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After his initial big dropoff when he aged, Bol's aged relatively well. He's honestly still pretty drat productive, and having him at the end of the rotation for some quality minutes suits me just fine. Even without all his athleticism, he's not about to lose his shooting touch. There's a lot of things in 2k that I wish were....... argh. Either clarified more or abstracted more. OVR is the worst of both worlds, where it supposedly gives you a relative, abstract value, but fails at it. I maintain that it should be split into two stats, and one of them should be completely separate from attributes and tied directly to per-minute performance. The framework for this idea is there, but...... the company has never bothered to flesh it out, as they've never bothered to flesh out so many things. There's so many incomplete systems that seem to have been abandoned.
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Oct 16, 2020 18:03
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Chapter 23: 2037-2038 Part 2: Free Agency On the first day of the moratorium period, Micheal Torres receives a max offer from Phoenix that he signs as soon as real free agency opens. Even if we had voted to keep him, I'm not sure I'd have been able to, without offering him a super max. This move makes great sense for Torres, but not so much for the Suns, who will have to forgo re-signing their own best player, frequent MVP candidate, Donald Powers. Torres is great, and if he goes back to the form he was in in 2035-2036, is probably a max value player, but he's not as good as Powers. In the midst of the best Torres season, if I had a chance of trading him straight up for Powers, I'd have asked the thread to vote on it. I also note during the progression phase that Torres, still a relatively young 28, loses 2 points of OVR, so I wonder if his injury actually was one of those "career ending" ones. We probably dodged a bullet here, even if he's brilliant for another couple of years. Jukic was also offered a max contract and I laughed him out of the office when he asked for me to sign the match sheet. Finally, I held back on signing Rogers as I found another guy to fill exactly the same role for half the price. He's much older than Rogers, but Rogers' once-stellar potential has tanked, and he's now just another guy, and I'm not paying 9-10 million to just another guy. The AI also does this nonsense, which tells you all you need to know about how bad it actually is, and how shameless Take Two is about conning you out of your money.  So, that's Lou Pollard, playoff point leader, finals MVP, and restricted free agent, not getting a contract match from his team, and being signed by the Pacers. Who also signed their own point guard to a big deal. And the Pacers' end of things is almost forgivable, because we know Pollard can work as part of a rotation with another excellent point guard, but the Sonics renouncing their rights to Pollard is unthinkable. Would a team really give up an extremely valuable current sixth man and possible future MVP candidate on such a marginal amount of money? It seems impossible to believe anyone would be that stupid. (I actually was OK With that trade at the time, as the Thunder made it clear they were likely going to keep one of Ibaka or Harden, and I was under the assumption they were keeping the rest of their core, who were very young, for longer than they did, and also Harden had laid a huge egg in the previous year's playoffs. I don't think anyone, anywhere, expected him to be a perennial MVP candidate. So I can admit to being wrong about real world basketball stuff, too. Although, on the other hand, Ibaka's actually been a key piece on a championship team.) Pretty early on in the off-season, Hugh Morrison gets an offer a little outside his maximum and signs it, so I match it.  Despite what this says, that's a 3+1 deal, but he's good enough to probably opt out of the extra year. Bol would get an offer from someone for 15ish million on the year that he was close to signing, but when I noticed it, I offered him half a million more and a no-trade clause, since I'm not going to trade him anyhow. He signs immediately. This kind of stalling tactic on Bol saved me about 5 million dollars. Which I put to decent use replacing Steven Rogers with some old guy that the game thought was a really good fit for my team's play-style for some unknown reason.   The Celtics win the free agency pretty handily, I think. Dudley fills a position of need for a team that has a few stars already, and he's also a guy I wouldn't be surprised to see take an MVP trophy home one day.  The Clippers are the team that took Jukic, and he's somehow their team leader, so it's possible he might actually score some instead of whine about scoring and then pass the ball. But I'm happy to see him go. To think, when he first came into the league, I was thrilled by how much he seemingly fit the team, and how I had finally sewn up the big question mark at power forward as Bol aged.  The Heat have another case for winning Free Agency, though. Monroe's a stud, and that's both of Minnesota's twin towers leaving for somewhere else, and Gordon Greene is a guy I can attest is a motherfucker, a not-insignificant piece of the Spurs team that just knocked me out of the playoffs. Johnnie Philips is still pretty good.  The Lakers beat me to the Vlado punch, although I was up in the air over offering him a contract over Bol anyhow. As it turns out, they offered something like 3 million more than I could offer, so it was probably a fool's errand anyhow. This also sets Vlado up as the star of their team, so he's probably happier here. Losing Jackie Dudley to the Celtics is a big blow to the Lakers, but maybe they bounce back as Vlado's pretty legit.  Only a rental year on Mel Chase, who very well could replace what this team lost when Casey Fletcher left. Paris Rush is legit really good in a lot of ways, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Rockets have turned it around. Vaughn's shooting has improved a little.  I said the Suns signed Torres, and they did. But they had such a high amount of Roster turnover, his signing actually doesn't show up on the transactions page. I hate how many 1 year deals the AI uses in this game. According to Basketball Reference, of the 568 players under contract in the 2019-2020 NBA season, 349 of them have more than one year remaining or potentially remaining on their deals. (Or about 61%) But that's not to say that the remaining 219 players are all on a 1 year contract---- most of them were on multi-year deals, too, they're just in the last year. The roster turnover in this game is quietly one of my top 5 things I hate about the MyLeague mode, of which I have learned to hate many things. You may note that my own roster turnover is much, much less dramatic than nearly every AI team nearly every season. It rattles my bones that the vast, vast majority of 2k signings are 1 year deals, and it's a tremendous failing by an evil grifter of a developer that will never, ever fix it so long as we keep giving them money. Toward the beginning of this thread someone asked me if I recommended buying this game on sale, and at the time I said yes given the price. I apologize. I didn't understand just how broken everything was at that time. Please, never give this company your money. No one should ever give them their money.  