How’s your franchise going? NBA 2K24 thread

[aimlessgun]

Bulls/Blazers 2080-81: The Curse of Almost

Humans often project an optimistic future, especially if it involves staying on a comfortable existing course. After losing in 7 games to the champion Brooklyn Nets 2 years in a row, the Blazers front office found plenty of reasons to change nothing. After all, they'd almost won both times, they had a young core, and the Nets were aging. 2081 was going to be the year they finally broke through.

The Bulls had lost to the Nets in 6, a winnable series, though they had far less reason for optimism. Longtime franchise cornerstone and 2 time FMVP PG Everett Byrd was in steep decline and his contract was up. But with 2 other stars, Johnston and Hayward, still in their prime, they weren't ready to blow it up yet. They cleared enough cap to add James Tatum, a solid young guard, to start at PG, and brought back Byrd with the MLE. People were shocked that Byrd would agree to such a low salary, and the Bulls figured if he could cheat father time for just a year they had a great chance.

The Bulls would go on to take the 1 seed with 65 wins, with Byrd in the 6MOY discussion. The Blazers would be the 2 seed and took what looked to the be the tougher side of the bracket that included both the Nets and the Nuggets.

Round 2, Bulls vs Lakers
But the Bulls had a new threat to deal with, a Lakers squad led by superstar forward Kaspars Pasecniks. As a player, Pasecniks is basically white Kevin Durant. Drafted 1st overall by Houston in 2073, it just never worked out, despite them putting together some solid teams on paper. Critics felt some of the blame went to Pasecniks himself, for being too selfish and not playing winning team basketball. People called him the 'most talented' player in the league, but not the best player, and it would stay that way until he found postseason success.

Either way, during the 2080 offseason he left for the bright lights of LA and a Lakers team that had a good roster but lacked a superstar. And now the Bulls would test whether he was still just a talent, or could grow into a winner.



Picture: 7ft Pasecniks rises up for an uncontestable jumper over Jermaine Johnston

The Bulls would pull out to a 2-1 series lead after some hot shooting in games 2 and 3, but in a tight game 4 Pasecniks came up big, hitting a barrage of clutch buckets and ending the night with 50/11/8.

In game 5, the Bulls pulled out the lineup everyone had been waiting for: restoring Byrd to his starting spot at PG by going small and sliding Tatum, Johnston and Hayward down a position. This supercharged the offense but sacrificed defense, and the game turned into a shootout. After 4 quarters it was tied 130-130. Overtime, then double overtime as Pasecniks and Hayward dueled. Then down 2 points in the waning moments of 2OT, Bulls center Denis Kozlov, an offensive nonentity, made a shocking drive from the 3pt line to the rim and finished an unlikely and-1 (pictured)



This would clinch the game for the Bulls, final score an insane 165-157. Many thought this would be the pivotal game of the series.

But the Lakers clawed their way to an ugly 110-103 home win in game 6. Then after giving up a 76 point first half in game 7, they'd lock the Bulls down again in the 4th quarter, holding them to a shocking 13 points on 4-24 FG! Pasecniks was not only scoring, he was playmaking for teammates, and also doing the gritty work on the boards and on defense, and this development saw the Lakers past the Bulls in 7.

It was a bitter defeat for the Bulls, and it didn't help matters that Byrd seemed completely washed, unable to help his team in the final 2 losses of the series. Without him the team was still almost good enough...but not quite.

Blazers 2081 later

[aimlessgun]

Bulls/Blazers 2080-81: The Curse of Almost pt2

On the other side of the bracket, the Blazers were in a dogfight with the Denver Nuggets. In 2080 the Nuggets had unlocked their true potential by trying a triple towers lineup when down 0-3 to the Bulls. After a frustrating game 6 where everyone forgot how to shoot a basketball in a 98-108 loss, the 2 seeded Blazers needed to win a game 7, something they'd failed to do thus far in the Solomon era.

