A Dynasty Of Our Own: 2012-2013 Oklahoma City Thunder ((Semi-Interactive Franchise))

[JustinT]

2012-2013

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Franchise Settings:
NBA 2K12
(Controlling all 30 teams to keep Trading + Rotations realistic.)
Games: 82
Difficulty: Superstar
Rosters: URB V2.1
Sliders: mkharshh
Quarter Length: 12 Mins
Sim Length: 12 Mins

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Frequently Asked Questions

Quote: Originally Posted by letsgocavs99

Great following! And just a Q, you said it was semi interactive, how are you going to do that?

I'm going to allow several roster decisions during the season to be voted upon by you guys. I'll also have pretty much the entire off-season run like a game of "NBA Head Coach", where-in you guys will have input on everything from who to train, draft decisions etc. I'm also going to make storylines out of several of the other teams news stories, this is an advantage of controlling all 30 teams. This way you guys will be able to mold the entire league, from whether to sign star players (howard, bynum) to extensions, trade disgruntled veterans, dismantle failing veteran teams, and the list goes on.

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Team Roster:

2012-2013 Oklahoma City Thunder Roster
#	NAME	POS	AGE	HT	WT	SALARY
4	Nick Collison	F-C	32	6-10	255	$2,929,332
35	Kevin Durant	F	24	6-9	235	$17,548,838
9	Serge Ibaka	F-C	23	6-10	235	$2,253,061
15	Reggie Jackson	G	22	6-3	208	$1,243,080
3	Perry Jones	F	21	6-11	235	$1,035,960
11	Jeremy Lamb	G-F	20	6-5	180	$2,020,200
25	DeAndre Liggins	G	24	6-6	209	$762,195
23	Kevin Martin	G	29	6-7	185	$12,939,675
6	Eric Maynor	G	25	6-3	175	$2,338,720
33	Daniel Orton	C	22	6-10	255	$762,195
5	Kendrick Perkins	C	28	6-10	270	$7,800,531
2	Thabo Sefolosha	G	28	6-7	215	$3,600,000
34	Hasheem Thabeet	C	25	7-3	263	$885,120

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Depth Chart:

Oklahoma City Thunder Depth Chart - 2013
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
PG	Russell Westbrook	Eric Maynor	Reggie Jackson
SG	Thabo Sefolosha	Kevin Martin
SF	Kevin Durant	Jeremy Lamb	DeAndre Liggins
PF	Serge Ibaka	Nick Collison	Perry Jones
C	Kendrick Perkins	Hasheem Thabeet	Daniel Orton

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Coaching Staff:

Head Coach: Scott Brooks
Assistant Coach: Maurice Cheeks

NBA Scout: Gary Reed
Draft Scouts: Dean Hamilton, Dillon Booker, Neil Brook

Trainer: Joe Sharpe

[JustinT]

AROUND THE LEAGUE SECTION

Season Preview Edition

Power Rankings

Miami Heat – The Heat are coming into this season as the defending champions. As of right now, I don’t think there’s a team that are as dangerous as them.

Oklahoma City Thunder – Offensively, I don’t think there’s a team in the league that can keep up with them. Even after the James Harden trade, they’re still behind the Heat as the best team.

Los Angeles Lakers – The Lakers have drastically improved with the additions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. However, one question still remains. Will they have the chemistry needed to become NBA champions?

San Antonio Spurs – Year-in and year-out, critics have written off the Spurs as contenders in the West. They have the pieces to make another run at the NBA championship. Question remains – will their age once again be the deciding factor this year?

Philadelphia 76ers – The acquisition of all-star center Andrew Bynum puts Philly in the discussion with the elite teams in the league. I expect blue-collar type of basketball with this group.

Denver Nuggets – The ‘Melo trade didn’t effect this team one bit. In fact, they’ve gotten better. The chemistry that this team has is unfathomable.

Boston Celtics – Whenever you have Doc Rivers as your head coach, you’re always discussed in the ‘elite’ category. Also, with all-star Rajon Rondo running the point, you’re going to have consistency within the offensive, and defensive game plan.

Indiana Pacers – With the loss of point guard Daren Collison, expect to see George Hill taking over the reigns. Also, expect to see Paul George have a breakout season.

Los Angeles Clippers – This group can score on any defense in the league. However, will they be able to stop the other team from scoring?

