

08-09-2005, 02:32 PM	#7
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	After the Bibby and Harrington salary dumps , I knew we would be pretty bad the rest of the season. Unfortunately, I was correct. We finished the season on a 9-22 skid, running our total to a meager 26 wins. Johnson was worth every penny, finishing with 23 points per game. However, he is our only solid scoring threat. We hope to pick up another scorer in the Ammy draft this year. For those following at home, the Phoenix suns won the 2006 title. And PF Andy Boardman was named to the All rookie 2^nd team. The draft lottery begins for this year, and we look to again receive a decent pick, but not a top one. The crowd is shocked when the Memphis Grizzlies are not called for pick 10. that means that they beat the odds, and got a top 3 pick with 1.7% odds. We, unfortunately pick 5^th this year, with the Bobcats capturing the top pick, followed by the Grizzlies and Bulls. The lottery is getting to me, we need to get lucky, unless this is a really deep draft. This year we have 2 picks in the draft, #5 and #25. I hope to move the latter first rounder, as I'm trying to save cap space as much as possible. We chip in a second round pick, and move our pick for Dallas's in 2008. The odds of the Mavs making the lottery are small, but we can always use their selection to sweeten another trade. At #5 we grab a High School player named Quoyn Presser. He's a rather odd, player, a SF who is one of the top rebounding prospects I've seen, and also a good shot blocker. But he's pretty weak on overall defense. Since our current PF of the Future, Board man is a weak rebounder, we hope that Presser will make up for that. Last year we had the worst team in the league in rebounding, and we need to improve that. The game rates Presser as a 5 star potential talent. Presser was impressive in Summer league, as was our starting PG Jimmy Harris. He was voted the MVP. Since we made the late season salary dump, we are sitting in a pretty good position vs the cap. Hopefully i can grab a top notch FA talent. Currently we have 12 players under contract, and approximately 18 million in FA space. I look around the league to see if i can offload a bit of salary, and find the Bobcats to be amenable to picking up a couple of my smaller contracts, at the cost of a 2^nd round pick. Since I'm already finding the second round to be more of a nuisance than its worth, I gladly jump at it. We have 20.3 million available to spend in FA. Next off season is the coveted Bron/Melo/Wade class, and its possible that one or more will slip into FA. I decide that I'll either do 1 year deals, or only bid on a special player. A quick search reveals there to be several top notch guys this year, including Amare Stoudemire, and Yao Ming. We decide to look for the one with lesser Loyalty, and try to bring him aboard. We decide to max Amare. We have less than 7 million to make another offer, for now tho, ill be holding onto it. Last years backup PF Darius Songalia wants 9 million a season, so we decide to wait on him. We still hold his bird rights, and did not renounce him. This year seems to feature a lot of players with unrealistic demands, so likely we wait. Amare's agent tells us that he's received a ton of offers, and that he will mull them over. We survey the league cap situation, and the only teams that have sizable room to make him an offer are us, and the Suns. We hope he likes us. After day one, we get a call rejecting our offer. Amare seems destined to stay in Phoenix, we cant offer him a 7 year deal. The next day, Yao Ming's agent tells us the same thing. And unfortunately, in the 3^rd day of free agency, we find out bad news. Amare decides to sign an extension with the Suns. Their offer was for one more year than ours, and for an additional 30 million. We don't blame him at all. We turn our attention to Ming, but not unexpectedly we get word that the Houston Rockets re-sign Yao Ming to a 7-year contract worth $130,524,277, the same offer that Amare got. The best remaining player in FA is SF Peja Stoyjakovic. He's older than we like, at 29, but he's definitely a “star” player. We decide to make him an offer, and see what happens. Peja studies our 6 year, 90 million dollar offer for a few days, but we strongly doubt he decides to take it. Meanwhile we look for a few more decent FA options. Peja calls us, and tells us he's staying in Sacramento. I guess that he couldn't turn down their offer of 7 years and 120 million. At this point, we are pretty screwed. I decide to make a small offer to Steven Hunter(3 years, 15 million), and make Ben Wallace a huge offer. He wants an average of 15 million a season, and a 4 year deal. A few days later, the Detroit Pistons re-sign Ben Wallace to a 4-year contract worth $57,208,556, which was at least 9 million less than our offer. Nobody likes Atlanta. We find that the Pistons have renounced their rights to Darko Milicic, so we offer him a 6 year deal for 15 million dollars. If he continues to be a stiff, it wont hurt us that much, but if he's a stud, we will make out. Dejaun Wagner is another young player with potential. We offer him a small contract. We finally make a signing, as Darko takes our 6 year deal, and Steven Hunter signs for 3. We also add SG Jiri Welsch for about 3 million a season. We hope he will add depth. Unfortunately, we screw around with Darius Songalia too much, and he decides to sing elsewhere, taking a 4 year MLE offer from the Mavs. There's no way we would have offered him that much, so its probably a blessing. Our remaining big FA offer is to Tayshaun Prince, for 1 year. We doubt he takes it, but he would be a good depth signing. We also talk to Ken Johnson again, hoping he will come back for the 3^rd straight year. He sucks, but he's a decent shot blocker. We sign Prince, Johnson, and another center named Dan Gadzuric. Most important of anything, we still have a sizable amount of cap space for next year, if we can get someone to sign here. I really like our team for this year, but then again, coming out of camp last year, i thought we'd be around .500. Who knows. We proceed through training camp, and coach Bzdelik announces his new starting lineup. Our back court will feature 2^nd year man Harris, along with Joe Johnson. Our front court looks to be on the small side, as it features Boris Diaw, Tayshaun Prince, and Stromile Swift, all playing one position above their normal one. Not surprisingly, Darko is the 12^th man on the bench. I talk it over with the owner, and he decides that we can will fire our coach after 30 games, if we haven't won at least 12 of them. I wonder if he is saying the same thing about me. *Next Chapter: 2006 Season* Last edited by stevew : 08-10-2005 at 02:36 PM.

