Post by aar on Aug 2, 2012 13:11:28 GMT -5
1) Who will win the Central division?
It should go down to the wire, but I see ATL edging out the Bucks by a game or two. Both teams have their strengths, Milwaulkee may be a tad bit more explosive on offense and take better care of the ball while the Hawks are a better rebounding team and get more blocks. Just took a look at what Cheeks has been doing and it seems like he's finally gotten his act together. What puts Atlanta over the top is having Jordan. He's already shattering every expectation I had for him as a rookie, except for the passing, but that doesn't really matter. He's already in the conversation for best player in the league as a rookie, which is amazing. So yeah, I wouldn't bet against the Hawks in this situation with a gamebreaker like that on their team.
2) What was the worst top-10 pick in the 2051 Draft?
Well, there was only one player taken in the top 10 who failed to improve at all, which sucks a lot for Jah because that's two drafts in a row he's struck out and failed to get someone who could help bring his franchise back from the basement. However, I don't think Woolridge was the worst pick. Mark Aguirre was, not because he won't be a solid player, but because I think Game picked him way too high. Rolando Blackman was available if he wanted to go with a scorer, Buck Williams and Larry Nance if he wanted a big. Instead he reached real far to nab Aguirre and that could cost him big time in the future.
3) Who will finish with the best record in the Western Conference?
Just by glancing at their rosters, the Warriors, Suns, and Clippers all seem to be very similar. They block around the same amount of shots, steal the ball about the same amount of times, take care of the ball well, and all have big positive point differentials. So I went to look at their team D, and they're all very close to each other as well. The team offense is where the Clippers separate themselves from the other two, as they shoot a blistering .475 from the field so far. They don't seem to have the big time scorers the Warriors and Suns have, but they have a really balanced team of guys who are very efficient at putting the ball in the hoop, so I'll pick them to stay atop the West.
4) Which team is most in need of a total overhaul?
The Pacers, through no fault of Biggie's. It seems like they went from solid playoff team to garbage overnight. Bill Walton inexplicably shooting 25 percentage points lower than his career average at the ripe old age of 29 is just a microcosm of what has happened to this team. At this point, all he can do is trade for his picks back and tear everything down in hopes of getting a good pick in the draft.
5) Who is the worst GM in BBS?
Heatflash has been bugging me lately with all the shit he's been talking on the boards so I'll go with him. While it was sorta funny in the beginning to see him calling out other GM's, his act has gotten kinda stale. He's out there calling out Play as a has-been for having a bad stretch while the teams he's been fielding have been just as bad, if not worse. Like I've already said before, he needs to work on his team instead of talking so much shit. Talk all you want when you get some success. Hopefully he takes this to heart because we need better GM quality around here.
6) Which three of these five teams will not make the playoffs in the East: Raptors, Bobcats, Bulls, Nets, Cavs
Barring injuries? Hm. Bobcats are in for sure, best team out of those five you mentioned. Actually, this is a weird question because three of those teams are already in the playoffs. Gun to my head, I'll say the other team would be the Bulls. They currently have the 5th ranked offense while having the best defense in the league. After seeing that, I'm actually a little surprised that they're sitting in 9th right now. The other three teams are fatally flawed in some way. Cavs have a terrible offense, Raptors aren't so good offensively themselves, and the Nets don't get enough blocks/steals and are also in the bottom half of the league defensively.
7) Which team is underachieving most this season?
Since I already mentioned the Pacers, I'll go with the Lakers. They're returning pretty much the same starters as last year, so I expected them to be on top of the Pacific. Don't remember if they traded Kermit before or after the playoffs, but don't really care because they should be doing a lot better than 7 games over .500 right now. With Money being money as usual, Westphal scoring like a boss, Robinzine turning in a great season and Dawkins holding down the post, I'm actually really surprised they're playing this poorly. Their lack of a bench may be hurting them, but I don't know what they can do to improve their team defense which is below average because they look like they should be solid defensively.
8) Will MJ win the MVP in his rookie year?
Nah. I think even when MJ is at his peak, Magic will be winning most of those. FBB loves assists, and Magic is averaging almost a triple double. Unless MJ starts playing point and averaging 9-10 assists a game, Magic has that trophy on lock for awhile. FBB doesn't take real life variables into account such as voter fatigue, team success and the fact that the best point guard doesn't have to win MVP every time. Unless Jordan starts putting up something crazy like 40+ PPG which is actually very possible when I think about it. But for now, no, Jordan's not winning it this year.
