But maybe not. Only way to know is to shoot your shot, and right now the Suns, Nets, Pelicans, Bulls, Warriors, Heat and Celtics are all positioned to shoot theirs.
So I’m going to write a little bit about each of them, because the Town hall got me thinking about it. Thanks, Mike Lowry.
Celtics
AB and his Celtics are finally back in the mix. Since winning the title in 2050, AB’s best record was 49-33, and that was immediately following his title. Since that teardown, his best performance was a 2nd round exit in the playoffs on a 45-37 season. Last year was a playoff appearance with a losing record.
Edge: Pistons
Look, AB just put this thing together. It’s half-cooked. They’ve had a tremendous start to the season, but with these players sharing the floor for the first time, despite there being a litany of all-stars, I reckon their cohesion has a long way to go. Look out for this squad next year to shoot their shot.
Heat
When Mike Lowry kicked my Fryeing ass in Sim 1, I thought my team sucked. Turns out, I don’t suck - the Heat are actually that good. Following a rough Sim 2, they’re back in action and 2.5 games out of 1st place in Omega. Having spoken to Mike, I know he’s not planning to shoot his shot, but if the gigantic tax bill wasn’t looming I would urge him to shoot his shot.
Edge: Pistons
He’d probably lose, don’t get me wrong, but he’d put up a helluva fight and go down swinging and rebounding like a <expletive deleted>.
Warriors
How many words am I at? 7 something? No one cares what I think about me anyway…
Edge: Pistons
I’m still gonna shoot my shot, Claxton injury be damned.
Bulls
The Bulls have the roster and the experience to give the Pistons a run for their money. I know they’re going for it all the way, and they are smart to do so. Garbageman has always kept a few tricks up his sleeve and pulled out some wins that lesser GMs may have dropped (see: killing my 3peat).
Edge: Pistons
If I had fewer words already, I’d go more in depth here, but basically Pistons in 7 for the lulz. (I wrote in depth about the Suns first and saved the best for last.)
Pelicans
I love seeing new faces emerge as contenders. Sitting in a non tax year at #2 in their division, the Pelicans have nothing to lose. While BigDaddy may lack some of the experience of GMs like Quail and garbage, a nothing to lose stance can spoil any winner’s party. Time for the Pelicans to shoot their shot and #FillYoPouch
Edge: Pistons
Give this squad a few more seasons of playoff experience and not too horrible a tax bill and that future team could give this current Pistons team some problems. Theoretically, of course. I doubt Dwain Ramos will be putting up 20pts and grabbing 8 boards in his final contract year, but a BigDaddy can dream, can’t he? If he manages to re-sign Tony Lee and get Pizarro up to All Star caliber stat lines? Bruh
Nets
The Nets are rolling in shit right now. There’s no reason this team is better than the Pelicans even, but here we are.
Edge: Pistons
Just… get out of the tax. This surprise year is awesome, and you should shoot your shot at riding it out, but your core has so many better years to come that you can’t waste a tax year right now.
Suns
They Suns are playing like the team to beat in S72. I would not be surprised to see them emerge from Alpha victorious over the Pistons. With the core of Maxwell, Scoot and McClung, and support from Antonio Gates’s return to Phoenix, these top players are a tough match for the Pistons.
Key matchups:
Bernardo Carrasco vs Mac McClung
Edge: McClung, Suns
Carrasco has served the Pistons as a swing PG very effectively and with some decent size, but head to head with McClung I think he wlll be too slow. Carrasco is the better scorer, sure, but McClung isn’t on the team to score. McClung facilitates God tier offense, and Carrasco doesn’t play defense well against someone his own speed and size, let alone someone who can run circles around him.
Pee Wee Kirkland vs Scoot Henderson
Edge: Pee Wee, Pistons
Even though Scoot is newly purple (at 31?!), he’s playing against the league’s reigning MVP. Scoot is a phenomenal SG, but Pee Wee negates offense better than Scoot, and generates more offense than Scoot, too. Unfortunately for Scoot it will be like Steph crossing up CP3 and making him fall even though he’s still playing prime basketball. Good luck, Scoot.
Hoyt Timmerman vs Maxwell Lewis
Edge: toss up
Really hard to evaluate this one-to-one matchup without looking at previous games played, and even though analysis is best served through hard stats and data, I can’t be bothered with that shit while trying to pump out some words. Whoever wins this matchup probably wins the series. How ‘bout that?
Antonio Gates vs Lauri Markkanen
Edge: Lauri Markkanen
You don’t have to look too far past the colors to evaluate this matchup, but I still think it’s a better matchup than the blue vs purple would indicate. It would seem that, throughout his career, GMs have had higher expectations of Gates than what he delivered in terms of numbers. Part of that is being an elite defender first, and the rest is middling athleticism, in my opinion. But he’s a problem for anyone trying to score on him. Gates is like Draymond Green. He doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but his opponent knows their normal game has been thoroughly disrupted by this defensive agitator. With Lauri serving as one of the team’s secondary scorers anyway, I expect him to win the matchup, but score way fewer points while doing so.
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Anyway, that’s shooting your shot and edging in S72. I hope you shot your shot good, long and hard while reading this PBSL In/Offseason Media Masterpiece.
Here's what Dana White thought of it:
