Andrew wrote:Congratulations! It's been quite a journey, and the virtual Bulls made the last leg quite a challenge. It must feel incredibly satisfying, because man, it seems like they made you earn it! The good guys won in the end, though...well, the good guys from the perspective of this story, anyway.
Breems wrote:Awesome job! My man Bobby Portis put up a good fight in the last game after a quiet series.
Gonna hang it up now or going for a repeat?
wdt92 wrote:Fantastic game to an awesome series! Loved that Booker got the Finals MVP, and definitely think the Bulls were a great Finals opponent. Looking forward to what you do next (if you're continuing this series or moving on)!
Andrew wrote:Losing Booker would be a tremendous blow, to put it mildly. I'm guessing he's an RFA though, so you'd be able to match, worst case scenario?
wdt92 wrote:LeBron would be interesting, but at this point, isn't he too old for your window?
I think looking at the names, Jokic would be the most interesting for your playstyle in my opinion. You've played Center-centric and revived the prospect of Alex Len making him a liable and then dependable player over the course of the story. With that, imagine what you could do with a guy like Jokic? He'd be a monster with your style.
Though that also means getting rid of Len, so that's possibly problematic. With you just winning the title, and him being so huge for that, I can understand passing on Jokic.
Andrew wrote:If you can get LeBron, I say go for it. It's not every day you can land a big name like that in a franchise mode, as they often just re-sign or go to another CPU-controlled team.
cavs4872 wrote:I would say go for LeBron too; don't be scared to go all-out in FA like real-life. You just might have to increase the difficulty then. Chances are he's gonna take the money and return to the Cavs.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver today announced that the Sacramento Kings will be returning to the Pacific Division for the 2019-20 season, after spending one season in the Northwest Division.
This announcement has seemingly justified conspiracy theories on the internet that the Kings were accidentally moved last season due to a mix-up with paperwork.
If true, then it's an embarrassing error for a professional sporting association to make. No one at league headquarters was available to comment on the speculation.
The league also approved a change to the Rising Stars game. Each team will now have thirteen players selected, up from the previous ten.
It's that time of the year once again when veteran players announce that they are ending their NBA careers. This year the retiring group features some truly legendary players.
A wealth of experience is leaving the league. Among the impressive accolades earned by this group are: a Most Valuable Player award, 2 Defensive Player of the Year awards, a Sixth Man of the Year award, 22 championships, 56 All-Star appearances, 29 All-NBA team selections and 20 All-Defensive team selections.
Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker retire having played their entire careers with one team. Nowitzki scored a whopping 33,526 points over the course of his 1,574 game career. That puts him 4th on the all-time scorers list, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant.
However, LeBron James is only about one thousand points behind Dirk and will probably overtake him next season. But being the 5th highest scorer ever isn't too shabby for a guy that came into the league as a scrawny kid from Germany.
Dirk also finishes with just over twelve thousand rebounds, which puts him in the top 25 of all-time for that statistic as well. It's fair to say that the draft day trade the Mavericks made in 1998 really paid off for them.
Two other major scorers who are leaving are Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Wade finishes 23rd all-time in scoring with 23,608 points, 25th in assists with 6,121 and 23rd in steals with 1,748. He also managed just over five thousand rebounds.
Bosh finishes with nearly twenty-one thousand points and nine and a half thousand rebounds. Both were part of Miami's "big three" that won titles in 2012 and 2013.
Tony Parker entered the league as a late first round pick. But he leaves with four championships to his name and nearly eight thousand total assists, which puts him 13th all-time.
Andre Iguodala departs on a high after winning his third ring with Phoenix. He scored over thirteen and a half thousand points and finished in the top 30 for steals with 1,700.
Other impressive statistical achievements include: Tyson Chandler (10k rebounds), David West (14k points, 6.6k rebounds) and David Lee (11k points, 7.3k rebounds).
