Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

2017-18 Playoff Results




Congrats to the NBA Champion LA Clippers! For the first time in franchise history, they've won an NBA title and done it without longtime piece, DeAndre Jordan, who was traded to the Bucks this past offseason. The Clippers beat every higher seed they came across, including the Blazers, the Thunder, and the league-leading Warriors.

Chris Paul and Blake Griffin now join an exclusive club, as Doc Rivers becomes only the fourth man in NBA history (behind Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Alex Hannum) to win NBA titles with two different clubs.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

2017-18 Player Retirements





Hall of Fame: Dirk Nowitzki

Jersey Retirements: Dirk (Mavericks), Manu (Spurs)

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

2017-18 Lottery Results



Dallas has won the first overall pick, followed by the Hawks, and the Raptors. Whom Dallas selects first overall is the big question: with the ability to draft their future destiny, will the Mavericks go after class stud DeAndre Ayton, or trade the pick?

Coach News:

Jason Kidd has landed on his feet, signing for three years with the Nuggets. Despite the Bucks nearly making the playoffs without him, it appears Kidd will get yet another chance -- this time with a young point guard (Mudiay) who desperately needs his touch. If Kidd can mold Mudiay into a star, this hire will look like a stroke of genius. If he fails here -- like in Brooklyn and Milwaukee -- it could spell the end of Jason Kidd's coaching career for the near future.

Speaking of the Bucks, Milwaukee went out and hired yet another former player turned coach: Pau Gasol. Gasol retired this offseason after spending two years on the Spurs and, according to sources, received a strong endorsement from Popovich for the job. Gasol signed for three years and looks to lead the Bucks back into the playoffs, though his first -- and possibly most important move -- might be to convince DeAndre Jordan to re-sign with the team.

Dirk Nowtizki retired this offseason and immediately signed on to Rick Carlisle's coaching staff, keeping Dirk right where he belongs: in Dallas. Paul Pierce, a year after retiring, has returned to Boston to become an assistant coach with Brad Stevens.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

2018 NBA Draft Results

Trades Before Draft:



Miami sold low on Bosh, who's play has declined the last two years due to his health issues. Despite Bosh not missing any games over the last two seasons after his blood clot scare, his play has declined due to a mixture of age and the medical/training regiment he's on to prevent the blood clots from reoccurring. Pat Riley sold off a player who was making over 25.5M a year but only averaging 14.6 PPG with 8.2 RPG, with declining percentages.

Bosh's arrival in Utah signals the official end of the Derrick Favors experience there, as well as Utah's commitment -- and some say desperation -- to getting to the playoffs this upcoming season. Utah has plenty of cap space and easily absorbed Bosh into it, who may or may not stick around next season -- there's no way to know now.

The Draft:

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story



Ch. 43

The Clippers — the mother*ucking Clippers, once owned by the greatest racist prick in pro-sports, Donald Sterling — had won the NBA title. CP3 and Blake had finally done it and without DeAndre Jordan. Jordan, according to reports, immediately called up the Bucks front office after the game and told them he wanted back there. Maybe he had been debating going back to LA, maybe he just wanted to be loved, but Jordan was — supposedly — pretty distraught that his old team had won the title after they got rid of him.

He had a fire lit under him and with Pau Gasol taking over as the HC of the Bucks, he had a man there with rings whom he respected. Gasol’s signing as HC might have been the best move before the draft that year.

The saddest move — or maybe the most cold — was Riley sending Bosh to Utah, home of the Mormons and boredom. Look, Bosh probably didn’t need the night life of Miami, but to send him to a team that hadn’t finished out of the lottery in years … that was *ucking low. The trade not only gave the Heat some bad rep with the players, it really pissed off Wade, who himself was weighing whether to demand a trade or just play out his last year of his deal.

Meanwhile, the draft hit. We didn’t have a high pick and the 2018 class was top-heavy — I’m talking about one of the Kardassian sisters top-heavy — and there was virtually nothing after the lottery. It was slim pickings; considering how deep the 2017 and 2016 drafts were, this was bound to be a shallow class but a 1st round pick wasn’t worth much that year.

We had our eyes set on a kid named Markovic, from some European country who ate boards like cereal at breakfast. We liked that — the more rebounds we got, the more possessions. But the Celtics took him right before us. Green *astards.

