Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

Was waiting for the next gen to come out so didn't start it. And picking up the franchise it was well, kind of crazy to say the least. Luckily this isn't real life, and while I was going to re-start to try to keep it more realistic, I kind of am going to run with this just to see. Plus it's the first time Cavs were able to get a top free agent.

Need to write up a bunch of stuff (off-season recap and all of that, and try to find out some sliders to play with and then we will be off rolling.)

Sadly I work 12 hour shifts, which is why last years game didn't continue so to play more and less about writing up each game trying to figure out the best way to do it.

Either way I hope everyone enjoys it.

System: Xbox Series X
Sliders: testing
Games playing: playing all 82 games
Starting period: Start of the off-season after the Lakers win it
Stories lines: In the virtual world Covid takes a back seat and all is right in the world of sports. Rivals and disagreements are from the game or just from me trying to make sense of a weird FA signing or trade. As of now no dips in salary cap or anything from what happen the past year in real life.

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

With how Covid hit, you would think that they would want to have short term contracts more, but that wasn't the case as the NBA exec's would vote to do the opposite and eliminate them. Then they would allow teams to trade first round picks in consecutive years, and then realize that they would revert the players age to come back into the draft which has been set back to 18 years of age.

The exec's firmly rejected the notion of eliminating financial restrictions when trading which would make teams way stronger while others were freeing up cap space going into the draft. Still it probably wouldn't of mattered since players still dictate their teams once their contact ends as that was evident still in this years F.A. class.


Cav's only needed to find a new Head Scout heading into their staff hiring, and in the end would fill out four spots with three of them previous held were let go. With the new owner he was looking to swing big and the first steps in his rebuilding process started on the lines no one really things about.

First the Cav's would fire their Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff (D, B-, A+), GM Brandon Harrison (C, C-), and last was Assistant GM Gabriel Thomas (C, C, D). They would steal Assistant GM Owen Masters (A, B, C-) from the Bulls. Would hire GM Jacob West (B-, C) and Head Scout Kuba Gooding (A, A+). While Gooding was the steal at first, it wouldn't be until the end where they would get their new Head Coach Michael Stauffer (A+, A+, A+) which would get things rolling for the Cavs.

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

New GM Jacob West and Assistant GM Owen Masters wouldn't waste any time when they started their job as before the draft started they would pull off their first trade, and then make two trades during the draft from the first trade, and then a trade after F.A. ended. If you confused lets break it down.


This would be the most talked about trade bait since LeBron James left the second time from the Cav's, but shocked he would fetch such a high price after injury plague seasons. Cav's would already have the second pick in the draft, but they would add two more first round picks this year, and first round next year as well. All they had to do was trade PF Kevin Love (82 ovr) and three throwaway picks all in the second round for later draft picks.

Winner: Cav's by a landslide. Now if Love stays healthy for the next two years and returns to his dominate rebounding self this would be an even trade, but no one thinks that. This would of been a trade around four years ago, but not now. Not for a guy who his making 31.26M this year and has two years left on his contract. Cav's get 3 first round picks in the next two years and free up cap space. Which all by likely showed their hand in who they were looking at for the second pick in the draft, and no it wouldn't be a guard.


With Wiseman taken first, and rumor was that the Wizards wanted to trade down a pick, the Cav's held steady and decided to take either big that was available. With that they went to take PF Obi Toppin (77 ovr) from Dayton, OH to fill the void of departed Kevin Love. Way more upside than Love, who is a better outside shooter and rebounder, but they gain a better defensive presence on the inside as well as more athletic and not injury plagued.


By the time the Cav's got their next choice in the first round they would ship off the pick, #20 in the first round, off to Toronto, for 2021 1st Round pick, and a 2022 1st Round pick.

Winner: Slightly to Cav's. This class as a very solid draft class, while next years class is considerately weaker. If it was a straight up first round for first round it would easily be the Raptors, but Cav's got the 2022 pick as well so they get the odds just in favor of that.


