True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

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True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby wdt92 on Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:56 am

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True to Atlanta ✫ Association Settings

Postby wdt92 on Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:56 am

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INTRODUCTION.
    Hey guys, it's been a while! :lol: So I want to first give credit to a number of places for format ideas. Actually, there's some I may not be able to source because I don't recall which one I got it from. Firstly, a lot of credit goes to spiderxx7 for his format in the Toronto franchise he made a while back, and for his "River Walk Chronicles" story he made back for 2K11. I used a lot of his formatting and sizes of images to fit the forum and they helped me really understand visually how to fit a good visual on the forum size window. Also, a lot of credit goes to Andrew and Phil89 as I used a lot of their stuff as well from their various stories. They have all had great stories in the past, and Phil has one now active. All of these definitely should be looked at eventually!

    On to the important pieces for this story, this will be a full playthrough attempt of the Atlanta Hawks. It will have a lot of different roster moves that the Hawks didn't make in real life that will be revealed in due time as I make my posts from the jump. As well as a lot of interaction on what moves we should make over time, and even league suggestions for trades down the line. Another thing I want to implement is draft player customization by everyone who wants to follow this story. As we go along, I think everyone following can have a player they create in my drafts that we can also follow and track as time goes on. Lastly, as we go along I think we can also implement a Vegas odds system. Where you guys can place wins and losses bets which can be rewarded to a winner down the line. If you have any other ideas to help make this more interactive and fun for everyone, let me know!

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SETTINGS.
    | ✫ Season Length ✫ 82 Games
    | ✫ Team Chemistry ✫ On
    | ✫ Progressive Fatigue ✫ On
    | ✫ Trade Deadline ✫ On
    | ✫ Allow CPU Trades ✫ On
    | ✫ Trade Approval ✫ On
    | ✫ Injuries ✫ On
    | ✫ Playoffs ✫ 7-7-7-7

    | ✫ Automation ✫ Manual

    | ✫ Draft Class ✫ Mostly 2K created (will add a handful of real players and created players you guys create)

    | ✫ SlidersHov's Sliders
    | ✫ Roster ✫ Mostly 2K Base (edits to my team)
    | ✫ Quarter Length ✫ 12 Minutes
    | ✫ Simulation Length ✫ 12 Minutes

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MORE CREDIT.
    | ✫ When available
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True to Atlanta ✫ Team Roster

Postby wdt92 on Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:57 am

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True to Atlanta ✫ Season Schedule

Postby wdt92 on Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:58 am

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2016-17 SEASON SCHEDULE.
    | ✫ 9/2/2016Off-Season Recap | 2016-17 Season.
    | ✫ 10/22/2016Regular Season Preview | 2016-17 Season.
    | ✫ 10/27/2016vs. Washington Wizards | The Wizard's Playoff Revenge Story.
      | ✫ Game High Points: Paul Millsap (15). || Game High Rebounds: Paul Millsap (11). || Game High Assists: Dennis Schroder (8).
    | ✫ 10/29/2016 Outside the Lines | The Dwight Howard Promise.
    | ✫ 10/29/2016 vs. Philadelphia 76ers | Trust the Process.
      | ✫ Game High Points: Dennis Schroder (23). || Game High Rebounds: Paul Millsap (11). || Game High Assists: Dennis Schroder (9).
    | ✫ 10/31/2016 The Herd | Around the League Week 1.
    | ✫ 10/31/2016 Weekly Rewind | Hawks Week 1 Stats.
    | ✫ 10/31/2016vs. Sacramento Kings | The Rookies Take Over.
      | ✫ Game High Points: Paul Millsap (28). || Game High Rebounds: Dwight Howard & Thabo Sefolosha (7). || Game High Assists: Dennis Schroder (10).

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True to Atlanta ✫ Off-Season Recap

Postby wdt92 on Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:59 am

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    ATLANTA -- This NBA Off-Season has been a blast, but alas the time has come and gone. We are now heading into the Preseason and will be facing a whole other list of NBA storylines and narratives to talk about. Before we move on definitively, however, we felt it would be the perfect time to recap the happenings this Off-Season down South in the ATL! So, without further adieu, let's get started!

    This Summer was a really interesting one as the events actually started even before the end of the Finals. As the last game started wrapping up, and LeBron James could begin to smell the blood in the water, the rumors began swirling that the Hawks were going to have an executive power shift. We didn't know exactly what was going to happen, however, the rumors were that current President of Basketball and Head Coach, Mike Budenholzer was going to forgo power and begin his time strictly focusing on his coaching responsibilities. It only made sense, right? Not long after the last buzzer to the 2015-16 season concluded, only a couple of days later, the Atlanta Hawks actually announced a press conference in Atlanta to discuss an upcoming power shift internally. The rumors were coming to fruition, or at least, so we thought.

    It was Vice President of the Board, former Duke and NBA player, Grant Hill who spoke. He was obviously chosen to give the news for his own publicity and gout among the NBA circles. You can't help but trust the vet. Grant then dropped the bombshell out the gate. "I really don't know where media or other outlets got we were looking at changing Coach Budenholzer's position. We are actually looking at expanding it." This was the biggest news for a Hawks fan. Particularly one bitter about the foundation Coach Bud laid out with forgoing the three-point shot in their match-up with the Cavaliers. Grant continued on to give more news to the fans, media, and stockholders. "For those of us in the know, that must be a hard pill to swallow. It is just so much responsibility. Actually, we get compared a lot to the San Antonio model, and I just don't think there is a model that takes on roles as we do. Our entire model is different, and because of that we actually wanted to announce today that despite Mike having the final say in basketball operations, we wanted to announce a triple General Manager role starting immediately. We envision the General Manager position within an organization as a collective role. We see that, for instance, in San Antonio R.C. and Pop actually shares more of the responsibilities of the traditional GM, and we want to have a brain trust, so to speak, to run ours." This was somewhat unheard of. We have seen dual roles in coaching and managing previously in the NBA. The Lakers, for instance, saw this starting out their legendary "Showtime" run when Jerry West and Pat Riley took the mantle as Co-Head Coaches. However, this triangle model for the executive roles within the team is somewhat unorthodox. Skipping some time of the announcement, there was then the announcement of who would be the three Co-GMs for the Hawks. Starting from the top, we will have Mike Budenholzer, who was obvious from Grant's earlier comment, taking more of the role from Wes Wilcox. Grant described Mike's part in the role to be the final say for on-the-court decisions. The next person announced shocked us all, as it was now-former Assistant Warriors' General Manager, Travis Schlenk. His role will be different than Mike's as it appears Travis will be hands-on to most of the day-to-day operation involving structural team building, as well as having the final word on "scouting and drafting decisions." The final name, we assumed had to be Wes Wilcox, and it was. Wes will be handling the day-to-day duties the role requires and focusing on the financial side of the role. This is an interesting decision by the Hawks' top, and we will only have to see how this pays off for the Hawks.

    From that bombshell announcement, the Summer then seemed to very quickly move into the NBA Draft. We heard many reports going in from the Hawks camp on who they like and who they don't. The interesting side from seeing one of the new GMs, Travis Schlenk, is that the rumors regarding who he was looking at weren't really what we expected. For instance, the rumor was that Schlenk liked late first and early second round picks: Taurean Prince and Pascal Siakam far more than highly touted prospects Skal Labessiere, and Wade Baldwin who would be around their twenty-first pick. As we headed into the draft, it was then shocking that the Utah Jazz actually selected Prince with the twelfth pick! The shock fell on the entire league as they couldn't believe the Baylor forward who was projected to go at the twenty-fifth pick would go so high. Moving onto the Hawks' actual pick, however, Atlanta selected at twenty-first and many expected the Hawks to take young forward-guard DeAndre' Bembry from Saint Joseph's, or the highly talked about Skal Labessiere. In a moment that proves sometimes draft rumors are true, Atlanta actually selected the relatively unknown six-foot-nine forward from Cameroon named Pascal Siakam. Consistent ESPN broadcaster and former Duke player, Jay Bilas commented on Siakam: "He is a high energy forward who should provide a great foundation of size and defensive motor off the bench for the Hawks. I think they may have reached on him taking him this early, but he will be a very solid player for them and will be ready for the style that Atlanta has utilized these last few seasons." Many fans were confused by the pick, and some Hawks fans did boo the selection. A very strange one indeed, but it was apparent that the final decision of drafting was that Schlenk wanted Siakam.