Notable 2019 Retirees
- Dirk Nowitzki - 21 Seasons
(Dallas)- Tony Parker - 18 Seasons
(San Antonio)- Dwyane Wade - 16 Seasons
(Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia)- Chris Bosh - 16 Seasons
(Toronto, Miami, Cleveland)- Andre Iguodala - 15 Seasons
(Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, Phoenix)- David Lee - 14 Seasons
(New York, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, San Antonio, Oklahoma City)- Tyson Chandler - 18 Seasons
(Chicago, Seattle, Charlotte, Dallas, New York, Phoenix)- David West - 16 Seasons
(Seattle, Indiana, San Antonio, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Memphis)- Tony Allen - 15 Seasons
(Boston, Memphis)- Joakim Noah - 12 Seasons
(Chicago, New York)- Kyle Korver - 15 Seasons
(Philadelphia, Utah, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland)- Nene - 17 Seasons
(Denver, Washington, Houston)- Zaza Pachulia - 16 Seasons
(Orlando, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco)- Matt Barnes - 15 Seasons
(LA Clippers, Sacramento, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Phoenix, Orlando, LA Lakers, Memphis)- Kevin Martin - 14 Seasons
(Sacramento, Houston, Oklahoma City, Minnesota)- Devin Harris - 15 Seasons
(Dallas, Brooklyn, Utah, Atlanta, Sacramento)- Jarrett Jack - 14 Seasons
(Portland, Indiana, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, Cleveland, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Denver)- Jameer Nelson - 14 Seasons
(Orlando, Dallas, Boston, Denver, Sacramento)- Chris Kaman - 14 Seasons
(LA Clippers, Seattle, Dallas, LA Lakers, Portland, Sacramento)- Leandro Barbosa - 14 Seasons
(Phoenix, Toronto, Indiana, Boston, San Francisco, Portland)- Kirk Hinrich - 14 Seasons
(Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Miami)- Jose Calderon - 14 Seasons
(Toronto, Detroit, Dallas, New York, LA Lakers, Utah, Oklahoma City)- Raymond Felton - 13 Seasons
(Charlotte, New York, Denver, Portland, New York, Dallas, LA Clippers)- Channing Frye - 13 Seasons
(New York, Portland, Phoenix, Orlando, Cleveland, Boston)- Thabo Sefolosha - 12 Seasons
(Chicago, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Denver)- Nate Robinson - 11 Seasons
(New York, Boston, Oklahoma City, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, LA Clippers, Seattle)- Carl Landry - 10 Seasons
(Houston, Sacramento, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Charlotte)
Valor wrote:Nothing beats the thrill of winning a championship in a do-or-die game 7, congrats!!
Agreed with everyone else, Lebron will be the best replacement for Iggy so go for it aye
With the NBA season officially over, a bunch of teams have taken the opportunity to shake up their coaching departments.
Milwaukee parted ways with Jason Kidd after they suffered a disappointing first round exit at the hands of Orlando. This firing began a chain of coaching musical chairs around the league.
The Bucks poached Mike Budenholzer from Atlanta to replace Kidd. The Hawks then hired Philadelphia assistant Lloyd Pierce to replace Budenholzer.
Orlando fired Frank Vogel and signed Steve Clifford from Charlotte to replace him. The Hornets then signed Stan Van Gundy from Detroit as his replacement.
Michael Jordan seemed happy to reunite Van Gundy with former all-star center Dwight Howard, who he had coached during the best spell of his career in Orlando.
Detroit reacted by luring Dwayne Casey from Toronto to be their new head coach. The Raptors reportedly were set to fire Casey anyway after he failed to guide them to the playoffs.
Toronto eventually signed former Cleveland head coach David Blatt to replace Casey.
Memphis fired David Fizdale after a disappointing season and signed recently fired Magic coach Frank Vogel as his successor.
Fizdale had a few teams chasing his signature, but eventually took up the vacant head coaching role with the New York Knicks.
The final move of the off-season involved the coach whose firing had started it all, Jason Kidd. Louisville decided to part ways with Lionel Hollins and sign the former Milwaukee coach.
Kidd then convinced his former Dallas Mavericks teammate Dirk Nowitzki to forsake retirement and join him as his main assistant in Louisville.
