Heading to the Big Easy

[Myles Nelson]

[SIZE="4"]2013 NBA Awards[/SIZE]

Most Valuable Player
Kevin Love - MIN - 31.3 ppg 1.4 apg 13.7 rpg 1.1 spg 0.7 bpg

A worthy winner! Love had an insane year for Timberwolves, having a full year with Rubio as his point did his scoring wonders. Love is the best PF in the game today and is still young. Grizzlies probably feel really dumb for trading him on draft night now.

Defense Player of the Year
Anthony Davis - NOH - 15.3 ppg 1.5 apg 9.6 rpg 1.6 spg 4.1 bpg

The combination of steals and blocks for the versatile forward got him this award, and damn Davis was good defensively. He altered a lot of shots and frustrated a lot of people. So glad I drafted him.

Sixth Man of the Year
Manu Ginobili - ATL - 17.1 ppg 4.5 apg 4.0 rpg 0.8 spg 0.7 bpg

A great sixth man his whole career, Ginobili showed he's still got something left in the tank even at an old age. His scoring is efficient and he has a well rounded game. Ginobili may be a sixth man, but he's definitely still capable of starting for most teams.

Rookie of the Year
Anthony Davis - NOH

Three other rookies came close in my book. Thomas Robinson (14.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (11.7 ppg, 4.0 apg, 5.2 rpg, 2.0 spg, 1.2 bpg) and Damian Lillard (11.4 ppg, 7.1 apg). Davis was still the best of the bunch though.

Coach of the Year
Vinny Del Negro - LAC -58-24

He's really done great things with those Clippers (yes, they got CP3, but still). It's a very strong dynasty there and he's got them doing what he wants them to do.

All-NBA 1st Team
PG Chris Paul - LAC - 20.5 ppg 10.1 apg 4.8 rpg 2.3 spg
SG Kobe Bryant - LAL - 25.0 ppg 4.3 apg 4.8 rpg 1.0 spg
SF LeBron James - MIA - 30 ppg 5.3 apg 5.9 rpg 2.1 spg 0.7 bpg
PF Kevin Love - MIN
C Andrew Bynum - LAL - 19.8 ppg 0.9 apg 10.9 rpg 0.8 spg 1.6 bpg

Three LA players make the first team, and all of those guys earned their spots.

All-NBA 2nd Team
PG Russell Westbrook - OKC - 23.2 ppg 6.8 apg 5.5 rpg 1.2 spg
SG Eric Gordon - NOH - 24.6 ppg 3.9 rpg 3.9 apg 1.7 spg 0.5 bpg
SF Kevin Durant - OKC - 28.8 ppg 1.3 apg 7.3 rpg 1.0 spg 1.2 bpg
PF Anthony Davis - NOH
C DeMarcus Cousins - SAC - 19.9 ppg 1.5 apg 10.7 rpg 2.0 spg 1.5 bpg

4 of the 5 players came from either OKC or NOH, and all 5 came from the West. Something interesting there. Gordon and Davis were our bright spots obviously, and Westbrook and Durant had fantastic seasons. You could make a case for Cousins being the better center this year over Bynum, but 2nd Team isn't shabby.

All-NBA 3rd Team
PG Deron Williams - BRO - 18.5 ppg 10.5 apg 4.4 rpg 1.4 spg 0.4 bpg
SG Monta Ellis - MIL - 21.3 ppg 4.5 apg 4.3 rpg 1.4 spg 0.2 bpg
SF Carmelo Anthony - NYK - 28.5 ppg 1.9 apg 5.8 rpg 1.2 spg 0.5 bpg
PF LaMarcus Aldridge - POR - 22.4 ppg 1.6 apg 9.6 rpg 1.1 spg 0.8 bpg
C Dwight Howard - ORL- 21.5 ppg 1.5 apg 11.6 rpg 1.5 spg 2.1 bpg

On offense alone, Aldridge should have been second team over Davis, but Davis's defense put him as the second best PF in the league. Howard should have been 1st Team, easily. Melo and Williams bring a lot of excitement to that New York rivalry, and Ellis is thriving in Milwaukee.

