The Dirty Dozen with Greeme
Apr 29, 2013 9:29:33 GMT -5
Post by aar on Apr 29, 2013 9:29:33 GMT -5
1) What has been the most significant trade of the offseason?
Been kind of quiet to be honest. The most significant trade was the Lakers last second trade with the mavs to stay out from under the hc. As far as the trade that will have the most impact this year I would say the Raptors –Pacers deal probably knocked the Raps back a notch and they were looking like one of the early favorites in the East. The drop from Deron to Gil Arenas seems like a significant one and I'm not sure that Demarcus will come out of tc looking better than Noel. I don't remember the last time that I saw DJ make a trade that bad. The Hou/phx deal which netter Biggie Faried and the Orl/sea deal which netted Bundy Lou Williams will make their teams better but both teams need more moves to become contenders. Both made other deals to get better and both have the pieces to try to win, the question is will they be able to capitalize.
2) What was the worst signing of the offseason and why?
So many choices. Worst 3 are Enes, Adams and Darko. Darko can actually play and will probably be worth his 6 year contract for 3 years so it isn't him. Maybe he will retire early and it won't be a problem anyway. Adams contract is 3-5 mil more expensive per year. On the other hand what does enes actually do? He seems to be a solid rebounder, offensively incompetent, low blocks and high tos. Adams is a slightly worse rebounder, also incompetent offensively and high tos. Adams can block and is younger and has higher scouted pot. So if I had to pick one then I would rather have Adams and I would even pay the extra 3-5 mil to get him.
3) What was the best thing that your team did this offseason?
I get bored pretty easily, which I'm sure is no big surprise. I decided to try to get an inside team together. Goal #1 was to get a pg that can play inside, as it seems that they are few and far between. Originally I was going to try and get a pick around 10 and take Mccoy but then I reached a deal with skillz by which I got pape. I also got Ben from Skillz but I wasn't sold on him so I thought that maybe weller would fit in well in an inside offense. There were a ton of ready to go guys in the draft and I thought that with bundy's pick I would get overton or childress. Pape/ben or weller/overton/quincy/sully would be a low to high rebounding team. Or I would play ben and weller at the wings and childress/quincy/sully would be my big man rotation. Long story short, I lucked into Sapp who will start and be in the running for roty as a rookie. I also got my picks back starting next year so if this inside offense thing doesn't work then I can rebuild or reload.
4) The Hornets just traded Dwight Howard, who was a key part of their playoff success. Are they still the team to beat?
You traded him. Stop brophing him. He is a slightly above average C. That's all. Besides his rebounding he is pretty much the definition of average. And he shoots so much. I would think that you would have no less success starting Bernard James. Raps took a step back. I think that as long as you have lma and acy you will be in contention but I think that the Bulls are the favorite. Bynum is such a force. Dakari and Smart should be better than last year. When did Wiggins ratings get so good? They need depth pieces at the 1-3 and hopefully Redd will die in tc but they are the favorites at this point. My dark horse candidate is the Wolves. They both had an extra tanking year I think and they definitely made the most of it, building teams that look to be good for years to come. Sadly enough I can never manage to get to a deal with Mike because he has so many guys I like. Overton looks so ordinary and he will be a beast. Harrison and Leonard are both very good players. I'm interested to see how we will play. I really have no idea because I'm not used to this type of team. We should be good on the boards and have low tos. If you believe Skillz that is enough.
5) Many people don't realize that you are not on the board from Friday to Saturday night. What is worse, FA Day 1 being during this time or the draft?
I hate holding up the playoffs so I usually just tell the commish not to wait for me. Sometimes I'll send in various dcs for future rounds but it is kind of a pain so I generally don't bother. Obviously I would have another 8 ships if not for that.
The draft usually isn't such a big deal mostly because I usually don't have a pick. I kind of backed myself into a corner by doing a deal with Bundy 20 minutes before sundown. In regular circumstances the draft isn't so hard because it really only takes about half an hour to get a 30 pick list together and if I know that I am going to have a pick then I usually read the notes when they come out. The major difficulty with the draft is having multiple picks and not wanting to end up with 3 guys that play the same position.
Fa mostly depends on the commish. I would send Spencer very detailed pms with various contingencies for the last 2 sims and he would always deal with it. I sent one to marty and he just pmd me back "lol". I haven't really had an fa yet with john that was done fri night sat so I don't know what he would do.
All in all, it just takes a little more planning.
6) You have been selling your outside oriented players and are moving to an inside system, what's the gameplan going forward?
I'm willing to try the inside offense for one year. I got my futures back just in case. It will be interesting to see how we play. Really low tos – weller and my backup big will be the only guys who will get time that have any problems. Most of my guys – davis, sy, morris, sully, ben, hopefully sapp – have great handles. We should be good on the boards. Sy gives us a rebounding advantage and davis and sully hold their own down low. Big Question is who is going to score? If Quincy takes more shots I would be thrilled. Sully and Sapp will probably be the other options. Sapp is the big question mark volume wise. As I said I will try this year and then reassess.
