Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Dang. 21 rebounds? Thin literally must have grabbed every other rebound in that game. He is turning into quite the player to be reckoned with.

Could we see a rivalry between up and coming stars Markell's Fultz and Thon Maker?


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Yeah, Thon was eating the rebounds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that game. He was awesome.

As for a rivalry, the Knights certainly were supposed to be that, but so far have been ineffective as a test for my squad. Fultz really is a rival for Jackson more than he is for Thon at this point, but we'll see what the Knights do for the future.

Just finished playing a game against NOLA and it was really interesting at the end ...

Stay tuned.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story



Ch. 71

Life in the NBA rarely is so easy as some would make it out to be. The regular season is a marathon, an important one that determined your position as a team — as an organization. Rarely, if ever, did having a *hitty regular season set you up for an incredible postseason run.

This wasn’t college ball, where a hot team at the right time could just light the world on fire as they go all the way. There weren’t any Cinderella stories, there was only the cold, hard truth: somehow, someway, you’d be dealing with adversity in the regular season.

You either faced it head on or crumbled beneath it.

In the fall of 2016, we were flying in our first four games. We were 3-1, our only loss an OT affair to the Blazers (102-98), but otherwise? We were good. Bullard was doing exactly what I wanted, dishing out assists and being unafraid to shoot the ball in space — his midrange game was opening up our offense, making our team a threat to score from anywhere on the court.

Acton Jackson was KILLING it four games in, and the kid looked like he really, really wanted MVP consideration. The bench was firing on all cylinders, Gortat integrating seamlessly with our second unit, and Delly was enjoying life as the go-to bench leader.

Everyone had a role. Everyone had a task.

But our greatest challenge showed up on November 6th, 2019. The Pelicans rolled into our house, a solid 2-2, Kemba and AD beginning to find their chemistry together. NOLA was without Biyombo, who was being held out with a dislocated shoulders, so they started young big man Sheldon Simms, a second round pick from 2016.

Even with that in our favor, we got a playoff game in November with them. The Pelicans hated us and we hated them … two years in a row we had met them in the playoffs. They got us in 2018. We got them in 2019. It wasn’t hyperbole to say that the rivalry between us was one of the better ones in the league, especially considering we played in the same division and saw one another four *ucking times a year.

The first quarter of that game was a back and forth affair, both teams trading buckets and fouls. Defense was a choice and both teams chose to forget it for that first half. It was Bullard who came out and set the tone, unwilling to be intimidated by Kemba Walker, Bulldog went right at him and the defense — and showed off hops.



That lit a fire under our bench and the team as a whole. It wasn’t often we saw a 6’1” guy get up and slam like that, but Bullard was definitely trying to establish himself as a fearless player.

After one, we were all tied up, 34-34.

In the second, the bench units started getting involved. For NOLA, it was Afflalo and Joe Ingles who gave us fits. Despite neither being prime athletic specimens, both players were heady; they cut well, they feasted on mismatches, and they made savvy plays that made you bash your fist into the nearest hard object. They got in there and set off a three-point barrage.

We started drowning midway through the second. Our close-outs weren’t fast enough and we found ourselves down by nine points as the final minutes started ticking away in the half.

But that’s when Delly and Junkyard Dog came in and made their difference. Delly smartly drove inside and grabbed an easy and-1 to slow down the contest, then Carroll made some heady defensive plays to keep the Pelicans from extending that lead — and his defense led to him jacking up not one, but two transition triples (the second at the buzzer of the quarter), both which he made.

Tie game again, 60-60.

In the third, the battle continued, but we began to just inch our way ahead. The bigs of NOLA were in foul trouble, largely thanks to Jackson and his uncanny ability to get inside and throw it down, no matter what. The refs rewarded his courage with trips to the line and the Pelicans finally fell behind by a few points.

We spent most the quarter holding them back, picking up fouls, and fighting for every point. Thon was doing a superb job of keeping AD out of the game, using his length to bother every shot. Kemba was lighting up Bullard, though, finding that gear he couldn’t in the first half and the rookie got baited into a shootout — shooting wise, his second half was total *hit but there’s no way to learn from the bench. This was experience he needed and getting it early on, against a potential playoff opponent, was crucial.

