Crown Champions : An Expansion MyLeague

[SilverDay]

Breaking: NBA Commisioner Adam Silver Critical After Car Accident

We aren't clear on the details yet, but we are getting word that the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, Adam Silver, has been involved in a serious car accident in New Orleans, Louisiana on his way to the league's annual all-star game. It is unclear of his status at the moment, but sources are saying he has been taken to Ochsner Medical Center and is in unstable and critical condition. We will keep you updated as we get more news.

It wasn't long until the league itself confirmed the fears of every fan of the NBA. Many of the league's players responded on social media as well.

Silver was named the All-Star Game MVP that year with no game being played, a move seen as highly respectful to the man who had given up so much of his life to the game.

The mood around the league was a sombre one. For the remainder of the season, each team wore a "Silver Lining" patch on their jersey commemorating the commissioner. The mantra meant to shift attention to the positive contributions of Silver's life and came accompanied with an ad series paying tribute to the man's many accomplishments. The league went so far as to donate all revenues of the t-shirts and patched jerseys they sold to MADD, as a drunk driver had caused the accident that had so quickly taken the life of the commissioner.

The show must go on, though. Discussions started ramping up quickly about who might serve as Silver's replacement. Most of the discussion centred around Mark Tatum, Silver's Deputy Commissioner. Tatum, however, made it clear that it was not a foregone conclusion and if the league, including him, found someone who they thought would be better for the organisation's development then he would have no problem stepping aside. Time went on and many names were brought up. Michael Jordan, Doris Burke, Ernie Johnson and Greg Poppovich were all brought up as fun ideas on fan forums and Twitter, but in the end a bigger name then them all came out of retirement to take on Silver's mantle.

"I'll be honest. I realise I am not everyone's first choice for this position, but let me assure you I will devote my life to this league fully and make decisions that benefit the NBA and its fans as a whole. Let me be clear, I will not bring politics into what I see as an apolitical organisation. I will not let my personal beliefs impact how I run this league. I will also try my hardest to make sure my bias for the greatest team in the NBA, my Chicago Bulls, does not impact the decisions we make moving forwards."

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, was certainly a polarising decision. It had been approved by the owners, however, many of whom had Republican leanings. He had more administrative experience than anyone and from all reports had actively pursued the job and showed a real passion for the sport he would soon be a visible ambassador of.

He worked remarkably quickly, as well. Before the regular season had even ended he had made several moves to advance his vision of the new NBA. His first was a renegotiation of the jersey deal with Nike, which now provided for lower rates to fans buying the jerseys as well as the option for a free rebrand paid for and designed by Nike themselves for each team. On the subject of jerseys, Obama also worked to secure and approve advertisement patches for every team for the coming 17-18 season. Most importantly, however, he also announced the expansion of the NBA to thirty-two teams. That process he promised, would be completed before the start of the next season of NBA basketball.

Where they would be, however, he did not immediately announce. Seattle was looked at as a given and one of the primary motivators of such a rapid expansion deal. It was a huge untapped market, and would also be seen as a very popular move by the fanbase. Not to mention, its theoretical exclusion would likely produce an incredible amount of backlash.

The second was bitterly argued on the internet and by league executives, who were now in the position of courting cities and wealthy businessmen who might be interested in an NBA franchise. Reports circulated that there were five major competitors for the team. Las Vegas, with its brand new T-Mobile arena and its surge of new professional sports teams, was an obvious option. Louisville, a mecca of basketball and its history with the Colonels provided a decent option for the NBA. The two largest Canadian cities after Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, were two strong options, considering the commercial success of the Raptors in the last few years. Lastly, Mexico City, believed to be a solid option by the late Silver, was also considered for its massive size and the ability to expand NBA basketball to an entirely new country.

[SilverDay]

The 2016-2017 Season

With a new commissioner at the helm, the league continued. Very few games would be played before the trade deadline, but it still managed to be a compelling time for any NBA fan is almost all of the trading rumours came true. With three contenders mixing up their teams in hopes of a playoff push against the Warriors. The Sixers were active as well, trading Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot for Allen Crabbe and Nerlens Noel for Jordan Clarkson while also picking up some 2nd round picks in the process. The Blazers were also finally able to assemble a Big Three in Rip City as well by picking up Brook Lopez.

