Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Myles Nelson » Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:04 pm

One of my favorite things to do is go back and look up those great teams that just were never able to get over the hump and win it all. I'm enthralled by the 90s Sonics and Jazz, the late 2000s Blazers and Nuggets, the early 2010s Pacers, so on and so forth. Thanks to the new historical mode, I'm able to go back in time and take over one of those types of teams, and for my first play through I decided to pick one of my personal favorites (yes, even as a Lakers fan, I love the 7SOL Suns). So I'm going to do a quick run and see if I can make them title winners, starting in the 2004-2005 season.

The Goal
Win a championship with Steve Nash. He's the engine that makes it all run, so he must be my starting point guard.

The Constraints
No trading Steve Nash, obviously
The team must stay true to the 7SOL play style (run, run, run)
If I finish below .500 in any season, I get fired. Results, results, results.

Let's see how this goes!
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Re: Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Myles Nelson » Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:05 pm

The Team
PG: Steve Nash/Yuta Tabuse
SG: Joe Johnson/Leandro Barbosa
SF: Quentin Richardson/Jim Jackson
PF: Shawn Marion/Bo Outlaw/Paul Shirley
C: Amare Stoudemire/Steven Hunter/Jake Voskuhl

This roster is basically 7 NBA quality players (the starters plus Barbosa and Jackson) and everyone else is complete trash. Tabuse and Outlaw are not rotation players by any means, and right now they are my 9th and 10th men in the rotation. Hunter at least can play a little defense and is pretty tall, meaning he could be a decent 3rd center. But I desperately need to replace some of these guys.

Obviously, my starting 5 is really good. Richardson is a sniper, but he's also got decently quick hands and can grab rebounds as well. Johnson is really versatile, really strong offensive player, and is my second best playmaker behind Nash. He might get some backup PG minutes if I can't find any alternative. Stoudemire is one of the best offensive big men in the league, and he's acceptable as a rebounder and defender as well. However, since he is so damn good on offense, I think I can forgive his shortcomings elsewhere. Marion is the jack of all trades, he's an elite defender, a great rebounder, an awesome scorer, I mean, there isn't anything this guy can't do. And Nash, what can I say about Nash that hasn't been said already. Best passer in the league, excellent shooter, and without him, there's no 7 Seconds or Less offense.

The Strategies
On offense, we are heavily emphasizing transition offense, the pick and roll, and spot up shooting. We aren't putting much work in terms of isolation scoring or scoring in the post, as we'd rather have our players moving around in tandem.

Offensive Pace: 10
Full Court Press: 1
Zone Defense: 3
Defensive Intensity: 5
Offensive Rebounding: 7
Defensive Rebounding: 6

Obviously we will play around with strategies all year long as we figure out what best suits our style and strengths, but this is how we've decided on starting out.

The Moves
So one of the downsides of playing historical mode in DDS is that it doesn't generate very many FAs, and it's definitely not kind to their ratings. So I cut Paul Shirley, who was literally the worst player ever (all 30s for his ratings) and snagged four flyers, backup point guards Alex Garcia (decent passer and handler, not the worst defender) and Cory Alexander (great defender, decent handle, not a strong passer), as well as backup big men Derrick Coleman and Michael Stewart, who both suck, but at least can rebound.

This left us with a depth chart of:

PG: Nash 36/Alexander 12/Garcia
SG: Johnson 32/Barbosa 16/Garcia
SF: Richardson 32/Jackson 16
PF: Marion 36/Coleman 12/Stewart
C: Stoudemire 36/Hunter 12/Stewart

Reserves: Jake Voskuhl, Yuta Tabuse, Bo Outlaw

Our depth is... not good. Hopefully we can fill in around the edges with picks. Luckily we own Chicago's 2005 1st round pick, which will ideally be better than our own. We don't own our own pick this draft, as it was traded to San Antonio a few years ago for Barbosa. So hopefully Chicago really sucks this year.