So, left without our plan A, we went to plan B; a big son of a *itch named Stephon Boucher. 7’0” tall, 290 pounds, he was a behemoth … played great defense and wasn’t a great rebounder. Yeah, we had to settle, I admit it, but a defense first big wasn’t a horrible thing — having a few of those was fine. The more bodies, the better. Sure, we needed help at the two, we knew Wright wasn’t our starter moving forward, but we had to do our best.

Free agency was where we were going to make our mark that offseason — with a playoff berth under our belt, a great seven game series where we fell short due to our ROY getting injured, we had proved to the league we were legit. Now we just needed to establish ourselves as consistent playoff contenders and, if we did that, we’d be exactly where we wanted to be — in the postseason with a shot at a title.

*uck, if the Clippers, Thunder, and Cavs could do it, anyone could win one. Anyone.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story



Ch. 44

With the draft past us, we had to find our starter at the two spot. Shooting guard was our biggest weakness from the year before and lord knew, if we didn’t address it this season we’d be in some deep trouble. I had a couple of guys in mind — Will Barton was free from the Nuggets and was looking to find a place to settle down. His skill-set looked good for what we needed out of a two. The Nuggets also had Gary Harris in free agency, but he was an RFA; we’d have to send a mega-offer their way to make them blink, but they wouldn’t have anyway.

They made a deal that cleared up the gridlock they had at a lot of positions …



When that came across the wire, I nearly spit my coffee all over the screen. After letting loose a string of profanity, I could only shake my head. Marshall Young was selling Brown and doing it for pennies. Brown wasn’t doing well in KC; if you can believe it, he had a worse year than his rookie season (only scored 7.9 PPG on 38 percent from the field and 29 percent from deep) and word was he and Fultz didn’t get along in the locker room.

Marshall ended that pretty quickly. He sent Brown away for Chandler — not a bad player, but certainly not one with Brown’s potential — Nurkic and Prince. Was it a bad trade? Not on the whole … he moved on from Shumpert and Ezeli, neither living up to their contracts. But Brown was sacrificed, and the kid didn’t deserve it. He was on a *hit team, constructed by a man more obsessed with his star — Fultz — than the actual team.

That happened right before free agency opened. Day 1 of free agency? It started off with a bang.



Derrick Rose was handed a lifetime ban from the NBA; during the two seasons in New York, Rose had kept his head down, but the opening day of free agency two things happened: Rose was found guilty of rape in a trial dating back to October 2016 and the NBA announced that two league employees had accused Rose of sexual assault in 2017; the league investigated and then promptly passed on its investigation to the NYPD, who investigated and passed it onto the DA, who was charging Rose.

In one fell swoop, Rose went from free agent to banished player. The media was in a frenzy and the Knicks were, once again, taking the brunt of it; questions arose as to the organizations commitment to character and Carmelo Anthony, who was a free agent, publicly declared he could no longer play for the Knicks after what happened.

Anthony used Rose’s *uck ups as a “Get out of jail free” card to permanently break from the Knicks and it worked to perfection. Great PR, *hitty move.

With Rose off the market, that meant one less big contract to hand out. To this day what happened to Rose stands as a landmark event for the league. The NBA was good at getting out ahead of the storm and making themselves the “progressive” league and their stance on this sent huge reverberations through baseball, football, and hockey. Players no longer would get a free pass in the NBA if they did this kind of *hit and the other leagues got serious — and consistent — heat about why they weren’t doing the same.

The NBA had managed to come out looking like the good guys here, a major PR win. Rose’s career was done — he never played in the NBA again and his MVP, his awards, his records with the Bulls … all were quietly buried.

The only fate worse than death? Being forgotten on purpose.

[JackNCoke]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Oh man so close to getting a series win. That's the great thing about 2k you never know what's going to happen. Do you run with injury sliders at 50 or have you adjusted them?

I do think you might have to consider restarting. I don't know if you put lebron kd and James harden if the clippers could win given their history.

Very interesting idea with Rose. I don't want to get into specifics on that case but way to make it a storyline in your story and pretty good way to get Melo out of the Knicks.

What teams have big cap space that can bring in some top tier players?

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Oh man so close to getting a series win. That's the great thing about 2k you never know what's going to happen. Do you run with injury sliders at 50 or have you adjusted them?

I do think you might have to consider restarting. I don't know if you put lebron kd and James harden if the clippers could win given their history.

Very interesting idea with Rose. I don't want to get into specifics on that case but way to make it a storyline in your story and pretty good way to get Melo out of the Knicks.

What teams have big cap space that can bring in some top tier players?

