Around The League : Sim 12 Edition
Apr 30, 2023 10:08:38 GMT -6
beatonz, redrum741, and 1 more like this
Post by New York Knicks on Apr 30, 2023 10:08:38 GMT -6
Who's Hot
Sometimes we all need that 1 big trade to turn our season around. Like the New York Knicks acquiring Josh Hart. Or the Phoenix Suns acquiring Kevin Durant. Or going back further in the time, when the Detroit Pistons acquired Rasheed Wallace from Atlanta. Wallace was the missing piece in Detroit, that propelled the Pistons to their first championship since the Bad Boys days. So when Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager John1974 was trying to fix his own team. He read his history textbooks and learned from the past, and of course he traded for Rasheed Wallace. It worked in real life right? So John figured it would work in this league as well. And so far he's been right. Since acquiring Rasheed, and he made his Wolves debut vs Detroit (Ironically enough), the Wolves are 18-8 with him in the lineup (13-16 before the trade). They are also 11-2 in their last 13 games. Over that stretch Rasheed Wallace is averaging 28.9 PPG. Rasheed had a good career in Philly. But ever since coming over to Minnesota he's transforming into the superstar he was expected to be as the #12 pick in the Dispersal Draft. Wallace, Wiseman, and McDyess are playing well up front. First year all-star Tyrese Maxey is giving them strong guard play. This team is looking good right now. And they're climbing the ladder in the West. They're now up to #5 Seed, and only 1/2 a game back of 4th place Memphis.
Who's Not
Sorry Smitty, but it gotta be done. The Utah Jazz had a 31-11 record heading into the all-star break. But since the break, they are just 9-10 through 19 games. This team should not be playing sub 500 basketball for over a month straight. They got the damn 2 time reigning MVP Larry Kenon. FOUR time All-Star Bob McAdoo. 2001 all-star MVP John Shumate. They signed Paul Westphal, who was an all-star last year in Milwaukee. They got more all-stars than wins in the second half of the season. What the hell is going on here? They lost to the Dallas Mavs. How do you lose to a jackass that tries to trade with himself? They lost to the tanking Warriors. They lost to Philly, a team that has been struggling mightily (We'll talk about them later). Even an injury depleted Nuggets team got the best of Utah. They've already lost more home games (4) in the 2nd half than they had in entire 1st half (3). This is unacceptable. Listen up Smitty. Sim #13 is approaching, and look at this weakass schedule. You got 2 games coming up against the 19-33 Bucks. Then you got another 2 games vs the 14-41 Sacramento Kings. I'm gonna need you to OBLITERATE these teams. Destroy them them until they say mercy. Make the Kings say uncle. Make them all know that the Jazz still mean business in the West.
Injury Report
John Mengelt (56) - Mengelt is going to be stepping away from the team for the remainder of the season due to his severe depression. Depression is real, so let's all wish John the best as he tries to recover from this. And hopefully resume his career next season. Mengelt finished up the year with 44 games played and 6.9 PPG.
Lonnie Shelton (37) - Lonnie has missed the last 6 games with a leg injury, and now he's gonna miss a whole lot more games. Shelton has a broken leg, and he is NOT expected to return for the remainder of the regular season. If the Nuggets do make the playoffs, we might see Lonnie at that point.
Robert Parish (9) - However, it's no guarantee the Nuggets are gonna get there. Because their injuries are stacking up. First Shelton. And now Robert Parish, who's out 9 more days with a broken jaw. Denver is 1-4 in their last 5 games (all 5 games were without Shelton + Parish). To make matters worse. Backup big man Julio Rose got a fractured Nose (3) too. So that leaves them with just 3 healthy front court players. In their last game vs Utah. 6'5 SG Mitchell butler played 42 minutes at Power Forward.
Slick Watts (25) - Its been back to back years with major injuries for Slick Watts. Last year he was limited to just 25 out of 82 games. This year's he's only played 41 of 54 games. And he's expected to be out 25 more days (19 games). Armond Hill was signed off the waiver wire to start in place of the injured Watts for Dallas. Former Mavs Proxy GM Methatswho did not approve. But so far Hill has been a quality floor General. He's got a 6.0 APG to 0.6 TPG ratio. That's like 10:1. That's pretty damn good.
Sam Cassell (12) - The 2 time rookie of the month is gonna miss 12 days with a fractured hip. I hope this time missed won't affect his chances of winning rookie of the year. He's having a nice rookie campaign with 12.1 PPG and 5.9 APG.