The fortunes of teams seemed to shift at the trade deadline. In the West, the Trail Blazers, Suns finished the year out much stronger while the Jazz collapsed after some injuries and found themselves out of the playoffs.

Surprisingly, the Warriors started to slip. There were discussions by the end of the season that the team chemistry they had seemingly created throughout the season to that point was starting to erode with talks that Curry or Durant might eat up some of the other's contract. They ended up tied for the top of the West with the Spurs but managed to edge out homecourt.

In the East, the Bulls rallied from their dysfunction and shooting woes after shifting Denzel Valentine back up from the D-League and into the starting line-up. Boston, Washington and Atlanta, on the other hand, all seemed to slip in the latter half of the season. The Hawks and Wizards even slipped out of the very evenly-matched Eastern Conference.

NBA Standings - Updated: Apr 12, 2017
EASTERN STANDINGS	W	L	GB	DIV	CONF
Cleveland Cavaliers	63	19	--	16-4	41-9
Toronto Raptors	55	27	8.0	16-0	37-13
Chicago Bulls	49	33	14.0	12-8	33-17
Indiana Pacers	46	36	17.0	12-8	30-20
Boston Celtics	46	36	17.0	10-6	29-21
Orlando Magic	41	41	22.0	11-5	26-24
Miami Heat	39	43	24.0	5-11	23-27
New York Knicks	38	44	25.0	6-10	24-26
Detroit Pistons	36	46	27.0	11-9	24-26
Philadelphia 76ers	36	46	27.0	4-12	23-27
Milwaukee Bucks	34	48	29.0	7-13	20-30
Washington Wizards	33	49	30.0	7-9	22-28
Atlanta Hawks	32	50	31.0	9-7	23-27
Brooklyn Nets	28	54	35.0	4-12	17-33
Charlotte Hornets	27	55	36.0	8-8	17-33
WESTERN STANDINGS	W	L	GB	DIV	CONF
Golden State Warriors	59	23	--	11-5	38-12
San Antonio Spurs	59	23	--	15-5	37-13
Los Angeles Clippers	50	32	9.0	9-7	29-21
Oklahoma City Thunder	50	32	9.0	9-11	30-20
Memphis Grizzlies	48	34	11.0	12-8	30-20
Portland Trail Blazers	48	34	11.0	12-4	29-21
Houston Rocks	47	35	12.0	8-12	28-22
Phoenix Suns	47	35	12.0	10-6	28-22
Utah Jazz	43	39	16.0	10-6	23-27
Denver Nuggets	42	40	17.0	10-6	24-26
Dallas Mavericks	41	41	18.0	8-12	20-21
Minnesota Timberwolves	39	43	20.0	7-9	21-29
New Orleans Pelicans	36	46	23.0	8-12	22-28
Sacramento Kings	33	49	26.0	8-8	21-29
Los Angeles Lakers	29	53	30.0	2-14	12-38

By the end of the 2016-2017 Season expansion plans had already made large headway, though a lot of the details had been obscured from the public. Still, details were starting to come out, including the name and logos of each of the new franchises. Unsurprisingly, Seattle was given the name Sonics. The second expansion team was awarded to Louisville, KY. In respect for the horse racing tradition of the city, they would be called the Louisville Crowns.

The GM's of each team were named as well to begin scouting out potential talent that might find their way to Seattle or Louisville. The Seattle Sonics would be GM'd by former processor Sam Hinkie, who was also named President of Basketball Operations. The Kentucky Crowns seemed to shy away from experience and ended up going with Cole Parker, a young 30-something who had been a scout in the Orlando Magic staff. An unorthodox choice, but Mr. Parker had supposedly impressed the owner's a great deal during the interview process.