All-Defense 1st Team
PG Chris Paul - LAC
SG Tony Allen - IND - 1.8 spg 0.6 bpg
SF Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - CHA - 2.0 spg 1.2 bpg
PF Anthony Davis - NOH
C Marc Gasol - 2.4 spg 2.6 bpg

All-Defense 2nd Team
PG Jeremy Lin - UTH - 2.0 spg 0.4 bpg
SG Paul George - IND - 1.8 spg 0.7 bpg
SF LeBron James - MIA
PF Serge Ibaka - OKC - 0.8 spg 3.4 bpg
C Dwight Howard - ORL

All-Rookie 1st Team
PG Damian Lillard - TOR - 11.4 ppg 7.1 apg 3.4 rpg 0.6 spg
SG Dion Waiters - POR - 9.9 ppg 3.2 apg 2.9 rpg 1.4 spg
SF Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - CHA - 11.7 ppg 4.0 apg 5.2 rpg 2.0 spg 1.2 bpg
PF Anthony Davis - NOH
C Andre Drummond - POR - 9.1 ppg 1.4 apg 7.2 rpg 0.8 spg 2.9 bpg

That's a pretty good rookie team right there. If that was a starting 5 they'd definitely win some games in the NBA, though they'd struggle to score. Lots of defense here.

All-Rookie 2nd Team
PG Austin Rivers - NOH - 7.1 ppg 3.6 apg 2.2 rpg 0.4 spg
SG Terrence Ross - PHX - 10.1 ppg 1.8 apg 2.8 rpg 0.7 spg 0.5 bpg
SF Harrison Barnes - GSW - 11.1 ppg 1.8 apg 3.9 rpg 1.1 spg 0.2 bpg
PF Thomas Robinson - CLE - 14.4 ppg 1.3 apg 6.7 rpg 1.0 spg 0.7 bpg
C Jonas Valanciunas - TOR - 10.5 ppg 1.5 apg 6.9 rpg 0.7 spg 1.6 bpg

A lot more offense on this team, and another Hornet. Feels nice to have so many award winners.

For those of you counting at home, that's two Player of the Year trophies (Defensive and Rookie, both to Anthony Davis) and five All-X Team awards (Davis three times, Gordon and Rivers once). Pretty high praise for our Hornets, especially Anthony Davis, who took home 5 awards as a rookie.

[Myles Nelson]

Tom Benson was more than happy with the way our team did this past year. I mean, who wouldn't be? We had an insane year!

Of course, now there's pressure to build on that. I promised him a playoff berth and that we would be around the cap, and he was cool with that.

1st Assistant Del Harris retired, putting us in search of a new assistant. We hire T.R. Dunn, a fantastic assistant, to a 4 year contract.

[Myles Nelson]

Heading into the draft I have 10 players under contract, two deep at every position except SF, and three SGs. I also have picks 6, 9 and 52, which I'll either be using on a top-notch PG, a top-notch SF, or parting with in a trade that nets me any elite player.

The tough thing about trying to do a trade is all the cap holds at this time. We only have 2M in cap space and most teams have no cap space, meaning any trade would have to have equal salaries, always a bit of a hassle to deal with. I could always draft players with the intent to trade them, but that's always a little messy. We'll see what happens.

We scouted the following players:

SF Dana Morrison (Indiana)
SF Derek Smith (Colorado)
SF Jon Williams (Arkansas)
SF Jon Takaki (Purdue)
PG Joe Songaila (Duke)
PG Wesley Snow (Arizona State)
SF Julian Russell (Providence)
PG Clement Mims (Arkansas)

Those were all the SF and PGs worth taking a look at, so we turned our eye elsewhere in case we decided to trade the players we pick.

PF Ben Dyer (Georgia Tech)
SG Jeremy Thomas (Ohio State)
C Damian O'Connor (Arizona)
C Tim Murphy (Southern Miss)
C Brian Murphy (Miami)
C Tobe Young (Mississippi State)
PF Mark Lund (Oklahoma)

And in the case we draft one of the players from the second list, I took a look around at the likely PG and SFs available to us for trade.

PGs
Marquis Teague

Trade market for PGs is shallow, I think the FA market will be a lot better.

SFs
Rudy Gay
Jonas Jerebko

Okay, so the amount of good players who are on bad teams and remotely tradeable (i.e., I left guys like Kyrie Irving and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist off the list, as their teams won't trade them) is slim to none. Maybe I'll make some cap-saving moves and attack FA. Or perhaps I'll just draft the best PG and S available.

[Myles Nelson]

Hey guys, posting from the war room now. Doesn't look like there's anything on the trade front. I'll just pick the best PG and SF available and make any cap-saving room, as right now I have roughly 8M going into FA, and I'll need just a little more if I want to make any big splashes.

1. PF Pat Marley, selected by the Phoenix Suns.

No surprise there, he has been mocked to go first all year long. At 6'8", 220, he might be a bit of a tweener forward, but the Suns need all the talent they can get.