08-10-2005, 01:28 AM	#8
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	Surveying our contract situation, we realize that SG Diaw can become a free agent after this season. He's be a solid player for us, averaging about 10ppg for the last 3 years. But he wants a 5 year deal starting at about 6 million, which could seriously harm our ability to make a big FA offer after this year. We decide to wait on him, for now, and will do something with him after the season. Two weeks into the season, surprisingly the Hawks now sit with a record of 4-2. I don't understand how we are winning, as we are one of the worst scoring teams in the league(26^th), and have the most turnovers. Our shot blocking is pretty top notch tho, as we lead the league in that category. Jiri Welsch is averaging 15 points off the bench, which is helping us out a ton. If he continues, we could win a lot of games. After 20 games, the Hawks have a record of 11-9. Coach Bzdelik decided to go with a larger lineup featuring Steven Hunter at Center, and it's proved to work well. Unfortunately Joe Johnson injures himself for 2 weeks, so we hope to continue without him. Bzdelik passes the 30 game test, as we win 14 of those games. Midway through the season, we have run our record to 22-19, and all looks well. One player that we haven't gotten much from is Josh Smith. Our scouts still view him as having 4.5 star potential, but he has yet to crack our rotation this year. Last year, he did play big minutes, but he's an incredibly inefficient scorer(37.5% shooter this year). We decide that we'll look to move him at the deadline, if we get in a position to help our front line, or if we can finagle a #1 draft pick for him. Smith is still young tho, at 22, its risky to trade him. Our off season signings seem to be producing quite well. NBA insiders thought we were insane to guarantee Steven Hunter 5 million a season, but thus far he is proving to be a solid starter. In 27 minutes a game, he averages nearly 10 points and 8 rebounds. The previous season we were paying Samuel Dalemburt twice his money, and still weren't getting that production. Jiri Welsch has played a key role for our team off the bench, averaging over 12 points a game, and stabilizing our rotation. He might not be a starter, but he's definitely the type of player a good team needs on its bench. Darko Milicic is playing solid ball off the bench, and is proving to be pretty good at drawing fouls. We think that he could actually be a starter in another year or two. Tayshaun Prince has been solid as a rock, we look to try to keep him past this year, as I am kicking myself only offering him a 1 year deal. Statistically wise, our team is middle of the road in most categories. We are a bit weak in rebounding, 23^rd overall, and are last in the league in turnovers. Defensively, we are pretty improved, as we are leading the league with 7 blocks a game, and are holding our opponents to 94.5 points per game. Which is promising, tho we are only averaging 93.5 ourselves. We have played 23 home games versus only 18 road games, so we know that the path in the second half will be hard. My goals are to procure us a PF upgrade, which hopefully will get us into the playoffs. *Next Stage: 2006 Part 2* Last edited by stevew : 08-10-2005 at 02:36 PM.

08-08-2005, 11:28 AM	#2
nfg22 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Mar 2004	Illbe reading I like it...

08-08-2005, 01:48 PM	#4
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	It'll be interesting to see how you manage to do compared with how I've done with the expansion T-Wolves using La Tulipe's 1990 roster set __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

