Post by New York Knicks on Mar 16, 2023 1:09:48 GMT -6
Who's Hot
The hottest team heading into the 2nd half of the season is from the Western Conference. And no it's not the Clippers. It's not the Nuggets. It's not the Spurs. It's actually the Seattle Supersonics, who have the West best 9-1 record over the last 10 games (Tied with the Jazz, but we've talked about the Jazz enough. Gotta spread the love). And Seattle deserves some love. They have won 12 of their last 14 games, with their only losses coming against the Nuggets and Clippers. No shame in that. But immediately after the Clippers loss, they came back with a huge 1 point victory vs Utah. They previously also beat the Spurs by 10 @ San Antonio. Those are some impressive wins on their resume, as the Sonics are proving to be the real deal. They're top 5 in scoring defense. Big Country Reeves is averaging 22/10 on the year. 2nd year man Isaiah Stewart (14.2 PPG 8.3 RPG) is doing a good job filling in for the departed Gorgui Dieng, who signed with the Clippers in the off-season. Together he and Reeves provide the muscle that allows the Sonics to go pound for pound against any front line in the league. This team is tough. They're physical. They play defense. My issue is with them is Giannis. He's having a nice all around season (17.6 PPG 7.4 RPG 5.0 APG 1.3 BPG). But his 43.1 FG % is a career low. He hasn't become that go-to offensive player. Something keeps holding him back. It's like he's too nice. Always wants to be everybodies friend. When he needs to knocking everybodies head off. Dunking on their heads. Displaying his dominance. If Seattle can unlock that Giannis, then the West is going to have a BIG problem.
Who's Not
But not bigger than the problem that exists in Chicago. The Bulls have become the bullied. Everybodies pushing them around game after game. In fact they just lost 9 straight games. 6 of those games were by 20+ points. Even the weirdo Wizards beat them by 21. And the Bulls were down by 37 points in that game heading into the fourth quarter...AT HOME! The lone bright spot was Nikola Jokic, who nearly had a triple double (29 points 9 rebounds 8 assists). He's had a solid statistical rookie season (15.9 PPG 8.9 PPG 3.7 APG). He's one of the best shooting bigs in the game. He's one of the best passing centers. But he's also one of most turnover prone centers (2.7 TPG). And his interior defense has been horrible. He blocks no shots. Nobody in Chicago does. They're bottom 3 in the league in Shot blocking. Which is why teams tear them apart inside the paint and get to the free throw line with ease (31.5 FTA allowed/game - 4th worst in the league). Therefore they allow alot of points on defense (105.1 OPPG - 24th in the league). Offensively they're not much better scoring about 95 points per game. Shannon Brown has regressed as a player. At one point he looked like an all-star outside scoring guard. Now he looks like a future bench combo guard. KCP isn't improving much. Renaldo Balkman has reached his ceiling. Only player that gives this team any hope is a man with titties. But Dorito Boy Jokic is going to be a special offensive talent in this league for a long time.
Injury News
Brent Barry - It's been a rough year for Brent Barry. First his daddy Rick joined the league, making Brent the worst Barry in the league. Then he lost his starting shooting guard job in Toronto. And now he's got a broken leg, which means he's going to be out for almost the entire regular season (he'll return with only a few weeks left in the season). Barry is averaging 8.2 PPG and shooting 40.3 % from downtown.
Hilton Armstrong - The recently tradeblocked Armstrong is out 13 days with a broken jaw. Armstrong was pretty upset about being put on the market, so he let new Cavs proxy GM Ucfinfan know. Guess it didn't work out too well for him. Moral of the story - don't mess with Ucfin.
Dewayne Dedmon - Dedmon is another guy you don't wanna mess with. He's an angry looking dude. Word from Boston is that Hooper is so intimidated of him, that he was physically forced to give Dedmon that 3 year contract extension. Fortunately Hooper now has a small break from his terrorizing big man, as Dedmon will miss the next 7 days with a sprained wrist. You can relax now Hooper. For now.
More News Around The League
- The biggest news from this sim was the Eastern Conference defeating the West in the All-Star Game by the final score of 116-108. This is the first time the East won in the league history.
- Why did the East win? They were the bigger more physical team. They manhandled the West on the inside in route to 44 free throw attempts (to the Wests 26 FT attempts). Moses, McGinnis, Drew, Ostertag, Truck Robinson all trucked right through the sorry West defenders. The West had no answers for that east coast offense. The East shot a ridiculous 55.4 % from the field.
- On the losing side Mickey Johnson looked more like Mickey Mouse with 6 points and 6 fouls while shooting 3/11 from the field. Maybe we should stop sending empty stat losers to the all-star game? Stop reward losing. Like loudmouth loser Kevin Garnett from the 14-28 Detroit Pistons getting in over Rasheed Wallace and Andrea Bargnani.
- George McGinnis won the all-star game MVP for the East with 16 points 6 rebounds 4 assists...I personally would've voted for Ostertag, who finished with 17 points 8 rebounds 3 blocks in just 23 minutes. He also held Artis Gilmore to 7 points on 2/12 shooting.
