Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

2019 PLAY-OFFS RECAP

Oh man, what a wild play-offs these were!

The Dallas Mavericks continued their incredible season run by surprising friend and foe when they stunned the OKC Thunder in the 1st round. They even took the Houston Rockets to six games, but went down eventually. This was in part due to Derrick Rose going down with a dislocated patella.

A very unfortunate turn of events for Rose a) given his injury history and b) since Rose was signed to a 1 year deal. Rose will be out for at least this 4-6 months, which puts his free agency (and perhaps even his NBA career) in jeopardy. Will the Mavs (or any team, frankly) take a chance on an injury prone player with his history, that won’t return to the court until January next year at best??

However it may be, the Wolves overcame Denver in a thrilling 7 game series, but to no avail. There was once again no stopping this Warriors superteam that steamrolled their way to the NBA finals with nothing but a few scratches and bruises on the way.


For real excitement and entertainment, the East was the space to watch this year.

Boston - Washington was an amazing first round series. But the Wizards stood ground and eliminated Boston in 7 games. They met Toronto in the 2nd round for another hard fought 7 game series, but an angered Marc Gasol in Toronto took them down in 7.

On the other side of the Eastern semis, a Cavs squad hungry for redemption got man handled in a thrilling 7 game series by a young, supertalented Philly team. Embiid and Simmons are letting the world know they are the NBA's next big thing.

So there it was. After years and years of "trusting the process", The Process dominated in the Eastern Conference Finals. They took the Raptors to yet another nailbiting 7 game series. But a veteraned Toronto squad could sniff the Finals once more and took care of business. They narrowly escaped with a game 7 win to end this thriller series.

Hence we were all set for a Finals rematch from last year: Golden State Warriors - Toronto Raptors.

Spoiler

Spoiler

As much as the order of power is shifting out East, Golden State's dominance is still very much alive. They took the crown once again in a pretty lobsided 6 game series.

Kevin Durant took home another Finals MVP Trophy, showing the world once again he and his Warriors are a force to be reckoned with. And they ain't going nowhere anytime soon ...

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

Player Retirements

Hall of Fame inductees

Jersey Retirements

Draft Lottery

Tough blow for the Celtics, but Memphis and the Clippers got lucky here. Both their picks would've gone to the Celtics this year, but nobody expected them to be this bad at this point.

Due to Top 10 protections placed on those picks, both teams retain their picks. This is big time, especially for Memphis who are in desparate need of rebuilding blocks right now.

[Deuce2223]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

Hopefully Portland can pull off a decent pick in the draft at #5. They have proven with Lillard and CJ that they do in fact occasionally strike gold with their picks. Hopefully they can find a decent bigman to help in the post and not end up with another Greg Oden.

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

Hopefully Portland can pull off a decent pick in the draft at #5. They have proven with Lillard and CJ that they do in fact occasionally strike gold with their picks. Hopefully they can find a decent bigman to help in the post and not end up with another Greg Oden.

I hope they do. Perhaps this is the final piece they need.
I don't know what more there's left the Blazers can do.

They're stacked with talented players, Nurkic is doing well + they've made some good trades already. Yet they fail to really break loose from mediocrity.

If things don't work out this year, they may have to look into blowing things up.

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

League Meetings

In an effort to make the league as competitive as possible and keep things interesting for the fans, NBA commissioner Adam Silver (Edit: NOT David Stern, obviously! Thx for pointing that out, Trek ) and the executive board came together and installed what is better known as the “anti-tank rule”.

As of next year, the 4 worst teams in the league will have identical odds of obtaining the number 1 pick.

To further discourage tanking and encourage competitiveness, another ruling was approved where teams with identical records will no longer have the same odds of obtaining a top 3 pick. In this case, things will be determined by a tie-breaker.


In addition, the league has revisited talks about a possible league expansion.

With training methods and sports science improving, plus the influx of outstanding young talent floating into the league every year, the talent pool of the NBA has never been this high.

Expanding the league would spread out the talent more and keep the league more balanced and competitive as well as help more fans to be able to enjoy the NBA product on a global scale.

Locations named to make a bid for an expansion NBA franchise are Seattle, Mexico City, Louisville, St. Louis, Phoenix and Chicago.

If and where the NBA will expand is expected to be announced somewhere in 2020.

[trekfan]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

League Meetings

In an effort to make the league as competitive as possible and keep things interesting for the fans, NBA commissioner David Stern and the executive board came together and installed what is better known as the “anti-tank rule”.

As of next year, the 4 worst teams in the league will have identical odds of obtaining the number 1 pick.

To further discourage tanking and encourage competitiveness, another ruling was approved where teams with identical records will no longer have the same odds of obtaining a top 3 pick. In this case, things will be determined by a tie-breaker.


In addition, the league has revisited talks about a possible league expansion.

With training methods and sports science improving, plus the influx of outstanding young talent floating into the league every year, the talent pool of the NBA has never been this high.

Expanding the league would spread out the talent more and keep the league more balanced and competitive as well as help more fans to be able to enjoy the NBA product on a global scale.

Locations named to make a bid for an expansion NBA franchise are Seattle, Mexico City, Louisville, St. Louis, Phoenix and Chicago.

If and where the NBA will expand is expected to be announced somewhere in 2020.

David Stern has returned! Seattle is doomed now, never to see an expansion team ... what a devastating blow to the community.

Otherwise, good rule changes. I could see both those things happening in the future for the NBA.

