Post by Herby New Year! on Nov 1, 2022 10:50:05 GMT -5
The 3035 season is underway. Who had the best offseason? Who had the worst offseason?
Sap - I think that the Raptors may have had the best or probably better said, most impactful offseason. The FA signings they had could have a significant impact on them and drastically improve the team. I would say there are some calculated risks here with it. As far as the worst offseason, I would say that the Celtics did not do very well at all. They did not improve at all and as the saying goes, you are either growing or dying and by doing nothing, you are defaulting to dying.
Heebs - Best is probably the Mavs by adding Huckaby. Pipers also are up and comers and adding Parish really helps. Worst has to be the Pacers losing 1.3 and 1.4 in FA.
Tim - Would it be biased to say the Sonics? Ike wasn't my first choice for a splashy big as I knew I wanted to transition to an inside offense and I was worried he might take more shots than I wanted, but he's been great at keeping volume low while maintaining his shot blocking. After seeing Dantley's build, I didn't think he'd be victim to the stupid coach limiting his minutes, but here we are. It's unfortunate I'll have to contend with that for his career, but he's a good player. The Pipers with the additions of Parish and Vassal and the Mavs with the Huckaby signing seem to be the other contenders right now.
Majic - Fr the most part it seems the offseason pretty much went chalk for almost everyone. This was a weaker FA class as the top guys resigned and no one really seemed to have gotten burned.
I think 2 obvious winners are the Capitols and Blazers simply for the fact that both Robinson and Pippen offered resigns. Those two are the clear elite from that class and neither had to sweat out FA. Mavs signed Huckaby on an MLE which seemed to bother some people. Worst case he is a viable PG option, best case he looks like his old self and helps lead the Mavs back to the finals.
As for the worst, I don't know that I can identify any one team that had a bad offseason. Most of the “bad” seemed to hover around the offseason and draft. From what I saw it appears the top 3 players in the draft were pretty good/great prospects and then there seemed to be a falloff a bit. If you had picks 4-7 it seemed to get lean real quick. With that, I think King had the worst offseason purely because he sold a 1.6 for cash. I do agree with the backlash on that trade and think it was an extremely short sighted move.
What draft pick or two surprised you? What player picked in the second round do you think has the chance to be the next Malcolm Huckaby?
Majic - The top 3 picks went exactly as I anticipated that they would. As I mentioned above, I was high on those 3 players so it will be interesting to see how they end up being. May and Shelton are both less of a guarantee but both guys have some likeable traits.
I can't speak to everyone in the draft as it seemed to fall off after that first major grouping of guys. I was surprised to see Fosnes drop all the way to 13 where I was able to trade and draft him. There's no doubt he is a boom or bust type player but I feel like its the type of guy we see go in the top 10 of the draft.
As for second round picks, we only had 11 of them so the pickings are thin on who could break out. I am going to cheat a bit as he isnt in the second round, but I could see Willie Smith ending up as a long term starter in the league. Larry Cooke had an intriguing pearson for a guy that went undrafted, maybe hes a hidden star that everyone missed.
I will predict that Earl Tatum will be a breakout 2nd round pick. He didnt play in preseason but he has some tantalizing grades.
Tim - I only saw builds for the guys taken 1-3, and I was a bit surprised English went over Dantley, but I wasn't complaining and I can see how English's defense could be appealing. I somehow completely missed that Dennis Johnson put up ridiculous defensive stats, otherwise I would've taken him at 1.6. Tyson went -2 despite being an Oklahoma Special so that pick is not panning out so far.
The second round was thin on picks - at a glance the only guys I could see panning out are Johnny Davis as a high potential guy or Quinn Buckner, who will never score but might offer good enough defense to appeal to an inside team.
Sap - I did not pay any attention to the draft at all. I didn’t look at college scouts, didn’t look at grades. This is one challenge with draft picks not being very impactful or the randomness of TC’s. I think it is way too early to tell because rarely do rookies have that much of an impact on a team.
Heebs - Gonna be a total homer here and say Mitch Kupchek. He's not going to be all-league, but he's going to be a solid starter when a lot of the players taken before him are doo doo.
Who made the best FA signing? The worst?
Heebs - Huckaby as an MLE is the best, but Dominique Jones on a 6 year MLE isn't bad.
Sap - The worst would be my signing of John Fox. I miscalculated my cap and unnecessarily cost myself 50k. He was a nice to have but in the end was just a horrible signing. The best signing would be (full disclosure I had a hard time with this) potentially Ike by Tim. The reason I say it would be the best, not because he is the best player but probably the best fit and the ability to have the best impact on the right team. Ike could be what is needed to stop Pippen.