No, I run with injury sliders at 25, with injury effects at 20. I found the default sliders to be insane with the amount of injuries occurring, both in sim and in live games (I had guys nearly every game leaving for one reason or another playing live). I cut the injury sliders to 33 and it lessened it, but now it was happening about every other game ... so I dropped it to 25.

That kept a large amount of injuries short and sweet -- ankle twists, sprains -- lasting a few weeks, kept season injuries way down, and had it so there were times where the league was pretty much at full strength. I might bump those back up just a tad but I'm close or at the spot I like.

As for the Clippers winning, nothing is out of the question in the NBA or 2K now. When LeBron came back down 3-1 in the Finals with the Cavs, he basically broke the seal on "impossible" and made the NBA much watch TV no matter what now. If the Cavs could do it, anyone can do it -- there's rarely been a more cursed franchise and city than Cleveland in the history of sports. I will not be restarting

Teams with big cap space -- the Knicks now, the Nets, the Hornets, the Spurs, the 76ers, the Hawks, the Suns, and the Celtics all have over 35M in cap space. The Heat, Pacers, Rockets, Mavericks, Lakers, Kings, and the Magic all have over 20M.

There are a lot of changes happening in free agency -- some teams have really pounced on recent champion pieces from other squads and the trade market is live, so stay tuned. There are some interesting moves that have been made.

[Stout]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Trek how'd you do the Rose thing? I know you're playing on PC so was there a way to remove him from the league or did you just lower his overall to the point where no team would sign him?

Oh, and I'm praying the Nets can land someone to help compliment Brook. It's good to see them back in the postseason so quickly. I'm definitely interested to see their roster come the start of season three...who are they rolling with at coach? Is Kenny Atkinson still there or was a different HC hired in the initial offseason?

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Trek how'd you do the Rose thing? I know you're playing on PC so was there a way to remove him from the league or did you just lower his overall to the point where no team would sign him?

Oh, and I'm praying the Nets can land someone to help compliment Brook. It's good to see them back in the postseason so quickly. I'm definitely interested to see their roster come the start of season three...who are they rolling with at coach? Is Kenny Atkinson still there or was a different HC hired in the initial offseason?

For the Rose deal, you guessed it -- I lowered his overall so low that he will never be signed. Plus, I control all teams so he's so low I'll never accidentally sign him either.

As for the Nets, you bet they got Brook some help! At the 2017 deadline they traded for and signed Victor Oladipo, who played for them all last season and had a good year. As for their coach, sadly, no, not officially Kenny Atkinson, but I hired a fake coach and gave him Atkinson's style/attributes, so in essence he is Atkinson -- just without the name.

The Nets have definitely made big improvements this offseason and, I dare say, smart ones too. About to post the roster video for the 2018-19 season and there's been quite a lot of changes in the league ... I'll say this, Brooklyn's life got much tougher due to other signings out East.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

2018-19 Regular Season Rosters



Storylines at a glance:

The Celtics are now title contenders. With the signing of Carmelo Anthony, Boston has firmly committed to the idea of getting a championship -- and paying the luxury tax to do it. Boston's played it smart the last few years, building up assets and good will, and now that's all come together with Melo. There's a three-year window here for the team -- Thomas, Smart, and Melo all signed for that length and Jahill Okafor is clearly the future. If Melo can bring his patented offense to Boston, the starting lineup of the Celtics -- Thomas, Smart, Melo, Olynk, and Okafor -- will be among the most devastating in all the league. Add in the deep bench featuring Rozier, Buddy Hield, and Jae Crowder, and Boston may just be raising another banner this time next year.

Boston's good fortune is the Knicks misery. Melo was supposed to be the bridge to the Porzingis era, but after the Derrick Rose scandal, New York's reputation around the league has plummeted. The Knicks and Phil Jackson "agreed to part ways" and Phil has taken up a post as a special advisor to the Lakers -- the Knicks owner, James Dolan, continues to get grilled and there's a rumor that the team may be sold after this. The Knicks value as a franchise has taken a big hit and, though New York boasts a ton of cap space, there's no one who wants to be there. New York traded with the Knights and Magic in a three-team deal to acquire Rondae-Hollis Jefferson to pair with Noel, but it looks like this is another lost year for New York -- and a possible harbinger of things to come.