7) Who will have a better career: Trey Burke or Alex Poythress?
I offered mles for both. I thought they would get paid a little more, maybe 5-7 mil contracts. I was trying to think of them as draft choices and where I would take them. I had them both somewhere in the middle of the first round. They are both 25 and will improve less than younger players with similar real pot. They both have tremendous questions surrounding them. Burke – volume? Tos? Can he play D? D- rebounding is meh-. Can he be a stud with those ratings? Sure. But he can also suck. My guess is that he is somewhere in the middle. A decent backup. Poythress has D defense. That is ugly. I'm not sure if he can rebound enough at pf. Again my guess is that he will be a decent backup somewhere but who knows maybe one is supposed to be a star and the other a scrub. Next time they should either have notes or maybe post their college stats or their euro stats. Something which makes it more interesting than a stab in the dark.
8) How long do you think it will take the Bucks to recover from their stiff Hard Cap penalty?
It isn't just the hard cap. I would think that a better gm would just move his players melo/wade/hawes and get picks or something. That trio isn't getting you to the playoffs. Stop worrying about somebody else getting a good pick out of it and worry about yourself. I'm pretty sure that in an average fa I can build a team out of roleplayers that could make the playoffs if I had a ton of cap. Maybe he should try that. He has to try to get his picks and rebuild or get other teams picks and try to reset his cy. Standing pat is not going to get it done bc melo and wade just lose value every year and his team as is isn't getting anywhere anyway.
9) In the player value article, you were upset that Quincy Davis wasn't ranked in the value section. What would your top-5 value PF list look like?
Upset is probably the wrong word but I love quincy. I think people look at the wrong things a lot of times. It is much easier for me to figure out inseason because jay's stats have all the stats together. For the sake of argument let us see how he stacks up with blake and Anthony davis who were both in your top 5. They all played 33-36 minutes which looks similar but actually is a 10% difference so the per game stats are skewed a bit.
Last year's per minute stats
Rebounds – 1) Quincy 2) Blake 3) Anthony
Stls - 1) Quincy 2) Anthony 3) Blake
Blks – 1) Anthony 2) Blake 3) Quincy
Tos - 1) Quincy 2) Anthony 3) Blake
Post D is hard to know for sure. Usually I try to guesstimate taking into account blks/stls. In this case I know for sure that Quincy is 85+.
Ts% - 1) Quincy 2) Anthony 3) Blake
So the argument in favor of Blake or Anthony is that 1) they block more and 2) they shoot more so they score more. No argument that they block more shots and that is in their favor. The scoring more is a function of taking more shots so that is not necessarily a plus. The shots don't disappear; somebody else takes them so it depends on who is taking the extra shots that quincy doesn't take. His ts% is so much higher than either Anthony's or blake's that even if an avg player or a somewhat below average player takes the shots then quincy's team would come out way ahead.
Long story short – Quincy is better at literally everything else besides blocking shots. You would have to have a severe shotblocking fetish to take either blake or Anthony over Quincy. That said value is also a function of his perceived value around the league so while I would rather have quincy play for me than the others that doesn't necessarily mean that I would rather have him as a trade piece were I to trade him.
10) What do you think Dwight Howard will do in the NBA's offseason?
Come to Brooklyn finally?? Just a few years late. My guess is that he ends up staying in LA. They can pay him more than anyone else. Also his team just got bumped in the first round which reflects poorly on him. And he is coming off back surgery. The Lakers will sit down with him and Kobe to make sure they can co-exist and if they can there is no way the Lakers will let him leave without offering him max money which is 30 or so mil more than other teams can offer.
11) Who is the most difficult GM to deal with in the league?
So many choices. Deals are generally like pulling teeth. Most gms are too scared to send a clear offer so at least you can figure out where they stand. Skillz and Aar are the easiest by far. I doubt that I have made a trade with about 20 gms in this league. It is kind of frustrating. I guess the worst is Marty. He only has two responses: lol or no. I have pretty much given up on even trying to get to a deal with him. I don't know if he is that way with everyone or just me but I can't get anything done with him. I lot of guys go back and forth for days and then suddenly back out. Either some gm (probably play) tells them that it is a bad deal or they just get cold feet. Really annoying.
12) Many have complained about these forums, do you have a problem with them?
I have had two really annoying problems, I wasn’t able to vote and sometimes I didn't get pm notices. The first one was fixed when I switched skins. The second one still happens but I get notices by e-mail. Sometimes the forums don't work so well and I get the stupid angry bear notices. I'm not sure who thinks that is funny but after the first time it is just stupid. It is possible that there is more traffic at night in the US so I don't run into as many problems as other gms.