Fire & Ice - A NBA 2K18 New Orleans Pelicans Story

[jeremym480]

Settings

Mode - MyLeague (30+ Team Control)
Difficulty/Sliders - WIP - Currently Superstar Default
Rosters - jcblayze's rosters with real-life injuries, assistant coaches and GM's
Draft class - Nationalbballa's
Season Length - 82 Games
Playoff Format - 7-7-7-7
Play Schedule - I want to get through multiple seasons so I will play less as I go along. However, for the first season I will play the first 5 games of the season, then around 1 per week for the rest of the year (should be roughly 30 games for the first season). Playoffs are Play Games 1, 3 and most close out games. Sim along with Simcast (with some intervening) will be used for simmed games.
MyLeague Settings - A&S's Sliders with my only adjustment being a slightly increased Hard Cap and Player Protection going down from 8 to 7

[jeremym480]

LEAGUE HISTORY

[jeremym480]

Additions: Rajon Rondo, Tony Allen, Ian Clark, Frank Jackson, Darius Miller
Subtractions: Tim Frazier, Donatas Motiejunas, Quincy Pondexter, Quinn Cook

2016-17 Vitals

34-48, 4th in Southwest Division, 10th in Western Conference
104.3 PPG (18th)/106.4 OPP PPG (17th)
105.2 Offensive Rating (25th)/107.4 Defensive Rating (9th)

Team Leaders
Scoring: Anthony Davis, 28.0 PPG
Rebounding: DeMarcus Cousins, 12.4 RPG*
Assists: Jrue Holiday, 7.3 APG
Steals: Jrue Holiday, 1.5 SPG
Blocks: Anthony Davis, 2.2 BPG

Honors
All-NBA First Team: Anthony Davis
All-Defensive Second Team: Anthony Davis

Roster Thoughts

On the bright side, AD and Boogie may be the most skilled bigman duo the NBA has ever seen. The front office was able to upgrade several positions in the off-season with guys like Rondo, Allen and Clark replacing fringe NBA players like Hollis Thompson, Reggie Williams, and Alex Toupane. Rondo and Allen will provide some veteran leadership while guys like Ian Clark and Darius Miller should give them some much-needed floor spacing. On the not so bright and more honest side, is that this team is still extremely shallow and flawed.

Prediction

There are several teams in the West that should really dominate the competition this season. Golden State, Oklahoma City, Houston, San Antonio and the Timberwolves should be locks for the playoffs. The would leave the final two spots for teams like Denver, Utah, Portland, Memphis and New Orleans. With the depth issue, and several teams in the West only getting better, the Pel's playoff hopes are all going to fall on their "Big 2". I predict that they're going to scratch and claw their way into one of those last two spots, but the odds are stacked against them.

[jeremym480]

New Orleans Pelicans Roster
#	NAME	POS	AGE	HT	WT	SALARY
23	Anthony Davis	PF	24	6'11"	253	23.78M
11	Jure Holiday	SG-PG	27	6'4"	205	25.69M
24	Tony Allen	SF-SG	35	6'4"	213	1.42M
9	Rajon Rondo	PG	31	6'1"	186	3.30M
55	E'Twaun Moore	SG	28	6'4"	191	8.45M
2	Ian Clark	PG-SG	26	6'3"	175	1.42M
27	Jordan Crawford	SG	28	6'5"	195	1.71M
21	Darius Miller	SF	27	6'8"	225	2.20M
42	Alexis Ajinca	C	29	7'11"	248	4.96M
13	Cheick Diallo	PF-C	21	6'9"	220	1.31M
3	Omer Asik	C	31	7'0"	255	10.60M
15	Frank Jackson	PG	19	6'4"	202	815K
33	Dante Cunningham	PF	30	6'8"	230	1.42M
44	Solomon Hill	SF	26	6'7"	225	12.24M
4	Charles Cooke	SG	26	6'5"	193	790K (2W)
12	Jalen Jones	SF	26	6'7"	220	790K (2W)