The Wolves, for their part, had a weird offseason, where they lost two of their best players from their improbable playoff run, but got a bunch of quality back. However, the quality they did acquire is pretty lopsided. Byers, Saric, and Navarro are all excellent defenders, but none really set the world on fire with their scoring. It'll be interesting to see if any develop that ability (probably Navarro, if I had to guess) or if this team completely tanks.  "After" the season started, I noticed that Minnesota didn't make an offer to this guy, so I managed to get him for less than half of what he's worth on a rental. He's slid immediately into the starting PF role, which probably chafes the developing Andersen a bit, but also puts less pressure on him to perform right now. I've definitely not given up on Andersen, mind, as I burned one of our camps on him. With that addition, our total free agency looks like this:  I'm a little nervous about the Payne contract, but I'm pretty confident I can move him if he completely decides to suck, and I'm also pretty sure one or both of Reeves/Wang will become the actual shooting guard of the team. Right now I'm leaning toward Wang/Payne, but I could see Wang/Reeves or even Reeves/Payne depending on how the three perform this year.  Progression screen this year goes a way into showing how far Bol has dropped over the years, but also how he's also stayed quite productive. It also shows off how busted the G league is. There are no last-year starters on this list, but starters typically develop about 2 or 3 points. There is no reason for a G-league player to develop more than an NBA starter. A reserve list player? Sure. A rotational piece, maybe. But a starter? The G-league system is broken for developing players, but the idiot developers balance this by making all players absolutely furious to be there. It is the laziest possible solution to both problems, and it is the worst of both worlds. I hate them. On a lighter note, here's a fun thing I noticed about the Warriors roster.  In this context, my own pursuit of all men named Gheorghe or Hugh seems less odd. Playcalling Warriors games has to be terrible.  The Honu Endure. Somehow. ........I'm a little Skeptical, because the Lakers seem way too high, but I agree with every other team listed, so maybe we are that good. However, this power rankings was taken before I signed Beasley for the year. If it being accurate were the case then.... 
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Oct 17, 2020 23:38
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Erickson passes to Eriksson, Eriksson out to Eriksson, Eriksson passes to Erickson, Erickson back to Eriksson, Eriksson kicks to Eriksson, Eriksson passes to Erickson. The Warriors are passing the ball around.
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Oct 18, 2020 18:36
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Sasha is back, baby!
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Oct 19, 2020 00:28
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I'd pat myself on the back for saying "if (when) the AI fucks up and lets Pollard walk", but really with what we've seen from NBA2k20, assuming "the game is stupid" should practically be the default assumption. Since you mentioned the Harden trade, one interesting note about it: The circumstances around the deal are so egregious that people forget that the Thunder actually got a surprisingly good return - lottery picks in 2012 and 2013, a mid-first rounder in 2014, a second round draft pick, and a solid rotation player in Kevin Martin. That's far more than the Spurs got for Kawhi, the Cavs got for Kyrie, the Pacers got for George, etc. Of course, it's still a dumb deal that might have cost them a title (doubly dumb because they could easily have kept Harden another year for one last Finals push), but IF you're going to trade a young star, they got about as good of a return as you can reasonably expect. Also, by the way, one of those draft picks the Rockets gave up was acquired a few months earlier in exchange for future Hall of Famer Kyle Lowry. So if you're grading the trade for Houston, it's effectively James Harden for Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin, #12 pick in 2012, #21 pick in 2014, and a second round draft pick. Obviously Houston is perfectly happy with the way things fell, but it's an interesting thought experiment that Houston could have kept Lowry, drafted a shooting guard, then basically built a pseudo-clone of the real-world 2010's Raptors. ---- Thinking back, one thing that strikes me is that the 2033 class was supposed to be legendary and we had three picks in the top 16. So that should be the core of the Honu going forward...but that draft has very much not been legendary for the Honu (yet?). Morrison is very good but doesn't seem to be a true #1 star, while Payne is shaky enough that you're apparently already making contingency plans if he fails to live up to his not-max contract. And the third guy...did he ever come over from being a draft and stash? Legit can't remember.
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Oct 19, 2020 02:52
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MagusofStars posted:Thinking back, one thing that strikes me is that the 2033 class was supposed to be legendary and we had three picks in the top 16. So that should be the core of the Honu going forward...but that draft has very much not been legendary for the Honu (yet?). Morrison is very good but doesn't seem to be a true #1 star, while Payne is shaky enough that you're apparently already making contingency plans if he fails to live up to his not-max contract. And the third guy...did he ever come over from being a draft and stash? Legit can't remember. Jemerio Kraemer. He's (now) our starting Small Forward. But he's also somewhat disappointing. I might try to move both him and Payne soon. Our own drafts in that class have been..... underwhelming, outside of Morrison, who is great, but as you say, probably a second or third star. Luckily, we have Alain Sonnet, who is great as a first star. Alain Sonnet currently has 23 non-personality badges. Hall of Fame: Acrobat, Hot Zone Hunter, Volume Shooter, Dimer, Lob City Passer, Needle Threader (6) Gold: Fancy Footwork, Giantslayer, Clutch Shooter, Bail Out, Flashy Passer, Floor General (6) Silver: Ice in Veins, Pump Fake Maestro, Steady Shooter, Tireless Scorer, Ankle Breaker, Downhill, Pass Fake Maestro (7) Bronze: Relentless, Range Extender, Space Creator, Unpuckable (4) So..... mnf. I've made quite a few mistakes with drafting, but getting this guy at 34 overall was probably the best draft choice I've made. Cisse is really the only one who came close.