    So, it was then the real movement started happening. Only a few days following the draft it was announced all across ESPN that the Hawks decided to part ways with longtime Hawks' point guard, Jeff Teague. In a three-team trade, the Hawks decided to send Teague to the Pacers which saw in return for the Hawks the other player it was reported Schlenk wanted from the draft: Taurean Prince out of Baylor. The other piece of the move actually sent Indiana Pacers guard, George Hill to the Jazz. Moving in an interesting direction, it appeared to many analysis that this direction would begin a more youth movement with the Hawks, going from Teague to new starting point guard, Dennis Schroder. To comment about this, Fox Sports' radio show the Herd had host Colin Cowherd state "It's clear that the Hawks are going in a new direction from the twenty-fifteen Hawks that lost to Cleveland in four games by twenty points. They are moving to a new team that will lose to Cleveland in four games by thirty points." It was also later that week that the Free Agency bomb happened.

    The rumors around the Hawks going into the Free Agency was that Atlanta wanted to keep Horford and run the squad with the young and old mix to develop talent while remaining competitive now. The status quo. It was then that the unbelievable news broke in another Woj bomb. Horford wants a max contract and was offered a max by the Boston Celtics. Now we don't know this for sure, but the reports coming out of Atlanta was that it was Mike Budenholzer who made the decision that Atlanta would be better not spending the max on Horford and letting him walk. In his place, Atlanta spent less money to give the team something they haven't had since an old Moses Malone, an elite rebounding big. Not just any elite rebounding big, but one that also is an elite defender and still has a stake to saying he could be the best big in basketball. The Hawks brought home Atlanta native, Dwight Howard! The shockwaves were huge around the league. ESPN's reporter, Chris Broussard, reported at the time for the channel, "I think he was the best pick-up for Atlanta. There were a lot of reports that after Horford got signed that Atlanta was going to be the primary destination for Howard, and vice-versa. I think it is the best move for both teams though. Atlanta felt they had to make the decision to let Horford walk for the amount of money that Horford was wanting. So, the triple GMs or 'brain trust,' or whatever decided that it would be best to pay less per year for a guy who can offer a different elite level of strength that the team has needed for the last two years. They have been beaten by teams because of their lack of interior defense and rebounding. What is Howard again? An elite defender inside and a great rebounder. I think it was the best move they could have made." Broussard went on to add in another report for ESPN before leaving the channel in the next couple of months, "I think Atlanta will be good, about the same as last year. I don't think that this decision improves them, I just think it evens them out. They are a good team, probably second or third best in the East. I just don't know what they can do to close the gap on Cleveland though."

    The last few moves the Hawks made weren't as exciting, however, they did a great job filling out their roster. They made a trade with Philadelphia sending popular big man, Tiago Splitter, to the 76ers in exchange for stretch forward, Ersan Ilyasova. The last move they made was signing the recently released guard from Spain, Jose Calderon to a veteran's contract as well as giving rehabbing guard Mario Chalmers a contract to prove his abilities haven't diminished as much as projections since his devastating Achilles Tendon tear. Chalmers is expected to return to the court by late October, in time for opening night in the NBA season.

    That is it, guys! This is the up-to-date look on how our Atlanta Hawks got here. What is next will be a roller-coaster ride going through the journey of the 2016-17 season! This has been your Weekly (Off-Season) Rewind!

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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby Andrew on Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:40 am

Love the presentation! Best of luck with it. :)
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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby wdt92 on Fri Jun 21, 2019 12:06 pm

Andrew wrote:Love the presentation! Best of luck with it. :)


Thanks! I am really proud of the designs, so I definitely appreciate the compliment. I am really just glad they achieved their intended effect, and somebody else liked them. I hope you're able to follow along and enjoy the story too! :)

I just posted the off-season rewind, so if people would be interested in seeing it and reading it, I wanted to bump this up as well and bring it to the forefront. I also had other graphics that I made that I won't be able to use in the actual story because it messes with the layout too much. Visually they just don't match, which is a shame. However, I wanted to show this one of Siakam off just because I was really proud of it. :lol:

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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby Andrew on Fri Jun 21, 2019 12:45 pm

Hopefully Siakim turns out much the way he has in real life!
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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby wdt92 on Sat Jun 22, 2019 4:02 am

Andrew wrote:Hopefully Siakim turns out much the way he has in real life!


Truthfully, I think he's pretty set in this position with us this year to develop well. He has a lot of forwards and bigs around to take the load off of him if he has an off game. Particularly with Millsap and Ilyasova in front of him this year and Muscala being a versatile big to play either position. He's just, in my estimation, in a great position to just develop for his rookie season. Toronto, in real life, actually may have thrown him out there too early by starting him and playing him around 20 minutes. With his averages, he was getting around 4 points and 4 rebounds. Then they sent him to the D-League, and it appears then his confidence came back as his game exploded there and started to rise when he played with the team again. Which makes sense. With his experience, he is more akin to the straight out of High School players than College types anyway. Kobe had to have the same type of slow build to really get his game going. In a way, Siakam may have actually had this type of season even earlier if they slowly brought him along instead of jumping the gun on him. Unfortunately, as this is 2K17, we don't have a D-League to develop him more and give him confidence like that. So, I'll just be giving him part of Ilyasova's minutes. I'm looking between 10-15 with Siakam, though I'm sure if he's hot he'll get more. Also because he's the 21st pick and not the lottery, Pascal's expectations won't be ridiculously high. He just has to be there to play.

I'm still finishing up my roster, so I'm going to have the Season Preview in my next post before the first game. I want to also remind you, Andrew, and anyone else who wants to follow, I can add a create a player this year in the draft if you want. The idea would be we can follow him through his stats that 2K gives and then also follow him in the NBA when he gets drafted. Just let me know the name, age, school, a player he's almost like now, and an over/under player comparison that your player's potential can imitate. As we go along I can also keep tabs on that player! :)
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True to Atlanta ✫ Weekly Rewind

Postby wdt92 on Sat Jun 22, 2019 5:19 am

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    ATLANTA -- Welcome to the first official Weekly Rewind of the 2016-17 season! What a crazy Pre-Season for the Hawks, and I don't believe anyone expected Chalmers to play in that last game! He did look a bit rusty, but that is to be expected from missing so much game time from that awful injury. Regardless, it is time to start the preview for the season, and we feel it will be best to walk through our expectations looking position by position then wrap up with our expectation for the team as a whole.

      | ✫ Point Guard: Here is where we have the most question marks this season with the inevitable departure of last year's starting point, Jeff Teague. Last year, Teague averaged 16 points, 6 assists, along with a steal a game per 29 minutes. That is some great numbers that actually remind us of an older Tony Parker. Moving forward, this year will be led by starting point, Dennis Schroder. To be frank, we don't know how well Schroder will do. His averages per 36 minutes last season reflected a decent replacement in comparison to Teague. When looking at those numbers, both men averaged 20 points, 7 and a half assists, and around 1 and a half steals. The numbers remarkably mirror one another. The issue is, however, these numbers are hypothetical. Schroder was a bit erratic through the season last year, and while he had great speed and put up some good performances, he also had other games where he didn't seem able to string together the same competence Teague has developed in his time in Atlanta. Thankfully, the starting role Schroder now has will be supported by two great veteran guards. Starting with who we believe will have more minutes, the returning Mario Chalmers will provide an interesting backup this year. He is a great veteran for any team thanks to his championship experience. He is a still competent shooter, and steady hand at the point. We believe he will provide a good mentorship to Schroder while being able to play a steady 20 minutes a game if need be. Then moving on to the other backup, Jose Calderon, it is quite clear the Spanish phenom has already lost more than a step from his prime days in Toronto. His speed, which once helped him blow past defenders, now has become a severe weakness for the veteran guard. This Pre-Season had Calderon look sluggish at times, but display enough of a steady guard play to at least get around 10 minutes if need be. However, Calderon's strength is his mind. He's definitely a great mentor for Schroder while the young German is able to get better fit in this starting role.

