#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Balls O’Hard:Well, here we are again. Another season beginning. We’ve spent some time getting to this point though. 6 Seasons ago, we traded for Gordon Hayward. Hoping he could be the start of a solid foundation. We had many time we were tempted to blow up that foundation to get more young guys in the doors.

Balls O’Hard:There have also been many times we were temped to go “all-on” and trade a lot of our assets to surround Hayward more. Neither of those options worked out which has lead us here, to what some would say is the climax of the Hayward tenure. And whether it ends in tragedy or in success. It will end one way or another.

Balls O’Hard:We’re excited about the season. We feel great at every position right now. 1-5 and even out bench. We feel like we have a lot of flexibility on what we can do as a team. We can play inside, we can play outside. We can rebound. We can defend.

Balls O’Hard:We also know that while some may have crowned us “preseason champs”. That may be more of a detriment than something to brag about. few teams that are named winners in the offseason have the fortitude to continue that through an 82 game season and the playoffs.

Balls O’Hard:In front of us, we have maybe the stiffest test the league has ever seen. A conference which has many teams fully loaded to make a run at the big thing. The greatest player we’ve ever seen is in our way. The GM with the most rings in our way. A GM eager to get back into the fold in our way. We have the West with two superstars on one team in our way. It’s a mountain to climb. A whale to eat. Impossible.

Balls O’Hard:But what’s the best way to climb a mountain? One step at a time. What’s the best way to eat a whale? One bite at a time. So, that’s how we’re going to start the season. 1 Sim at a time. We’ll be heavily involved in learning our team and gameplans.

Balls O’Hard:With that, we’re looking of rolling out a starting line-up of :

C: Ernest Kanter
PF: Ben Simmons
SF: Gordon Hayward
SG: Van Grimaldi
PG: Brandon Jennings

Balls O’Hard:the first guy off the bench will be Harrison Barnes, and we don’t expect to lose much with him on the the floor. We’ll also be throwing Markell’s Fultz for bigger minutes, and Clint Capela. Tyler Johnson, Phil Pressey, and Jordan Hill will get their chances to show what they’ve got, but their minutes will be limited.

Balls O’Hard:I’ll open up the forum to questions...



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Gordon Hayward at PG had a lot of GMs scratching their chins about emulating such a strategy. With Hayward's athleticism declining slightly with age, is that experiment over, or will we still see Hayward picking up some minutes running the offense?

How would you attempt to beat your own team? Which team build do you see yourself being weakest against? Is it a team with a dominant big, a team that lives and dies by the 3, or a team that squeezes every possession out of the ball? Is there a team like that in the Eastern Conference?

Do you think GMs should be forced to attend your financial stability seminar to ensure they spend their points how you see fit?

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With a tax bill of around 90 points looming, does that add pressure to win it all this season?

GWR: There's so much talent on your team this year. Which player leads this team?

garbageman wrote:Gordon Hayward at PG had a lot of GMs scratching their chins about emulating such a strategy. With Hayward's athleticism declining slightly with age, is that experiment over, or will we still see Hayward picking up some minutes running the offense?

We liked Kayward at the 1, but we didnt have the ancillary passers really to surround him with to make a big run. I’d say it was a moderate success, as he had some of the best numbers of his life. this year he’s going to see most of his minutes at the 3 for sure. We may experiment with him playing some off minutes at the 1 with his experience though.


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NOLa. wrote:How would you attempt to beat your own team? Which team build do you see yourself being weakest against? Is it a team with a dominant big, a team that lives and dies by the 3, or a team that squeezes every possession out of the ball? Is there a team like that in the Eastern Conference?

There’s a lot of different styles in the East. Out of all of those, i think a dynamic approach works the best. The Pistons and the Hawks come to mind. Pistons have the greatest guy we’ve seen in the game and can shoot. The Hawks can frankly do everything we can do. Even the Bobcats with their interior defense are going to make it hard. We definitely don’t have a cakewalk. I really believe in this team to be able to withstand any style though and give any team a scare.


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Wombataholic wrote:With a tax bill of around 90 points looming, does that add pressure to win it all this season?

I’ll tell you what... You certainly can’t operate like that forever so yes. We have a number of factors giving us some pressure to get something done this year. The tax, players ages, and overall talent. So yes, there’s pressure to win it all, but pressure’s good if you ask me. Heat and pressure is how you make a diamond, and we’;re shooting to have a lot of diamonds if we can put it all together.


