How’s your franchise going? NBA 2K24 thread

[ggsimmonds]

For those that play most of their games or who otherwise have played a large number of games, what are you seeing on the injury front?

Its January 1st in my season and I've had 2 injuries -- both bruised hips that lasted 1-2 weeks.

[JAY_D1]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

For those that play most of their games or who otherwise have played a large number of games, what are you seeing on the injury front? Its January 1st in my season and I've had 2 injuries -- both bruised hips that lasted 1-2 weeks.

Injuries every damn game, so I had to update the settings on it.

MJ came down with a season ending injury in March in 1987, frustrating and the Bulls went and tanked lol Time to draft Olden Polynice lol

[Cyrus09]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

For those that play most of their games or who otherwise have played a large number of games, what are you seeing on the injury front? Its January 1st in my season and I've had 2 injuries -- both bruised hips that lasted 1-2 weeks.

I would say I get a injury every 2 games, but rarely longer then a week. Weirdly nearly all of them are hip injuries.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by JAY_D1

Injuries every damn game, so I had to update the settings on it. MJ came down with a season ending injury in March in 1987, frustrating and the Bulls went and tanked lol Time to draft Olden Polynice lol

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyrus09

I would say I get a injury every 2 games, but rarely longer then a week. Weirdly nearly all of them are hip injuries.

Sounds like maybe I'm just getting lucky then. I didn't want to raise the injury slider and then it create a never ending parade of injuries

[aimlessgun]

Hey all. Glad to see this thread going for yet another year

I'm still on my 2k23 save, now in the 2073 playoffs, so we've hit the 50 year mark. Longest I've ever gone in a franchise is 60 years, might exceed that in this save.

However I've been spending more time per year in the last couple decades, and getting more hands on interfering with CPU teams that aren't the 2 I manage (Blazers/Bulls). Particularly in trying to foster good opposition so that the league isn't overly dominated by the user teams, and it seems to be working.

One big thing is making sure good teams actually use their bird rights and RFA to keep their talent together above the luxury tax. My personal rule not to exceed the tax was intended to be a decent handicap but in practice the CPU teams usually avoided going deep into the tax themselves. Now there are more super teams that at least have very high total OVRs, even if the CPU doesn't necessarily understand fit. I've also been a bit more active in tweaking CPU team coaching settings and assigned plays if they are obviously terrible, though I always worry I may accidentally make them play worse since I'm not watching those teams play all the time like my user managed ones ><


Currently my Bulls are up 2-1 in the 2nd round against the New York Knicks, which in this timeline is a storied rivalry, as they have both been frequent contenders in the last 15 years and this will be their 10th playoff meeting in that span (the Knicks having won 6 of those meetings).

The Knicks are led by PF/C Yao Zheng, representing another way I've tried to make the league tougher, by occasionally inserting powerful custom players. I may have succeeded a bit too well with Yao, as he is probably the GOAT with 7 championships and absurd stats. However he is aging and this younger Bulls team feels like they've grown enough to overcome him this year (the Bulls did a tank year and started a rebuild 5 years ago). If they succeed, they'll play the winner of Heat/Nets, by OVR the 2 best teams in the league and both winners of a championship in the last couple years.

In the West an aging Blazers team seems to be the best of a weak conference. The East has won something like 14 or the last 15 Finals and even if the Blazers make it, I don't have much hope they'll be competitive against the eastern champs. Even though blowing up a finals team always seems a bit odd, that might be the route Portland takes in the 2073 offseason.

[ggsimmonds]

Just passed the trade deadline and it was a busy one.

