Motor City Basketball: Restoring the Pistons' Glory

[AussieVilla]

I guess I should be cheering on the Nuggets as they didn't buy their chance at the title with Russian millions... Having said that, I find it hard to cheer for Melo in any situation.... Torn *shrug*

[Myles Nelson]

Game 1: Nets 113, Nuggets 85
LeBron, Bosh, and Harris all punished the Nuggets, with 20+ from all three. Melo had a good game with 24, but his role players all struggled. The big important numbers on this night: 36.5/29.6/78.9 percentages from Denver, contrasted with the 50/43.6/90.3 that New Jersey put up. No wonder the Nets won.

Game 2: Nuggets 78, Nets 61
The Nugget's defense came back with a vengeance as they held the Nets to 23.8% shooting. Bosh and LeBron combined to go 4/30 from the floor. Carmelo, again, carried the team offensively with 20 points, as his role players gave him very very little help.

Game 3: Nuggets 122, Nets 97
Two days later, both teams decide to showcase their offenses instead, but it is Denver who comes on top yet again. The big difference came from the benches: Parker and Butler had 19 and 14, whereas the entire New Jersey bench combined for 25 points. Denver takes a 2-1 lead in Denver.

Game 4: Nuggets 123, Nets 119
LBJ and Bosh refused to go away, each dropping 28 points, but Carmelo had 31 and Billups finally had a good game with 27 points. The Nuggets refuse to let up at all and scored on New Jersey at will, especially down the stretch when Carmelo single-handedly stopped the New Jersey comeback. If New Jersey wants to crawl out of this 3-1 hole, they'll have to play some defense.

Game 5: Nuggets 106, Nets 77
Again, Melo and Chauncey were the big heroes for Denver. LBJ and Bosh are the scapegoats, shooting only 6/30 in this game en route to a 32 point combined performance. The Nuggets just outplayed the Nets this series in every aspect, especially defense and hustle. Denver just came to the Finals hungry, and now they are enjoying their NBA Championship.

FINALS MVP: Carmelo Anthony

[Myles Nelson]

[SIZE="3"]The Offseason[/SIZE]

NBA Lottery
We go into the Lottery with the top shot at the #1 pick, with a 23.3% chance of getting it. At worse, we fall to #4. I like our chances.

We dropped to #4, as Minnesota and Toronto each jumped up 4 spots to 3 and 2, and Phoenix got the #1 pick. I hate Phoenix now.

Awards
MVP: Dwight Howard, 25.3 ppg, 16 rpg, 3.8 bpg
DPoY: Dwight Howard, 1.0 spg, 3.8 bpg
6th Man: Ben Wallace (Spurs), 8.6 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.1 bpg
ROY: John Wall, 16.7 ppg, 7.2 apg
COY: George Karl

Jordan Crawford made All-Rookie 2nd team. Other than that we didn't get any awards.

The owner was moderately pleased with my season, although he wished I had won a few more games. I promised him an average year (I'm targeting next year as our first year going to the playoffs) and that we'd be under the cap. He accepted that.

During the coach hire process, I extended our 1st and 2nd assistants, but Jordan and my 3rd assistant will be let go at the end of the year. They have one more season to bungle things up.

[Myles Nelson]

[SIZE="3"]Draft Process[/SIZE]

Taking a look at my roster, I see this:

SG Jordan Crawford
SF Jonas Jerebko
PF Taj Gibson
C Greg Oden

We have promising players at every position but point guard, so I will be attacking that in the draft. My wings seem weak in general, but I'll be focusing on getting the best PG the draft can offer me. This means I'll be scouting

Kyrie Irving
Kemba Walker
Jimmer Fredette
Brandon Knight

As far as other players go (as I have 10 picks left) I'll be looking at

Derrick Williams
Jared Sullinger
Josh Selby
John Henson
Jan Vesley
Perry Jones
Marcus Morris
Terrence Jones
Harrison Barnes
Matteo Maerlant
Jordan Hamilton

The mock drafts have us picking Kemba Walker at 4 and Jordan Hamilton at 21.

