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Gonna wait to post the official update, but I've simmed through the off-season. Voting for cities is still open. There are good players that are available in free agency. I could build a playoff team with guys that are just sitting around wishing someone signed them, which is why I think "Yep! It was time to expand!" This is the highest overall player available (not sure if I'd say he's the best overall player, but definitely the highest OVR). He was the starting power forward last season on a playoff team. He wants approximately 17 million dollars a year and no one wants to pay him. He has an OVR of 83  Sacramento is the only team in the league with cap space. Their highest OVR player is also 83, and nowhere near as productive as Wilfred Wilson is. Also, their highest caliber Power Forward is a 75 OVR. They have the actual money to sign Wilson and he'd not only be the best player on their team, but he'd also fit a position of need. There's another PF available who only wants 10 million and averaged 20 points per game last season, but he's older and also doesn't rebound as well as Wilson does. The Kings could conceivably sign either of these guys and still have the money to sign an elite free agent next season, even assuming nothing changes about their salary base or the league's cap, even though next year has a new TV Deal (I'm assuming makes the cap go up) and, as you can plainly see, their four most expensive players come off the cap.  The Kings are unbelievably stupid.
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Jul 6, 2020 09:16
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It’s almost as if the AI running the show for the Kings know you might move them and think that running off whatever fan base they have left in Sacramento would justify a move 
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Jul 6, 2020 16:16
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Chapter 13, Part 2, 2028-2029, Remaining Offseason The Hawks announce their new, old look.  I realize I miscounted my players, (I didn't count Eminescu) but then look at all the defensive minded wings and, while Johnson definitely had potential and helped with Luka a bit, I don't have a spot for him. I also don't want to be on the hook for something like 10 million dollars for a fringe rotational piece. Instead, I sign Dick Steele for two years at only a little above the league minimum (He'd have taken the minimum for one year and was asking for a try out. The Honu gave him a little more than that, but the flipside is, he was probably hoping for a successful season to ask for way more money. Now he'll be just a little older before he can make that ask)  Basketball is in an uproar over the free agency period. Pretty much every team is not just over the cap, they are also paying the luxury tax. The new TV deal (and CBA?! thanks for all the clarity in what those do, game) can't come fast enough. Ranadive puts his Kings on notice, but then cruelly, almost unbelievably, doesn't actually spend the money that would be necessary to put them in a place necessary to succeed. Even though he wouldn't have had to go into the luxury tax, or even over the cap to do so. Other teams, like the Sixers show a fierce willingness to go even deeper into the tax, by extending mere rotational players.  The other reason why I didn't want to keep Barea around wasn't just the immediate one: He's one of the "shockingly old" generated players. He'll almost certainly be declining (and most of his game is athleticism) by the time his contract is up. And while that "only" averages to about 21 million a year, it's almost certainly with Bird Averages, so it's more likely that the Sixers will be on the hook to pay Barea about 25 mill on the last year of his deal. This guy comes off the bench for them. Portland, one of the few teams with money to spend, immediately blows their entire wad on two players that play the same position:  But the flipside of this is, they do very different things at that position and the Blazers also see John Collins as a Center for their team instead of a Power Forward. So really, this is actually a quite sensible move. Honolulu is happy, because it severely damages two of our frequent playoff rivals, Golden State and Phoenix. (I might edit John Collins to C|PF instead of his PF|C---his OVR will go down slightly, because 2k is a garbage fire, but he'll be much more likely to keep the correct spot on their rotation and not needlessly cripple Portland)  The Celtics use what little money they have left to grab Markelle Fultz, their top two players now becoming the top two players of the highly successful Ravens teams of the past, but surrounded by a bunch of developing young players sharing lots of minutes. There's a good chance this move works---unlike the Ravens' insane coach (who is still not fired), the Celtics have Brad Stevens back.  The Clippers, quite obviously, use all their money to sign---wait, Malcolm Brogdon? You.... you loving idiots. Not Giovenco Paciani. An RFA, they could exceed the cap to match any offer sheet. They could (and should have) offered him the Super Max, but instead, they don't even cheap out, they just literally choose to spend a shitload of money on Malcolm Brogdon. And no shade thrown at Malcolm. But Paciani is literally the best player in the league under the age of 25 and was all NBA First Team at the tender age of 23. The consensus was, he was either the best or at worst the second best forward in the entire league last year. I posted:If the Clippers don't offer him that contract, or match someone's offer, it'll be the single stupidest thing I have ever seen an AI team do in a basketball simulation game.  The Jazz are the team that take advantage. Also, you might notice all the one year contracts. These guys basically waived the cap-hold rights to their entire roster to get Paciani.  