Mamba Mentality

[MexicanMamba]

Word Count: 4,610



MAMBA MENTALITY

Initially the thoughts that are to be shared here were going to be in a different format (podcast), but I still wanted to share my thoughts on a few topics (and earn some points) so you get the painful privilege of reading a couple thousand more words from me here. The following will be look at how this season has been shaped for my Clippers and the league as a whole. I feel like this has been quite an interesting season in what could end up being the most wide-open championship race in quite a while. I figure that I will also merge this with my Mamba’s Dead Wrong Playoff Predictions. Now, let’s dive in and explore!

RED AND BLUE TINT

The Plan

Where else is there to start except at the beginning? Before going into what I have tried to do this season and how I would evaluate those decisions, let me first explain what the hell my plan was in the first place. If I am completely honest, this plan changed and evolved a couple of times through the off-season and early season. It really all started with the fact that I was able to get under the tax apron last season, resetting my ability to overpay once again to fully compete for a championship. Going into this off-season with that ability made me want to go all-in. That idea is what led to me making my first trade of the off-season, adding Jaren Jackson Jr. from the Spurs. Once that was complete, and I had access to the Mid-Level exception, I went hunting for a deal to make to add another star to go along with Glen Sabo, JJJ and the fast-rising Terry Sterner, who I re-signed as a restricted free agent to a very team friendly deal.

Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in my attempts to get the final piece to the puzzle and I quickly switched my mindset from championship to taking a step back, gaining as many assets that I could get my hands on and hoping for the best to get some wins AKA points in the bank. This approach held a lot of appeal to me because I have yet to attempt any type of teardown, since this is only my 9th full season. Taking on a new type of challenge and seeing where that road would take me made me excited about the possibilities, even though one move in particular made me cry or die a little bit inside once it was finalized (you know the one).

The moment I was able to acquire an appropriate number of assets, I then slightly tweaked my approach from SELL, SELL, SELL to Buy, but with an eye on the future, to try to pile up as many wins as I could while also giving as many teams hell as I possibly could. This is the point that I am in now as we reach the final few weeks of the season and look towards the playoffs. With my plan laid out in front of you, let’s see how I decided to reach my season goals.

Looking Back

As mentioned above, the plan was fluid throughout the season. When the idea was to compete at the highest level, there were two big acquisitions which I felt were quite quality: Obtaining Jaren Jackson in trade and signing Clifton Cage in Free Agency with the full MLE. Grabbing Jackson was about post defense as well as filling my empty cap space to get access to the MLE which would eventually land me Cage. In retrospect, I am not sure I would make the move for Jackson or not if I had settled on the plan to rebuild ahead of time since it cost me a young asset (Douglas Harris) and points that could have been used to train Sterner. That said, I never had any long-term plans for Harris and probably would not have fought hard to keep him as he hits RFA this coming off-season, so at least getting Jackson (who I would flip later) is not a total loss. Clifton Cage was another player who was primarily added to defend, which gave me good defenders at all 5 starter spots with Jackson, Sabo, Lopez, Cage and Sterner. Most of my teams prior to this season were offense heavy, so a defense-first squad was also fun to think about for about 10 seconds.

Though I felt confident that the team I had assembled was strong, I was not convinced that it was strong enough to warrant tax payment, which is why I allowed myself to become excited about the idea of a teardown, rebuild. Everyone’s favorite reverse-cursing GM continued to circle back and ask about Glen Sabo and I was willing to listen. In all honesty, Sabo did not garner as much attention as he probably should have and especially not from people who were ready to give up strong young players in exchange. Ryan and I discussed a bunch of versions of this deal before finally agreeing to the swap that came to fruition, with me taking back Marcel McAlister, points and a future 1st rounder. Ahead of time I knew most would ask me why I didn’t demand to get Danny Campbell back in return, and no matter what Ryan may say, I think I could have if I pushed hard on it, but I wanted to try building a wing player instead. I’ve already started the process of getting him primed to take over too and soon he will become an offensive force.

Once Sabo was going to be on the move, the only option was to try to move other pieces as well to build the cache of assets. The Lakers, after a strong start to the season and a glut of Point Guards, were motivated to spread out their wealth to fill their roster out more completely. Enter: Bryce Dejean-Jones (again). In reality, the move to trade Jaren Jackson Jr and Clifton Cage for BDJ was about everything BUT getting the star PG back on the roster. At this point I was still significantly over the tax threshold and still wanted more assets for the future and this deal with our arena partners shaved off roughly $12mil in cap space and added 10 points and a 39 1st round pick, which left me with 5 1st round picks between the 38 and 39 drafts.

