Re: S87 Town Hall 10

[Mike Lowry]

Who is the worst team that will make the playoffs this season, and the best team that won't?
What are your thoughts about where these teams are headed, and how they should feel about making the playoffs, or being in the lottery?

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5, 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

Due: Deadline for Sim 10

[K-100]

Who is the worst team that will make the playoffs this season, and the best team that won't?
The New Jersey Nets are the worst team that will make the playoffs. They are trying to dig themselves out of a hole from early injuries, but it's just looking like this team will not have enough to survive the Eastern gauntlet. The Suns are the best team to miss the playoffs. Another poorly coached team with a lot of talent, but the West is tough this season, so the margin for error is slim.

What are your thoughts about where these teams are headed, and how they should feel about making the playoffs, or being in the lottery?
I'd be disappointed if I were either of them. The Suns dont need another lottery pick and the Nets' books are pressing against the tax so there is not much room to improve right now. They need to update their gameplans now to maximize their talents.

[BigDaddyd8720]

Who is the worst team that will make the playoffs this season, and the best team that won't?
The worst team to make the playoffs this season will be the Nets but that's because of injuries. I think once they get to the playoffs, they can turn it around. It's similar to their championship run in Season 1 of NPBSL. The best team to not make it will be the Cavaliers. Currently sitting at 8-2 in their last 10 games but they have only 4 home games remaining. It will be tough for them to make up ground for the 6 seed but this team seemed to finally be coming around.

What are your thoughts about where these teams are headed, and how they should feel about making the playoffs, or being in the lottery?
The Cavaliers are stuck right now. Their young guys aren't quite ready/playing to their potential and their older guys are only getting older. Maybe being in the lottery will be good for them so they can either trade away their older guys to a competitor or use their lotto pick to try and bring in another veteran to help them out. The Nets have a good team and finishing as the 6 seed would be great for them since the draft is pretty deep this year. They can add a young player to develop while this team now tries to bring home another championship.

[Mike Lowry]

Neither one of these is an easy call for me, so I'll start with some honorable mentions:

Close for the worst team to make it are the Golden State Warriors. They have a good foundation for moving forward with Chambers, Ruland, Bagley, and Scott, but they lack depth in the front court, and both Cooper and Natt took big steps back this season. They have space to keep building, but in their current form they are reliant on a good offense without much balance. They need some training or to bring in some defensive enforcers.
I think the worst team to get in is the 6ers, which just sounds absurd with all the talent they have, but it is not well organized, and even more poorly utilized. They are all in on offense but they can't stop anybody. They're second in the league in scoring and dead last in defending. I imagine they are confused by the fact that they don't get more wins from this collection of skills, and I don't think they need to panic, but by game planning or strategically replacing pieces, they have to mount some form of defense, and they can become a dangerous player in the East.

Close for the best lottery team is going to be the Cavs and the Suns. They both made trades at the deadline, but I have very different feelings about what they did. I think the Cavs picking up Spud Webb and Jay Vincent are good additions that can be moved to get on one timeline. They each have value going in the other direction, meaning Spud could be moved for a player in his prime, or Vincent can be moved for a player with higher potential that ain't ready. I didn't so much like the move the Suns made for Verhoeven and Young. The obvious best player in the trade was Mark Jackson, and there were other, and in my opinion better players available on the the market, to fill a wing position, at a lower cost. They basically traded for the exact same production by taking on an expiring contract and an overpay, while sending out the best talent in the first year of his rookie contract. That trade will come back to hurt them in the long run, but they still have Stockton to Malone which is a great foundation for their rebuild.
I'll also shout out the Bulls who have the most depth of the lottery teams but are working with what are in my opinion are lackluster headliners.
The best team in the lottery this year is the Sonics.
I absolutely LOVE the pick of KJ even though I couldn't find it in myself to pass on the package I got for the 1st pick and take him off the board at #1. He is absolutely a cornerstone of a star, and he already has good fits for support in Pinckney and McMillan. They can leverage Sunvold and Green for better fits at Center and small forward and compete next year. I think they should be content with the direction of their build and feel good that these players can move their organization up the ladder as they develop.