      | ✫ Shooting Guard: This is one of the more sad evaluations for this year when examining this position. Last year, we saw the decline of Kyle Korver as he fell to sub-forty percent shooting from the arc, and at this point in his mid-thirties, his overall game will only go down from here. While Korver will be a great hand shooting the ball, a great veteran to lead the team, we don't believe we will ever see All-Star Korver again. The reality for the Hawks will be the decision to begin pushing up either Tim Hardaway, Jr. or Kent Bazemore to the starting position. Looking at their numbers, however, neither will truly be able to replace Korver's production that helped make the Hawks such an offensive weapon. Looking at these two most likely candidates, we believe we'd give the spot to Bazemore for his defensive capabilities if push came to shove. However, neither looks overall as promising as we'd like. Bazemore and THJ both averaged around 15 points per 36 minutes on average shooting splits. With that in mind, however, one of the forgotten big moves the Hawks did make signed Bazemore to a huge contract. With that in mind, he will need to have an offensive explosion to really earn his recent contract.

      | ✫ Small Forward: Unlike Atlanta's guards, this will be exciting to scout! Taurean Prince is a very exciting prospect for the Hawks, especially from hearing one of Atlanta's new General Managing trio speak so highly of him. To quote that certain GM, Wes Wilcox, had this to say "He is a great talent. Bud, Travis, and I all were in agreement about the guy. He can defend well at his position and can even defend bigger players for small enough stretches. Offensively, he's not going to try and dominate the ball, he shoots good shots and is a great character guy. At the end of the day, that is what we looked at with him and made him a very appealing offer for Jeff." After this year's Summer League we saw more of Prince which has us curious about him. He had a great form, but actually only shot 25% from the arc. It may just have been nerves, so we will give him a pass. Moving on to the other forwards, this year will also see veteran Thabo Sefolosha. What can we say about this guy? He is the perfect vet for what it appears Atlanta wants Prince to be in the future. He's a great defender, and good shooter, and is very much a willing mentor for young players. We're excited to see how he produces this year as it appears that the starting forward position will be his or Bazemore's depending on who starts at Atlanta's Two-Guard.

      | ✫ Power Forward: This will be unlike any other position for the Hawks this year. It is the most exciting yet most curious position for the Hawks. This year will be Atlanta's team captain Paul Millsap's contract year. The rumors around the league regarding him will be he will ask for a high sum to compensate his extraordinary play these past few seasons. While the contract is definitely well deserved and earned, we don't know if Atlanta will match. This season, regarding Millsap, appears to be a season with the line drawn in the sand. If the Hawks does above expectations, we can see them going for Millsap to bring him back. However, if the Hawks perform below expectations, we definitely can see him being allowed to go to "greener pastures." Moving down the list, the next hot point for the Hawks will be how rookie Pascal Siakam is able to adapt to the NBA game. From what we know about Siakam, he just started playing around age 17. However, from what scouts have said, and what Grantland reported about the youngster, it appears he was mentored by NBA veteran Luc Mbah a Moute before going to New Mexico State. Mbah a Moute is definitely a great veteran to have, so we will be keeping a close eye on Siakam to see what the young man can do. Of course, here in Atlanta, he also will be surrounded by veterans at his position, with Millsap being there helping to provide advice for the young man. The other big aspect added this year is sharpshooting big, Ersan Ilyasova, who have acquired this off-season via a trade. While obviously not specifically just a specialist, we do expect Ilyasova to provide more shooting depth to the position and gives us a great backup for Millsap. Truthfully, with how Atlanta will often go small, we wouldn't be surprised if Coach Mike Budenholzer has Millsap and Ersan playing together some to attack mismatches.

      | ✫ Center: The last position, with the fewest question marks. Newest acquired big, Dwight Howard, is locked in the long term to this team. We know what Dwight is, all we will have to see is how the team can play with him vs. how they executed with the departing team captain, Al Horford. He provides a great defensive role and will have, what we expect, to be a bounce-back season from his last year in Houston. Backing up Dwight will be another stretch big Mike Muscala who has developed even more this season. Seeing him this pre-season, he appears to have become an even better passer. This will obviously help with lobs and offensive schemes with Howard himself if they play together. This all could change depending on the development of 7'3" big, Walter Tavares. The big man had a predictable Pre-Season, but we do hope the young Center can develop over the course of the year. The other most likely big to play the 5 for the Hawks will be Kris Humphries. The veteran has definitely slowed down from his days in Brooklyn, but his rebounding is still good, and we expect to see good quality minutes out of him.

    From the breakdown, it is clear Atlanta has ushered in a new era from last year's Hawks. Despite the team having 9 returning players from last year's squad, the team's entire focus will have to shift from the departure of their engine Jeff Teague and former captain, Al Horford. We know from experience in the last three seasons, that Head Coach Mike Budenholzer loves ball movement and spacing, however with the addition of Dwight and starting role of Schroder (who has played in an isolation ball-handling role off the bench), we don't know how this new squad will operate out of the gate. Then with this year being the contract year of Paul Millsap, we expect there to be a turnaround this year. Either the team will have a resurgence, returning back to the team's glory of the 2014-15 season, or the team will begin the rebuild by the trade deadline. We don't expect the Hawks, with so many pieces up in the air, to stay on track in the middle. So our expectations this year? We see the Hawks returning once again to the Playoffs, however, what seed? What will look like when they get there? Only time will tell.

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True to Atlanta ✫ S01G01

Postby wdt92 on Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:53 pm

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Preview | Recap | Game Information | Play-by-Play | Boxscores (ATLWAS)

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THE WIZARDS' PLAYOFF REVENGE STORY.
    ATLANTA -- In a story that can usually only be written in a fairy tale, the Washington Wizards defeats the team that knocked them out last year from the Playoffs. That alone would be a sweet victory, but before the game, it was revealed by Washington's Point Guard, John Wall, that he personally paid for tickets to have his family (most importantly his mom) come see the game. Wall stated before the game, "Tonight will be a big game. There's no, 'this is just regular season' nonsense. Tonight, I'm putting it out there to show those guys I'm not the same guy from last year that they beat. They knocked us out, and it hurt a lot. I thought about it all Summer. I thought about it during every shot I took this Summer. Tonight, we want this win on their floor. I even brought my mom here to watch this one. So the pressure is definitely on for me to be the best I can be. I want to make sure we pull this one out."

    Wall definitely delivered tonight as he finished the game having 21 points, 8 assists, and 1 steal. While his percentage of the land behind the arc was sub-par, his total percentage wasn't terrible from the floor shooting 43%. For the advanced statistics fans, Wall's efficiency was actually at a good 18, but lower than his previous season with a finished efficiency of 23.5 that had him towards the upper percentile of the league. Player of the game honors has to go to Wall's backcourt mate though, as Bradley Beal balled out from the opening tip. He had the hot hand draining threes shooting 50% hitting 7 of his attempts from the arc. Then added, Beal dominated driving to the basket as well for a few floaters and one layup that we still aren't sure how it got around new Atlanta center, Dwight Howard. Beal finished tonight with a pretty elite Efficiency rating of 25, which really helps put a single number on how much Beal dominated tonight's boxscore.