9) If you had to win a BBS championship THIS season, which player would you most want on your team?
Magic Johnson. Too easy. He's been to the finals in two of his first three seasons with a seven game conference final in the other year, averaged a triple double over the course of a season, and now he's taken his scoring to another level. With him, you're playing this game on easy mode.
10) Bird or Isiah, who would you rather have going forward?
I'll go with Bird. You're getting a double-double from the shooting guard position every night. Even though Isiah provides more from a stats defense perspective, Bird is also a lot more efficient in every offensive category and doesn't turn it over as much as Zeke does. Isiah actually hasn't developed as well as I had hoped, but this is only his second season and he's only 20, so I'm hoping he's got a lot more potential left.
11) Which player on the Bulls do you feel could yield the most trade value?
Hard to say, they have a bunch of players that are around the same level. I'd say Drew but he's not a good rebounder and has too many turnovers for my liking. Probably Copeland then, as he's a proven scorer for a championship team, locked up, and only 25. Also, he still has that A scouted potential. Even though it's only scouted potential, we all know that it affects our perceptions of a player a lot, which really helps to skew trade value one way or the other.
12) Which is the most overachieving team in BBS?
It's either the Wizards or the Thunder. Wizards starters consist of Bingo, Mengelt and three average players with a pretty bad bench to support them. Actually, calling John Stroeder average is too kind, 33% FG is pretty terrible, and he doesn't block or rebound, so I don't know what he's doing starting for them. OKC is just the Mike Glenn show, he's just beating the shit out of the competition. Other than him, they have no players averaging over 20 PPG. Washington has two stars and nothing else, but OKC has one star with a more solid supporting cast around him. Tough to say who's overachieving the most, so I'll just say they share that distinction.
13) Which BBS star do you think is a liability to their team?
Moses Malone was the biggest liability in the league. He fouls too much and never shot too well from the field with Dallas. He has brought his field goal percentage up since joining Atlanta, but since there are no other real candidates for this question, I'm sticking with him. Also, because of his name value, Greg stuck with him thinking he could be a franchise player when he really was more of a 3rd option type of player, so he's also a liability in that sense. Like Spenny said, Moses is Denton with more name value.
14) What would you do if you were the GM of the Wizards?
I thought that they would suck this year, but apparently they are decent. And they have all their picks, so I guess they could ride it out if they wanted. If it were me, I'd get whatever I could for Bingo, Mengelt and whichever other solid players on that team and start tanking ASAP because clearly this draft is going to be loaded. With Spenny chasing so hard after that Hornets pick this year, I'm assuming there's going to be some really good players in there. But if they can't dump those two, might as well keep winning for as long as possible.
15) Which team in BBS would you least want to take over?
Surprisingly not the Hornets. Only because Spenny is gonna draft Worthy and trade him to Pole for all their picks back. I'd go with the Utah Jazz because their youth hasn't developed well and they're entering their CY next season I believe. They don't have a ton of cap space to improve their team through free agency, so unless they start dumping some contracts for expiring, they'll have one shot to turn it around with this coming draft pick. Things do not bode well for that franchise.
16) The Nets don't have their picks for the next few years and rather than trade for their picks, they added talent - do you agree with that methodology?
That's not what I would do, so I don't agree. However, other GM's have success doing it, so to each their own. Charlie Scott and Darnell Hillman aren't ancient, so they can try to win 42 this year and next without their picks. After that, they have their picks back, so they'll have more leverage as to what they can get back in return for Michael Ray Richardson and Kenon. If they still don't have their picks after these next two seasons, then disregard what I said because that would be a horrible situation.
17) Rank how you've done as GM of the Grizzlies from 1-10
8 or 9. I maximized the value of what I started with, drafted pretty well, had some luck in the lotto and made some good trades to get to where I am now. The one blemish I would say happened is taking Albert King over Danny Ainge. King is going to be a solid player, but Ainge is a bit better and would've been better trade bait for me to use to land a star when I need one.
18) Who will you use this AC on?
Isiah handles or McHale defensive rebounding. They sure need it.
19) What has been the most lopsided trade of the season?
I already made my opinion known on this trade, I'm tired, and this is the 19th question so I'll keep this one short- Blazers/Bucks was the worst of this season. Toney is a decent player, but it's questionable whether he's better than Buck and it's definitely not in question that McHale is better. Dan should've held out for McHale.
20) Finally - give another GM in the league a shout out.