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Oct 19, 2020 03:56
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What does mnf stand for? I genuinely don't know and all of my searches just spit back the NFL thing.
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Oct 19, 2020 15:21
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I don't know either, but I say once we get to 80 years, we need a Honu gangtag. Maybe Bol Bol on it, when NBA 2K20 screws up and doesn't retire his number.
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Oct 19, 2020 19:20
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dervinosdoom posted:I don't know either, but I say once we get to 80 years, we need a Honu gangtag. Maybe Bol Bol on it, when NBA 2K20 screws up and doesn't retire his number.
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Oct 19, 2020 19:41
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frankenfreak posted:Bol's Bols HELL YES
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Oct 19, 2020 20:02
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dervinosdoom posted:I don't know either, but I say once we get to 80 years, we need a Honu gangtag. Maybe Bol Bol on it, when NBA 2K20 screws up and doesn't retire his number. 
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Oct 19, 2020 20:13
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I....... would like to state that I'm not entirely certain how gang-tags actually work within SA. Are they something that needs to be applied by mod, or do they need to be purchased and embedded somehow w/in custom text? I'm not cool enough to have one, let alone be the cause of one existing. As always, the support this thread receives (even when I've evolved to overwhelmingly negative of the material) is humbling. As for "mnf".... it's a grunt. Sort of like hmph, but I have a habit of spelling out my specific grunts to the sound I'd have made if I were speaking. I tend to use this one/sound to convey... (I would use it here, for instance) that the thing I am saying isn't precisely what I want to say, but is as close as I'm likely to get at the time I say it.
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Oct 19, 2020 23:22
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Mods can add them to people upon request, often for free. My two came from the WoW forums a couple months ago where the mod basically said "yeah, just post which WoW-related gang tags you want". 50-whatever 'years' from now, you can probably ping Sally or Fedule and ask politely if they'd be willing to do it....though we'll probably need to come up with a design for it first. There's a limit of 3 I think.
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Oct 19, 2020 23:30
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Since valid questions were raised about the "2033 Super Draft Class", and it's something I'm capable of doing, I have made a decision to include Draft class in my all-star summary. Which, the all-star Summary is coming in a later post, so this is mostly a reminder for myself to do it later when I actually do the All-Star break. Keeping track of this will probably give us insight into which draft classes were good, at least from a star perspective. It won't cover which classes were full of good, rotational pieces, but that'd be a ton of work for me Chapter 23: 2037-2038 Part 3: Early Season  The season opens beautifully, with this very promising game where it's hard to find fault with any individual Honu's production. Not pictured, B.J. Lawrence having 6 points and 14 rebounds, so even our low-points man provided very solid value.  I also had this beaut of a game against the Raptors. It's been a while since I had two guys with 30 point games, and it feels good to see again.  Sonnet would continue his stellar production in our next game, posting another 35+ game with very good assist and rebound numbers to go along with it. Sonnet's assists in the early part of the season have been over 7 a game, which is a pretty sizeable jump from his previous couple of seasons at around 5. His inherited role as team leader has suited him just fine.  As those two outings were in the same week, it's the first time in a few seasons that a Honu player is named Player of the Week. Sonnet and Patric Love are the only players on this list that haven't yet been on the MVP board this season. (A few have fallen off as their teams have started to look bad, though. I only posted Powers leaving the Suns from their perspective in the last update---he went to Portland. Unfortunately for Donald, most of Portland sucks, so while he's probably having the best individual season in the league, averaging a pretty efficient 30 and 10 a game, he's not likely to be the MVP unless the Blazers turn things around.  We get one more terrific game out of Sonnet, the absolute stud, before I call the update early. Why did I call the update early? Despite Sonnet's brilliance, we've been struggling.    Eight place is not where I thought we should be, going into the season. We're even below my new favorite Band, "Jacque Cisse and the Erickssons" But there's still plenty of time to turn things around. Also, LOLsonics. Good job, losers. Also, the Timberwolves' strategy of never scoring the ball isn't working out well for them.    Atlanta is finally performing at the level they ought to be, but now Philadelphia is inexplicably underperforming. Chicago is near the bottom but should be better than last year, where they went to the finals. I do not understand this game, or how the simulator works. Randy Butler on the Raptors has probably been the best player in the league for the last several years, but "only" won two MVPs because of how bad the rest of his team is. Before we discuss the bad about the team, I want to take a moment to discuss the good: 1)Most of it. Which is a cop out, but it would take me long time to go over each individual player, but the long and short answer is "unless I state otherwise below, every single player on this team is exceeding last year's averages." 