The Magic moves make me slightly less apoplectic, but they contain a sign of how crazy and compromised this offseason was: That Dorrell Mills guy I have highlighted was the best player on the Chicago Bulls last season. The Bulls didn't want to pay him and the best offer in his mind was a 1 year rental.  The Nets understandably want to lock up their 13/12 persistent DPOY winner.  The guy the Pelicans are willing to go deeper into tax to extend is former Honu, Ralph Miller. And you know what? Good on both of them. Miller has evolved into what's essentially Kabengele's roll for the Pelicans, only he's not as good on defense and he's much more limited in shooting range. He's definitely the most successful player to come out of our development system, though. (Probably even more so than Bilic)  The Wizards blow their money on a rental year of Lillard (possibly his final season? He hasn't decided yet.) and Brandon Ingram who, if he's paired with Lillard, might actually earn his all-star spot for once in his career. Nevertheless, I can't see this as a good move long term for the Wizards at all---they probably should have kept Wilfred Wilson, who wanted half as much money but is much better than half as good. The Warriors tried to go into the season with a roster of guys that was 5 too few, and so scramble to fill it out after the Summer League ends. Their new bench features some familiar faces.  Good for them. I spent trainings on Dedric Wesley and Joshua Carr. At just 19 years old, if I can keep Carr developing but not demanding absurd amounts of money we don't have, he might become a seriously valuable piece for us. Voting for Cities is Still Open EDIT I checked, Paciani is literally the highest OVR under 25. So he's both the best player by actual performance and the wildly inaccurate metric that 2k measures performance with. He also currently has a higher potential cap than Craig Payton of the Hornets. I'm trying to picture a universe where there's one of those "GM Surveys" they do every year, and there's a player that most GMs have as their answer for "If you were starting a franchise right now, what player would you want to build around", and then any GM not maxing that player out----Jesus Christ, Clippers, if you don't want him, max him and then trade him. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jul 6, 2020 |
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Jul 6, 2020 16:36
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My choices ranked by preference: Seattle, WA: 68/90/64 Saint Louis, MO: 61/50/62 Montreal, QC, CA: 68/35/65 Baltimore, MD: 62/70/62
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Jul 6, 2020 23:11
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MiniUpdate: Planned Expansion + Branding Vote Two expansion teams have been planned for Seattle and Montreal. They present very different branding problems. Seattle, for its part, knows exactly what they want to call their team. The question is one of "how do they want to look"? There are hundreds of uploads for the Sonics, but they come down to only 7 or 8 distinct designs (and one abomination in the eyes of God that changes their colors to dark blue and red.) I also am vetoing the legitimate "it also had burgundy!" Sonics design. (1995-2001) SEATTLE: OPTION A  OPTION B  OPTION C  OPTION D  OPTION E  OPTION F  I reserve the right to play tie-breaker if a consensus isn't reached by the time that the expansion kicks in. Which could be 2064 for all we know. Montreal, now, presents an entirely different problem. They don't know how they want to brand at all. Do they want to make a completely new team? Do they want to revive a name from an old, dead franchise from another sport? And how do they want to look? Modern? Minimalist? Fierce? Montreal has a number of different fun designs available. I vetoed nearly all of them, because I cannot imagine a single universe where Montreal concedes to an English team name. I was willing to use an English team name if I could spy a french version of the name anywhere on the Arena floor, even, but so many possible choices got snuffed out, simply because they wouldn't make this one concession. There were a number of "Montreal Royals" that also got vetoed, because there's a very good chance that Sacramento is moving soon, and if/when they do, several of the top potential destinations would be likely to take that name, and they would also have a better claim than Montreal. OPTION A:  Les Alouettes de Montreal (The Montreal Larks) A minimalist design incorporating the M of Montreal into the shape of a bird. Decent color balance. Drawbacks include "unrealistically small amount of Arena floor branding" and "Association with a children's song" although, the children's song is about gruesomely dismembering a pretty little bird. Honestly, I like this one less the more I see it, but I do love that incredibly simplistic logo. OPTION B  Les Saints de Montreal (C'mon, son) A good balance of color. An actual arena that exists in Montreal. Drawbacks include "infinitely boring logo" and "there is already a professional sports team called the Saints", but that didn't stop us from making the Ravens. OPTION C  Les Voyageurs de Montreal (The Montreal Voyagers) Look at that mascot. Look at that little guy. The Voyageurs were historic French Canadians who transported furs by canoe, often over enormous distances. They were essentially French Canadian Cowboys, but considerably tougher than American Cattlemen. Great colors, great little mascot guy, good history. Like the saints, is also in Centre Bell. OPTION D  Montreal Express French for "Express" is "Express". Logo is a train. Trains are pretty cool. Gorgeous homecourt, also in Centre Bell. Pretty nifty jerseys, too. Similar colors to the Larks, but in a different priority. OPTION E  Montreal Expos That Maple Leaf Basketball logo is pretty tight. Also located in Centre Bell. Decent Jersey design. There might be something pretty cursed about naming your basketball team after a failed baseball team, though. OPTION F  Quebec Nordiques Not gonna lie, the thing I like about this one is the colors being so unusual. That really stands out. Also in Centre Bell. Sort of like with the Expos, there might