- If it was up to me I would've also put Damon Stoudamire in the damn all-star game. 29.6 PPG (1st in the league), 8.4 APG, 50.9 FG %, 46.4 % shooting from downtown. But speaking of downtown, Stoudamire was selected to the three point shootout, where he took all his anger out on little Killian Hayes. He beatdown Hayes 21-6 in the Final Round. And Damon Stoudamire is your 2002 Three Point Shootout Champion.
- Damon wasn't the only guy getting screwed over this all-star weekend. Somehow neither Hayes (23.5 PPG 6.0 APG) nor Embiid (15.2 PPG 9.7 RPG) made the rookie game. Hayes actually got beat out by Lamelo Ball, who's not even in his team's primary 8 man rotation. What the hell is going on with this selection process?
- And what the hell happened in this rookie game? Did the Sophomores even show up? Or did they send a bunch D-Leaguers to the game instead? Actually thats exactly what they did. They sent multiple D-leaguers like Yam Madar and Precious Achiuwa. How do you expect to win a basketball game with a guy named precious on your team? It was embarassing. From the 108-75 final score. To the fact that they had more turnovers (17) than assists (14). Embarrassing. LaMelo Ball was ashamed be apart of this. He asks for his rookie game participation to be rescinded and removed from his resume. To remove any future reminder of this game.
- One guy that didnt embarass himself was Nikola Jokic from the rookie side. A game that featues no defense? That's perfect for Dorito Boy. And his performance was perfect as well. 26 points 9 rebounds 5 assists 4 steals. A flawless game. And he was the obvious choice for MVP. Though Marcus smart deserves some love as well with his 17/6/6 stat line.
- And last and very much least, Dennis Johnson won another snorefest slam dunk contest. He was matched up against a boringass Spur Dan Roundfield. What creative dunk could've he actually came up with playing for that stale dry no personality having franchise? And his 2nd competior was a guy named Griffin Gomelsky. Seriously? Griffin Gomelsky? Anyways congratulations to the 3 time slam dunk champ Dennis Johnson. Hopefully this thing gets cancelled next season.
- And now we begin the second half of the season, as a lot of questions in the league remain unanswered.
Who's the team to beat in the West, Utah or the Clippers?
What about in the East, Philly or Miami?
Who's gonna win the worst division in the league, Milwaukee or Toronto?
Who's gonna finish with the worst record in the league, Hornets or Lakers?
Lots of interesting questions to think about.
The hottest team heading into the 2nd half of the season is from the Western Conference. And no it's not the Clippers. It's not the Nuggets. It's not the Spurs. It's actually the Seattle Supersonics, who have the West best 9-1 record over the last 10 games (Tied with the Jazz, but we've talked about the Jazz enough. Gotta spread the love). And Seattle deserves some love. They have won 12 of their last 14 games, with their only losses coming against the Nuggets and Clippers. No shame in that. But immediately after the Clippers loss, they came back with a huge 1 point victory vs Utah. They previously also beat the Spurs by 10 @ San Antonio. Those are some impressive wins on their resume, as the Sonics are proving to be the real deal. They're top 5 in scoring defense. Big Country Reeves is averaging 22/10 on the year. 2nd year man Isaiah Stewart (14.2 PPG 8.3 RPG) is doing a good job filling in for the departed Gorgui Dieng, who signed with the Clippers in the off-season. Together he and Reeves provide the muscle that allows the Sonics to go pound for pound against any front line in the league. This team is tough. They're physical. They play defense. My issue is with them is Giannis. He's having a nice all around season (17.6 PPG 7.4 RPG 5.0 APG 1.3 BPG). But his 43.1 FG % is a career low. He hasn't become that go-to offensive player. Something keeps holding him back. It's like he's too nice. Always wants to be everybodies friend. When he needs to knocking everybodies head off. Dunking on their heads. Displaying his dominance. If Seattle can unlock that Giannis, then the West is going to have a BIG problem.
Who's Not
But not bigger than the problem that exists in Chicago. The Bulls have become the bullied. Everybodies pushing them around game after game. In fact they just lost 9 straight games. 6 of those games were by 20+ points. Even the weirdo Wizards beat them by 21. And the Bulls were down by 37 points in that game heading into the fourth quarter...AT HOME! The lone bright spot was Nikola Jokic, who nearly had a triple double (29 points 9 rebounds 8 assists). He's had a solid statistical rookie season (15.9 PPG 8.9 PPG 3.7 APG). He's one of the best shooting bigs in the game. He's one of the best passing centers. But he's also one of most turnover prone centers (2.7 TPG). And his interior defense has been horrible. He blocks no shots. Nobody in Chicago does. They're bottom 3 in the league in Shot blocking. Which is why teams tear them apart inside the paint and get to the free throw line with ease (31.5 FTA allowed/game - 4th worst in the league). Therefore they allow alot of points on defense (105.1 OPPG - 24th in the league). Offensively they're not much better scoring about 95 points per game. Shannon Brown has regressed as a player. At one point he looked like an all-star outside scoring guard. Now he looks like a future bench combo guard. KCP isn't improving much. Renaldo Balkman has reached his ceiling. Only player that gives this team any hope is a man with titties. But Dorito Boy Jokic is going to be a special offensive talent in this league for a long time.