2)In particular, Sonnet is brilliant. He's averaging over 20 points a game and over 7 assists. He's the first point guard we've had that can put up big figures in both categories. 3)Frederick Reeves has been great, too. And, even though we're only halfway into the season, has already completely forgiven us for last year's G-league relegation. He's a terrific outside threat and shoots with gorgeous efficiency. He's currently the best perimeter defender on the team. (So you can probably guess what I'm gonna say when we get into the bad) Reeves/Wang is probably the 2 guard rotation of our future. 4)In general, our offense is terrific. We have one of the most efficient offenses in the league, and by a pure scoring "number" we're a top 5 or 6 club. The bad: 1)The rental on Sebastian Beasley was probably a mistake. He hasn't been gelling well. He's not been bad at all, but what we really needed was more defense and I tripled down on offense, because Torres (our second leading scorer last year, and leading scorer for a while before that) left and I got spooked. He briefly complained about touches, but I fixed that by stating that he should be our second option on offense. This immediately placated him. The reason I did this with Beasley and not Jukic is simple: Beasley is legitimately our second best scorer, and should be our second option on offense. (The only player that has an argument for being better than him other than Sonnet is Louie Morgan, but Morgan typically comes off the bench and leads an entire unit himself.... so he gets all his touches) This has not hurt our team chemistry at all. The bigger flaw is lacking a bit of defense between him and Morrison, and Lawrence can't hold it all down himself from the second unit. I don't think I'll invite Beasley back next year, barring the Honu's fortunes making a fairly dramatic turn 2)Aaron Payne's contract was definitely a mistake. When I offered Payne a contract, it was under a twofold assumption that 1)His offense would continue to slowly improve. Even if it never became "good", it showed signs of getting significantly better. The second assumption was 2)His defense was worth it. This season, we have not had good defense from Payne. Unlike first few seasons of "I'll casually hold guys below 40% shooting", which is stellar, this year, he's in the mid 40s and I don't know why. As I said, Reeves has surpassed him as the best perimeter defender on the team. So while Payne's contract could be a problem going forward (though, the AI still seems to value him, so almost certainly not as much as it seems), what is a problem, right the hell now, is his collapse on defense. Please note that Payne's presence on the team is not a negative in itself; he doesn't mind at all if I put both Reeves and Wang ahead of him in the rotation. And his efficiency has improved where he's not a liability on offense (he somehow has a hall of fame Slithery Finisher badge  ) it's just... not what I'd been paying for.3)And this is the big one, the main reason "we're possibly doomed": Jemerrio Kraemer's been awful for us this year. Trying to take the place of Michael Torres has not suited him at all, and his shooting is garbage and he's been committing a lot of turnovers. He's still above average in rebounding (for a small forward) and assists (ditto) and defense (which is the only good argument in favor of not trading him---we're not very good defensively) Our SF rotation without Torres is pretty bleak. Bilic fills in sporadically, and does ok there, but he's old, and I'm increasingly happy I gave him that team option----in addition to not forced into having Bilic for 3 years, it makes his contract more juicy to the AI in trades. Between that and the 5ish million a year figure, Bilic is a very movable piece if we need to trade him, or anyone else for that matter. At any rate, some of this isn't Kraemer's fault. He played a few weeks injured, and was out for a few weeks with the worse part of that injury, so he could be forgivably out of sorts. But this is the last year of his rookie deal, and unlike when I looked with last year's expiring contracts, he has quite a decent trade value. 4)Our defense sucks. Thanks to our high pace, it's not league worse defense, but we do give up more points than any other team in the league. That said, there's some tantalizing trades out there that would take some or all of our problems and roll them into new, exciting problems. Package A  Aaron Payne, Jemerio Kraemer and our 2040 first round pick to the Sacramento Kings for Cody Baker and Lionel Hodges Hodges is overpaid, but he's a reasonable defender with an expiring contract. Cody Baker is, somehow, a 26 year old rookie, thanks to league's requirement that you must be old enough to rent a car without a surcharge in order to be drafted. If there's SFs involved in any of these trades, they're involved because at least one of the SFs shoots 43% or more from the field. In this case, that's Baker at about 45. Hodges would be more of a "try to shore up our defense and put a second SF into the regular rotation" as Bilic is old and plays spotty minutes. If Hodges works out, great, if not, he at least deletes the Payne contract, effectively. Baker would let me not have to overpay Kraemer next year. Baker is currently happy about his present number of touches, meaning, he won't complain about them if he's thrust into a more important role on our team. Hodges doesn't like his touches, but I think that would go away as he'd also have an increased role on our team. Also, he'd be potentially gone in a year anyhow Package B  Jemerrio Kraemer and a 2041 second round pick to the Sacramento Kings for Cody Baker The "light" version of Package A. We don't clear the Payne contract, but we only give up a second round pick instead of a first round pick, and we avoid a potential landmine with Hodges. As said, Baker shoots better than 45% and doesn't mind his touches. No idea if he's a decent defender or not, which could hurt. Package C  Jemerrio Kraemer and Sebastian Beasley to the Celtics for