Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
2016-17 Individual Awards
2016-17 Individual Awards
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
2016-17 Final Regular Season Standings
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
2017 NBA Finals Results
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
And Russell Westbrook's season long rage propels the Thunder to an NBA title
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
It was a story book season for him and the Thunder. They eliminated Durant and got their revenge, then won the title as he had to sit and watch. Man, the feelings there for Thunder fans and Westbrook and everyone ... whew.
Meanwhile, the NBA rejoices as the Warriors -- who pretty much bought a title with Durant -- missed out in year one. Will they miss out again? The pressure is on next season for that squad.Comment
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
2017 Retirements
Hall of Fame Class:
Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter
Jersey Retirements:
#21 Kevin Garnett, Timberwolves
#34 Paul Pierce, Celtics
League Meetings, approved rules:
Backcourt violations will no longer be called when the ball goes backwards beyond the halfcourt line.Comment
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
Ch. 19
The NBA’s regular season and playoffs were done. The Thunder were the champs, Kevin Durant and the Warriors were the season’s failures, and Russell Westbrook cemented himself as a legend in the NBA. After losing Durant to the Warriors, everyone left the Thunder for dead, but Westbrook would not be denied. Leading a cast comprised of Evan Turner, Andre Roberson, Serge Ibaka, and Steven Adams (with Kanter off the *ucking bench, overpaid Euro) he took the Thunder where Durant couldn’t.
It was the best thing to happen to them and, despite how OKC got their team, I saw them winning as a good omen. It was like the basketball gods were telling me that you couldn’t buy a title, you couldn’t tank your way to a championship — you had to earn it.
After the retirements of so many greats, the league was about to take a leap forward into the next generation of players, in a draft class that people had been looking forward to for years.
The Draft Lottery was where our hopes lied. Where my hopes lied. I couldn’t have the Knights take that first overall pick, it would be wrong to reward a team for that. I needed intervention from the basketball deities to deny that prick Marshall Young what he so desperately wanted.
It’s not like the Knights did their first pick any favors anyway. Look at his stats compared to Thon:
Thon was put in a position to develop and excel, to learn how to be an NBA player and how to operate in a professional environment. Brown was given the green light to do whatever he wanted by his HC, David Blatt (who seemed to be really enjoying coaching a *hitty team, amazing he got the Cavs to the Finals at all), and the kid was abysmal. He got raked over the coals by all the pundits and it wasn’t his fault.
He was in a system that simply didn’t suit him and his team was a mess, from top to bottom. I never begrudged him, but it just made it all the more important not to be like that. Most guys on our team were glad to be here and were ready to build something.
Most guys. Dudley was in that group, but a year of losing and a year of him being a step too slow soured him on us. I can’t blame him, he was a veteran and deserved a shot at winning, so I told him we’d trade him away to someone who needed him, maybe for a 2nd rounder, I don’t remember exactly what — I didn’t want anyone there who didn’t want to be there.
The lottery party was tense. Once we got to the 9th pick, *hit started going sideways.
“Holy *uck, the Heat landed ninth!” My brother Tony leapt from his chair, his beer spilling a little on his shirt thanks to how quickly he got up.
I was in mid-chew of a pretzel when it happened, nearly choked on the damn thing.
With the Heat at 9, that meant the Nuggets had leapt into the top-3. If they were in the top-3, that meant there was one spot less for us … and increased odds that something screwy was going on.
Everything went by the numbers for the next three picks. Then it was our turn at 5 — I was ready to grab it, had a whole host of names in my head, but guess what? It was the Magic who got it, the team with the second best odds that day.
We leapt into the top-3. My brothers and I all cheered manically, like we had just scored a huge amount of money at the blackjack tables. My father gave a half-hearted clap, uproarious approval from that man, and we were waiting for the Knights to show up. They were going to get screwed. They were going to end up lower than first.
The Mavericks hit next at four. Then it was pick three and I figured this was where we went — it made sense to me.
It was the Nuggets.
Floored, the room went from raucous to silent. It was us and the Knights for the top pick in a loaded draft. There was no clear cut first overall, so anyone could have gone, but to have the ability to bargain like that … that power was within reach.
They pulled the envelope to the second pick, opened it ...
It was us.
Marshall Young had gotten his first overall pick. The *ock sucker had done it, somehow, someway, he’d done it. He was the best of the worst and won the right to draft anyone he wanted.
But we were right behind him and I saw that as a sign. The basketball gods couldn’t deny how awful the Knights were, but they gave us the second overall pick to put the Knights in their place. We were the counterbalance.
And from that night onward, we were on the clock to choose our next franchise cornerstone.
