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JustJeff88 posted:VSM, what stats/ratings do you most use for evaluating talent in this game? I am terrible with advanced stats and their significance (I am better with baseball's) and I know nothing about tendencies as I tend to play every game myself, so please enlighten me. You have proven that OVR means gently caress all apart from perhaps players with a 95+, so I am all ears/eyes. A few things: Partly, I just have a very good memory. So if I see something that sticks out, I make a mental note of it, and if I keep seeing something that's attached to a name, eventually I think "Oh, that guy is probably really good." This is probably the simplest method I have, the eyeball test. Player Efficiency Rating, or PER is one of the big ones. PER is a delightfully simple formula. See it for yourself:  First, one must calculate uPer as follows: uPER = (1 / MP) * [ 3P + (2/3) * AST+ (2 - factor * (team_AST / team_FG)) * FG + (FT *0.5 * (1 + (1 - (team_AST / team_FG)) + (2/3) * (team_AST / team_FG))) - VOP * TOV - VOP * DRB% * (FGA - FG) - VOP * 0.44 * (0.44 + (0.56 * DRB%)) * (FTA - FT)+ VOP * (1 - DRB%) * (TRB - ORB) + VOP * DRB% * ORB+ VOP * STL+ VOP * DRB% * BLK - PF * ((lg_FT / lg_PF) - 0.44 * (lg_FTA / lg_PF) * VOP) ] where: factor = (2 / 3) - (0.5 * (lg_AST / lg_FG)) / (2 * (lg_FG / lg_FT)) VOP = lg_PTS / (lg_FGA - lg_ORB + lg_TOV + 0.44 * lg_FTA) DRB% = (lg_TRB - lg_ORB) / lg_TRB Then you adjust for pace: pace adjustment = lg_Pace / team_Pace aPER = (pace adjustment) * uPER And finally: PER = aPER * (15 / lg_aPER) Which, of course, will set the league average PER at 15, every single time. Et Voila. Bing-Bong. So simple. Oh wait, not simple. Needlessly convoluted. At any rate, PER draws quite a bit of criticism, much of which is warranted, but for a knee-jerk "How good is this player" metric, it's one of the best around----for offense. Just note that it's going to heavily favor big men over guards, and doesn't address defense at all (I would take the crazy person stance that "Blocks and steals are probably also offensive stats anyhow". I am named "Veryslightlymad" after all.) But, on the whole, it gives you a very good sense of who is actually good at offense. I aim to have my guys at about 13 or higher, but I make exceptions for elite defenders because they'll almost always have low-to-putrid PER scores, since they're not going to be on the court for offense reasons. Other advanced metrics like EWA will also poo poo on defenders. It's very hard to find good defenders. EWA, by the by, stands for "Estimated Wins Added". There are 82 games in a year. So any player with like, 8 or more at the end of a season is in all likelihood really good. It's not a perfect metric, though, since, well, if the entire team is bad, then the EWA will be low. oFG% is one of the easier ones for defense, but by far doesn't tell the whole story, since it only calculates literal shots taken with [x] player defending. Maybe [x] player shouldn't have been defending that shot at all. It tends to poo poo on very good centers, because they'll have to defend many shots they're not supposed to. Defense is a team thing in basketball----if a player doesn't commit on defense, there's a not-zero chance he was literally told not to within the system, and the actual person who hosed up isn't +/- is completely useless, regardless of what form its in. However, if you take an absolutely putrid team, and they have one guy who has a positive +/-, then he's almost certainly really good. The other thing that I do is I look for guys that fill team needs. Lately, since I've noticed Harry Kelley and then Donta Greene racking up assists as Honu PFs, I've decided that Honolulu must run offense through that position---I don't expect Power Forwards to be primary ball handlers. So I scouted guys like Vaughn who had higher numbers for assists per game than I expected, and valued that over points or rebounds. (But would try for all three, of course.) If you play a slower pace, or like the Honu, use a deep rotation, then paying more attention to the per 36 minutes numbers than the per game numbers is probably a better choice. Since you play your own games, I'd recommend also looking at badges. They'll describe on the badge what they do, and you probably have a good idea of what would help.
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Aug 16, 2020 02:44
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I like how the Magic went up 25 places in the power rankings just by winning a single game.
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Aug 16, 2020 09:53
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Earlier, I said Jukic was just after Garland in PPR, which is false. Jukic is just after Garland in Assist Ratio, which is different. He ends a third of his possessions with an assist, his PPR is nowhere near Garland's. Chapter 19: 2033-2034, Part 3: Regular Season  Speaking of Jukic, he would be rewarded for his excellent play by a chance to participate in the USA/World Game for young players or whatever. Jukic's world team would win, and, while he wouldn't be the MVP of the game (That would very clearly be Balidis), he would lead the world team in both rebounds and assists (although, assists was a four way tie) The NBA All-Star game is won by team Richard, and led by Richard Morris, who wins the All-Star MVP. I forgot that the trade-deadline was abolished, and while I had guys that I could consider trading, the Honu are too on pace to possibly win this year, so I refrained, even though it might not be the best longterm plan. Anyhow, a bunch of guys I've never heard of before were traded, so I didn't bother highlighting any, but I did spy this one:  Which does really weird stuff for the Wizards' roster, since no one in their starting lineup can score. Well, Bilic can score, he just doesn't for some reason. I'm interested to see if he starts actually shooting for them and has a weird scoring surge in the back third of his career. The Hornets' playoff hopes, along with Donta Greene's MVP campaign are tragically dashed:  Greene might have actually won, too. By the time he left the season with this leg injury, he was averaging 13/13/4. Which also led the league in rebounds. Just tragic. I didn't want to look stupid, but I didn't want this, either.  Teddy Vaughn saw himself on the leader boards for sixth man of the year, and had a couple of games where he played his heart out. This is the best one. In a different game, he would put up a career best 20 points.  I'll reiterate that Cleveland has to feel on top of the world. This is two different rookies on the same team being voted the best player in their entire conference on two different weeks during the season.  Between two significant injuries (the broken Jaw and a pulled calf I didn't show), Thornton has this wild game, where he gets six blocks. Stewart Thornton is a shooting guard, remember. Dude's got mad ups, though.  We also get a beauty of a game by Torres, trying to make his case for MIP, against his previous team. ..........................................And so ends the season. So, which of the players discussed was going to win MVP? The Hornets just missed the playoffs, so not Greene. Szomory fell off a little but Zagorac got even better.... Bagley III got the Pistons into the mix. Could Darrel Logan actually win in his rookie season?  Nope. It's Randy Butler. I completely forgot he existed because he was injured during the all-star game. Not bad for a second round pick. Actually, better than not bad. This makes him only the second ever second round talent to win an NBA MVP. Only Willis Reed had done it before. (I really wanted this honor for Bol at one point. Sorry everyone.)  This wasn't really in doubt, even though Dakoulas Balidis had an amazing year.  Butler's backup is pretty ideal, too. Teddy Vaughn is a little upset he didn't win this. He ended as either second or third on the voting.  Honestly, this is not where I expected this player to develop, but I'm into it.  Torres also feels snubbed, but Michael, baby, you never stood a chance. This is like, a three or four PPG drop and a 1.5 assist per game drop since the all-star break. And Dunn still won. Maybe this isn't a giant leap for the former rookie of the year. Maybe, just maybe, Miami should have played him.  The final person feeling snubbed on the Honu is our coach, Benjamin Walker. Apparently, you don't need the league best record to win Coach of the Year in 2k, because the Honu definitely had it at 55-27. In any other year, this revelation would make me have a little more faith in the game, but this particular season it just pisses me off. Come on, now. You guys are the reigning champs. Everyone expected you to be good. Coach Walker took an aging team in a transition year to the top record in the league. All NBA First team:  Second team:  Third team:  OK Gardner there should be much higher. Once Greene went down, I was pretty convinced he was en route to the MVP, or at least all NBA first team, because the dude averaged 24/3/3. Nonetheless, he's got a bright future. All-Defense teams 1  2  Catinella is also a rookie, so this is great news for Milwaukee, who need to pass the Giannis Torch somewhere. Antetokounmpo has declared his intent to retire at the end of the season. Also, what the hell is up with elite Italian defenders? I think "All the players drafted out of Italy become great defensive players" is the least realistic thing in this simulated league. All Rookie First Team:  Second:  The game did not generate Kiran Indra-----I randomly renamed someone with a duplicate name. Hugh Morrison would have made the second team, too, but the game apparently forces you to replace backcourt players on the rookie team with backcourt players, even though the team by no means is determined by position (unlike the other teams). If the game decided to put, say 5 guards on the rookie team, you could only replace them with other guards. Anyhow, it decided 45 games wasn't enough for Morrison to qualify for an all-rookie team, and it made the last two slots the first two rookies alphabetically from the 76ers, because 2k is a garbage fire. Reed Conley did have the better season than Morrison, but I'm beyond frustrated that I couldn't give Morrison the last slot. Whatever. The Lakers' rookie isn't terrible. And at least Jukic made it on his own merits. Sadly, Jukic's blistering shooting would taper off dramatically by the end of the season. He's still got a 33 AR, but he's down to 55% shooting from the field, which while still really good is a far cry from his ridiculous 64%.  John Beilein got fired from two different teams. Which, a coach being fired from two teams in the same year is pretty ridiculous, but I feel like John Beilein could do it, if he applied himself. Standings and playoff table East:    West:     I have a good feeling about this year. None of the west really scares me. Let's see what nasty surprises I bumble into.
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Aug 16, 2020 22:58
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Wow, this must be a slow-paced league now if the MVP only averaged 18+ points per game. Who led the league in scoring?
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Aug 17, 2020 01:00
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Just wanted to pop in after catching up and just say that this is a great LP. As a guy who understands very little about the game of basketball beyond "ten guys going hard on the paint", you have made this an easy and enjoyable read. Keep up the great work!