    For the opposing Hawks, tonight was just a bizarre and bad night from the jump. Starting with some obvious oddities, Kyle Korver only played minutes after the half. He only got a good 10-12 minutes. When later asked about Korver specifically, Coach Mike Budenholzer responded: "I don't think anyone knows this about Kyle, but they should. He's a team guy. One of the most respectful team first guys I've ever had the pleasure to coach. He offered his playing time tonight to help Kent, Thabo, Taurean, Tim, help all of those guys get involved in our schemes and to get used to bigger roles in our offense. Kyle gave his time to give them a half to learn the schemes because he realizes how important everyone will be down the stretch. That's the type of character he has, and that is just rare to see in competitive professional athletics." While this is probably true, we also assume Coach Bud used his defensive first players to try and match against Beal and Wall. Then when looking at the statistics of who did play, Dennis Schroder had a terrible performance for his first game as a starter. Paul Millsap just looked sluggish. Dwight Howard looked just as passive as he did with the Rockets. It looked tonight like these guys didn't know how to play with one another, or did not want to offend each other by dominating this offense. One positive for the Hawks though was the standout performance by rookie Pascal Siakam. Siakam dominated garbage time as he finished the game with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and he even shot and hit a 3! The guy is a stud - against Washington's 3rd string. However, it is still a great positive moving forward for Atlanta. Coach Bud did have this to say after the game about the loss: "It was a rough game from the start. Those guys deserve all the respect in the world, Wall was mouthing things all night to us, and you can see that competitive spirit in him. Beal as well. Those two guys were unstoppable tonight. We tip our hats to them. Moving forward though, it helped us grow. Our young guys got minutes, and rotationally we learned a lot from tonight's game. We learned more about what will work and what won't, and we got to see a lot of positives even in this bad start."

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True to Atlanta ✫ Writer's Corner

Postby wdt92 on Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:19 am

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    So, I had this idea for an out of character update style blog to help organize replies to everyone and to make it easier for me to express what I'm feeling through the story. I didn't know exactly how I wanted to do it, but I knew I wanted to do it. Especially after I wrote the Off-Season Recap article (more on that in a moment).

      | ✫ First and foremost, I wanted to thank Andrew for replying so far. It has been awesome to have someone else interested in what I've been doing. I appreciate that a lot, especially because I used some of your early content ideas with my game recaps and how I was writing articles. I gave you credit already in my introduction, but just so other readers can get some ideas for their own stories while reading some really good stories, there is a lot of good stuff from your Bulls '06 story and your Bulls '08 one (I believe). I read a few of them so I can't distinctly remember which one had the same style. I liked that style a lot, so I appreciate that you're taking the time to read through and reply to what I've written so far. I'm hoping that as we go along, you can critique and help format more if you have the time.

      | ✫ This leads into the Off-Season Recap article I referenced, and I actually really don't like the style I've been writing with. It hasn't been super fun to write and re-reading them I think my take on the article based style has been really boring to read. I think they have gotten better since that Off-Season one (which I think was way too long), but they are all still kind of dull and lifeless feeling to me despite shortening length as I go and trying to add some ideas to it. Also, I keep making mistakes doing them. I forget to add something because of the time it takes for me to write them. Which is obviously the worst combination of things you can have while doing this. The other thing is because of how much effort it takes to write them for me, I actually get more burnt out and more down if there aren't replies. Obviously, also this is the opposite result that you want while writing these stories. So, I am going to be attempting another style in my next write up and I'm hoping this one will be more fun for me to write as well as help with me not caring as much if people see it or not because it is more fun to create. The formatting is going to be very similar for the new style to this one. I really enjoyed making the graphics and working the format for the forum, but the content will be dramatically different. While I really enjoy reading article based stories, I just think I'm not good at them. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on that.

      | ✫ Finally, I wanted to leave a question for you guys. Because I may be trying new styles as I go, do you think I should change my Season Schedule post to be date-centric and broken only by Season? So, right now it is broken up by "show titles" like the Game Recap, Weekly Rewind, Off-Season Recap. What I am suggesting is making it Season 1, Season 2, etc. and having the posts underneath just based on the date they occurred in the story. I wasn't sure which one would be easier to follow for a reader however, so let me know what you guys think! Thanks!
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True to Atlanta ✫ Outside the Lines

Postby wdt92 on Sun Jun 23, 2019 3:29 pm

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    It is 6 AM, the sun just barely gleaming into the car window as I drive to our allotted shootaround in the 76ers' training facility. Of course, the 76ers wanted to arrange us the earliest time slot for our walkthrough and practice before tonight's game, while they got the later time, but it is to be expected from a competitive team despite the reputation they've built up as a full-on tank. I've seen footage of Embiid and Simmons lately, those guys are going to be wanting wins very soon. It seems they are looking for some already this season. Thankfully, for our practice, Coach Brown and Coach Pierce were ultimately courteous in our conversations about how much of the facility we can use during our time. While the NBA rules are rules, however, they technically don't have to allow us full access to everything. It was a nice gesture from a high-class group of guys.

    As I arrive at the arena, expecting to be the first one there to set up a solid gameplan for tonight's game when I notice a rental car already sitting in the parking lot. I don't think too much of it as I get out of my car assuming it must be part of the 76ers cleaning staff. Walking through the door of the facility, however, I am pleasantly surprised to see Dwight already on the court with one of our trainers, William Montgomery. The big man is already in a sweat as he is putting up free throws. I casually walk over to him as he just now notices me.

      Dwight Howard: "Good morning, Coach!"

    Dwight was as cheerful as ever. We've had a day to come back up from our embarrassing home loss against Washington, and it appears Dwight is keeping to his word. He is maintaining exactly what he said in practice yesterday. "When I signed here, I promised not only Coach Bud, but all of you that I would be dominant. I would dominate from the moment I got to pre-season to the end of wherever we get. While I got boards, I didn't dominate the paint as I should. I wasn't what I promised last night. I want to be clear, I won't let that happen again. I will be the most dominant man from now on. On the court, I'll be here. I let you guys down, but it won't happen again."

      Mike Budenholzer: "Good morning, Dwight - Will. Dwight, do you got a second?"

      Dwight Howard: "Sure Coach, what do you need?"

      Mike Budenholzer: "I just wanted to say how encouraging it is to see you here keeping your word. I don't think tonight Joel will know what hit him."

      Dwight Howard: "Thanks Coach! I appreciate that!

    Dwight, of course, has the biggest smile as I put my fist out, and Dwight bumps it. As I'm walking away to the office leaving Dwight to his early morning practice. Slumping down in the chair, I begin writing my gameplan.

    We know they're going to be hyper-focused on feeding Joel the ball, and with Simmons out all season, I think it's going to be a one-dimensional offense through the post while Embiid is out there. Thankfully, with Dwight, I don't believe we will have as many issues defensively. Their guards aren't terrifying either with our ability to switch defenders if need be. Thabo and Kent provide great flexibility on that front. Tonight, I also think I'm going to have to start Kyle. He's our savvy veteran leader, and he's going to be a necessary shooter to give us upside from three. Despite his generosity, in hindsight, it was a bad idea to start both Kent and Thabo together. Their shooting, while good, doesn't scare the defense enough, and they frontloaded Paul. Tonight that will be a different story with Kyle out there. Finally, with Dennis, I am going to have to run more action off the nails. Especially with Paul. Dennis' speed is so deadly, but I think with the freedom I gave him against Washington, he let his ego slip in to try and outrun Wall in fastbreaks leading to too many turnovers.

Next Game: vs. Philadelphia 76ers

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True to Atlanta ✫ S01G02

Postby wdt92 on Sun Jun 23, 2019 5:40 pm

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Preview | Video | Game Information | Play-by-Play | Boxscores (ATLPHI)

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JOEL EMBIID SAYS "TRUST THE PROCESS."
    The clip begins with Embiid already sitting the 76ers locker room with reporters already standing by next to him, surrounding him with phones and microphones to capture his thoughts. It's quite clear to us, as the viewing audience, the interview questions have already begun, and we are in the middle of the segment. Beginning a few seconds later, the first audible reporter begins her questioning.

      Female Reporter: "Tonight, Joel you guys dominated them from the very start. You, in particular, seemed to be on a mission tonight to send a message with your 'twenty-twenty' game. What message were you trying to send tonight?"

      Joel Embiid: "Trust the process."

    Everyone in the room laughs as Joel continues his thought.

      Joel Embiid: "I think that Dwight was trying to play me one-on-one, and that just didn't work. He learned tonight rookie or not, I don't want to be disrespected with that. As a whole, they then tried fronting me with smaller guys like Pascal and Millsap."

      Male Reporter: "This being the first time seeing Dwight, what did you think of him?"