October/November
We stumbled out of the gate, only going 3-3 in our first six games, but we figured out our rotations better and ended the month 11-5. That put us at the top of the Pacific division, and tied for the top spot of the Western Conference, but it is really tight at the top (four teams that are 10-5 or better). Here's our team stats so far:

PPG: 119.4 (1st)
3PM: 9.8 (8th)
3PT%: 37.6% (5th)
OPPG: 115.3 (30th)
O3PM: 10.5 (29th)
O3PT%: 39.9% (30th)
RPG: 44 (10th)
ORPG: 40.5 (4th)
TOPG: 13.6 (17th)
OTOPG: 14.1 (9th)

Top Players:
Stoudemire: 27.6 ppg, 63% FG, 7.4 rpg, 2.1 bpg
Nash: 23.6 ppg, 58.6% FG, 51.2% 3PT, 12.6 apg
Johnson: 17.7 ppg, 54.1% FG, 45% 3PT, 5.1 rpg, 3.6 apg
Marion: 15.6 ppg, 52.4% FG, 9.7 rpg, 1.8 spg, 1 bpg
Richardson: 9.2 ppg, 37% 3PT
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Re: Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Myles Nelson » Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:59 pm

December
So I decided to start off this month with Jimmy Jackson as my starting SF. If he plays well and can fit into Q's role, then I should be able to trade Q for multiple solid depth pieces. And through our first five games, we did only go 3-2, but my lineup with Jackson instead of Richardson with the starters was just as ridiculously efficient. So time to see if I can get anything for Richardson. I shopped him around, looking from team to team, to find a team with backups that I liked. After a number of negotiations, I found a deal with the Orlando Magic.

Phoenix Sends
Quentin Richardson
"Legendary" Bo Outlaw
2006 PHX 1st Round Pick

Orlando Sends
Jameer Nelson
Old Ass Grant Hill
Kelvin Cato

We get a true backup for Steve Nash, and someone I feel comfortable running as a SG alongside him (if Barbosa can be a SG, Nelson can be a SG dammit). Kelvin Cato immediately becomes our best backup big man, which is the saddest sentence ever, and Grant Hill can fill in off the bench as a decent SF. Yuta Tabuse gets cut to make room for this trade.

New Depth Chart
Nash 32/Nelson 16/Alexander
Johnson 30/Barbosa 12/Nelson 6
Jackson 22/Hill 26
Marion 36/Stewart 12/Coleman
Stoudemire 34/Cato 14

The trade really seemed to invigorate our team, as we went on a 7 game winning streak following the trade to finish December at 21-7! Nelson, Hill, and Cato really served their roles well for us. Since joining the team, Nelson averaged 6 points and 3 assists, Hill averaged around 16 points per game, and Cato put up about 8 points and 7 rebounds with us.

Here's a picture of how the conferences are shaping up.

Western Conference
Sacramento Kings 23-8
Phoenix Suns 21-7
Denver Nuggets 22-9
Minnesota Timberwolves 19-10
Oklahoma City Thunder 20-11
Dallas Mavericks 19-11
Los Angeles Clippers 17-12
Portland Trail Blazers 18-13

Golden State Warriors 18-14
San Antonio Spurs 16-14
Utah Jazz 16-16
New Orleans Hornets 12-15
Memphis Grizzlies 10-20
Houston Rockets 8-23
Los Angeles Lakers 7-23 (The post Shaq days)

Eastern Conference
Indiana Pacers 23-7
Detroit Pistons 20-8
Washington Wizards 18-10
Miami Heat 17-12
Boston Celtics 18-14
Philadelphia 76ers 15-14
Cleveland Cavaliers 15-15
Orlando Magic 13-17

New York Knicks 12-17
Charlotte Bobcats 12-19
Chicago Bulls 11-19 (Good for my pick!)
Toronto Raptors 10-20
New Jersey Nets 9-21
Milwaukee Bucks 6-25
Atlanta Hawks 4-25
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Re: Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Myles Nelson » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:00 pm

January/All Star Break
We continued our winning streak to start the month, getting up to 12 straight wins before falling to the Clippers at home. It seems as though our offense has lost a small amount of punch, as neither Hill (25%) nor Nelson (31%) shoot as well as Richardson did. The increased depth has made a huge difference though, since now none of the free agent fodder I was forced to pick up has to play extended minutes. Kelvin Cato has been really good for us, as he's shot 57% and has the second best rebounding percentage on the team.