C.J. Geiger and Vladimir Vujanic Like Beasley, Geiger would be a rental (though might re-sign, as he seems to be worth less than Beasley overall). Unlike Beasley, Geiger is more of a defensive presence. The flipside is, the gap between Beasley's and his offense is probably greater than the gap between his and Beasley's defense. Vladimir Vujanic is happy with his (less than Kraemer's) number of touches and is shooting around 43%. He's, I believe, a second year player, and thus has two years' worth of team options, so that's a 3 year contact, not a 2. Package D  Jemerrio Kraemer and Sasha Bilic to the Clippers for Calbert Gordon and Shawn Ramsey This would be a rookie and a second year player, respectively. Gives us another PF to develop as Beasley is likely a one year rental, even if he does stick around, and Calbert Gordon is having a pretty fine rookie season where he shoots respectably from the field and does a little bit of additional work for the Clippers. This is the guy they traded down to 10 for for seemingly no reason, so it would make them look potentially less foolish in story. Package E  Jemerrio Kraemer and Aaron Payne to the Nets for Ciro Reyes, Andrew Barkley, and the two-way rights of Jamal Malone As a two-way player, Malone would be allowed on our team, as he wouldn't put us over the contract limit. (I very rarely have both my two-way slots taken, unlike the AI which have them both taken at all times, and then not extended when the off-season rolls around, making it impossible to sign a rookie as a two-way player. GOOD JOB, Take Two Interactive, you've done it again.) Ciro Reyes is, to be clear, not the player I gushed about for the first decade of this simulation, but he's also not bad yet, either. He's still a drat efficient scorer and is happy to take a back seat to other, younger players. He's a good passer. I don't think his defense has ever been good, which is potentially a problem, but it's not actively bad, either. Barkley is a rookie with decent potential, so this would give me a SF for now as well as a potential future SF. There's a possibility that Malone develops into part of our Center rotation, but at 26, I kind of doubt it. On the other hand, as a two-way player, if Lawrence and/or Morrison were to be injured this year, I could temporarily move him over until they're well. Package F  Jemerrio Kraemer, B.J. Lawrence, and Gilbert Paxson to the Lakers for Raynardo Ramos, Sebastian Barber, and Otis Chase The "Blow the whole thing up" option, this would be a move likely in prelude to future moves. You can tell, because it's enough to pry B.J. Lawrence from my cold, dead hands. It would also pry Paxson out of my hands, and I went out of my way to get him last year. Granted, I don't use him much now that I have him, but I like the security Paxson gives me. Anyhow, Otis Chase is almost as good and would fill the same role. Ramos has a team option for next year, and hits the sweet spot for shooting percentage right now, but he'll almost certainly be in over his head and likely potential limited if I don't burn a camp or so on him. Which might be worth it, as he's quite young, and there aren't many young players. The real part that makes me even consider this trade is Sebastian Barber. Barber's not a defense first center, and would at least for now exacerbate a few of the Honu's problems. However, he's sewn up for 3 years in an absurdly good contract for a guy as productive as he is. This would give me flexibility to potentially move Morrison either later in the season or next season, instead of keeping him around. For all that I don't feel like Morrison is overpaid, getting a high scoring option for 13 million a year and potentially flipping Morrison into an upgrade at wing or Power Forward is definitely an option. The drawback is again, this would ruin what little defense we do have, as Lawrence is pretty key to that, it would sacrifice our own "best contract" guy (again, Lawrence), and would probably be seen as a move toward tanking, and, I cannot stress this enough: Only idiots actually tank in Basketball. The Barber contract is good, and Ramos has more than the 2 stars of value the AI seems to think he does. Or we could admit that Kraemer was injured, Beasley is a rental anyhow, and Payne has a surprisingly movable contract, even if I did likely overpay him. It's possible trading Kraemer is jumping the gun, so we could just not do it. Just be advised he's gonna want something like 25 million dollars next year.....  VOTING TIME We're in trouble and signs point to Jemerrio Kraemer being our biggest liability. I've posted a number of options to rectify that. A)Package A B)Package B C)Package C D)Package D E)Package E F)Package F G)Do not make a trade
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Oct 20, 2020 02:25
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I like that you have such a deep rotation and don't play your starters 38+ minutes a game. I think that your most productive players, numbers-wise, get sold short because people see the per-game numbers, not the per 36 numbers. That said, I am disappointed by Kraemer but I think that you should give him the second half of the season to try and turn it around. He's so young and his OVRL is quite high (yes, OVR sucks, but still) I feel that he deserves more time. I don't regret letting Torres go unless. Even if he's somewhere else destroying the league (you haven't said), I didn't see him working out for the team as a long-term fixture.
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Oct 20, 2020 03:14
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I prefer E out of all the choices, but I'm still not sure if we should dump Kraemer yet.
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Oct 20, 2020 05:22
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G)
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Oct 20, 2020 09:34
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Welp. Keeping Kraemer and Payne probably was a decent decision. Update....... hopefully sometime this weekend.