Majic - No signing stand out to me as being overly great signings, most of the bigger contracts were for returning players or for 1 year. I like the pickup of Ike for the Sonics. If he can replicate his blocking numbers from a couple years ago that could be a really solid pickup.
As for worst, again I dont see any that are terribly bad contracts. Although, signing a guy and then having to immediately amnesty them, like the Cavs did with Fox, is bad planning. The Nuggets signing Bell to the contract they did is strange to me. I think he is a fine player and the overall dollar amount per year is fine, but why offer 6 years on a guy his age. I assume its an attempt to protect against him retiring, but still an odd choice.
Tim - Huckaby as an MLE is obviously excellent value. I think Ike was probably the second best signing to a new team. I wasn't a huge fan of the RJ Barrett deal. He hasn't panned out based on where he was picked and it seemed like Delap was anxious to get rid of him. He's played better this year and may not be bad, but he's getting paid like a #2 guy on a good team and I'm just not sure he's there.
Majic won the TMBSL title, yet he has the 4th pick in the upcoming draft. We should give him the last pick in the first round because he does not like the wheel.
Majic - This is a backhanded way of bringing up the wheel discussion and I still 100% think its dumb. No champion, my self included, should be able to win a title and then have the ability to welcome multiple top 5 picks onto the team within 1-2 years. It hurts parity and allows the good teams to get good/great players (most of the time) on extremely cheap contracts.
Sap - I do think he should be moved to the back of the upcoming draft, and I would be willing to bet he would agree with me on this. I hate the wheel. I always have and always will. I understand that there are some that do not like the draft position being determined from record from the previous year. I have little to no problem with “tanking” either. We can agree to disagree and the rules are the way they are and that is fine. I will also say that at this point drafting is about pointless. Odin was way ahead of the curve and the only real way to build a champion is through FA so the reality is draft picks mean next to nothing at this point. Case in point Majic.
Tim - Was there a question?
Heebs - I think Tim hit the nail on the head here. eric, can you make sure Majic's 1.4 is moved to the end of the first round. Thanks!
Who wins each division this season?
Tim - Atlantic: Capitols - they're a close 2nd and missed two sims (I think) without a DC. Assuming Yawn can get under the hard cap, they should win their division.
Central: Pipers - I just think they're a better starting five than what the Pacers can offer.
Midwest: Mavericks - Nothing surprising here. Take Lebron and Dwight and add Huckaby.
Atlantic: SuperSonics - The Blazers are probably the smart pick, but I honestly am not sure how they won the title last year.
Heebs - Cougars, Pacers, Mavs, and Blazers.
Majic - Another boring answer but I think 3 of the 4 division winners are the same: Mavs, Blazers and Pacers. The fun race will be between the Cougars and Capitals as they tied last year with the same overall record. I will give the slight edge this year to the Cougars.
Outside of that, both the Blazers and Mavs hold down the same solid core. The Mavs have a potential upgrade at PG with Huckaby back. The Blazers potentially have an upgrade at their big position with the addition of Shelton. The Pacers also bring back the same core and with another year of growth I can see them finishing a bit better this year.
Sap - Atlantic – Cougars
Central – Pacers
Midwest – Mavericks
Pacific - TrailBlazers
Which human GM'd team (excluding the to-be-contracted teams) finishes with the worst record?
Heebs - I'd love to say the Hornets, but realistically I'm going to have to go with the Lakers.
Sap - I am going to go with Pointy. He is pulling a Pete right now and is barely hanging on. Not shade thrown his way just the way I see it. He isn’t putting in much effort and doesn’t really care too much at this point.
Tim - Not counting the inactive teams (Spurs, Lakers) in addition to the soon-to-be-contracted, I'm going to say the Hornets or the Kings. Both teams have one or two studs, but the rest of the starting lineup is pretty rough.
Majic - am cheating a bit as “human GMed team” is a bit of a stretch but I will pick the spurs. Pointy tried to quit but was convinced to stick around but he will do nothing to help this team. Adams has been the only high caliber player this team has had for a long time and he is quickly aging. I am in a Madden league with Pointy and know his dedication to that, if only he could put in half the effort in sim.
How many Eastern conference teams will miss the playoffs with a better record than a Western conference playoff team?
Majic - 1? Can it even be more than one team? Although, I guess it's possible for a computer team to make the playoffs over a human team. But I think 8 of the 9 human GMed teams make the playoffs and the lone outcast misses but has a better record than the west 8th seed.
Tim - If I'm understanding the question correctly, the answer can be a maximum of one, right? With two more human GM'd teams in the West, even if they're not particularly active, you have two teams that have functional players instead of free agents who are just keeping their career going.
