Stoner's Kings Dynasty

[Stoned]

So, I am taking this roster over post draft. Let's see what I got -

PG - Fredette, Thomas
SG - Salmons, Evans, Garcia
SF - Outlaw, Greene, Honeycutt
PF - Hickson
C - Cousins, Hayes, Thompson, Whiteside

Coach - Paul Westphal.

First thoughts - Meh. Young guys, okay. But I don't have the patience to develop you guys. And so many of them are low IQ guys. The team isn't going to look good if everyone is at sub 60 IQ.

D-League assign - Honeycutt, Whiteside. No loss.

Now the goal - Get some high IQ, high discipline, and well defending veterans in here. This team desperately needs that.

Also, I need a new coach. Paul Westphal is out. I hire Rudy Tomjanovich. Rudy T. is a nice overall coach. He will develop players well, has good offense eval/defense eval., he's won a championship and really, there's nothing to not like him about him.

Trade - Tyreke Evans and Isaiah Thomas for Steve Nash.

Analysis -

Yeah, I trade away young talent. Thing is, it's not young talent I am particularly high on. Isaiah Thomas is a role player and Tyreke isn't all that efficient. Even at 37, Steve Nash is just the man to run any great offense. Let's see how this works out. 96 IQ/94 Discipline. Oh, and 60 defense? That's not nearly as bad as people make him out to be.

Next up - Sefolosha + Collison for Marcus Thornton

Analysis - Defense, defense, and more defense. That's what this trade was about. I am obviously not all that high on Marcus Thornton, but he should fit in incredibly well with OKC.

And yet another trade - Jason Thompson + Donte Greene for Tayshaun Prince

Analysis - No brainer for Detroit. Thompson is bound to be a solid player, and yet I cringe at the thought of starting Garcia at SF. Now, let's look at the starting lineup.

Oh wait. I have a weakness at a PF. I am tired of trading, so I check the FA's. I realize I should've done this earlier.

Andrei Kirlenko is available? That too for the MINIMUM?

Err, there's also one more guy. Wilson Chandler. For the min. Really guys?

PG - Steve Nash
SG - Thabo Sefolosha
SF- Tayshaun Prince
PF - Andrei Kirelenko
C - Demarcus Cousins

Bench

Jimmer Fredette, John Salmons, Wilson Chandler, Nick Collison, Chuck Hayes, JJ Hickson, Travis Outlaw.

Coach - Rudy T

Solid mix of youth and veterans. Hell Yeah, now I am a little excited for this year.

Realistically my roster blow up wouldn't have turned out this well had AK 47 not been an FA. I'll take it this time around, and maybe play at the hardest difficulty there is the next time.

[Stoned]

22 games into the season. We're in mid December. Let's see how this is looking, now that I have a solid sample size.

Team record 14-8. Not bad, but could be better. Currently 6th seed in a tightly contested conference.

Starters

PG Steve Nash - 17 points, 9 assists, 64 FG%, 47.8 3 PT %, 83 FT%. 35 MPG.
SG Thabo Sefolosha - 8 points, 4 rebounds, 41 FG%, 51 3 PT % (1.4 3PTM), 90 FT%, 27 MPG
SF Tayshaun Prince - 12 points, 4 rebounds, 43 FG%, 39 3PT %(1.0 3PTM), 75 FT%, 34 MPG
PF AK 47 - 13 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 53 FG%, 38 3PT% (.5 3PTM), 70 FT%, 30 MPG
C Demarcus Cousins - 22 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 47 FG%, 74 FT%, 34 MPG

Solid production. Nice spacing from Prince and Sefolosha. Nash's efficiency - WOAH. 73 TS%, and a 3.8 Assist/TO Ratio. Dude's God. That's gotta go down, which isn't good news for my team. Cousins is an absolute beast - but why more steals than blocks? Odd.

Rudy likes using an 11 man rotation. Overkill man. Still, Salmons hogs the lionshare of minutes, and he is terrible.

5 points, 3 rebounds, 35 FG% 20 3PT%, 68 FT%. 24 MPG.

Uhh. Uhh. Get out of here. Nash is balancing out this dude on my offense. The best player off the bench - Nick Collison - 8 points, 4 rebounds in 18 MPG. That's solid. He's shooting at 44%, which needs to go up. Gotta call him up and ask him to like, stop taking jumpshots. He only makes 28% of them. Get into the post, dude.

The rest of the bench is meh. Average production. Jimmer Fredette is shooting at a low volume and not making his shots, at roughly 36 FG% and 32 3PT%. I'll be patient on him, though.

And then there's some advanced numbers -

Demarcus Cousins is leading this team on turnovers forced, over Sefolosha and Kirelenko.

John Salmons is leading this team in points allowed per shot. Ha.. ha. Putrid. Absolutely disgusting. Zero offense, and a complete liability on D.... and
he got 24 MPG for 20+ games.

Team stats -

3rd Highest team in PTS/100 possession. Our offense is rock solid.

Out of curiosity I check on the big names I traded away - Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson, and Marcus Thornton.

Tyreke Evans is averaging 12/5 @ 45 TS% and playing average D. Nothing special.
Marcus Thornton is averaging 11 points @ 50 TS%, and mediocre D. He hits 38% of his 3's, so I guess that's useful. I would still take a Sefolosha/Collison over that any day.
Jason Thompson might be the guy I regret. 12 points, 8 rebounds @ 50 FG%, 70 FT%, in 28 mins of play. He's not playing better D than Maxiell or Monroe at the moment. Prince on my team certainly has better advanced D numbers. We'll see how he develops.