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Aug 17, 2020 11:10
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2K20 is on super sale (about $5) on Switch and PS4... any appreciable difference? I don't see a reason to get the PS4 version unless the Switch version is somehow inferior.
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Aug 20, 2020 01:38
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JustJeff88 posted:2K20 is on super sale (about $5) on Switch and PS4... any appreciable difference? I don't see a reason to get the PS4 version unless the Switch version is somehow inferior. I think it's mostly the same other than slightly inferior graphics.
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Aug 20, 2020 09:02
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I believe what Largepotato said was the case. I am using the PC version of the game. You could try asking the thread in The Armchair Quarterback, to see if they know anything further. I apologize for the delays. I'm having a hard time getting the time together to go through playoff games.
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Aug 20, 2020 18:51
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No problem! The Honu endure, no matter how long updates take
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Aug 20, 2020 21:24
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Guess that means that 20 years is pushing it on this trashfire game.
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Aug 21, 2020 13:10
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Largepotato posted:Guess that means that 20 years is pushing it on this trashfire game. Naw, just a busy couple of weeks. The thread will also slow down a little fairly soon because two games I am extremely interested in will come out over the next two months, but I intend to finish.
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Aug 21, 2020 17:41
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Update: should be back to my usual pace by the end of the week. I appreciate everyone's patience.
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Aug 24, 2020 20:02
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 HOLY poo poo AN ACTUAL UPDATE Chapter 19: 2033-2034, Part 4: Playoffs I appreciate everyone's patience with this--haven't really had the urge to watch multiple playoff games, and they take about one hour each. Anyhow, since someone had asked, here's the league leaders of various stats:  Doncic would have almost certainly won MVP again, had he but made the playoffs. I already mentioned my surprise at Gardner being so low on the all-league teams. Former Honu stalwart William Floyd takes the fifth spot  It's a real shame about what happened to Donta this season.  Gheorghe is still his old reliable self.  While the Honu aren't usually tops in any counting stat, Eminescu is one of the best three point shooters in the league  B.J. Lawrence, meanwhile, shows why I value him so highly..... This guy is an absolute luxury when you're talking about the fifth big man in our rotation.     Injuries going into the playoffs are pretty sparse---about the only one of these that matters is the Clippers' starting PG. And honestly, that didn't matter as much as it could have.  My Home Court advantage actually has gone down over the years. No, I don't get it either. The esoteric mechanics that go into this unfathomable system are almost certainly wrong. Imagine a team as young and successful as the Honu, in a city without any other major sports league representation. There is no way this wouldn't be one of the loudest arenas going.  So, even as an 8 seed without a particularly impressive record, the Rockets are pretty dangerous. Paciani is a perennial all-NBA and all-defense team player, as well as this year's DPOY. Chandler is a former #1 pick. Dourekas is One of the better centers in the league, and Erikkson is a very effective interior scorer. We end up getting a bit of a scare as the Rockets win two of the first three off the back of Casey Fletcher. Fletcher is a very solid, efficient point guard that, for whatever reason, decided to torch me. In the regular season, he was averaging about 12 points per game. In the two wins over the Honu he had 26. Meanwhile, a retiring, hungry Devin Booker is the man of the playoffs, and his Suns drop just one to the Jazz before advancing. The TrailBlazers somehow manage to win two games against the Clippers. The Pelicans upset the Sonics in a six game series that has a lot of people questioning the team chemistry in Seattle. Back East, a relatively heroic performance by Leroy Long is enough to give the Heat two games against the reigning champion Rockets, but the champs come out on top. The League MVP Randy Butler goes quiet on the big stage, and while William Floyd tries to rally the Raptors, the upstart Cavs push through in six. A brilliant performance from Gardner forces a game seven against Montreal, but Les Voyageurs' balanced attack wins out, with Szomory, Hurley, and Zagoric putting up their usual performances, and the aging Courtney Banks turning it back on for the playoffs. Somehow, the Pacers managed an upset in just five games. What the hell?  Oh. Yeah, that'd do it. Bagley is cheered on his return to Indiana, but if you ask me, they were probably cheering his crutches.  We advance vs the Suns, and they don't really scare me. Booker and Fletcher have both been all-stars. Olic is supposedly the best player on the team, (He's not, it's definitely still Booker) and Vaughn there is a piece of poo poo who really loves shooting improbable threes. This playoffs is to be the last ride of Devin Booker--earlier in the year, I checked his mood and he had a footnote that said he couldn't take the grind of another season. And he also played like it, this series. Booker absolutely torched me. I said some mean, hyperbolic things about how likely I thought some of his shooting was before cooling down a little bit and telling my roommate my actual thoughts on Booker: "He's actually pretty drat good. His footwork is legit." We drop game 1 to Phoenix and win the second when I get this delightful warning:  Which necessitates us to go into our bench for his replacement. Luckily, my second and third string point guards are already in my rotation, so really all it amounts to is letting Alain Sonnet (who has been solid for the playoffs) and Louie Morgan (who is rapidly growing on me) to get more minutes. Both are better on defense than Garland is. I won't say this is a net positive, because Garland has been one of the few lights of consistency on the Honu during the playoffs. After getting torched last series by Fletcher, I looked over everyone's stats to see who was over or under-performing and....... basically the entire team is under-performing, except Garland, Thornton and B.J. Lawrence at this stage. I also lose game 3 to the Suns and just... argh. Once again lit up by Booker. My two best perimeter defenders on this team are Thornton and Eminescu, and this is their position. It's deeply frustrating. However, much like the Rockets games, we grind 'em out.  Our leader finally steps it up and has a low scoring, but excellent defensive game to finally put this aggravating team away. Booker finishes out his career without having ever tasted the championship champagne, but as one of the rare sterling players that stood by their team for an entire career and remained productive until the very end. Believe me. I know. During this series, I also snagged an image of this guy (Bruno Jukic), who we'll be seeing more of, much more.  There must be something in the water in New Orleans, because they somehow push the Clippers to 7 games, themselves. The higher seeded Clips manage to close it out, and we have a date scheduled with both a former player and our former assistant coach. Getting his first ever team to the Conference Finals is a pretty big deal, and the organization is proud to have been where Coach Newman cut his teeth. Meanwhile, despite Udoh never missing a step, and solid performances from their back courts, the world is stunned when the reigning champions get decisively swept by the fifth seeded Cavs and their two sensational rookies. Much less surprising is that the Pacers also find themselves on the receiving end of a sweep, as, unlike Detroit, which was banged up before their best player went down, Montreal is an all-around elite team that is firing on all cylinders.  Even without Soto, this team is pretty scary. Rose there was on several of the Mavericks teams that we've faced. Both Curtis and Payton are excellent quality forwards that compliment each other's games remarkably well. Payton is a bit of a slasher and a shooter, while Walter Curtis is more of a post-up style power forward, but with modern NBA range. Both can score from anywhere, but they get to those spots in different ways, so they really make an excellent tandem. Jimmy Flores, apparently, shoots very well from deep. Maybe the Honu have gotten worse at defending the three. At any rate, the three of them light me up while Tremont Waters and Damon Rose perform their jobs admirably.  Plus I'm used to seeing this guy on the other half of the court. Anyhow, I say "light me up", but the Honu actually win both game 1 and game 2, and when I check the box score for game 2, I notice Michael Torres had 0 points and only played two minutes.  And I get this message late for some reason. Usually it's right after the game simulates. That's.... that's really, really bad news. Craig Payton is the best player on the other team, and I do not have another starting caliber small forward. And while Torres' playoff run so far hasn't exactly been stellar, he was probably our second-best player during the regular season, and I'm suddenly feeling much less enthusiastic about the Honu's odds. I either have to play someone out of position, or be willing to show some trust in Steven Rogers, who so far has been a very, very raw prospect. If it were a game 7, or if we were behind, I might have made a different decision, but 2-0 up, I opt to let the kid play.  Which has got to be an enormous amount of pressure. Rogers goes from literally the end of my bench (usually in reserves, in fact) to starting against the other team's best player. Luckily, Garland is back. Also good for us: the Clippers moved Flores to the bench; this actually plays into our match-up a bit better. Thornton has been more successful chasing Flores off of screens than Eminescu, and for whatever reason Coach wanted Eminescu starting this series.  