In a high scoring game the Blazers took a lead into the 4th. But things turned around when veteran Denver PG Miguel Santos caught fire, scoring 21 points on 8-11 shooting in the period. This was largely thanks to the horrible defense of Portland's PG, Henry Collins. The Blazers, down 2 on their last possession, gave it to Solomon in isolation against Nuggets star Dennis Moore.



Solomon gets a blowby and a thunderous dunk to send things to OT! Things are close until Moore fouls out on a bad reach-in, after which the Nuggets collapse and the Blazers win 149-140. Steve Solomon ends with 40/11/10.

The close call exposes some longstanding issues with the Blazers though. PG Collins can't defend a chair, and both he and starting SG Earl Anderson are too in love with scoring on tough shots instead of fundamental play execution and team basketball.

Round 3: Are the Nets finally too old?

The Nets were a year older, but great team basketball ages well, and like usual they'd found some veteran ring chasers willing to sign to cheap contracts. Most notable was SF Bryant Strickland, who would torch the Blazers in the first 2 games for 30 points each, including a contested game-winning 3 to take game 2 120-117.



Pictured: typical levels of defense from Collins and Anderson after the Nets run a simple offball screen.

The Blazers were down 0-2 heading to Brooklyn, with the 2 losses showcasing the worst excesses of Collins and Anderson. Portland coach, the venerable Alvin Montgomery, decides on drastic measures. Collins is ejected from the starting lineup and relegated to being a sparkplug off the bench. Anderson is moved to PG and the Blazers play a big lineup focusing on Steve Solomon as the primary ballhandler.

It works, and the Blazers win 3 straight including a 50/7/9 performance from Solomon in game 5. In game 6 the Blazers take a lead into the 4th with a chance to close out the Nets, for a 3rd year in a row. What's that I hear? Yup, that's Lamar Wright's music. The legend scores 19 points in the 4th on 9 shots to bring the Nets even. The Nets try to set up Wright for another shot to take the lead in the last minute, but Solomon says enough is enough.



He jumps the pass and takes it to the house to give the Blazers the win in a complete carry job. Team FG is 41%, with Solomon putting up 44 on 21-39, aka non-Solomon Blazers shooting like 30%.

With the Nets finally defeated, Blazers fans celebrate. Surely nothing can stop them now, right?

The Finals: Blazers vs Lakers

The Lakers hadn't even been in the conversation the prior year, and even in 2081 they'd entered the playoffs as the 9th seed. But here they were in the finals, and they opened things up by punching the Blazers in the mouth. In a 116-108 game 1 win, they showcased an elite, high intensity defense, led by 1st team All-Defense SG Ciro Nunez. Pictured: Nunez rips a flailing Anderson.



Nunez would get his mitts on 8 steals guarding Steve Solomon. Remember how making Solomon the primary ballhandler and playmaker is what beat the Nets? Nunez was going to blow all that up. He'd get 7 steals in game 2 and basically force the Blazers to abandon PnR Ballhandler or Isolation plays for Solomon. Instead they tried post-ups, which were effective due to Solomon's size advantage, but overall it was less efficient offense.

In game 4 Blazers coach Monty tinkered even more, leaning more on 3pt actions to try and find something that worked. The offense improved, but at the same time Kaspars Pasecniks made his case for best player in the NBA. 63/12/8 on 24-36 FG and the Blazers were in a 1-3 hole.



In game 5 Portland tried throwing Collins back into the starting lineup and he rewarded them by shooting 2-12. Nevertheless the Blazers won an scrambling, chaotic game, which favored the Blazers generally low-IQ heroball playstyle.

The Blazers would build a 17 point lead early the 3rd quarter of game 6, but then the Lakers shut it all down. The Blazers would be held scoreless for 6.5 minutes in the 3rd quarter, and AGAIN for 6.5 minutes of the 4th quarter. The team coughed up 20 turnovers, with Ciro Nunez grabbing 10 steals! In the end, this formula of elite defense + Pasecniks impossible-to-defend scoring would win 95-104 and take the finals in 6 games.

Pasecniks would take home FMVP honors. At the start of the Bulls series he'd been considered the 'most talented' player in the NBA but not the 'best'. Well, that divide is officially gone. Revisionist goldfish on social media are already saying "well it's no surprise the Lakers won, Pasecniks is the best player in the league".