Habes- That song's sick.
It should go down to the wire, but I see ATL edging out the Bucks by a game or two. Both teams have their strengths, Milwaulkee may be a tad bit more explosive on offense and take better care of the ball while the Hawks are a better rebounding team and get more blocks. Just took a look at what Cheeks has been doing and it seems like he's finally gotten his act together. What puts Atlanta over the top is having Jordan. He's already shattering every expectation I had for him as a rookie, except for the passing, but that doesn't really matter. He's already in the conversation for best player in the league as a rookie, which is amazing. So yeah, I wouldn't bet against the Hawks in this situation with a gamebreaker like that on their team.
2) What was the worst top-10 pick in the 2051 Draft?
Well, there was only one player taken in the top 10 who failed to improve at all, which sucks a lot for Jah because that's two drafts in a row he's struck out and failed to get someone who could help bring his franchise back from the basement. However, I don't think Woolridge was the worst pick. Mark Aguirre was, not because he won't be a solid player, but because I think Game picked him way too high. Rolando Blackman was available if he wanted to go with a scorer, Buck Williams and Larry Nance if he wanted a big. Instead he reached real far to nab Aguirre and that could cost him big time in the future.
3) Who will finish with the best record in the Western Conference?
Just by glancing at their rosters, the Warriors, Suns, and Clippers all seem to be very similar. They block around the same amount of shots, steal the ball about the same amount of times, take care of the ball well, and all have big positive point differentials. So I went to look at their team D, and they're all very close to each other as well. The team offense is where the Clippers separate themselves from the other two, as they shoot a blistering .475 from the field so far. They don't seem to have the big time scorers the Warriors and Suns have, but they have a really balanced team of guys who are very efficient at putting the ball in the hoop, so I'll pick them to stay atop the West.
4) Which team is most in need of a total overhaul?
The Pacers, through no fault of Biggie's. It seems like they went from solid playoff team to garbage overnight. Bill Walton inexplicably shooting 25 percentage points lower than his career average at the ripe old age of 29 is just a microcosm of what has happened to this team. At this point, all he can do is trade for his picks back and tear everything down in hopes of getting a good pick in the draft.
5) Who is the worst GM in BBS?
Heatflash has been bugging me lately with all the shit he's been talking on the boards so I'll go with him. While it was sorta funny in the beginning to see him calling out other GM's, his act has gotten kinda stale. He's out there calling out Play as a has-been for having a bad stretch while the teams he's been fielding have been just as bad, if not worse. Like I've already said before, he needs to work on his team instead of talking so much shit. Talk all you want when you get some success. Hopefully he takes this to heart because we need better GM quality around here.
6) Which three of these five teams will not make the playoffs in the East: Raptors, Bobcats, Bulls, Nets, Cavs
Barring injuries? Hm. Bobcats are in for sure, best team out of those five you mentioned. Actually, this is a weird question because three of those teams are already in the playoffs. Gun to my head, I'll say the other team would be the Bulls. They currently have the 5th ranked offense while having the best defense in the league. After seeing that, I'm actually a little surprised that they're sitting in 9th right now. The other three teams are fatally flawed in some way. Cavs have a terrible offense, Raptors aren't so good offensively themselves, and the Nets don't get enough blocks/steals and are also in the bottom half of the league defensively.
7) Which team is underachieving most this season?
Since I already mentioned the Pacers, I'll go with the Lakers. They're returning pretty much the same starters as last year, so I expected them to be on top of the Pacific. Don't remember if they traded Kermit before or after the playoffs, but don't really care because they should be doing a lot better than 7 games over .500 right now. With Money being money as usual, Westphal scoring like a boss, Robinzine turning in a great season and Dawkins holding down the post, I'm actually really surprised they're playing this poorly. Their lack of a bench may be hurting them, but I don't know what they can do to improve their team defense which is below average because they look like they should be solid defensively.
8) Will MJ win the MVP in his rookie year?
Nah. I think even when MJ is at his peak, Magic will be winning most of those. FBB loves assists, and Magic is averaging almost a triple double. Unless MJ starts playing point and averaging 9-10 assists a game, Magic has that trophy on lock for awhile. FBB doesn't take real life variables into account such as voter fatigue, team success and the fact that the best point guard doesn't have to win MVP every time. Unless Jordan starts putting up something crazy like 40+ PPG which is actually very possible when I think about it. But for now, no, Jordan's not winning it this year.