And much like his namesake, Rogers steps up when we need him most. Those aren't eye-popping numbers, and they're nowhere near the production that I expect out of Torres, but that is easily the best NBA game of Rogers' young career. This is a guy who is raw enough to still shoot under 40% from the field. His stepping up like this is huge. Also, since I'm watching these games, I notice that Rogers has very active hands on Defense. When he came into the league, our scouts' NBA Comparison for him was Metta World Peace. He's nowhere near that good yet, but he definitely moves his hands that way. Honolulu has had some good or great perimeter defenders, but we haven't had a guy who did it with this kind of physicality before. He does more or less the same thing for us in Game 4, and Honolulu does its usual thing, and the end result:  He even turns his back to the camera, like an absolute boss. (Pictured, Left to Right: Louie Morgan, Bruno Jukic, Alain Sonnet, Teddy Vaughn, B.J. Lawrence, Gheorghe Eminescu, Bol Bol, Darius Garland, Hugh Morrison, Harry Francis, Steven Rogers, Stewart Thornton. Not pictured: Michael Torres (inj) Aaron Payne (res) So yeah, the Clippers scared me for real and ended up getting swept. I couldn't be happier with the Honu's rotation players. However, this outcome is too good for us. As good as Rogers was in these two games, I need Torres back up to speed ASAP, but unfortunately for me, he's not ready by the time our Eastern opponent is established. The Upstart Cavs, and Darrel Logan in particular, just bully their way through Montreal in 5 games, and I have to play three whole games of this series without Michael Torres. The Honu find themselves against perhaps their toughest opponent yet:  The Future. .....Yikes. Where to begin? Logan and Balidis, as mentioned before, are basically the two most promising young players in a very, very long time. Doug Simms is a hyper athletic power forward with excellent finishing skills and elite interior defense---he's very much like Mfiondu Kabengele used to be for us. Dirk Scroeder is an excellent option at point who can both score in droves if he needs to, or dish to his teammates if that's the game-plan. He's yet to really strike the balance between the two, but either way, he's threatening. Finally, Reed Gibson gets buckets. He's a system player that doesn't have too many eye-popping games, but he's going to drop 14 to 20 points on you every single night, and there's nothing you can possibly do about it. Amazingly, we win the first of these games....  ....off an absolutely Herculean effort from Harry Francis. Bol Bol putting up old school Bol Bol points, and Darius Garland being very motivated is also a big help. Steven Rogers continues to step up in our time of need. I also get some burn out of Hugh Morrison, which results in this sweet and-one dunk over former Honu player Ralph Miller:  Heya, Ralph! Sorry I forgot to screen grab when you got traded to Cleveland. Anyhow, smashing a putback dunk into the face of one of the best rebounders in the league in the NBA finals has to be a pretty solid feeling for a rookie. I haven't used Morrison much during the playoffs, but I've liked what I can see from him so far. I look forward to at least three more years of this kind of energy. Meanwhile that same game from Cleveland's perspective shows what kind of a hellish monster was unleashed on the rest of us poor fools in the NBA this season:  26/15/3 with 7 blocks and no turnovers. Jesus Christ. (The sorting here is really weird. It looks like Gibson and Balidis didn't play at all, but mathematically inclined readers can see that there's about 30 points unaccounted for in this screen shot. 18 of those were Gibson) I've had a couple images this playoffs of what could be the future of the Honu, so here's a picture of the future of the league:  (Between Logan, Craig Payton, and Donta Greene, there've been some extremely good young players coming out of Texas lately) We drop the next two games and Torres comes back. I'd like to say there was a big celebration and he's the sole reason why we won, but he went 10/4/5, which is by no means bad, but still a bit rusty. Weirdly, we win game 4 on the back of Stewart Thornton, who has very quietly been the Honu's most consistently positive performer during these playoffs. Game 4 also sets the stage for the rest of the series in a huge way:  The Cavs are dealt an absolutely devastating blow. Balidis, by the measure of OVR (which doesn't matter) is the best player on the Cavs. By objective measures, he's.... probably still the third best player on the Cavs after Logan and Gibson. Maybe even fourth after Dirk Schroeder. I cannot oversell how stacked this Cavs team is, and how most (all?) of these guys are on longterm deals. I smell blood in the water and then........... promptly blow game 5. And this is where things turn for Honolulu. Game 1 was the Harry Francis show, but games 2-5 were about as Honolulu basketball as it gets. Big team performances with everyone chipping in a little. Logan never had another game like the first warcrime he enacted on us, but Reed Gibson is probably their MVP if they win, just consistently dropping 18-20 points no matter who the hell I throw on him. Harry had a couple of dud games in our losses, and for the life of me, I couldn't tell you who the Honu MVP was this series. My best guess, going into game 6, would somehow be Stewart Thornton, who has been both lights out from 3 and clutch, after his first relatively disappointing game. But then again, after getting my rear end kicked game 5 when the Cavs don't have their best player, it feels pretty academic. But then someone realized he wanted it. The Honu are in a period of transition. Old guard guys like Bol Bol, Gheorghe Eminescu, and Harry Francis have been here before, done it all before. They've accomplished what they want in their careers, even if they're not ready to retire. Meanwhile, other contributors, Stewart Thornton, Michael Torres, Alain Sonnet, Bruno Jukic.... they're all so young that they're honestly just happy to be here. But there's one player on the Honu who is feeling the cold hands of Father Time clawing at his ankles and who has never won a championship. I was going to say he never came close, but that's a lie. He's been here before. He actually had his previous championship dream snuffed out by..... the Honolulu Honu, in fact. We have one guy on the team who thinks that it is "Extremely important" to "Play for a Winner". Before game 6, he was happy to defer to his teammates. But in Game 6, Darius Garland decided that this time, we were playing for him.  He wanted it.  It was his time.   (Nice to see Bill Russell still here in this, his 100th year of life. Hey, I bet you all thought we were gonna lose when I did the photo roll call with the WCF trophy picture. Well, part of that was because we got a different cut scene than the one we usually get. I wanted more guys in frame.)   Holy poo poo, someone can reach Harry's head!  Well, Bol, when you're no longer the guy, you get to have your picture taken with the guys. (I'm pretty sure this picture is always the 2-6 players on the team, after the finals MVP.)  AFTERWARD: Whew! That was some ride. There were two times in this series I thought we were cooked for sure. First, when Torres went out, and then later when Cleveland beat us without Balidis. I do not think we could have beaten Cleveland without that injury. Also, god drat that Jacque Cisse trade wound up being the right move. That trade yielded Torres, Jukic, and Garland. Much love to Jacque, you'll always be my guy, but it's not hyperbole to say that trade won us an NBA championship almost by itself. I by no means regret the contract we gave Torres; even if he underwhelmed a hair in the playoffs, I doubt we'd be anywhere near where we were if he weren't here during the regular season. I want Jukic in a Honu jersey for a long time. Garland is someone I thought of as a transitional player for a brief period until Sonnet came into his own, but boy howdy did he make that window count. I feel bad about my lack of content recently, so stay tuned. This post will be followed immediately by the playoffs aftermath and the beginning of next off-season, along with a couple of votes. This might be a slower than usual month or two with Crusader Kings 3 and Trails of Cold Steel 4 coming out shortly, but after that, well... work should start getting less crazy at some point. I'm still here, and yeah, I think I can handle 80 of these things. ....if the game can. I'm less convinced the game can.
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Aug 30, 2020 09:58
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Chapter 19: 2033-2034, Part 5: Postseason As always, post-seasons begin with retirements, and there's some big ones this time:  Nothing could be bigger than the 4 time MVP, but those three guys at the bottom are pretty important to. Oubre has had a solid career, I guess.  More of the old guard find themselves not just out of Honolulu, but out of the league entirely. I think Dewan Hernandez also retired, so I'm pretty sure Bol isn't just the last OG Honu in Honolulu, but in the NBA. Also, I have so many memories with Mfiondu, here, it's wild to think that he only has 2 Championships with the Honu....... meanwhile, B.J. Lawrence somehow already has 3.  Lots of the simulation-only players have already retired, but I think Brook Teague is the first one to retire that made an impact on the league. Sadly, he came into the league before I adjusted draft ages to something realistic, so we only got an all-too-quick dozen years out of him.  The worst head coach (by in-game grades) retired, as well. I briefly thought this was our head scout, since his name is also Walter. (Later this off-season, I would replace him anyhow) Big Hall of Fame class this year....  .....but it's horseshit. OK, I apologized to poor Devin Booker in the previous post for undervaluing him, but, as far as this simulation is concerned, putting him into the Hall of Fame with his resume is a giant crock of poo poo. 5 all star appearances, one all NBA appearance. That's it. That's nowhere near as good of a career as LaMarcus Aldridge or Jimmy Butler, or a few other guys I've gone out of my way to mention as snubs..... the game just feels wildly inconsistent here. Either it abides by small Hall rules, in which case Booker shouldn't be here, or it's a more inclusive Hall, in which case several other guys should be. I'm for the inclusive hall, personally. Where the gently caress is Shawn Marion? Amazingly, Jersey Retirements take up more than a single window, which is definitely a first.   I definitely can't object to Booker being here. The kind of loyalty that he showed to Phoenix is something the city will treasure forever. 18 years, man. It's gonna feel weird for a while. Brook Teague is the first simulation player to get his number retired, and with a pretty storied franchise, at that. Jokic's jersey going up for the Houston Rockets is one of those glorious 2k things. In this simulation, it makes perfect sense, but it's weird to think about. And then I get some wonderful news:  The 24 second clock is back! The league is fun again. Also, 14 teams need to be fired into the sun. Draft ages are already way, way too old. That proposal for 3 years after high school would make me edit the average draft age to like, 21-24 (and 2k would make it something like 26+......) I hope that never, ever passes. We'd never have time for players to really matterI go into staff signings. Several former players get a taste of coaching:  ..............I'll have to look out next season (not this one... retired players come back after a year gap, for whatever reason) to see if Brook Teague is in the pool. I honestly don't know if generated players will go there, or just active players. It seems strange that this appears to be tied to jersey retirements and Hall of Fame placements, but I've noticed everyone who has had a jersey retired has been here, and Damian Lillard was also here, despite the crime against basketball of not retiring his number. There's a brief bidding war for Coach Walker, with 8 teams other than Honolulu making him offers, but we bring him back for another 4 years.  I noticed that this guy had zero people offering him a job, despite being the best available scout in the pool. So I quietly hire him instead of Walter Forest, boosting our scouting from an A- to an A, whatever the hell that means, if anything. (I have doubts) I almost got a different assistant GM, and would have if NBA 2k wasn't an unworkable trash fire. My assistant GM is a B/B for trades/contracts, and there's a better guy in the pool.  