First some standings as we enter February:

East
1. Raptors 31-14
2. 76ers 30-16
3. Hawks 28-18 (Theo Ratliff tore his ACL, surprised they are still near the top)
4. Bulls 27-18
5. Wizards 25-21
6. Pacers 24-22
7. Magic 24-23
8. Bucks 22-22
9. Nets 22-23
10. Pistons 21-23 (Big Ben has been out most of the year, and they are also without Rip for a few weeks)

West
1. Lakers 34-9
2. Spurs 28-17
3. Kings 27-19
4. Suns 27-20
5. Jazz 25-20
6. T'Wolves 24-21
7. Trail Blazers 22-22
8. Mavericks 22-22
9. Supersonics 21-22

I had two main issues coming to the trade deadline -- muddy frontcourt and a lack of bench scoring. Both Haywood and Thomas are unhappy and neither have done enough to solidify a starting spot. Haywood is better on defense but I get outrebounded too much with him at the 5 plus he is really struggling to finish around the hoop.
I made the following moves:

Nuggets: Sends Chris Anderson (C) to the Wizards
Wizards: Sends 03 2nd Round pick and Brian Cardinal (PF) to the Nuggets; and Jared Jeffries (SF) and Jahidi White (C) to the Rockets
Rockets: Sends Glenn Rice(SF) to the Wizards

Wizards: Sends Brendan Haywood (C), Juan Dixon (SG), and 05 2nd Round
Magic: Sends Andrew DeClerg (C) and 04 2nd Round

After those moves my lineup looks like:

PG Steve Francis/Rafer Alston
SG Larry Hughes/auto gen player
SF Michael Jordan/ Glenn Rice/ Byron Russell
PF Christian Laettner/Kwame Brown/Charles Oakley
C Etan Thomas/Chris Anderson/Andrew DeClerq

I did not want to give up Jeffries as he should turn into an elite wing defender, but if we want to make noise in the playoffs to give Jordan a proper send off we needed the bench scoring that Rice can give us. I've been scared to take Jordan off the floor because my offense when he and Francis rest is horrible. Etan Thomas should start to feel better because his starting role is basically guaranteed now.

For some other teams I took manual control and made some trades for them:

Spoiler

Trade 1
T'Wolves send Terrell Brandon (PG), 04 1st Round, 06 1st Round to the Heat. They also send 03 1st Round, Anthony Peeler (SG), and 03 2nd Round to the Knicks
Heat send Eddie Jones (SG) to the T'Wolves
Knicks send Kurt Thomas (C) to the T'Wolves

T'Wolves go all in on getting KG some help. Heat are in a race to the worst overall record and are all in on a rebuild. Knicks get maximum return for Thomas

Trade 2
Grizzlies send Wesley Person (SG) to the Bulls
Bulls send Eddie Robinson (SF) and a lottery protected 03 1st Round to the Griz

Bulls are surprising everyone and believe they can leapfrog the Hawks. Person gives them an upgrade at SG and the tanking Griz get some much need draft capitol

Trade 3

Bucks send 03 1st Round top 3 protected, Jason Caffey (Pf), and DJ Wittman (C) to the Cavs
Cavaliers send Darius Miles (SF) and Bimbo Coles (PG) to the Hornets; and Smush Parker (PG), and a 03 2nd round to the Bucks
Hornets send Elden Campbell (C) to the Bucks and a top 10 protected pick to the Cavs

Bucks are fighting for the playoffs and this gives them a much needed upgrade at center. The protected first they sent belongs to the Hawks. Cavs get some more draft capital. Hornets upgrade their bench with the young Miles

Trade 4
Raptors send Eric Montross (C, fake?), Lamond Murray (SG), and the following 1sts to the Rockets: 03,04,05
Rockets send Jerry Stackhouse (SF) and matching salaries to the Raptors

Did the Raptors overpay, yes. But they add a good (84 ovr) player to help out Vince to ensure they hold the top seed. Rockets are falling fast with Yao injured and decided to maximize the return on Stackhouse.

Trade 5
Pacers send the following to Miami: Kyle Barnes (SG), Junior Harper (SG, fake), 06 1st and 03 2nd
Miami send Alonzo Mourning (C) to the Pacers

I feel like the Pacers won this trade, but the Heat get some more draft assets so its a win-win. The two players the Pacers sent were some overpaid fake players on multi year deals.