Before the fans and league could figure out who actually won the trade between Cav's and Raptors, the Cav's would be back on the clock for the next pick and again before the first 10 seconds of their pick would ship off the #21 in the first round to Utah for 2020 2nd Round pick (31st overall), and a 2023 1st Round pick.

Winner: Jazz heavily wins. Unless the Cav's get a really high pick in 2023 this isn't very justifiable. Cav's front office said it was basically a trade down pick, but basically pick up a first round a couple years down the road. Cav's could of got another scoring guard in PG/SG RF.J. Hampton since that was the player the Jazz drafted.


First pick in the second round the Cav's would take PG Adrian Long (71 ovr) out of another mid major school in Loyola (IL). While he isn't going to start, he does have one of the best shooting range in the class and that seemed to warrant picking him up in the second round instead of paying a lot more money to be either the 21st or 22nd pick in the draft. Some were shocked he dropped for the second round, but it seems the trading down actually did get one of their players on the draft board.

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

GM Jacob West and Assistant GM Owen Masters again would make a splash and change the landscape and would bring back the belief that the Cav's can get into the playoffs, but if you think that they were the shining stars in free agency you would be wrong. There is a new superstar team and as of right now, and it seems they are the favorites to just win the finals for at least the next two years. Yes, the power has shifted back to the East it seems. Now we are getting ahead of ourselves.


Everyone...from fans, scouts, fellow GM's , analysis's said that Cav's needed to resign Andre Dummond who was the leading rebounder in the league last year, and keep team options on their two previous first round picks in guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland. With the free up space from the trade of Kevin Love they could go out and try to get someone else if the Cav's didn't resign Thompson (which seemed to be a given before the year was over) and Dante Exum which the Cav's brass liked.


Cav's would go all out and put offers to four players: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Anothony Davis. New GM and assistant already seemed to do well for swinging for the fences, but this seemed to daunting of a task. Still the rumors of Giannis going to the Lakers to play with LeBron, got Davis to back out and most thought it was to take a little less to get both to the Lakers. In the end the Lakers would miss out on Giannis and all the talk would push A.D. away. With that the Cav's get Anthony Davis and more surprising was that Davis agreed to a No-Trade clause.

Sadly with that move it all but spelled the end of getting Dummond on the team since they didn't have the money to sign him. And with the drafting of Toppin it looks as if Davis will be going to play center for the Cav's. From that signing the Cav's would release everyone but all the RFA they would resign which would be: Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Kevin Porter Jr., Darius Garland, and Dylan Windler. From that they would have to release: Andre Dummond, Tristan Thompson, Jordan Bell, Ante Zizic, Dante Exum, Matthew Dellavedova, and Matt Mooney.

Now the question was with the Brow, Toppin, Larry Nance Jr. at Power Forward would that mean that Nance Jr. with his 10 million contact would be the next player to be traded from the Cav's this off-season?


Who saw this coming? Another player who was disgruntle from how the team was being run more than how the media was dictating from the team standpoint than from the GM. Rumor was all last season that the disgruntled Bubby Hield would be the guy gone and yet they lose out to Fox and the Cav's with the cap space came swooping in to get him.


Well everyone thought it would be Nance Jr. that would be traded off the team, and yet everyone was right there would be another trade. Although with the signing of Fox, it all by spelled an end of the rookie last year.

Winner: Pistons hands down. Going into free agency the Pistons have a second round pick in Christian Owens as their starting guard. Now they get a rival team guard who showed a lot of promise in his rookie year before it was cut short of the shutdown. While the Cav's do get first round pick in the upcoming and next draft, it was mostly to shave off some salary going into the new year.