New Orleans Pelicans Depth Chart - 17/18
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
PG	Rajon Rondo	Ian Clark	Frank Jackson
SG	Jrue Holiday	E'Twaun Moore	Jordan Crawford	**Charles Cooke
SF	Darius Miller	Tony Allen	*Solomon Hill	**Jalen Jones
PF	Anthony Davis	Dante Cunningham
C	Demarcus Cousins	Cheick Diallo	Alexis Ajinca	*Omer Asik

* Injured
** G-League


NEW ORLEANS PELICANS TV SCHEDULE

[jeremym480]

THE PEL'S OPEN THE SEASON WITH A WIN THANK'S TO STRONG PERFORMANCES FROM AD, BOOGIE & RONDO






NEW ORLEANS SHOCKS THE BASKETBALL WORLD BY UPSETTING GOLDEN STATE IN HOME OPENER






New Orleans opens the season 2-0


AROUND THE LEAGUE

- Uncle Drew scores 28 against his former team and Al Horford and Gordon Hayward add 21 and 20 points as the Celtics won going away, 122-96

- KD and Klay score 20 each in Golden State's 101-99 opening night win over Houston

- Kemba Walker scores 46 points and Charlotte to the 117-94 blowout win over Detriot

- Jeremy Lin was on fire for Brooklyn scoring 38 points in just 31 minutes as the Nets beat the Pacers 122-114

- Greek the Freak had a career-night on the boards putting up 25 points, 16 boards, 7 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals in 115-94 win over Boston

- CP3 posts a triple-double (29 points, 17 assists, 13 rebounds) in 109-103 win over Sacremento

- OKC's "Big Three" smash New York 129-99. Carmelo (33 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists), George (32 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists) and Westbrook (31 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists) look to be in mid-season form already

- CP3 puts up his 2nd straight triple-double of the young season (32 points, 20 assists, 11 rebounds) and carried the Rockets to a 125-103 win over Dallas

- Detriot's Reggie Jackson expected to miss 8-10 weeks with a torn left mcl

- Kemba Walker and Chris Paul named Players of the Week

[jeremym480]

NEW ORLEANS DEFENSE CLAMPS DOWN ON LA IN THE 4TH TO PICK UP SEVEN POINT WIN






THE PEL'S BIGMAN DUO HOLDS OUTDUELS DAMIAN LILLARD AND THE BLAZERS






DEMARCUS COUSINS DOMINATE SEASON CONTINUES AS HIS 23 POINT, 21 REBOUND NIGHT LEADS NOLA PASSED SACREMENTO






New Orleans is 5-0 and in 2nd in the West


AROUND THE LEAGUE

- KAT puts up 40 points and 9 boards against OKC on the way to 109-104 win

- CP3 post his third triple-double in four games with 32 points, 15 assists, 11 rebound performance in 121-104 win over Memphis

- Ben Simmons will be out 1-2 weeks following a sprained right knee

[Cruzerr]

Glad to see you with a new team and a new dynasty! It will be fun to play with the two bigs and Rondo dishing the ball to them. Following!

[jeremym480]

Authors note: I changed difficulties after beating Golden State. I went from A&S's sliders to Eccentric's on Superstar. I'm still not 100% happy with the way the CPU is playing so I'm going to go to SS default for awhile.

It doesn't help matters that having both AD and Boogie is like having a damn cheat code. Plus, other than Golden State I haven't really played a really good team yet and even bad teams are being competitive, but I'd still like to lose to them on occasions.

Quote: Originally Posted by Cruzerr

Glad to see you with a new team and a new dynasty! It will be fun to play with the two bigs and Rondo dishing the ball to them. Following!

Thanks man, I'm a Celtics fan first, but I've been living in Louisiana for almost a decade now and follow them too. They're a really fun team, but definitely flawed outside of their two big men... and of course I love my former C's Rondo and Tony Allen. It's going to be interesting to see how the fare in a stacked Western Conference.