As for the Blazers and Bulls, both victims of the new king, the winds of change are blowing strongly through the halls of their front offices. 'Almost' winning in 2080 had been a false promise, and staying the course in '80-81 now looked like a mistake.

[KenXCarson]

Quote: Originally Posted by aimlessgun

Bulls/Blazers 2080-81: The Curse of Almost pt2

How does the game play in these later years of the game? Assuming, you're using auto generated draft classes, how do they fare when you get in these deep MyNBA saves?

[JAY_D1]

DETROIT PISTONS REPEAT- WOLVES TO LIKELY GET TOP #3 PICK
JUNE 1990

The Detroit Pistons are a mini dynasty, with repeating as champions once again.



Beating down on the TrailBlazers, the Pistons are looking below at the NBA as they are on top of the mountain once again. “It feels good to be Champs again, lets make it three next year!” says Isiah Thomas. The Detroit Pistons are figuring out that repeating, is hard as ever though. “We went through a lot of injuries this year, a lot of players went down. Players are getting older, so we will have to retool our team next year” says Pistons Head Coach.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, were one of the teams that were on the ground floor. Leading the charge to be the best team to gain the #1 in next years draft, they are looking at options. “Gary Payton looks promising, Justin Drew from Providence can really get to the hoop as well. We have a few ways we can do this. We also have to evaluate the players on our team and also whos available. Lots of work to do”. The Minnesota Timberwolves are trying to figure out how to plug in the right pieces for next year, so the blowouts don’t happen again. “We don’t want to be embarrassed again, that’s the point of trying to restructure the team. We are a proud group of people”

More Incoming draft eligible plyers they have to choose from are: Toni Kukoc (Croatia), Jordan House (Chicago St), Walt Pierce (Duke), Gene Miller (France/Texas) and Kendall Gill (Illinois). Toni Kukoc is rumored to say that he will return to Europe if the team he gets selected doesn’t meet his standards.

[aimlessgun]

Quote: Originally Posted by KenXCarson

How does the game play in these later years of the game? Assuming, you're using auto generated draft classes, how do they fare when you get in these deep MyNBA saves?

Note: I'm still in 2k23.

Sadly purely autogenerated classes don't work. I use them as a base but I have to edit them every year. Draft quality slider cannot fix the main issues which are: everyone starts declining at age 26 lmao, and also the distribution of ratings is hugely clumped in the 80s. I literally remove ALL main POT scores in the 80s from every class but due to boom potentials (which cannot be edited in quick edit), there are STILL a bit too many guys in the 80s, it's insane.

After quick fixes to peak start/end and POT ratings, the more difficult issue is that you don't usually see as many player types as in real life. IRL there are rare players that break the mold for what is expected at their position or height, the Jokics, Durants, Wembys, what have you. Basically it doesn't generate freaks of nature. Every few seasons I'll manually make a 1-2 guys in a class that I think are interesting for the AI to draft.

The gameplay itself is fine, or at least, has the same issues you'll see at the start of a franchise haha.

The one thing that is completely degenerated and is hard to fix is staffing. Staff salary demands scale up over time but staff budgets don't. So nobody can afford highly rated coaches anymore. But honestly I don't know if that even matters.

[BancoPopulair]

Quote: Originally Posted by BancoPopulair

I’m running a modern Wizards franchise as I do every year. We are currently 29-17 after defeating the 110-94, despite Wemby giving us 25pts and 7blks. Poole dropped 39pts of his own on 17-29 shooting. We are doing far better than I thought we’d be doing so far, the sim seems to think pretty highly of a team that I don’t this is necessarily constructed to win right now. I play 10min quarters on Superstar difficulty and I play 1 game every week while simming the rest so I don’t have TOO MUCH influence on the teams success. It adds the challenge of building a team I enjoy playing with and also plays well while simulating. Player Stats: Jordan Poole- 26.2ppg 5.2ast Kuzma- 19.5ppg 6rbs Kispert- 13.3ppg 49% from 3 There are clear holes in this roster but I’m not sure if I should make a move or 2 before the deadline or just ride the season out and start the actual rebuild in the offseason. I guess I’ll see how the next week or so goes.