Anyway, I'll say zero. I think 8th place in the West will still end up better than 9th in the East.
Sap - 2
Heebs - I'm going with 1.
What is your favorite Halloween candy and why?
Heebs - Reese's pumpkins for sure. Shout out to candy corn, which I used to hate. But this year, someone served me fresh candy corn and it totally changed my mind. Try to find some made before 2014.
Sap - I guess my favorite Halloween candy would be Candy Corn. The reason is it is the least sucky of all the Halloween specific candy. I can eat a few but not much more than that.
Tim - I'd have to think about this one. When it comes to candy, I usually prefer chocolate with something else - toffee, caramel, peanut butter - so Heath, Butterfinger, Twix, and Reese's are all good choices. I'll go with Heath but I honestly can't remember if they made a fun size for Halloween.
Majic - Reese without a doubt, and it's not even close. It's the perfect mix of chocolate and peanut butter and it's easy to eat 10 of them without thinking. Anything with coconut gets thrown out of our house, but other than that we are an equal opportunity candy eater.
Do you like horror/thriller films?
Majic - No, I generally despise them and rarely watch them. This saddens my wife greatly though as she is a huge Halloween and scary/horror movie fan. I can get through some of them if they arent too bad, I also enjoy a thriller/mystery TV show as well. We are currently watching the Midnight Club and The Watcher on netflic. Both are “scary” in their own way and really enjoyable shows.
Sap - No I do not. I used to but as I have gotten older the appeal has faded for me. I don’t enjoy being scared. While there is plenty of nostalgia for me in them I am not really a huge fan. Ironically, I do enjoy the Saw movies. There is a much more cerebral element to it than just a hacker/slasher film
Heebs - Not at all. I'm not super into movies in general, but if I do watch one I prefer comedies or drama/action films with good to great plots. I get the allure of the psychological thriller, but life is way too hard/stressful to fill my free time with that.
Tim - Love thrillers but horrors I'm more hit or miss on. I go through phases where I'll watch a ton and then not watch any for years. I had a roommate in college sophomore year with whom I had a blast getting drunk and watching the shitty Xfinity free horror movies and laughing at them. My dad and I also used to do a thing when my mom would go out of town where we'd get a huge bucket of KFC and marathon horror movies - The Exorcist, The Omen, etc. I've never watched any of the Freddy Krueger or Jason movies though. They never appealed to me.
Sap - I think that the Raptors may have had the best or probably better said, most impactful offseason. The FA signings they had could have a significant impact on them and drastically improve the team. I would say there are some calculated risks here with it. As far as the worst offseason, I would say that the Celtics did not do very well at all. They did not improve at all and as the saying goes, you are either growing or dying and by doing nothing, you are defaulting to dying.
Heebs - Best is probably the Mavs by adding Huckaby. Pipers also are up and comers and adding Parish really helps. Worst has to be the Pacers losing 1.3 and 1.4 in FA.
Tim - Would it be biased to say the Sonics? Ike wasn't my first choice for a splashy big as I knew I wanted to transition to an inside offense and I was worried he might take more shots than I wanted, but he's been great at keeping volume low while maintaining his shot blocking. After seeing Dantley's build, I didn't think he'd be victim to the stupid coach limiting his minutes, but here we are. It's unfortunate I'll have to contend with that for his career, but he's a good player. The Pipers with the additions of Parish and Vassal and the Mavs with the Huckaby signing seem to be the other contenders right now.
Majic - Fr the most part it seems the offseason pretty much went chalk for almost everyone. This was a weaker FA class as the top guys resigned and no one really seemed to have gotten burned.
I think 2 obvious winners are the Capitols and Blazers simply for the fact that both Robinson and Pippen offered resigns. Those two are the clear elite from that class and neither had to sweat out FA. Mavs signed Huckaby on an MLE which seemed to bother some people. Worst case he is a viable PG option, best case he looks like his old self and helps lead the Mavs back to the finals.
As for the worst, I don't know that I can identify any one team that had a bad offseason. Most of the “bad” seemed to hover around the offseason and draft. From what I saw it appears the top 3 players in the draft were pretty good/great prospects and then there seemed to be a falloff a bit. If you had picks 4-7 it seemed to get lean real quick. With that, I think King had the worst offseason purely because he sold a 1.6 for cash. I do agree with the backlash on that trade and think it was an extremely short sighted move.
What draft pick or two surprised you? What player picked in the second round do you think has the chance to be the next Malcolm Huckaby?
Majic - The top 3 picks went exactly as I anticipated that they would. As I mentioned above, I was high on those 3 players so it will be interesting to see how they end up being. May and Shelton are both less of a guarantee but both guys have some likeable traits.