Memphis Grizzlies – This team reminds me of the 2004 Pistons group that upset the Los Angeles Lakers in dominating fashion. They’re a gritty, defensive bunch with Zach Randolph and Tony Allen as their best defenders. However, will the loss of O.J. Mayo effect this team in a big way?

Dallas Mavericks – I expect this offensive to be more efficient with the additions of Daren Collision and O.J. Mayo.

Brooklyn Nets – The move from New Jersey to Brooklyn with give this team a new, refreshed look. With Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson as your core leaders – expect major improvement from this team.

Minnesota Timberwolves – This will be a test for Ricky Rubio to show off his leadership skills when the going gets tough.

New York Knicks – With ‘Linsanity’ being over with, will this team be able to play team basketball?

Chicago Bulls – Derrick Rose. If's he's healthy then they're in the Top 5, but if he's not then they're in trouble.

Golden State Warriors – The future is bright with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes as the cornerstone if this franchise. With Mark Jackson at the helm, I see them growing as a team.

Utah Jazz – After sneaking into the playoffs as an 8th seed last season, I see the Jazz taking that next step forward in the Post-Jerry Sloan era.

Milwaukee Bucks – With Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis in the back-court, this duo will score in bunches. However, who’s going to step up and help contribute?

Atlanta Hawks – There’s question that they were the off-season winners. General manager Danny Ferry managed to get rid of Joe Johnson’s contract along with Marvin Williams. The question, however, still remains, “Will this be Josh Smith’s last year as a Hawk?”

Portland Trailblazers – With Damien Lillard and Meyers Leonard coming, I expect major improvement from this team. You also can’t forget about LaMarcus Aldridge. Don’t be surprised if Lillard triumphs Anthony David as Rookie of the Year.

New Orleans Hornets – Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers instantly makes this team better. I won’t be surprised if they find their way into the playoffs at seasons end.

Cleveland Cavaliers – The Cavs are heading in the right direction with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters in the backcourt. The addition of Tyler Zeller will make this team better.

Sacramento Kings – The young core of Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins, Thomas Robinson and Jimmer Fredette will help the Kings out of their sorrows. The key to their success is that Evans is going to have to stay healthy in order for this team to be competitive.

Washington Wizards – We'll have to see what John Wall, Jon Vessely and Bradley Beal are made of.

Toronto Raptors – I don’t see this team being competitive this year. It’s going to take a while for Valenciunas to learn the NBA game.

Houston Rockets – Despite the acquisition of James Harden, this team still have holes in their roster.

Detroit Pistons – This is going to be a year of development. This team will be dangerous in the near future.

Phoenix Suns – This is going to be a year of transition for this young Suns team. Kendell Marshall is going to be a key component in the offense.

Orlando Magic – This team isn’t going to be competitive with the loss of perennial all-star center Dwight Howard. This is the beginning of their rebuilding effort.

Charlotte Bobcats – This team improved over the course of the off-season with the additions of Ramon Sessions and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. However, they’re coming off a season in which they went 7-59. The worst winning percentage in NBA history.



REPEAT?

Erik Spoelstra wants no part of the Miami Heat's "repeat" bid.

He doesn't even want to use the word, for fear of what that might signify to his team and their chances of putting together a run of championships during the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh experience.

He has philosophical reasons for shying away from using the word, something about this being a "new team" and a "new journey" and all of this other metaphysical coaching stuff that makes Wade smile.
According to Spoelstra, his team is simply trying to win another title, not solidify legacies or cement reputations or punch Hall of Fame tickets.

"Wait a minute, let me get this straight. He's not saying repeat, but he's going to say we're trying to win another title?" Wade asked before looking off into the distance and smiling. "Alright, I'll roll with him. That's our leader. I'm going to use it to. We're going to try and win another title."

The only reason the Heat could afford a lighthearted moment like that at Media Day is because they are locked and loaded for a repeat -- sorry, Coach Spoelstra -- bid. The team that limped to the finish line on the shoulders of the regular season and The Finals MVP, James, looks slightly different as this relatively new editoin heads into its third year.

Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis have joined the mix. With no other team in the Eastern Conference making a move seismic enough to alter the balance of power, the Heat have to focus on maintaining control there before worrying about challenges from the Lakers and Thunder in the West.


Award Predictions

• MVP: LeBron James, Heat. He should feel possessive of this award, and no one else should be able to lay a hand on it for the next few years.

• Rookie of the Year: Anthony Davis, Hornets. No one has had a better head start: At 19, he has won an NCAA championship and an Olympic gold medal, and he is playing for a terrific coach in New Orleans' Monty Williams.

