Player and Trade Evaluation: A Greeple Joint

[greepleairport]

The origin of slime. The idea of getting screwed in a trade. The deal where you wonder what could have been if you had or had not actually executed the damn thing. This is one of the keys to proper GM’ing that, when done right, will separate journeymen from contenders from champions.

Early in my PBSL career I engaged in several trades, specifically with one of the league’s all time great GMs, The Syndicate, and perpetually wondered these exact same things: was I just slimed? Screwed? Damned if I do or don’t?

As a newbie GM, I was on the verge of PBSL greatness. I had inherited a team hamstrung by a bad contract for Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom I guess was never that great in PBSL in the first place. Look for yourself. Hell, check the state of the league back in the real future sim past of 2028. 34 year old Giannis was an absolute bum. He had been signed to a max contract which, at the time, was about $40m. The salary cap was “only” $121m in 2028, and Giannis was eating a cool $42m this year, green/green, and how many A potentials? Forget A - how many B potentials? One. And that One B potential was free throw shooting. And his current free throw shooting was 61 - the lowest possible B potential you could have.

It was so bad I was advised to bring a suggestion to the league: shall we or shall we not forgive a new GM a bad contract handed them by a previous, wreckless GM? I read vet GM after vet GM comment replying in so many words, “No.”

I dealt with it in 2028, benched Giannis’s ass in 2029, and by 2030 he retired. I had the #1 pick, who became one of the greatest players this league would ever see, Delmar Lopez, but that’s beside the point.

With some excellent mentoring courtesy our current commish, garbageman, I found myself on the verge of a championship in less than 10 seasons. In 2032 I made the finals - only 5 seasons into my career(!!!) - and I lost in game 6 to an overpowered Raptors, a rare (at the time) team with two purple current players, with whom I had no business challenging. 2033 found me losing to the Sacramento Kings in the conference finals, led by a returning, vet GM, NO_La, who knew exactly what to do: acquire the right players at any cost. He laid me to waste (like Doug might say he laid his mum) going toe-to-toe with me for 7 games, and then won in five games against the Clippers.

Something had to give.

The Syndicate had been shopping Jerry West to me for years. YEARS. I lost in those conference finals due to the excellence of Bryce Dejean-Jones, with a relative newbie in David Leiker playing opposite him.

Boy did I have a tough call to make. Do I keep Leiker? Or do I go for all the glory and acquire a player who, on paper, could kick BDJ’s ass?

I took the dive and picked up Jerry West. Yes, he instantly lost his purple, and I lived in a division of killers, the Johnson division, finishing 4th, but I had made my move and I had to stand by it.

Other GMs in the league felt I had been traped, screwed, badly treated, annihiliated - so the league chat would have it. The only person who stood by the move was my mentor, garbageman, who pointed out that I made the move to get to the finals, and that’s exactly what I did in 2034.

(Sadly, the save file did not capture the former commish’s one and only championship victory, and this season’s history was left off in the middle of the semifinals. I will never forget, though, the stinging defeat by way of making it to the finals, meeting Bryce Dejean-Jones once again on the Clippers (an excellent trade executed by another brand new GM, MexicanMamba, who joined the exact same time I did), and getting swept in 4 games.)

I was mad at The Syndicate. Very mad. I thought I had been hosed. 2034 Jerry was still better than 2034 Leiker, but only marginally so, and only for this season. As we all know by now, 30-33 are the years players see precipitous drops in PBSL, and 25-27 are the years players start hitting their prime. In Leiker’s favor, he was still getting better and about $20m cheaper. In West’s favor, he was one of the best players in the league, previously on a team that did not have the right pieces to go all the way. After a finals sweep, this nuance was lost on me. I saw Leiker improve, West decline, and The Syndicate win it all in 2037, without Leiker (Syndicate traded him after one season, which for me was emotionally devastating).

Since then I have learned there is only so much you can do to set yourself up for a championship, and the rest is up to the simputer and history. 32 yr old Jerry West and 33 yr old BDJ collided, earning the same exact exorbitant percentage of each team’s total cap - BDJ older and theoretically more declined - and BDJ won.

Sure, there were other factors contributing to the Clippers’ 2034 finals victory, but this matchup was the one that left a bitter taste in my mouth. I eventually signed BDJ at age 35, still blue blue, to a Giannis-sized contract, then traded him back to the Clips once I realized his magic was not mine to experience, and the lux tax was too much to bear.

Despite it all, I remained focused and bounced back. For 2 seasons, I was the odds on favorite to win it all in 2039 and 2040, after a brilliant 2038 season that saw me ousted from the playoffs in the first round by K-100 and his godforsaken 76ers. A three season title run ending in defeat did not feel great, and the only thing I had left to do was trade away the best player I ever had, in his prime, Delmar Lopez.