Turns out, Bradley Beal has some profound front office insight. Unfortunately, like Melo (and Blake Griffin), while he's much better at this position than he is a coach:  And I mean much better..... he's completely unwilling to so much as interview for the job. Doesn't matter how much money I'm prepared to give him. Also doesn't matter that he's literally the best assistant GM that isn't already under contract. He's the best person available at this role in the entire league. But he won't do it.  The draft order is decided, and, much like the real world draft lottery that just happened the #1 and 2 picks are Minnesota and Golden State, respectively. Weird. Eerie.  Voting Time! The Draft The Honu have the 68th pick in the draft. Mr. Irrelevant, and nothing else. I doubt we can even sell this pick. Assuming we use our pick, we have a very clear need at the wing, even if all we can realistically get is a warm body for if enough of our current guys are injured. (We'll also be joined by Jemerio Kraemer, next season, and that should help a ton) A)Draft the highest OVR wing B)Draft the highest potential wing C)Grab someone with a silly name (should one exist) D)Draft whichever wing has the highest of a specific skill (Specify skill.... for this position, either "perimeter defense" or "3pt shooting" are probably the most important.... you could also make a very good case for mid-range shooting) Free Agency This is more like several Y/N questions about the Honu roster. We have five players up for contract this summer. Not all of them are RFAs, but we have bird rights for the ones who aren't, so the cap impact is meaningless. The problem is, we don't want to go too far over, and we have to make some hard decisions: 1)Harry Francis is up for contract. He's aging and declining, albeit not as rapidly as Bol is. I'm fairly convinced that his dip in rebounding this season was less because of his own decline, and more because of Teddy Vaughn's growth in this area, as well as the addition of Bruno Jukic. Anyhow, Francis just finished up a 24 million dollar year, and expects something closer to 19-20 for the next season. He understands that he's aging. It's hard to overstate how dependable he's been for us, he's easily worth the dollar figure that he's asking. On the other hand, we are relatively rich at his position..... B.J. Lawrence is extremely competent and reliable in his limited minutes, and I don't think "having more minutes" would kill what he does for us. Hugh Morrison isn't anywhere near as dependable, but oozes with potential. 19-20 million is a bargain price for a player of Harry's caliber, but we could reasonably make this cut. 2)Stewart Thornton is (usually!) our starting shooting guard. He is coming off his rookie (and therefor criminally underpaying) contract, and wants about 16 million. I have no idea how or why this figure went down from the last time I checked, where it was about 20, but I'm here for it. This one is tricky for a different reason. Thornton doesn't do as much for us as Harry does, but he's very solid, very reliable, seemingly clutch, and an athletic defender. He's very likely a top 10 defender at his position in the league. We're also impoverished at the wing. We have Jemerio Kraemer coming over this season, so the backup plan to signing Thornton would be moving Torres back to his old role of SG, but our backup wings would be an increasingly decrepit Eminescu and the still-very-raw Steven Rogers. (And nothing else) Thornton is an RFA, so we can match any contract offered by someone else. (For what it's worth, I was a bit iffy on him at the 20 figure I mentioned, but I'm strongly in the "he's worth that, sure" if his price tag says 16... he'd probably be worth that amount if we weren't hurting at the wing, but since we are.....) 3)Teddy Vaughn is our backup Power Forward. He's a weird, uniquely Honu player. Super good at playmaking from the PF position, Vaughn was third on our team in assists per game, after Garland and Torres. He's coming off of a rookie deal and wants about 33 million dollars (the game seems to think he's actually worth about 36) He's an elite rebounder, and a pretty nifty defender, too. His shooting is not yet there and maybe never will be. He's only at about 40% for his career. He hasn't come close to hitting his potential, and I guarantee you, if his shooting improves, he'll be another Donta Greene, where he'll start to thrive as soon as he's somewhere else. It's hard to justify paying him that much money on potential alone, given what he does for us. Which, to be clear, is quite a bit, just.... 33-36+ million dollars worth? Compounding this is just how good the next PF in the rotation was this year. Jukic was fantastic, and could slide into Teddy's role with ease. Just not quite on the defensive end. If I were looking at guys to build an entire team around, he'd be someone I gave a hard look at, but the flipside is, we already have a team. 4)Louie Morgan is our third string Point Guard. He wants about 13 million per game, and ideally, I'd like to talk him down to about 10, if such a difference is possible. He's still extremely young, and is coming off an 8 million dollar season (roughly). I know I just said "third string" but I can't imagine Garland's going to be around for all that long and also, I don't really use Morgan as a point guard. Like Sonnet, he looks for his own shot first, but unlike Sonnet, who is more of a slasher, Morgan works with motion.... both with the ball, running his opponents into screens, or working off the ball, curling around screens. He's also fearless. Watching these playoffs, I got an appreciation for how willing Morgan is to put up a shot. Every team needs a guy who can bail you out of a lovely possession, and Morgan has that instinct. 2k in particular gets bogged down by players letting the shot clock wind all the way down and forcing a contested 3..... Morgan is willing to take a mid-range jumper if he's got any kind of daylight. He's usable as either a PG or an SG, and, as stated before, we really need SGs. It's weird. Last year, I felt 8 was overpaying him, this year, I considered him underpaid by about 2-3 million dollars. 13 might be overpaying him again, but if I can talk him down? I'd like to keep him. 5)Steven Rogers is a very raw project SF|PF that plays hard-nose defense and has gobs and gobs of potential. He wants about 8 million dollars a year, which is a figure I balk at, potential and playoff heroism be damned. The thing is? I'd be willing to go about 6, if I could talk him down to it and if I could also get him for at least 3 seasons on that price tag. If he hits his potential, that'd be a massive win for us, but if he didn't, I think he contributes enough defensively for a 6 million dollar salary. If he played like he did in the playoffs all the time, I'd be willing to give him quite a bit more, but playoffs Cap was almost assuredly a fluke. In the regular season, this guy shot a pitiful 30% from the field. If he developed his shooting game to be merely as bad as Vaughn is at shooting, he'd be extremely valuable. We also have cap holds on all five players, and there's a good chance that those who can't find work elsewhere can be rented for a season. I assume the first three guys will get contract offers in the neighborhood of their asking prices.... Morgan and Rogers seem more likely to be potential rentals. Please vote Y/N for each player. If you are so inclined, you may specify an approximate dollar amount they might be worth next year. Darius Garland Darius makes about 34 million dollars a year. We could move him for value. However, he did just win the finals MVP, and his contract is up next season anyhow (so.... we could get the cap space then). Before he won the award, I had this idea for freeing up some salary room by trading him, and it's still an argument with some merit, even though I'm not very big on the idea of trading a guy who willed us into a championship. The main reason to consider moving Garland a year early is simply because of how many free agents we have this year. I think there's a very solid case to be made for signing any one of those guys above, all of those guys above, or any combination thereof. A)Check out off-season and draft day trades for Garland B)Wait a season
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Aug 30, 2020 11:44
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Who was Torres' backup during the season? He couldn't have played 48 minutes every night, but you didn't seem to have anyone to replace him when he was hurt. Also, the Garland story was incredible. One couldn't write a better story than a guy who is coming to the end of a fine career without a ring, finds his team down 3-2 in the finals and then goes off for 30 points in the last two games to win it all. Bloody brilliant.
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Aug 30, 2020 16:39
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Draft: A. Dude's not gonna stick around for long and the Honu need a warm body. Players: All yes. They're all young (except for Francis), almost all really valuable, and the one that'd hit the hardest (Vaughn) is exactly the kind of player we regret letting go. At the very least he can be traded. Garland: Check for trades. Probably we should keep a Finals MVP, but any chance to improve should be looked at, especially since he's aging. That said, going by the weirdly regular championship schedule this team has, there's every chance the Honu aren't gonna win for another two years anyway so he might as well be kept.
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Aug 30, 2020 18:06
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JustJeff88 posted:Who was Torres' backup during the season? He couldn't have played 48 minutes every night, but you didn't seem to have anyone to replace him when he was hurt. Yeah, especially when we were the team that beat him, and thought enough of the guy to trade for him. As for Torres's backup..... Uh.... Thornton going to the bench late, and some combination of Eminescu, Vaughn and Payne playing out of position, Jukic playing further out of position, and Louie Morgan playing really out of position for some ultra small ball hijinx.
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Aug 30, 2020 19:13
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whowhatwhere posted:Draft: A. Dude's not gonna stick around for long and the Honu need a warm body. Pretty much exactly what I was thinking as well.
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Aug 30, 2020 21:12
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Draft: B, I guess Free Agency: Yes to everyone but Vaughn Garland: Checking never hurts
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Aug 30, 2020 22:43
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Dear god, I am still finding players floating around the league that are mysteriously free of aging. What the gently caress is wrong with this idiot game. Incidentally, these monstrous assholes are going ahead and releasing NBA2k21 on schedule, even though the 2020 season isn't over yet and there hasn't been an off-season. They have a perfect opportunity to fix their loving game, but they're instead doing the dumbest, most evil, greediest piece of poo poo thing possible. Whoever is in charge of the game's development cycle should be buried alive.
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Aug 31, 2020 09:52
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Veryslightlymad posted:Dear god, I am still finding players floating around the league that are mysteriously free of aging. What the gently caress is wrong with this idiot game. 