be something cursed about naming yourself after a Hockey team that you couldn't even keep inside of CANADA. OPTION G  Les Harfangs de Quebec (The Quebec Snowy Owls) Killer mascot. Decent Jersey and excellent floor design (also in Centre Bell. The number of nerds that included that detail astounds me). Owls are cool. Big drawback in "why the gently caress is the owl that color?" why are these the team colors? I'm very irritated by this combination. Practically every basketball team is already this specific color combination. But, all the "Owl" teams that had colors that made sense or were at least new and interesting were English, and only English. OPTION H  Les Remparts de Quebec (The Quebec Ramparts) Not my favorite team name, not my favorite floor design (though it ain't bad), what really sells this one is the Jerseys and the Font Work. I also really like the color work here. Please vote for one Seattle option and One Montreal/Quebec option For Montreal/Quebec, if you want something else considered, I can attempt to make an arena/jersey/brand out of it, but be advised it could possibly take me a long time to make work. I'll definitely consider another idea if folks have a consensus pick of "Something else" EDIT: Forgot to add one of the options. This is now fixed. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jul 7, 2020 |
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Jul 7, 2020 06:13
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F C Montreal's option F would become a hive of fascists. Double headed axes aren't a good look.
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Jul 7, 2020 06:28
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E and C, I really appreciate the effort someone put into the skyline jerseys, even if they aren't as clean.
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Jul 7, 2020 06:39
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B for Seattle C for Montreal
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Jul 7, 2020 06:41
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Seattle D Montreal H I just like the color scheme v v
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Jul 7, 2020 06:46
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Seattle Cthulu's F Montreal Voyagers C
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Jul 7, 2020 07:00
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F D
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Jul 7, 2020 08:53
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Seattle - E Montreal - C
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Jul 7, 2020 08:57
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Once again, Bawlmer gets the shaft. It makes me sad. In any case, SEATTLE: E It's the most eye-catching. And it's aggressively '90s! MONTREAL: C The mascot clinches it for me. 
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Jul 7, 2020 08:58
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B - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2GaAWdHwsw D
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Jul 7, 2020 11:04
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A-that baseline text is so sweet C FYI "Alouettes" is already Montreal's CFL team and the look here is a weird mashup of their current logo and old jersey designs. "Remparts" is also a minor-league hockey team. "Express" is actually a minor-league baseball team from Round Rock, TX, which even has the same style of cowcatcher logo. So most of the Montreal designs are rip-offs of something else, full stop. Also beardy man is best anyway. Jean-Paul Shartre fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Jul 7, 2020 |
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Jul 7, 2020 12:16
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oops...
Jean-Paul Shartre fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Jul 7, 2020 |
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Jul 7, 2020 12:18
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Hopkins FBI posted:B for Seattle 
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Jul 7, 2020 12:28
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Seattle - E. Can't explain why, but this just seems to be the cleanest for me. Montreal - C Voyageurs is a unique nickname and that logo is top-tier.
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Jul 7, 2020 14:25
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Seattle - D I like the look of it! Montreal - C Look at that logo! It's unique and definitely Canadian! 
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Jul 7, 2020 15:27
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Call me crazy but I like A for Seattle. Basically any of those are good though. I just think A looks clean and modern. It has to be C for Montreal for me.
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Jul 7, 2020 16:34
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oldskool posted:Seattle D Yes, this
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Jul 7, 2020 16:37
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Seattle B and Montreal C
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Jul 7, 2020 17:14
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Seattle c Montreal A if only the alouettes mascot goes with them like youppi did
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Jul 7, 2020 17:17
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Seattle B Montreal C Montreal’s name needs to be something French that all American announcers will stumble through for the rest of time
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Jul 7, 2020 18:02
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JackBandit posted:Montreal’s name needs to be something French that all American announcers will stumble through for the rest of time This guy gets it! This vote, you guys. I had no idea I had so many readers. Thank you so much for following my thread. If you feel like there's anything missing in my updates, feel free to speak up.
