Post by Braz on Oct 29, 2020 17:04:31 GMT -8
Here we are at day 110. This has been a lot of drama and fun over the past 2 weeks of real life. This is a very unique season as we have one of our most controversial GMs winning the lotto going into his CY, the most tanking I have seen so far in this league and a very clear imbalance between the Eastern and Western conferences. The hopes of this article is to set the stage and stir up some conversation for the last 10 days of our season with a lot on the line for several teams. Below I will examine some of the league's top stories to follow as we close this out. Also really hope you guys get the smash bros reference above!
CY Alert- Will Royal be GM of the Nuggets next season?
What is going on? Royal (known here as COVID) is a lifetime FBB GM, but a controversial one. Love him or Hate him that is the real question. He will try to snake you but could also be your best friend. Some know him as the leader of the Hue Crew. Royal, well idk how the hell he got here. I guess a bunch of prospects busted and he traded them all bc he went into this last season with the top lotto pick where he landed PG. Later he signed Dirk and traded for Jamal Crawford. This team looked ready to contend for a championship and is now fighting for 42 wins and if lucky an 8 seed as well. At this moment Royal is 40-36 with 6 games left. His remaining opponents are @nets, Pacers, @hawks, @lakers, @kings, Jazz
Best Case?
Best Case Royal runs through these last 6 games and goes 4-2. Royal needs to win only 2 games to reset CY which is likely. To add to a best case he would need the wolves who have 8 games left to go 3-5 if he were to make the playoffs.
Worst Case?
Worst case is not even missing the playoffs. I feel worst case is def CY. He will have a tough game vs all remaining opponents. Each team is a playoff squad with the exception of the Hawks who are only a game back of the free falling Bucks. Royal likely wins two but if he loses to the Hawks it could be all she wrote with his boy JR giving the final blow
Teams Tanking for the future of their franchise
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What is going on?
This season we have the Cavs, Raptors, Bulls, Heat, Magic and Mavs seriously tanking. The two GMs with the most on the line are Svedda of the Cavs and Habes of Dallas as they are currently the best suited for the top pick. The Cavs currently have the worst record in the league and one of the best players in Al Jeff. Habes on the other hand has an empty cupboard after his trades but hopes in the Grizz pick giving him two shots at a top 3 pick. Another thing to note is the Rockets are unintentionally tanking which has the Blazers GM grinning ear to ear as he hopes he could potentially pair Klay with Curry!
Mavs- Habes is tanking hard after moving his two young studs and OJ Mayo for assets in search of the future of his franchise.
Best Case?
Best case for the Mavs is two top 3 picks. He is right now projected #2 by a game and the Griz who are 4-6 in their last 10 despite a much improved roster are projected 6. In this draft if I was Habes I would even be happy with the worst case scenerio.
Worst Case?
Worst case scenario is the Mavs catch fire down the stretch and beat fellow tanker Magic, Raptors and take one from an LA team putting him in the slot for the 5 pick. At this point he could wind up with at worst 5 and 8 I think and that is if Memphis goes on a tear.
Cavs- The Cavs are fresh off a rebuild and traded the Mamba and everyone but Big Al for picks and assets. Building a team around Al Jeff and Bledsoe does not sound so bad, especially if you are the tank master and can somehow be projected the top pick despite having a 25 year old 30/13/3 MVP caliber big.
Best Case?
Best case for the Cavs is simple. Stay course and go into the lotto and secure the top pick with their rightful worst record. Having the pick of his litter in a dominant class will allow the Cavs to build any which way they desire.
Worst Case? Worst case for 16 win Steve would be to win vs heat and raptors and somehow pull out a win vs a playoff team or two. This may allow heat, magic or mavs to pass him. Other bad scenerio which might drive a man mad is if he has top odds and somehow the lotto moves him to 4. Still will be a great draft spot but that would be frustrating
Heat- After failing to build a championship roster and taking a look at some stacked favorites and a loaded draft class Kobe pivoted quickly to a rebuild. The heat shipped off stars like Iggy while keeping 23 year old Billy Walker as a potential future piece. The tank police have turned to quite the scene this year on the boards calling out people for their DCs and causing a stir
Best Case?
Best case would be absolutely wild. Wolves miss playoffs and jump in lotto. More realistic best case is wolves miss playoffs and he has pick 13 and jumps into the top 3. Would be a good start for Kobe to have top 3.
Worst Case?
Worst case scenario would be his team beating the Cavs and taking one from the hawks to close the season. In addition to this the wolves could make a run and that pick could become worse.
Raptors- Going into the last draft the Raptors roster had not one thing of value but their own futures. The good thing was Braz was able to get a solid foundational player in Hassan Whiteside at 5. In addition Samardo Samuels who was pick 28 is very good. The Raptors went from a roster of nothingness to a roster that is kind of okay on some days. This has been good for the future as the team plays hard and will be a contender with a few good TCs but it has hurt the tank. The Raptors despite not having a player near the caliber of Al Jefferson have won more games in the weak east and have not benefited from overpowering west teams crushing our soul.
Best Case?
Best case for the Raptors at this point is to lose out and jump in the lotto. Right now we are looking at the top 6 and already play two worse teams to close so can not win more!
