The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

[studbucket]

The 2021-2022 NBA season has come to a close, and this can likely be considered “the season of the Western conference disappointments.” The Clippers, Trail Blazers, Timberwolves, and Pelicans all had very frustrating seasons and the Thunder had a historic collapse, falling from 2^nd to 10^th. Now the Warriors, Grizzlies, Nuggets, and Suns are the top teams in the West and the playoffs should be fascinating.

• Houston fell apart at the end of the season, but barely stayed in the playoffs as an 8 seed and will face the Warriors in round 1. After having a solid record, they went 5-14 over the last 6 weeks and were nearly overtaken by the Clippers.
• It was not as dramatic as Oklahoma City’s fall. After being 33-22 and second in the West at the All-Star break, the Thunder went 6-21 the rest of the way and finished 13 games back, 2 out of the playoffs. They got some great experience for young players this year, but that was a disastrous finish to the season.
• Miami finished 50 games out of first place in the East, winning only 17 games, but managed to get 3 rookies onto the All-Rookie teams. If they can add some veteran talent, their tank and rebuild may be a success.
• Detroit lost a tiebreaker to miss the playoffs, so Trevor Merchant will need to wait 1 more year to get that experience.

The last week of the season was injury city:

• Zach Lavine (Bulls) tore his achilles and is out for a while. Coby White replaces him in the starting lineup.
• DeAndre Ayton (Warriors), dislocated patella puts him out for the season. The Warriors will need to rely on Aron Baynes for this playoff run.
• Andrew Wiggins (Pistons) broke his ankle and is out 2 months
• LeBron James (Lakers) tweaked his groin and will be day-to-day for several weeks.
• Both Clint Capela and Bruno Fernando, the Bucks starting and backup center, are out for a few weeks with small injuries.
• Kevin Durant is dealing with a sprained toe that may impact his availability at the start of the playoffs.

Standings

Awards

Several players had good seasons, but this award was never in doubt. Giannis was absolutely dominant all season by any statistical measure: traditional or advanced. He even shot 36% from three, which is enough to be dangerous on a regular basis.

The season went according to script for Jerry Sparks, who looked like the best rookie from wire-to-wire. While the Hornets struggled and were up and down, they have a bright future building on the athletic power forward.

Jarrett Pressley has helped Golden State stay competitive as he’s embraced his role as Steph’s backup. After winning a national championship at UNC, he followed it up with an NBA title and now the 6^th Man of the Year award. The Warriors may have found a piece to build around after the Splash Brothers. Nickeil Alexander-Walker may have been on the awful Pelicans, but he increased his ppg by 7, rebounds by 1.5, and assists by 2.5 this season.


All-NBA Teams

1st Team	2nd Team	3rd Team
James Harden, Rockets	Ben Simmons, 76ers	Kyrie Irving, Nets
Stephen Curry, Warriors	Trevor Merchant, Pistons	Russell Westbrook, Rockets
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks	Kevin Durant, Nets	Kawhi Leonard, Clippers
LeBron James, Lakers	Zion Williamson, Pelicans	Jayson Tatum, Celtics
Kristaps Porzingis, Mavericks	Nikola Jokic, Nuggets	Joel Embiid, 76ers

All-Defensive Teams

1st Team	2nd Team
Ben Simmons, 76ers	Matisse Thybulle, 76ers
Paul George, Lakers	Dejounte Murray, Spurs
Kawhi Leonard, Clippers	Draymond Green, Suns
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks	Jimmy Butler, Warriors
Rudy Gobert, Jazz	Anthony Davis, Lakers

All-Rookie Teams

1st Team	2nd Team
Seth Valsin, Thunder	Taylor Blount, Heat
Gordon Cousinard, Trail Blazers	J Lamkin, Heat
Christophe Perben, Trail Blazers	Ulf Enqvist, Spurs
Jerry Sparks, Hornets	C.C. Walsh, Bulls
Nikola Pattrick, Heat	Gheorghe Paven, Timberwolves

Playoff Matchups

Since we last looked at the predicted playoff matchups, there have been a few changes.

• The Milwaukee Bucks went 5-5 in their last 10 games and ended up in a tie with the Nets, losing the tiebreaker and dropping to 2^nd. Brooklyn finished first.
• The Atlanta Hawks went 1-9 in their last 10 and fell out of the playoffs entirely, finishing 5 games back. It’s hard to imagine there won’t be a coaching change there.
• The Raptors snuck into the 8^th spot in the East.
• Spots 5, 6, and 7 re-arranged as Indiana and Cleveland moved up 1 spot each and Chicago dropped to #7.
• Denver dropped from 1^st to 3^rd.
• Golden State took over first place.
• Phoenix dropped from 3^rd to 4^th place.
• Memphis grabbed the #2 seed.
• Los Angeles moved up to 6^th.
• The Dallas Mavericks made the playoffs as a 7 seed.
• Houston fell to 8^th.
• OKC fell out of the playoffs.