We walked into the final quarter with a one point lead, a squeaker of a game at hand. We needed to do something to slow down Walker, to prevent Murray from going off, to keep AD in check, and we did all those things — superb efforts from Noel, Gbinije, Gortat, Richardson, and Jackson in the fourth, making sure we got enough defense to get out with a win.

But that defense had a heavy cost. With less than two minutes to go and our lead only four, the Pelicans drove inside, dished it to AD, and he went up for the slam; but was completely rejected by Noel, who sent it flying right into the hands of Richardson.

He immediately went down to the ground, holding his ankle. A timeout was called and the arena went silent as trainers came out, looked him over, and then helped him out. He hopped out on one-leg, pain all over his face.

We won the game, Gortat came in and refused to let us get abused inside, but the game didn’t matter at that point. Before I was worried about losing Nerlens in the summer, but now I had to be worried about losing him in the regular season; he was a linchpin of our defense. Without him, we could fall apart.

A win felt hollow compared to the dread I felt.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story



Ch. 72

The prognosis wasn’t as bad as I feared, but it sure as hell wasn’t good. Noel was out and he was out for 4-6 weeks, minimum, with a high ankle sprain. He wasn’t the only one suffering. The league, as a whole, were seeing guys go down. Wear and tear from previous years had a way of catching up with some players and for the league, it was taking out some key guys.



Steph Curry was down and out for 4-6 weeks with a severely pulled calf muscle, an injury that normally doesn’t shut guys down but the Warriors were being safe — Curry was their franchise guy and after Green and Durant left the Bay area, was their only other star (besides Klay Thompson). They wanted to keep him healthy for as long as possible.

The Warriors were counting their lucky stars they went out and grabbed George Hill as a backup in the summer; Hill could more than capably run their offense and keep the team chugging along decently enough till Curry got back.

I, however, wasn’t so confident Gortat could do the same with Noel out. Gortat was gotten with the idea that he could contribute, max, 20 minutes a night. He’d be a big body to take fouls, school some scrubs in the post, and set a tone for our second unit.

Instead, he was being shoved into a starter role for the next 4-6 weeks and, in our division, in our conference, we couldn’t afford to go on an extended losing streak.

Once I got the news about Noel’s injury, I called a conference with my brothers — my trusted sounding board, the guys who would tell me like it was.

“Gortat ain’t bad, but he ain’t great either,” Tony stated with little enthusiasm. “If we go with him as the starter, we’ll need to get someone else to take his spot in the second unit. I say we go get Mosgov or Marjanovic. Mosgov knows how to get it done, he’s a champion — he’s a tough SOB who throws his weight around and makes dudes respect his position.”

“He’s also 33 and has quite a few miles on him,” I countered. I had considered Mosgov before, but I wasn’t sure he could physically take the grind of another season after the way the Cavs played him all those years. Cleveland, desperate for players to fill their roster, didn’t bring him back that summer and there had to be a reason why.

“Then Marjanovic — bring in Boban! Dude’s huge, 7’4” and inhales rebounds. He’ll do his job and do it well … former Spurs man, too, so he knows the division and he won’t make waves if he doesn’t get the position full time.”

That idea had appeal to me … Boban was definitely a big man and that kind of size, in a division with AD, Capela, Steven Adams, Ayton, and Papagiannis, was very appealing.

“Boban is also slow as hell.” I tossed Tony a look and my brother only offered a shrug. “You want to send him out there against the likes of AD, Adams, Capela, and Ayton?”

“Hey, we could grab a mobile four and play him at the five, then.” He took out a stick of gum and popped it into his mouth, smacking loudly. “In the construction business, if you’re out of a material you need, you have to go out and grab something else. Even if it ain’t close, there are deadlines you got to meet.”

“In the designer business, sometimes you need to make due with what you have on hand already,” Garret offered. “When I’m designing a new suit and run out of a material, I can’t sit there and wait for new materials to show up; I have to adapt. I have to use what’s there.” Garret, eagerly drawing on his iPad, took a moment to look up and wink. “You have that big guy on the bench, Boucher.”

“Boucher?!” Tony nearly choked on his gum. “Kid’s a project at this point, only in his second year! Besides, he’s weak as a rebounder. We need someone in there who can fight for those boards, Garret, not stand there and wait for the ball to hit them.”

