#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?
And why is the chase pack so large?

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: Due by the deadline for sim 5

The front runners in the west (Lakers, Kings, spurs) likely pull away from the rest of the pack. These teams are just too good and outside of any injury, I don’t see them falling behind any of the other teams trying to chase them

As far as the chase package being so large, it’s a sign that the teams that were tanking in previous seasons are starting to see their patience pay off. Pistons, Knicks, and mavericks are finally seeing some success. This will likely be the first season where the playoff seedings will come down to the last sim


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Mike Lowry wrote:Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?

I think it’s not a clear cut front runner per se. There are six teams that are top tier teams: Knicks, Bucks, Bulls, Spurs, Lakers, and Blazers. The bullets and Kings are also close, but I think those teams will be the top seeds in both conferences. I think of those teams, the Lakers and the Knicks will pull away the most.

Mike Lowry wrote: Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?

The Lakers will come down to earth if they get an injury. The Bulls and Bucks will always be competitive because they are in the same conference.

Mike Lowry wrote: And why is the chase pack so large?

The pack is bigger because of the increase in teams attempting this season. It was bound to happen now that we are out of the Jordan draft. Teams aren’t intentionally tanking, so they are trying to be good and make moves as such.


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Mike Lowry wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 2:47 pm Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?
And why is the chase pack so large?

I think the frontrunners are likely to come back to the pack a bit because I think the days of teams trying to tank for Jordan are over, so it's harder for "good" teams to pick up talent on the cheap from "bad" teams. I think the chase pack is so large for largely the same reason - with the exception of the Jazz, nobody really has much of an incentive to tank... when teams are trying to tank, talent is available; when everyone's trying to improve, they're not as anxious to give up talent, so what talent is out there tends to have its price inflated. In other words, it seems like it's more a seller's market this season where in the past couple of years, it might have been more of a buyer's market.

I think the other posters have so far summed it up pretty well. I think the West coast front runners are more likely to split away from the rest. Blazers, Lakers, Spurs. I still am in awe with how the Blazers continue to be at the top with not really SUPERSTAR caliber player. Just a great team all around. After that the West is still a slug fest, trying to figure out who's gonna be that 4 seed.

but the east is way more competitive than previous seasons... to the point they'll be beating each other up (just like i beat up tbone in this last sim hehe). But the East Top 4 are pretty much set. I want to put the Pistons in that top 5, but they are in the midst of a skid and have started to slip into the next tier of teams with Pacers & Nets. But things can easily shift. Trades are always known to set a team back temporarily before improving.

Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?
And why is the chase pack so large?

Well, the Lakers pulled away right away and have stayed there ever since. So, behind them, I see a crunchy collision of contenders.

The Knicks are realizing their potential after a couple mid sims to start the season. They're awesome. Bullets? awesome. Bulls and Bucks? Awesome. Is any one of them clearly better than the other? I'm not so sure. The Nets and Pistons seem to have lost their steam and come back down to earth, both unfortunate, both really good teams.

And for once, besides the front-running Lakers, I think the East holds the toughest competition! In the West the next tier of great teams is the Spurs (new to the top) and Blazers (always at the top). The Kings, Warriors, Mavs and Sonics have all gotten caught in a race of who can be better than mid. So far the Kings and Warriors are winning, but I think the Sonics are and should be better than all of us. So we shall see!

Why is the pack so large? Well, I think we're entering a new era of new sim league. Simple as that. The Bullets and Spurs are teams of the future but having their moments already. So it will be exciting to see how things shake out now.

I don't see the separation holding up.
I think the teams in front don't have the assets to discard and pull away, and the teams in the pack have enough to split and close.
A few teams will go into tank, and their pieces will boost the pack, i.e Hawks trade.
I also am just not convinced that the Lakers will get away with so little depth, and the East is already tight.
I don't see any team winning their Division by more than 4 games.

I think the top of the standings will remain relatively intact. The Lakers will win the West and the Bucks/Bulls will fight out for top seed in the East but my money is on Chicago given their depth. I think the interesting race will be the 6th seed in both conferences. I think the Sonics will continue to right the ship and stave off the Clippers and Mavericks, while the Pacers start to solidify their hold with Dennis Johnson in the fold now. Overall, I think we have a good balance of elite, good, average, and below average teams in the league right now and barring some major injury I think the league just coasts into the playoffs without too many changes.

Mike Lowry wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 2:47 pm Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?
And why is the chase pack so large?

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: Due by the deadline for sim 5

It seems like a lot of people are saying that the front runners will fall back down to earth, but I see it as the opposite. I see two teams per division as clear frontrunners. Unless there is an injury for some top players, I think the top 4 teams in each conference will start to pull away from the rest of the league. What this means is really each conference has a race for 2 spots. That is the real intrigue right now. As far as the chase pack is concerned, people tanked for 1984. With that draft complete, people feel like the need to tank is less and they acquired players to compete sooner than later.

Mike Lowry wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 2:47 pm Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?
And why is the chase pack so large?

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: Due by the deadline for sim 5

I do not think any of the front running teams will pull away unless some of their competition has a major setback. The teams are evenly aside from maybe game planning. Some are better than others when it comes to the game planning aspect. Unless you have a Superteam like the pistons in the previous league, a great game plan can beat anyone. even the heavily favorites in others eyes. The chase pack is so large because like someone said earlier that the tank for MJ has ended.

Mike Lowry wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 2:47 pm Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?
And why is the chase pack so large?

It's definitely a league of haves and have nots, and I think the haves will keep accumulating, especially with a relatively strong draft ahead. I think there's some room for an interested 'have not' to make some moves and win a matchup in the playoffs, but the really good teams are good now, and they'll be good later - which sucks. Chase pack is so large because everyone is trying to out-suck eachother. Or like in the case of my team, we just suck even though we're trying a little.
The teams hovering around .500 are really going to have to make some tough decisions at the trade deadline.

Mike Lowry wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 2:47 pm Look like a ton of parity in the league behind some strong front runners.
Will the front runners pull away from the pack?
Or will they come down to earth a little as the season wears on?
Why or why not?

I think it's still a bit too early to call out the front-runners. Both Conferences are about 4-5 teams deep, and all 4 current division leaders have someone right on their tail. We probably won't see any real separation until we get closer to the ASG break. I think it's more likely that 5-8 in each conference stalls out.

Mike Lowry wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 2:47 pm And why is the chase pack so large?

Like I said in another Town Hall, now that Jordan's out of the way, GMs are going for it. Sim league prehistory is over, we're all the way back now. We're also seeing that the teams who decided to build instead of aim for Jordan are starting to come together. There's also the fact that older teams/teams trending downwards haven't quite decided to give up the ghost and commit to the tank/rebuild just yet.

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+1 point