Here is a brief preview of each playoff matchup.

The Brooklyn Nets have been outstanding this season and the Raptors have greatly underperformed. This one shouldn’t even be close. Nets in 4.

Much debate can be had about who is the best team in the league: Milwaukee or Brooklyn. No debate can be had about this series, as the young Bulls are just happy to be here. Bucks in 4.

In any other year, we’d be singing Philadelphia’s praise. Despite being 3^rd in the East, they had a better record than anyone in the West and had very solid seasons from Embiid and Simmons. The Cavaliers have been frisky and shown some promise, but talent wins out in the end. 76ers in 5.

With all the storylines in the league this year, these two teams have flown under the radar. Both teams will likely be disappointed they have yet to take the next step into true contenders. Although Indiana won the first matchup, that was 6 months ago and Boston has won their games and been a better team since then. Celtics in 6.

The defending champs grabbed another 1 seed, but got some bad news in the process: no DeAndre Ayton. This will likely hurt their title chances, but not their ability to beat a struggling, yet talented, Rockets team. Nobody would be surprised if Houston makes this a close game, but we haven’t seen them play well in a while. Warriors in 5.

It’s hard to choose the most intriguing round 1 matchup, but this one will receive a lot of consideration. The Grizzlies have been very good the last month, vaulting up to 50 wins and the 2 seed. They toughed through injuries this year, are very well rounded, and have one of the league’s most under-appreciated frontcourt rotations. However, they’ve played the Mavs 4 times in the last 3 months and have split those games. Dallas has one of the NBA’s best players and have slowly started to coalesce as a team since their trades. This is a tough one to call, but perhaps Dallas’ lack of rim protection does them in. Grizzlies in 7.

This game is truly a battle of “Big Threes”: Jokic, Beal, and Murray vs LeBron, Davis, and George. In many ways this one is impossible to predict, but the Lakers have been extremely inconsistent this year, have less chemistry than Denver, and LeBron is slightly banged up. Denver in 5.

On paper this is a very close matchup between 2 very different teams. Utah has been unheralded and consistent this year, rebounding from missing the playoffs last year. Phoenix has popular stars and has been making moves but has underperformed to only have 47 wins. Some of the key questions are “Can Bam score on Gobert?”, “Can Conley shut down the inexperienced Okobo?” and “Does Phoenix’s bench outperform Utah’s and win the series?” With Draymond, Harrison Barnes, Josh Hart, and Javonte Green as their second unit, Phoenix has solid players off the bench. Suns in 6.

[milldaddy35]

Raps in 7
Bucks in 5
76ers in 5
Celtics in 6

Warriors in 4
Mavs in 7
Nuggets in 6
Jazz in 6

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by milldaddy35

Raps in 7 Bucks in 5 76ers in 5 Celtics in 6 Warriors in 4 Mavs in 7 Nuggets in 6 Jazz in 6

I'll see which of us did better after posting the next round

[marshdaddy]

Hoping for a Dubs repeat, but the Denver-LA series might be the best one

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by marshdaddy

Hoping for a Dubs repeat, but the Denver-LA series might be the best one

Ayton seems to be what put them over the top last year. I hope his injury doesn't derail them this season, at least early. I like their team and would love to see them take on the Nets/Bucks.

[studbucket]

As expected, Kostadin fielded a lot of phone calls this offseason. After two straight NCAA tournament appearances and great round 1 performances that resulted in upsets he became very well respected. Throw in his Bulgarian background and the story of him and his twin brother and you get a media darling.

The media phone calls were easy. The St. Francis University athletic department was prepared for a slew of stories this offseason and did a good job screening the requests and kept Dinko and Stepanie from being overwhelmed. This was especially important as their life got meaningfully more difficult with the adoption of twins Thaddeus and Simon. Stephanie was unable to conceive due to their car accident, but they felt that with the help of Dinko’s relatively able-bodied parents – they were in their early 50s – they could handle the twins and older sister Sofia, who had turned 9 this year.