08-10-2005, 02:32 PM	#9
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	It's an odd perspective right now, sitting comfortably in a playoff spot. Since i perceive us to have a pretty big hole a power forward, I decide to look around the league to see who is available. Andy Boardman, who we got before last year, looks good as a second year player. But to be honest, his scoring and defense just isn't there yet. It hopefully will be soon, but the ATL is thinking playoffs. We actually have a decent buzz around town, and I don't want to lose it. Our first goal is to attempt to nab Al Jefferson of the Celtics. But they appear to be less than willing to deal him, as at age 21 he's posting 16 points and 10 rebounds a game. We offer Smith and the 2008 Raptors first rounder to the Bobcats for Emeka Okafor, and they decide to accept. Moving that Raptors pick is a risky venture, as they will likely be in the lottery that year. But Okafor adds a legitimate PF to our rotation. We also hate to give up on Smith, but we feel we have multiple guys that can play his position. Coach Bzdelik and I are beginning to have some serious issues over the playing time of a particular player. PG Jimmy Harris has all the tools to be an elite point guard in this league, but the coach seems to think that Boris Diaw is a better option for starting point guard. I decide to let it go, for now, but there is no way that we'll go into next season with Harris only getting 22 minutes per game off the bench. At the All Star Break, we sit comfortably at 28-23, 6.5 games back of the Southeast leaders Miami. We doubt we can catch the Heat, they are just too good. If the playoffs started today, we would be the number 5 seed. Thats a lot better than being the 3^rd worst team in the league. In the All Star Weekend events, PG Jimmy Harris competes in the three point shootout. He is bounced in the first round, missing out on a tiebreaker to the finals. We hope he keeps the good 3 point shooting up in the second half of the season, he's shooting .402 from downtown thus far. The Rookies vs Sophomores games features 3 Hawks. SF Prosser starts for the Rookie team, and scores 13 points and grabs 7 boards for the winning Rookie team. Jimmy Harris contributes 12 points and 6 assists off the bench for the Sophomores. Andy Boardman plays 12 minutes, but does not score. No Hawks make the grown up all star game, but ex Hawk(for 10 games) Mike Bibby does, and gets the DNP-CD. Just as we are about to stand pat at the trade deadline, we notice a bunch of upper tier players that have been placed on the trading block. An attempt for Ron Artest was denied, as was our move for Kobe Bryant. We see that Memphis is looking to trade Shane Battier. We really like his defensive ability, so we make a trade. We send Prince, and a first round pick(originally Dallas's) and get back Battier, and rookie SF Rickie Monsoon. We absolutely loved Monsoon in the draft, and can't believe that Memphis will trade him. Looking on the transaction, it appears to be a steal for us. A string of Away games after the trade deadline push our record closer down to the .500 mark, as we are not very good on the road(14-18). Our playoff position looks good however. We won't have much chance at getting anything but the #5 seed, as the first 4 seeds are all approximately 6 games ahead of us. But we do have a solid 5 game lead on the #9 team. Looking ahead at our contract situations, we decide to negotiate with Diaw's agent on a possible extension. He's averaging 13 points, 5 assists, and 6 rebounds this season, which makes him definitely a keeper. The Battier deal ate all of our cap space for the future seasons, so we won't be able to make a play for Lebron anyways. Diaw signs for 5 years, starting at 6 million dollars, a fair amount for his contributions to our team. We also decide to retain Emeka Okafor while we are dealing with contracts. His demands are reasonable, starting at only 7 million a season. Our payroll, once one of the smallest in the league, may push luxury tax levels within 2 years. We hope our owner has deep pockets. We will aggresively use our Midlevel Exception this off season, as its always good to accumulate tradeable assets. The rest of the way, we roll, going 16-6. And we finish with 48 wins. Unfortunately the Milwaukee Bucks have the tiebreaker, so they receive the #4 seed, and we do not have homecourt. The key matchup of the series will be Michael Redd vs Joe Johnson. If Johnson can outplay Redd, i think we can win. In game one, we outplay the Bucks in the second quarter(30-17), and at that point the game pretty much becomes a laugher. We win easily, 89-70. In game 2, we hold the bucks to 9 first quarter points. And sport a 20 point lead at halftime. Only 22 fourth quarter points by Milwaukee save them from finishing the game in the 50's, as we win 91-62. Apparently our defense is quite good, of late. In game 3, 62 first half points give us a 20 point lead. The Buck give us a bit of a scare in the 3^rd quarter, at one point cutting our lead into single digits. But we finish strong, winning 100-87. Bad news in this game, though, as Steven Hunter gets a 18 day injury. We think we have enough depth to make up for his loss. In game 4, a late Bucks rally keeps them from being swept. Shane Battier shooting 2-17 from the floor all but kills our chances. Now we return to Milwaukee for game 5. Our coach decides to start rookie SF Prosser at C, a strange decision. Also PF Okafor is hurt as well, so game 5 will be a good test. Game 5 is close throughout, and both offenses are just off. Luckily Stromile Swift plays strong off the bench, scoring 23 points. A couple last minute free throws by Diaw close the deal. Diaw's having a miserable shooting playoffs, but is chipping in 7 assists and 7 rebounds a game. Next up for us is the Heat, which will be a strong test. A brief recap of our regular season performances, and our contract situation. Next Stage: 2006 Playoffs, round 2 Last edited by stevew : 08-10-2005 at 02:35 PM.