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Oct 24, 2020 06:35
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Chapter 23: 2037-2038 Part 4: Second half of Season Welp. The vote on proposed trades was 2-1 in favor of not trading Kraemer, but even the one vote for trading him was kind of half-hearted, so I looked at things like, 2.5-.5. This would prove to be the correct decision, likely, as Kraemer didn't quite get back up to last year's levels, but he definitely fixed his inefficiency some and turnovers; his back half of the season probably was better than last season overall. I don't think 2k Models this, but it does sometimes seems that a player gets injured before it actually tells you they're injured, which would be realistic.  Other teams, however, did make trades, including for some of our potential targets. I had no idea that Trae Young finally left the Hawks. Also shown: The Timberwolves trading even more of their poor offense.  We also squeeze in one last brilliant Sonnet scoring performance before the All-Star Break All Star Break Kraemer competes in his fourth consecutive slam dunk contest, and I swear, I have seen him dunk once and it wasn't great. Granted, he's never won one of his dunk contest appearances. Jeffrey Schultz wins the 3pt shootout. Hugh Andersen (cursed spelling in this game) plays for team USA in the Contest of Youths or whatever the hell, but only plays OK and the US lost.  Granted, he had been assigned to the team in the previous week. (EDIT: I'm referring to Sonnet here. I forgot that I edited in the paragraph about the rest of the all-star break. Whoops) ~ Donald Powers (C, Trailblazers 2030 9th overall) is having an MVP season with something like 32 PER, but the Trailblazers are absolutely terrible, so while he's almost certainly the best player in the league, he's not in MVP consideration. Every now and then there's a push to split the MVP into "most valuable" and "most excellent" players. I think if we saw a season quite this lopsided, those articles would invariably crop up for a few months. Honestly, adding awards should be one of the rule changes that can get introduced rarely in MyLeague. Just a suggestion. ~ Radu Constantin (SG Hawks, 2030 10th overall) feels like he's been on more than three all-star teams. He scores very well. ~ Michael Torres (SF, Suns 2029 2nd overall) Absolutely bounced back, and even though he's worse OVR now than he was on the Honu, he's putting up an MVP contentious season, exactly as we all knew he would.  ~ Terrell Petersen (PG, Spurs, 2030 19th overall) Has also by now bounced back completely from his injury, and is a leading MVP candidate. I'll hold off for now on saying "Called it" and acting smug. ~ Ian Eriksson (SF, Warriors, 2033 2nd overall) has developed swimmingly and honestly, the Warriors have a lot of versatile talent. He's just their leader. ~ Richard Morris (PG, Magic 2024 17th overall) is one of the old guard in the all-star game, and has been held back by his team's general crappiness several times. ~ Rich Hurley (PF, Voyageurs, 2029 10th overall) frustrates me by not appearing on the MVP board when I see guys like Donte Greene, Casey Daniel, and Teddy Vaughn up there, even though he does everything they do, but with 10% better shooting. ~ Jessie Lowe (PF, Heat 2028 6th overall) being another example of a guy that gets more credit than Hurley, despite being worse. Although, Lowe's defense is very good, at least, and he really has thrived as a team leader, rather than a third or fourth option. ~ Alain Sonnet (PG, Honu 2030 34th overall) is a star I'm a lot more comfortable building around than Torres. I'm a little annoyed he's not in MVP contention, when his numbers are right next to the top two. (Hell, spoilers: He didn't make an all-NBA team and I'm kind of increasingly getting upset if I focus on that soi'llskipoveritforasecond) ~ Randy Butler (PG, Raptors 2028 Second Round): OK, forget what I said about Donald Powers' season, Butler's been doing that since his last MVP. He's still probably the best player in the league, when it comes to actual production. ~ Darrell Logan (C, Cavaliers 2033 1st overall) finally makes an all-star game. He never quite hit the "Hakeem" ceiling that was bandied about, but he's definitely his own player, and he is definitely one of the best players in the league. He's much more like the second coming of Nikola Jokic (....so... still definitely a no-brainer #1 overall) ~ Reed Gibson (SF, Cavaliers, 2028 27th overall) surprised me by making his first ever all star game, but this guy's been a scorcher on offense for years, and as good as Balidis and Logan are, he's a huge part of the Cavs' success. ~ Dakoulas Balidis (SG, Cavaliers 2032 1st overall) is the "on paper" best player in the league. He is a 99 OVR. Be interesting if the greatness of his two teammates keeps him from ever winning an MVP award. ~ Dwight Dixon (PF, 76ers 2031 1st overall) is the "on paper" second best player in the league, at 95 OVR. To give you an idea of the gap Balidis is working with. Anyhow, OVR is meaningless, and Dixon is a regular MVP Candidate with something gaudy like 20+ and 15+ a game, with decent percentages. ~ Casey Daniel (PF, Pacers, 2027 Second Round) is the platonic ideal of the stupid type of inefficient power forward that Donte Greene and Teddy Vaughn are. He's not even at 40% shooting from the field. But he puts up big numbers! ~ Loren Mathies (PF, Grizzlies 2033 6th overall*) Mathies has been one of the best players after his draft scandal. ~ Steve Dunn (PG, Nuggets 2029 4th overall) continues to be his brilliant, dreamy-eyed self. I have to assume he's been the cover artist for one of the 2030s iterations of 2k, which are still broken pieces of poo poo. ~ Craig Payton (SF, Mavericks 2026 1st overall) is old guard by now, and I'm still uncomfortable with him being on the Mavericks, even though by now our greatest rivals are easily the Nuggets. ~ Giovenco Paciani (SG, Rockets 2023 15th overall) Has yet to lose a step. I'm still convinced something about his age glitched in a way distinct from all the other age glitches I have found and undone, but he is actually aging up. ~ Teddy Vaughn (PF, Rockets 2030 15th overall) Irritates me more whenever I see him. ~ Vladimir Olic (PF, Jazz, 2026 31st overall) is older than you think, largely because he was in Europe some time, and also because his teams have tended to suck. He's kind of like the Serbian version of Joakim Noah for how he plays. ~ Mauricio Cortez (PF, Nuggets 2027 26th overall) is still pretty brilliant, and at least the AI keeps selecting him for these games. Lot less correcting needing to be done. Lot more power forwards than centers and SFs being represented lately, I have noticed. Truly elite centers and wings are the least common players in the game right now. ~ Jimmy Flores (SG, Thunder 2031 28th overall) should be in MVP consideration, but isn't. I also had to manually add him to this, his first all-star game in replacement of Hakan Mansiz, who has neither had an all-star season individually, nor his he the best player on his team, nor is his team winning. Flores could be a 5 time all star by now. I think I've said before that he was secretly the best player on the Clippers when they had those other all-stars? For whatever reason I cannot fathom, the AI hates, hates, hates this guy, and just snubs him for all-star nods, awards, and honors all the time, but he's consistently been one of the best scorers in the league. I'm not sure I can think of a real world comparison to this kind level of underrated. ~ Jeffrey Schultz (SG, Voyageurs 2029 8th overall) was actually selected by the AI, and he's drat good, but he's also worse than Jimmy Flores in every significant way. Different conference, though, in fairness. Anyhow, team Dakoulas wins the game, and there's a close vote for game MVP between Dwight Dixon and Steve Dunn. In the end, although Dixon probably had more of a contribution thanks to his board work, Dunn's 27 from the field without a single miss, including 7 big threes, earns him the all-star game MVP.  