#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

*** Today the 76ers have set up a Press Conference different than most. They're doing it on their home court to get the fans involved. The Last few seasons have been tough for the franchise and management has seen that and wants fan involvement. ***
Announcer: Philadelphia LET'S GOOOOO!!!!!

Announcer: At Center, Standing 6'11" From Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy DWIGHT HOWARD!!!



Announcer:At Point guard, Standing 6'1" from Connecticut, KEMBA WALKER



Announcer:At Shooting Guard, Standing 6'7" from Miami, THE GRIM REAPER- VAN GRIMALDI



Announcer: At Small Forward, Standing 6'8" from Butler - GORDON HAYWARD



Announcer: At Power Forward, from LSU - The Future, the Prodigy, Ken Hen BEN SIMMONS!!!


Ben Simmons: 1...2...3...

Team: PLAYOFFS

After a year of development off the court, what led to the decision to start Ben Simmons right out of the gate? How ready is he to compete for a playoff spot in a conference with at least 10 viable contenders?

{{{ The Media files to the other side of the court where there are chairs set up. There's also a 76ers backdrop a table and two chairs and a podium. Out walks GM Balls O'Hard to take the podium and Ben Simmons walks over to sit in the chair.}}}

Balls O'Hard:
Good afternoon Philadelphia! I hope out season ticket holders enjoyed our little show. Thank you to the Weeknd and everyone who put together this show. Also thank you to the media for joining us. Mostly thank you to the players and team for the continued hard work.

Balls O'Hard:
Last year was an interesting year, and I bring it up because last year's team paved the path to where we are here. Last year, we missed a pretty high goal of ours, which was to make the playoffs. But it set the foundation for this team here. A team that I think will make the playoffs and be a feared opponent. With a lot of the same players we have a lot of changes.

Balls O'Hard:
The most exciting news is, Ben Simmons will be on the court and we hope to fully support him in a chance to win the coveted rookie of the year award along with many other awards in his career. Alongside Ben are all the guys who were just announced along with James Johnson and Chet Dooley getting major playing time on the bench. One of the things we really are excited for, is the teams versatility. Outside of Dwight, no one's really going to be set playing one position. Which means a lot of tinkering for myself and the coaching staff.

Balls O'Hard:
We expect Gordon to play a lot of 1,3, and 4. Kemba and Chet will be able to play the 1 and 2 and the Grim Reaper will be playing the 2 and 3. Man grim Reaper, I love that name.

Balls O'Hard:
I want to talk about the incredible work the players and training staff put in this summer. A competitive drive is something I've wanted to see since this build has started and you can see what drafting a guy like Simmons had. Last year Gordon and Simmons had probably two of the biggest growth TCs in the league and this year it was more of the same with 4 50 point gains and 2 45+ gains.

Balls O'Hard:
Ben we think is going to come out of the gate and be an elite scorer in this league. He's got some work to do in terms of the fundamentals with rebounding and defense, but he's an elite level athlete that can fill it up.

Balls O'Hard:
Gordon will continue his quest to become one of the top players in our league. He's been an absolute terror on the boards this offseason and showed he can legitimately play and guard 4 positions. You can't teach that type of versatility.

Balls O'Hard:
Kemba showed HUGE promise in the first full offseason in our program. He's looking more like the guy who the Bucks were looking to keep instead of Kyrie years ago and has a lot to prove after being cast off by the Wolves when he didn't fit in the system any more.

Balls O'Hard:
Van Grim, man there's not enough I can say about the guy. he's a former #1 overall player who just didn't put it together in college. He looked great to us in our draft camps, but he fell to 5 because of his college season. The last two years he's been good, gaining 1st team all rookie honors and looked to be a fine player. This year I think brining in a vet like Dwight Howard who taught him to prepare, he's just grown leaps and bounds. He's got the size to be an elite level 2 in our league and he's got all the tools to be an elite scorer and good defender. We're very excited about his growth.

Balls O'Hard:
We also drafted a guy by the name of Markelle Fultz. We expect he will probably get the Simmons treatment this year, but if we need him, we'll play him. One thing I'll say about him, is he's a very raw prospect, but we have high-high hopes for him being one of our core for the foreseeable future. He's a 2 way guy who reminds us a lot of Gary Harris who we moved for Chet last year. he's going to score, he's going to compete on defense, and he's going to cause turnovers.


Balls O'Hard:

With that i'll open up the floor to questions to myself or Ben.

garbageman wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2017 5:31 pm After a year of development off the court, what led to the decision to start Ben Simmons right out of the gate? How ready is he to compete for a playoff spot in a conference with at least 10 viable contenders?

