Winning With Defense In SacTown

[MrEndshiftresign]

NOTE - Using default rosters, Euroleagues activated. And I happen to be a fan of run-and-gun basketball, even if my character here prefers it the other way around. Jerry Palms is the name of the Sacramento owner in the game, while "Pedro Campana" (Pete Bell from "Blue Chips" literally translated in Spanish/Filipino) is my character. You may remember him from one of those DDSCB dynasties I tried to run before deciding to wait till the new version...

6/20/2010

They literally pulled me off the streets. I was literally that random drunk at the bar chosen to run a sports team. A few nights ago, I was nobody. I was just some random Filipino guy visiting relatives in California and relaxing over a few beers at a bar in the Sacramento area. And it just so happens that I was arguing about basketball with the normally mild-mannered bartender.

I was telling him how we play basketball back home in the Philippines. We like our basketball physical, with players grinding it out and milking the clock as necessary. We like games that end with scores of 57-56 over 48 minutes, though most professional teams average around 80 to 85 without American reinforcements. And he told me I was crazy.

I told him that I was going to thrash the damned bar and fly back home to my homeland when a couple of distinguished gentlemen entered the bar. Apparently they had heard the commotion from outside and decided to see what the heck was going on...

Then the older one extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Jerry Palms, owner of the Sacramento Kings. And your name?"

"My name is Pedro Campana, but everyone calls me Pete. I-i-it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Palms." I wanted to cower in embarrassment after making that scene earlier...

"Call me Jerry. Listen, our basketball team needs a general manager, and judging by how worked up you were earlier, I think you may have something up your sleeve."

I was stunned, to say the least. A few seconds ago I was about to have my wallet emptied by yet another temper tantrum. Now I'm being asked to manage an NBA franchise?

"You see, Pete, we've decided to hand over the reins to a common man, instead of a known basketball or business personality. We want to get opinions from people like you, the fans, and see if you can do a better job running the Kings than the jokers before you."

"But I'm not even from around here...I'm from the Philippines, and..."

"Relax, Pete. We'll have all your papers sorted out in no time and we'll have you start work immediately. Sounds good?"

I was still amazed that Jerry Palms wanted to give the GM job to this average Joe who was cut from his high school basketball team and didn't do much in his college time except skip class and play in a band. But I thought...the money sounds good, I'll be working with NBA players and probably teaching them a thing or two about defense, which is the name of the basketball game where I'm from, and it'll be one of those dreams come true that I hadn't dreamt of yet, if that makes any sense.

"All right, Jerry. I'll take the job. Just give me a couple days to let my folks back at home know and maybe buy my girlfriend a plane ticket over here..."

"I'll take care of that as well. Welcome to the Sacramento Kings organization, Pedro 'Pete' Campana..."


6/24/2010

First decision as GM? Fire Paul Westphal. He's a nice guy, was a great player back when I was a little kid (and even before that), but not the coach we need if we want to introduce scientific, physical and defensive-oriented basketball to SacTown. We need someone who preaches tough D, deliberate offense and focuses on the three-point shot.

And after sorting through the different coaches without an NBA job, we settled on the man who kept Cleveland competitive in the '90s by taking Pat Riley's Uglyball to Elephant Man levels. We hired Mike Fratello to be the new coach of the Sacramento Kings - three-year deal for $4,400,000 annually. Yeah, he may be 63 years old and may not have had much success in his last NBA job, but I'm confident he can teach the boys a thing or two about how basketball was played back in my youth. Yeah, the mid-to-late '90s were an even lower-scoring time back home...

[MrEndshiftresign]

6/27/2010

I've turned a few heads so far. Some people think I'm mad to trade all these proven players for draft slots, but we're thinking long term here as far as overall star potential is concerned, but we're also thinking of guys who can contribute immediately on defense and become bona fide stoppers. So with that in mind, here's how our draft panned out...

#5 - Derrick Favors (PF, Georgia Tech)
#14 - Gordon Hayward (SF, Butler) - acquired from Houston with Shane Battier in exchange for Jason Thompson.
#16 - Luke Babbitt (SF, Nevada) - acquired from Charlotte with Alexis Ajinca and Nazr Mohammed in exchange for Carl Landry.
#33 - Jeremy Lin (PG, Harvard)

The three first-round forwards, quite obviously, can help out on defense. Favors can block shots and operate inside, while I'm confident the two small forwards, Hayward and Babbitt can take care of the outside shooting. Shane Battier may start at SG while I move Tyreke Evans to PG. Ajinca and Mohammed provide depth at the 4 and 5 positions. Lin is of Asian descent just like I am, but more importantly he can shoot the three, play good defense and serve as a quality backup for Evans and Udrih. We've got almost everyone we need. Almost everyone...

