#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

We're less than a month of sim time left in the regular season, and so now is as good a time as any to look back at the totality of the season you've had to this point.

Let's do this compliment sandwich style:

1 positive thing about your season

1 negative thing about your season

1 positive thing about your season

And end it with a grade for your GM performance.

Go!

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: Sim 11 deadline.

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After a run with Remy Martin as my top scorer and a facilitator like Mac McClung, I had the idea to try to get a three point shooting team since I've never really gone with that strategy before. A free agency that landed me Safi, TMIII, and a resign on Brandon Ingram made that possible, and it seems to have paid off, so that was fun.

Unfortunately, this team is absolute dogshit on the road, and I wonder if that's a byproduct of it being harder to shoot threes in someone else's arena? I'd probably have to look at all of the box scores to solidify that, and that's a lot of work, so I'm not going to do that.

But also, I was able to pull off more trades than usual. The two I made at the deadline are ones I'm pretty happy with. It was nice to be able to get Bud Rivera to give me some depth and playoff flexibility. Swapping Fudge for Schifino also gets me a cost controlled big man. Fudge might have a higher ceiling, but I don't have to worry about any poison pills in RFA and can retain some UFA flexibility.

I'm also proud of my IamQuailman / Paul Giamatti memes, but I could've done more, and only have 3 memes left to hit the cap. B+

Well let's see, the season or off-season shall I say; it started with a bang. I traded for A'ja Wilson and Benny Bridesmaid with the initial intention of resetting my cap on the back of Phil and Banchero's expiring contracts. Then I was able to get rid of Paulo and the success was had. I got out of my 400+M salary from the previous season while getting 2 pieces for the future. Then training camp hit and Maxwell Lewis turned purple current. There was immediate pressure. So much so that I felt the need to talk about it in my presser and to Josh and Rondo(Roberto), sorry @garbageman and @MexicanMamba. But I appreciate you both for kinda supporting my clearly, undecided decision to take the season off. But how did we get to this "decision" even after Lewis turned purple? Well that's where the ugly comes into play.

The negative was definitely the result of Antonio Gates taking a hit in TC. There was a pre TC plan of bringing in Gates and Xue. This plan was hinging on TC, but more so with Xue. Gates I definitely thought would be fine....well ladies and gentlemen, he was not. Gates got hit at 29 like he was a 34 year old. That collapse was demoralizing for myself and Charlie for sure. It even put a little strain on our budding friendship as trade talks stayed heated for a little while. It doesn't stop there, prior to TC there was also talks of Scoot with Xue. But I felt like the defense of gates with Xue's defense would be a better build of a defensive team. Which I've never had and badly wanted. Scoot also dropped 1 point in TC which ultimately led to lazy later on lowering his asking price. So I didn't get my Xue Gates Lewis trio but rather scoot xue Lewis. There was a scare with the Xue trade as well, new ownership. Would the new owner of the wolves/their mentor be interested in a trade? Ultimately they were but man it took a while to get where we are today. After making the trade the team didn't really take off like I would have expected. There was still something to be desired...

Which led to the top cookie, this is what makes the cookie sandwich complete. I make the trade for Wemby. A defensive big and an overall upgrade on Kuminga. This team is finally complete for the season and defensively focused. The team is starting to win games at a better rate than we're losing them. We've gotta stop dropping random games like the one we just dropped at the grizzlies. That's an inexcusable loss that makes 0 sense. But that's sim league. The cohesion of my team needs to elevate back to "good" in one of these last two sims as we storm forward to the playoffs.

The first positive I can think of this season was being able to finally get rid of Ayo while also acquiring points. We knew it wasn't going to be a good year for us, but guaranteeing the extra cap space for next off season is going to be a huge help with finally getting into the rebuild. That combined with another offseason to develop my young players, hopefully we start to see some real progress with this team. Speaking of trades, even though they haven't been big name trades for me yet, I am happy to be able to be involved in so many discussions. Looking forward to being a part of the big trades one day

The negative is that my team is still very far away from really competing. As evidenced by the 15 game losing streak combined with the lack of winning streaks. Only twice did I win more than 2 games in a row this season. The trades I made this year, while they did help with cap space, they also didn't guarantee success moving forward. I still need to get a lot of pieces together and have to hope FAs will want to sign with my team. If not, then I may have to look to trade a young player/draft pick to get someone who can help this team sooner rather than later.

Finally, another positive is that this team is on track to have its highest win total since I took over. Yes, it's not a lot of wins but it does show we are slowly moving in the right direction. Hopefully we can build on it and come back even stronger next season. After this next TC and player training, I'm hoping my young guys will really start contributing in a big way.