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

Nine players wouldn't make it back on the squad this year (7 released in free agency, and 2 traded). In the end after all the dust settled the Cav's picked up a top five player in the league (The Brow), one of the fastest players in the league (Fox), and adding rookie Obi Toppin (Naismith winner), and best outside shooter in the draft in the second round (Adrian Long). On paper this is a way better team and staff heading into the new year than what they had last year. Still first lets recap the losses:


Losing the best rebounder last year is going to hurt no matter what. Trading Love and Garland looks to be smart to get rid of an aging injury prone player and a rookie who would be relegated from a top 5 pick last year to riding the bench this year. Exum seemed like the logical choice to be a good backup guard, but with his huge contract and the salary cap restrictions he had to be let go. He is still a free agent going into the new season as well. Everyone else was just bench player except for Thompson who couldn't find a suitor as well, and like Exum, is out of the league at the start of the season.


Fans are really excited about this year despite a very short turnaround from last year and lack of training camp. Despite losing out on the best rebounder they get a top five player in the league. Trading away an up-and-coming guard they have an already proven guard who is one of the fastest in the league. Drafted one of the best college players who didn't even have a scholarship from one D1 school after high school and has great athleticism. Also drafted a pure shooter from deep as well from the draft, and even went out and got an undrafted rookie who is a junk yard dog who all he does is eat up the glass.

Everyone knows what The Brow and Fast-as-a-Fox brings to the league. Just cause you are one of the best college basketball players last year (Toppin) doesn't translate to being a great NBA player. But he does the the athleticism and jumping ability to be in the class of Lebron or Zion that can be rough in some areas coming into the league, but makes up for it with their height, speed and length. Long won't be the focus point of this team as he comes off the bench so not much is expected other than him being able to shoot well from the outside. Undrafted free agent Tyrique Jones was one of the top rebounding players in college at just 6'8”, but will bring his leaping ability and motor to help give a rest for some big men on this team. The other free agent signings (Ellington and Mahinmi) was to fill out the roster on minimal deals.


Adding SF Michael Porter Jr. (84 ovr) as their best player on their roster with PG Derrick Rose (82 ovr) and C/PF Serge Ibaka does help to try to get the Spurs back into the playoffs after missing out last year.


Despite the trading of first round picks to Cleveland they did add SF/SG Demar Derozan (83 ovr) and PF/C Kevin Love (82 ovr) to their starting five. They also got backup C Daniel Theis (78 ovr) who seems to help the team even spread the floor even if some of the players are on the wrong side of 30 years of age.


With having Damian Lillard and McCollum in your backcourt you are pretty good. So they went out and drafted PF/C Jaden McDaniels (75 ovr) and signed C Hassan Whiteside (85 ovr) to help beef up their roster in the western conference. They did go out and get backup guards in PG/SG Anfernee Simons (74 ovr) and SG/SF Danny Green (73 ovr) to help give some time off for their starters.


Bringing in new starter SF/PF Jonathan Isaac (84 ovr) was a great choice to help with spread the floor but still have the length. Unlike the other teams he is only 23 which was a great signing. Backup signings of PG Lonzo Ball (80 ovr), C/PF Aron Baynes (78 ovr), and PG Kris Dunn (77 ovr) seems to help give them depth to make for a very well rounded team.


For a team to not re-signing SG/SF R.J. Barrett and just letting him walk seemed like the Knicks were just the Knicks. The laughing stock of the league. Yet they some how manage to come out of free agency like the Cav's. They signed Mike Lowwrrry...I mean PG Kyle Lowry (85 ovr), PG Dennis Schroder (80 ovr), drafted SF/PF Deni Avdija (78 ovr), PF /C Jerami Grant (77 ovr), and C Alex Len (77 ovr). Yes they somehow got C Dwight Howard (76 ovr) but on a 2 year 24.05M deal which seems odd for their third center, but Knicks look to make a push into the playoffs this year with a decently overall team.