      Joel Embiid: "He tries to catch you off guard a lot, I think. He likes to joke then wants to use his size to bully you. I am just bigger so when he learned that didn't work he tries to get quick. I think I'm just faster too. So, against me, he just had a tough time. He's a good player though, defensively he's very good."

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Coach's Thoughts
    The reporter is already there waiting for me as I walk out of the locker room with the message to the team. This has been a rough start for us and rightfully I took the blame in front of the guys. Not to say some guys can't play better, but a lot of the loss was from my poor gameplan on Joel. I'm glad we didn't panic, but next game we're going to have to get the win. For now, though, it's media time.

      Andre Aldridge: "Are you ready, Coach?"

      Mike Budenholzer: "As ready as you can get for these things."

    I say with a smile as the cameraman begins the shot.

      Andre Aldridge: "Thanks, Jerome and Mike! I am joined here with Coach Bud on Hawks Live after tonight's game. Coach, what do you think went wrong?"

      Mike Budenholzer: "You know, tonight was a tough loss for us. Before I answer your question, first, I want to congratulate Coach Brown and his staff on a well-earned win. They truly are a class organization over there. The players also, obviously, played very hard and worked to get the ball in tough spots. I know this will be said a lot in the next number of years, but Joel Embiid is a special player. They have a walking monster in the post, and his ability to stretch the floor is utilized very well in Coach Brown's schemes. Timothe did very well for them as well catching us off guard with quick threes from big men show screens that they pull. Those actions in general actually showcase how good their schemes were as they led to a few open looks at the basket for Joel and Holmes. I think a combination of that and just some poor schemes on my part hurt us down the stretch. Rotation wise, I think we had a solid gameplan to rotate in defensive minded players with a mix of offensive focused guys. I think Tim, Pascal, Paul, and Dennis all, in particular, played excellent games for us. I think just looking at our end, defensively we lost sight of some fundamentals. We had lapses in judgment at times. Then part of the fault has to go to the gameplan we laid out there. I take the blame for that. Next game we will all have to be better."

      Andre Aldridge: "Thank you, Coach! Back to you guys in the studio!"


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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby Phil89 on Sun Jun 23, 2019 6:07 pm

Atlanta are an interesting team choice. Do you plan on keeping this veteran group together or following what the Hawks did in real life?

I agree with you about writing articles. I always have trouble staying focussed when I'm doing them and it always takes me ages to finish them.

Unlucky start to the season. Embiid is a beast and hard to contain at the best of times. You'll bounce back (Y)
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True to Atlanta ✫ Writer's Corner

Postby wdt92 on Sun Jun 23, 2019 10:27 pm

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    Phil89 wrote:Atlanta are an interesting team choice. Do you plan on keeping this veteran group together or following what the Hawks did in real life?

    I agree with you about writing articles. I always have trouble staying focussed when I'm doing them and it always takes me ages to finish them.

    Unlucky start to the season. Embiid is a beast and hard to contain at the best of times. You'll bounce back (Y)


    Yeah, surprisingly he was actually most effective stopping Dwight. Even though Joel scored 50% on 18 shots, I don't think he exploded offensively. However, Dwight couldn't really go after the boards as he wanted because of Embiid. Embiid really did beat him to so many loose balls, or just grabbing it straight up off the glass. It does concern me a little with that being a major part of Dwight's calling card at this juncture of Dwight's career, however, it is only one game. I'm hoping Dwight will soon turn around his lackluster to average performances. He seems to be due for a pretty good game after these two.

    I'm not sure if you can call the two losses unlucky. It was mostly my playcalling and schemes that beat me. I haven't figured out yet how to get the best out of my squad. Believe it or not, I actually have had Korver not be a negative on defense, and Millsap and Pascal are holding people to around 41% and 31% respectively. However, Thabo and Prince are having people shoot over 50% on them. I'm just needing to find a better balance to not get killed by bigs or by perimeter players. Then offensively it is just a nightmare right now. I'll be posting stats in my next post for a recap of the week, but man oh man. I have one player shooting 19% right now from the floor and another player shooting 8% from three. :o

    It is funny you bring that question up regarding direction of the team as that was going to be something I was going to bring up a little further along into the story as we head through November. So that's definitely an excellent question! I'll just talk about it now since you asked.

      | ✫ For our core vets, I think it really depends on how this season goes with which direction we go in. Paul Millsap, for instance, will be out the door for anything less than a championship. Not because I don't like Paul, but it is because of his demanded contract. In free agency, he always looks around $20-24 million, and for us, we can't afford that for a declining player in his 30s since we really don't have an identity. Now, if we trade him this season or let him walk/have a sign and trade during the offseason, really depends on how we do going into December. If we can't turn around from the slow start, I think we'll have to ship Paul and probably Kyle Korver to winning teams to get them a good shot at a 'chip. I think realistically that would be the best move due to how important both guys were for the 2015 run. Longterm in that scenario, I'd probably resign both as soon as I can to be aged vets, though. :lol:

      | ✫ For Dwight it is a harder call. If we don't turn this around I don't know if I can get rid of his contract without giving up a pick of some sort. I'm not sure if I want to do that. If we do have to rebuild sooner, I actually want to build assets for particularly the 2018 draft, so giving up an asset to get rid of his contract isn't as appealing to me. He's rated really well in MyLeague, however, he's obviously slowing down physically. When looking at contracts there's only a few that could help us get a good enough return and make sense. So, I'm not sure if we won't just have to hold on to him until his contract expires. I'll definitely be trying to shop him, but he's one I am thinking will have to ride the sinking ship.

      | ✫ For the other vets like Ilyasova and Thabo, I think they will have to go after this year regardless of what happens. I actually will probably have to trade them pretty soon if these last two games' trend continues. So this is a little bit of a spoiler for my next post, but Prince and Pascal are developing far quicker than I expected. Their statistics are looking really good for the minutes I've been giving them. Prince is getting a short end of the stick as far as minutes and he is producing really well so he will be getting more from Thabo's minutes. Also, Walter "Edy" Tavares has looked really good so far this season for limited minutes. I want to get him more minutes. Since Ilyasova wasn't playing well, last game I played Tavares as a test again and he earned around 9 minutes. So for him anywhere from 9 to 14 is about where I am thinking if he continues the trend. So, Ilyasova and Thabo have been so far clogging my rotation for players who have been producing more. I'm going to give the two vets more time, but as of right now they look to soon be my first trade pieces and non-hypotheticals.

    Hope that answers your question! I appreciate you taking the time to read through and reply! It definitely means a lot. :)
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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby RMJH4 on Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:01 am

I really wanted Dwight to have a bounce-back season with Atlanta. Hopefully he can turn it around. I always run pick and rolls with him, just habit from being a Magic fan over the years, Nelson, Howard pick and roll and throw it out to shooters. Millsap fits so well with him. I forgot how good this roster was, they had such a disappointing season IRL. Nice layout BTW.
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True to Atlanta ✫ Around the League

Postby wdt92 on Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:10 pm

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    As the video clip starts, the camera begins zooming in on the Herd set. Host, Colin Cowherd can be seen on the right side of the wide-angle behind his desk located next to a giant couch and cohost Kristine Leahy can be seen in the wide shot to the far left. While the camera is zooming in on Colin's portion of the stage, the host begins to speak.

      Colin Cowherd: "Welcome back to the Herd. It's Monday morning and the first NBA week has passed. So, you know, I'm really excited to be able to invite my next guest to talk about this past week. He is a man who I've known for years and is up there with the great NBA insiders, even despite his opinion on the current Warrior Dynasty being a process. You can come on the set, Chris. Welcome back to the show new Fox Sports employee, Chris Broussard!"

    Fox Sport's NBA Analyst Chris Broussard can now be seen entering the camera's view as he walks towards the couch to take a seat.

      Colin Cowherd: "Great that you can make it to the show! Can we still call you a new Fox Sport's employee? It's been a couple of weeks. How have you been fitting in?"

