Season 64 - Town Hall #5

[LazyTitanSmash]

Question #5
Which team has been the biggest surprise (in a good way)?

[garbageman]

It's nice to see that the Heat aren't just a first sim fluke and they're vastly outperforming last season. I am a bit worried about their team's longetivity. They already owe a lot of points from last season, and they're looking to add to that. They traded away their pick, and have a couple expiring contracts that they won't be able to get back, so I wish them a lot of continued success this season and hope that their team coming together motivates them to do the extracurricular stuff needed to get out of tax jail ASAP.

[K-100]

Speaking of tax jail, my other fellow inmate digiskunk and the Utah Jazz

I thought the Jazz had a legit shot at 0-82, especially if Caruso somehow went down but the Jazz upended everyone by defeating the mighty Lakers and have since rattled off 5 more wins to sit at 6-21. They are an impressive 6-7 at home right now and are firmly in the hunt for another primo lottery pick.

The Jazz have a lot of work to do to pay off this tax bill (namely count up their prior seasons' points) but Booger Smith is about to get some help soon enough. Nice job Utah.

[MexicanMamba]

Grizzlies

Once teams dip into the tax jail waters, it usually means numerous seasons of choking and drowning in those murky depths below. Sim 4 was rough, and it's possible that they continue to sink in the standings but to this point they'd be in the playoffs at the 7th seed. Getting a salary dumped Genaro Montoya helped the cause as he's still a highly functional starter. It's been a nice start for a team lacking avenues to properly build its roster to compete. Then Douglas Haun at SG is just icing on the cake.

Sent from my SM-F711U using Tapatalk

[LazyTitanSmash]

Celtics

The Celtics traded away the league's MVP and are in full rebuild mode. If one team falters in the playoff run, the Celtics are the next team up. They only have three current blue players, none of which are outstanding on their own, but they are doing great as a team. Winning that Championship must have taught Angry Banana some sweet new strategies. He should be in the running for Coach of the Year. I'll probably nominate him myself. The best player for this season on the Celtics is a player every GM missed on during free agency, Brian Loos. We all knew he would be good but not this good. Hilariously we still have no information on their soon-to-be best player Antonio Gates. They are primed to have more clout during free agency and a real contender in the next couple of years.

[IamQuailman]

Timberwolves

I'm really excited to see that the Timberwolves team has come together. Their young guys are really growing into their own with Len & Xue doing work. Then there's the surprising emergence of Ross Finch, who's not only brining it on the defensive side where it was expected... but on the offensive side. He's 3rd in points, only .1ppg behind Xue. That's saying something. Raby is probably thrilled with this emergence, but also pissed it's coming in a RFA contract year. But alas, this young Timberpup squad has finally reached the appropriate level to evolve into Timberwolves! They are only 1.5 games back of the 2-seed. Just an all around great job by the team and the GM.

[Black Superman]

Biggest surprise for me has to be the pacers. From a roster construction standpoint how are they doing this? 35 year old he hor running the offense of a playoff team in sim league? Herbert Jones early MVP front runner is absolutely balling. And everyone overall is just playing their role and supporting their leader herb. I had no idea this team would be good let alone this good. I feel without looking at the pacers contracts and money situation and saying this blindly; they should make a trade and double down on just seeing what happens. I mean they've gone this far right? I didn't expect them to be bad but this is a total shock. After I post this I'll go look deeper at the team and contracts and see how dumb my trade suggestion actually sounds.

[greepleairport]

I'm really happy to see the Heat on top. Sure, some opportunities for points were missed over the last few seasons, but gumption to win has always been there. Lowry has seen a build squander for the entire time he has built it, but the SAME BUILD has finally started to earn him some wins, and respect for what he'd been trying to build all along. Very happy for the Heat this year.

[AngryBanana]

I’ll give the pistons some love.

I did not expect Doug to flip the switch and make a competitive team so quickly. I thought he was going for the long build. Shows how much I paid attention to the offseason for other teams. The combo of Lomax and Schiff, who I could have sworn played in NOP jerseys together, combine with Millsaps playing great, and the emergence of Lauri have made this starting 5 one of the more challenging groups to go against. Doug built a really well constructed group here, where he can focus and Gameplan for multiple types of lineups. This team can and will give any team competing a run for their money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pennpanther1]

Cavs

This has more to do with the GM than the teams season so far. The cavs for the first time, at least as long as I have been around, seem to have made good offseason moves. They made sensible deals in the offseason that should have them at a better record to this point (although today seems to be the first time they have been active in the roster part of the game.) Chief was a great steal from the Celtics. Bringing Teddy back was a solid choice. But most importantly, there was no attempt by the Cavs to overpay a player that did not deserve a contract. So, if they do the right tweaks moving forward, I could see this team getting into playoff contention quick.

[LazyTitanSmash]

+1 garbageman
+1 K-100
+1 MexicanMamba
+1 LazyTitanSmash
+1 IamQuailman
+1 Black Superman
+1 reepleairport
+1 AngryBanana
+1 pennpanther1