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Aug 31, 2020 21:04
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Chapter 20: 2034-2035, Part 1: Preseason The 2034 NBA Draft starts with a surprise trade out of first by the Timberwolves. This is either because they knew who Golden State wanted, and thought the other guy was better, or they are showing faith in their own starting shooting guard. Either way, they get the player they wanted, and an upgrade at Power Forward, to boot.  That said, Golden State's first pick is Charlie Keefe, a shooting guard out of Temple most lauded for his defense. The blurb here was that he lead all college players in steals, and I usually see the guy with that blurb taken way, way later. Keefe must have fairly solid offense too, but the implication I get is that he's probably going to come into the league as one of its better defenders. This and his great size will make him a good fit next to Jacque Cisse.  Meanwhile, Minnesota gets their guy, or rather, they'll have to wait another year. Alexander's got some good potential and has shown some flashes of brilliance in his ABL club, but he's got one year left on his deal. (This is all fluff from me. I forget what duplicate name was here.... Rabiu Udoh again? I unno. Anyhow, I used a random re-namer and proceeded to also picked a country at random. 2k20 will not generate rookies from South Africa, as near as I can tell.)  The Hornets, addicted to draft picks, trade much of what made their team good (outside of Donta Greene), somehow making their team both older and younger by dealing its two best veterans of decent youth (other than Greene). Even though the Mavs haven't been a threat in years, I'm annoyed at how much this immediately helps our rivals.  I nabbed this screen just because it gave a shout-out to mah boi, Gheorghe Filimon.  I forget who Charlotte picked up with 3, but it wasn't a point guard. Meanwhile, this is the guy they selected to fill that role. And this had to be fairly deliberate. There were a lot of point guards drafted this year, both earlier and later than Henry here, but Charlotte almost went out of their way to give him the keys to their team, so.... Maybe he's good?  Phoenix attempts a subtle, thinking man's approach to the name of the draft award. See, his name is the thing he's good at. Hopefully, there's a guy available at 68 named "Tres Andy"  Portland probably grabbed the best name, though. (And promptly didn't sign him even with my control.... however, the Celtics assigned him to their G-league team on a 2-way deal) (I'd have done so myself for Portland, but the game won't let me because, like all AI teams, Portland already had two 2-way contracts assigned. Even though they were expired and off the books, you can't sign a player to a 2-way deal in this position unless you didn't have two the previous year..... otherwise I'd sign a lot more players to teams than I already do. FIX YOUR loving GAME, TAKE 2. You loving scumbags.  Mr. Irrelevant 2034 goes to the Honu, and is this guy: Harry Reeves. There were a couple of guys who might have been higher rated, at least as far as Walter Forrest was able to figure out, but this was the top rated wing who shot above 40%. Welcome to the team, Harry. We already have a Harry, so we'll have to call you something else. Anyhow, you're in the G-league now. Free agency begins. I only have one team or player option, this time for Alain Sonnet, and I pick it up because Sonnet is really good and it's for less than 3 million dollars a year. Before Free Agency officially began, I managed to get Harry Francis to verbally agree to a deal in the first day of the Moratorium period. This is because, unlike the other 4 guys, he's an unrestricted free agent, and not a restricted free agent, therefor if he agreed to a contract, I'd have lost him. He's also a commodity, and would have joined the Raptors if I didn't offer him a contract. I convince him by giving him a hundred thousand dollars more (total, not per year) than what Toronto offered.  I also got him to agree to scale his pay back as he ages, instead of the 5% raises Toronto was offering, or the 8% raises that I could have offered him. I'm happy either way, because I think I said that 20 million was right for Harry, and I only hit that figure once.  For Thornton, I waited until I was about 10 days into free agency before dropping into negotiations with him.   And I'm pretty pleased how that turned out. I valued him at about 16 million and got away with less than that. I've given a lot of my players player options, and wish I could get the leverage on a guy to get a team option. I miss those. And the AI almost never uses them. (Hell, it might not even be almost.) The league was much more exciting when the game started, but Take Two is a lazy, greedy piece of poo poo. On day 12 (of 12) of free agency, I make some concessions to Louie Morgan.  This is a bit more than I wanted to pay him, but I got Francis for exactly the right price and Thornton on a steal, so overall, I'm happy with the numbers. It's yet another player option, but it was that or pay him more or have him for less years than I want to lock up a 22 year old with room to grow. I'm also not that worried about overpaying Morgan, because originally, I was giving him about 8 a year and by the time his contract was up, I was under paying him. He might be locked into this price range for most of his career, which is good, because Sonnet is going to want closer to 20. ................also, if those numbers seem high, the MLE has increased to something like 13.8 million per year. So salaries are roughly double what they are in the real world. I wonder if there's any way for this figure to go down. I kinda doubt it. I could not come to equitable terms with Rogers or Vaughn, but to my surprise and delight, no one offered anyone on my team a contract other than Harry Francis. So I got them for their qualifying offers instead of having to match someone else's bid.   Per thread instruction, I'd have matched Vaughn if he were made an offer, but shockingly, he wasn't. I'll match a giant salary and look to trade if I think it's too much, but I'll be damned if I make the offer myself. (Meanwhile, for Thornton and Morgan, I signed them so that I wouldn't have to match a bigger offer in the future.... I already know that I want both long term. Or at least moderately long term. Vaughn's asking price can't possibly go up next year, since he already wanted the max, but either of the other two guys could have potentially gone much higher. It's better to lock them up now.) I thought for sure that these new deals were going to put me into the Luxury tax (and they would have, had I had to match Vaughn) but I squeaked under it.  I'm not sure if there's actually a penalty for hitting the tax threshold. Anyhow, if you thought I was still being ultra frugal, those days are, for now, behind us. Frugal is for when you're building a team. We have a team, so I am paying them. Honolulu has the fifth highest salary total in the league, after Denver, New York, New Jersey, and Golden State, in that order. In news from around the rest of the league:  The Bulls get quite a bit better by filling the two hardest positions to fill with an all star caliber point guard (from the Suns), and a quality center that I won't miss dealing with in the playoffs. Unless somehow I face the Bulls. Which is now much likelier than any time in the past several years, but still fairly far-fetched. With Devin Booker retired and Dana Fletcher leaving, you'd be forgiven if you thought the Suns were in for a decade of tragedy, but they got the best free agent available in the off season, Donald Powers  That's right, fuckin Utah let their all-NBA, MVP caliber center they were renting go somewhere else on a long term deal. The Spurs also completely hosed up and let J.T. Duncan go, and he's developed into a very good center in his own right. I'll have to keep an eye on these two. I suspect I'll have to move one of them to Power Forward to reflect how I imagine Phoenix uses them. Then again, maybe they envision Duncan as a super sixth man. We'll see. Oh, and Howard Wood is slowly becoming very good. (and Claude Hicks is still employed!)  The Hornets get quite a bit older by surrounding Donta Greene with two very productive veterans. The roster makeup is weird. It's like, "Old, quite good guys, Donta Greene, and young guys with potential"..... like.... charitably speaking, it might be that they have a supporting cast for Greene now and a future supporting cast being built? But how that all fits together remains to be seen. It might actually work! (And if they can't make the playoffs with Greene and Long, they should maybe fire their coach)  I like the Kings signing Floyd. Daryl Baldwin is one of the best players in the league, but he had to do basically all of the team's scoring. Floyd's good enough on offense that I wouldn't be surprised if Baldwin is one of the few players who have their scoring numbers decrease now that the shorter shot clock is back. Wilfred Wilson is a very solid pickup at a spot of need.  The Lakers get a quality front court in Sanders (who I frequently consider in trade deals) and Dudley. I don't believe I've ever talked about Jackie Dudley, but he's very good. He's one of three or four players that averaged a double-double in the nightmarish hell scape that was the big shot clock era. (The others offhand that I can name are Donta Greene, Harry Francis, Todor Szomory, and Zion Williamson. And I'm rounding up for Harry.) He just happened to used to play for the Bucks, who have been at the bottom of the league. Anyhow, three of those four guys are were MVP candidates at different points last year. So yeah, Dudley's a big deal. The biggest winners in Free Agency, though they lost S. Soto, were the Clippers, who pulled off one hell of a coup:  Penciling in Walter Curtis to a new deal while also signing Jaxson Hayes (who is at his most productive in his old age, and a terrifying defensive presence now) and another defense-first center, Steven Washington, but also adding All-NBA player and MVP candidate Dario Zagorac from Les Voyageurs. If Hayes wasn't injured during the break (two years ago?), I'd have made him an All-Star. With Craig Payton, they have four All-Star caliber players in their starting lineup. The power rankings disagree with me (as we'll see), but for my money, the Clippers are probably the best team in the league now.  I don't actually know who is on the Celtics. That is saying something, as, even with the lengthy break I took, I still paid way too much attention to this simulation. Finally, and for the first time, if I were to watch a Honu game this year, the Jersey selection character is going to be someone other than Bol Bol.  As predicted, Torres has overtaken Bol in OVR (not that that means anything, although Torres was probably our second or third best player last year and is the guy I have earmarked to be "the guy"). Vaughn has somehow tied Bol. Torres is also the Honu player with the "Alpha Dog" badge, which indicates who the game thinks is the leader of the team. (This isn't actually the highest OVR player, either.... for the last two seasons, the player with that badge has been Harry Francis. If the description is to be believed, the badge makes other players generally better if the player with the badge is playing well.) Another sign of the times: I previewed Coach's decisions on rotation at the start of the year, and he's going to--at least to begin with--run with Vaughn starting and Bol coming off the bench. With his massive potential and existing unique set of skills, maybe I'm a fool to be so low on Teddy, and maybe I'll change my mind after this season. Change, afterall is inevitable. But the Honu Endure. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Sep 1, 2020 |
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Sep 1, 2020 05:29
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One would think that the Spurs would place quite a lot of stock on anyone named Duncan
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Sep 1, 2020 14:02