While the Knicks were suffering, the rival Nets smartly brought back Brook Lopez on a team-friendly three-year deal and then went and signed Derrick Favors -- the player they traded to get Deron Williams all those years ago. Favors has returned to Nets and now joins a core of Lin, Bogdanovic, Oladipo, and Lopez with one of the deeper benches in the association with the likes of Jacob Poetl (the future at the five for them), Amir Johnson, and Tomas Satoransky. The Nets don't have an overwhelming amount of star power, but are a well-rounded team and could again surprise people.

The Hornets started last season with high hopes, trading for Boogie Cousins and betting the future on him; that bet backfired and Boogie was traded to LA, which netted the Hornets Julius Randle and a pick. The Hornets went out this offseason and made big signings, bringing over Avery Bradley and Enes Kanter to become their starters -- and possibly the foundation of the team moving forward as both Kemba and Batum are free agents next summer. Charlotte's time is now -- if they can't make the playoffs with the amount of money they've sunk into this roster, it could spell the end for Steve Clifford, Kemba, and Batum.

For the first time in eight years, the Miami Heat are not over the cap -- they actually have cap room, albeit only a few million. The luxury tax, combined with the repeater tax, made the Heat's ownership balk at paying Chris Bosh's contract and Pat Riley was forced to trade him for bits and pieces. Now with rookie big man Wendall Carter and last year's first round pick in DeAron Fox, the youth movement is on in Miami. The only question is whether Wade will be there to see it completed; Wade was reportedly very upset at the trading of Bosh and relations between he and the front office are cold at the moment. It would behoove Miami to keep Wade on the roster and let his veteran savvy teach the next generation, but if things don't improve between the player and organization Wade could be on another team before the end of the season.

Out West, the Thunder are reeling. After coming to -- what they thought -- was an agreement with Kanter, their former bench star took the Hornets offer, and their starting gig at center. Left without a major cog of their 2017 title team, the Thunder were forced to turn to veterans Kyle O'Quinn, Doug McDermott, and Illyasova to help offset the loss of Kanter's play. It's still very much the Russell Westbrook show out in OKC and the Thunder, so far, have a title to show for it -- one more than Kevin Durant -- but the continual poaching of talent from other teams may be too much for OKC to overcome to go on another title run.

The Lakers are quietly waiting for the rest of the league to remember them. After trading for Boogie Cousins and coming to an agreement on a three year extension, the Lakers went on a tear -- finishing the season on an insane 18-8 run that nearly put them in the playoffs. With LA returning all the important pieces and adding big man Jeff Withey (a major upgrade from Jason Smith), the Lakers could be primed to ride their trio of Boogie, Russell, and Ingram deep into the postseason.

The San Antonio Spurs seem to be biding their time. After the dual retirements of Manu and Pau Gasol, the Spurs had a chance to change their team radically with the cap room they possessed. Instead, San Antonio did a very Spurs thing: they re-signed their own free agents, including LaMarcus Aldridge. The Spurs then went out and got Will Barton to take over as their starter at the two while Danny Green took the old Manu role as designated sixth-man. The Spurs expect big things from their third-year center, Georggios Papagiannis (or "Papa G" as he's known to Spurs fans), a pick that's been quietly marinating on the bench the last two seasons. Never count out the Spurs, but if they're to have any hope of advancing past the 1st round, they need to do better than qualifying for the 8th seed.

Dallas now lives in a post-Dirk world, though Dirk is still around -- this time as an assistant coach. With the Mavs firmly in rebuilding mode, Dallas went out and signed Normal Powell (only 25) to be their starter at the two, hoping that a move of Wesley Matthews to the bench will help that signing look less bad by the end of the year, when Matthews is a free agent. Dallas is primed to trade Matthews and Greg Monroe, both free agents at the end of the season, and go full rebuild -- with the talent of Lonzo Ball, Justin Anderson, and first overall pick DeAndre Ayton, the future looks bright in Dallas -- it's just the present that looks bleak.

Houston was the beneficiary of a cap-strapped Clippers team, who couldn't re-sign key championship cog Rajon Rondo. Rondo promptly took his talents to the Rockets, who now have a point guard battery featuring him and Patrick Beverly --not ideal for spacing, but more than good enough to make up for Harden's defensive issues. Houston is hopeful Harden and Hayward continue the success they had the season before and are desperate for one of their young bench players to step up. If the Rockets can't get those two things to happen, Houston may have a problem.