• Coach of the Year: George Karl, Nuggets. He can't claim to have a traditional high-scoring superstar on his roster, but Karl's bullet-train Nuggets will be challenging the big names all season.

• Defensive Player of the Year: Dwight Howard, Lakers. It is going to be very difficult to score around the Lakers' basket this season.

• Most Improved Player: Kawhi Leonard, Spurs. A strong rookie season will serve as the foundation to a breakout year as the Spurs continue to reinvent themselves.

• Sixth Man Award: Jason Kidd, Knicks. If I'm right about the Knicks as a conference finalist this season, then no bench player will serve a more important role than Kidd. New York is depending on him to marry the games of Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire.

• Executive of the Year: Mitch Kupchak, Lakers. Early voting should be enabled for this award.

[JustinT]

Four's A Crowd, Three's A Crown
OKC 2012-2013 Season Preview


The Thunder will look for an NBA title with their new Big 3 (Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka), after sending Harden to Houston.

After reaching the NBA Finals the Thunder knew the summer would bring about the time to make crucial decisions that will affect the team for years to come. The three headed monster of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden posed problems for teams who had slower point guards and a back court that couldn’t match their play making and scoring ability.

However the team not wanting to offer Harden a max contract decided right before the season to trade Harden to the Houston Rockets in return acquiring scorer Kevin Martin and rookie Jeremy Lamb. This trade in the short term will see the Thunder working to develop chemistry with Martin while working him in the system and finding who will provide scoring off the bench. If nothing else they knew they could count on average 15 points minimum from Harden off the bench and rely on him being an additional playmaker alongside Westbrook. With that luxury gone the Thunder do now have a professional scorer, a guy who has averaged 18 ppg his entire career and can shoot with the best of them.

Where the Thunder are going to struggle is the defensive end. Martin isn’t a player known for his defense, and while Kendrick Perkins has slimmed down, he’s not been the force that was expected when he was traded for. Along with their defense struggling in the NBA Finals against the Heat, they got minimal offensive production from their front court of Perkins and Serg Ibaka. If they want to get out of the Western Conference and attain that Larry O’Brien Trophy they’re going to need those two to be some kind of threat so opposing defenses can’t slant their coverage to cutting off driving lanes of Westbrook and Durant. In the San Antonio Spurs series Ibaka had a career scoring outburst, which caused their big men to have to play him honest. As long as teams are playing them honest they can’t cut off driving lanes, or slide double teams easier.

The Thunder will be at the top of the conference when it’s all said and done, but they’re going to need some help from players who have not been high pressure situations. Eric Maynor who’s coming off a reconstructed knee will be looked at to pick up some of the slack the Harden leaves behind. Rookies Perry Jones and Jeremy Lamb who won’t be expected to provide much early on, as the season progresses one of them will need to give them something off the bench. It doesn’t have to be something quantified by stats, but a player that keeps the flow of momentum going. Hasheem Thabeet will give them some front court depth, and will allow Perkins and Ibaka to be more aggressive knowing they have Thabeet to come off the bench to hold down the fort.

It will take some time to see ultimately see if the Harden trade was a success or tragedy, but it’s definitely a move that doesn’t send them to druthers of the league.

[JustinT]

ESPN NBA 2012-2013 Season Preview

• NBA Pre-Season Power Rankings
  
• Repeat?: Miami Heat Look For Another Title
  
• NBA Award Predictions

[JustinT]

THUNDER TIME!
Thunder Geared Up For Season Opener Against Spurs




Every year in the NBA is a new journey. The Thunder’s journey starts tonight.

Its opening night of the 2012-13 season for the Thunder, and as the team prepares to battle the Spurs in San Antonio tonight, there was an opportunity for Head Coach Scott Brooks to take a step back and realize how fortunate he and his players are to start another year in the NBA. The Spurs began their season on Wednesday night with a hard-fought road win against the New Orleans Hornets, and tonight the Thunder hopes to get its regular season jump-started with a victory of its own.

“It’s always exciting anytime you start an NBA season,” Brooks said. “One, that you’re on an NBA team, it’s a privilege to be in this league as a player and as a coach. We have a good group of guys to coach. I’m excited about it, and what a challenge we have- one of the best teams on the road.”

