2025 CBlog Historical Post-Draft Season: Sim & Voting

[Donoghus]

FWIW, that '03-04 Orlando roster was hot garbage.  Their 2nd best player was a 30 year Juwan Howard.

For sure. But even a roster that is hot garbage that has an MVP level player on it should be winning a lot more than 21 wins 61 losses.

It really depends on the roster to an extent now, doesn't it?  Even an MVP level player can only do so much as one player when the guys around him aren't good.

I see that more for an All-Star level player than for an MVP candidate.

It is hard to see someone like LeBron ever having a 21 win team while LeBron is in his prime. Or Jordan. Or Bird. Or Magic.

It's all hypothetical.

[Who]

FWIW, that '03-04 Orlando roster was hot garbage.  Their 2nd best player was a 30 year Juwan Howard.

For sure. But even a roster that is hot garbage that has an MVP level player on it should be winning a lot more than 21 wins 61 losses.

It really depends on the roster to an extent now, doesn't it?  Even an MVP level player can only do so much as one player when the guys around him aren't good.

I see that more for an All-Star level player than for an MVP candidate.

It is hard to see someone like LeBron ever having a 21 win team while LeBron is in his prime. Or Jordan. Or Bird. Or Magic.

It's all hypothetical.

Well, if we ignore MVP candidates on their strong teams. Concentrate on MVP candidates who were on bad rosters and compare apples to apples. Then see how T-Mac compares to them.

[Who]

I was watching a pair of T-Mac games from that 2004 team recently. I forget what games they were exactly. Forgettable games. I probably picked them for having a big T-Mac outing or for their opponent.

It was interesting watching him and how little he impacted / improved his teammates around him.

Main two reasons for this were (1) bad defensive effort. He was dogging it. (2) shot selection. Settling for too man bad contested long jump-shots. Trigger happy as well. Shooting too often. Not playing team offense.

Commentators were critical of McGrady's play as well.

--------------------------

Even when you look at old Michael Jordan on those Wizards teams. He was still playing with effort on defense. He wasn't as athletic as before. But he was always talking, rotating on D, and usually more effective defensively than you would expect someone that old to be. Those Washington teams generally had positive defenses when Jordan was healthy and would then fall off without Jordan. Without his leadership on D. Guys like Stackhouse or a young Rip Hamilton could not replicate that.

[Moranis]

You don't need to compare TMac to the very best.  Just look at some of his contemporary MVP level players.  Dirk, never worse than 41-41 (only year not in the playoffs) after his rookie year until the last couple seasons.  2 Finals with the 1 title, a WCF, and a bunch of 2nd round.  The Thunder never won less than 47 games with Westbrook and no Durant and that includes the year without George when Magic cas off Oladipo was the 2nd best player (and Andre Roberson was the 2nd leading scorer in the playoffs).  Even the Sixers with Iverson never bottomed out like that. They had the 33 win team when AI played 47 games, and that roster was terrible and they still won 33 games.

Bad team seasons happen, but you can't overlook them when the player doesn't win ever and all their teams get better when they leave.  TMac has had some bad luck with other players health, but he has played with several HOFers, which is a lot different than KG in Minny.  The lack of winning in general coupled with his really poor play in big moments and he belongs no where on that list. 

[smokeablount]

So sorry for the delay everyone. I had some health stuff pop up and then was with family over Labor Day weekend. I apologize for not providing an update and stopping any momentum. I have just simmed the other semifinal after updating Roy?s minutes.

[smokeablount]

CONFERENCE FINALS - #3 Moranis defeats #2 Roy Hobbs 4-2

This matchup went as Luka went. When he was on and leading the Cavs with a dominant supporting starting 5, they were not to be beaten. LeBron and Shaq also took turns carrying a heavy load as JB and Wemby played more of a support role. The Celtics made some roster changes, starting Oladipo and DeAndre Jordan and giving Sabonis heavy minutes off the bench in a role he excelled in. But what was surprising was Giannis?s inefficiency in this series, perhaps bothered by Wemby, and Curry not really shooting the ball enough as an elite first option, other than in the first game which Roy won. Ideally the Celtics would work best with Giannis and Curry maximizing their high quality looks, but Curry never led the team in shots after game 1 and often wasn?t even #2, while Giannis didn?t shoot well. Sabonis excelled in a bench alpha role and Brand and DJs defense and rebounding helped the starters. I expected this one to go 7, but Mo took care of business.

Moranis advances to THE FINALS, which will occur early this week!

#1 SAB

Vs.

#3 Moranis