      Chris Broussard: "It's always my pleasure to be able to be on, Colin and Kristine. Yeah, I think I'm still relatively new to the brand so I think it's fine to talk about. It feels great, I've been on your show a few times now and Skip and Shannon's over on their brand to talk about, of course, LeBron."

      Kristine Leahy: "Oh, Skip's favorite player, right?"

    Both Colin and Chris laugh in response.

      Colin Cowherd: "Oh yeah, Skip just loves LeBron James! Well, I mentioned earlier the Warriors, and I want to hear your take on this thought with the Warriors I had last night. I don't believe it to be a hot take, but let's see. After watching their first few games this season, I think they're having a hard time adjusting. Let's go to game one of the year, the big game everyone was expecting to see. Spurs vs. Warriors. Steph puts up forty-five on twenty-eight shots. We will get to the Spurs in that game in a moment. KD takes eleven and scores twenty-two. They win the game, but Steph dominated the ball. Next game, they play the Pelicans. KD puts up thirty-two! It was an impressive performance but on twenty-three shots. Steph, he gets twenty on, and say it with me, eleven shots. They win the game, but KD dominated the ball. Then we get to KD's disappearance game against the Suns. The three-for-thirteen game. The high scorer that game? Draymond Green. Which, by the way, he and Klay Thompson before Klay's finger fracture took him out after the Spurs game has been only getting around eight-to-twelve shots each! They've been getting the ball around the same amount as JaVale McGee! Now you may notice a few things here, but to get to my point: The Warriors do not have an identity. What do you think, Chris?"

      Chris Broussard: "Well, I definitely see your point, but I think the phrase does not have an identity is a bit strong and much. Look, there's no doubt the Warriors will be feeling each other out all season. I think the Kevin Durant addition is interesting though because my perspective on those first two games is a little different. The Suns game was an anomaly because I don't think you will have many more games where both Steph and KD are shooting subpar like that and the calls were kind of questionable. KD and Steph combined went to the free throw line only twice. So, I don't see that being a trend. However, the Warriors the first two games actually should be quite happy with the result. You brought up Steph taking over against the Spurs' onslaught, which man, I know you want to get to it sooner, but Kawhi is a beast! He had forty-four points and forced KD to keep passing the ball out of tight spots."

      Colin Cowherd: "He really is."

      Chris Broussard: "Anyway, Steph takes over against the Spurs and how did KD respond? He was happy, right? Then against the Pelicans, despite DeMarcus Cousins putting up twenty-eight and thirteen on them, KD's thirty-two resulted in Steph jumping in Kevin's arms, right? I actually am more concerned with the Warriors' defense. Cousins had twenty-eight against them, Kawhi had forty-four on a great percentage while defending Kevin Durant. I think a narrative is forming there to be a chink in their armor. Defensively they seem weak so far. However, it's still only three games in, so we won't know for sure until probably ten or twenty down the line."

      Colin Cowherd: "So, what you're saying is they don't have an identity. Well-"

    Both Cowherd and Broussard laugh as Colin continues.

      Colin Cowherd: "Switching gears, let's move on to the San Antonio Spurs. Now beginning the season, all we heard was how the Spurs would be the most dominant team in the West not named the Warriors. They are in fact as of this morning, two-and-two. Now, Kawhi is playing great as we mentioned earlier. He is averaging twenty-nine points a game. However, his next guy, Tony Parker? He only has what? Thirteen. LaMarcus has ten points. Danny Green has ten points. Are these guys short on help?"

      Chris Broussard: "You know, some executives around the league definitely think they are. I spoke to one anonymous executive in particular who said this year would be the Kawhi Leonard show. At the time, I was very doubtful, but at this point, he does look spot-on. However, in my opinion, I think LaMarcus will pick it up to his usual fifteen plus points to twenty points a game. I don't think Coach Pop and R.C. are really panicking just yet. It's just not in their nature."

      Colin Cowherd: "How about the Pelicans, we mentioned them earlier. DeMarcus Cousins is actually paying off in his production. However, and we talked about it on this show after they lost to the Warriors, but I think he is getting in the way of Anthony Davis. Right now the Pelicans sit one-and-two. Your thoughts?"

      Chris Broussard: "DeMarcus is playing great! Twenty-seven points and thirteen rebounds is making the Buddy Hield trade look even more lopsided. He's definitely playing to remind the Kings what they let go. However, I think it's another situation like the Warriors where Anthony Davis is happy he's just getting help man. AD right now is averaging eighteen points, thirteen rebounds, and three blocks a game! Not to mention, he has a steal a game as well playing center often when DeMarcus sits! These guys are fine so far. The reason I think they're losing is from lack of talent around them. You have Jrue Holiday only putting up eleven and six? That won't get it done, especially on only forty-three percent shooting."

      Colin Cowherd: "Before we move to the East, is there a team in the West right now that you think is a can't miss? I hear a lot of people high on OKC right now with them being three-and-oh. I, however, don't like Westbrook's empty stats, he's so far stolen rebounds from his teammates! Personally, I'm more impressed with Denver. They're two-and-oh, and this Joe-kich kid is amazing! He passes like a guard, and he averages twenty-two!"

      Chris Broussard: "What?! You don't like OKC? How aren't you enjoying them this year? Look, I like Jokic, but Rus has been on fire this season! I know you're a semi-stats guy, so let's run it down. Thirty-five points lead the league in that category. He's shooting fifty-three percent from the floor, and his Achilles heel? Shooting? He's shooting right now forty-seven percent from three taking six-a-game! He's not just scoring dominantly either, he's right now tenth in rebounds. Not on his team, or just among guards, he's tenth in the league! He's less than one full rebound away from being tied with Anthony Davis. Stealing rebounds or not, I don't recall, and I love him, but I don't recall Steven Adams averaging around twelve to thirteen rebounds a game. Then he is out assisting Chris Paul's twelve assists a game by a full three-point-seven assist! This guy is unreal. Defensively, he's got it. He has two steals and almost a block a game. I think those people who picked him for MVP this year look ridiculously smart right now. This is also coming from someone who didn't pick him this year, I thought LeBron would take it!"

      Colin Cowherd: "I agree that his stats on paper look great, but I just think they're empty. They've played the Lakers, the Sixers, and the Suns. While the Suns beat the Warriors due to their off-night and bad chemistry, in my opinion, I don't see any of those teams as above five-hundred. I think until Rus and OKC can do that against a championship contender, I think all of it just fluff. Curtain dressing for a dusty old house who doesn't have KD."

      Kristine Leahy: "This is what I've had to put up with, Chris."

      Chris Broussard: "Well I think that is fair to be fair with Colin, but I think, Colin, you also may find you're sleeping on Rus."

      Colin Cowherd: "Maybe, but I doubt it. I think I'm as the kids are saying, very woke."

    Everyone laughs, but particularly Kristine does as she interjects.

      Kristine Leahy: "I think that phrase just made you sound even older."

      Colin Cowherd: "Definitely did! Moving on to the East! How do you like Milwaukee so far? They're three-and-oh, as we speak right now."

      Chris Broussard: "I like them, but I don't love them. I think Giannis and Middleton are very interesting as a tandem, right now with them getting around eighteen to nineteen points, the scoring load has been balanced. I think the Greek Freak has so much potential, but they're right now a mid-level Eastern Conference team to me from what I've seen."

      Colin Cowherd: "I feel the same way, buddy. Now we don't have too much time, so we can waste our time together talking about the oh-and-two Hawks or the one-and-one Raptors who are supposed to be challenging the East, but I think we'd be wasting our time. In a few words, those teams look done."

      Chris Broussard: "Well, the Hawks look aged definitely. I really like some of their young guys though. That Pascal Siakam kid really is impressing me. He's got eleven, six, and three assists as a rookie big. He's also shooting the ball around sixty-five percent. The Raptors look slow so far, that I agree. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they turnaround soon."