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Chapter 20: 2034-2035, Part 2: Until All-Star Break The 2035 season kicks off with a very strong series of wins by the Honu. More importantly:  The short shot clock is BACK, baby! Look at that! 7 guys with double digit scoring. God drat I missed fun basketball.  Bol is not as dominant as he once was, but he's still Bol, and he's doing well with his new Bench Bol Role. ..... We'll talk about Teddy later.  In the slow seasons, a performance like this would be a sure fire player of the week, but not in the return to fun season. No Honu would win PotW honors by the All-Star selections, and you know what? I'm cool with that.  Vaughn puts up this seeming monster game...  Thornton gets injured, which does something interesting with my rotations---before Thornton was injured, poor Gheorghe Eminescu, who is old now, was in the reserves.... coach giving minutes to Aaron Payne, but mostly letting Louie Morgan and Jemerio Kraemer play the 2. But when Thornton was injured, instead of putting Payne in the starting role, he moved Eminescu all the way from "Reserve" to "starter". Eminescu has not yielded that role, even though Thornton has since come back.  Because OVR is meaningless and Eminescu is still really good. And the AI isn't good enough to put a lower OVR guy into a rotation, but it's sometimes good enough to let one stay in the rotation----not always, though. I've made a habit of switching cold guys out for bench rotation guys when I rebuild rotations, which is frequently. Also, another monster of a game from Teddy  And a third  And while this game is to highlight a monster game from Morrison (who is rather inconsistent and has trouble staying in our rotation), you'll see that it's a fourth monster game from Teddy Vaughn. .........I think we might have to max out Teddy..... And it's... argh. Pay attention to his threes. Teddy can and will shoot us out of games. He is a terrible three point shooter, but he absolutely guns them. He's about a 40% shooter and a 23% three point shooter (and he guns a LOT of threes). And he's a power forward. So 40% shooting as absolute rear end. But that rebounding rate, near as I can tell, that's not from his own missed shots... he's just that good of a rebounder. Most of his misses are things he can't catch. His offensive rebounding isn't unusually high. So he defends, passes, scores (sort of) and rebounds at an elite rate. He's a very weird star, and I can't think of a close comparison off the top of my head. Kevin Love, maybe? I think his ceiling is a better Kevin Love that's legitimately good at defense. His floor, where he is right now, is a considerably worse Kevin Love. Love actually can shoot. Actually, speaking of stars, he's not one. These guys are:  Some notes: ~Luka Doncic very nearly didn't win his vote total for the West, partly because of how terrible Dallas is (we'll cover that in a moment) but also because of how disgustingly good Casey Daniel is playing. I mentioned last year he essentially had the same stats as Donta Greene and was, in fact, the player that the Hornets used in that position before Greene came over? Well, this year he's averaging slightly better than Greene is at points and rebounds and percentages. Also, Greene is currently first in MVP rankings. The Pelicans suck, but Daniel is doing everything in his power to make them better. ~Craig Payton's a starter largely because Walter Curtis, his partner in crime, has missed most of the season with a torn bicep. Payton has picked up the slack. ~Terrell Petersen (PG, Hornets) was added manually to replace Ja Morant. He's averaging better than Morant across the board and is on a better team. Where the gently caress did this guy come from? I blame/thank the sudden return to speedy games. This is only his first appearance. ~Dedric Wesley (SF, Bucks) was manually added to replace Dwight Dixon. He's averaging about 25 points per game. Dixon has some great numbers, himself, but the Sixers do not deserve an all-star unless the fans vote one in. This is Wesley's first appearance, though he's been very good ever since the Bucks signed him. Oops. It's just.... the Bucks have not been very good. ~Michael Torres (SF, Honu) was selected by the AI. In case I gushed too hard about Vaughn (Gush is a strong word. Vaughn is... flawed) and didn't highlight Torres enough, that's a mistake. Torres is our best player, full stop. He defends, he leads the Honu in scoring, he's one of the top Honu in assists (and the Honu are great at assists as a team), and he's also noticeably higher than anyone else on the team in terms of PER and EWA. I'm comfortable turning the keys of the team to him, and unlike Vaughn who I might begrudgingly max, on a gamble, (Vaughn would be amazing if he either learned to shoot or stop shooting, but he's gotta pick a lane and stay in it) I'm happy about the Torres deal. ~Donald Powers (C, Suns) is still putting up great performances, he's just doing it for a different team. The Jazz are still in the hunt despite letting him walk (largely because of another two players of theirs), but I wonder how the Suns are doing, in comparison ~Radu Constantin (SG, Hawks) is ridiculously good, and should have been on this team before. He's had a bit of trouble staying healthy, though. He's on the MVP rankings. ~Dario Zagorac (PG, Clippers) is about as good as he was last year, when he was in MVP contention. Weirdly, he's not this year. Yet. ~Richard Morris (PG, Magic) is, though. Again. I've said it before, but I hope my replacing him in all-star games doesn't keep him out of the Hall of Fame. I mean, it let Booker in with only 5, and only 1 All-NBA appearance, so Morris already has a better resume. ~Donta Greene (PF, Hornets) is averaging 15/15/3.5 a game. Oops. ~Wendell Park (C, Thunder) is fantastic and I can see why the fans voted him in. The Thunder suck, though. The Heat are pretty stupid/lucky, sort of like the Jazz, but less so. ~Jesse Harrington (SF, Pacers) isn't on the MVP board and that is loving insane. He's almost certainly the best player in the league right now (26/5/5, which... there are other guys who come close, but not with his efficiency. He's also second in PER and EFF though, while being first in EWA. He's also one of the top five in +/-, which is nuts, given how that stat is basically "who's on the best team in the league?!"---and Harrington is not on the best team in the league) At any rate, I'm saying the Fans were right on this one, and the media panel that votes on MVP needs to get their poo poo together. ...though Greene is doing well, I guess. ~Sheldon Hamilton (SG, Kings) was manually added to replace Giovenco Paciani. It was a decision it took me a while to make, but I felt like the Kings deserved an all-star, I couldn't justify putting Daryl Baldwin in over anyone else (he's injured anyhow, so it'd be an empty gesture) Hamilton usually comes off the bench for William Floyd, (who is starting largely because the Kings don't have a true playmaker, and Floyd is still good at that---I'd return Floyd to PG status but it'll lower his OVR and the AI might stop using him anyhow....  Houston's record is probably good enough, and Paciani is definitely good enough to still warrant being in the all-star game. But Hamilton, (again, a shooting guard) is stroking it to the tune of 19 points per game on a bonkers 70% EFG. What in the hell? The highest single season of EFG% by a guard, ever was Steph Curry hitting a year of 63% in 2015-2016. Also, he won MVP that season. So yeah. This is Hamilton's first all-star appearance.~Dakoulis Balidis (SG, Cavs) might not have had the better rookie season over Darrell Logan, but he's definitely having the better sophomore year. I'm gonna go ahead and blame the shorter shot clock. Logan hasn't struggled, certainly, but he's barely improved, while Balidis here has dramatically improved. Also, he was really good before. He's in the MVP rankings as of now. (I keep emphasizing this, but really, they change frequently over the course of a season.) ~Donte Bishop (SG, Jazz) is one of two reasons why the Jazz somehow, somehow aren't a joke after giving up on Powers. I'll get to the other guy in a second. STANDINGS West:    East:    And I know that the Honu's 5th in the West isn't that low, but we had a really hot start, and a really hot finish, and the losses all came in the middle. Like, ALL of them. We were first in the league for some time. And the thing is, I can't figure out why our record, comparatively, stinks. I can't isolate a problem.  We have one of the best point differentials in the league.  We shoot well.  We defend well. We're #2 in Blocks and Steals. #3 in assists, #3 in bench points and #5 in bench%. So we're still really deep. Our team stats suggest we are better than our record. (They also suggest that "Atlanta is very scary"). My main thought on the season is, once again, thank God for the return of the shorter shot clock. These games seem like they'd be more interesting than the last few seasons. Well, the ones that aren't blowouts would be. There are players that are performing worse (the big one on the Honu is Bruno Jukic, who has essentially the same numbers from last year on a worse shooting percentage.... he has yet to acclimate to the faster clock at all) and there are players that are performing better.  Some players are performing much better. That's not all "minutes". Malone was averaging like, 15 minutes a game last season. My best for our own under-performance is twofold: 1)We commit too many turnovers --and we commit a bunch of turnovers. We are first in turnovers. Barely first, but still first. 2)We do not capitalize on other teams' turnovers. I say this because, despite being second in both blocks and steals as said, and third in three point shooting, we're still something like 9th in points off turnovers. Given where we started, it's kind of hard to believe, but we're also toward the bottom of the league in Pace. We're not fast enough. I'd like to propose that we use our next draft pick to grab the fastest player on the board at their position, preferably if they're also a shooting guard. But any old speedster would do if they were significantly ahead of their positional peers. It's way too early to vote on draft picks, but keep it in mind If you put a gun to my head and made me call out a player, though, it'd be Stewart Thornton. I'm loathe to do it because he was injured for a while, so there's some small sample size. But if one of our big issues is turnovers, then the worst offender is easily Thornton. He's third on our team in turnovers (2.1), behind Torres (2.3) and Sonnet (2.1, but apparently a higher 2.1) But: 1)Those are our two primary ball handlers (along with Darius Garland, though he's usually off the bench now) 2)Sonnet averages 5.3 assists per game, and Torres averages 4.6 assists per game. Thornton averages 2.0 assists, he actually has a fractional A/R ratio 3)Sonnet averages 18.3 points per game, Torres averages about 19.6. Thornton averages 10.1. So yeah. If I had to identify a problem, I'd say it were him. And I know, I was so happy I got a contract that was a bargain price, but, if you're not gonna perform, that's still not really a bargain. He was injured so his numbers might be skewed, and he's got a lot of contract left. Also, we're thin at the wings. If I traded Thornton, I would absolutely have to ask for another SG back to have any hope this season. Eminescu is great, but he's also old and would die if I gave him all those minutes. If we traded Thornton (who is only 27), we'd have to take on a much older shooting guard, too. We'd pretty much have to pursue one in the draft, or in free agency. Or trades. Or something. VOTING TIME Q1: Stewart Thornton As said, Thornton is underperforming. Also, as said, there's no way to trade him for a younger player, which is what we really need. But there are some very solid veterans available for a stop-gap measure.  Package A: Stewart Thornton to the Warriors for Jason McCaw. McCaw is old and on contract for two years, but he has the best A/R ratio of the three available trade deals, which would shore up the biggest deficiency that Thornton is causing. However, aside from A/R ratio, he's the worst player of the three options.  Package B: Stewart Thornton and one of our 2036 second round picks (we own two. I forgot to check which one this is, but it's a second rounder... it doesn't matter) to Les Voyageurs for Courtney Banks. Banks is the oldest player we can get, but he's also easily the best we can get. He's a deadly efficient shooter that could conceivably do some tremendous damage on a team full of willing passers like the Honu.  Package C: Stewart Thornton to the Sonics for Jackson Jackson and a '36 first round pick. This package would give us a draft pick, although, almost certainly a low one, since the Sonics are good and look to stay good. Hell, they might be better than us next year, so there's that. Jackson Jackson is OK. He's not as good as Banks, he's not as careful with the ball as McCaw, but he's still quite solid. Also, this trade has some added hilarity---the Sonics are the team we acquired Thornton from in a trade. Selling him back and getting a pick out of it is some  poo poo. I'm not convinced it's a better deal than the Banks trade and it doesn't shore up our weaknesses as much as the McCaw trade.Alternately, we could not give up on Thornton. A)Package A (McCaw) B)Package B (Banks) C)Package C (Jackson2) D)Keep Thornton Q2: Bol Bol Bol Bol can be extended, and it's near the contract extension window. He wants something like 26 million a year, but I can talk him down to 23.5 for the first year. But he'll only agree to a 3 year extension, and only if it gives him bird increases of 8% a year which would..... average to about 26 million a year, and also give him a really big contract when he's in the third year of that deal. Also, if I'm being brutally honest, he probably won't play that third year. If he continues to decline at the rate he has been, (fairly rapidly) he'll most likely be out of the rotation by year 3, maybe even year 2. If I could extend him season at a time, I'd do it, just because... just because of how much he's done. But investing nearly 30 million dollars in a guy who won't play for us is.... .................something we don't technically have to think about. Yet. But we do have to think about it. Soon. A)To hell with the cost, extend Bol B)Don't extend Bol, (Quietly hope to sign him for less money or less years in the offseason, or maybe let him walk away. Hell, maybe he'll decide to retire) ....... C)Trade Bol Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 07:36
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e: gently caress it, B and C. Become monsters.
whowhatwhere fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 10:31
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Q1) B Q2) B
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Sep 3, 2020 10:58
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I say D and B, it’s hard to tell about Thornton though. I want Bol to retire as a Honu if possible. If not, it’s what happens.