“Actually, now might be the time to see what Boucher has,” I mused. Boucher — B43 as he was referred to by teammates — was young and raw. Only 22, I had taken him with the 24th overall pick in 2018. 7’0” dead even and a solid 290 pounds, the kid was well-liked and did two things exceedingly well: he played defense and set hard screens. The kid was allergic to rebounds and scoring, though, but I never thought he’d be more than a solid rotation player when I took him.

“Garret’s right; this is the time to see what Boucher has.”

Tony groaned. “Jesus, you’re really going to trust that kid with rotation minutes?”

I nodded. “For 4-6 weeks? Hell yes. It’s a good chance to see if he’s improved any and, if he hasn’t, we can work him harder if need be. Mosgov or Boban are just stop-gaps; bigs in their 30s who won’t be here more than two or three years at best. Boucher is young and this team isn’t afraid of youth, Tony.”

“You should be afraid of falling in a hole. Not youth.”

I had made up my mind, though — it was Boucher who was going to get the call. We weren’t going to sign anyone from the outside, we were going to keep things in-house. Continuity was important to an organization, as was trust; I was going to trust our coaches, our trainers, and myself that we hadn’t screwed up when we selected this kid as our draft pick.

It was Boucher’s time to prove his worth … or prove Tony right.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story



Ch. 73

November 15th, 2019. Noel had been out for four games and we had won all four, albeit by a small margin. A win was a win, so I wasn’t complaining, but Boucher was an absolute non-entity. For someone who was a solid 7’0” tall and 290 pounds, Boucher was timid on the floor. He looked overmatched, he looked lost, and more than anything he didn’t look ready.

He’d been marinating on the bench for a year, had gotten some spot minutes over the course of the previous season, and had one of the best big men ever — Kevin McHale — coaching him, but Boucher seemed like a ghost on the floor. He didn’t get points. He didn’t get rebounds. Sure, he set screens and played good defense, but there were no blocks, no steals, not a damned shred of statistical evidence that he actually did any *ucking thing!

It was infuriating and that night, on the 15th, we traveled to Utah to take on the Jazz. The same Jazz that had lost in the second round to the Mavs the year before. Now sporting a team without Chris Bosh (he had signed with Dallas and the Jazz replaced his veteran presence with Taj Gibson), the Jazz were still dangerous. Hanging around at 5-3, we were 8-1 and absolutely rolling along — both us and the Warriors were in the midst of 5+ game win streaks and the conference, early on, seemed to be ours for the taking.

But the Jazz weren’t to be trifled with and the first quarter showed that in spades. Utah was led by the hot shooting of Rodney Hood in that quarter, who tried to get into a gunning contest with Jackson. Jackson would have taken that bait in the past, but he didn’t this time.

But Bullard? Bulldog was more than game to try his hand at it. In the first he played stout defense on Exum and the Jazz’s guards, and kept testing them inside, getting in there, seeking out contact, and getting to the line. His shots weren’t falling, but Bulldog was taking it to the Jazz and, after Rodney Hood cooled down a bit, we pulled even with them after one.

In the second, our bench unit came in and Boucher played his *ss off. He got inside, he mucked around with the Jazz backup bigs, and then he busted out a skill no one — I mean, *ucking no one — had any idea he had.



A three? A corner three from our 290 pound big? Where the hell did that come from?!

Boucher didn’t even seem excited about it, he just jogged back to defense and the kid pretty much broke the Jazz with that shot. Utah fell behind by double-digits for the first time in the game and they never recovered after their disaster of a second-quarter.

In 10 minutes of time, Boucher had 10 points, 8 boards, shot 4-5, and had a triple to his name. Game. Set. Match. After four games of nothing, he finally brought something to the table. Jackson and Bullard carried us the rest of the way in the second half and Bullard nearly had himself a triple-double; the kid wasn’t efficient yet, but he was clearly passionate and that passion really worked for us.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Quick question for you all ... are you all getting bored with this?

I realize that I've been spotty thanks to real life on updating things, so that's entirely understandable. I just wanted to take the pulse of the readers.

I do have another project in the works that I'm really excited about and one I have some work done on; a historical dynasty, featuring the famed draft class of 1996 (all all draft classes forward of them), and an alternate take on what the world of the NBA would look like with a few key variables changed.

