Hov's Kings - Retired

[Houndy]

33-8 in the Fourth? That was like the Mavs run vs OKC

[kibaxx7]

Donte Greene sure can play I'd give him more playing time. What a turnaround!

[dare]

Now that I called great defense. Holding the Celtics to just 8 points, Doc must be really pissed.

[Martti.]

Amazing run against a very tough team!

Excellent preview on Meredith too, he sure wears an odd number. Your presentation is still top notch!

[The X]

The X, that's cool then. Do you know if the home blowout bug is also solved in running Ds? I will definitely make the next draft class after your advice.

Yep, home blowout bug is gone. There are now games in the high 70's/low 80's on 12 minute sim, but also your 106-91 comfortable wins. Away teams will win if they are clearly better. All seems good but I've got a funny feeling there'll be an annoying side effect from the change. Call me a cynic but at least if it's not as bad as home court blowouts, then I guess I can live with it.

And FYI from 2k producer at OS:

One quick note regarding generated rookie classes. That fix needs a corresponding roster update before you will see those changes. When the next Living Roster update is made available (I believe that is scheduled for overnight tonight), you will notice those changes.

These generated classes will apply to newly started Associations. If you want to use them in an existing Association, you can simply generate new classes outside of Association, save them, and load them into your existing Associations when prompted. Enjoy.

[john26]

Some great defense played vs KG

[hova-]

Houndy, it sure was a great run. Hey, that Terry pic in your sig is just nasty. He sure got some muscles.

Thierry •, he's slowly but surely replacing Francisco Garcia as the sixth man. I really like his shot and he can do lots of things on the court.

dare, haha, I guess so that he was pissed, especially with the twittering @halftime.

Martti., the number's a bit strange maybe, it's just his birthday though glad you like it.

The X, good to see these things applying in running Asso. My players' trade value now also works properly. So not only Evans and Cousins have more than 1 star now, but also some others. Makes trading easier.

john26, he took many wild shots imho, a lot of mid range js, just did not find his rhythm.

[Mandich]

wow, terrific 4th quarter man , congrats

[hova-]

The 2011 NBA draft is still quite far away as we are only in mid January, but there's already a clear opinion who will be the number one pick this summer.

Lance Meredith is just dominating College ball too much to not be considered a sure-fire number one pick. His individual skills are phenomenal and he has a ace up in his sleeve with his team being very successful.

Darryl Spencer is lacking of this ace. The 20-year old shooting guard out of Wake Forest has a lot of kings, queens and jacks though. Spencer is definitely one of the best players on his position in the NCAA right now and has almost everything it takes to be a very good NBA baller.

But ... Wake Forest stands at 3-6 after nine games, having no real chance of making the Sweet Sixteen. Duke and UNC seem to be too strong and the little University out of Winston-Salem just does not have a balanced enough roster to persist in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

This is just what Spencer is preaching over and over again, still experts and fans both don't think that the swing man can make his team better. His averages of 19.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game speak a different language though, but the comments about his weak team did not really help to convince people of his own quality.

Right now, based on his skill, Darryl Spencer is said to be the 2nd pick in the draft, at least a top five pick. Look at the scouting report below to get a clear view on his abilites.

Strenghts: Very athletic ... has a powerful first step ... shows almost point guard ballhandling ... very good one-on-one defender ... plays the passing lanes pretty good ... very agile and quick ... shows flashes of a killer instinct on both ends of the floor ... gets up high on his jump shot ... good shooting form ... decent pull up jumper ... can hit the three consistently ... already a very skilled player ... shows good fundamentals ... will still get better with time ... a very good passer ... has good court vision ... very good fast break player ... has a scorer's mentality ... ability to get hot on offense ...

Weaknesses: a bad rebounder ... does not box out properly ... not a good help and team defender ... although he won't cause problems off the court, he is very immature on the court ... tends to not show full effort on the court ... no leader ... has problems finding the balance between passing and shooting ... needs to work on his upper body strenght to finish with contact ...