News Around The League
- We mentioned Philly earlier. Their struggles post-Rasheed trade continue. They have now dropped to 13-16 since their roster shake up. With 7 losses in their last 10 games. For some reason these pieces are just not blending well on offense. The good news is they're #2 in the league in field goal defense. So if they can figure out this offense, maybe they can still right the ship.
- Interesting fact about field goal defense. 5 of the top 6 teams in FG% DEF are from the Atlantic Division (Philly, Miami, New York, Brooklyn, and Washington). With the Clippers being the lone exception.
- As for the bottom of the league in field goal defense? #29 is Sacramento. #28 are the Lakers. And #27 is Phoenix. All teams from the Pacific Division. Like I've always said. The West is SOFT.
- The Sonics have gone soft ever since I praised them as a Who's Hot team. They've now lost 5 games in a row. They've scored 100 points or less in each game. This team needs figure out a way to add some juice to their offense.
- And actually they're gonna be trying something new for the first time in franchise history. They're moving Giannis over to the Power Forward position. With his quickness and athleticism, we could envision Giannis as being a nightmare matchup for a typical PF/C. But with his slender frame, can he hold up physically? We'll find out next sim.
- Let's check out the award winners, starting with the Player Of The Month. It's Michael Carter Williams for the 2nd consecutive time. Quietly he's putting together an MVP worthy resume (23.0 PPG 10.1 APG 5.5 RPG).
- Rookie of the month went to the tall guy Gheorghe Muresan. The 7'7 center has drastically improved since the season started. He's up to 11.9 PPG 8.4 RPG 1.3 BPG. Bucks got a promising young prospect in big Gheorghe.
- As for player of the week, it was Killian Hayes winning the award for the third time this season. His highlight performance of the week came against the New York Knicks, when he went off with 43 points 11 assists and 8 rebounds. He also shot 9 for 10 from Three Point Land.
- Speaking of the Raptors, they're finally creating some distance between themselves and 2nd place Atlanta for #1 in the Central. They're 4 up in the loss column (2 1/2 overall). And 17 of their final 26 games will be at home. With all that home cooking, it's time for the Raptors to eat some wins. Because they gotta do better than this 13-11 home record.
Sometimes we all need that 1 big trade to turn our season around. Like the New York Knicks acquiring Josh Hart. Or the Phoenix Suns acquiring Kevin Durant. Or going back further in the time, when the Detroit Pistons acquired Rasheed Wallace from Atlanta. Wallace was the missing piece in Detroit, that propelled the Pistons to their first championship since the Bad Boys days. So when Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager John1974 was trying to fix his own team. He read his history textbooks and learned from the past, and of course he traded for Rasheed Wallace. It worked in real life right? So John figured it would work in this league as well. And so far he's been right. Since acquiring Rasheed, and he made his Wolves debut vs Detroit (Ironically enough), the Wolves are 18-8 with him in the lineup (13-16 before the trade). They are also 11-2 in their last 13 games. Over that stretch Rasheed Wallace is averaging 28.9 PPG. Rasheed had a good career in Philly. But ever since coming over to Minnesota he's transforming into the superstar he was expected to be as the #12 pick in the Dispersal Draft. Wallace, Wiseman, and McDyess are playing well up front. First year all-star Tyrese Maxey is giving them strong guard play. This team is looking good right now. And they're climbing the ladder in the West. They're now up to #5 Seed, and only 1/2 a game back of 4th place Memphis.
Who's Not
Sorry Smitty, but it gotta be done. The Utah Jazz had a 31-11 record heading into the all-star break. But since the break, they are just 9-10 through 19 games. This team should not be playing sub 500 basketball for over a month straight. They got the damn 2 time reigning MVP Larry Kenon. FOUR time All-Star Bob McAdoo. 2001 all-star MVP John Shumate. They signed Paul Westphal, who was an all-star last year in Milwaukee. They got more all-stars than wins in the second half of the season. What the hell is going on here? They lost to the Dallas Mavs. How do you lose to a jackass that tries to trade with himself? They lost to the tanking Warriors. They lost to Philly, a team that has been struggling mightily (We'll talk about them later). Even an injury depleted Nuggets team got the best of Utah. They've already lost more home games (4) in the 2nd half than they had in entire 1st half (3). This is unacceptable. Listen up Smitty. Sim #13 is approaching, and look at this weakass schedule. You got 2 games coming up against the 19-33 Bucks. Then you got another 2 games vs the 14-41 Sacramento Kings. I'm gonna need you to OBLITERATE these teams. Destroy them them until they say mercy. Make the Kings say uncle. Make them all know that the Jazz still mean business in the West.