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DarthVegito wrote:Do you think GMs should be forced to attend your financial stability seminar to ensure they spend their points how you see fit?

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Yes, but they’d have to go to the prerequisite seminar on how to keep their free agents before being allowed to register.

ballsohard wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:54 pm

DarthVegito wrote:Do you think GMs should be forced to attend your financial stability seminar to ensure they spend their points how you see fit?

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Yes, but they’d have to go to the prerequisite seminar on how to keep their free agents before being allowed to register.

ballsohard wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:54 pm

DarthVegito wrote:Do you think GMs should be forced to attend your financial stability seminar to ensure they spend their points how you see fit?

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk

Yes, but they’d have to go to the prerequisite seminar on how to keep their free agents before being allowed to register.

ballsohard wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:54 pm

DarthVegito wrote:Do you think GMs should be forced to attend your financial stability seminar to ensure they spend their points how you see fit?

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk

Yes, but they’d have to go to the prerequisite seminar on how to keep their free agents before being allowed to register.

F

What are the expectations out of Brandon Jennings this year? And now that you have a more traditional point guard, do you forsee Gordon Hayward's role being slightly reduced?

Is the plan for next season to be somewhat of a changing of the guard/passing the torch? How do Hayward and Kanter feel about being openly shopped next offseason?

NickMalone77 wrote:What are the expectations out of Brandon Jennings this year? And now that you have a more traditional point guard, do you forsee Gordon Hayward's role being slightly reduced?

That’s an interesting question. I think Jennings is going to be a bit of a rubix cube. We really want him to be a passer first but I’m not sure it’s quite in his DNA. We’d really like him at 12-15 ppg and 8 assist and we’d be happy if he can shoot at that 45% mark.

In terms of Hayward, he can do so much. He can score, rebound, pass, defend. His role as far as having the ball in his hands may reduce but his importance and contribution will be about the same. We expect his rebounding numbers to go up some and his passing numbers to go down. We really would like to see him be a little more efficient shooting.. somewhere near 50%. And with all the options on this team, no one should be taking a bad shot.


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IamQuailman wrote:Is the plan for next season to be somewhat of a changing of the guard/passing the torch? How do Hayward and Kanter feel about being openly shopped next offseason?

I think you know as much as anyone, that a team has to take it year by year. If we win a ring, theres a chance we run it back to try and 2 peat. But i think both Gordon and Kanter know we have their best interest in mind. If we look to move them, we will be in active communication with their agents about what’s good and bad for them. I think it puts a little more pressure on everyone to perform this season and figure it all out.


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Speaking of Anthony Davis and the Pistons out East. Do you see any comparisons to the 2 time MVP and 4 time scoring leader AD and your PF Ben Simmons?

Whom do you expect to emerge as the team leader this season? Is it still Hayward or will the young guys be stepping up?

Conroy wrote:Speaking of Anthony Davis and the Pistons out East. Do you see any comparisons to the 2 time MVP and 4 time scoring leader AD and your PF Ben Simmons?

Right now , I’m seeing him as a lite version of Davis . He can score and rebound with anyone. He’s as good as an athlete as we’ve seen. He’s just not there yet in terms of overall skill... yet!

WigNosy wrote:Whom do you expect to emerge as the team leader this season? Is it still Hayward or will the young guys be stepping up?

I think we saw Simmons start to wrestle the title of best player away from Hayward last year, and that will only continue. But Hayward is experienced hungry and at the height of his powers , so I expect him to be as good as anyone on the team, but the youngins are catching up, even he has to acknowledge that.

Random Reporter: Not too much has been said about the 100-million-dollar-man, the Grim Reaper. After another solid TC, do you feel as if he's finally ready to embrace the role of your primary/secondary go-to option?

Do you feel it? Is it getting cold in here?

Soundwave wrote:Do you feel it? Is it getting cold in here?

No sir , your weiner is just getting smaller.

JNR wrote:GWR: There's so much talent on your team this year. Which player leads this team?

That’s a great question. I think Hayward is the team leader. He’s in his 7th season in Philly. He wants to win and he doesn’t have a lot of time to do it. He can play 1-4 and is a threat on offense, defense, and the boards.

Do I think he will put up the best numbers ? I’m not really sure. Simmons is a stat sheet stuffer.