Trade 6
Heat send Brian Grant (PF), Kris James (SG, fake?), and a 03 2nd rounder
Magic send Shawn Kemp (C), 03 1st Round, Oyedeji (C, fake?)

The Heat manage to unload all of their old overpaid vets and get a huge bounty of draft assets in return. After their two trades the Magic got a nice upgrade in their frontcourt to help T-Mac in the playoff push. They went from having a PF and C both rated 72 to having an 80 and a 75.

Trade 7
Hawks send DeMarr Johnson (SF), Kelly Booker (PF, fake?) and the following picks: 06 1st round, 2nd round picks in the following years: 03 and 04x2
Grizzlies send Jason Williams (PG) and some salary matches

This trade took the longest to work out. Grizzlies are near the worst record in the league, but Detroit owns their pick so the Grizz desperately needed some draft capital. The Hawks needed some help with Theo Ratliff tearing his ACL. This results in sliding Jason Terry to the 2 guard.

The eastern conference was busy this deadline! A lot of that had to do with 2k not intelligently up****** team status. For example the Suns and the Jazz were still set as "rebuilding" and I couldn't rationalize sending Stockton and Malone out the door when they were firmly poised to make one last playoff run. And why would the 4th seed enter a rebuild? When I take control of teams I give a rule to myself to only trade in accordance with team status.

Winners of this deadline imo are the Wolves and Heat. Wolves added two 80+ starters to help out KG (and in the Kobe era 80+ is harder to come by). But will it be enough to get them over the top 3 teams in the West? Probably not. The Heat manage to move on from all 3 of their guys overpaid and over 30.

[JAY_D1]

CELTICS AND LAKERS AGAIN? WHEN WILL THIS END?
JUNE 1987

The Celtics and Lakers are going to the NBA Finals…FOR THE NINTH TIME.



“I know people are tired of this, they want something different” said Larry Bird in the locker room after they defeated Philadelphia. “We gave them something different last year, you didn’t appreciate the Rockets losing against us? “

The Lakers, on a tear after defeating the Rockets, are ready to foil any repeat discussion. “Larry needs to understand that there will be no discussion of repeating as champions, as long as WE are around” Magic Johnson stated after practice during media availability



Critics are wondering if the NBA could be looking at a solve into why the league has only a few teams that come to play in the conference finals every year. “ It gets quite annoying to see the same names and teams year in and year out” a supporter from the San Antonio Spurs stated.

“I like seeing my team compete in the playoffs , but sometimes it gets frustrating when you know you are going to see Lakers and Celtics by June. Wheres the competition?”

We will see in time.. who do you think comes on top this year?

[JAY_D1]

ALL STAR ROSTERS CHANGE FOR NEXT YEAR, NETS WIN THE DRAFT
JUNE 1987

The Lakers finish off the Celtics, but they arent the only winners this summer.




The New Jersey Nets have won the #1 pick, and are looking.. to trade it. “We cannot get any better with another rookie on the squad” said the Nets GM. “We know where we want to be, we want to compete. We need to start looking at players that have NBA experience. Lots of Euroleaguers in this years draft, but we are moving in a different direction.”



The San Antonio Spurs are looking to do what the Houston Rockets have done, have two towers that can average 20 points at any time. “We are a playoff team, but that isn’t a good enough situation. We are consistently cleaning out our locker rooms by May. That cant happen.” Said Spurs Head Coach.

ALL STAR DRAFT?

The 1988 NBA All Star Game will be for the books as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson have pushed for a draft a week before the NBA All Star Game begins. “We want to switch it up a bit, No more West versus Eas, we are doing teams.” Said Michael Jordan.




NBA owners are in love with this idea as it will be interesting for fans to see if their favorite players play with each other. “How fun would it be to see Magic Johnson, Akeem and MJ play together versus Bird, IT and Kareem?”