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

David Stern has returned! Seattle is doomed now, never to see an expansion team ... what a devastating blow to the community.

Otherwise, good rule changes. I could see both those things happening in the future for the NBA.

Hahahahaha. Woops. I did not see that
Guess Stern's demons are still haunting my soul ...

If I'm not mistaking, the first of these rules is already going into effect next season IRL. Except it's the 3 worst teams that will have identical odds of obtaining a top 3 pick.

Figured the other one would work out nicely in combination with that!

[bebetomatos14]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

Amazing how the Golden State Warriors dominate has been spreading. It is also very interesting to see how the new generation of the NBA composed by the "process" managed to surpass Cleveland, who, I imagine, still has LeBron James. The new generation of the 76ers arriving at the conference finals is a signal for across the road an era of great players would come to an end. Vince Carter, Pau Gasol, Dywane Wade, Tony Parker and my compatriot Varejao.

[georgiafan]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

tough loss for the Celtics not getting those picks 2k seems to hate them this year

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

Amazing how the Golden State Warriors dominate has been spreading. It is also very interesting to see how the new generation of the NBA composed by the "process" managed to surpass Cleveland, who, I imagine, still has LeBron James. The new generation of the 76ers arriving at the conference finals is a signal for across the road an era of great players would come to an end. Vince Carter, Pau Gasol, Dywane Wade, Tony Parker and my compatriot Varejao.

Yeah, Cleveland has sort of fallen off and they're not getting any younger. The Sixers are definitely taking over right now. There's some young, exciting teams on the rise as the NBA landscape changes.

Yet the Warriors remain soooo dominant. Wonder who's going to stop them.

Thx for following!

tough loss for the Celtics not getting those picks 2k seems to hate them this year

Haha, the C's are definitely undervalued on 2K this year. Sort of like how the Wizards were always ridiculously bad previous years.
C's are uprising though!

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

2019 NBA Draft Night


Overall, this was one of the weakest draft classes in recent memory. The top 5 featured some future franchise talents. But outside of that, these are all rookies that will likely take some time to develop. Let's take a look at the top 5:





The Pistons struck gold this year. Their selection surprisingly landed number one overall. They badly needed a shooting guard after Avery Bradley’s departure. This year’s top prospect, R.J. Barrett, just so happened to be an incredibly gifted shooting guard. Just 20 years old, he fits right in with Detroit’s youthful core and will undoubtedly be a big part of their franchise going forward.


The Grizzlies have entered 'full rebuild' mode after trading away Marc Gasol and finishing at the bottom of the conference. Is Zion Williamson, an athletic high-volume scoring wing, the new face of this franchise for the future ...?


Atlanta gets yet another top 3 pick after drafting Luka Doncic first overall last year. Pairing a talent like Cameron Reddish with Doncic and point guard Dennis Schröder gives them an intruiging young core to build around for the future. Don't sleep on the Hawks.


The Pelicans have been a mess on all fronts lately: AD's injuries, the Boogie trade, the team failing to win games ... They were in need of a decent center. Bol Bol might be the answer. But AD is at his best now and he isn't going to wait for a rookie to develop.

The Pelicans could use him as trade bait to upgrade their roster. But they'd have to get some sort of commitment from AD (in his contract year + Player ETO for next year) before trading away such a franchise talent.


How much more talent do the Blazers need? The team is oozing with potential and talent all over the place, yet they fail to really compete with the best of 'em and didn't even make the postseason last season. The West is just too competitive right now.

Lillard and McCollum are in their best years right now, so the Blazers have some decisions to make. Do they make some trades and go all in for a shot at a title? Or do they look to build for the future ... Drafting S. Doumbouya 5th overall puts both those options on the table.






Las Vegas selected the 21 year old Mamadi Diakite with the 12th overall pick. While not exactly a stud, the young power forward from Virginia is still fairly young and shows great upside and potential. There’s no pressure on him to perform right away, since he’ll be in the Dice’ rotation behind Marquese Chriss, T.J. Warren, Miles Bridges and Dragan Bender.

There's only 48 minutes of playing time. With SO much young talent on the roster, Vegas could look into dangling out some trade packages.

[georgiafan]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

man that's a weak draft outside the top 5

[Deuce2223]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

Wow a 66 Overall as the #7 pick of the draft. Nice job Lakers..

Can't wait to see how your expansion goes and really hoping the Blazers don't have to blow up their team.

[Jogo]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

man that's a weak draft outside the top 5

It definitely was disappointing. But I have generated storylines applied, so who knows some of them may become superstars eventually.

Those bottom 5 teams did good tanking, because the rule changes next year will make it harder to get a top pick.

Wow a 66 Overall as the #7 pick of the draft. Nice job Lakers..

Can't wait to see how your expansion goes and really hoping the Blazers don't have to blow up their team.

Hey, who knows ... He might be the next Kyle Kuzma ..!
Just wrapped up free agency, and I think the Lakers will do just fine

I will see to it that Blazers management does everything in their power to regain their glory!

[bebetomatos14]

Re: Roll The Dice - A Las Vegas Dynasty

It was definitely a low-than-expected draft. Zion Williamson is the most expensive player in the NBA. Athleticism above average and with a very interesting basketball IQ I believe it to be the best choice and ended up falling into a little noisy franchise. Let's see how he will adapt. Pelicans and Blazzers should use their picks in trades to strengthen the team. Lilliard and McCollum are at their peak and a rebuild would be totally meaningless, since the Pelicans have the AD being underappreciated in the NBA. That's a shame.