What was harder were the calls for jobs. Some had asked him if he wanted an agent, but because Dinko wasn’t looking for another job, he saw no need for one. However he did wish someone could screen the phone calls. He knew the answer was almost certainly going to be “no” to every call, but he fielded each call and listened respectfully for 2 reasons:

1. He knew that treating others with dignity and respect was of utmost importance.
2. On the off chance he was offered a job that was too good to pass up

However, this wasn’t the year he’d get a tough offer. While he was appreciative, none of the offers were the type that he’d lose any sleep over. The most notable offers came from Florida International, Boston University, and Missouri State. The best phone call came from his own university as they were more than happy to extend a 5 year contract offer to the young coach, who now had financial security through 2027.

As for Oggy, he was going to stay at least 1 more year at Stetson, maybe even 2, as he wanted to do a better job with transitioning and communicating than he did at Northern Colorado.

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After only 4 coaches changed roles last year, we saw 24 job changes this year. Big changes include:

• Steve Alford leaving Nevada to take on the head coaching job at South Carolina.
• Bryan Mullins has been on quite the journey: hired by Oregon State from Southern Illinois, he was fired as the Beavers’ coach after just 2 seasons and is now the head coach at Boston.
• Similarly, Bob McKillop went from Davidson to Northwestern and was also fired after 2 seasons. He is now the head man at Oral Roberts.
• Tubby Smith is still at it, this time he is leaving High Point to coach Missouri State.

School	Previous Coach	Reason	New Coach
South Carolina	Frank Martin	Retired	Steve Alford (Nevada)
Oregon State	Bryan Mullins	Fired	Joe Jones (Boston)
Northwestern	Bob McKillop	Fired	Rick Stansbury (Western Kentucky)
Rice	Scott Pera	Fired	Russell Turner (UC Irvine)
Nevada	Steve Alford	New job	K. King (Oral Roberts)
Western Kentucky	Rick Stansbury	New job	Ritchie McKay (Liberty)
Missouri State	Dana Ford	Fired	Tubby Smith (High Point)
Florida International	Jeremy Ballard	Fired	Sredrick Laurelin (Elon)
Boston	Joe Jones	New job	Bryan Mullins (Oregon State)
0ral Roberts	K. King	New job	Bob McKillip (Northwestern)
UC Irvine	Russell Turner	New job	Dana Ford (Missouri State)
High Point	Tubby Smith	New job	Mark Pope (Utah Valley State)
Liberty	Ritchie McKay	New job	Jason Hooten (Sam Houston State)
American	Mike Brennan	Fired	L. Allison (UNLV assistant)
UC Davis	Jim Les	Fired	D. Deane (Western Michigan assistant)
Maine	Richard Barron	Fired	R. Cousinard (VCU assistant)
Lipscomb	Lennie Acuff	Fired	N. Price (Long Beach State assistant)
Elon	Sredrick Laurelin	New job	E. Jackson (Old Dominion assistant)
Utah Valley State	Mark Pope	Fired	A. Shumate (Utah Valley State assistant)
Sacramento State	Brian Katz	Fired	J. Smalls (San Diego State assistant)
Bethune-Cookman	Ryan Ridder	Fired	B. Johnsen (Temple assistant)
Coppin State	Juan Dixon	Fired	S. Hood (Utah State assistant)
Sam Houston State	Jason Hooten	Fired	G. McFarlin (Sam Houston State assistant)
Alcorn State	Montez Robinson	Fired	A. Salazar (LAS? Assistant)

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In Loretto, Kostadin has made two changes to his coaching staff.

• Ol’ Randy is out and in his place is Lubos Galbreath, a 30 year old disciplined offensive coach.
• Calvin Burnstein comes in as his recruiting specialist, taking the place of Ioannis Webber.

Oggy made no changes to his staff.

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The brothers had no incoming transfers, but Jacksonville is getting even better (in 2 seasons) with the addition of junior shooting guard Perry Yeager from Marquette.

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Muhamed Payne leaves Loretto as arguably their best player since Kevin Porter graduated in 1972. He will be dearly missed by the Red Flash faithful.

Three key contributors leave Stetson, including the team’s two best shooters.

Northern Colorado also saw 5 players who played under Oggy graduate or leave the team, including Andres Swanson (graduated) and Rene Udezue, who got less playing time with the new recruits.

[milldaddy35]

Not a huge fan of how quickly the game fires coaches after taking over..really wish the 'holdover' time was three years instead of two. Especially with the lack of control over the transfer portal, some of these jobs are just death wishes.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by milldaddy35

Not a huge fan of how quickly the game fires coaches after taking over..really wish the 'holdover' time was three years instead of two. Especially with the lack of control over the transfer portal, some of these jobs are just death wishes.

Yeah, I can't imagine Oregon State or Northwestern moving on that quickly. Of course, I only had 5 coaches change jobs last season, and I was worried there wasn't enough movement.