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Sep 3, 2020 11:13
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B and B
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Sep 3, 2020 12:18
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D and B
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Sep 3, 2020 12:34
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I really, really wanted to see Bol2 retire a lifetime Honu, but that was probably naïve of me. Sad though. One thing that I have noticed in this buggy-as-gently caress Franchise mode is that the game no longer generates any once-in-a-generation players at the level of a Bird, Kareem, or Lebron. You may say that OVR doesn't matter, and it clearly doesn't, but it does to this game yet we aren't seeing any 95+ players who dominate for a decade. The last two players of this calibre, Luka and Giannis, are both real players. One is now retired and the other is way past his glory days playing for a rebuilding Mavericks team (much like Dirk) As for the trade, I favour Jackson Jackson and only slightly for the humour factor. Get a first round pick, let him be a role player this year and then get his salary off the books during the off-season so that you can build with youth. Do you have overall PPG statistics for the various years of this franchise? I wanted to see how raw scoring was during the various shot clock eras.
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Sep 3, 2020 14:04
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D and B Bol Bol is going fast. I do hold out that he'll retire a Honu, but I'm not hopeful.
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Sep 3, 2020 17:29
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JustJeff88 posted:I really, really wanted to see Bol2 retire a lifetime Honu, but that was probably naïve of me. Sad though. One thing that I have noticed in this buggy-as-gently caress Franchise mode is that the game no longer generates any once-in-a-generation players at the level of a Bird, Kareem, or Lebron. You may say that OVR doesn't matter, and it clearly doesn't, but it does to this game yet we aren't seeing any 95+ players who dominate for a decade. The last two players of this calibre, Luka and Giannis, are both real players. One is now retired and the other is way past his glory days playing for a rebuilding Mavericks team (much like Dirk) Keep an eye on Jesse Harrington, Radu Constantin, Darrell Logan and Dakoulas Balidis. There's a few other guys floating around who have max potential, too. I can't remember precisely who. I'd have to go into individual Honu players to show their PPG...... I'll do some for Bol when he retires and that ought to answer your question, since he's been our leading scorer every year except this one.
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Sep 3, 2020 18:25
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B and D are tied, with one vote for Jackson Jackson.... but the Jackson Jackson voter said that the preference was getting the salary off the books and focusing on youth. I'm going to elect to tie-break in favor of keeping Thornton, since the Banks trade would actually give up a pick. EDIT: Deal with Bol Later was a consensus winner, too. Hopefully we can get a better negotiation. I have no idea why I was locked into three (and only three) year extensions. EDIT 2: Actually, forget what I said about Maxing Vaughn. His advanced metrics are fairly awful. I think he's fools gold, like Wendell Carter Jr was in this simulation. We should throw a lot of money at Sonnet, though. Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Sep 4, 2020 |
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Sep 4, 2020 03:38
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bol bol Bol Bol BOL BOL https://twitter.com/mldiffley/status/1301727422568706048
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Sep 5, 2020 01:17
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Chapter 20: 2034-2035, Part 3: End of Regular Season, Player Analysis Richard Morris's team wins the All-Star game and the captain himself is named All-Star MVP. He's very good, but I only have to deal with Orlando, at most, twice a year.  In the USA vs World Young Assorted Young Players Extravaganza (Sponsered by Sprite), Jemerrio Kraemer puts up some solid figures for the World Squad, which wins an exciting comeback vs the US team. I'm a little annoyed Hugh Morrison wasn't on team USA, but he was getting his minutes later on in the season than Kraemer was. Jukic has not adjusted to the faster paced league at all, and I've subsequently cooled off on him a little.  In a loss to the Warriors, Teddy Vaughn puts up this nightmare of a game, which... arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. He's so inconsistent. I know if I max him, he'll frustrate me until I die, and if I don't max him, he'll immediately be a Donta Greene "Hey, I'm constantly an MVP candidate now, and you used me as a fifth option, LOL." And then he would actually say it like "lawl" because he's an art student.  But if we kept him around, we've got some great, young talent. Even Morrison's game is rather respectable when you consider Vaughn is taking his rebounds. Mnf. But Torres and Sonnet, they're very consistent performers.  I clicked news on accident toward the end of the season and saw that Jesse Harrington broke an NBA Record. Despite being second in the entire league in PER, EFF, Game Score, and PPG, and being first in the league in EWA (by over a win), Harrington would not be named MVP. Hell, he wouldn't even be named to an All-NBA team, because 2k is a loving garbage fire. By the by, I didn't stop taking pictures of Players of the Week, we just didn't win any during the entire season. Which isn't to say we or our team played bad, just none of our guys were ever the best player in the conference for an entire week at a time. Final Standings: EAST:    Nice to see the Grizzlies and Bucks bounce back. I was right to not remember who was on the Celtics.    Incredibly, Phoenix got to this point without a point guard. They're running Nickeil Alexander-Walker at point. Also, he's 36 at this point, so I'm not going to edit him into a PG in response, because it will make his OVR go down and he's not young enough to recover. The Honu recovered from their scare in the first third of the season. Also, the West in general is a hell of a dogfight. Two teams tied with the 8th seed. And it came down to the last day of the season, with the Kings winning their game to put them over the Sonics if they lost. The Sonics getting blown out by the Pacers to be eliminated, and then the Jazz springing up with a gritty Overtime win vs the Ravens to clinch the 8 seed. In that order. Awards  Back-to-Back MVPs. Some of these generated guys are dominant. Daily reminder that this is a second round pick who spent his first few years in the G-league.  So nice, they drafted him twice! (Sonics are probably pissed they inexplicably lost the rights to him)  Mansiz is quietly putting a little trophy case together, adding a second sixth man of the year award to his MIP award from a few years back.  Speaking of MIP, this was a foregone conclusion. For whatever it's worth, Alain Sonnet was fourth on this list when I checked the final week.  Just because you weren't an all-star this year doesn't mean you played badly.  Lloyd Cook coaches the Hawks, who I am hoping someone else deals with in the Playoffs, but I'm putting the cart before the horse here. ALL NBA First team  Somewhat shocked Bagley is still here. Second  If I could have been arsed, I would have replaced J.P Reece with Jesse Harrington, who played better than Reece in every way. Glad to see Petersen here. For once, I added a player to the All-Star game and the game eventually agreed with me that "Yes, this guy is in fact one of the best players in the league" Third  You know we've been playing a long time when Doncic is on the all-NBA 3rd team. From a 9 time MVP to only considered the fifth best guard in the league. All Defense First  Second  Casey Daniel plays defense too? Oh, poo poo. That kid is wasted in New Orleans. All Rookie Team 1  Team 2  If you think two rookies named Pollard is weird (they were drafted in different years, at least) (or two rookies named "Loren" is weird), the Pistons drafted two guys in the same year at the same position with the last name "Wilcox". This was the better one, obviously. The better Wilcox, but the worse Loren. (I'm terrified by how many guys I might have to rename going into year 80. So far it's been relatively few, but coincidences like these are terrifying me. Although, "Loren Mathies" is a re-name, now that I think about it, so....  )Kraemer didn't make it, despite playing 80 games of solid replacement basketball for the Honu. His numbers as a rookie are nothing that leaps off the page, but I'm deeply encouraged by shooting percentages and solid (actually excellent) perimeter defense. A defense first player with a 13(??) PER is actually really nice, because PER is laughably bad at measuring defense (as all widely known existing metrics are). I'm actually quite high on Kraemer. Speaking of: STATE OF THE TEAM: (Note: With stat averages, keep in mind that Most Honu have not played all 82 games. Only Torres, Garland and Vaughn have) Michael Torres is our Star player. He has averages of 19.5/4/4.5, with a steal and a half on 51% shooting and 44% from deep. He's very good, and I'm relieved we maxed him. He's on the hook for two more years and is set to make 36 million per next year. In advanced metrics, he's got something like 3 EWA on our second best player. Which is Alain Sonnet. Sonnet won the starting job pretty convincingly from Darius Garland and is posting averages of 18.5/2/5 with a steal and 50 percent shooting and 44% from 3. He wasn't in the 50/40/90 club because that 50% shooting is actually a very disappointing .499, which has got to be frustrating. The Frenchman is 24 years old and on an expiring deal. We need to throw all of the money at him. The game thinks he's worth about 25-28 million, and I would be thrilled if I could convince him to stay onboard longterm for that price. I gave Cisse more than that for very similar numbers, but Cisse was at the time older than Sonnet is now, and also money is worth less now than when Cisse played. I might have overpaid Cisse, but honestly, I think the AI is massively undervaluing Sonnet here. This kid is a budding star, nowhere near hitting his peak. Darius Garland is still quite productive for us, even though he's more and more frequently on the bench. He's got averages of 14.5/1/5 with 52% shooting and 45% from 3. (He is below 90% FTs) If he wanted less money in his old age, I would love to have him back for another season, because Sonnet is going to take more and more of a role, and so might Morgan. Bol Bol is rapidly aging, but is still putting up 14.5/4.5 a game. Which is actually less than last season in the slow era, but then again, he's also playing something like 6-8 minutes less a game than he was in the slow era. His per 36 minutes are the best they've been in several years, (27/8/1.... that's his best per 36 numbers since his "MVP candidate" season) so he's acclimated very well to the bench. As he's not been the focus of the offense, his efficiency is among the best its been in his career, and as his defense has arguably never been better. My hope is that this reduced role makes him decline less in