1. My roster churning. Without owning my draft pick for the coming draft, and already missing the playoffs last season, I knew I wanted to come into this season with the playoffs on my mind. However, I also knew I'd likely not be able to shift into a championship roster overnight, so I didn't have those expectations. With max money in free agency, I just figured I'd try to hit big and see what my ceiling could be. With that in mind, I traded two blue assets to bring in Dennis Funkhouser and Gregory Kozak. Then, free agency brought me Fabian Hub after a 1 season absence (but lost me Safi ... sad face.). I knew a 2 PG offense had a chance at not meshing well, but I thought one of my PGs could be traded at the very least. TC made my goals even more clear when both of my upcoming RFA big men went purple or close to purple potential, making my focus strictly based around their futures. Once the season started, I churned fairly quickly. Hub to Washington for a blue pot rookie and 3 solid depth pieces. Funkhouser to Dallas for a decent starting wing and a quality blue pot rookie contract. Kozak to Cleveland for a green pot rookie quickly turned blue, a future pico, points and a couple depth pieces. Rivera, a depth piece from Washington, got re-routed too to get more spending power. I've replenished my trade chips, have a few good win now pieces who could stay or get traded in the off-season, got under the apron, AND still likely locked up a playoff spot. Positives all around.


2. Though it likely would have made it difficult for me to pull some of the moves I ultimately did make, which I liked, I wish I had done more to ensure Safi had a chance to retire in Los Angeles. This is strictly a sentimental negative because I just feel like I owed myself that fun story. Plus, he probably would have a hell of another playoff run once getting on the big stage and who knows? Depending on seeding, maybe an upset would have been possible. I just didn't make the right UFA offers this off-season for it to happen.


3. My overall engagement has been a plus too, I feel. I've ran the Town Halls efficiently and effectively. I did a first pod with our commish, which was fun. I'm currently taking a break from writing my first article of the season, with another on deck. I was also super active in trade discussions, some that worked and others that didn't pan out, but it's all good for the health of the league.


Grade: A-

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Positive: We are going to the playoffs. The last few seasons were tough because we tried to compete but it was just not enough to last in the conference. I wanted to change that so this season we were aggressive in the offseason and landed both Jaden Akins and Remy Martin via trade. We also made a push to acquire Kenneth Douglas during the season which really solidified our spot in the playoff push. We already matched our win total from last season with two sims to go so I'm happy with how the team is doing.

Negative: Our tax bill. We never found a way to lower it and stay competitive probably because I did not shop the Gradey Dick contract as hard as I could have. We can definitely pay it off so I'm not worried but I think I could have lowered the bill by moving GD for some lesser (and cheaper) talent and still been in the same place.

Positive: The Raptors 2nd unit. We were fortunate enough to sign Allie Quigley and Colton Johnson to vet min deals and drafted a pair of interesting rookies in Churchill Bounds and Andrew Shockey who have fit in well with Gradey Dick. These guys never complained about the limited minutes but they saved our season when a few folks went down with injuries earlier this year. Their stats may not be impressive, but they will be a handful for any team to contend with this postseason.

Grade: B+

Positive
The Grizzlies have a great foundation to build around. The last few seasons were terrible but when you tank you end up at the top of the lottery and it looks like we hit the jackpot three seasons in a row. Rainwater, Bane, and Giddey all look like fantastic prospects so far and I'm excited to see their growth in the coming seasons.

Negative
It looks like my slow and steady approach to training Giddey and Bane will backfire on me with the upcoming prop vote banning future purple morph training. I wanted to increase both of them steadily and then throw in the future potential bump at the end so they hit purple but it looks like that plan will be stopped. I am selfishly disappointed the league wants to end purple training because I enjoy that aspect of the game but it is what it is.

Positive
My overall engagement with the game is strong again. I took a deliberate backseat the last few seasons while I was in tax jail because it was not as fun anymore, particularly when you are restricted from making any meaningful roster changes so it is nice to be fully involved again. I stayed active in the trade talks, wrote an article for the first time in a while, and even threw some memes up there. I'm also happy to see the league is still going strong after all these years and am happy to see all the new GMs bring their enthusiasm to it and I hope it continues.

There are always ways to improve so I'll give myself an A-

Whereas I had minimal expectations heading in to S70, I have actually had a damn good season. My young team has a bright future, but right now they are doing what it takes to win in very small margins.

For a young build, however, we were NOT ready to have a tax year, but here we are. While this may pose some challenges later, and present some tough decisions, we did the best we could given the financial circumstances. If we had been able to flip Hershal Gilmore or JR Smith Jr. a couple years ago for comparable pieces not entering RFA, we would be in a better financial situation right now.

That said, we made a great trade to pick up Bricker, who has fit in brilliantly with our team, and our team has supported him in the win column to justify him re-signing with us in the offseason. We have real aspirations of winning a playoff series, maybe two. Things are bound to improve in Golden State (even if we don't acquire a 27 yr old stud like Lauri Markannen).

Grade: B

Positive: 25 game win streak earlier in the season despite SVG. This move alone kinda signaled to me I was okay with moving SVG if the right move occurred. We went on an absolute tear until we lost to the freaking Magic & Warriors by a combined 3 pts. With that run I knew we had something special.