Injury News
Brent Barry - It's been a rough year for Brent Barry. First his daddy Rick joined the league, making Brent the worst Barry in the league. Then he lost his starting shooting guard job in Toronto. And now he's got a broken leg, which means he's going to be out for almost the entire regular season (he'll return with only a few weeks left in the season). Barry is averaging 8.2 PPG and shooting 40.3 % from downtown.
Hilton Armstrong - The recently tradeblocked Armstrong is out 13 days with a broken jaw. Armstrong was pretty upset about being put on the market, so he let new Cavs proxy GM Ucfinfan know. Guess it didn't work out too well for him. Moral of the story - don't mess with Ucfin.
Dewayne Dedmon - Dedmon is another guy you don't wanna mess with. He's an angry looking dude. Word from Boston is that Hooper is so intimidated of him, that he was physically forced to give Dedmon that 3 year contract extension. Fortunately Hooper now has a small break from his terrorizing big man, as Dedmon will miss the next 7 days with a sprained wrist. You can relax now Hooper. For now.
More News Around The League
- The biggest news from this sim was the Eastern Conference defeating the West in the All-Star Game by the final score of 116-108. This is the first time the East won in the league history.
- Why did the East win? They were the bigger more physical team. They manhandled the West on the inside in route to 44 free throw attempts (to the Wests 26 FT attempts). Moses, McGinnis, Drew, Ostertag, Truck Robinson all trucked right through the sorry West defenders. The West had no answers for that east coast offense. The East shot a ridiculous 55.4 % from the field.
- On the losing side Mickey Johnson looked more like Mickey Mouse with 6 points and 6 fouls while shooting 3/11 from the field. Maybe we should stop sending empty stat losers to the all-star game? Stop reward losing. Like loudmouth loser Kevin Garnett from the 14-28 Detroit Pistons getting in over Rasheed Wallace and Andrea Bargnani.
- George McGinnis won the all-star game MVP for the East with 16 points 6 rebounds 4 assists...I personally would've voted for Ostertag, who finished with 17 points 8 rebounds 3 blocks in just 23 minutes. He also held Artis Gilmore to 7 points on 2/12 shooting.
- If it was up to me I would've also put Damon Stoudamire in the damn all-star game. 29.6 PPG (1st in the league), 8.4 APG, 50.9 FG %, 46.4 % shooting from downtown. But speaking of downtown, Stoudamire was selected to the three point shootout, where he took all his anger out on little Killian Hayes. He beatdown Hayes 21-6 in the Final Round. And Damon Stoudamire is your 2002 Three Point Shootout Champion.
- Damon wasn't the only guy getting screwed over this all-star weekend. Somehow neither Hayes (23.5 PPG 6.0 APG) nor Embiid (15.2 PPG 9.7 RPG) made the rookie game. Hayes actually got beat out by Lamelo Ball, who's not even in his team's primary 8 man rotation. What the hell is going on with this selection process?
- And what the hell happened in this rookie game? Did the Sophomores even show up? Or did they send a bunch D-Leaguers to the game instead? Actually thats exactly what they did. They sent multiple D-leaguers like Yam Madar and Precious Achiuwa. How do you expect to win a basketball game with a guy named precious on your team? It was embarassing. From the 108-75 final score. To the fact that they had more turnovers (17) than assists (14). Embarrassing. LaMelo Ball was ashamed be apart of this. He asks for his rookie game participation to be rescinded and removed from his resume. To remove any future reminder of this game.
- One guy that didnt embarass himself was Nikola Jokic from the rookie side. A game that featues no defense? That's perfect for Dorito Boy. And his performance was perfect as well. 26 points 9 rebounds 5 assists 4 steals. A flawless game. And he was the obvious choice for MVP. Though Marcus smart deserves some love as well with his 17/6/6 stat line.
- And last and very much least, Dennis Johnson won another snorefest slam dunk contest. He was matched up against a boringass Spur Dan Roundfield. What creative dunk could've he actually came up with playing for that stale dry no personality having franchise? And his 2nd competior was a guy named Griffin Gomelsky. Seriously? Griffin Gomelsky? Anyways congratulations to the 3 time slam dunk champ Dennis Johnson. Hopefully this thing gets cancelled next season.
- And now we begin the second half of the season, as a lot of questions in the league remain unanswered.
Who's the team to beat in the West, Utah or the Clippers?
What about in the East, Philly or Miami?
Who's gonna win the worst division in the league, Milwaukee or Toronto?
Who's gonna finish with the worst record in the league, Hornets or Lakers?
Lots of interesting questions to think about.