Clippers signed Leonard and George back. Actually Got most of their team back but they did let C/PF Montrezl Harrell (81 ovr) go for the younger Zubac (80 ovr). Also went out and got Goran Dragic (79 ovr) in free agency for just 5 million for one year. Drafted their starting PF in Eddie Davis (74 ovr) as the 27th pick in the draft. But the Clippers have 353 million tied up for four years for just Leonard and George. They need to win within the next four years to do so, but they won't have a chance for the next two years realistically.


Lakers on the other hand miss out on Giannis. They lose Anthony Davis after winning the championship, but then go out and get the best rebounder in the league last year in C Andre Drummond (85 ovr). Went out an good a good outside guard in PG/SG Fred Vanvleet (83 ovr), took backup C Kelly Olynyk (76 ovr) to give some toughness from the bench. Now have rookie PF/SF Adrian James as their starting power forward who they got in the second round of the draft. While the King is still a 99 ovr in the game the supporting cast is the worst it's been since he left Cleveland the first time around. Still everyone has them as a top 5 team in the league. Which if they are shouldn't the Cav's be (they are projected to be middle of the league)?

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

Cav's fans haven't been excited since the King returned to team up with Irving and Love to lead the team to their first championship. Is this a championship team and coaching staff? Right now no, but with time to jell it might be a different story. Still with all the excitement we do have some questions heading into the season, but first lets start with the starting lineups going into the season...


Well we know this team can run and dunk. The problem is can it actually run an half court offense. Cause the Cav's won't steal the ball or get easy outlets off of rebounds. Once that is stopped, how are they going to win. Sure you could let Davis do curls around the line or do pick and rolls with him to free things up, but once it gets later in the season or when defense actually starts to count how will this team respond. Time will tell, but the critics are saying the Cav's will be like the last two years. Moments of great and then went things start to stall on offense the wheels will come off hard. Still they didn't have A.D. Or Fox on the team. Nor a high flying rookie since LeBron.


Welcome to the new super team. While they lost their point guard, and now have to settle for either their actually point guard on the roster which is Quinn Cook (73 ovr) or just let their PF Giannis Antetokounmpo take the ball up the court. Which will probably be the case. Now you have shooter Herro and Bulter on the outside, with Bam Adebayo on the inside. If this isn't the best starting five in the league I don't know what is. They are already favorites to win it at least the next two years (sorry Cav fans you aren't the super team) as the Heat look to bring the title back to South Beach.

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

Cav's would be down at half by 23 in this game due to basically no one able to stop Lillard who had 29 points and McCollum who was 3-5 from deep with 12 points. That and you had Nurkic just lockdown the inside. Looked as if the Cav's looked great on paper, but again not on the court. Second half would be a different story. Portland wanted to push the pace, and Cav's would finally accept it and embraced it. That and actually able to stop the outside shot in which Portland would only only go 7-25 in the second half. While Lillard ended the game like a superstar (45 points, 8 assists, 2 steals, and a rebound) it would be the big new three for the Cav's would would just demolish the Trailblazers as they would win in a shoot out. Anthony Davis (41 points, 14 rebounds, 7 blocks, and 3 assists) would lead the way, following closely behind was De'Aaron Fox (31 points, 16 assists, 8 rebounds) who would just cut up the defense in the second half as he would score 26 of his 31 points then. Rookie Toppin looked good shooting 7/13, 1/2, 10/10 to end up with (25 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks, assist, and a steal).


Magic would see that Cav's can probably run anyone out the court so they wanted to see how they could do in the half court game. First quarter the Cav's looked lost and couldn't hit much as they would fall down 13 after the first quarter. Also didn't help that the Magic would go 7/10 from deep to start the game. Magic would spread the scoring around that really confused the Cav's as they would have 8 people score in double figures. Cav's would take a 7 point lead into half though. After that it would be the strength of the big three as again Fox, Davis, and Toppin would score 64 of the 119 points. Davis had a quiet game of 20 points, 20 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 3 assists. Toppin already with some monster dunks in the game is in talks of being in the dunk contest this year.