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Jul 7, 2020 18:08
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Veryslightlymad posted:This guy gets it! Seattle - A Montreal - C You mentioned in some post that the Honu were an all time great franchise; that true? How do they stock up to the rest of the league historically speaking (win %, playoff performances, etc)?
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Jul 7, 2020 19:52
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:F it's the logo for a junior hockey team and it's a castle gate shaped like the letter r
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Jul 7, 2020 20:35
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Seattle - E is some real 90's looking poo poo, and I love it. Montreal - F because I am digging that wild color scheme.
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Jul 7, 2020 20:45
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F to both teams. And if the cost-per-win of the no cap era was posted anywhere I missed it!
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Jul 7, 2020 20:52
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Livewire42 posted:Seattle - A We look better because of how young the franchise is. The Spurs have an all time win percentage of 62 and I am pretty sure we are currently beating that, but I would have to double check.
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Jul 7, 2020 22:59
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Veryslightlymad posted:This guy gets it! I’m loving this thread, thanks for doing it. It must be a crazy amount of work. It makes me feel better about my 2k14 franchise that’s 20+ years in. One thing I’d love to see, if it’s not too much work, is a little info on the next generation of all nbas. Who’s coming after Luka and Giannis? What are their body types and play styles?
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Jul 8, 2020 00:04
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I hadn't looked at the thread in a few days as I was travelling, but fortunately someone mentioned that the Alouettes are already a thing. I was personally going to say Royals in honour of the late Jackie Robinson, but as an alternative I was going to propose the Montréal Monarchs. Even though the word monarch comes from Latin and is not used in modern French, monarchie is still a word. I would like to propose the Montréal Citadelles, which is perfect for the city and looks a lot like its English counterpart. I have some idea for logos but am not sure the limits of the game. If you call them the Expos or the Nordiques from arch-rival Québec City, I will literally cry. Please keep in mind that Québec city has a population of barely half a million, which isn't a lot for a top-level pro sport. I actually like all of the Supersonics logos except the last one. I've always enjoyed the bright, lively green-and-yellow kit.
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Jul 8, 2020 00:58
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JackBandit posted:I’m loving this thread, thanks for doing it. It must be a crazy amount of work. It makes me feel better about my 2k14 franchise that’s 20+ years in. It's weirdly helping to keep me sane during this time. Something that I can come home and fiddle around with for almost no reason at all. As for up and comers..... Not really sure. I'll glance at a few more guys, but partly because draft ages were so high (I am now lowering them manually. Sadly you can't quick edit the draft class so I gotta do dudes individually and won't do all of them) and partly because with one or two exceptions, we have had weak drafts, there's not a lot of superstars on my radar. Brooke Teague on the Spurs is already 31, but no one has gotten to his level of accolades yet. A lot of guys on my radar are big, athletic small forwards who can do it all. Paciani, Ciro Reyes, even Sasha Bilic was in this mold. His actual scoring attributes were great, but his tendencies were not. Dedric Wesley is even burlier. I'm not sure who the comparison is. Melo? Craig Payton and Bryant Lowe are both longer and leaner like Durant. Everyone I mentioned other than Teague is a small forward. We are in a golden age of small forwards. JustJeff88 posted:I actually like all of the Supersonics logos except the last one. I've always enjoyed the bright, lively green-and-yellow kit. Sports teams always disappoint me, because they could select any colors, and always pick the same two shades of red or blue. If I built a team from scratch, I would put all other teams' colors on one pf those color wheels and make my primary color whatever was farthest from as many teams as possible. Contrast, you cowards. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jul 8, 2020 |
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Jul 8, 2020 01:30
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abuse culture. posted:it's the logo for a junior hockey team and it's a castle gate shaped like the letter r That's option H. Option F is the neon green Vichy Labrys called the Nordics.