BUT, I do feel bad even considering jumping from this one. I love the Flight and the idea of them, but I've grown pretty nostalgic of late, wanting to relive the glory days of the late 90s/early 2000s NBA, because that's when I came to love the game.

So, what do you guys think? Do I ...

A) Continue the Flight dynasty as is, with some changes for expediency
B) Finish this season of the Flight and switch to the historical dynasty
C) Discontinue the Flight immediately and switch to the historical dynasty
D) Other - user suggestion


Eager to hear your guys' opinion. Thanks in advance.

[studbucket]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Not bored by it. I find your dynasties enjoyable to read.

However, if you have something you're passionate about, that dynasty will probably be even more interesting.

You're not beholden to us here. IMO, dynasties really exist to serve the author and we're all just along for the ride. I'd still be doing my '92-'93 Hornets dynasty, even if nobody read it. However, I love that others do read it.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Not bored by it. I find your dynasties enjoyable to read.

However, if you have something you're passionate about, that dynasty will probably be even more interesting.

You're not beholden to us here. IMO, dynasties really exist to serve the author and we're all just along for the ride. I'd still be doing my '92-'93 Hornets dynasty, even if nobody read it. However, I love that others do read it.

Thanks, man. That's pretty much my thinking, the new one I'm cooking up is a more traditional one for me (3rd person POV, characters galore), that I'm really liking.

I just don't want to kill something people like. *shrug*

Right now, I'm leaning towards just ending the Flight franchise after this season and jumping to the new project. 80 years is tough to do, lol ... I've tried two years running and failed two years running.

But, I think with my historical one, I'll be so invested with the old-school guys I'll just keep going. The draft classes between 1996 and 2003 had some important players in it ... and 2003, as we all know, was bonkers in terms of talent.

[bryan3169]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Not bored by this at all but to echo what studbucket said it's all about delivering content you are having fun with as well.

And if that means it's a character driven, storyline heavy basketball story I'm sure no one here would object to it. Trekfan dynasties are legendary on OS none have disappointed in my eyes...so go with what you are having fun with


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Not bored by this at all but to echo what studbucket said it's all about delivering content you are having fun with as well.

And if that means it's a character driven, storyline heavy basketball story I'm sure no one here would object to it. Trekfan dynasties are legendary on OS none have disappointed in my eyes...so go with what you are having fun with


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

You're too kind, sir. Much thanks for the compliments.

[The J0ker]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Trek my dude, you already know what you want to do. Finish the season and pursue it. No one's gonna force you into a bored monotony.

Just don't pick the Heat

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Trek my dude, you already know what you want to do. Finish the season and pursue it. No one's gonna force you into a bored monotony.

Just don't pick the Heat

Thank you, kind sir, for the support.

[Jaiveer]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

In my opinion you are the BEST dyansty writer here, we're all gonna keep reading whichever one you enjoy the most you can do

[satam619]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

WWhat I think you should do is start your historical dynasty and keep this on the side. Like just come back to it every now and then when you feel like it but this is my personal favourite dynasty but at the end o the day the decisions is completelt yours.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

WWhat I think you should do is start your historical dynasty and keep this on the side. Like just come back to it every now and then when you feel like it but this is my personal favourite dynasty but at the end o the day the decisions is completelt yours.

It's not a bad idea and one I hadn't considered. Both this dynasty and the historical one are vastly different writing wise, so I wouldn't be against doing two, but I also don't want to keep people waiting too long for one or the other.

I also want to avoid burnout, which is a very real thing for me with the way I do dynasties. I'll consider it, but as of now I'm leaning heavily in the direction of finishing the current season for the Flight, wrapping a bow on the dynasty, and moving on with my historical one. I feel that's appropriate, especially since it signals a clear end and beginning for both.

[trekfan]

Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story

Escape from New York: Flight win close contest against Knicks





In short ...

The St. Louis Flight (now 12-3) bested the Knicks (8-5) despite New York continuing to rally from multiple deficits throughout the game. The Knicks, led by Kristaps Porzingis, outplayed the Flight's second unit routinely and Porzingis gave fits to Thon Maker, who fouled out midway through the fourth with only 5 points and a smattering of plays.

The Flight were led in scoring by Josh Jackson, but had rookie Daniel Bullard named player of the game due to his superb passing and command of the offense.