[SilverDay]

2016-2017 Lottery and Playoffs

As the season wrapped up, excitement for the playoffs intensified. Playoff speculation wasn't the only talk around the league, though. Almost every team's fans were debating heatedly online, talking about which players the teams should protect in the upcoming Expansion Draft. Some teams even conducted Social Media pools asking the fans who they would want the team to keep. No one expected these polls to factor into the decisions of executives, but they were a fun exercise for many fans, especially those who found their teams out of the playoffs.

That wouldn't be until after the playoffs were over, though. The first round was shaping up to be relatively interesting compared to past years. While most of the match-ups went as expected, the Rockets upset the two seed Spurs in a shock that sources claim was particularly upsetting to coach Gregg Popovich. The Conference semi match-up between the Bulls and Raptors was an interesting one as well, with the Bulls surprisingly sweeping the Magic and the Raptors being pushed to seven games by the Miami Heat.

This streak continued for the Bulls, who ended up beating the Raptors comfortably in six games. They would not find the Cavaliers in the Finals, with the Pacers pulling out a surprise seven-game upset. On the other side of the bracket, things held to form with the Warriors squeaking by in a seven-game series against the Thunder that was filled with animosity. The Clippers dominated the Harden-led Rockets and were rested going into the Western Conference Finals.

Before the Finals contenders were to be decided, the NBA lottery would take place. This was preceded by a coin flip between the Seattle Sonics and Kentucky Crowns with GMs Sam Hinkie and Cole Parker serving as representatives. Both had been very open with the media on their plans with the team, with Parker even naming Hinkie as an influence on what he would be trying to do with the team. Hinkie won the coin flip, meaning he would have the choice of highest chances in the lottery, or the first pick in the expansion draft. He chose to want to try his odds in the lottery and opted to have the most ping-pong balls in the draft lottery. He didn't win the privelege of choosing first, though.

NBA Draft - Round 1 Recap
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	Hornets
2	Sonics
3	Celtics (via BKN)
4	Crowns
5	76ers (via LAL)
6	Hawks
7	Wizards
8	Kings
9	Bucks
10	Pistons
11	Pelicans
12	76ers
13	Empire (via MIN)
14	Mavericks
15	Nuggets
16	Jazz
17	Empire
18	Heat
19	Magic
20	Nets (via BOS)
21	Pacers
22	Rockets
23	Suns
24	Nets (via POR)
25	Nuggets (via MEM)
26	Bulls
27	Thunder
28	Raptors
29	Spurs
30	Jazz (via GS)
31	Cavaliers
32	Magic (via LAC)

To draw ratings to the lottery, the league decided to unveil the logos, courts and jerseys of each team participating in the lottery as well. This was especially exciting for the two new Franchises as well as, New York fans, who got a surprise rename to the New York Empire.


At this point, analysts had all but guaranteed a Warriors title. It seemed like their chemistry issues had mostly been fixed. Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony had other plans, though, both going off against the consensus favourites and coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the series to sweep the remainder of the games and close out the series in 6. The Bulls continued their strong playoff run by battling out against the Pacers in a gruelling seven game series. They would meet the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA Finals in a matchup no one expected.

Spoiler

• Hornets
• Sonics
• Celtics
• Crowns
• 76ers
• Hawks
• Wizards
• Kings
• Bucks
• Pistons
• Pelicans
• Empire
• Mavericks
• Nuggets
• Jazz
  

The Sonics jerseys were well received, but the Kentucky jerseys repping the Louisville red and UK racing stripes were loved by the hometown fans. It was a good start for the Crowns. The draft was loaded enough as well that Parker was seemingly not worried about being able to find a potential future star.

It was one for the ages as well, with Wade going up against his off-court buddies and '03 classmates Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul. Wade had Butler on his side, but Anthony and Paul had Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and unfulfilled championship ambitions. They were hungry, and they won the to-be-classic series in an excellent seven games, with Carmelo hitting a game-winning high post fadeaway in game 6 to tie the series up.

[FSanchez12]

Very interested, but the poor T'Wolves lol giving up Dunn, Jones, and a future first for Crawford and Austin Rivers. Also, Chris Paul went in the 2005 draft instead of '03. Still interested to see how this goes. Love the Crowns colors.