New Orleans Hornets trade
PF Luis Scola

Milwaukee Bucks trade
PF Drew Gooden
#40 pick

Why: Although Scola played well for us in the postseason, he's a luxury we didn't necessarily need, and for 21M over the next two years, certainly an expensive luxury. Having Gooden allows us to play Ayon, Davis and Thompson a little more, and saves us roughly 8M over the next two years. The pick was the icing on the cake.

2. SF Jon Takaki, selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A well-liked forward, he has offensive prowess and isn't shabby defensively either.

3. SF Julian Russell, selected by the Toronto Raptors.
4. PF Ben Dyer, selected by the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Raptors get an athletic defensive forward, in the Paul George mold, and the Bobcats get a tough defensive and rebounding big man, who has quite a bit of offense too.

5. C Tobe Young, selected by the Detroit Pistons.

An odd selection, as they already have Greg Monroe and John Henson, but I guess this is insurance in case Monroe doesn't come back 100% from his knee surgery.

I have a few guys I'm looking at here. PG Clement Mims, A scoring, A passing, B handling, A stealing, but low work ethic. PG Joe Songaila, A scoring, A passing, C handling, A stealing, but only average work ethic.

I can't decide. So I'll take whichever is left at pick 9, and take the BPA here at 6, with the intent to trade him letter.

6. PF Mark Lund, from Oklahoma.

Lund is a good big man who likes to face up and can really score the ball. He's the best available, and he'll help us either get cap space or a SF, whichever works out best for us.

7. SF Derek Smith, selected by the Orlando Magic.
8. PG Joe Songaila, selected by the Memphis Grizzlies.

This may come back to haunt me, as I took a gamble by not selecting Songaila at 6, but we'll see what happens with Mims's career. I have faith in him too.

9. PG Clement Mims, from Arkansas.

The experts think I made the right choice picking Mims. I personally couldn't care less what they have to say, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one who sees potential in this kid.

I immediately start hitting the phones, trying to trade Marion and Lund and get myself a good cheap SF.

New Orleans Hornets trade
SF Shawn Marion
PF Mark Lund
SG Jared Cunningham
#40 pick
#52 pick

Phoenix Suns trade
SF Jared Dudley
SG Terrence Ross

Why: This deal saves us another 4M, giving us enough cap space to pay for a big impact PG in FA. We also trade away Lund, who I never cared about, and Cunningham, who was squeezed out of the rotation, and nets us Dudley, a younger SF who defends as well as Marion did and shoots a whole lot better, and Terrence Ross, a guy who's big enough to play backup SF and can shoot the lights out.

We may have overpaid a bit, but we got what we wanted. All I need to know.

Definitely missed a bunch of picks while trading, so I stopped caring and just left Newark altogether. My time there was done anyway.

[Myles Nelson]

I renounced Louis Amundson, Dahntay Jones, and Peja Stojakovic, leaving us with 11,557,067 officially to play with.

We also have 3 PGs, 3 SGs, 1 SF, 2 PFs and 2 Cs. Vasquez or Rivers can go, I don't need 3 PGs who will all want minutes, Henry and Ross can play SF but I'd like to get an impact player there, and my big rotation is set, though I may grab an injury insurance guy later.

Mark Lund looks pretty terrible, as his defense and rebounding numbers are atrocious.

Clement Mims looks pretty good actually. 76/86 in passing, 62/69 in handling, 90/99 in stealing, 85/92 in IQ.

Joe Songaila looks equally as impressive. 78/92 in passing, 57/67 in handling, 83/96 in stealing, 66/75 in IQ.

Summer League Stats
PG Clement Mims - 15.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 7.4 apg, 1.0 spg, 2.6 topg, 50% fg, 83.7% STOP.
PG Austin Rivers - 13.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 6.8 apg, 1.6 topg, 48% fg, 46.7% 3pt, 58.6% STOP.
SG Terrence Ross - 13.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 44.4% fg, 100% STOP.

[Myles Nelson]

So here's how our FA targets look.

SF
Nic Batum
Chase Budinger

No seriously. Those are the best SFs out there right now. What happened to all the good SFs in the NBA?

Not entirely sure what to do now. Our PG rotation is stacked, I have more than enough SGs (including Eric Gordon, who can only play SG), and Anthony Davis and Jason Thompson holding down the big man spots. However, with the way FA looks, my best bet might be moving one of those guys to the bench (Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap and Jrue Holiday highlight this class. Basically every position but SF. Though I guess I could throw Smith there).

Time to think.

[IWWROCKS]

Tough decisions ahead. I guess you just need to decide if your willing to wait a year and keep the cap space free in hopes of something better. Be interesting to see your decision, especially with so much quality in other positions out there.

[Myles Nelson]

I'm considering just going after Josh Smith and starting him at SF.