1. Terrence Jones
2. Jonas Valanciunas
3. Kyrie Irving

Dangit. That's who I was hoping would fall to me. I'm really just looking for the best available player at this point, but I don't like anyone too much. I entertain the notion of trading down, but since no one can take the contracts of Gordon or Maxiell with them I hold the pick. I finally just decide to draft my need and get...

4. Kemba Walker

I like Kemba, and we need a scorer. He may be Stuckey 2.0, but I trust Walker more than Stuckey. We'll see, I might just deal both him and Stuckey.

5. Derrick Williams
6. Perry Jones
7. Jared Sullinger
8. Brandon Knight
9. Jeremy Tyler
10. John Henson
11. Harrison Barnes
12. Chris Singleton
13. Enes Kanter
14. Mason Plumlee
15. Donatas Motiejunas
16. Tobias Harris
17. Jan Vesley
18. Jimmer Fredette
19. Josh Selby
20. Marcus Morris

21. Jordan Hamilton

Right after drafting Hamilton, who I'm not crazy about, I got an offer from the Spurs, who offered the 27th pick for Hamilton. I work with them a bit, and work this trade out.

Detroit Pistons trade
Jordan Hamilton
2013 2nd rounder

San Antonio Spurs trade
Tiago Splitter
2013 2nd rounder

Why: Splitter gives us a third, solid young post player in addition to Gibson and Oden, and I wasn't too high on Hamilton, who'd likely sit behind Crawford and Gordon this year. The 2nd rounders were just to entice them, as I think we'll be better by '13.

22. Lucas Noguiera
23. Phil Carrera
24. Elias Harris
25. Tristian Thompson
26. Trey Tompkins
27. Kyle Singler
28. Matteo Maerlant
29. Alec Burks
30. C.J. Leslie

32. Tyler Honeycutt

Just needed the best player available at this point. I was hoping Burks would drop a few more spots but Honeycutt isn't a shabby plan B.

[Tim Moungey]

Wow, The Jimmer at 18? Who stole him?

[Myles Nelson]

The Pacers got JimmerMania, who is projected to start over A.J. Price

[LightningStrike5]

Where did you get the draft file?

[Myles Nelson]

Where did you get the draft file?

I'm pretty sure it's yours.

[Myles Nelson]

I downloaded it before the update though.

[Myles Nelson]

Contracts
I renounced Gerald Henderson, Grant Hill, Nazr Mohammed and Chris Wilcox. I make a qualifying offer to Rodney Stuckey, fully expecting to sign him no matter what and then trading him off to the team that tried to take him for some young talent at least. I also pick up rookie options on Tiago Splitter, Taj Gibson, and Jordan Crawford so that they'll be around next year too. I extended Jonas Jerebko's contract for 4 years at a pittance of a 2 million a year.

Summer League
I really don't care much about summer league, but I always want all my eligible players to play, so I invite Kemba Walker, Jordan Crawford, Jonas Jerebko, Tyler Honeycutt, Taj Gibson and Tiago Splitter. I also pick up possible role players Nick Calathes, Brian Zoubek, Timofey Mozgov, and Andy Rautins.

The main thing I noticed from summer league is that Kemba is an effective point guard as well: he had a decent A/TO ratio for a scoring point guard (2.3) that will make me somewhat happy. If he can keep up that ratio or even up it to close to 3 by next year, I'll be satisfied.

Free Agency
This is the stuff everyone loves right? We go into free agency with a few rules:

1. Must resign Stuckey in order to trade him. Sign and trade, because we aren't keeping him.
2. We want our backup PG to Kemba to be a strict playmaker, in order to have a change of pace and someone to mentor Kemba.
3. Absolutely have to have an off the bench shooter, like a Korver or Morrow.
4. Extra big men are good, since Oden is still somewhat injury prone.
5. Only sign a few veterans. This team isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so this year is about getting a young core to grow together and some vets for leadership and mentoring off the bench.