Negative: not taking Gates for Dawes right away. Angry Banana came to me asking for Dawes for Gates and my dumb ass didn’t say post it. I blame my galavanting around Japan messing with my brains but gates at center would’ve been a nightmare scenario for teams, especially if I would end up…

Positive: adding Peewee Kirkland for SVG. Risky move to acquire another expiring while having a large looking tax bill. But even if we win a championship (big if) and fall apart after this season, it would all be worth it to claim one of if not THE best teams in Sim League history.

BONUS NEGATIVE: Not cutting mins at deadline like I had planned on.

Alright lets go ahead and write some things...

First Positive: I was able to move on from the Gates build. It was something that I was planning to either do, or on the fence about for about three sims now probably. So I was able to flip my whole roster for the most part for younger parts that I hope make sense together. While IDK if this is the final core or not it is at least one that is not at its height currently as a middle tier team. It is also a positive because I think the Wizards deal was the best case scenario for me. I like the return I got and I like that it went to Xist instead of some of the other deals that were out there.

Negative: The negative on this season is that I messaged the Bucks about my draft pick about four sims ago, just for them to never look at the message. It will be something I try to re-explore in the offseason, but for now I guess he just doesn't want to listen to me.

Positive Two: I am a bad team this year. I am going to get a top end pick, hopefully top three and get another quality option to look at.

I signed some old men (Baker, Blakeney, Garland, Ridenhour) that I thought I could move for assets and points.
I knew I overpaid for them, but I thought it was reasonable overpay until Baker appeared to die in camp (he and Ridenhour were actually very helpful to my team, as evidenced by the 16 game losing streak after I traded them away).
At the end of the day, I turned them into Johnny Davis and 20 points, which is kind of breaking even compared to what I intended.

I probably don't know how to use him, but the AJ Blaze trade made me think twice.
I probably should have really canceled after I couldn't get ahold of the new guy.
Making the trade one sim late prevented me from signing vet mins that I could flip at the deadline, so I missed some points that would have worked out for me.
Blaze definitely gets money, but Podziemski will probably round out to a better player, and I had the time to be patient.

Landing on the tax apron is good for me right now.
I'm certainly not all in and I feel flexible to trade pieces or push assets when the opportunity comes.
I won't hesitate to build from this middle ground where I feel I have enough talent to compete, though not enough to contend for the ship. It's not the worst spot to be in.

Positive: I made a fee moves throughout the season to get rid of some contracts, alot of points, and clean up my roster a bit to help lower my tax bill.
Negative: I basically have my same team from last year, but more expensive, but definitely don't feel the same. Been kind of back and forth between sims, had a few injuries, and even though im currently #1 in my division, i dont feel as dominant as i did last year.
Positive: with saying all that negative, If I have decent sims in these last 2, I can pass my win total from last year and am definitely still in the race for #1 overall seed to get the bye and go for my repeat. Still another positive season overall in my books.

Positive: The team won more than what I thought they would which is a miracle going by the line up on paper. Dimaggio being the only yellow current and one of only four non-blue or purple currents (his scoring is on par with Ware) is an accomplishment.
Negative: The team offense is atrocious. The team is literally last in offense but top ten in defense. If I can get the offense going next season I might have something going here. Having two winless sims was a negative. Both happened the two times Halvorson got injured this season.
Grade: Going by how low the expectations were and achieving my goals for the season (top 5 pick and getting 15 wins) this was a good rebuild start. Basically my team switched with the Hawks this season for how I thought it would go. I’ll give myself a C. I found some rising stars to build around and have a good defense to boot. If I can get a scorer or two in FA or trading I might have something brewing here.

Positive: The Cavs are currently with 43 wins. We are going to the playoffs again. This will be the Cavs 4th season in a row in going to the playoffs. It's a huge accomplishment. There is no question we have a shot making a deep run in the playoffs.

Negative: Our defense allows 118 pts per game. We have made trades and adjustments. Our defense has improved, however we still have weaknesses. We need more depth on the defensive side.

Positive: Our offense is elite. Jonathan Isaac and Devin Vassell are the league's top scorers. The league has no answer for both of them. Isaac and Vassell, both are all-star and we expect both to score a lot of points in the playoffs.

Grade: B+

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Positive about my season is being in the playoff hunt. Injuries to start the year kinda made the start slow. Once key guys got back we got back on somewhat of a winning track.

Negative about the season is not cutting some of those vet min cause of time wasted trying to get other things handled that eventually did not get handled

Positive is I know my approach moving forward. Gotta do things differently. Maybe go back to my old sim league approach with things. Cause what I am doing currently isn't working.

+1

Mamba
Nate
Josh
K100
Titan
Varga
Lowry
Jon
Jedi
Pels
Penn
Charlie
Doug
Carlos