Team leaders like Nick Collison, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are familiar with what a season of Thunder basketball looks like, but newcomers Kevin Martin, Perry Jones, Jeremy Lamb, DeAndre Liggins, Hasheem Thabeet and Daniel Orton have all been brought into the fold. Starting this summer when Durant took Jones under his wing and continuing all the way to this weekend when players like Kendrick Perkins reached out to the newly acquired Martin, the Thunder has made the new guys feel like a part of the family.

“I feel fresh, it’s very exciting to be in a winning atmosphere like this,” Martin said. “I feel like I’m with the team, I just have tunnel vision myself right now. We have our eye on the prize and it starts tonight. We feel like we have a very talented squad and now it’s just about getting out there and finding the chemistry and waiting for that one game where it all clicks together.”

It is important that every Thunder player meshes with the core and understands the team’s expectations, their role and how they fit into the puzzle Brooks will assemble as the season goes along. That assimilation process begins fully tonight as the Thunder faces a familiar opponent. After meeting up multiple times during the regular season each year and six times in the Western Conference Finals last season, the Thunder and Spurs are well-versed in one another’s playbooks.

“We all know San Antonio, you know they’re going to play hard,” Brooks said. “You know they’re going to pass the ball and are going to just play solid basketball for 48 minutes. We’re excited about the challenge.”

The Thunder will start Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha, Durant, Serge Ibaka and Perkins as it did for the majority of last season and during the Playoffs, while continuing to tinker with the second unit rotation that is headed by Collison and Eric Maynor, who will assume backup point guard duties to start the season, with the chance of playing alongside Reggie Jackson in a two-guard look.

New wrinkles to the offensive and defensive sides of the ball are important for both teams because of how much they know about one anothers' schemes but really, it comes down to execution.

“There’s no question that both teams are familiar with each other,” Brooks said. “There aren’t going to be a lot of tricks thrown back and forth. We change a few things as the year goes on and as the game goes on. What they do, you know they’re doing it, but they do it with such great execution and precision and effort.”

On defense, the Thunder looks to be physical and disrupt the timing of the Spurs sets in order to prevent Head Coach Greg Popovich’s club from getting to optimal spots on the floor. The key to being an efficient and effective offensive team is to be able to execute your sets even if the opposing team knows exactly what is coming. That is one goal for the Thunder tonight, which Martin, who over the past eight years has seen plenty of the Spurs, explained at shootaround ahead of tonight’s season-opening matchup.

“You just have to be aggressive and take what they give you,” Martin said. “We’re all very high IQ players and they are the same. So you just have to take what they give you and just be ready for coach Popovich to have a master plan, and hopefully our master plan is a little bit better.”

[JustinT]

60 Ways To Make A Record
Durant Breaks Franchise Record With 60-Point Outburst In Season Opener



Kevin Durant made only one statement to the media after his franchise record-breaking 60-point performance against the San Antonio Spurs last night:

"This is just the season opener."

With that Kevin Durant displayed just why the fans of Oklahoma City have fallen head over heels for him. After helping the Thunder claw their way to a 102-95 win over the Spurs, Durant didn't gloat and he didn't boast. He simply carried on as if it was business as usual.

That's exactly how Durant handled his business on the court against San Antonio, in an orderly business-like fashion. He wasn't slashing to the basket and drawing fouls, he was coming off screens and knocking down shots with precision. Mr. Durant took 35 attempts from the field on the night, and somehow made a staggering 24 of them. That's a field goal percentage of 68%, a beautiful model of consistency and precision on the offensive end.

Russell Westbrook also pitched in hugely for the Thunder on the night. Russell scored 23-points on the night and also dished out 15 assists. Where Westbrook really shined was on the defensive end, where he pulled down 6 defensive rebounds and picked the Spurs' pockets a total of 7 times. That's a great stat line for him to start the season.

While Durant's performance was fantastic, the game itself was extremely entertaining as well. With animosity lingering, and a bad taste left in their mouths, the Spurs seemed determined to exact some revenge after they were sent packing by OKC in last year's playoffs.

The veteran San Antonio squad was led on the night by their star backcourt of Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker. The two combined for 47 points and 6 assists, but a lack of scoring from both Tim Duncan and the team's bench ultimately did them in once Overtime rolled around in this one.

[ThunderStruck87]

Nice game with KD. I've broke 50 a few times with him, but never 60+. Hopefully the games stay competitive. I got about 15-20 games into my Thunder Association and started beating everyone by 20+ and the bad teams by 30-40. Tried a few different slider sets and didn't have much success.

But anyway, definitely following man.

[letsgocavs99]

Great following! And just a Q, you said it was semi interactive, how are you going to do that?