From there, I continued to shop one of the last big money pieces I could in Colby Lopez. Though I began by looking just to turn him into more future 1st round picks or rookie contract type players, I shifted gears slightly to a deal that may be my favorite that I was able to complete this season when I flipped Lopez and a 38 1st Rounder (my own) for Daron Hord and Samuel Adams. Like the BDJ deal, the move shaved off a significant amount of cap space from the payroll to inch closer to the tax apron and I was able to acquire a 25-year-old, super athletic, defensive focused wing player on the same trajectory (and contract length) as Sterner. It was a move that I felt helped the present and the future equally and was hard to pass up.

The final three moves I went on to make were not nearly as exciting for me, but they were still of relative importance. I handed out 7 points to grab Randy Abney just to fill out my starting 5 to go out and grab more wins, I sold salary to the Rockets to get the tax apron within reach, and lastly, I grabbed 3 points from the Pelicans to dump the last remaining salary I needed to to get under that apron.

Overall, I am quite happy with the outcome of my moves after deciding that I wanted to go for the rebuild. Regardless of how this season finishes, I get to go into the off-season with some points in the bank, 4 1st round draft picks in 38/39, Four players under the age of 26 years-old and $80-$90 million in cap space to play with, while also not paying a tax bill. Are there any regrets? Some, yes. Really only one. Part of me wishes I would have waited until I got to see how the team I put together in the off-season played together before deciding on my future as they were 16-4 at sim 3 and one of the top teams in the league. It was a favorable schedule to that point, so who knows how long they would have stayed at the top, but I could have given myself more time to find out. Beyond that though, I am content with where I am, how I got there, and what it means for the future of the Clippers.

THE LEAGUE

Below I am going to give my top 3-5 of several different categories based on this season’s results.

The Big Stories

1. The Pacer Collapse

With All-Everything, De’Aron Fox already in the fold, I know there were more than a few GMs who were ready to throw in the white towel when Bronny James was sent packing from Orlando to Indiana. It seemed that with James (and to a lesser extent, Brian Grinder) on-board, Fox had his Stoll replacement and could make another epic run, hopefully without the injury problems that occurred two seasons ago. Injuries were not a problem, unfortunately for the fans in Indiana, the on-court product most definitely was a problem. When things were already bleak, with the Pacers almost certainly missing the playoffs in a season where they also did not own their own draft pick, management hit the fanbase in the gut even harder by trading Fox and Grinder. All of it was unexpected and definitely one of the stories of the year.

2. The Washington Wizardry

By hook or by crook, the Wizards were the Finals representative of the Alpha conference last season. Using a defense-first, attack the basket game plan, they were out-muscling all comers and made an unlikely trip to the championship round before getting bulldozed by the freight train that was the Chicago Bulls. Due to the surprising nature of that run, it would not have been all too surprising to see the team come back down to Earth a bit this season, but they did anything but that. With another suffocating defense, the Wizards are one of the top teams in the league despite being in the ultra-competitive Alpha conference and the strongest division. Though there are a couple teams that may have something to say about the outcome, I do not believe another Finals trip would catch anyone off-guard this time.

3. Money (well?) Spent

We have some very drastic differences between the highest and lowest payrolls this season. While the Jazz ($80mil in cap space) and the Knicks ($104mil) were forced into going in with dirt cheap payrolls, we have three teams (Nuggets, Pistons, Heat) with salaries more than $230mil! Plus, two more (Mavericks, Wizards) with payrolls in the $190mil range. Obviously, this means that there is a good chance that some very high paying teams (with astronomical upcoming tax bills) are going to be very disappointed at the end of the season and perhaps incredibly hamstrung in how they can attack next off-season.

4. Alpha!

As has been the case for a few seasons now, the Alpha conference has been the stronger, deeper conference regardless of what the All-Star Game and Finals results have been. The Johnson division is a bloodbath and the race for the Mourning division became especially interesting after the dust settled on the trade deadline. Though we could once again see the champion emerge from the Omega, there’s no question which side has been the most difficult to navigate for the top teams.