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
Yeah, I liked that one. The league voted 31-1 to approve it and I was good with that; I hate having to watch the halfcourt line as I'm trying to run a high pick-and-roll, the animations/collisions sometimes carry me backwards and that's infuriating.
It'll also add an extra element to the fast-break; guys can pass far back now and reset if things are going horribly awry (it happens). I think it's going to lead to some interesting things, but I don't think it'll affect things that much. I seriously doubt the CPU will start passing backwards on purpose, but if they do I'll be impressed.Comment
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
Ch. 20
The debate was on. Everyone had their opinions. Amongst the family, *hit was flying … during the regular season the only one who bothered to attend a decent amount of games was me. I was there to evaluate, I was there to watch, and I was the one who had to suffer, night in and out, as our team struggled to do basic things.
But when that offseason rolled around, everyone suddenly became an expert. In fact, none of us were experts but that didn’t stop us from sounding like we were. Gathered in a backroom of our favorite Japanese place (real Japanese, not that buffet *hit), it was myself, my father, Graves, and my two brothers.
As you can imagine, opinions differed.
“Take Giles, form that frontline of the future!” Graves tried to pick up a bit of sushi with his chopsticks but failed. “How is that so damned hard?”
“It isn’t the right choice, take Ball! Lonzo Ball is a great name!” Garrett stifled a laugh. “Think of the marketing.”
Tony pulled a piece of noodle from his teeth and set it aside. “Fultz or Jackson, brother. Either one of those two guys will kill it for us. Tough SOBs, kind of guys who can get inside and muck it up.”
My father sipped his water and then tapped his knife loudly against the side of his glass, drawing everyone’s attention. “I would like to remind everyone here that we aren’t in charge, Leo is.” My father’s eyes drilled into me. “He makes the choice.”
My father very rarely, if ever, called me “Leo.” It was always “Leonardo” and he made sure to emphasize the end of my name, to make it sound a bit more fancy than it had any right to be. My mother had chosen my name and, as often as he could, he used it. Maybe as a way to remember her, maybe out of habit, I never knew exactly why.
But at that table, with those people, he had squarely and firmly put the decision at my feet. Mine to make. Mine to take. Mine to pay for if it went wrong.
And there was every possibility that it could go wrong. The draft was then what it is now; a crapshoot. The luckiest of lucky will get a good pick, but that’s only a quarter of the battle. If you get a good pick, then you have to make a good pick — which is where the Billy Kings of the world failed — and then you had to develop the pick and, if you managed to help that player turn themselves into an All-Star, you had to make sure they stayed healthy.
So many NBA careers had been derailed because of dumb decisions. Jay Williams got into a motorcycle accident and ruined himself. Len Bias overdosed on cocaine. Antonie Walker nearly ate himself out of the league. There were plenty of horror stories, so you needed a good coaching staff and a good organizational structure to keep guys out of trouble.
You had to take care of your own. That was a motto with the family and that was how I wanted to model the Flight.
“Thanks, Dad,” I said, barely keeping back a sigh. “Everything we do, everything we plan for here, it’s all dependent on what the Knights and Marshall do.”
My father offered a silent nod of agreement.
“So who do they take?” Garrett looked around, then back at me. “I mean, any guy we named could be the guy they take, right?”
“Right.” I smirked. “But, based on it all, I would say the they go with a guard or Giles. So, Fultz, Smith, Ball, or Giles for them.”
“We need a guard, too, right?”
“We could need a guard.” Tony wagged his finger. “But we got Delly, so he’s our guy. He’s good enough.”
“For us, yes,” I told them. I believed it, too. Delly had a good season, his best of his career, and he had the swagger to be the leader of the team at this juncture. “So I think Jackson is our target. Ball and Tatum behind him … but Josh Jackson could be the partner in crime to Thon. The two of them together would be dynamic.”
“And Jackson would draw in fans,” my father chimed in. “Kansas’ run to the Final Four this year was due because of him.”
“Their loss, too,” Tony reminded us both. “You remember how wild Jackson got as their last game went on? The guy started jacking up shots everywhere. Why not go Tatum? He's a local kid, would get us good press.”
“They were losing and he’s young,” I told everyone. Sure, Jackson’s play at the end of that game was concerning, but he was one player trying to lift everyone up. He wouldn’t have that type of problem on our team. "And though Tatum is local, can you remember anything memorable he did while at Duke?"
No one said anything, so I took that as the end of that discussion.
The Knights were almost certain not to pick Jackson … so he was ours if he was there.
We wouldn’t know till the night of the draft.Comment
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
This is great!
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
2017 Draft Day Trades
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
2017 NBA Draft Results
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Re: Through The Storm: A St. Louis Story
Nice that you grabbed Jackson!
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