I can't speak to everyone in the draft as it seemed to fall off after that first major grouping of guys. I was surprised to see Fosnes drop all the way to 13 where I was able to trade and draft him. There's no doubt he is a boom or bust type player but I feel like its the type of guy we see go in the top 10 of the draft.
As for second round picks, we only had 11 of them so the pickings are thin on who could break out. I am going to cheat a bit as he isnt in the second round, but I could see Willie Smith ending up as a long term starter in the league. Larry Cooke had an intriguing pearson for a guy that went undrafted, maybe hes a hidden star that everyone missed.
I will predict that Earl Tatum will be a breakout 2nd round pick. He didnt play in preseason but he has some tantalizing grades.
Tim - I only saw builds for the guys taken 1-3, and I was a bit surprised English went over Dantley, but I wasn't complaining and I can see how English's defense could be appealing. I somehow completely missed that Dennis Johnson put up ridiculous defensive stats, otherwise I would've taken him at 1.6. Tyson went -2 despite being an Oklahoma Special so that pick is not panning out so far.
The second round was thin on picks - at a glance the only guys I could see panning out are Johnny Davis as a high potential guy or Quinn Buckner, who will never score but might offer good enough defense to appeal to an inside team.
Sap - I did not pay any attention to the draft at all. I didn’t look at college scouts, didn’t look at grades. This is one challenge with draft picks not being very impactful or the randomness of TC’s. I think it is way too early to tell because rarely do rookies have that much of an impact on a team.
Heebs - Gonna be a total homer here and say Mitch Kupchek. He's not going to be all-league, but he's going to be a solid starter when a lot of the players taken before him are doo doo.
Who made the best FA signing? The worst?
Heebs - Huckaby as an MLE is the best, but Dominique Jones on a 6 year MLE isn't bad.
Sap - The worst would be my signing of John Fox. I miscalculated my cap and unnecessarily cost myself 50k. He was a nice to have but in the end was just a horrible signing. The best signing would be (full disclosure I had a hard time with this) potentially Ike by Tim. The reason I say it would be the best, not because he is the best player but probably the best fit and the ability to have the best impact on the right team. Ike could be what is needed to stop Pippen.
Majic - No signing stand out to me as being overly great signings, most of the bigger contracts were for returning players or for 1 year. I like the pickup of Ike for the Sonics. If he can replicate his blocking numbers from a couple years ago that could be a really solid pickup.
As for worst, again I dont see any that are terribly bad contracts. Although, signing a guy and then having to immediately amnesty them, like the Cavs did with Fox, is bad planning. The Nuggets signing Bell to the contract they did is strange to me. I think he is a fine player and the overall dollar amount per year is fine, but why offer 6 years on a guy his age. I assume its an attempt to protect against him retiring, but still an odd choice.
Tim - Huckaby as an MLE is obviously excellent value. I think Ike was probably the second best signing to a new team. I wasn't a huge fan of the RJ Barrett deal. He hasn't panned out based on where he was picked and it seemed like Delap was anxious to get rid of him. He's played better this year and may not be bad, but he's getting paid like a #2 guy on a good team and I'm just not sure he's there.
Majic won the TMBSL title, yet he has the 4th pick in the upcoming draft. We should give him the last pick in the first round because he does not like the wheel.
Majic - This is a backhanded way of bringing up the wheel discussion and I still 100% think its dumb. No champion, my self included, should be able to win a title and then have the ability to welcome multiple top 5 picks onto the team within 1-2 years. It hurts parity and allows the good teams to get good/great players (most of the time) on extremely cheap contracts.
Sap - I do think he should be moved to the back of the upcoming draft, and I would be willing to bet he would agree with me on this. I hate the wheel. I always have and always will. I understand that there are some that do not like the draft position being determined from record from the previous year. I have little to no problem with “tanking” either. We can agree to disagree and the rules are the way they are and that is fine. I will also say that at this point drafting is about pointless. Odin was way ahead of the curve and the only real way to build a champion is through FA so the reality is draft picks mean next to nothing at this point. Case in point Majic.
Tim - Was there a question?
Heebs - I think Tim hit the nail on the head here. eric, can you make sure Majic's 1.4 is moved to the end of the first round. Thanks!
Who wins each division this season?
Tim - Atlantic: Capitols - they're a close 2nd and missed two sims (I think) without a DC. Assuming Yawn can get under the hard cap, they should win their division.
Central: Pipers - I just think they're a better starting five than what the Pacers can offer.
Midwest: Mavericks - Nothing surprising here. Take Lebron and Dwight and add Huckaby.