Worst Case? Well the worst case would be to beat the Cavs and Mavs down the stretch. The suns are beatable and last 2 sims the Raptors took down the Bucks, Nuggets, nets back to back to back, the Suns, Blazers and Heat. Something is clicking which is a great sign for the future but the worst case is more likely that the Raps win 2 of their last 6 and maybe slip down to 7
Magic- The Magic are known as the worst franchise in history here and that is really all I know. Eli is a nice man but heavily criticized as a GM. What can you do if you slip to Jrue in the Curry draft besides watch the Blazers thrive. Eli has tanked hard this year and probably with the most legal DC because his team just is void of much talent outside Nash who doubles as a hall pass on defense for opposing PGs.
Best Case?
For the Magic it would be to get the top pick they ever so covet. We will have to see what the file provides but they would need to out lose the cavs and being 3 games behind that is unlikely. So can Eli get some lotto luck this year?
Worst Case? Well the worst case for Eli is simple fall to 5 or 6 by Steve Nash going ape shit so he beats Mavs Pistons Suns and Nets one of two games. No chance they beat Sonics.
Bulls- The Bulls another controversial team this year but I think for the right reasons. Play, which is short for Won't Play Blake at SF, has a record of 25-53 going into the morning sim we all await. Play has Lou Williams who i am surprised is not winning more games at 33ppg and Blake Griffin scoring some points. They have a solid big in Rolo so I am surprised they are this bad. No way this team is worse than my Raptors!
Best Case?
Best case is he loses his 4 remaining games because they only have 4 games and that would put them in reach of a top 4 slot going into lotto. From there landing top 3 in lotto in addition to Wall could put them back in the playoffs next year.
Worst Case? Worst case would be to win out and all the teams he plays are not bottom or top of the conferences. The Bucks are good but not great lately, the rockets are not intentionally tanking and the Celtics are in the 7 seed. Each team here has something to fight for and the Bulls do not so there might be a better chance at best case for Play. Worst case he goes Insane? pun intended ha, ha
Playing for Playoffs!
What's going on? Above we already covered the curious case or Mr. Clark but in addition to the Nuggets the Jazz are trying to crawl into that 2 seed by surpassing the Spurs, The NJ Nets and New York Knicks are duking it out for the 2 seed out east. Hell even the Sixers got a shot. Lastly we have the Celtics, Hawks and the Bucks playing for the 7/8 seed with one man out! Most importantly of all is who ends up with the 8 seed in the West. Wolves, Nuggets or Suns!
I am not going to do Worst Best case for all the below because it is pretty obvious from my time above instead I will give a prediction and team update.
Jazz- This is a very strong team with the King himself. They are a lock for the playoffs but played around too much this year.
Prediction- Surpass the Spurs by winning every game to finish the season except vs the Sonics.
Nets/Knicks/Sixers- The two teams in the NY area are also two with the most intriguing rosters and their Philly bro has a nice team as well. A normal GM would take over either Nets or Knicks team and not know what the hell to do. The Knicks are very deep and have a formula and not one scorer over 20 ppg. Interestingly enough they have 8 guys shooting over 45% and a point guard with 4 steal block combo. They had a resurgence with RIP which afforded them a bit of flexibility to make strong trades and build a monster team lacking a true star. On the other end in the Meadowlands the Nets are built around random big men you would not expect to be good, Jawad Williams and a bunch of PGs who would such anywhere else. The PG whisperer just turned George hill into 21 ppg. Clear pick for most improved going from 5 ppg to 21. Sixers finish with a strong record but third in the division. Not too Shabby
Prediction- The Knicks take the 1 seed. The Knicks have two few losses but 2 more games which means more margin for error but they are ahead. Tough games vs the Pistons, Wiz, Sonics could go either way but Knicks do see the Heat and Griz. Nets could take the 1 seed beating the Magic, Bucks, Magic, Celtics and losing to Denver. They get the Magic twice does not seem fair lol
8th Seed out East is an ugly race. The Bucks traded for Kobe to add to Roy and once looked like a sure fire contender. The Fans are holding onto hope with dear life. Roy is a Stud but something is not clicking. The Celtics, another team that would not make playoffs out West are still enjoying the glory days of Shaun Livingston. They also have an old PP and Ray Allen in some odd recreation of his Celtics dreams. This team is not bad by any means but slightly above Average. And last we have the HAWKS. This team was once tanking and I guess now they are not. Led by their Spanish Knight JJ Barea and Ricky Davis will they push in?
My Prediction- Things stay as is. Boring I know but Brian is an unexciting 7 seed that is good enough to maybe sneak up a spot. The Bucks are good but something just needs to click. The Hawks however are at 500 fighting an uphill battle with a remaining schedule vs 5 playoff teams the Cavs and Heat. Even with 2 "free wins" the Hawks would need at least 5-2 to make it.
The Beast of the West has the slightly improved Suns and aggressive playoff birth seeking Wolves potentially kick Royal to the curb. It is great to see a lotto team like Suns make the jump, especially in a tough conference. The wolves have a good team and have been on a tear winning 8 of their last 10. The Wolves are defensive beasts with a lot of blocks and Tony parker scoring at will. Since aquiring Iguodala and finding the right DC they have been good.
My prediction- The Nuggets as outlined above are a super roster lacking true depth. The Suns although a good story may be odd man out. I think it ends up being HF's 8 seed as he will see the Griz once, Rockets twice. They have a 2 loss lead on the Nuggets who will probably finish 43-39 where the wolves finish 44-38.