Fellow recently retired players Chris Bosh (Sacramento) and Dwyane Wade (LA Clippers) also remained involved in the game by taking up roles as assistant coaches.Off-Season Coaching Changes
Mike Budenholzer - Head Coach - Milwaukee - 4 years - $14 million
Dwyane Wade - Assistant - LA Clippers - 2 years - $1.2 million
Frank Vogel - Head Coach - Memphis - 3 years - $10.2 million
Lloyd Pierce - Head Coach - Atlanta - 3 years - $8.1 million
Stan Van Gundy - Head Coach - Charlotte - 3 years - $7.2 million
Chris Bosh - Assistant - Sacramento - 2 years - $1 million
David Fizdale - Head Coach - New York - 4 years - $10.8 million
Sam Cassell - Assistant - New York - 3 years - $1.8 million
Steve Clifford - Head Coach - Orlando - 4 years - $12 million
Dwayne Casey - Head Coach - Detroit - 4 years - $11.6 million
David Blatt - Head Coach - Toronto - 3 years - $10.8 million
Jason Kidd - Head Coach - Louisville - 4 years - $16.4 million
Dirk Nowitzki - Assistant - Louisville - 2 years - $1.5 million
Phil89 wrote:Were they free agents during the season? I've noticed that the game tends to clear up some of those low rated free agents at the end of every season by having them retire.
01.) 0↑1 0Indiana
02.) 0↑4 0Portland (via Denver)
03.) 0↑1 0LA Lakers
04.) 0↓3 0Dallas
05.) 0↓2 0Charlotte
06.) 0= 00New York
07.) 0= 00Atlanta
08.) 0= 00Memphis
09.) 0= 00Detroit
10.) 0= 00Denver (via Louisville)
11.) 0= 00Utah
12.) 0= 00Toronto
13.) 0= 00Miami
14.) 0= 00Washington (via Sacramento)
15.) 0= 00San Antonio
16.) 0= 00Houston
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was left visibly annoyed during the broadcast of the lottery draw after his team fell to the fourth overall pick, despite having the best odds of receiving the top pick in the draft.
After tanking away Dirk Nowtikzi's final season, it looked like the Mavericks would be landing their second top-two pick in as many years. But fate has denied their plans of pairing RJ Barrett with DeAndre Ayton and De'Aaron Fox.
Indiana are about to add another great piece to their impressive rebuild. They move up and land the first overall pick. In 2017 they made a couple of trades that essentially swapped Paul George for Markelle Fultz, Jaylen Brown and a future first round pick.
Last year they took Michael Porter Jr with pick three and Wendell Carter at number eight, which was the pick they received the year before.
Portland were the biggest winners in the lottery after jumping up four places to second overall. The trade that they made back in January 2018 which sent Mason Plumlee and Maurice Harkless to Denver in exchange for Jusuf Nurkic, OG Anunoby and this pick looks brilliant now.
Especially as Plumlee left the Nuggets to join Brooklyn a few months later in free agency.
The Lakers moved up to the third pick, which is a nice asset to have ahead of what is looming as an exciting off-season for the franchise. They will have a massive amount of cap room and are strongly rumoured to be targeting LeBron James, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Klay Thompson.
There are also murmurs that Kawhi Leonard is unhappy in San Antonio is will try to force a trade home to Los Angeles.
Portland (2, 27), Atlanta (7, 24), Memphis (8, 17), Washington (14, 19), Chicago (22, 25, 29) and Boston (26, 20) each have multiple picks in the first round of this draft.
Brooklyn, Louisville, Philadelphia, LA Clippers, Minnesota, Sacramento and Seattle have no first round selections.
Earlier today the Indiana Pacers completed a trade which saw them receive the number three overall pick and a 2021 first round pick from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the number one pick in this year's draft.
Lakers management Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson are reportedly targeting Duke shooting guard RJ Barrett and felt they had to move up in the draft in order to secure him.
The 19 year old led his Duke team to the national championship. That highly-talented team also featured fellow lottery hopefuls Marvin Bagley III, Zion Williamson and Cameron Reddish.
Barrett averaged 20.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game during his one season in college.
It's easy to see why the Lakers are so keen to acquire the exciting Canadian. He already has a polished offensive game and is especially strong in the mid-range. He also has solid playmaking abilities and is a very good rebounder for his position.
Barrett is a superb athlete. He is one of the quickest players in this draft class, which allows him to be a good perimeter defender by staying in front of his opponent.
He is also a high-flying dunker on offense thanks to his forty-one inch vertical. No doubt he will participate in the all-star weekend dunk contest one day.Full details
Indiana Pacers receive: Pick 3, 2021 first round pick (Top 3 protected)
Los Angeles Lakers receive: Pick 1
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