[Tim Moungey]

The cruelty of taking a Reno player at my favorite #, 16.

[MrEndshiftresign]

11/2/2010

2010-11 Sacramento Kings Opening Day Roster:
(arranged in depth chart order)

PG - Tyreke Evans (6'6-219, 20)
PG - Beno Udrih (6'3-205, 27)
PG - Roddy Beaubois (6'2-182, 22) - TR
SG - Shane Battier (6'8-220, 31) - TR
SG - Francisco Garcia (6'7-195, 28)
SG - Wesley Matthews (6'5-215, 24) - FA
SF - Gordon Hayward (6'8-211, 21) - R/TR
SF - Luke Babbitt (6'9-218, 21) - R/TR
PF - Jon Brockman (6'7-260, 23)
PF - Derrick Favors (6'10-245, 19) - R
PF - Josh Boone (6'10-237, 25) - FA
C - Sam Dalembert (6'11-250, 29)
C - Nazr Mohammed (6'10-250, 32) - TR
C - Brian Zoubek (7'1-250, 23) - R/FA

Coaching Staff:

Mike Fratello (63), Phil Johnson (69), Tyrone Corbin (47), Scott Layden (52)

Method of acquisition:
R - Rookie
FA - Free Agent
TR - Trade

It pained me a bit to cut Jeremy Lin from the lineup, but Wesley Matthews (son of the ex-NBA backup and Philippine Basketball Association import of the same name) played so well in training camp that we had to make way for him. But maybe we should've kept him after all, as Alex Ajinca was just plain useless in the summer leagues. As a result, I had to make a late trade with Dallas for Roddy Beaubois and a first-rounder (in exchange for Donte Greene and a second-rounder). To fill the void at center, I signed Brian Zoubek, the Dookie seven-footer who outplayed Ajinca in the summer leagues. If he plays better than Cherokee Parks did in the NBA, then I'll be a happy man.

First game results from November 1 - New Orleans 95, Sacramento 70. Gordon Hayward leads the Kings with 12 points. Not a very promising start, but we have to remember these boys are learning to walk it up after the previous regimes asked them to run. Not all of them enjoy it, especially the younger players, but Mike and myself are trying to prove a point. Defense wins games. Ball control and solid three-point shooting can throw off those run-and-gunners like Alvin Gentry, Mike D'Antoni and Co. This is just the first game, and the best is yet to come.

[MrEndshiftresign]

11/19/2010

Team Record - 3-7, 4 GB

So far, so good defensively. Our 96.3 points against is eighth best in the league. Unfortunately we're only averaging 92.5. That's 26th in the league, and while I see nothing wrong with 92.5 as it is, that would only be okay if we were holding 'em down to under 90.

I've asked all our known three-point shooters not to be shy to gun it from long range. Because that's how we're going to win games...with the long bomb and with defense. So far, no complaints from the boys.

11/25/2010

Team Record - 5-7, 5 GB

Now we're getting somewhere. Really stout defensive effort against Indiana as we routed them last night, 97-73 at home. Tyreke led us as usual with 19, with Beno adding 18. Still wish we fired more long ones, but probably best that we didn't, because that 4-for-18 from downtown was the only sore spot in an otherwise great game.

12/2/2010

Team Record - 5-12, 6 GB

I spoke too soon. Celtics just defeated us at Boston, 121-99, with Pierce, Garnett and Rondo doing most of the damage. They're not known to run, but they did just that, forcing us to play up-tempo and upsetting Mike and the coaching staff with some of the worst defense we've played all year.

[MrEndshiftresign]

(NOTE - Somehow this workaround worked for me...I changed Sam Dalembert's position from C to PF, packaged him with Nazr Mohammed, and the AI Celtics accepted my trade for KG and a second-rounder!)

1/18/2011

Team record - 17-23, 17 GB

Kings edge Clippers 91-83, Garnett scores just 8 in Sacramento debut

SACRAMENTO, CA - Tyreke Evans scored 19 points and rookie Gordon Hayward added 18 as the defensive-oriented Sacramento Kings defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 91-83 Monday at the ARCO Arena.

The Kings made no secret of their intention to play hard, bruising defense, winning the first quarter 20-8 and leading 43-27 at halftime. However, Blake Griffin and Chris Kaman, who led the losing squad with 18 and 17 respectively, helped the Clippers to a 30-21 third quarter as they run roughshod against the Kings' "center-by-committee" rotation. Still, it wasn't enough to throw off the home team, who continued relying on tough defense and accurate long-range marksmanship to stave off the rally and win the game. With the win, Sacramento improved to 17-23 while the Clippers fell to 20-19.