So I ended up trading Kuzma at the deadline to the Thunder for a 2024 unprotected 1st that belonged to the Rockets. I usually don’t accept trades proposed by the CPU but I just couldn’t resist that one. We finished the season 48-34 and the 5th seed in the East. It was clear we didn’t belong there as the 4th seeded Celtics easily swept us.

That Rockets pick we got from the Thunder turned into the 6th pick in the draft. I originally was planning to trade the pick but when I saw Stephon Castle fall to me at 6 I swooped him right up.

The money I saved on Kuzma I used to sign OG Anunoby to a 3year 100+ million dollar deal. I rounded out my roster with Miles Bridges, Isaiah Hartenstein, Kenrich Williams & Nerlens Noel.

My rotation going into year 2:

PG: Poole/Tyus Jones
SG: Kispert/Stephon Castle
SF: Anunoby/Coulibaly
PF: Avdija/Bridges
C: Gafford/Hartenstein

Can’t wait to get this season started!!

[JAY_D1]

LOTS OF COSMETIC CHANGES – NETS, PACERS AND MORE
JUNE 1990

The NBA isn’t expanding outward this year, but inward. Many teams are changing their look into the 1990s and getting help like the Pacers.



The Pacers, Nets and others are changing their looks and there has been discussion to expanding how many uniforms a team can have. “We are definitely looking to adding a third uniform for select teams in the future. Giving our fans an option to wear something different during game days and even having uniforms for special days like the All Star are definitely things on the table” says David Stern. The Pacers new uniforms were supported by American track star Florence Griffith Joyner.”It’s a great thing to have a woman that accomplished so much in sport to be able to lend her eyes for our next set of uniforms” said Reggie Miller



The Philadelphia 76ers are taking a look into changing their look as well. “We have bee nknown to have a classic look, which is great but we also need something dynamic” said the Sixers Assistant GM. “I don’t agree, whats wrong with the uniforms we have now? They are fine, we don’t need to mess around with these” said Charles Barkley when asked about the prospect of a uniform change. Other teams that have been contemplating new designs are teams like Dallas, New York and even Chicago.

[KenXCarson]

So we're at about the mid-way point of the season, and there have been quite a few of surprises that are worth noting.

The current top teams in terms of standing are:

West: Dallas, OKC, Memphis

East: Cleveland, Miami, Charlotte

Dallas has really gotten behind their new coach, and Luka and Kyrie are playing excellent basketball. Both are currently averaging 30 PPG (with Luka averaging a triple double), and they have been managing to hang with the best the league has to offer. There are talks that they might be interested in grabbing the Bulls Caruso or Jose Alvarado from the Pelicans to strengthen their guard defense, but they are in no rush to do so. Luka is currently the leader for MVP

The OKC Thunder have finally taken the leap that everybody was anticipating, but Shai's health has been the biggest concern. Seems like he's always picking up minor injuries, and the Thunder's offense just dies when he's not on the floor. A reliable second option might be something they look into (such as Kyle Kuzma or Lauri Markannen so they can offload some draft picks), but they are going to wait and see if Kevin Durant asks out. The Suns are currently struggling, but the bottom of the West is pretty subpar so it is very possible that they can turn it around and reach the play-in spot again and make another run. Unlikely KD gets traded midseason, but Bradley Beal could be shipping to Brooklyn since they lost KAT for the season and need a guard who can initiate the offense and take some pressure of Mikal Bridges to create.

The Grizzlies aren't playing the same pace as they were last season, but they do seem to be a much more physical team in comparison to last year. They traded for Kispert to add another 3 point shooter, so we will see if he has the Konchar magic that they had last year.

All in all, a lot of the teams out West that were successful last year are struggling to replicate the same success (We're looking at you, Lakers) but there are some proposed deals with the Pistons that are in the works that could be enough to save their season (Wiseman and Rui Hacimura swap).