      Colin Cowherd: "Right now, there look to be only the Cavs who look like they can challenge the West. The Bulls are undefeated so far, but they don't have shooting. Offensively they're bottom of the league looking eye-to-eye with the Hawks and Raptors. Pacers and Celtics? They're slow and inconsistent. Two-and-one, but have boring lulls in the third. Now the Wizards on the other-hand? They are undefeated, they have great defense and offense so far, but who have they beat? The Hawks and the Grizzlies. No one. The Heat? No Chris Bosh. Out with horrific blood-clots. The Sixers? No Ben Simmons. Fractured foot. I see LeBron going back in a cakewalk. What are your thoughts?"

      Chris Broussard: "Right now, I'd say that you're about right. I like Washington so far, I think Beal and Wall have figured it out with both guys averaging around twenty points. Porter also looks great with his fifteen! However, I still have questions about the rest of their squad. I don't know how they will do under pressure, because that is really all that is left to answer about them. The Bulls are interesting, but I agree with you, I have big concerns about their shooting. The Pacers and Celtics I think have a shot, but they're really dependent only on one offensive weapon each. Paul George and Isaiah Thomas. I don't know if that will get it done against the Cavaliers. I think the Cavaliers are the clearcut best team in the East right now. Even looking at their averages: twenty-eight for LeBron, twenty-six for Irving, twenty-one for Love. I don't think they could have drawn it out better for them."

      Colin Cowherd: "With our last take before we have to go, do you think they can repeat? Kristine can tell you, but I actually have them winning again."

      Chris Broussard: "I think they can, but man, that's a lot of fire-power out West. Think about it, if you're right with your don't have an identity take and this can get even better over there, I think the whole league is in trouble."

      Colin Cowherd: "Well, now, I think your time is in trouble. I now have to kick you off the show for that take! Thanks for being on, buddy!"

      Chris Broussard: "My pleasure."

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True to Atlanta ✫ Weekly Rewind

Postby wdt92 on Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:48 pm

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True to Atlanta ✫ Writer's Corner

Postby wdt92 on Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:11 pm

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    seaboh13 wrote:I really wanted Dwight to have a bounce-back season with Atlanta. Hopefully he can turn it around. I always run pick and rolls with him, just habit from being a Magic fan over the years, Nelson, Howard pick and roll and throw it out to shooters. Millsap fits so well with him. I forgot how good this roster was, they had such a disappointing season IRL. Nice layout BTW.


    I think Dwight will bounce back fine on an individual level in the game. I was there with you though in real life as far as the roster. When he signed, the team looked really good on paper. He fit really well from a skills perspective, and Paul is an ideal forward to play off of Dwight like you pointed out. With all things considered, I'm in the few that think Dwight's addition improved the Hawks as a whole from their 2016 campaign. Even though they did worse in the final standings, I think chemistry hurt them more than talent. Also, the rest of the East improved around them which soon just pushed them to be a mid-level team. Boston's addition of Horford fit them better in real life than Horford fit the Hawks. Raptors getting Ibaka helped them a lot. Cleveland was running through the league as Kyrie improved. It was just a bad situation for Atlanta. They just had to rebuild at that point.

    Getting back to Dwight, in our world here, if you look at Dwight's stats he isn't playing terrible. Just right below average. He is mostly losing out points at the line. He has not hit a free throw out of the two games I played. 0 for 3.5 a game. So that should boost his points total to around 12.5 which is about where he should be. I also expect him to be able to do so, as he will more than likely get more attempts at the line. Rebounding he has had some bad match-ups for him. Washington actually seemed to gameplan around Dwight's rebounding as through that game they had Gortat and Morris fly to the paint to block him out. I was kind of surprised as I had not seen 2K do that previously, even in my attempts with Atlanta. Made me pretty happy with my slider set. :lol: Then Joel just dominated him. Dwight just couldn't overcome Joel's size advantage. I expect the next couple of games (vs. Kings, and vs. LAL) for him and the team to perform better.

    Funny you bring up the pick and roll because that is our focal offense right now. Pick and rolls with all of our bigs, Paul Millsap post-ups, and quick 4 out 1 in passes. Dwight typically does well with it outside of the stats, because he actually draws a weakside defender as well leaving open shooters. Sadly, only a handful of guys have really taken advantage of him in that capacity. Mostly it has been Sefolosha or Baze who's been left, and they've missed that shot more times than I'd like for them. Ilyasova has been the worst in that capacity. I'm not sure he knows what the bucket looks like at this point.
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True to Atlanta ✫ S01G03

Postby wdt92 on Mon Jun 24, 2019 11:34 pm

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THE ROOKIES TAKE OVER
    I can't believe it. Man, what a performance by that kid. The whistle blows as he goes for the block on Collison, but has his body have incidental contact. The refs, of course, call it though as the kid is a rookie and Collison is the vet. Pascal apologizes to me as he passes. I pat the back of his head and tell him he did amazing. He truly did. The home crowd that is left began chanting "You are awesome" at him as he sat down. That is the image I wish this game could end on because he earned it. I don't want to tell him that he saved us, because I don't want him to develop an ego once he realizes how good he really is. However, he did save us. Travis was right about him when Travis told Wes and I both that he was going to be special. We would have been dead in the water if it wasn't for Pascal. Unfortunately, however, it didn't end on Pascal's moment. Two minutes were left on the clock as I sent Dwight out there. We were up one, from down twenty-four from when Pascal entered in the third. Carrying the momentum it seemed, Dwight hit his first dunk of the night going out there. I thought we had it, but then it wasn't five seconds into the shot clock BANG a three bounced into the basket. Rookie Buddy Hield is smiling as he points to Darren Collison. He has twenty already in his breakout game. I yell at Tim to tighten up on him. We get another open three for Schroder, and it rims in and out. His season has been like that all year. He is averaging around twenty percent. I don't know what more to do with him right now. I contemplate sitting him, but decide not to. He pressures the defense too much with his fast breaks. As the guys are running down, right as I turn to their basket I hear it again.

    BANG.

    A huge smile now is Hield's face as Tim is right in front of him, hand still straight up. It was a perfect contest. Twenty-three for Hield and the Kings have the lead again. Coming down we score thanks to Paul's heroics. He's had a great game, and that makes over twenty-six points now. He brings us tied again. The rest of the game, we couldn't stop the kid. Another one. BANG. That is twenty-six. He is blazing hot now, and I call my last timeout. I tell them to get him off the screen. Don't let him have space. Going into the final possessions you'd think he had me bugged. He came off the top of the screen and passed between Tim's legs to the open Gay for a dunk. His last bit of heroics? He got fouled to the line. The game was all but over now. He finally missed a shot in the fourth, before nailing the final shot into the night.

    BANG.


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PRESS CONFERENCE.
      Mike Budenholzer: "We've definitely had better starts."

    I joke to the press audience. The crowd is full of media from local and national sources, some people laugh and some can feel my frustration and disappointment.

      Mike Budenholzer: "Going into the night, we felt really confident coming home. However, you have to give them credit. Buddy Hield especially deserves a lot of recognition. He did above and beyond what typical rookies do. I don't know if it was schemes as I haven't watched the tape back, but what I saw was a lot of just natural ability. He hit shot after shot contested in the fourth. I think he earned everyone's respect and proved tonight he belongs here in this league, for sure. Also, of course, you have to give credit to Coach Joerger and the rest of their staff by putting their guys in the best position to succeed. We were at home and they brought us down twenty-four at one point. That is great coaching and they should be proud of this win."

    A woman from ESPN raises her hand and asks "How do you feel about Siakam's performance?" I can't help but smile in pride for that kid. He earned the recognition for his recent performances and about time the media is picking up on him more.

      Mike Budenholzer: "He did everything tonight. Tonight really became a battle of the Rookies. Those two guys stole the game, for sure. Defensively, Pascal was almost flawless. I don't want to put too much pressure on him or give him a big head by talking about him this way, but he guarded all five positions. He switched when he needed to. He gave us another Paul out there basically. Then offensively he did everything as well. Went to the block, ran the floor well, hit a three tonight to tie the game. He ran our offensive sets a few times off rebounds like a guard, which I don't think he's done before during a game. He's improving so quickly, you can't help but be impressed by him. Plus, and I don't know if many know this about Pascal, but he only started playing ball when he was around seventeen years old. He's just a very talented young player."