[kibaxx7]

Comparisons to B-Roy, that's good But hopefully he doesn't have Roy's injuries, lol.

[hova-]

Thierry •, I don't understand the comparison completely, for me he is more a mixture of Eric Gordon & Brandon Roy ... but this is what the game gave me. He's definitely more athletic than Roy, but Roy's bball ICQ is better for sure.

[Lamrock]

Do you just use the game's comparisons? They are almost always turrible. I remember in 2K9, Rubio's NBA comparison being Gilbert Arenas. They just pick a random player of similar caliber at the same position to compare them to.

[Fresh8]

Do you just use the game's comparisons? They are almost always turrible. I remember in 2K9, Rubio's NBA comparison being Gilbert Arenas. They just pick a random player of similar caliber at the same position to compare them to.

Yeah, I usually give them my own comparison

Great scouting report again Hova. Loving it!

[hova-]

Lamrock, well for Lance I used David Robinson, who is not even in the game. But by reading the Scouting report, who do you think does Spencer compare to? I mean has the offensive skills of Roy but is a bit smaller and maybe more athletic. I was thinking about Eric Gordon, but he is like 6-3 which does not really fit.

[dare]

Nice reports again, I think he is a little bit of a JR Smith type.

[hova-]

Sit, wow you just posted while I was posting. Great you like the reports. I really try to integrate my rookies into the story. Gives the whole thing a way better feeling.

dare, thanks, glad you like it. JR Smith is not the worst comparison, since he can shoot, score and is athletic. Spencer's also very good at handling the ball and passing, although he tends to shoot rather than pass the ball.

[Alpha_]

He's more of Tracy McGrady than Brandon Roy.. Just my opinion..

[hova-]

King Dee, yeah that's maybe a good comparison. I did not even think about the T-Mac of old (it's already like five years ago that he played on top level), but he definitely has the package of athleticism/scoring/shooting & passing combined with some mental issues & loser image.

[Justine.]

Still digging the scouting report. Btw, where did you get his cf in a Wake Forest uniform?

[hova-]

Justine., thx man. Just photoshopped it.

[dare]

The uniform is just photoshopped? I thought it's a feature in Xbox

[hova-]

Sam Dalembert and Timofey Mozgov scramble for a rebound @MSG center

Cooling down a bit
By Carl Column, NBA.com
Posted on January 20th 2010 1:53

The Seattle Supersonics did not start well into the new year loosing three in a row, but the "old new" franchise seemed to finally find some rhythm by winning five of the next six games, including an awesome from behind win against the Eastern Champion Boston.

Despite loosing the last two and sitting at 14-26 which is only good enough for 13th in the West (only in front of Minnesota and the Clippers), the Maloof brothers as well as Coach Hova and the supporters of the team seemed to be pretty content with the latest development. Especially the fact that the Sonics were able to win four in a row for the first time this season caused a smile all over the face of owner George Maloof.



Ma_ison Square Gar_en

Although being the most famoust basketball arena in the world, there's something lacking in the MSG Center. Although the Knicks are fairly better this season contending for the 8th spot in the East (18-24), the installment of Mike D'Antoni definitely did not help to bring back the D into MaDison Square GarDen.

Tyreke Evans definitely enjoyed the fact, that the Knicks are on of the worst defensive teams in the league as he scored a career high 40 points in a 102-97 over the Knicks.

"We just ran with them and it's no coincidence that guys seem to drop a lot of points in here", Coach Hova said after the game alluding to the fact that players like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and of course Michael Jordan were able to pour in more than 50 points @MSG center.

The Sonics played pretty well and never trailed against the Knicks, who lacked a second scorer behind Amare Stoudemire. STAT had 31 points on 13-19 shooting and grabbed 13 boards, but the Knicks only hit three of their sixteen shots from beyond the arc, a feat that usually kills this team.

"We rely on the three pointers falling, and they did not do so tonight", Coach D'Antoni told media later.