We got hit with a rash of injuries in the middle of January. Stoudemire missed a couple of games, Barbosa out about a week, everyone had nicks and bruises here and there. Luckily, Nash and Marion kept the team running, and we only dropped a few games that we shouldn't have. Once we got back at full strength, we went on another winning streak, taking 12 straight games before getting to the All Star Break.

Eastern All Stars
G Steve Francis - 28.2 ppg, 9.6 apg, 5.6 rpg, 1.5 spg
G Allen Iverson - 30.6 ppg, 9.7 apg, 4.5 rpg, 1.7 spg
F LeBron James - 32.8 ppg, 6.8 apg, 7.3 rpg, 1.5 spg
F Rasheed Wallace - 19.3 ppg, 1.5 apg, 8.0 rpg, 1.5 bpg
C Jermaine O'Neal - 25.3 ppg, 1.5 apg, 9.0 rpg, 2.1 bpg
Stephon Marbury - 22.5 ppg, 9.3 apg, 3.2 rpg, 1.5 spg
Paul Pierce - 23.3 ppg, 4.8 apg, 5.1 rpg, 1.8 spg
Dwyane Wade - 30.7 ppg, 4.1 apg, 4.7 rpg, 1.7 spg
Ben Wallace - 9.9 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 1.5 spg, 2.5 bpg
Antawn Jamison - 19.7 ppg, 1.3 apg, 6.7 rpg
Larry Hughes - 18 ppg, 6.0 apg, 5.1 rpg, 3.2 spg
Ron Artest - 19.7 ppg, 3.9 apg, 5.6 rpg, 1.8 spg

Western All Stars
G Steve Nash - 22 ppg, 11.5 apg, 3.4 rpg
G Kobe Bryant - 22.4 ppg, 7 apg, 6.8 rpg
F Andrei Kirilenko - 21.3 ppg, 4.5 apg, 7.3 rpg, 1.6 spg, 3.8 bpg
F Kevin Garnett - 25.7 ppg, 5.5 apg, 10.9 rpg, 1.7 spg, 1.5 bpg
C Pau Gasol - 23.9 ppg, 2.3 apg, 7.7 rpg, 1.6 bpg
Mike Bibby - 20.2 ppg, 8.1 apg, 3.6 rpg, 1.6 spg
Mehmet Okur - 17.9 ppg, 2.3 apg, 9.2 rpg
Shawn Marion - 16.6 ppg, 1.9 apg, 9.3 rpg, 2.2 spg, 1.3 bpg
Amare Stoudemire - 25.4 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.2 spg, 1.9 bpg
Ray Allen - 23.4 ppg, 4.0 apg, 5.1 rpg, 1.0 spg
Tim Duncan - 22.2 ppg, 3.1 apg, 10.1 rpg, 2.3 bpg
Lamar Odom - 23.5 ppg, 2.4 apg, 9.1 rpg

Amazingly, the Lakers have two All Stars despite being one of the worst teams in the league. The rest of their team must really suck.

We are now 42-9, best team in the league and with a 7 game margin over the second best team in the West. The Bulls have the 7th worst record in the league, which is great for the pick of theirs we own (we traded them Deng during the 2004 draft for that pick). Now, as long as we don't do anything stupid like trade this pick for a later pick, and then sell the pick for cash, we should be fine (which is actually what the Suns did... they turned the 7th pick in the 2004 draft aka Luol Deng, for what turned out to be the 21st pick of the 2005 draft (Nate Robinson), and then traded that for the 24th pick in the 2006 draft and sold that to the Celtics, when they took Rajon Rondo).
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Re: Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Myles Nelson » Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:35 pm

Rest of Season
Considering we are 42-9 at the All Star Break, I elected not to make any further moves at the deadline. I really like our roster construction and think we have a real chance at winning the title as is.

So... to be honest the rest of the regular season was pretty boring. We went 69-13, ran away with the Western Conference, and in fact were the best team in the league by 12 games. So let's see how the team did overall.