    A man from Local Channel-2 raises his and asks about Paul Millsap's twenty-eight point performance tonight.

      Mike Budenholzer: "See what I said about Pascal."

    The crowd laughs, as I continue.

      Mike Budenholzer: "No, Paul's obviously great. We are very fortunate to have him, Dwight, Pascal, Ersan, and now Edy is coming along. We just have a great core of bigs right now that have different skillsets."

    The next question goes to a usual Hawks reporter. He asks about Dwight's recent struggles and Hardaway's recent highlights.

      Mike Budenholzer: "I think Tim has been great, obviously. He is our spark off the bench offensively. A lot goes through him and he has a multitude of skills which benefit him to run different aspects of our offense. Because of that, I think he gets a lot of attention but still maintains efficiency. Tonight he scored twenty-one points in only twenty-six minutes. He's a major point for us to get him going. Dwight has struggled offensively to really get into our schemes. I think part of his number drops has been because of the attention he draws. Tonight he got more open looks for our shooters than some of our guards. When we went on that run with Pascal and Dwight ending the third before Paul and Pascal had gone on in the fourth, Dwight got Kyle three open looks which had two-out-of-three go in. That was just the type of attention Dwight has been having for us. I think his game will pick up as he gets more comfortable in the nuances of our offense, but right now it is just still in the adjustment process for him and the rest of the guys, and that shows. It takes a few games to really get used to having an option like Dwight Howard inside."

    The final question of the night and it goes to a young man from Sacramento's media. He asks what I think about Skal.

      Mike Budenholzer: "Skal played very well tonight. They played him a lot of minutes, I'm looking now and he was out there thirty-seven. Which is crazy for a rookie, but also tells you how much they value him and see value in him. I think he's a promising young man who the Kings and their fans should be proud of right now. Thanks, guys."

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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby kibaxx7 on Tue Jun 25, 2019 7:07 am

Hey man, great to see someone inspired by my format! Will try to follow. Just my two cents, something I've learned with the years, try not to write a lot. More so if the size of the text is small. Less is more some times (Y)
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True to Atlanta ✫ Writer's Corner

Postby wdt92 on Tue Jun 25, 2019 11:17 am

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    spiderxx7 wrote:Hey man, great to see someone inspired by my format! Will try to follow. Just my two cents, something I've learned with the years, try not to write a lot. More so if the size of the text is small. Less is more some times (Y)


    Hey man, I'm glad to see you back! :) I appreciate the advice, though it is kind of funny seeing you saying that after reading your 2011 San Antonio series not that long ago. The first five pages of that series were full of you defending not writing less. :lol:

    I definitely appreciate the advice though, and actually, I have been trying to shorten the writing down for a little while now. If you have time sometime, I do have a question with that.

    How did you find yourself "able" to write less? I'll explain what I mean. A lot of times I actually feel like I'm leaving information out from the story when I try and cut it down. So I'll go back and add a few details here and there to make everything fit nicely. Feel realistic and feel right. Then I find it is actually longer than my original draft. :lol:

    I noticed your writing shrunk down through that 2011 series and I recall you having a pretty precise and ideal length in the Toronto one you did not too long ago. Was there anything you did to help make the transition feel just as realistic as you shrunk down on the length of the writing?
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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Writer's Corner

Postby kibaxx7 on Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:11 pm

wdt92 wrote:Hey man, I'm glad to see you back! :) I appreciate the advice, though it is kind of funny seeing you saying that after reading your 2011 San Antonio series not that long ago. The first five pages of that series were full of you defending not writing less. :lol:

"Not that long ago", man, it's been eight years. How time flies! Looking back at that, I just wanted to make it as detailed as possible after all those failed attempts... I started like 50 threads. I was really frustrated with myself. It looks pretty neat right now, but man, it was tough. I wouldn't recommend it, specially right now, with less and less time to sit down and do it. I was 20 years old and almost never leaving my house :lol:

wdt92 wrote:I definitely appreciate the advice though, and actually, I have been trying to shorten the writing down for a little while now. If you have time sometime, I do have a question with that.

How did you find yourself "able" to write less? I'll explain what I mean. A lot of times I actually feel like I'm leaving information out from the story when I try and cut it down. So I'll go back and add a few details here and there to make everything fit nicely. Feel realistic and feel right. Then I find it is actually longer than my original draft. :lol:

I noticed your writing shrunk down through that 2011 series and I recall you having a pretty precise and ideal length in the Toronto one you did not too long ago. Was there anything you did to help make the transition feel just as realistic as you shrunk down on the length of the writing?

I wasn't "able" to write less, I just "forced" myself to write less. The forum itself also forced me to do it, kind of.

I remember I was trying to post a wallpaper and the forum limited its dimensions. So I began to investigate what were the maximum dimensions allowed here and it's 800p wide. I wasn't sure on height, so I just went with 800p as well (I will go up to 900p if I need some extra space but no more than that so the forum does not resize it automatically). I then began writing on those dimensions on Photoshop. :cheeky:

On to what details I would leave out, first I'd write on the highest scorers/rebounders, a game winning shot/block, did I deserve that win? Did I shoot poorly/great? Something like that, but keeping it simple (you can read some of my Raptors recaps but I can see you did that already) :wink: If I needed to write something more, I would look at the team stats and wrote on the biggest disparities. And if I needed some extra space, I had those around the league / standings / game notebook things on a different column.

Send me a PM if you need any other tips. I will try to log in more often.
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× Watched:
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Re: True to Atlanta ✫ Atlanta Hawks MyLeague

Postby wdt92 on Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:49 pm

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spiderxx7 wrote:"Not that long ago", man, it's been eight years. How time flies! Looking back at that, I just wanted to make it as detailed as possible after all those failed attempts... I started like 50 threads. I was really frustrated with myself. It looks pretty neat right now, but man, it was tough. I wouldn't recommend it, specially right now, with less and less time to sit down and do it. I was 20 years old and almost never leaving my house :lol:


:lol: My bad, I could have worded that better. I wasn't around the forums in 2011, so I just recently sat down and read a few old stories while I was in my downtime. I was wondering what made them different from the current stories we have had (including your Raptors one which I thought was great) and what separated them to be "Hall of Fame" worthy besides longevity. I also was using them to contemplate if I wanted to try and write another story. I found there was a lot of things there that was really unique in most of those stories. Your 2011 Spurs one, for instance, was an amazing feat. You point out how detailed you were, and I get how much of a time sink it had to have been, but it was incredibly fun to read. Also visually, you put so much effort into personalizing the story with little things that I thought was very impressive to try and achieve. Like you had a photo section, video section, an article for every game until like game 50 I think. Then you shortened the leash a little bit. You still maintained a double blog post thing as well. It was really impressive for what it was. I actually modeled a lot after it in formatting. I gave you credit for it in my introduction, but I abandoned more of the formatting you used when I just found out I don't like writing article based stories. :lol:

spiderxx7 wrote:I wasn't "able" to write less, I just "forced" myself to write less. The forum itself also forced me to do it, kind of.

I remember I was trying to post a wallpaper and the forum limited its dimensions. So I began to investigate what were the maximum dimensions allowed here and it's 800p wide. I wasn't sure on height, so I just went with 800p as well (I will go up to 900p if I need some extra space but no more than that so the forum does not resize it automatically). I then began writing on those dimensions on Photoshop. :cheeky:

On to what details I would leave out, first I'd write on the highest scorers/rebounders, a game winning shot/block, did I deserve that win? Did I shoot poorly/great? Something like that, but keeping it simple (you can read some of my Raptors recaps but I can see you did that already) :wink: If I needed to write something more, I would look at the team stats and wrote on the biggest disparities. And if I needed some extra space, I had those around the league / standings / game notebook things on a different column.

Send me a PM if you need any other tips. I will try to log in more often.


I always thought the Raptors photoshop would take more time, not less. It's interesting, but I learned when doing the game score how much time it does save to put a template in Photoshop & use that instead of formatting posts. I also really appreciate your offer! I do have a specific example I'd like to ask about, so I'll send you a PM here before I head off.
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