Here's an example of what I mean by Kreamer returning to form. This is probably the best game he had in the season, but honestly, that's terrific from a guy who is usually our fourth or fifth option.  Sonnet of course, continues to be brilliant  Hugh Morrison also has been worth the contract, I feel. This is probably the best overall game. He's put up very solid numbers in a number of categories, just not usually all at the same time like this Anthony Davis looking stat line.  Here's another solid game from Kraemer (discounting the turnovers). Kraemer's sort of evolved into... uh.... what Torres was for us before Torres was the guy. Back when we first got Torres. I think/hope he's going to ask for less money than Torres and Payton tended to want, in relation to league salary, so it's wild to think I was set on dealing him, but Kraemer might actually be the SF of the team's future. Incidentally, he had a very brief window where he complained about touches, I changed nothing, and he stopped complaining, as near as I can tell, actually just shooting more, so he's got one over on several other players we've had. We put ourselves into a pretty decent playoff position, and then, on the second to last game of the season:  This hurts. He doesn't post the numbers Kraemer (or anyone) does, but Payne has also recovered some from his early season self, and worked his way back to being the best perimeter defender on our team. Other than defense, though, I'm pretty happy with our SG rotation, even without Payne. I haven't talked about some of these guys, so I will: ~ Frederick Reeves maintained his start of the season excellence. He's a very efficient shooter, and sort of reminds me of J. J. Reddick, which I think might have actually been his draft comparison when I selected him. I'm a fan of the way Reddick plays basketball, and I'm glad Reeves has forgiven the G-league thing, since I hope to keep him for some time. ~ Su Jun Wang also played at a decent level, maybe a little better than last year. He's also fairly efficient at scoring, but unlike Reeves, he's less of a catch and shoot player, and more of a "get to the basket" slasher that makes his free throws. So I really like the different looks I get from the two. They're about the same on defense. Payne is a better defender than either, has made his own scoring to be efficient, but tries to score much, much less. Between the three, I have the ability to throw a lot of different looks at other team's 2 guard. As I said above, there's not a lot of truly good SGs in the league (compared to say, the enforced slowness era, where all the best players were 2s), so this is a pretty huge advantage. The good 2s that do exist tend to be the best player on the other team, but I can choose to start Payne in those situations. I really like our depth at this position. ~ Hugh Andersen continues to be a rotational piece, he's been pretty understanding of spending an extra year behind a rental player. He averages about 8 points a game, isn't as inefficient as a second year player could be, but is also our best interior defender on the team for the season, even ahead of BJ Lawrence. When Beasley leaves next year, I'm pretty sure we'll be OK with him as our starting PF. Hell, if he's inclined to be happy with touches (as he is right now), he might even be an improvement. ~ Gilbert Paxson hardly ever plays, but always plays well when asked. Remember when we had Gary Payton II on our team? He's sort of in that space.  OK, now I'm gonna be smug about it.  Picked by the game, too. I've only changed awards on the all-rookie team (which glitches) and the one bizarre MVP award. Honestly, those are decent numbers. And at 22 years old (maybe 23 now) Slaughter here still could actually have a career.  What is up with Seattle's guard rotation!? Louie Morgan is a bit peeved he didn't win this award. He was definitely one of the top finishers, but I want to say Byrd here led wire-to-wire whenever I checked.  Still the streakiest award in basketball.  Yep. If Barber had had this season a year ago, he'd be making quite a bit more than 13 million per year--this is what I meant when I said he's got a great contract.  I believe he coaches the Nuggets, still. Coaches in this game are sticky. On the other hand, he's consistently got them to the playoffs during the simulation, so maybe they ought to keep him around. All-NBA 1  This seems right. All-NBA 2  As discussed, Daniel and Vaughn secretly kind of suck. I'm shocked the game picked Flores for one of these, finally. All-NBA 3  Aaaaaaaaaand as said, no Sonnet. Also, Gilbert Swift? What the hell? I gotta check him, to see how the hell he had a better season than Barber up there, Todor Szomory, or Jackie Dudley. I might be sleeping on someone. Also snubbed is Rich Hurley, who is a better forward than five of the six forwards that made All-NBA. Defense 1  Defense 2  Oh, Byrd plays defense, too? Neat. Still not the contributor Pollard was. I should also check on him to see how his season went. Seems like the much worse Casey Daniel is stealing his glory. All Rookie first team:  This feels like the first of these in a while where there's no non-American players. One of the only plusses from the older draft classes is that the US players have, on average, a higher OVR than they did before. Then again, maybe this was a deep draft. All Rookie second team:  Reeves didn't make this team, and should have, but the game is hosed up and stupid and glitched to hell, and I can't replace a F or C in the rookie team unless I do it with another F or C, even though the all rookie team is not position limited, like the All-NBA and All-Defense teams, or the All-star game. Take Two just lazily uses the same goddamn system here that it does for those other three places, and locks me out of replacing one of the bottom two front court players, both of whom had worse seasons than Reeves. I hate this company. FINAL STANDINGS: West    East     As you can see, trusting in our guys paid off, and we advanced to the fifth seed (tied for fourth, but I guess we lost out on the tiebreaker). I feel slightly better about this season than last, because the teams I find scariest, the Spurs and Thunder, are in the other quarter of the bracket. Plus, the Suns matchup is sure to be full of drama. They're not just Torres' new team, but they're our second greatest rivals, according to the Rivals screen, with our greatest, the Nuggets, being potentially our next opponents. I only just now realize I erred in not replacing someone on the all-star game with a member of the Celtics. I'm not sure which one, probably one of their excellent front court players, but both myself and the AI completely snubbed them, and they have three guys that could/should have been selected. Ooooooops. See you for the playoffs. EDIT I just noticed that Dakoulas Balidis was team captain of the all-star game and didn't draft either of his teammates. And won. That is ice cold. Goddamn. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Oct 25, 2020 |
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Oct 25, 2020 04:49
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We also all know that, had you kept Torres, he would have been profoundly mediocre and you would have been saddled with a max contract. I am now convinced that the game models this.