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Jul 8, 2020 02:25
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The Voyageurs have it in a complete blowout! By my tally having a double digit lead over the next most popular option. (And I'm secretly thrilled, because this was also my favorite option.) As for the Seattle options, B and E are tied, and as I said, I reserve the right to act as tie breaker, so I am exercising that authority to select Supersonics option E. For now. B was popular enough, and we're early enough in the thread that, at some point, I will be rebranding the Sonics that way. Hell, maybe I'll use all of these. Getting back to what JackBandit had asked about the future of the league: after scouting everyone currently on a roster and their Potential number (usually invisible), I've found that of the generated characters, only a few have not had their potential ratings go down below 90, either through chance, injury, or not being used. Of those that are still above 90 potential, all but two are small forwards*. Jacque Cisse happens to be one of them, so, uh, good draft, Goons. (And to be fair, I haven't been posting camps. I have been putting untapped potential into two young players every offseason. I've spent three of those camps on Cisse.) The other one is an incredibly raw (69 OVR) point guard that got picked up by the Ravens that had a Ceiling of "Chris Paul - All NBA" But! He's on the Ravens and he's not their highest rated PG, so I expect his potential to tank because their coach won't give him any minutes. What a waste. EDIT: (*I misspoke here. There are three. For some reason, I wasn't counting Brook Teague, who has a 91 POT, because he's already reached that potential and is comfortably a 91 OVR superstar leader for the Spurs) tomanton posted:F to both teams. And if the cost-per-win of the no cap era was posted anywhere I missed it! It wound up being a lot less interesting than I thought, so I summarized it instead of posting all the numbers, but to elaborate: I didn't keep track of this for the 2027-2028 Season, but the 2026-2027 Season that we won the championship, not counting playoffs, teams paid the following for wins: (Numbers are millions of dollars spent per win in the regular season) Honu - 1.97 76ers - 6.14 Bucks - 3.42 Bulls - 5.02 Cavs - 3.6 Celts - 36.95 (  )Clippers - 4.69 Grizzlies - 3.5 Hawks - 4.88 Heat - 4.53 Hornets - 3.94 Jazz - 5.36 Kings - 3.68 Knicks - 4.61 Lakers - 5.9 Magic - 3.85 Mavs - 4.42 Nets - 3.89 Nuggets - 4.36 Pacers - 7.78 Pelicans - 3.95 Pistons - 4.05 Raptors - 5.55 Rockets - 4.72 Spurs - 4.8 Suns - 4.31 Thunder - 4.23 Timberwolves - 5.13 Warriors - 6.64 Wizards - 3.3 Ravens - 5.03 (That's a lot of expense for a bunch of guys parked on the bench for 48 minutes a game) The thing that I seem to learn from this is that the actual number was affected more by wins than it was by salary, but eventually if you pay guys enough over what is reasonable, even a couple good teams started to stand out for their spending. I'm not sure how much I liked it as a metric. We were kind of an anomaly because we were getting a lot of production from players on rookie contracts or very savvy deals. Most of the good playoff teams were around the three and a half million per win mark, but a couple of the teams that dramatically overpaid guys, namely the Warriors and the Sixers, nearly pulled it off despite their exorbitant spending. Still not as good as Milwaukee's 3.42. They'd be my friend if they weren't my enemy. Update to come tonight or tomorrow. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jul 8, 2020 |
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Jul 8, 2020 04:38
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Not sure if you'll want to do this for the age issue, but having the league pass the rule that players can come to the NBA straight from high school lowered my average draft class age considerably, and I have not seen any less talent in my draft classes because of it.
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Jul 8, 2020 05:30
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May as well take it to the extremes like all the other rules. Have the NBA draft kids straight out of Junior High.
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Jul 8, 2020 13:33
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That would let me draft guys that were 18, which can exist, but are super rare right now. My issue is there aren't nearly enough 19 or 20 year olds. But I have manually edited ages into the 19-21 range.