#BringTheNBAToPittsburgh

[SilverDay]

Quote: Originally Posted by FSanchez12

Very interested, but the poor T'Wolves lol giving up Dunn, Jones, and a future first for Crawford and Austin Rivers. Also, Chris Paul went in the 2005 draft instead of '03. Still interested to see how this goes. Love the Crowns colors. #BringTheNBAToPittsburgh

Don't feel TOO bad for the TWolves. Austin Rivers is somehow an 83 PG already. And yeah but 03 classmates felt less silly than saying Banana Boaters.

[SilverDay]

Quote:

The Rules: Each expansion team will select 14 players from the other thirty teams in the league. Each current team will be able to protect up to 8 of their signed players and upcoming restricted free agents. Each team may select no more than a single player from each team. Order will switch each round. The Crowns will have the first pick in the first round, the second pick in the second round and so on.

It was fifteen minutes before the expansion draft when the phone at the centre of the conference room rang. Christian Willis, my assistant GM picked up, chuckled for a second, before handing the phone over to me. Theoretically, GM's could trade assets to make sure we don't select one of their players or for one of the unprotected players of another team, but we weren't expecting anything like that so soon. Maybe it was the Commissioner calling us to let us know how much time was left? I grabbed the phone.

"Pick me."

A french accent could be heard on the other end of the line. I cupped the phone to my chest and looked up in confusion at Willis. He shrugged. "Who is this?" I asked.

"My name is Guerschon Yabusele. I'm the future star of your team."

Now it was my turn to chuckle a bit. "And why do you think that? Mr. Yabusele." He was on our board, but certainly not our top spot. 'French Draymond', some scouts called him, but that didn't explain why he fell to the middle of the first round in a weak draft class like last year's. He hadn't even played in an NBA game yet.

"You're going to pick a guard with your fourth pick. I'm perfect in the pick-and-roll, I can anchor your defence if he screws up and I can run the floor in transition with him no problem. Whether you get Smith, Ball, Fultz or Monk, I'm your guy."

I had to admit. He had a point, and he wasn't someone I had spent a lot of time looking at. I put the phone to my chest again, asking Willis to put up some game tape of Yabusele for after the phone call.

"I appreciate the call Mr. Yabus-" I was interrupted. "I mean it, sir. You're going to look like a genius for taking me." Then the line went dead. I put it down on the receiver and gestured at the projector, indicating for Willis to run the game tape.

Not five minutes later, I got out of my chair and walked over to our board, before the phone rang again. I picked up. It was Hinkie.

"What do you want for the first pick?" The question was direct. I appreciated that with how much time was left. "Think you're going to get Nurkic, that easy?" I said light-heartedly. He paused for a second. "Right. Nurkic. We'll give you two and three for one and four." I declined quickly and without even giving a counter-offer or waiting for mine, he hung up the phone.

I walked back to our board, grabbed Yabusele's name and slid it to the top. "He was right. He's our guy."



I'm told the look on Hinkie's face was priceless when Yabusele's name was announced by Obama up on the Madison Square Garden stage. I didn't see it because I was busy answering the call of an overjoyed young man who knew someone had faith in him.

"Thank you, Mr. Parker. You won't regret it." I laughed. "You better hope I don't. We'll be in touch soon and get you out here ASAP. We don't want to stash you this year like the Celtics did last year. I'm assuming that's ok." He agreed happily and the rest of the details were worked out by our administrative staff while I continued to focus on the expansion draft. Unsurprisingly, the media praised Hinkie for not only getting the best odds in the draft but also landing who they believed was the crown jewel of the players available, Jusuf Nurkic.

I was happy with our end result. Hinkie and I had both gone after high-upside young guys unsurprisingly but I managed to check off most of the guys who I thought I'd be able to get.

The draft was in a few days, and I had purposely picked up more bigs than guards. Our future star guard would be found in the draft and I may as well take as many chances on finding a big man to start along with him. While Ball, Fultz or Smith Jr. were all high on my board, Monk was our primary candidate. We wanted to make sure the Crowns felt like a Kentucky team, and drafting a star Kentucky alum would certainly help with that. It would also help us in the courting of Mr. John Calipari, something the owner and I both really wanted.