With the added addition of Fox. Davis, Toppin, and Jones there has been a new toughness and no will to quit with this team. Sure we won both games, but was down by 18 in both at one point in the game. First game was unable to stop pick-and-roll with Lillard in the half court and the pace to start the game. Second game was the slow down half court game with passes to find the open man. Previous last two years when down they would just roll over and concede. This year that hasn't been the case. So that is good news. Bad news is we can't play a solid full game. Either the Cav's are poor to downright terrible for a quarter or half, and then just come out in the second half and dominate.

While most people would say that Davis is our shining star for being a top five player who is averaging 30.5 points, 17 rebounds, 5.5 blocks a game, he isn't our shining star. That would go to Fox who is average 29 points, 14.5 assists, and 5 rebounds a game. Sure this is a small sample size of 2 games, but right now no one can stop him. If it is coming off screens or off-ball. Right now most of his points are coming in the paint, but when teams collapse on him he is just finding the open man out deep. With him running point he is also freeing up Davis to get easier looks on offense.

N ow for the bad. Cav's look absolutely terrible guarding on the pick-and-rolls. Most of the wide open three's is cause of everyone trying to stop the drive on defense. Sure this usually gets corrected in the second half, but guarding outside as well is just atrocious. Plus there are times where the starters just get a little stagnant on the offensive end and struggle to score. Last despite out bench who does have the ability to shoot, are just not good enough right now to play as a team. When the opposing team starts to score in bunches it is when the bench is in. Plus the offense doesn't move as well as when the starters are on, but that could be said for most teams. Although when it is bench vs. bench we still lose out.


Heat already lost Herro for a week, but even with him out the Heat easily won their first two games. Most of the bets coming in on them are the over/under if they will finish the year off with the fewest losses for a team during a season. Right now it looks like that is a strong possibility.

Golden State hasn't played a game yet, but most are curious to see how they do after drafting LaMelo Ball and signing free agent Mike Conley at the start of the season. While still having Curry, Thompson, and Wiggins on the team. Oh ad Paschall got the starting nod over Draymond Green at power forward so many are wondering if they will try to move Green.

Are Nets really this bad, or is it just a fluke as they are still trying to find their footing with Durant and Irving on the court at the same time. They are two teams (Pistons) that are 0-2 on the year. Still early, but with the East looking more improved this year slow starts are more concerning than in years past.

Lakers are 1-1 while the Clippers are finally clicking as a team at 2-0. Sure the Clips beat the Lakers in the second game, but it wasn't close, and the Lakers only won by three in their first game against the Bulls.


Couldn't of asked for a better week for the second week of games. Sure the Pacers will be a tough game, and most people had them predicted to finish first in the Central Division. Talking of the Central Division, all three games this week are divisional games. Bucks would have been a tough team if they kept Giannas, but since they didn't only have to worry about Bledsoe and Middleton. Bulls who lost to the Lakers by three to open the season now will be the fifth game for the Cav's so should have some more time to iron out their chemistry issues by then or at least able to start a game off on the right foot.

This week seems to be an easy week as the analysis are split predicting the Cav's to go either 2-1 while others on the panel are thinking they can go undefeated. If they can still continue to score, or better yet able to move the ball to find open shots to knock down. Limit their turnovers (13 turnovers last two games), and start the game off resembling something of a pro basketball team could do huge for their confidence moving forward for this new team the Cav's as assembled.

Re: Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story
 

Pacers and Cav's would look like two heavy weight fighters in a ring. Both defenses came out to play in this game. Only twice would a team score more than 25 points in a quarter and both of them would come by the Cav's in the second and fourth quarter. It would come down to the final quarter in this game. The Cav's did have an eight point lead at half which was still an eight point lead after three. Still the final quarter the Pacers would run out of steam as the Cav's would outscore them by nine in the quarter to make it a rout. T.J. Warren had 27 points, 5 steals, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists to lead the Pacers. If Oladipo could make a shot (8/26) he still ended up with 19 but that would be the downfall for them. On the other side the way-too-early-big-three for the Cav's (Fox, Davis, and Toppin) all had double-doubles with Fox one rebound shy of a triple-double. Kevin Porter Jr. would be the only other player to score in double digits for the team.