My mentor did with prime Delmar what I could not, which was win a championship, in 2041. In return I got Alex Caruso and Gerry Folse, a very equitable trade. Most GMs agreed. But I opted to flip Folse quickly, for Saddiq Bey, which, in a vacuum, was a brilliant move. Bucks were happy and I was happy.

But I wasn’t done.

I had a massive boner for Danny Campbell. I mean look at that guy. Your perfect PF. He was so perfect for what I wanted that I sent Saddiq Bey away, along with my #7 draft pick Richie Cuevas (I don’t know what I did to get him back - probably some <expletive deleted> shit. I can’t even find the trade in which he came back). Most importantly though, after the trade centering on Bey / Campbell in which The Syndicate got a Cuevas bonus, Campbell looked like this, one of the worst TC’s a 26 year old player ever had, the worst in the league, a net loss of 72 attribute points.

Ouch.

You already know I was pissed. So let’s just move on.

Despite DC’s TC death, my team was good again, really good, and the only thing I was missing was a 2 way wing player. Enter Ferguson Olney. I loved this guy so much that I shipped out Cuevas AGAIN along with a future league great James Andrews in this trade here. Many thought it was a bad move, but Olney had more value to me than Cuevas and Andrews combined at the time.

It didn’t pan out. Olney had zero chemistry with my team and decided to finally show up for the Pistons when I sent him there with Alex Caruso, setting the Pistons up for their 4-peat. I’m not linking any of that because it was a goddamn travesty.

Before Greepleairport became a back-to-back PBSL champ, I made a lot of questionable moves that made sense at the time. I think every GM has found themselves in these shoes.

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Now that we have a pretty new generation of PBSL GMs, I want to highlight several trades that had huge ramifications to the league or the GM(s) that executed them. In my opinion, each of these moves panned out brilliantly, though at the time, they appeared lopsided in value.

Most of the current GMs were in the league during these trades, so I hope that my experience above holds relevance in comparison to the moves below, with players everyone should recognize from today’s PBSL.

Mac McClung for Paolo Banchero (trade link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=12272)

Two of the biggest studs in the league today, Paolo Banchero and Mac McClung had very different trajectories. Mac was already viewed as the PG of the future, and has since proven as much. Paolo Banchero was clearly a great player, but did not have his purple potential, and no trajectory as clear as Mac’s.

To this day, everyone in the league is looking for a point guard. In fact, teams don’t mind having two these days if that is at all possible (Raptors eventually traded Poole; Bobcats may or may not believe in trading and horde his highly drafted, highly touted rookie-contract PGs Funkhouser and Campbell). So giving up Mac was not an easy decision. Giving up Mac could very easily be the wrong decision. Mac was a player around whom you could build your franchise, and would be right to do so.

All things being equal, Mac was not a player who could contribute immediately. Banchero was, and the commish bit the bullet, and acquiring Banchero and a presumably okay draft pick (Suns finished 31-51 which would indicate they would not fall to the bottom of the draft the following season). Mamba made this move to win championships. More than one. And with a 72-10 record in 2052, Mamba seemed primed to do just that.

How things actually played out is not as relevant as Mamba’s success in the playoffs following this deal, and making it to the finals as the clear favorite once. Injuries plagued his run, which is impossible to predict, and once he made the finals he met a freakishly athletic team. And still almost won.

If you put Banchero and McClung side by side, I think you’d be right to pick McClung. Banchero’s potential may not be fully seen, living on a team of world beaters, whereas McClung’s impact is very clear - a finals MVP at age 24.

It would be easy to look back at this trade and wonder what could have been. Mamba made a good plan, though, and stuck to it, and let the simputer decide his fate. Again, it didn’t work out, but I don’t think that indicates it was not the right move at the time, and if I were Mamba I would make that move every time, too.

Gerry Folse / Jalen Forbes for James Northrup (trade link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=12923)

I think this trade has already proved its point. As the Rockets found themselves in a tightly contested race in the conference, they made a play for the not-too-ditant future. Sending out Forbes and Folse - about $41m - and getting Northrup back - only $25m - not only saved a lux tax year, but cut one player who would be worse and morse expensive next year (maybe not retained at all if the team option wasn't exercised), and another who had many years to go before bringing value to a championship team. Northrup was already a proven, role playing commodity - one that was not going to tank even further the following season. This move arguably freed up space to make a huge offseason acquisition, Larry Williams, and retain Dejuan Baker with a super max, all of which cost 36pts and his first year in the tax.