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Jul 8, 2020 16:18
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Veryslightlymad posted:That would let me draft guys that were 18, which can exist, but are super rare right now. My issue is there aren't nearly enough 19 or 20 year olds. But I have manually edited ages into the 19-21 range. I understand why you might want to not do that. Mind you, the game sets player ages to 18 when the draft class is created in the off-season, and the 'enter the draft at 18' rule seems to just scale the collective draft age down. By the time the draft rolled around with my latest draft class, there was only 1 player still 18, and his birthdate was 7 days after the draft, so they would be 19 when the next season started. On the flip side, there was only one player at 24, and less than 50% of the draft class was 22-23. This also explains why you are seeing almost no 19 year olds. A normal draft class starts with maybe 1-5 18 year olds, and 20-35 19 and 20 year olds so by the time the draft rolls around, almost everyone is 20+, and 80% of the draft class is 22+. Feel free to experiment with this, but this might save you a manual step for future seasons. Your thread was what started me experimenting with the game, and I feel this would fall in the same category as not signing second round picks. From an actual NBA logic/in game perspective, it looks like the only way to have players start the draft class at 17, so you can draft and play them at 18 is to use a historical class. Guthix Curnir fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Jul 8, 2020 |
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Jul 8, 2020 17:41
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Guthix Curnir posted:I understand why you might want to not do that. Mind you, the game sets player ages to 18 when the draft class is created in the off-season, and the 'enter the draft at 18' rule seems to just scale the collective draft age down. God drat it. But thank you, though. This is extremely useful information. If the league ever approves a one and done rule, I'll edit player ages more. And maybe what I should do in either case is make a point of lowering ages toward the end of the season instead of at an arbitrary time early on when I remember. Chapter 13, Part 3, 2028-2029, Approaching Deadlines I'm sticking with 13 here, because of this cursed reality that the league's governors have forced upon us in the 30 second shot clock/10 second violation era. How many 8 second violations have you seen in the wild? Any? So I gotta figure the 10 second violation isn't really moving the needle. It's got to be the shot clock. How the hell has the entirety of league pace collapsed so much from just six seconds? Scoring is down everywhere. Assists are down almost everywhere. Rebounding is down everywhere. Weirdly, shooting percentages are way down. (Mike D'Antoni was right all along! The best offense is apparently before the defense has any time to set up. Ignore that evil shot clock!) I'd expect strong defensive big men to excel in this era, but it seems like the real winners are highly efficient shooting guards. The William Floyds and Courtney Bankses of the world rejoice. To Illustrate, here's Wilfred Wilson, who finally got signed a few games into the season. It seems the Wizards realized they were being silly leaving him on the table after all, waived a useless G-league player, and then brought back their starting power forward.  Wilson is still/again the starting Power Forward for the Wizards. See the minus three rebounds and points? That's par for the course. He probably improved as a player this year. If he went from his 26-27 numbers to the numbers this year, despite rebounds and assists being cut in half, the scoring being even and the steals going up would indicate a tremendous improvement on offense and defense. Almost all rebounding is being done by centers or weird out of position players. Elite power forwards are averaging something like 18 and 5, but on good shooting, and maybe giving you something else. There's still two players averaging about 13 rebounds a game, but neither shoots 40% from the field, so I'm assuming a good chunk of those is their own misses. Only six players average double digit rebounds in general (Ralph Miller is one!)  Normally, I post the results of the first game of the season, but this feels like it's summing up my mood better. We lost to the Trail-blazers, for whatever that's worth. I can choose to let Floyd play through this, but this injury can be aggravated, and giving one of my most valuable players forever-back problems (when another is coming off a big Spinal Injury) seems like a bad idea. Besides, I have Frankie Lambert on the bench---he won't score points, but I'm very deep at SG. Windler, Cisse, Eminescu and Bol will have to pick up the scoring load.  Windler, Cisse, and Eminescu will have to pick up the scoring load. Two weeks isn't that long, and our team is good enough to break even before our stars come back and the Honu start putting up quite a bit more wins than losses.  I'm still trying to get a handle on what's a good game in this enforced slow-down era, but Bol's game here is up there. Going into the update, the highest scoring game of the season so far is 40 by the Lakers' Courtney Banks. Harry Francis' 4 assists off the bench from a center in this era is also pretty fantastic. So, shaky start aside, the Honu quickly find themselves in their home, at the top tier the league. The standings are as follows: First, the East:    Poor Ciro. I'd hate to see that guy go his career without an all-star appearance, but it's hard to justify, you know? And the West:     The Kings have Avoided Relegation  (and hitting their goal this early into the season, pretty definitively at that) Ranadive reluctantly resumes interest in his team and is back to harebrained schemes.Honestly, as open as the bottom 3 or 4 spots in the west are, it's conceivable they make the playoffs this year. So where did all that rapid improvement come from? Free agency? Trades? The draft? The answer, amazingly, is all three. Sacto doesn't yet have a big three, but they currently have a somewhat large three.  