5. On the Move

Trades are often the source of much of the excitement of any sports league, and this season of SLOE is no different. We had huge swings made all over the league. Some hit (Sabo, Fox, Rodriguez) and some didn’t land the way the teams hoped (Bronny, Jaren Jackson/Cage) but it was incredibly exciting to see teams go all-in. Aim small, miss small … and a lot of teams aimed to shoot for the head, which is something I can always respect.

Trade Season

Speaking of the trades that happened this season, why don’t I list the top players that I feel were moved that will most impact the championship race.

1. Glen Sabo

Perhaps this is a biased opinion, but I put Sabo at #1. Obviously, Fox is the more impactful player in general, however I feel that the Nuggets’ roster outside of Sabo is more complete than the Bucks’ outside of Fox, so Sabo can take the Nuggets to a slightly higher level. Sabo is one of the rare dominate two-way players, who can score almost at will but also play defense by locking up the post AND creating more possessions for his offense with his blocked shots. In the playoffs, his size (6’9”) could cause him issues when going up against especially tall front courts, but I anticipate he’ll make the Nuggets an incredibly difficult out.

2. De’Aron Fox

As I’ve already written, Fox could easily be in the #1 position and is the one player in the entire league that can change a team’s fortunes single-handedly. Before him, the Bucks were a playoff team with no real path (beyond mass injury) to a championship run, but everyone must take them seriously now when pairing Fox with Ja Morant.

3. Ernest Long

The Pistons had been playing good defense for most of the season and only added to that by trading for Ernest Long. Perhaps his most important role was allowing Dominick Cobb to transition out of the Power Forward spot and back to his more natural Small Forward position, where he does not have to wear himself down by banging with bigs game after game. Long can defend almost anyone on the block one on one, is 3rd in the the league in blocks, and even has enough on the offensive end to score 18 points per game.

WHAT IF … ?

Here are a few trades, with no explanation that I would have liked to have seen to make the playoff run more interesting!

Boban to the Spurs

Kaleb Wesson to the Lakers

Leonard Washington to the Clippers


MVP

There may be a name or two that are missing from my list here that may surprise some. I find myself not wanting to vote for a player that has been traded during the season, and instead want to reward a player that has stood tall and fully built their team into greatness this season.

1. Quintin Kidd

25.8 PPG – 6.6 REB – 6.0 ASTS – 2.2 STLS

The leading scorer on the best team (as of this writing) in the league. If Fox is the singular most impactful player in the league, Quintin Kidd might be right behind him. The Wizards did not make any big changes in the off-season, keeping intact a 54-win, Conference champion roster, so you know that Kidd is again leading the way. On top of getting to his spot whenever he likes to on the offensive end, Kidd also is an incredibly effective defender, with his specialty being taking the ball away.

2. David Leiker

21.9 PPG – 4.5 REB – 9.9 ASTS – 2.2 STLS

I flip-flopped a few times with this list and could easily talk myself into putting Leiker at #1. Another effective two-way player, but it is certainly Leiker’s ability to run the offense that makes him special and has helped the Heat stay near the top of the Omega standings. Perhaps the most compelling argument for his leading the MVP pack is his astronomical PER of 27.1 (or his .649 TS%).

3. Daniel Yandell

21.3 PPG – 4.4 REB – 10.4 ASTS – 2.9 STLS

Yandell has been the rock of the Spurs’ season. Lewis is the scoring leader, but it is Yandell who has been available every game (Lewis has missed 20 games) while running the offense, scoring consistently (even without 3PT ability), and helping the Spurs to another 50-win season in a year when they were not looked at as a championship favorite by their own management coming into the season.

GM

1. Doug

I’d absolutely hate for Doug to feel like he wasn’t getting enough hugs for his GM’ing skills this season, so I will put him at #1! In all seriousness though, I liked a lot of what Doug managed to pull off this season. The major one is acquiring De’Aron Fox (and getting Grinder for free), but even that deal could not have been possible if not for the pieces he obtained by trading Justin Rodriguez to the 76ers earlier. The Joshua Mitchell acquisition was also a strong one to help fully form his starting 5 for the playoff run.

2. Ryan

In short order, Ryan turned his front court into a strength by grabbing Wanderlei Silva and Glen Sabo, which would be enough to stay near the top of this list alone. While dealing with injuries, he also did not just stand pat and continued to make moves to work through those problems (the Audrey Bynum deal).