the off-season so we can get him to retire with the team. I'm encouraged by what I've seen from his willingness to give over responsibility to Torres, Vaughn, and Sonnet. He's down to wanting around 23 million a year next year (from just over 26 in asking price) which is much more reasonable. Teddy Vaughn frustrates the hell out of me. I just know no matter what we decide to do with this kid, it's going to be the wrong move. He is averaging 11/11/4.5 a game with a steal and a block and just enormous, gut-wrenching, pepto-chugging swings in what kind of production he throws out in any given game. I posted several monster games, but he's so inconsistent and so inefficient. He's shooting 40% overall and only 22% from deep. But he keeps chucking 'em. He puts up over 3 attempts from 3 a game. He commits turnovers at about 2 per game, making him the second highest after Sonnet, our primary ball handler (and Sonnet also hits his shots) He's so blastedly inefficient at shooting he's below 15 in PER (so Hollinger would consider him a below average player.... but PER doesn't really include defense, which sort of tips Vaughn toward the positive side of things) and his EWA is only about 4, compared to the 12.2 of Torres or the 9.1 of Sonnet. Bol, Francis, and Garland all have around 6. (only Payne is in negatives, with a -.1) He's going to want even more money next year, since we didn't agree to a deal this year, and he might be worth it, but, monster games aside, I'm not inclined to think so. I'm discouraged in part because his shooting numbers have not improved season-by-season at all, and usually that's the main thing I want to see go up. Worse yet, he's starting to get pissy about touches. Mother fucker you take too many loving shots as it is, I'm not giving you more chances to shoot me out of a game. Stewart Thornton is still under-performing, but not as badly as he was at the break. He has averages of 10/2/2 and still about 2 turnovers. He also manages a steal and a block, which, the block is pretty nice for a two guard. He'll make about 15 million next season and is sort of worth that money. He's on our payroll for at least the next two years, and he has a player option for #3. He's currently on my poo poo-list and I might look to trade him in the off-season. He shoots 48% and 43% from deep. One thing he does well is he shoots very well. Just not that frequently. I'd be very happy if he and Vaughn reversed their usage numbers. Gheorghe Eminescu is better than Thornton is, for instance. He's averaging 10/0/2 with less than 1 turnover a game. He shoots 43% from the field and 44% from deep. You read that correctly, he is actually better from deep. He's basically aged into a 3 and D guy, but he's very good at it, and is one of the better perimeter defenders in the league. He's actually the Honu with the highest per game +/-, at +5.7. He'll be on the hook for next season for 6.8 million dollars, which is a steal. Harry Francis started coming off the bench in the back half of the season and, in general, has not adjusted to the faster pace of the league. He is averaging 9.5/8/1 with a steal and a block and shoots 53%. He hasn't attempted a three in literal years. He's on the hook for two more years and set to make 19 million. It might be time to trade him, because Morrison is coming along rather nicely. Speaking of, Hugh Morrison has been starting games for the Honu recently, and is showing a ton of promise. He's currently a clear downgrade from Francis, but I'm not sure how long that will be. He has averages of 9.5/4/3 with a block a game. I would like to see those rebound numbers go up, but those assists are fabulous. His per 36 numbers on assists are actually higher than Torres or Vaughn. He shoots 48% from the field and an even 40% from deep, while actually attempting 2 from range per game. I'm really digging this kid, and the best news is, he's only 22 and has 2 more years of sweet, sweet rookie contract to exploit him for. Granted, the drawback is, he's a #3 overall pick, so his rookie deal is to the tune of 7 million dollars per year. He's still worth about four times that much though. Jemerrio Kraemer is very solid. As a rookie, he is putting up 7/2.5/1.5 with a steal and shooting a respectable 47% with a much more realistic 34% from 3. Don't let the team's averages on 3pt shooting fool you---the Honu are, and always have been ridiculously good at shooting, as a team. 47% as a rookie (that isn't a big man) is pretty encouraging, even as a 1-year overseas player. He's got 3 years of rookie deal left, but he's a rock-solid rotational piece at a position of need, and though he'll probably never wow me, he's extremely valuable. He's decent at defense. Louie Morgan is still a benefit to the team. He's averaging a mere 6/1/2 on 49% and 46% from 3. We have him for 2 years, three if he takes a player option, and next year we'll pay him 12.5 million dollars. The AI currently values him at about 15, so his worth has gone up by more than we "over" paid him. His numbers seem low because he doesn't get many minutes. His per 36 minutes are 17.5/3/6. Morgan is a fearless spark-plug type player, and can put up quite a few points in very little time. Depending on how the offseason/draft shake out, I might permanently move him to shooting guard. Aaron Payne hardly ever plays, but when he does, he averages about 4/2/2. He's on the second year of a rookie contract. I'm not very big on Payne, but he's got plenty of room to grow and is an excellent perimeter defender. If he develops anything else, literally anything else, I'd be happy. B.J. Lawrence has struggled with the transition to a faster game, and averages 3.5/4/1 on limited minutes. Part of what's weighing him down is our extremely deep front court. We'll pay him 9 million dollars next season and he has a player option after that. Despite all this, I'm still high on Lawrence as 1)He's only 27 and 2)For the first time in forever, the Honu didn't have any injuries lasting longer than about 3 weeks. So Lawrence, who is usually at the end of our bench but plays very solid ball when called upon, has.... stayed there. I'm confident that if any of the big men ahead of him in the rotation (all of them are), the Honu would not suffer too badly, and depending on circumstance, might actually improve. He shoots 52% Bruno Jukic looked so, so good last year. This year, he's really struggled. He's averaging 3.5/6.5/2.5 with a steal and a block per game, on.... ....45% shooting, which really hurts. That's 8 whole percent worse than last year, and his minutes haven't gone anywhere. He's only on the second year of his rookie contract, so I'm hopeful he'll turn it around, but I've moved from my red hot enthusiasm for him last year to a "Sure, I'll trade him for a good offer." Steven Rogers has played 2 games this season. Hopefully that doesn't stunt his growth too badly. Or maybe he'll turn into the next Bernie Lawrence and inexplicably be on our team for like, a billion years. (Bernie Lawrence is still employed. He's on the 76ers.) Harry Reeves hasn't played any games this season for the Honu. He's in the G-league. He averaged a very respectable 16 points on about 45/45% shooting. I have no idea what his rebounds and assists were and I can't look them up now that the playoffs started. As a random substitution at a position of high need, I suspect he'll be fine, and that's the most I envision ever using him for. Nonetheless, I'd be thrilled to be proven wrong. I intend to pick up his option and give him a year in the real league, but doubt I'll actually use him there. EDIT Forgot to post the Table 
Veryslightlymad fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 5, 2020 06:25
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Yeah, Vaughn is giving me Donta Greene vibes, and I agree that you should shop Francis in the off-season.
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Sep 5, 2020 09:11
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FartingBedpost posted:Yeah, Vaughn is giving me Donta Greene vibes, and I agree that you should shop Francis in the off-season. I agree on Francis, and I think that you should trade Vaughn while his stock is high. I am convinced now, due to all of the "eccentricities" of this game, that he will never be anything but a pain in your arse but will automatically morph into a legend on another team. I genuinely believe that there is nothing that you can do about this and that you should just get what you can for him and move on. Edit: I will admit that I am enjoying the fact that 2k21 has "extremely negative" ratings on Steam JustJeff88 fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 5, 2020 15:35
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So Detroit only managed 17 wins despite having the best centre and 3rd best defensive forward in the league. What other trash was in their lineup?
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Sep 5, 2020 17:22
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Should have a playoff update sometime in the next day or so. Some things that've irritated me, and I have noticed while watching games: Alley Oop dunks/layups and attempts are way, way, way too common, especially really stupid ones that get broken up immediately. There's something stupid like 4 or more attempts at an alley oop a game in 2k. They really are not common. What is common and hardly ever makes an appearance? Offensive fouls. You might get an illegal screen every third game watching simulations, and I have yet to see even a single charge. This is.... uh.... maybe 12-15 times off. The league committed an average of something like just under 7 offensive fouls per game last season. I guess the player base thinks committing offensive fouls is no fun? Well suck it up, crybabies. Learn how basketball works.
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Sep 7, 2020 21:31
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:19 |
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Veryslightlymad posted:Should have a playoff update sometime in the next day or so. I never see any offensive fouls apart from the illegal screen, of which there is always one per side per game... seriously, like loving clockwork. I actually do believe that at default settings the fouls are turned down because most players want more of an arcade experience, and fouls slow the pace of the game. I can understand why people would and would not like this. I also personally have fewer fouls because A) I am a conservative defender who favours forcing the outside shot and B) I am terrible at iso/driving to the hoop, so I mostly rely on pick & roll, off-ball screens, motion and that sort of thing. I normally turn foul frequency up, but I will say that the AI refs are consistent. While superstar-level players are overpowered in 18/19/20 (again, pandering), they tend to be too forgiving both for my team and the other in equal measure on default settings - it's not like 90s Jordan where they call a foul on anyone in his same post code. I always play with full 12-minute quarters and a 20% slower game speed, and sometimes when playing with older classic teams I turn off fatigue because they are loving lazy and can't even bother to have proper bench players on classic teams pre-90s. That and fatigue in these games has been borked for as long as I can remember it.
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Sep 7, 2020 22:05
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