Kevin Porter Jr was quietly acquired during Free Agency to no great fanfare, and is averaging a mere 10 points per game. But scoring is harder to come by in this new era and double digits are always welcome. What's important is he contributes a little bit of defense, assists and rebounds for his position, and he's been shooting north of 50%  Andre Petersen was acquired about a month before the deadline from the Clippers. I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for those two players the Clippers got in this trade. Andre Petersen was one of the league leaders in both PER and Efficiency, and his numbers actually went up when he got traded. This guy has been breaking out pretty late in his career, doing very good things for Detroit for the last couple of seasons, but he was actually drafted by the 76ers and was one of their rotational pieces during the seasons we played them in the finals. Finally, Todor Szomory was a second round draft-and-stash player in last year's draft. The Hungarian Center was an absolute steal at that point, already extremely productive at 22 years old, Szomory is in the running for rookie of the year. For Petersen's performance, I actually added him to the all-star game. Yes, he was on two losing clubs, but he helped turn one of them around from relocation, and he's also in the top 10 in the league for PER, EFF, and EWA. Dude has like 7 EWA right now, consider how few wins the two teams he's been on have. Speaking of the All-star game, here's the projected roster (injuries can still happen, and no, I won't be replacing injured players manually. Ever. Injury replacements are meant to be weird.)  Some commentary: ~I manually added Andre Petersen, as stated. This is his first all-star appearance, but I gotta figure that if Detroit was ever good at the break he might have had more. Then again, All-stars are pretty inexplicably sticky. I did not have to manually insert Collin Sexton (still on the bench!) this year, for instance. Petersen replaces Andrew Wiggins, who is having a fantastic season himself, but the Warriors are nearly as far out of the playoffs as the Kings are, and they have an All-star starter (The game also wanted to put Karl-Anthony Towns into the game, and that one I really can't figure out. His season's not been that great, and 3 all stars for a team currently outside the playoffs? Go home, 2K, you're drunk) ~Courtney Banks was manually added for a second time. This one, I can't fathom. He's had the highest scoring game of the season. He's one of the most efficient shooting guards in the league, easily the best player on the Lakers (who are currently fourth in the west), and among the league leaders in advanced metrics and also old fashioned "he is scoring a lot of points" stats. I replaced Devin Booker, who is averaging worse than Banks in every category including percentages, and on a team with less wins. Also, that team had another all-star selection. Speaking of: ~Lauri Markkanen was selected naturally by the AI, finally recognized as the best player on his team. ~Brandon Ingram finally deserves one of these all star games! He's the second best player on the fourth seeded Wizards. I knew you could do it! I let the AI keep this one. ~Daryl Baldwin was added manually. You may notice that Paciani was selected naturally by the AI again. Which is great. I definitely approve and he deserves it. But despite Paciani being the better player overall, Utah has given the reigns of their franchise to their own #1 pick from a few years back, Daryl Baldwin. And Baldwin is on the same team as Paciani and again, beating him in most statistical categories. They play the same position, but Paciani has slid over to SG for the time being. If Utah doesn't do something stupid and not sign Baldwin in the offseason, I'll edit Paciani to SG|SF instead of SF|SG to reflect his new responsibility (it'll also develop him more along how the team is actually using him) ~De'Aaron Fox is finally, finally recognized by the committee, the AI, and myself for his contributions to the 76ers. The one time Finals MVP is finally a 1-time All Star ~I didn't dispute Brook Teague being in the game. The Spurs are right there with the bottom playoff teams in the west, and Teague'd be having an MVP season if he were on a team projected to win 50 games. He's easily the best point guard the game has randomly generated. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And now, the bad news. I check in on extensions, because I know next season is going to be enormously costly. One way or another, we're going into the Luxury Tax, but thankfully, the big signings we'll have to deal with, Cisse and Green, are both RFAs. I'll give Cisse to an AI team when they pry him from my cold, dead hands. Or maybe when he gets old and starts to suck. 26 million and 20 million. Good god. Wait, what's that first one say?  Won't Re-sign? Oh no. Nonononono.   Also, game, "Extremely Loyal"? You wound me, game. (I like how after getting two rings "play for winner" becomes "not important". No one on the Honu gives a poo poo about playing for a winner except Frankie Lambert. Our young guys are too young to care, and our main players all have rings. Some of them even have two! Delon has three.) Mfiondu Kabengele no longer wants to be a part of our team. As he has an Early Termination Option, he absolutely can and will walk next season, and he won't even be an RFA at that point. There is nothing I can do to keep him here. I'm sorry. What went wrong? Well, the answer is, he's been wanting more touches, a larger role on the team for a while. Winning was keeping him happy, even though it wasn't important to him as a goal. He knew he worked within the system we had, so he never got as gripey as Gobert did, or even as bad as Bilic did. But then the league slowed the game way down, and he just.... got even less. Kabengele on the Honu was hit harder than a lot of players with the rule