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Oct 25, 2020 15:54
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Without getting too into the weeds about it: My parents have had an accident in the home, and will require someone to take care of them for several weeks. I've had to scramble with work to get requisite paperwork during our busiest month this year. This has had a side effect of "I'm a little burned out on things to spend all that time updating my thread", though you may have seen me elsewhere on the forums where I have less of a time commitment. In the short term, this is causing a delay, in the medium term, activity on this thread might actually increase, as I imagine I'll have a lot of free time as while taking care of my folks is work, it's also work I can do at home, as opposed to having to go into the office. Assuming I can get my PC set up over there, anyhow. I have no idea what the long term of my life looks like, or how that might impact the thread. As for my folks, well, they're... mnf. "Fine" isn't the right description, but "not in imminent danger" is a better one. As always, everyone's patience and support is noticed and appreciated.
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Oct 30, 2020 09:24
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Sorry to hear that, bud. Only do the thread if it’s therapeutic and/or fun for you, don’t let it be a burden. And look on the bright side, by being forced inside, maybe you and yours can avoid the global pandemic!
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Oct 30, 2020 11:49
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JackBandit posted:Sorry to hear that, bud. Only do the thread if it’s therapeutic and/or fun for you, don’t let it be a burden.
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Oct 30, 2020 11:55
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Sorry to hear, thirded. Taking care of you and yours takes priority, don't even pause to feel guilty about it. We've all had it varying shades of rough these last few months, thanks for having been a welcome distraction so far.
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Oct 30, 2020 13:03
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JackBandit posted:Sorry to hear that, bud. Only do the thread if it’s therapeutic and/or fun for you, don’t let it be a burden. Fourths, we’ll all be here whenever you can/feel good to go!
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Oct 31, 2020 08:54
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My sympathies go out to you, and as always taking care of family must come first. I'm still reading and enjoying the thread, but I hope you'll take all the time you need for this.
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Oct 31, 2020 19:15
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you do you guy we got nothing but time
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Oct 31, 2020 19:39
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Take care and don't feel guilty at all!
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Oct 31, 2020 23:21
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Bol Bol can wait for his HoF retirement speech.
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Nov 2, 2020 17:45
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beejay posted:Take care and don't feel guilty at all!
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Nov 2, 2020 18:28
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Yeah, this thread will still be here. I hope your parents' recovery is smooth and as uncomplicated as possible!
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Nov 3, 2020 08:25
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I was not able to bring my PC here and am not sure it will happen before I leave. I will be returning home in mid December. While I would like a few updates before then, I am mot sure how likely it will be. For whatever it's worth, my Mom's surgery went well and she is recovering.
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Nov 11, 2020 13:35
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way to bury the lede, VSM. That's great news and I wish y'all the best. The thread will be here whenever you're ready to return.
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Nov 11, 2020 15:51
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I should have mentioned something about her sooner. I didn't actually get word from work about leave until yesterday, but she had surgery shortly after my last post.
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Nov 11, 2020 16:21
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Glad the surgery went smoothly! I hope her recovery continues apace.
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Nov 11, 2020 17:28
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Yeah, I'm glad surgery went well! Hoping she has a speedy recovery! We can just speculate on how god-like all the former Honu still in the league will be while you take this time off lmao
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Nov 13, 2020 06:12
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Thank you everyone for your patience with me during this time. I told my mom that random people on the Internet that I don't actually know wish her well and she was touched and said something to the effect of "nice people are still out there" and asked me to thank everyone. I can't promise as punctual schedule as what I had before, and I can't promise an update before Christmas, but I fully intend to return, to ride out these 80 seasons unless the game itself breaks. I also promise two other things.  1)Changes and 2) The Honu Endure. .........................so stay tuned, and join me for one last hurrah, and whatever comes after.
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Dec 20, 2020 21:18
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That's great news! Glad everything is working out!
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Dec 21, 2020 03:53
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Glad you're able to stick with it! I go through a phase every year or 2 where I play NBA 2K non-stop for like a month and then burn out, this is exactly the kind of thing I start to do and give up on eventually. Wanna see Bol Bol make the HOF!
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Dec 21, 2020 08:19
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Can't wait for Bol Bol to get hosed by 2k and fail to get into the HOF or have his jersey retired.
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Dec 21, 2020 13:04
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