08-11-2005, 02:56 PM	#10
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	Playing the Heat without Steven Hunter is not something I'm looking forward to. Hunter isn't great, but he's a solid shotblocker, and most importantlym 6 fouls. Now we have to play Stromile Swift on Shaq, an obvious mismatch. The series will likely come down to whether Diaw can keep Dwyane Wade in check, as he's quite dangerous. If Shaq doesnt crap all over our frontcourt, there is a slight chance we can win this. After all, we got Darko! In game one, Miami opens a big lead, and we trail by 15 points for most of the game. We cut the lead to 97-95, but never lead the game. We lose 104-99, Wade wins player of the game with 22 points and 8 assists. Swift does a reasonable job on Shaq. Game 2 is all Atlanta, as we win on the road, 102-84. A massive run in the second quarter leads us to a 21 point lead, which we hold on for in the second half. Shaq gets his 25 points and 13 rebounds, but its not enough for the Heat. Joe Johnson takes the game over in the second quarter for us, and finishes with 33 points. In game 3, we head back to Atlanta, with the hope of putting the Heat on the ropes. Unfortunately we cannot contain Wade, and the Heat win going away, 98-87. Its definitely a game we should have won, but poor performances by Joe Johnson(4-14 shooting) and Diaw(4 points, 6 turnovers, got killed by Wade who had 26 points) sink our ship. Game 4 is all Miami, Shaq outscores Swift 30-0. We now trail 3-1, and pretty much know our chances of winning this series are zero. We lose by 20 points, but it wasnt even that close. Game 5 is the Dwyane Wade Show, he scores 32 points, grabs 10 rebounds, and gets 7 assists. Not having Hunter probably killed our chances this series, but Diaw getting pwned by Wade continuously didnt help much either. We have some regrets about the big extension we signed Diaw too, as he only posts 6.8 points and 7 assists per game in the playoffs. The Spurs go on to win the title, beating the Heat in 7 games, after losing the first 3 games to the Heat. It is the biggest collapse in NBA playoffs history. In the year end awards, Bzdelik gets robbed in the Coach of the Year voting, as Terry Porter gets it for taking a Bucks team to the same record as us. Small forward Prosser gets named to the All Rookie Second team. I decide that getting named to the All Rookie Team is an award slightly better than winning a gold medal in the Special Olympics. Financially the team is not doing well, and unless we can make a lot more money at the gate, we will be in serious financial trouble. We lost 18 million last season, we will have to raise ticket prices for next year. My job could be in jeopardy. Finally there is a draft lottery not featuring the Hawks. At pick #12, the announcer calls the Indiana Pacers. This means that the Golden State Warriors will jump into the top 3, in spite of their .9% chance. The Warriors go on to get the #1 selection overall in the draft, someone in their front office must have a lot of luck. We receive word that the Salary Cap will be set at 54 million for this season, but we are way over the cap. We will only have a midlevel exception with to sign free agents, and because of cost concerns, we will likely forgo using it. We have the 24^th selection in the draft, likely I will look to trade it for a future pick, especially if I can get a selection from a fringe team that may be in the lottery. We already have way too many young players, and we definatley could stand to save some money. We trade our selection to Miami for their 2009 #1, its quite possible they could suck by then. If not, at least it could be trade fodder in the future. We enter Free Agency with only our exceptions to spend, and I gotta say, this is the best FA class I've probably ever seen. Lebron, Wade, Carmelo, Dirk, Bosh, Dwight Howard plus a ton of others for depth. We look to wait to make our signings, guys are asking for extreme cash, and we dont have it. I also decide that we need to trim some costs, and we ship out PF Stromile Swift for a second round pick. Upon further review of how strong the FA class truly is, we decide to make some more cost cutting moves, I trade away Diaw and Jiri Welsch, and Darko, putting us in the position to make a 10 million dollar FA offer. We have more than enough warm bodies, and young kids with a lot of potential, so the chance to nab a special player here cannot be discounted. On day 3, a few of our more obvious targets get huge contracts. Cleveland Cavaliers re-sign LeBron James to a 7-year contract worth $137,462,783 Miami Heat re-sign Dwyane Wade to a 7-year contract worth $137,462,783 On day 5, Carmelo gets near max money, scoring 131 million over 7 years. We talk with Dwight Howards agent, he gets a offer for 6 years and 81 million from us. He decides to take less money to remain with the Magic. Which is good for us, because Chris Bosh has been available in our budget range, but we made our commitment to Howard, tying our money. Quickly we move on Bosh, but he decides to move to the New Orleans Hornets, much to our chagrin. We don't totally strike out, as we land a young promising stud PG in Shawn Livingston. We also sign Joe Smith to beef our frontcourt up. We fill our roster out signing solid minimum salary talents. Next Stage: 2008 Season.

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