9) If you had to win a BBS championship THIS season, which player would you most want on your team?
Magic Johnson. Too easy. He's been to the finals in two of his first three seasons with a seven game conference final in the other year, averaged a triple double over the course of a season, and now he's taken his scoring to another level. With him, you're playing this game on easy mode.
10) Bird or Isiah, who would you rather have going forward?
I'll go with Bird. You're getting a double-double from the shooting guard position every night. Even though Isiah provides more from a stats defense perspective, Bird is also a lot more efficient in every offensive category and doesn't turn it over as much as Zeke does. Isiah actually hasn't developed as well as I had hoped, but this is only his second season and he's only 20, so I'm hoping he's got a lot more potential left.
11) Which player on the Bulls do you feel could yield the most trade value?
Hard to say, they have a bunch of players that are around the same level. I'd say Drew but he's not a good rebounder and has too many turnovers for my liking. Probably Copeland then, as he's a proven scorer for a championship team, locked up, and only 25. Also, he still has that A scouted potential. Even though it's only scouted potential, we all know that it affects our perceptions of a player a lot, which really helps to skew trade value one way or the other.
12) Which is the most overachieving team in BBS?
It's either the Wizards or the Thunder. Wizards starters consist of Bingo, Mengelt and three average players with a pretty bad bench to support them. Actually, calling John Stroeder average is too kind, 33% FG is pretty terrible, and he doesn't block or rebound, so I don't know what he's doing starting for them. OKC is just the Mike Glenn show, he's just beating the shit out of the competition. Other than him, they have no players averaging over 20 PPG. Washington has two stars and nothing else, but OKC has one star with a more solid supporting cast around him. Tough to say who's overachieving the most, so I'll just say they share that distinction.
13) Which BBS star do you think is a liability to their team?
Moses Malone was the biggest liability in the league. He fouls too much and never shot too well from the field with Dallas. He has brought his field goal percentage up since joining Atlanta, but since there are no other real candidates for this question, I'm sticking with him. Also, because of his name value, Greg stuck with him thinking he could be a franchise player when he really was more of a 3rd option type of player, so he's also a liability in that sense. Like Spenny said, Moses is Denton with more name value.
14) What would you do if you were the GM of the Wizards?
I thought that they would suck this year, but apparently they are decent. And they have all their picks, so I guess they could ride it out if they wanted. If it were me, I'd get whatever I could for Bingo, Mengelt and whichever other solid players on that team and start tanking ASAP because clearly this draft is going to be loaded. With Spenny chasing so hard after that Hornets pick this year, I'm assuming there's going to be some really good players in there. But if they can't dump those two, might as well keep winning for as long as possible.
15) Which team in BBS would you least want to take over?
Surprisingly not the Hornets. Only because Spenny is gonna draft Worthy and trade him to Pole for all their picks back. I'd go with the Utah Jazz because their youth hasn't developed well and they're entering their CY next season I believe. They don't have a ton of cap space to improve their team through free agency, so unless they start dumping some contracts for expiring, they'll have one shot to turn it around with this coming draft pick. Things do not bode well for that franchise.
16) The Nets don't have their picks for the next few years and rather than trade for their picks, they added talent - do you agree with that methodology?
That's not what I would do, so I don't agree. However, other GM's have success doing it, so to each their own. Charlie Scott and Darnell Hillman aren't ancient, so they can try to win 42 this year and next without their picks. After that, they have their picks back, so they'll have more leverage as to what they can get back in return for Michael Ray Richardson and Kenon. If they still don't have their picks after these next two seasons, then disregard what I said because that would be a horrible situation.
17) Rank how you've done as GM of the Grizzlies from 1-10
8 or 9. I maximized the value of what I started with, drafted pretty well, had some luck in the lotto and made some good trades to get to where I am now. The one blemish I would say happened is taking Albert King over Danny Ainge. King is going to be a solid player, but Ainge is a bit better and would've been better trade bait for me to use to land a star when I need one.
18) Who will you use this AC on?
Isiah handles or McHale defensive rebounding. They sure need it.
19) What has been the most lopsided trade of the season?
I already made my opinion known on this trade, I'm tired, and this is the 19th question so I'll keep this one short- Blazers/Bucks was the worst of this season. Toney is a decent player, but it's questionable whether he's better than Buck and it's definitely not in question that McHale is better. Dan should've held out for McHale.
20) Finally - give another GM in the league a shout out.
Habes- That song's sick.
