My Orlando Dynasty

[lynsantt]

I've been always a big fans with the Magic since Shaq & Penny got into the Finals but lost their Championship to the Rockets.

I really want to figure out what's happening to the Magic with T-Mac this year.(How can they put themself in the bottom of the league!!!)

After downloading the 1.06 Roster Patch, I've decided to start my dynasty (keeping G.Hill injured or I might trade him for others)

[Zen]

I started a 28 game dinasty with the magic once a while ago just for fun, and i also kept Hill injured, but i didnt trade him to any teams cus i doubt that any team would want to swallon hill's long/expensive contract, being the gamble that he is.

[lynsantt]

My setting:
Default Simulation rule.(but with 60 fatigue)
Superstar mode.
I play with keyboard.

Game 1 vs NY.
After taking a look at my starter, I made a change with the Center postition since I think 7'0 Hunter would be better than Declarqe.

Keeping Hill & Garrity in injury list, my starting SF is Stevenson which should be a SG.

The game was really close from the begining until the end.
My biggest lead was in the 2nd Quater with 38-26.
Mabury was hitting consistenly in the 1st half, while the other players are just quiet.

1st half :Magic leads by 46-38.

However, in the 2nd half, A.Houston is starting to shoot, and hits all the shots madly (2 & 3 points). with the co-op with Mabury, they've lead back the Magic with 56-46.

I've started to feel the weakness of the Magic now.
1) the whole team have only 1 PG.
2) No Big man supports for Rebounds (Hunter is really good at blocks though)
3) Lack of defender (both Gooden & Howard are good at Offense only)
4) Lue is not a good PG that can link-up the team (lots of TO...bad pass)
5) No 3 point shooters. (I have only got T-mac which can chase for the 3)

I was forced to make T-mac my PG (like the old-days Penny),and let Stevenson goes back to his SG.

From the very beginning, I've prepared that my team would be an 1 man team with T-mac and the others are just supporting him. But I've figured that Stevenson is quite a good player which can suites the fast break!

He drew Houston into Foul trouble in the late 3rd Quater, and was sent to the Foul Lines a lot! And the best things is that his DUNKS ROCKS! Alley-oops from T-macs,he's fast and jumps high!(I just use him to dunk).

The quater ends with 62 tied.

In the 4th Quater, here comes A.Houston again, consecutive 2 & 3 pointers, and a few fast break by Marbury.

The only way I can catch up is making sure every offensive play I made will get me points in order not to fall behind. (That I either use Howard for the inside shoots while he's not double-teamed, or I drived with Stevenson & T-Mac to dunk in).

And so the games ends with 86-79. Magic have their 1st win.
and of course the Player of games goes to T-mac with 29 pts & 8 assists.

But I'm quite suprised to see Stevenson with 23 pts and Hunter with 6 blocks!

The Knicks have 15 more rebounds than the Magic.(which comes with no surprse.)

Conclusion:
1)I need a better PG (or at least one PG for subs)
2)I should be finding a 3 point shooter
3)A Big man for boxing out.
4)Stevenson & Hunter really suprised me with their performance!

[lynsantt]

I'd say it's the play of the game.

http://kayser11.tripod.com/highlight/Game1.gif
(680kB)

It's Stevenson doing a T-Mac's move!!!

[lynsantt]

Game 2
Magic Vs Hornets

After signing a free agent PG Athony Carter,I have my 2nd PG in team.
But still keeping Lue as starter.

This is really a taugh game, I was chasing from the beginning of the game and NO made a 12-0 run in the last 2 mins of the 1st Quater.

The Magic can only rely on T-Mac for all the offense. Howard,Hunter,Gooden all missed their close shots.

After half, the score is Magic 32- Hornets 50

I increase the defensive intensity on the 2nd half, and did successfully get some rewards. And after the 3rd Qauter, I was chasing by 8 points.

Although I've closed the gap much after 3rd Quater, but all my starting players are all with a low "fatigue" stamina. They started to stop chasing balls, gaurding and boxing up. T-Mac just allow Baron Davis & Mashburn to throw 3pts.

I was forced to use my backup, and they are not getting any basket.
The only hope for my comeback is T-Mac, (which I think he needs at least 2 minutes of rest on bench to get back his stamina).

But time is not with me. Games will end after 1.5 minutes and I am still chasing by 13.

I have to throw some 3 pts now, but who can I trust? As T-mac is still resting.

I looked into the player's rating, and I found Lue is the one after T-mac.
However, he was throwing stone even with no one is marking him!

Well, I lost by 73-66 by result. T-mac with 31 pts , and Player of the game is B.Davis.

I really think I should trade Lue or get a better PG, but I just don't want to make some "un-real" trade that will never happened in the real world.
Maybe I should start searching for more Free Agent and "train" a PG up for myself.

[Mark.]

I would go with a trade i think. Mainly because the training in the game doesnt work unless you have patched it, but that makes it more unrealistic.

Also you could use Howard or Gooden in the trade with Lue for a pretty good PG.

In the end tho its up to you.

BTW you should try and sub ur key players ealier on, jst so that they rnt too tired later on, when you need them.

Good Luck

[Power And Proud]

Yeah keep it real as possible. I mighta screwed up my Lakers dynasty by signing K-Mart and Starbury to the min, then making all the wacky trades, and I ended up with Kevin Garnett, who I then traded to Cleveland for Boozer.

[lynsantt]

I saw a lot of people started with the Magic will trade Howard soon after they started the season.
Although Magic do have another good PF Gooden, and they can this advantage of Howard (overall 70) to get a good PG to compensate.

However, I don't think doing such a move is quite "realistic" for me.
As the "real" Magic is still keeping him in the team now,it have been shown that any trade with Howard with a good PG is not likely to happen.
(and I also feel that without Howard, the Magic 2004 would not be the Magic).

Well, come back with the game...

Game 3
Piston VS Magic (home)

After the learning lesson from losing in last game, I've changed the way on my style of playing.
I subs my player after the game started 2 mins (where I notice that all my starter are already with about 80% of fatigue.)
I also changed the pace of the game as well. I will wait until the last 10 seconds of the shot clock to get the shoot, which will "waste" more time and save more fatigue for my player.

And I figured out that "turbo" should not be used during defending unless you are being "post-up" near the basket. I tab the "steal" button less, and just "marking" my guys with moving around instead.

I know that the Piston is really good at defening (with the 2 Wallace as PF and C). I tried not to do so much post up on offense, and uses T-mac to get more mid-range jumpers.

I was doing a great job in this game, and leading the Piston on half by 22 points!

In the second half, I kept the pace of the game slow, but the Piston is trying to come back with making almost every basket counts. (I just don't know why this always happens in the 2nd half!! Can Ben Wallace is a 3 point shooter???)

Well, the Piston runned a 10-2 game, and it's time for me to sub my started (fatigue :70%) I thought I am gonna let the Piston run keep on...
I have to slower my pace and hoping to let the time past so that my starter can come out again...

After 3 mins, I looked at the score again, I was still leading by 8-10 points! My bench players are not really that bad ! at least they've almost stopped further loosing!

And it's time for the Piston to subs, and I changed back to all my statrted now! Without the 2 Wallace, I can now play with Hunter, and Howard now!

And they did some good dunks as well this time.
I kept the score until the end of the game, and was able to win with 95-83.


Player of the game, T-Mac: 38 pts, 4 steals,6 assists.