3. Josh

I am not sure anyone would have blamed Josh for attempting to teardown when Norris Turney went down for most of the season, considering the looming tax bill at that moment in time and uncertainty if Turney’s loss would mean that he could not make that tax payment worth it by taking him out of title contention. He did not teardown, though he did move Turney for a young scorer. Instead, he made sure to get below the tax apron and has continued to win ball games and (as of 9/22) is leading the Omega conference. Outside of all of that above, he was only in the position to get below the apron by moving Grayson Allen in the off-season and even getting an interesting young prospect in return.

MAMBA’S DEAD WRONG PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS VOL. 3

Since there are already way too many words here as it is, I will be keeping these even shorter and sweeter than last season, but I still wanted to get these out there, so they can be mocked. I am writing this before the brackets are finalized, so I anticipate these to be wrong before they ever start since the standings are so tight in several divisions.


ALPHA

Round One

(1) Washington Wizards – BYE


(2) Orlando Magic vs. (7) Los Angeles Lakers

These two teams have been very close during the regular season, with the Lakers having a slight lead at the moment. It seems that the home team has been winning out, which does not bode well for the Lakers, who have a pretty poor road record on the season. I think it will be more competitive than most 2 vs. 7 series are, but I think I will go with the home team.

Magic, 4-3

(3) Denver Nuggets vs. (6) Milwaukee Bucks

The battle of the two biggest trade season acquisitions. The only disappointment would be that they don’t play the same position so there would be no way of really seeing them go head to head unless Sabo blocks a Fox drive, or Fox posterizes Sabo. Fox makes this series a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise, and we’ve seen Fox take lesser talented teams to some heights but as of right now, I am thinking the difference will be the Nuggets’ front court. The Bucks having Morant and Fox is obviously going to go down swinging, but I do believe that Stoll and Ironside can at least hold their own.

Nuggets, 4-2

(4) San Antonio Spurs vs. (5) Philadelphia 76ers

The 76ers have fared very well against the Spurs this season, who have had injury issues to deal with. At full-strength I would probably give the Spurs the nod, however I do believe that the Spurs will be missing Norrin Radd when the playoffs start and that could make things more difficult. The 76ers are a team on the rise and its possible could still have homecourt in this matchup with 11 games still to play as of today. I guess my heart is still in Texas though because I am still feeling the Spurs moving on because of Yandell and Lewis.

Spurs, 4-3

Round Two

(1) Washington Wizards vs. (4) San Antonio Spurs

I am going with Kidd to win MVP, so I am going with him to also will his team past the Lewis/Yandell duo. It obviously always helps to have two 7 footers backing him up and great defense. They’re number 1 for a reason and I think they will continue to show it here.

Wizards, 4-2

(2) Orlando Magic vs. (3) Denver Nuggets

The Magic are a tough team that plays great defense, but the Nuggets are deeper and more explosive offensively. Game plans can obviously have an impact here, but I will take the team with more talent to overwhelm the better story.

Nuggets, 4-1


Round Three

(1) Washington Wizards vs. (3) Denver Nuggets

This one I find difficult to read. I think the Nuggets are the better team, but I thought that several times last season about teams that the Wizards came up against and yet they defied the odds continuously. Kidd is fantastic and Cucone can make life difficult on any PG in the league. Still, I feel like I’ve gone chalk too many times in these predictions and there will be some upsets. Granted, this might not even be an upset in a season like this one, plus the Nuggets still have a shot to crawl ahead of the Wizards in the standings since they play 3 more times this season.

Nuggets, 4-3

OMEGA

Round One

(1) Chicago Bulls – BYE

(2) Miami Heat vs. (7) Dallas Mavericks
I don’t think this is difficult to pick. The Heat are obviously the better team all around and will prove that here.

Heat, 4-0


(3) Detroit Pistons vs. (6) Minnesota Timberwolves

I have really liked seeing the progress made by Raby’s Wolves these last couple seasons. I think they’re a scrappy bunch and can game plan a win or two out of this, but the Pistons’ payroll sure as hell better have bought enough talent to take out a budding team in the first round. Cobb, Long, Luka will get it done.

Pistons, 4-1

(4) Los Angeles Clippers vs. (5) New Orleans Pelicans

I’m going to be biased and say BDJ gets himself going against one of his former teams! I WIN, YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY, SIR!