[Myles Nelson]

I traded Greivis Vasquez to the Pacers for their 2016 1st rounder, to save us 2M cap space and allow us to give a max deal to a few select players. Let's see how it pans out.

The Clippers immediately resign Blake Griffin to a 5 year, 80M deal.

Duncan resigns with the Spurs to a 1 year deal later, and Felton stays in Portland for 4 years and 42M.

Howard resigned with the Magic to a 5 year deal, worth 94M. Boooring!

Josh Smith moved over to Indiana for 4 years, 58M. Kings and Jazz kept Tyreke and Millsap, respectively, and both Blair and Splitter went back to the Spurs.

Pistons stole Lin from the Jazz, but they recovered by signing Ty Lawson. Clippers resigned Calderon and got Darren Collison, which really doesn't make up for their huge loss.

Chris Paul signed with the Bucks.

Minnesota nabs James Harden, Atlanta steals away Jrue Holiday, the Nets sign Nikola Pekovic and the Pistons put Ellis next to Lin in their new revamped backcourt.

And we get our big signing: Serge Ibaka for 4 years, 36M.

We also sign Eric Maynor to a 2 year, 1.7M deal to be our backup combo guard/insurance injury guy.

We're so ready.

[Myles Nelson]

2012-2013 NBA Preview

East
1. Miami Heat (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Steve Nash, Marcus Camby)
2. Indiana Pacers (Grevis Vasquez, Andy Brown, Danny Granger, Josh Smith, Roy Hibbert)
3. Washington Wizards (John Wall, Nene Hilario, Trevor Booker, Jordan Crawford, Alonzo Gee)
4. Boston Celtics (Rajon Rondo, Brook Lopez, Paul Pierce, JaVale McGee, Vince Carter)
5. Chicago Bulls (Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Corey Brewer)
6. Detroit Pistons (Monta Ellis, Jeremy Lin, Greg Monroe, Mareese Speights, Jonas Jerebko)
7. Cleveland Cavaliers (Kyrie Irving, Thomas Robinson, Marcin Gortat, DJ Ausgustin, JR Smith)
8. New York Knicks (Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Moe Harkless, Landry Fields)
9. Atlanta Hawks (Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Kevin Garnettt, Jerod Walker, Marvin Williams)
10. Philadelphia 76ers (Andre Iguodala, Louis Williams, Spencer Hawes, Elton Brand, Evan Turner)
11. Toronto Raptors (Andrea Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, Damian Lillard, James Johnson)
12. Brooklyn Nets (Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace, Ersan Ilyasova, Anthony Morrow, Nikola Pekovic)
13. Charlotte Bobcats (Kemba Walker, Danny Green, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Hedo Turkoglu, Bismack Biyombo)
14. Milwaukee Bucks (Chris Paul, Brandon Jennings, Luis Scola, Mike Preston, Zaza Pachulia)
15. Orlando Magic (Dwight Howard, Jordan Farmar, Ben Gordon, Derek Smith, Glen Davis)


West
1. Utah Jazz (Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Kevin Martin, Ty Lawson, Antawn Jamison)
2. Los Angeles Lakers (Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, Andrei Kirilenko, Ramon Sessions)
3. Minnesota Timberwolves (Kevin Love, James Harden, Ricky Rubio, Sam Dalembert, Reggie Williams)
4. New Orleans Hornets
5. Sacramento Kings (DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, Jared Sullinger, Gerald Green, Isaiah Thomas)
6. Portland Trail Blazers (LaMarcus Aldridge, Nic Batum, Andre Drummond, Jarrett Jack, Raymond Felton)
7. San Antonio Spurs (Tim Duncan, Joe Johnson, Tiago Splitter, Dorell Wright, Kawhi Leonard)
8. Golden State Warriors (Steph Curry, David Lee, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes, Nate Robinson)
9. Memphis Grizzlies (Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Joe Songaila)
10. Oklahoma City Thunder (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jamal Crawford, Enes Kanter, Jason Maxiell)
11. Houston Rockets (Goran Dragic, Kyle Lowry, Jason Smith, Chris Kaman, Chandler Parsons)
12. Los Angeles Clippers (Blake Griffin, Caron Butler, DeAndre Jordan, Nick Young, Darren Collison)
13. Denver Nuggets (Kenneth Faried, Arron Afflalo, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Al Harrington)
14. Dallas Mavericks (Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Kris Humphries, Al-Farouq Aminu, Iman Shumpert)
15. Phoenix Suns (Shawn Marion, Tristan Thompson, Jerryd Bayless, Kelenna Azubuike, Ivan Johnson)


A lot of changes everywhere you look! Heat look unbeatable to be honest.