Injury Report
John Mengelt (56) - Mengelt is going to be stepping away from the team for the remainder of the season due to his severe depression. Depression is real, so let's all wish John the best as he tries to recover from this. And hopefully resume his career next season. Mengelt finished up the year with 44 games played and 6.9 PPG.
Lonnie Shelton (37) - Lonnie has missed the last 6 games with a leg injury, and now he's gonna miss a whole lot more games. Shelton has a broken leg, and he is NOT expected to return for the remainder of the regular season. If the Nuggets do make the playoffs, we might see Lonnie at that point.
Robert Parish (9) - However, it's no guarantee the Nuggets are gonna get there. Because their injuries are stacking up. First Shelton. And now Robert Parish, who's out 9 more days with a broken jaw. Denver is 1-4 in their last 5 games (all 5 games were without Shelton + Parish). To make matters worse. Backup big man Julio Rose got a fractured Nose (3) too. So that leaves them with just 3 healthy front court players. In their last game vs Utah. 6'5 SG Mitchell butler played 42 minutes at Power Forward.
Slick Watts (25) - Its been back to back years with major injuries for Slick Watts. Last year he was limited to just 25 out of 82 games. This year's he's only played 41 of 54 games. And he's expected to be out 25 more days (19 games). Armond Hill was signed off the waiver wire to start in place of the injured Watts for Dallas. Former Mavs Proxy GM Methatswho did not approve. But so far Hill has been a quality floor General. He's got a 6.0 APG to 0.6 TPG ratio. That's like 10:1. That's pretty damn good.
Sam Cassell (12) - The 2 time rookie of the month is gonna miss 12 days with a fractured hip. I hope this time missed won't affect his chances of winning rookie of the year. He's having a nice rookie campaign with 12.1 PPG and 5.9 APG.
News Around The League
- We mentioned Philly earlier. Their struggles post-Rasheed trade continue. They have now dropped to 13-16 since their roster shake up. With 7 losses in their last 10 games. For some reason these pieces are just not blending well on offense. The good news is they're #2 in the league in field goal defense. So if they can figure out this offense, maybe they can still right the ship.
- Interesting fact about field goal defense. 5 of the top 6 teams in FG% DEF are from the Atlantic Division (Philly, Miami, New York, Brooklyn, and Washington). With the Clippers being the lone exception.
- As for the bottom of the league in field goal defense? #29 is Sacramento. #28 are the Lakers. And #27 is Phoenix. All teams from the Pacific Division. Like I've always said. The West is SOFT.
- The Sonics have gone soft ever since I praised them as a Who's Hot team. They've now lost 5 games in a row. They've scored 100 points or less in each game. This team needs figure out a way to add some juice to their offense.
- And actually they're gonna be trying something new for the first time in franchise history. They're moving Giannis over to the Power Forward position. With his quickness and athleticism, we could envision Giannis as being a nightmare matchup for a typical PF/C. But with his slender frame, can he hold up physically? We'll find out next sim.
- Let's check out the award winners, starting with the Player Of The Month. It's Michael Carter Williams for the 2nd consecutive time. Quietly he's putting together an MVP worthy resume (23.0 PPG 10.1 APG 5.5 RPG).
- Rookie of the month went to the tall guy Gheorghe Muresan. The 7'7 center has drastically improved since the season started. He's up to 11.9 PPG 8.4 RPG 1.3 BPG. Bucks got a promising young prospect in big Gheorghe.
- As for player of the week, it was Killian Hayes winning the award for the third time this season. His highlight performance of the week came against the New York Knicks, when he went off with 43 points 11 assists and 8 rebounds. He also shot 9 for 10 from Three Point Land.
- Speaking of the Raptors, they're finally creating some distance between themselves and 2nd place Atlanta for #1 in the Central. They're 4 up in the loss column (2 1/2 overall). And 17 of their final 26 games will be at home. With all that home cooking, it's time for the Raptors to eat some wins. Because they gotta do better than this 13-11 home record.