Clippers, 4-3

Round Two

(1) Chicago Bulls vs. (4) Los Angeles Clippers

Josh and I have wanted to see how a playoff match-up between us would look for awhile now, especially since I’ve gotten a handle on the game a little bit. Would have been far more interesting if it could have happened a couple seasons ago, but this could be a bit of fun too. I feel like I’m a notch or two below his roster and won’t have an answer for Silky or Barrett and that will be the big difference.

Bulls, 4-2


(2) Miami Heat vs. (3) Detroit Pistons

The monster payrolls battle it out like King Kong vs Godzilla. Leiker vs. Luka! Day vs Night! SON OF KRYPTON VS BAT OF GOTHAM! MARTHA! Sorry, sorry, I just got distracted for a moment. Yeah, I’m going for the team in Detroit. Yeah, sounds good!

Pistons, 4-3

Round Three

(1) Chicago Bulls vs. (3) Detroit Pistons

I have not looked at how the season series went between these two teams. I just know that I am feeling like we are due for some craziness this season based on the how tight the standings are this season. Silky and Barrett can dominate, but I believe Luka and Cobb will have something to say about that. The difference could be young Felicio having a difficult time handling Ernest Long.

Pistons, 4-2

CHAMPIONSHIP

Denver Nuggets vs. Detroit Pistons

Have I gotten to this point just so I can predict another championship for Glen Sabo? Probably. Yes. Definitely. You probably want more analysis than that but, honestly, I am just about tired of writing and I’ll be surprised if any of you are even still reading.

Nuggets, 4-3

QUESTIONS

Now let me take a question from my loyal reader … !

“Interested to know what, as a new GM, you wish you would’ve known right off the bat?”
- Josh The Sim Gawd, from Chicago

The easy answer here would be to say EVERY-DAMN-THING! I remember feeling like I was drowning when first even having the game explained to me. My initial reaction was to turn it down because I felt like I would just be working to catch-up to everyone else the entire time. I can safely say that I am glad that I pushed that to the side and decided to dive in because I have enjoyed my time here to this point. Before I say what I wish I would have known, let me say something that you, Josh, told me right up front that I believe was a big help. You told me that it would probably be best for me to sit back and not engage too much in trades right away, so I could acclimate myself to the nuances of the game. My team was god awful that first season (9 wins), and so it was a positive for me to sit back and just experience the game itself instead of the human interaction that comes with it that make transactions happen. So, thanks for that!

As for what I wish I had a better grasp of right away, I think the primary thing would be to fully understand that you cannot always trust the game’s color rankings. Blues are certainly better to have than Greens in many cases but understanding that there is great variety in those blues is something that is not always easy to decipher until you have really gotten your claws into the game a little bit. Not only does this help with properly filling out your roster, but it really minimizes the likelihood of a GM overpaying for middling free agents just because of the color next to their name. Once learning this, I was able to start looking at players and their potentials/currents more closely to determine how they fit my team’s goals and needs. I am by no means an expert on this even now, but I like to think that I have a better grasp on how to build a winning roster now and this is a big reason why.

AD’S BUZZER BEATER

There was a lot of ground to cover here but I (mostly) enjoyed doing it. I do like to dive into the happenings around the league and perhaps could turn something like this into something more consistent. I would not mind answering more questions next time by cutting some of the rest out. If you wish to comment below to tell me I am crazy, that you agree, or that you would never read all of this in a million years, I welcome it. Good luck to all of you that have made the playoffs (except for whoever my opponent ends up being) and for everyone who did not make it, we’ll try getting this shit done as quick as possible.








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[IamQuailman]

Nice article man! I only read the parts about me, but im sure the rest was good too!

[MexicanMamba]

Nice article man! I only read the parts about me, but im sure the rest was good too!

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[garbageman]

Nice article man! I only read the parts about me, but im sure the rest was good too!

The best part is where he picked Nuggets over Bucks in 6.

[TheSyndicate]

Nice article man! I only read the parts about me, but im sure the rest was good too!

The best part is where he picked Nuggets over Bucks in 6.

Me: I like this part.
Reverse curse me: Awwwww dangit

[NOLa.]

Awesome writeup Mamba really enjoyed reading through it. Loved how there were different topics as it helped keep my interest.

[greepleairport]

To be clear, I read all of it and probably was not the only one. Save that word count for additional pbsl analysis!

[false9]

+10