Atlantic: SuperSonics - The Blazers are probably the smart pick, but I honestly am not sure how they won the title last year.
Heebs - Cougars, Pacers, Mavs, and Blazers.
Majic - Another boring answer but I think 3 of the 4 division winners are the same: Mavs, Blazers and Pacers. The fun race will be between the Cougars and Capitals as they tied last year with the same overall record. I will give the slight edge this year to the Cougars.
Outside of that, both the Blazers and Mavs hold down the same solid core. The Mavs have a potential upgrade at PG with Huckaby back. The Blazers potentially have an upgrade at their big position with the addition of Shelton. The Pacers also bring back the same core and with another year of growth I can see them finishing a bit better this year.
Sap - Atlantic – Cougars
Central – Pacers
Midwest – Mavericks
Pacific - TrailBlazers
Which human GM'd team (excluding the to-be-contracted teams) finishes with the worst record?
Heebs - I'd love to say the Hornets, but realistically I'm going to have to go with the Lakers.
Sap - I am going to go with Pointy. He is pulling a Pete right now and is barely hanging on. Not shade thrown his way just the way I see it. He isn’t putting in much effort and doesn’t really care too much at this point.
Tim - Not counting the inactive teams (Spurs, Lakers) in addition to the soon-to-be-contracted, I'm going to say the Hornets or the Kings. Both teams have one or two studs, but the rest of the starting lineup is pretty rough.
Majic - am cheating a bit as “human GMed team” is a bit of a stretch but I will pick the spurs. Pointy tried to quit but was convinced to stick around but he will do nothing to help this team. Adams has been the only high caliber player this team has had for a long time and he is quickly aging. I am in a Madden league with Pointy and know his dedication to that, if only he could put in half the effort in sim.
How many Eastern conference teams will miss the playoffs with a better record than a Western conference playoff team?
Majic - 1? Can it even be more than one team? Although, I guess it's possible for a computer team to make the playoffs over a human team. But I think 8 of the 9 human GMed teams make the playoffs and the lone outcast misses but has a better record than the west 8th seed.
Tim - If I'm understanding the question correctly, the answer can be a maximum of one, right? With two more human GM'd teams in the West, even if they're not particularly active, you have two teams that have functional players instead of free agents who are just keeping their career going.
Anyway, I'll say zero. I think 8th place in the West will still end up better than 9th in the East.
Sap - 2
Heebs - I'm going with 1.
What is your favorite Halloween candy and why?
Heebs - Reese's pumpkins for sure. Shout out to candy corn, which I used to hate. But this year, someone served me fresh candy corn and it totally changed my mind. Try to find some made before 2014.
Sap - I guess my favorite Halloween candy would be Candy Corn. The reason is it is the least sucky of all the Halloween specific candy. I can eat a few but not much more than that.
Tim - I'd have to think about this one. When it comes to candy, I usually prefer chocolate with something else - toffee, caramel, peanut butter - so Heath, Butterfinger, Twix, and Reese's are all good choices. I'll go with Heath but I honestly can't remember if they made a fun size for Halloween.
Majic - Reese without a doubt, and it's not even close. It's the perfect mix of chocolate and peanut butter and it's easy to eat 10 of them without thinking. Anything with coconut gets thrown out of our house, but other than that we are an equal opportunity candy eater.
Do you like horror/thriller films?
Majic - No, I generally despise them and rarely watch them. This saddens my wife greatly though as she is a huge Halloween and scary/horror movie fan. I can get through some of them if they arent too bad, I also enjoy a thriller/mystery TV show as well. We are currently watching the Midnight Club and The Watcher on netflic. Both are “scary” in their own way and really enjoyable shows.
Sap - No I do not. I used to but as I have gotten older the appeal has faded for me. I don’t enjoy being scared. While there is plenty of nostalgia for me in them I am not really a huge fan. Ironically, I do enjoy the Saw movies. There is a much more cerebral element to it than just a hacker/slasher film
Heebs - Not at all. I'm not super into movies in general, but if I do watch one I prefer comedies or drama/action films with good to great plots. I get the allure of the psychological thriller, but life is way too hard/stressful to fill my free time with that.
Tim - Love thrillers but horrors I'm more hit or miss on. I go through phases where I'll watch a ton and then not watch any for years. I had a roommate in college sophomore year with whom I had a blast getting drunk and watching the shitty Xfinity free horror movies and laughing at them. My dad and I also used to do a thing when my mom would go out of town where we'd get a huge bucket of KFC and marathon horror movies - The Exorcist, The Omen, etc. I've never watched any of the Freddy Krueger or Jason movies though. They never appealed to me.