[SilverDay]

Thought I'd go over my process in how I did this as well.

For some reason, I couldn't find how to take control of an expansion team once a league had already started so I basically engineered my own way to do it.

What I Did:

• I went into the 2016-2017 Season, controlling every team, and added two expansion teams from the start.
• I dropped every player signed in that expansion draft and re-signed them to their old teams
• To make sure the new teams were still garbage, I signed the worst free agents to each of them.
• Simmed until they took the bottom two spots in the league (only took me one save).
• While still controlling every team in the league, I rebranded them so that they would have the Nike logo and Ad to go along with the storyline
• I made a few trades that seemed realistic for this season and which fortunately had a huge effect on the 2016-2017 season
• Went through every team's contracts using spotrac.com and manually decided which players and RFA's the teams would protect
• Went through a pen and paper snake Expansion draft. Because Seattle had first pick in the draft, Kentucky took first pick in the expansion draft.
• To avoid me snaking up all the prospects, I had Seattle approach the draft with the same strategy as me and essentially "played myself" in the expansion draft
• I controlled every team in the draft so that they would pick players that suited their squads. (Used EmbraceThePace's 2017 class. Will be using his 2018 as well.)
• I inserted Guerschon Yabusele, creating him using a youtube tutorial that I found, into Embrace's Draft Class as a 53 overall so I could easily sign him later.
• I manually dropped all the players that the expansion teams picked
• I then picked them all up in the Free Agency manually and started the bidding for the rest of the free agents and teams on Day 3 when I was able to sign everyone the team picked
• After Day 3, I relinquished control of all teams except the Kentucky Crowns
• I edited Guerschon Yabusele up to a fair if somewhat skewed overall as I want to make him one of the stars of this dynasty.

Onto my self-imposed rules. My goal with these rules is to make the dynasty semi-realistic over anything else. I won't be blatantly ripping off CPU GMs even though that can't happen in real life, simply because I don't want a brand new expansion team to win the title on year 2. We'll be struggling for at least a few years and I like it like that.

My Rules:

• I will not be editing any player's overall rating UNLESS it suits the story as it did with Guerschon. This includes opponent's players. I might throw some random draft steals onto a team to liven up the dynasty.
• I will be playing the first quarter of the first game and every third game after that so that I get experience with the team, build storylines, and also move the dynasty along at a decent pace. It will be Hall of Fame difficulty
• I will not be using Trade Finder, including the offers I get in drafts. I will have to manually set up every trade I make. I find it is harder to make blatantly one-sided deals this way as the CPU will foten accept offers it makes in Trade Finder that it wouldn't if you actually propose them.
• All simulation sliders are at their default. I may change them as I see fit depending on how I'm finding development, regression, etc.

I also want to take suggestions from you guys. If you have ideas for storylines that I can introduce into the dynasty, I want to hear them so we can all have more fun with it.

[SilverDay]

DRAFT DAY

I'd been to a draft room before, but never as the guy. The one to call the shots. The one who would make the final decision and who would be responsible for drafting a star or a bust. I had been on the phone all day and on my computer all night. For the last few weeks, all I had been doing was watching game tape, going over scouting reports and sussing out deals on trade machine while I repeatedly hung up the phone on opposing GM's who thought they could swindle the new guy. No, Ainge. I don't want to trade you the fourth pick for Amir Johnson and two second-rounders.

Our board was pretty clear, Markelle Fultz was our top guy. In our scouts' minds, he had the highest upside and was the most NBA-ready. Next was Malik Monk. He could be an elite scorer on the next level and his 47 point game against UNC was proof of that. Not only that, but he would be a UK alum which would be perfect to attract a crowd for home games.

The crowd was absolutely shocked with the first pick, though. There had been some chatter about Charlotte moving down, as they already had a star quality point guard, but that did not happen. Instead, they decided to use the first pick to try and fill a hole in their line-up by drafting injury-prone and college non-factor Harry Giles. There were a few boos, but it was a Charlotte pick so maybe not as many as there was deserved.