Magic would see that Cav's can probably run anyone out the court so they wanted to see how they could do in the half court game. First quarter the Cav's looked lost and couldn't hit much as they would fall down 13 after the first quarter. Also didn't help that the Magic would go 7/10 from deep to start the game. Magic would spread the scoring around that really confused the Cav's as they would have 8 people score in double figures. Cav's would take a 7 point lead into half though.

After that it would be the strength of the big three as again Fox, Davis, and Toppin would score 64 of the 119 points. Davis had a quiet game of 20 points, 20 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 3 assists. Toppin already with some monster dunks in the game is in talks of being in the dunk contest this year.


The Bulls would try a new tactic against the Cav's. Pack the paint, go under on screens, and keep everyone in front of them to settle for jumpers and outside shots. It would work for the first half. Cav's would only have a 2 point lead due to the Bulls unable to score anywhere, and at half the Bulls finally started to make some shots as they took a 3 point lead. The Cav's were only 3/13 from deep in the first half while the Bulls would hit eight threes in the first half.

Then the second half came and the shots finally starting to come for the Cav's has they would put at least 35 points on the scoreboard for each quarter. While the Bulls held in there with their great guard play by Coby White and Zack LaVine. While they were a combined 8/22 from deep they ended up with 25 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals for White while LaVine had 24 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. While on the other side Collin Sexton finally was able to crack double digit points for the game (15), it would be on the legs of the two superstars in the Brow and Fox as they both added double-doubles for the game. Chants were for the Brow as he ended up with 33 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal. On the other end would be Fox who had 31 points (3/6 from deep), 12 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal. Toppin would edge his way as the third star as we continued like the other two with a double-double.


Heat would lose, and it would be a blowout loss as the Timberwolves would beat them 94-77 which would drop them to third in the Eastern Conference with a 4-1 record behind the undefeated 76ers and Cav's.

Cav's making the Central Division already there's. Sure we are only five to six games in. But with the four other teams in the conference they don't even combined have as many wins as the Cav's do as Pacers and Bucks are sitting at 1-4 while the Pistons and Bulls are 1-5. While the Cav's are winning by 15.8 a night, the average lost for the rest of the conference is 10 points a night.

On the flip side the hardest division looks like the Pacific as Clippers, Suns, and Kings are all sitting in first with a 4-2 record. Golden state is just 3-1 while the Lakers are off to a very slow start at 1-4, but the question is they might not be good as they are losing by 13 points a game.

Highest scoring team in the league after two weeks is...the Spurs at 127.5? While they edge out the Celtics by .3 a game, the last three wins they scored 138, 131, and 135. It is a total team support as well as they haven't had an leading scorer in any of there games. Sure it is early, and all there games have been at home, but are the Spurs really that much improved by adding three new starters (Porter, Gasol, and rookie Okongwu) in their starting five? Probably won't last but then again the Cav's are ninth with a 122 points a night.


Good news is that the two hardest games of the week are at home verses the Mavericks and Celtics, and with the worst team is against the Pacers on the road. Bad news is that we shoot .07%/.07% worst at home than we do on the road. Worst, is that the Celtics and Mavericks have experience and speed and height too keep up with Fox and Davis so these will be real test to see how good they really are. Cav fans have already started MVP chants for Davis when he goes to the line and we are just 5 games into the season.

Prediction from analysis is 2-1 for the week with an easy win on the road to start but then to split the home game. Still if that is the case going into the last week in a half of the month with a 7-1 record is great for the Cav's and their youthful squad.