(Un)Lucky Number 7(th Seed) PT. 2: A New Challenger Emerges

[greepleairport]

Because I have another couple points to squeeze out of this idea anyway...

The dreaded 7th seed has a new wrinkle since our initial offering. The 3-way tie between @LazyTitanSmash 's Mavericks, @SuperDog 's Kings, and the newly GM'd Timberwolves, manned now by their former GM guru @JNR , just got very interesting.

With all three teams sitting at a paltry 36-41, I cannot imagine a more interesting scenario. The Mavs made a savvy move to nab one of the few great Centers in the league, Larry Canfield, and it simply has not paid off. They have had a late season surge of wins, keeping them in the conversation, but I fear that if LTS continues bringing Canfield off the bench, it may not be enough. 95 year old Killian Hayes's injury has proven to be a non factor for the Kings as Gary Rockwell's talent began surging this season and Thybulle has picked up some of Hayes's slack. But the biggest surprise of all is a horrible team with two great players rejoined with JNR, the guy that brought Huo and Lenz into the league. They're older, better, wiser, and more purple now, and JNR must be a bit more refreshed to be coming back. I hate to say it, especially for my boy LTS, but this spells trouble for the Mavs and the Kings.

On paper, the Mavs have to be the clear favorite of the three teams. They have the most complete roster. Martin has been a serviceable PG. TLW has remained on the roster despite the acquisition of Canfield (he kept Kuminga too! Impressive...), and he's one of the better green current players out there. Richie Cuevas has been great this year as an undersized SF as the team's leading scorer. A disappointingly green/green Raiquan Gray has still played like Raiquan Gray for the Mavs, just with slightly less scoring production. And even though I disagree with Canfield coming off the bench, Damien Bailey has played well on the Mavs starting at Center. Well enough, anyway. LTS has played Canfield like a super 6th man the last few sims, and it could be strategic to have a great player coming off the bench, but I really think it's more out of spite for going 1-7 the 2nd sim after getting Canfield. Either way, the Mavs are the only team worth writing about more than 3 players. So they should win the 7th seed. They SHOULD...

...but Xue Huo and Lenz Durrenberger have, by RoboGM3 recommendation, kept this team of misfits in the playoff hunt. I mean, I guess we could talk about Daniel Jauregui, but I don't need to write that many words (I certainly don't need that many words to also write about the Kings either, who I have losing to both anyway, sorry superdog). Huo and Lenz work well in tandem - they have very similar attributes, but Huo has the size and Lenz has the speed. Both two way players. Neither player has reached their prime, but they're already one of the best SF / SG combos in the league. A bit more developed at age 26, though, Lenz has carried the larger offensive load for the Wolves all season, causing fits with his 100 QKN, 90 JMP, and hitting his free throws 85% of the time when these athleticism stats take him to the line. Shooting almost 40% from 3 doesn't hurt either.

So, with (zombie) human direction, I like this duo of superstars over the Mavs' team that has consistently underperformed. Sorry LTS. For you, I hope I am wrong! We'll see when these two teams meet this sim. Whoever wins that game probably wins the 7th seed...

[greepleairport]

600+ words, definitely over 3000 words total, +2 more points on top of the 8 for the first part

[JNR]

Thanks for being right Jon. TO THE WINNER GOES THE RIGHT TO GET DESTROYED BY THE JAZZ!

[greepleairport]

Thanks for being right Jon. TO THE WINNER GOES THE RIGHT TO GET DESTROYED BY THE JAZZ!

Haha, or split games? Let's go JNR!!!

[JNR]

It's good to be back.