Sending a rookie contract player out for a mid-level center and an old guy still putting in quality minutes did not resonate with everyone, but once again, the value of Northrup to the Rockets greatly exceeded the value of Folse and Forbes combined, while the rest of the league saw higher individual value to each of the other pieces. It was a brilliantly timed move.

Isaiah Stewart for Breanna Stewart / 1 pick down the draft ladder / 10 pts (trade link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=13175)

Before TC kills everyone in its path a few hours from now, there was a lot of trade movement at the top of this year’s draft, as everyone and their GM brother saw value in a 17yr old blue potential PG rookie with A potentials out the ass and a super athletic 17yr old wing with blue potential, already green current.

Breanna Stewart (blue potential), the #3 pick (also blue potential), AND 10 points seemed like a lot to move up one spot in the draft. That would be a good haul for trading the #1 pick. But the Mavs have lived in sim league purgatory under the LazyTitan regime, and LTS had had enough. As my mentee I encouraged LTS to cash in his assets a long time ago but he refused. Holding his cards for Isaiah Stewart - something impossible to predict, but still - showed not only tremendous restraint, but probably puts the LTS Mavs into the playoffs for the first time in his sim career.

The Mavs time to go for it is now. Scoot Henderson is not getting any younger, nor is Jonathan Kuminga, but Dominitrix Johnson is rapidly improving, and they have another (cheap) high caliber player for the next 4 seasons. Dominitrix is two seasons away from a big payday, followed by Scoot in three seasons. Candice Parker’s future will prove to be interesting as her RFA hits next season, and will likely take up a large piece of salary cap if the Mavs choose to retain her. All to say, two future pretty solid pieces and 10pts was not too steep a price to pay for what Isaiah Stewart brings to the table now.

The Celtics' future for Ron Harper Jr. (trade link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=13196)

I though, by waiting it out last season, Ron Harper Jr.’s value would decline on the open market, but once again RPF got quite the sizable haul for the league’s leading scorer. I gave RPF a relative king’s ransom for Ferguson Olney back in the day, and today RPF holds every tradable asset the Celtics had to acquire RHJr. (minus Benfield coming back on a very reasonable RFA contract and Breanna Stewart who can’t go anywhere until day 60).

The Nets needed a huge rebuild package and got it. The Celtics needed a running mate for Antonio Gates, whom everyone else seems to have forgotten about. There weren’t any better players on trade blocks than Ron Harper Jr. and AngryBanana figured the king’s ransom was more than worth it.

The question here was whether or not AB sent too much. Outside looking in, I’d say yeah, that’s more than I’d be willing to part with for RHJr. But AB’s perspective is the one that matters. The Celtics have not threatened in any capacity since their 2050 title run, and it was time for them to make a splash.

On the flip side, if the Nets did not get this offer, what would they have gotten in return for RHJr.? Without Ed’s inbox at my disposal I have no idea how many knocks he was getting, let alone for this high a return. If he did get knocks and managed trade talks to entice one or the other GM to kick in just a _little_ bit more to close the deal, then hats off to Ed. Taking on the interest of the entire league and initiating a negotiation battle is the best tactic for maximizing return on your all star player. RPF might still be missing their championship, but with an unwillingness to move players for _exactly_ the right cost to him, he should be wearing a ring one day with this skill at his disposal.

—

For the new GMs still wary of the trade market...

As S67 gets underway, and you get ready to make your moves, I hope you don’t allow the league to dictate the value of a deal if it makes sense for you. Utilize your mentors and heed their advice. The best mentorship, in my experience, never told me what to do, but clearly laid out the positives and negatives of any move. On rare occasion, one might say what they would do if they were you, but they’re still not you.

No one advised me to train Fabian Hub’s QKN to 81, but what I thought was hilarious brought tons of eyes to a player who was only mid before my training. And that’s how I had fun creating value where there wasn’t much to begin with.

Ron Harper Jr.’s tradability was the next biggest story last season to 78#’s first championship victory. 78# saw value in Northrup while others scratched their heads. RPF saw value in holding RHJr. through one more season even though there was no reason for his team to keep him after trading Jose Alvarado to the Spurs. But each of these GMs created value for these players where others didn’t see it, or at the very least did not appreciate it.

Trade and player value exists on a sliding scale, and one GM poo pooing a move may just be the move to take you all the way to a title, even if you took a spray of slime on your shoulder along the way.





...and somehow that's still short of three thousand words. So finally, a few rules to never forget: Don't trade with Doug until you know your player's value (sorry Doug but only a little bit sorry), don't be friends with AngryBanana (he'll Frye you), and this article will not win Media Entry of the Year. I see Josh put one up just now, and that's probably going to win.

[greepleairport]

~3030 words, +10pts