changes. (Dylan Windler's numbers, for instance held even. He is so, so good) Kabengele is in no way demanding a trade. He'll play out the season with us if we let him. It'll save us 20 million dollars, but we're going into the tax either way. I don't think it'll net us a player. We might want to, as we're second in the West, but it could have far-reaching effects on the Honu's future as a franchise. If we did want to trade him, through various means (and I spent a long time searching. I searched trade finder with Kabengele, with individual targets, and I negotiated down trades that made sense) In the end, the league knows we are over a barrel. I found two, and only two trades I would even consider, but both I think are worth considering hard. PACKAGE A:  Mfiondu Kabengele, Dedric Wesley, and The 76ers 2030 First round draft pick to the Hornets for Craig Payton and Tony Bradley. Payton has a team option since he is on his rookie contract. Craig Payton is one of the brightest young stars in the league. He's a fantastic scorer and a good passer. I think his trade value star rating illustrates what I mean. Wesley has slightly higher potential, but he's also noticeably worse right now and also, Payton is actually younger than Wesley. There's a lot of time for potential to change for various reasons. (Playtime, training camps, randomness, esoteric game mechanics I don't comprehend.) Payton is also much more likely to achieve said potential. This is the move that does the most for the Honu's future. It would likely be the first in a series of moves over the next few years. But at 23 years old, Payton has a long, extremely productive career ahead of him. This move also frees us up about 7 million dollars a year, which we are going to need. PACKAGE B  Mfiondu Kabengele and the 76ers 2030 First round draft pick to the 76ers for Emanuel Terry and Jin Lue. This is the conservative middle ground between keeping Kabengele for the season (not rocking the boat) and trading him for Payton. Emanuel Terry does not have offensive productio and won't demand touches the way Kabengele does. He also is one of the league's best defensive players. He makes a little bit more money a year than Kabengele does, so we don't gain any space. He might start declining any day now, since he's already 31. (So is Kabengele) Jin Lue is a raw SG that probably won't go anywhere, but I'd make a vague effort into developing him.  VOTING TIME DECISION 1, Mfiondu Kabengele: This is very likely the most important decision the Honu have faced since the franchise started. A)Package A B)Package B C)Keep Kabengele, let him walk. DECISION 2 On a completely random note, here's a picture of Jamal Murray's stats this season.  And here's William Floyd  Jamal Murray is currently fifth on the Race to the MVP rankings. (And not because he's the best player on the Rockets. Nikola Jokic is on the rockets, and ranked second) Keep in mind, that Floyd very nearly has the same assists as the off ball guard. Floyd has never been in an all-star game. I have begun manually adding players to the all-star game when I think they deserve it, but I have been committed to not adding Honu, because it feels like cheating. (Although, it could also effect expected salary--a player manually added might want more money than one I didn't add). Floyd might retire having never made a single all-star game, despite, well, you see those career figures. Those are recent years. His numbers the two years before those listed are even better, since those were pre-Cisse. Should I consider manually adding Honu Players to future all star games? I already do for other teams in the league. A)Yes, manually select appropriate Honu B)No. DECISION 3: I mentioned changing players' default positions earlier in the thread, for guys that the AI chooses to play out of position. I don't have to actually do this, but I think it could help fix the AI teams. It'll certainly make players develop according to the rolls the AI actually uses them in, and would slowly differentiate players that play out of position. It would also prevent several situations where the AI puts its best player on the bench behind a worse player with a higher OVR. Should I do this? A)Yes, adjust players according to their actual roles B)No, let the AI figure it out DECISION 4: Extensions Filimon and Windler are both up for extensions. Windler wants a raise of about 2 million dollars. Filimon wants a pay cut of about 2. You also see what Cisse and Greene want. Regardless of what we do with Cisse and Greene, those two will become RFAs, and I can keep them next season. The importance is these guys and their contracts, since those are both pretty big figures. Both are very important to us. Filimon is one of the most efficient pure point guards in the league, but, despite only being 30, he is starting to decline physically already. The flipside is, he doesn't use a lot of physicality in his game. Windler, despite being older than Filimon is still improving. Including athletically. Amazingly, Windler's potential actually improved without my influence over the last two seasons. It was capped at 79 last I looked, and it has inexplicably jumped up to 81. (Minutes? We went from essentially end of the bench to starting every game) He has also transitioned into the NBA's new, slow game flawlessly. His numbers have held firm, which shows pretty dramatic improvement. He is on pace for the elite 50/40/90 club (actually, his current figures are 50/50/100. I know at least that last one will drop.) He is in the top 10 for both rebounds and assists among Small Forwards. We are dramatically underpaying him. There are guys that literally make three times his salary and aren't as productive. Again, I would like to reiterate, we should be able to keep Cisse, and possibly Greene either way. We'll just be paying for it.Should we extend either or both guys, and for how long? Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jul 8, 2020 |
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Jul 8, 2020 19:23
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