The Warriors -- losers of not one, but two straight conference Finals -- are having a crisis. Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson are both slated to be free agents next summer and both have yet to commit to signing with Golden State. Meanwhile, Draymond Green seems to be regretting inviting KD to the Warriors, as reports have surfaced that Green is upset over his lack of touches -- and the lack of the team's success in the postseason. This will be a very interesting year for Golden State as they can barely afford to keep their roster together as it is; if both Thompson and Durant choose to leave, it would be a disaster. If one of them stays, it might be the best for the team in the long-run. But if Green demands a trade -- a possibility being floated in some circles -- then the Warriors may find themselves in a no-win scenario not even they can get out of.

[studbucket]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

The Hawks look young and exciting. How far away are they from competing for the East?

The Lakers look like they're ready to make a run for West supremacy.

Ayton and Ball looks like a great future combo for the Mavs. Could they be Hardaway/Mourning? Or a Stockton/Malone? What kind of players are they?

Is Cameron Payne still on the bench for OKC, or do they start him alongside Westbrook?

And 3 years later, the Wizards roster is basically unchanged...

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

The Hawks look young and exciting. How far away are they from competing for the East?

The Lakers look like they're ready to make a run for West supremacy.

Ayton and Ball looks like a great future combo for the Mavs. Could they be Hardaway/Mourning? Or a Stockton/Malone? What kind of players are they?

Is Cameron Payne still on the bench for OKC, or do they start him alongside Westbrook?

And 3 years later, the Wizards roster is basically unchanged...

Well, let's take these all one at a time, shall we?

1. Yes, the Hawks do look young and exciting -- but the East is tougher than it used to be. ATL has a ton of cap room too, but Schroder, their starting point, may not be the future there. Still, with Giles, Porter, and Skal as their future, the team is really looking nice ... I'd say two seasons before they're in a position to compete.

2. The Lakers are locked and loaded. I'd be very surprised if they didn't make the playoffs, especially with the way they finished last season. The team seems to really have come together once Randle was shipped out (poor Randle).

3. Ball is a passer, but still in development. He only averaged 9.8 PPG with 7.2 APG last season starting as a rookie, so he wasn't over the top amazing, but he showed flashes. Ayton is a five who's a great defender and has a very nice mid-range game -- reminds me a lot of Tim Duncan, really, and has a chance to be super-special in the NBA. Right now I'd say the comparison I'd go with is a young Parker/Duncan combo, not fully developed, but definitely with good potential.

4. Payne is indeed the same sixth man that he was before, starting him alongside Westbrook is possible but the Thunder have had great success letting him eat the second units of other teams. Payne's too good to be on the bench forever, though, and will eventually ascend to starter ... maybe with another team.

5. And the Wizards continue to Wizards, but Wall is a free agent next summer -- he could leave. Washington has finished well the last two years, though, but have lost in the 1st round to the Celtics -- and they've been the higher seed! I expect Wall will split if Washington either A) fails to get past the 1st round or B) fails to make the playoffs at all.

Big season for the Wizards, major changes possible.

[Stout]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

For the Rose deal, you guessed it -- I lowered his overall so low that he will never be signed. Plus, I control all teams so he's so low I'll never accidentally sign him either.

As for the Nets, you bet they got Brook some help! At the 2017 deadline they traded for and signed Victor Oladipo, who played for them all last season and had a good year. As for their coach, sadly, no, not officially Kenny Atkinson, but I hired a fake coach and gave him Atkinson's style/attributes, so in essence he is Atkinson -- just without the name.

The Nets have definitely made big improvements this offseason and, I dare say, smart ones too. About to post the roster video for the 2018-19 season and there's been quite a lot of changes in the league ... I'll say this, Brooklyn's life got much tougher due to other signings out East.

Ironically, one of the trades I'd jokingly proposed to my friends around the draft was Thad Young for Oladipo because there'd been some rumors he was on the way out. Figured since Orlando needed a big - which they got in Ibaka - Thad may have been the perfect player for that system since he can play the three, four, or even five if they ran small. I'm just glad the Nets got him in one reality

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Ironically, one of the trades I'd jokingly proposed to my friends around the draft was Thad Young for Oladipo because there'd been some rumors he was on the way out. Figured since Orlando needed a big - which they got in Ibaka - Thad may have been the perfect player for that system since he can play the three, four, or even five if they ran small. I'm just glad the Nets got him in one reality

Yeah, did Orlando give up too much Ibaka, or what? Oladipo is almost as good as Ibaka is now and he's got way more potential to flourish ... Ibaka looks like a shell of himself, honestly. At least here, Oladipo can thrive and be used to his full potential.