#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Question #11 - In a somewhat predictable season, what has been the biggest surprise? (A team, A trade, A GM performance, or a player performance..etc)

The biggest surprise for me is the Wizards are in the playoff hunt! (And I think they are going to make it.)

Even more surprising than being in the playoff hunt is how purposely selling off his team doesn't affect his win totals.

I love the xist2inspire style: Almost all green players, no problem. Trade away my starting point guard and win more games anyways. Trade away half my team for points and continue to win games. Run a washed-up Arthur Glynn out there for 30 min and win anyway.

He should get coach of the year every year. (At least until he tanks.) He wins games with lesser talent every single year. No one does it better.

He surprised me, the league and even himself. xist2inspire said he thought the Wizards' playoff run had ended. But just you wait; I bet he surprises himself and pulls out 7th seed!

Keep the streak alive!

LazyTitanSmash wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 8:12 pm The biggest surprise for me is the Wizards are in the playoff hunt! (And I think they are going to make it.)

Even more surprising than being in the playoff hunt is how purposely selling off his team doesn't affect his win totals.

I love the xist2inspire style: Almost all green players, no problem. Trade away my starting point guard and win more games anyways. Trade away half my team for points and continue to win games. Run a washed-up Arthur Glynn out there for 30 min and win anyway.

He should get coach of the year every year. (At least until he tanks.) He wins games with lesser talent every single year. No one does it better.

He surprised me, the league and even himself. xist2inspire said he thought the Wizards' playoff run had ended. But just you wait; I bet he surprises himself and pulls out 7th seed!

Keep the streak alive!

Don’t forget he’ll be the first GM to win 3000 games this season as well if I’m not mistaken.

I’m going to say the bobcats.

I know their record is not great. But James has done a really good job this season of building his team up. He has several good prospects and the oldest player on his team is 27. I don’t know if James is abandoning his usual style of coaching/ team running, where the highest number under his contract section is the cut number at about $95 million, but he is for sure got something going that could become a quality team soon.


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I'm going to go with the Indiana Pacers. On paper they looked like Herbert Jones, maybe Jericho Sims, and a bunch of non-blue guys that were aging, but they've all held up. Jones is having an exceptional season, and He Hor, Les Kim, and Immanuel Quickley all have plenty left in the tank despite losing a lot of the athleticism that gave them their desirable color ratings. I thought they'd be fighting for a playoff berth, but through game planning, great player scouting, and let's face it, Herbert Jones, the Pacers have put together a surprise contender. It's hard to think that anyone is going to topple the Lakers this year, but the Pacers can stand up to pretty much anyone else.

AJ Blaze

With a roster with Darius Garland, Gerry Folse, Larry Williams, it is the 4th year, G/B dynamo who is leading the team in scoring. And it isn't close. He still has plenty of growth which will up his efficiency eventually. Still, he is having a surprising, eye-opening season even with a roster filled with other effective scorers. Fun to see.

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I think I am absolutely shocked the pacers have been able to maintain this level of winning.not a single team from town hall 1 picked the pacers as a 50 win team. They're my vote for GM of the year. I mean with 0 expectations they're out here killing it. The owner of the pacers did town hall 1 and even he didn't predict his team being this good. I think what's most impressive is the road record. They have the 3rd best road record in the association, just very impressive stuff. There's a lot of bright spots this season with teams outperforming.

Honorable mention:
I'm also shocked/surprised/happy that the raptors were able to turn things around. I had them as a playoff team in my season predictions. Things were looking a little rough in the beginning as they hovered around .500 ball. They made some questionable trades BUT they're in the playoffs and 41 wins currently which is a job well done.

Milwaukee Bucks

The autopilot is working. The frontcourt is arguably the league's best right now and still not in its prime. Meanwhile Manley/Moody have provided steady scoring in the backcourt despite their declined athleticism. If the Bucks wake up and decline Moody's player option this week they will have $100+ million in cap space to finally BUY a backcourt to complement that frontcourt.

Memphis Grizzlies:

The Grizzlies have managed to do so much with so little. They are still deep in the tax hell hole, but somehow also a playoff contender? He is above teams that should be better than him like the Wizards and the Magic. Things that have helped him out have been trades that he has done like for an over the hill Montoya. Where Montoya, with that contract, would be a poison pill for any other team. For the Grizz, it actually helps him out. Where he can focus on that one player and let him ball out. Equally, his other two over the hill players, Haun and Canfield, are also playing very well considering that they are also older and probably would be on the bench for most other teams. The only downside to what K100 is doing, is that he is risking an opportunity at a good either trade chip or building block (depending on how quick they can get out of jail)) in this years draft profile.

Douglas Haun (Memphis Grizzlies)

7-foot shooting guard who spent all of his career playing Center. Haun is averaging 17/5/3 with good efficiency and as PennPanther has just laid out the Grizzlies are having themselves a very nice and surprising season. Despite the age and the physical traits Haun at the SG position is working in every way, how K100 has been able to Frankenstein his team into a positive is incredible and very interesting

My biggest surprise is that, having spent years building a contending team that just kept losing and losing and losing, Mike Lowry has stayed the course with the same core and suddenly found himself with a top 10 - if not top 5 - winning roster.

It never made sense to me that they kept losing the last several seasons. They always seemed better than that. But they landed on a winner this year, and somehow found ways to get even better once they were proven winners.

...And they did all of this in tax hell. I'm very impressed.

+1 LazyTitanSmash
+1 AngryBanana
+1 garbageman
+1 MexicanMamba
+1 Black Superman
+1 K-100
+1 pennpanther1
+1 PaulyP
+1 greepleairport