It's an OK free agency. Here are the top players on the market:

Kevin Durant (RFA)
Zach Randolph
Al Horford (RFA)
David West
Jamal Crawford
Marc Gasol
Reggie Williams
Carl Landry
Tony Parker
Chris Duhon
Tayshaun Prince
Rodney Stuckey
Shane Battier
Marcus Thornton (RFA)
Arron Afflalo (RFA)
Vince Carter

To fill our off the bench shooter needs, we target Korver, Vujacic, and Anthony Parker.

For the point guard slot, I target Carlos Arroyo and TJ Ford. Point guards aren't plentiful in FA, and most of them will take away too much time from Kemba, like Parker and Duhon. Mike Conley is the only young PG I'm considering, but he's an RFA and will likely be expensive. I target him anyway, in case I can somehow snag him at a reasonable price. Hell, maybe I'll trade Stuckey for him.

I target Craig Smith, Nick Collison, Shaq-Diesel, Joel Przybilla, Timofey Mozgov (who shows promise) and Tyson Chandler as big men to back up the three headed beast of Gibson, Splitter and Oden.

Oh by the way, we have 31M in cap space to work with, and 3 spots at least to fill.

I offer up a 2 year deal to Arroyo, 3 years for Korver, and 4 years for Mozgov. I decided not to chase after Conley, and make Kemba the starter from day one with a capable point guard to back him up. Once Mozgov makes a decision, I'll either sign Collison or Smith, two guys who won't demand a lot of minutes, or if Mozgov doesn't sign I'll look more for Chandler or Przybilla. I also offered a 5 year max contract to Durant. I'm sure the Thunder will match it, they'd be dumb not to, but he's insanely good, young, and would completely upgrade the team. I'm fairly certain every team in the NBA who has cap space at the moment offered him a max contract.

We sign all three role players in one day, leaving our max contract to Durant out there. I offer Joel Przybilla a 3 year, 5 million a year contract.

Durantula resigns a max contract w/ the Thunder as expected. We nab Przybilla and will sit tight from here on out, and the Spurs resign Parker and Richard Jefferson.

Sacramento signs Marc Gasol to a 5 year, 62 million dollar deal the same day the Warriors sign Reggie Williams to a 5 year, 60 million dollar deal.

Al Horford signed a 5 year, 69 million dollar deal with Cleveland, and Stuckey got a 5 year, 52 M contract from Phoenix. We match (crap. Trade time.) with every intention to shop Stuckey. Miami gets Shane Battier, and perhaps most interestingly, Zach Randolph signed a 5 year, max deal with the Kings. They now have a very dangerous, Memphis-like frontcourt in Randolph and Gasol. With Tyreke Evans manning the perimeter, Sacramento could be a decent playoff team this year.

The Lakers get Tayshaun Prince for 3 years at 19 million, and the Grizzlies steal Tyson Chandler on a 2 year, 7 million dollar deal. If we weren't already loaded in the front court I would have signed him. Sigh...

Nuggets get Mike Conley on a 2 year, 13 million dollar deal to run with Billups. The Pacers sign David West to a 5 year, 64 million dollar contract. Former Piston Nazr Mohammed signed with the Spurs. Glad to see he'll be winning games now.

I shop around Stuckey for young, game changing talent. I think I found it.

Detroit Pistons trade
Rodney Stuckey
Tyler Honeycutt
Jordan Crawford
2014 1st Rd Draft Pick

Philadelphia 76ers trade
Derrick Williams
Evan Turner
Andres Nocioni
2013 2nd Rd Draft Pick
2012 2nd Rd Draft Pick

Why: I hate Stuckey, don't want to play him at all, have to shop him out. I wanted young talent, and Derrick Williams certainly qualified as that. I also plan on competing by 2014, so I won't miss this pick. Nocioni was a throw in to make the numbers work. So it seemed like a good all around move to me. I'll miss Crawford, but I'm replacing him with Evan freaking Turner.

Lastly, I fire Eddie Jordan because he's an idiot and pencils in Kyle Korver as a backup PG, and gives Mozgov no minutes at all. I hire Rudy Tomjanovich for 3 years to lead this team to a winning record. It's time we start winning, in my book.