S90 Town Hall 8

[Mike Lowry]

Only real playoff race look like the Suns and Blazers for the 6 seed in the West.
Talk a little about these teams and their builds.
What do their respective futures look like?
Which team will make the playoffs?
What will be the difference in the last 2 sims?

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 11

[K-100]

Only real playoff race look like the Suns and Blazers for the 6 seed in the West

Talk a little about these teams and their builds.
The Suns are one of the more passive teams in the league since they rarely make any splashy trades or tinker with their lineup and continue to underperform even with perennial MVP candidate Karl Malone. It is a shame really. The Blazers are punching above their weight this season and the fact it is so close is either a testament to how good the team is coached or how bad the Suns are managed. I really cant tell.

What do their respective futures look like?
The Suns will waste Karl Malone's prime and probably land another generational talent between 95-97 and waste that player too. The Blazers will continue to tinker around the edges and look to land a big fish via free agency.

Which team will make the playoffs?
Suns

What will be the difference in the last 2 sims?
The Suns have a slightly easier schedule and a 2.5 game lead. I think they will limp across the finish line.

[BigDaddyd8720]

Only real playoff race look like the Suns and Blazers for the 6 seed in the West.
Talk a little about these teams and their builds.
What do their respective futures look like?
I think on paper, the Suns could have the better looking future. They have way more young talent the the Trailblazers do, on paper. The issue is that the Suns always seem to be complacent each season. The trailblazers look to be in their spot by choice. The Suns just don't make the right moves or set the right lineups. I fully expect the Trailblazers to get back to being a dominant team next season while the Suns will continue to be middle of the pack/fighting for the last playoff spot

Which team will make the playoffs?
This season, probably the Suns. The Trailblazers likely are hoping to end up with 2 lottery picks so they will probably set their lineups to ensure that happens. Plus the Suns hold the tiebreaker over the Trailblazers so that's just another obstacle for the Trailblazers to over come.

What will be the difference in the last 2 sims?
Nothing. I think they both just coast through these last two sims and the Suns just hope they don't completely implode

[Mike Lowry]

The fact that this is even a race is crazy to me.
On paper I think the Suns have a nice squad.
Definitely a serviceable starting 5 with a strong 6th man and some wing depth.
They have an MVP candidate and a star floor general, but that is not translating to wins, and I think their biggest struggle is on the offensive side. They have 3 guys who can get buckets, but they're all 1 dimensional.

The Blazers on the other hand look very middling on paper.
And I guess that's playing out because they're a game above 500, with some good potential to have A star, and some strong role players in the coming seasons.
I think they have the brighter future because they have more young talent with defined roles that mesh.

Still taking the Suns to make the playoffs because this game likes to see stars shine, and Karl Malone will make his bid for MVP in the closing weeks of the season.

[WigNosy]

I hate talking about my team, but I guess I have to here.

The Suns are built around stars - StocktonToMalone and Brad Daugherty (who finally came around and started playing up to his potential this season) while the Trailblazers are more of an ensemble cast. I think the Suns hold on this season - they have a 3 game lead in the loss column - and the game does tend to favor stars.

As far as going forward, I think it's a question of, "do you think it's easier to find pieces that fit around the margins once three stars eat up most of your cap space or do you think it's easier to use cap space and youth to drop a star into a deep team?"

Honestly, I think the Suns have the better chance to be a great team in the near future. We've only seen a couple of examples of truly transcendent stars change teams via Free Agency when the incumbent team was willing to pay a max (Kiki Vandeweghe, Buck Williams, James Worthy are the only ones that come to mind in 10 seasons) - so I think the Trailblazers' odds of landing another signing like Buck Williams via Free Agency aren't as good as a lot of people seem to think. I do think it's easier to work around the margins than to successfully pull a big free agent splash. I think the Blazers have a better chance to land a star via trade than Free Agency.