Next was Hinkie's first pick as head of the Sonics and he didn't disappoint. Thinking about it, Fultz was pretty much a sure thing for the Sonics to draft had he fallen to them and they wasted no time picking up the Washington stud. I was disappointed, but Fultz was always a pipe dream. I still felt like our team would be very happy with Monk.

Josh Jackson went to the Celtics, who were apparently unhappy with Jaylen Brown's performance and were confident in Isaiah Thomas. It was our move, and suddenly a move we were confident on felt more difficult to pin down in the moment. Do we go with Ball or Smith Jr? Maybe there's a reason they're higher rated right now. I took a deep breath. And the phone rang.

"Parker. It's Sam." Oh good. We were on a first name basis now. "I know Fultz looked good to you. We're proposing Fultz and Nurkic for Yabusele, your 2nd round pick and the number four pick." I paused for a second. It'd certainly be a popular move, but Yabusele was too much to ask for. "Counter-offer, Mr. Hinkie. Zubac the four and 2nd rounder for Fultz and your 2nd rounder next year." He hung up. He didn't want the fourth pick. He wanted Guerschon.

"With the fourth pick in the NBA Draft, the Kentucky Crowns with their first pick in franchise history select Malik Monk." It was the right call, and seeing Obama put that cap on Malik's head felt good. But the draft wasn't over. We tried to piece a few more deals together for picks, but they all seemed to fall through. We ended up picking the Small Forward out of Ohio State, Keita Bates-Diop in the second round, but he'd be lucky if he cracked the rotation even on our team.

The Draftboard:

NBA Draft - Round 1 Recap
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	Charlotte Hornets	Harry Giles	PF	6'10"	220
2	Seattle Sonics	Markelle Fultz	PG	6'4"	190
3	Boston Celtics (via BKN)	Josh Jackson	SF	6'8"	205
4	Kentucky Crowns	Malik Monk	SG	6'3"	200
5	Philadelphia 76ers (via LAL)	Dennis Smith Jr.	PG	6'2"	195
6	Atlanta Hawks	Jayson Tatum	SF	6"8'	205
7	Washington Wizards	Ivan Rabb	PF	6"10'	220
8	Sacramento Kings	Lonzo Ball	PG	6"6'	190
9	Milwaukee Bucks	De'Aaron Fox	PG	6"3'	175
10	Detroit Pistons	Jonathan Isaac	SF	6"10'	210
11	New Orleans Pelicans	Bam Adebayo	PF	6"10'	255
12	Philadelphia 76ers	Alonzo Trier	SG	6"4'	205
13	New York Empire (via MIN)	O.G. Anunoby	SF	6"8'	235
14	Dallas Mavericks	Marques Bolden	C	6"11'	250
15	Dallas Nuggets	Terrance Ferguson	SG	6"7'	185
16	Utah Jazz	Jarrett Allen	C	6"10'	235
17	New York Empire	Frank Ntilikina	PG	6"5'	190
18	Miami Heat	Lauri Markkanen	PF	7"0'	230
19	Orlando Magic	Kyle Kuzma	SF	6"9'	220
20	Brooklyn Nets (via BOS)	Edmond Sumner	PG	6"5'	170
21	Indiana Pacers	Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk	SG	6"8'	205
22	Houston Rockets	T.J. Leaf	PF	6"10'	225
23	Phoenix Suns	Thomas Bryant	C	6"10'	255
24	Brooklyn Nets (via POR)	Jaron Blossomgame	SF	6"8'	220
25	Denver Nuggets (via MEM)	Isaiah Hartenstein	PF	6"11'	245
26	Chicago Bulls	Jonathan Jeanne	C	7"2'	195
27	Oklahoma City Thunder	V.J. Beachem	SF	6"8'	200
28	Toronto Raptors	Caleb Swanigan	PF	6"8'	250
29	San Antonio Spurs	Melo Trimble	PG	6"2'	190
30	Utah Jazz (via GS)	Tyler Lydon	PF	6"9'	220
31	Cleveland Cavaliers	Jalen Brunson	PG	6"2'	200
32	Orlando Magic (via LAC)	Dwayne Bacon	SG	6"7'	220