"Impressive win, but we need to decide on a starting center," said Kings GM Pedro Campana after the game. The youthful general manager had recently traded for future Hall of Fame forward Kevin Garnett, who has recently been unhappy with the underachieving Boston Celtics (also 17-23), sending starting center Samuel Dalembert and his top backup Nazr Mohammed to Beantown. Garnett scored 8 points and pulled down 9 rebounds in 37 minutes in his debut as starting PF, while Josh Boone and rookies Derrick Favors and Brian Zoubek shared time at the center position. Boone scored 6 points in 32 minutes as starter, and may be riding the bench once again following his unremarkable stint as Dalembert's replacement.

Word out is that Favors will settle into the starting job after a few games, while Boone and new acquisition Kwame Brown will serve as backups. The Kings host MVP candidate Dwight Howard (24.6 ppg, 15.5 rpg, 4.1 bpg) and the Orlando Magic Wednesday night.

[MrEndshiftresign]

2/16/2011

Record as of All-Star Break - 23-31

PPG - 98.8 (19th)
PPG Against - 99.7 (15th)

Individual leaders:

PTS - Tyreke Evans (19.1), Kevin Garnett (14.0), Shane Battier (12.7!), Beno Udrih (12.4), Derrick Favors (10.6)
REB - Derrick Favors (7.6), Kevin Garnett (7.0), Josh Boone (4.5)
AST - Tyreke Evans (6.1), Beno Udrih (4.7), Kevin Garnett (2.4)
STL - Tyreke Evans (1.3)
BLK - Derrick Favors (2.4)

[MrEndshiftresign]

6/7/2011

Team record - 37-45, 21 GB

We wouldn't have made the playoffs anyway in the mighty Western Conference, but I still wish we could've avoided that late-season swoon. I wish Tyreke didn't have to complain about being benched versus the lowly T-Wolves - don't most teams try to give quality PT to the scrubs when they're out of the running? And I wish he would've spent more time playing hard than complaining about having to play the point or fighting with Omri.

So far, I'm satisfied with how this season turned out, though I'm not too sure about the Palms Brothers. (NOTE - reference to the Maloof Brothers, though there's only one owner per team in DDSPB2!) I'm glad Shane didn't mind being converted to sixth man, or Gordon moving to seventh man, with Roddy and Luke taking their starting spots. We needed Luke because he has the bigger build and stronger defensive potential, while Roddy was wasting away on the bench so I asked Mike to assign him as "court-testing guard". We gave Wes some late-season starts, while Kwame finished most quarters. Brian and Jon played the least, but had their moments. Derrick was our best rookie by far and learned a lot with KG playing alongside him. Josh proved he still has some gas left in the tank, while Omri and Francisco were quality reserves at the 2 and 3 spots. Beno was the only true PG we had, and we're glad we were able to get along even after that torn knee tendon that took him out for the year, and probably the next season to come. We played tough defense in most games, and with a little more work, we can get the wild shooters to tone down and the pace to slow down a bit more to get where we want. We want to lead the league in defense and be one of the top three-point shooting teams. Give us a few years and we should get there.

I think I've namechecked everyone. Last year was a poor draft for point guards, so we're hoping we could find someone capable in this year's draft class. Brandon Knight? Kyrie Irving? Wait a minute, I take that back. Not a good year for point men after all. We may need to trade up in the draft for this...

All in all, a good year for the Kings.

2010-11 SUMMARY:

League Champion - NEW JERSEY NETS (with LBJ and D-Wade!), defeated Dallas Mavericks 4-1
MVP - Chris Paul (NOH, 23.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 11.1 apg, 2.2 spg)
DPOY - Dwyane Wade (NJN, 22.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 4.6 apg, 2.5 spg, 1.5 bpg)
6th Man - Greg Oden (POR, 10.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.2 bpg)
ROY - DERRICK FAVORS (SAC, 11.2 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 2.4 bpg)

THE KINGS:

Tyreke Evans (18.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 4.0 apg, 1.3 spg)
Kevin Garnett (13.7 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.4 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.9 bpg)
Beno Udrih (12.1 ppg, 4.7 apg) - 55 GAMES
Shane Battier (11.7 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.0 apg, 0.9 spg, 1.3 bpg, 210 3PM)
Derrick Favors (11.2 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 2.4 bpg)
Gordon Hayward (9.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.9 apg)
Luke Babbitt (7.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg)
Omri Casspi (6.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.4 apg)
Francisco Garcia (5.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1.6 apg)
Josh Boone (5.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg)
Rodrigue Beaubois (4.9 ppg)
Jon Brockman (3.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg)
Wesley Matthews (2.9 ppg)
Kwame Brown (2.2 ppg, 1.8 rpg)
Brian Zoubek (1.7 ppg, 1.0 rpg)

[buddy]

nice job.. keep it up! good luck in the draft!

[MrEndshiftresign]

Unfortunately this dynasty is history, following an early November reformat. The other Sacramento dynasty posted looks great, though!