I think when you look at one of our downfalls last year, we were 22nd in PPG. We ended up at 6th on Defense. So to me that shows we had a problem putting the ball in the basket. Now, sure pace plays into this a bit, but our PPS were pretty average. So the decision basically is to throw an elite level scorer into the lineup and see how it effects everything. Then you throw in Preseason where the guy looked phenomenal , and know he's worked harder than anyone on our roster and you see, frankly he's earned it.

As far as the playoffs, man last year we had a hell of a run to come from the last game of missing out. We went 10-3 to close the season and sit our buts on the couch. I think we have a hell of a shot to make it this year. We have two guys in Hayward and Walker in their primes and 3 guys rising with them in Grim, Dooley and Simmons. Dwight knows he's here to grab boards and defend and frankly that's what we need from him. I think we'll be in the thick of things all the way through and it'd be a major, major disappointment to miss them.

Two questions:

1- what's the ceiling for this team?
2- how much does Nurkic's regression hurt the team?

Is the Grim Reaper ready for primetime?

false9 wrote:Two questions:
1- what's the ceiling for this team?

It’s hard to really say because you don’t want to set limits on the guys. From a goal setting standpoint we try to take the goals in tiers . Make the playoffs .. then if you’re in contention, win your division, then If your in contention win the conference. I think we’re a little ways from being able to put all here of those on our bulletin board. Id be excited with our progress with a playoff birth and making it a series.

2- how much does Nurkic's regression hurt the team?

Yeah we had a great tc but Nurk bombed out. He forgot how to rebound as well as defend. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge roadblock for us, but it definitely slows down momentum right now. Nurk was never the future at the position for us, but he also was a great stop gap. Having Dwight insulates ya a bit for a year though.

Inner_GI wrote:Is the Grim Reaper ready for primetime?

I think he starts to play like a capable starter this year. The last two years he’s been off and on. I don’t think he’s a guy we can rely on for 20 a game now; but 15 is absolutely in his wheelhouse. There’s a lot of great wings out there and he’s going to have to learn how to take advantage.

GWR: Is Chet Dooley being groomed for the starting PG spot?

JNR wrote:GWR: Is Chet Dooley being groomed for the starting PG spot?

That’s why we traded for him initially, but I think it’s transforming to a guy who can provide some versatility and defense for us in spots. Chet’s got great size for a 1 which means we can toy around with him at the 2 as well. With Kemba and Grim we don’t have a huge need for him to lead the team right now, but I can definitely see it in his future.

Do you think this current Sixers team can make a deep playoff run this season?

Eazy P wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 8:58 am Do you think this current Sixers team can make a deep playoff run this season?

You know, you never know. Our first championship in Philly was completely unexpected. An injury here, a trade there and things really coming together and you're in the thick of things. Right now, we're just trying to make sure we're actually in that fold. I think if you look at a lot of publications, people will say Round 1 or 2 is our ceiling though.

With Ben Ken Hen Sim and potentially some other high draft picks officially being rookies this year to go along with the current draft class that might see a lot of minutes. Is Simmons a lock for ROY?

Conroy wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 9:28 am With Ben Ken Hen Sim and potentially some other high draft picks officially being rookies this year to go along with the current draft class that might see a lot of minutes. Is Simmons a lock for ROY?

We're going to do everything we can to support Ben in getting that while trying to achive our goals as a team. It'll be balance, but hopefully they can all work together. In terms of a lock? I think we need to see how the field looks. A lot of guys you didn't expect to win ROY won it in the last 2 years. If he wins we will celebrate it, if he doesn't we'll be very excited about his very high ceiling; but I think Towns/Duren/Simmons are the guys on paper I think can make a run at it.

Conroy wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 9:28 am With Ben Ken Hen Sim and potentially some other high draft picks officially being rookies this year to go along with the current draft class that might see a lot of minutes. Is Simmons a lock for ROY?

Ben Simmons: I've got something to say about that m8. Mark me down for rookie of the year. That boy Duren wont even have a fair suck of the sav versus me m8. And KAT can go get stuffed. Bloody Oath, Ben Sim for ROY!

Do you have any concerns about interior depth this season?

WigNosy wrote:Do you have any concerns about interior depth this season?

Yeah, it’s certainly not our strength. I think Dwight will be ok, but when you look at the East and guys like AD, Pedroza, Jokic/ Chandler, Hawes, Kanter all in their primes ; it doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. An injury really leaves us in a hard spot.

The league is ready to see Ben Ken Hen Sim, but do you think he still lacks the current skills of rebounding and defense that makes him a liability on the court for heavy minutes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NOLa. wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 7:38 pm The league is ready to see Ben Ken Hen Sim, but do you think he still lacks the current skills of rebounding and defense that makes him a liability on the court for heavy minutes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think he can be a net plus even with those skills developing. The area i'm most concerned about is the fouling. We've lobbied year in and year out on the fouls to the league office and we've seen some changes, but it's not enough. He averaged 3.3 Fouls in 18 minutes. That's roughtly .18 FPM.