Steve Nash - 21.6 ppg, 11.2 apg, 55.6% FG, 47.2% 3PT
Joe Johnson - 15.1 ppg, 3.4 apg, 54.5% FG, 49% 3PT
Jim Jackson - 6.7 ppg, 38.5% 3PT
Shawn Marion - 15.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.0 spg, 1.2 bpg, 53.1% FG
Amare Stoudemire - 26.5 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.3 spg, 2.0 bpg, 58.6% FG

Grant Hill - 15.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.6 spg, 45.5% FG
Steven Hunter - 6.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 47.7% FG
Jameer Nelson - 5.7 ppg, 3.7 apg, 42.1% FG
Kelvin Cato - 5.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 54.5% FG
Leandro Barbosa - 5.1 ppg, 50.9% FG, 43% 3PT

We scored 119 ppg, 8 more than the next best team, shot 51.7% FG, which was 2% higher than the next. Our defense was pretty bad too, but hey, we went 69-13. We can do pretty much whatever we want on the court.
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Re: Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Myles Nelson » Tue Sep 05, 2017 2:26 pm

I doubt anyone is reading this, as the dynasty community is nothing compared to where it was during the DDSPB2 or even the original DDSPB1 days, but I'll keep on posting.

First Round of the Playoffs
We face a familiar foe in the playoffs, as we take on Nash's old Dallas Mavericks. In reality, they knocked us out of the playoffs quite a few times. Let's hope that this isn't a similar story.

Starting 5
Steve Nash vs. Jason Terry
Jason Terry is a good player, scoring 13 points per game and averaging 7 assists. Nash is just much better.

Joe Johnson vs. Jerry Stackhouse
Stack is quite a bit past his glory days, but he was still okay this season. They are missing their normal starter in Josh Howard, so this will make our job a bit easier.

Jim Jackson vs. Kurt Thomas
This should be an interesting matchup, as the Howard injury has really screwed with the Mavericks lineups. Jackson isn't really a core member of this team, as Hill plays more than he does, but Jackson is still an important shooter for us.

Shawn Marion vs. Dirk Nowitzki
This will be the most interesting matchup of the series, as Dirk is a monster offensively (averaging 32 points per game), but Marion is our best defensive player. This matchup could decide the series.

Amare Stoudemire vs. Primoz Brezec
Similarly, we will need STAT to absolutely destroy Brezec. Brezec can't even come close to handling Stoudemire, so this series better be an explosive one for him.

The Bench
Grant Hill, Jameer Nelson, Kelvin Cato vs. Erick Dampier, Calvin Booth, Jonathan Bender
The Mavericks have pretty good big man depth, but not much outside of that. They really have no guard depth, so that will really hurt them as their perimeter starters are... thin to say the least. We should be able to take advantage of their thin roster by running them ragged and utilizing every talent we have.

Game 1
Phoenix 134, Dallas 117
We start the series off in a high scoring win, which is pretty par for the course for us. We jumped out to a 16 point lead in the first quarter and just kept it that way all game long. We shot 60% from the field but only went 3/14 from deep. Nash had player of the game honors with 34 points and 19 assists, and Marion, Stoudemire and Hill all chipped in over 20 points. Nowitzki had 29 and somehow Brezec had 21, but they just couldn't stop us from outscoring them.

Game 2
Phoenix 105, Dallas 93
Who said we can't play defense? Nowitzki had his typical 30, but the rest of the Mavericks struggled, committing 24 turnovers and only shooting 7/21 from deep. Our offense didn't look like it's typical self, but Stoudemire had 33, Nash had 15 assists, and we did enough to get the win.

Game 3
Phoenix 133, Dallas 106
Being on the road always worries me in the playoffs, because you never know how a team will bounce back in front of their own fans. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about here. Nowitzki continued to be a flamethrower, this time scorching us for 41 points, but Stoudemire answered with 36, Nash had another big game with 25 points and 11 assists, and we punished them again defensively, forcing them into another 24 turnovers.

Game 4
Phoenix 140, Dallas 133
Before the game started, I thought to myself, "We would have to make history to lose this series," as I don't think anyone has ever blown a 3-0 lead in the NBA. And to be honest, we may have made history, in terms of most points given up in an elimination game, as well as Dirk setting a personal career high against us with 53 points. Again though, the Dirk show couldn't keep up with our balanced attack, as we had 4 players with 20+ points and three more with 10+. Seven seconds or less can't be stopped.

Next up... Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Re: Seven Seconds Or Less: 2004 Suns and On

Postby Cleasby » Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:49 am

I think Grant Hill will make all the difference just watch ;)
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