The Sonics, who were still missing Omri Casspi, got some solid output from their reserves. Donte Greene had 14 points, Demarcus Cousins added 9 and starter Carl Landry had 9 points and 8 boards, hitting his first three point field goal of the season.

But the Player of the game was definitely Tyreke Evans: 40 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 16-26 and 2-2 from downtown (despite shooting only .31% this season) and he simply seemed unstoppable when driving to the whole, adding 6-9 from the charity stripe.


Making it four in a row

Beating the Cs and the Knicks on the road is definitely very satisfying, but it was more important to win agains the Detroit Pistons the following day as the Motown ballers sit last in the East (11-31).

The Sonics had no business extending their streak to a season high four wins in a row as Carl Landry and Tyreke Evans each had 27 points and 7 rebounds and Demarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson added 10/7 and 10/6 respectively.

The Pistons shot a horrid 28-66 from the floor and had 21 (!) turnovers getting also outrebounded 44-36. Ben Gordon, who actually blooms after Rip Hamilton leaving the franchise (he's scoring 19 ppg) compared to 13 last season with Rip) had 20 and Tayshaun Prince added 17 for the loosing Pistons.




Omri Casspi's comeback was spoiled by the Hawks


Tough tasks end the streak

Whereas title contenders like the Cs and Eastern punching balls like the Pistons are easy to play (underestimated in Boston, easy going in Detroit), teams like the Hawks (22-22) and Blazers (26-18) are really tough to play. Both try to stay in contention of a top five seed in their conferences (Hawks 6th, Blazers 5th) to avoid playing against the Heat, Celtics or Lakers, Mavs and thus need every win to improve their situations.

The Hawks aren't the Sonics favourite team anyway, as they beat them by 22 earlier this month. And once again the Hawks were able to pull away with the win, 93-109.

The Sonics only hit 35-87 from the floor and Tyreke Evans (22 points), Omri Casspi (17 points) and Donte Greene (14 points) did not receive a lot of help from their team mates as the Hawks already led by 17 after the first half.

Al Horford had 23 points and 16 boards and Josh Smith also added a double double (18/10) for the very efficient Hawks who only had 12 turnovers, shot almost .500 from the floor and dished out 25 assists.

"We need every win right now, at 22-22 we can't be content with what we have reached so far", Joe Johnson, who scored 17 points in the ball game said in the press conference after the game.


The game against the Blazers wasn't all too different. The Blazers, playing one of the slowest paces in the league, took the tempo out of the game making it hard for Seattle to score easy points.

Carl Landry had 27 points and 14 rebounds, but Tyreke Evans and Omri Casspi struggled with the good Blazers defense as they combined for 29 points on 12 of 31 shooting.

Brandon Roy was the team high man with 25 points but only shot 10-25 from the field. The Blazers solid end-to-end defense and their persistence in the fourth helped them to grab their 26th win of the season.


What's next?

The Supersonics will have another five games in a very full-packed January as they head to Oakland to play the Warriors and then will have two days off just to meet the Blazers again, this time in Portland.

Charlotte, @Lakers and the Hornets will end January for the Sonics. Right now, the team is 5-5 this month and Coach Hova does not expect them to drop under .500.

"In my opinion, we can win all these games. We won in LA before and I don't see us loosing more than two games", the self-confident Coach says. We'll see what time brings.



Durant's triple double (37/11/10) leads Thunder past Magic ...
Mayo has 35 in win over Mavericks ...
Gerald Henderson demands trade ...
Blake Griffin's getting better, averaging 25 /11 over last four games ...


Check Sonics stats and League Standings here ...

[Fresh8]

I love the pictures man. Look great!

You're gonna lose to LA

[kibaxx7]

@ Lakers. You're gonna need all the luck! Great games by Casspi.

[Lamrock]

Loving the recaps. 'Reke went off at MSG and you're starting to play well, but playoffs look out of reach this year. Meredith will lead you there next season though.