Friday, June 19, 2020
But let's go step by step:
Top Free Agent Signings:
- Big Suprise: Brad Daugherty joins the Chicago Bulls
- Ron Harper joins the San Antonio Spurs
- Another surprise: Dennis Rodman joins the Miami Heat
- Toni Kukoc ends up in San Antonio
- Dantley and Perkins resign in Dallas; Michael Cooper stays in LA
So just after the Pistons lost Dennis Rodman, they offered me Joe Dumars and Mark Aguirre for S. Threatt, M. Cage and X. McDaniel. I accepted and created somehow the Bad Boys West... and Isiah Thomas and the X-Man recreate the new Bad Boys. Curious how this plays out.
On top of everything, I had been able to secure G. Payton for the Seattle Supersonics in a Draft Day trade. Other top picks have been:
- Felton Spencer going before Gary Payton- weird but maybe not totally unrealistic
- Dennis Scott joining Minnesota
- Chris Jackson / M. Abdul-Rhaouf joins the Hornets still in Charlotte
- Kendal Gill drafted 14 from Orlando
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Posted on May 20, 2020 at 05:38 PM.
Here is short summary of the first season. A couple of things worked out as expected (The bulls not winning the championship) and some things went completely off rails, with the Utah Jazz and the Atlanta Hawks being the two teams in the finals.But let's go step by step:
Adopted Team: Seattle Supersonics
I moved the OKC Thunder to Seattle, rebranded as Supersonics... and boy it felt good to see Shawn Kemp throwing down some ferocious dunks. I did have some injury misfortune and ended up missing the play-offs. The biggest challenge is, how to position myself in the off-season to pick Gary Payton in the draft. I don't want to mess with the draft order, but I really would miss the dynamic duo of The Glove and the ReignMan being re-united.
Best game of the season: Beating the Utah Jazz by 2 points in the season opener
The West
Utah dominated the Western Conference with a 67-15 record (inflated by the poor three teams without any real players. The Rockets lined up on second plays with a 58-24 record.
The Lakers and the Blazers have been 7th and 8th seed, both with some significant injuries involved.
The East
Boston took care of Business, winning 66 games and keeping the Atlanta Hawks on the second place with 61 games. The Hawks have been led by Dominique and a very strong Moses Malone. Knicks on third place, Bulls and Pistons positioned as 5th and 6th team for the season.
Awards
MVP: Hakeem Olajuwon
Rookie of the yearMookie Blaylock
Defensive Player of the year: Hakeem Olajuwon
Most improved player: Blair Rasmussen
All- NBA First Team: M. Jordan, J. Stockton, C. Barkley, K. Malone, H. Olajuwon
All- NBA Second Team: M. Johnson, K. Johnson, K.McHale, D. Wilkins, P. Ewing
All- NBA Third Team: C. Drexler, J. Dumars, L. Bird, T. Cummings, D. Robinson
All- Defense First Team: M. Jordan, R. Harper, L. Nance, K. McHale, H. Olajuwon
All- Defense Second Team: J. Stockton, D. Harper, K. Malone, T. Corbin, P. Ewing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Play-Offs - Adopted Team
I took the Utah Jazz as team of choice. To be honest, that fan base has been tortured over the years and the idea to get them to the finals, and maybe avoid the Bulls altogether and get the Lakers in a down year.
The Play-Offs - First Round
In the first round, I finished off the trailblazers in 4 game. Portland did not match up very well with the Mailman and the defense was able to contain the Glide. And (knocks fans can get used to that), the Bulls beat the NY Knicks in round one in seven games, after trailing 3:1. A very dramatic but not unrealistic result of the simulation.
Other results:
PHO - LAC: 4:3
DAL - SA: 4:3
HOU - LAL: 4-1
BOS - IND: 4.0
PHI - DET: 4:1
ATL - WAS: 4-2
The Play-Offs - Conference Semifinals
In the second round I had to face the Phoenix Suns. Good news, without Kevin Johnson for the first 3 games and the Jazz jumped to a three nothing lead. We lost one game in Phoenix but have been able to seal the deal in the game 5.
Other results:
HOU - DAL: 4:2
BOS - PHI: 4:3 (Barkley could not get past the Celtics)
ATL - CHI: 4:3 (Somehow Dominique had a very good game 7 against Air Jordan)
The Play-Offs - Conference Semifinals
The Houston Rockets have been the next opponent. And they crushed me in Game 1. I tweaked the defensive settings against the Hakeem The Dream and somehow have been able to ty the series with 2 games a piece. Than Magic happened: A 30+ Points game from Thurl Bailey and a 40point game from John Stockton pushed the Jazz into the finals. Where they meet the Atlanta Hawks who dispatched the Boston Celtics in 6 games. Maybe this is the parallel universe where Michael Jordan remains in the shadow of the Mail Man...
The Finals
Game 1: Utah wins 106-91. Karl Malone with 21 Points and 19 Rebounds. Puh
Game 2: Atlanta wins 94-91. Dominique with 41 points in 40 minutes...
Game 3: Utah 122-99. Karl Malone again dominating the boards with 22 rebounds
Game 4: Utah 88-84 nail-biter. Dominique had 31 points, but not enough
Game 5:Atlanta wins, 117 -107, Dominique again, 39 points
Game 6: Atlanta wins, 115-111, crushing defeat.
Game 7: Dominique over 50 points, Karl Malone disappears,...but Stockton saves the day with 37 points
Finals MVP: Karl Malone
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
watching the ESPN documentary of the Last Dance, I thought it would be great to re-run all the years leading up to that season. I found a great historic roster for the NBA 2k20 for PS4 featuring the 1989-90 season from frrfs and thought this would be the right starting point. Bulls not champion yet, a chance to see whether they ever three-peat and a chance to have a good Larry Bird / Magic Johnson series in there.
For the simulation I picked the following principles as a starting point (might have to change them later):
1. I will adopt one team per season and manage the team (playing time, transactions etc) and play a couple of games.
2. If that team does not make it through the season or there is another interesting storyline, I will adopt another team for the play-off run.
3. I will mismanage the expansion teams (drafts poorly as possible and sign horrible free agents) for the teams like the Vancouver Grizzlies, Toronto Reports until they actually join the league
4. I will transfer all Hornets to New Orleans Roster in the correct year and continue to mismanage the Charlotte team until the Bobcats return to the scene.
5. I start as the Sonics
6. I will let the computer draft, I will not mess with the draft order
7. I will use user created draft classes where they look better than the standard 2k20 draft classes from a completeness perspective
8. I will try to do a couple of Iconic trades (Barkley to the best offer from the Western Conference)
9. I am not decided yet, whether I will retire Michael Jordan for a couple of years
TheDukeOrange
0
23 Forum Posts
3 Blog Entries
4 News/Blog Comments
0 Reader Score Votes
0 Friends
0 Chalkboard Messages
0 Screenshots
0 Videos
4,466 Arena Visits
TheDukeOrange's Screenshots (0)
TheDukeOrange does not have any albums to display.
TheDukeOrange's Friends
Recent Visitors
The last 3 visitor(s) to this Arena were:
TheDukeOrange's Arena has had 4,466 visits
TheDukeOrange's Arena has had 4,466 visits
Working...