Post by mops on Nov 18, 2009 21:30:36 GMT -5
The UOSLR has had a crazy finish to the season and now enters the playoffs for the 2002-2003 season.
East is the dominate conference once again. There is a four way tie atop the conference standings and the Bulls are given the first seed in the east. The Knicks, Magic, and Hawks are also tied with the Bulls at 55-27 on the year. Then just one game back the Milwaukee Bucks are waiting in the wings waiting to pounce on a team who’s not expecting them to get far. Even the lower 6, 7 and 8 seeds are all within five games or less. The east is purely amazing.
The west is a totally different story and one that many saw coming for years. The west as been a regular step below the east throughout the entire history of the UOSLR and this year is nothing different. The Rockets are the West’s best team and led by Vince Carter as they went 56-26. The best record in the league. The Blazers are not too far back at 53-29 but when you compare the winning percentage to the east they’d be the 6th seed. Just amazing how different the east and west are. Most teams in the west are working towards winning the lottery and getting the future king in LeBron James.
Here are some of the league’s best stories going into the playoffs.
The Bulls won’t die!
The Bulls are the East’s best team and they have the league’s most dominate player in Etienne Periera who averaged 28.9 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 6.3 apg, 2.4 spg, and 3.1 bpg. Just amazing stats for the league’s MVP. It may be his best year ever. Many people were counting the Bulls to be down this season and the rest of the mighty east to finally make it over the hill and push the king back down it. Not this year. EP led the team but keep in mind they got a huge addition for literally nothing for Peja Stojakovic who became a great 2nd or 3rd scorer for the Bulls along with EP. Alejandro Camby is another player who like EP was a pleasant surprise in development and he’s not slacked off at all as he gave the Bulls 23.1 ppg, 11.6 rpg, and 2.2 bpg. The Bulls head into the playoffs the favorite to win it all and look to be stellar for a few more years as the addition of Peja gave them a boost in moral and youth. If they get lucky in FA and sign another semi young player who’s starter quality with the MLE they could be good for 4-7 more years.
Do the Knicks finally push through?
Dan has been a causality of injuries, bad luck, juggernaut teams head of him, and just more bad luck. He’s always seemed to be the guy who has all the talent to win a title but never could get the right jell to the team and mesh. This year however could be the year they finally push through the wall of failure and make a deep and serious run in the playoffs. The free agency could be even more important for this team. Dan traded superstar point guard Terrell Brandon for Travis Best and his cheaper and younger play. He saved a few million in the trade and is saving it for his big free agents this year. Shawn Marion and Wang Zhi-Zhi are both free agents and average 26 ppg a piece. That is 52 ppg between the two and exactly half the team’s total each game. Losing both push the Knicks back down a few notches but if both resign this team is on a mission to become the biggest and brightest team in the league. Marcus Camby, Amare Stoudemire, Richard Jefferson, Bruce Bowen, and Travis Best are all great players and with Marion and Zhi-Zhi back they could finally become the top team in the league.
The rise and fall of Cleveland.
What is going on in Cleveland? First AllStar was here, then he wasn’t, then he was back, then he was found dead in lake erie with a GTFO tag on his back. Minority owner ThickDuck bought out the rest of the shares of the Cavs and everything looked golden. They looked to be a team contending for the title this season if a few breaks went their way or if they locked up a starting small forward. Instead the Cavs slipped and slipped each week. It looked like ThickDuck was in over his head and then the bomb was dropped onto Cleveland that left the citizens of Cleveland on a witch hunt. The Cavs traded superstar Tim Duncan, Ben Wallace, and DaMarr Johnson for picks and scrubs. Sure they got a lot of firsts and if you didn’t see who they got in picks you would think they would be ok. Or if you assumed they had their own firsts they’d be ok. That wasn’t the case. The Cavs traded away their future for some picks that could end up being late to mid lottery picks and at the same time they didn’t have their own picks. The Lakers who were the team getting the players were left in dismay as the Laker Brass thought they had LeBron and Duncan. Even the Charlotte Hornets who have the Cavs picks thought they hit gold when this happened. Now ThickDuck has been found in another part of Lake Erie and his eyes have been gouged out while all his limbs have been cut off and placed in different parts of the lake. Cleveland is a hell hole right now and no one wants to touch it.
Bullets enter contract year
Vlade Divac, Jamaal Magloire, Clifford Robinson, Tracy McGrady, Hu Weidong, Jason Richardson, Terrell Brandon. Hey is this the Nuggets? No? You Sure? They have 3 starters from the Nuggets….Ok fine I believe you.
Back to the task at hand. With that class you’d think just by base of name the Bullets could win 41 games and thus be safe from entering their contract year.
Nope.
The Bullets entered the last sim of the year with a record of 39-33. They needed to win 2 games and get 41 wins and thus stay away from the last year of the contract for Don. They went 0-10 and now enter the contract year. Everything was set up for the Bullets to be rebuilding and doing it at a pace they wanted it to go out. Almost every player comes off the books this offseason. They have Jrich and T-Mac still under cap and their picks in their pockets. Now the Bullets must decide if they want to resign everyone they have to 1 year deals and hope it gets the job done next year. Or do they make a run at some of the bigger names in the FA class and risk losing guys they have bird years on? They need to win 41 games or get to the playoffs and they must do it this year or they are looking for a new GM. What direction would you do? Glad that isn’t me.
Spencer is back and set for a run
The Hornets sucked this season. Plain and simple. It was also be design. Spencer was brought back to re-light the fire he started when the UOSLR was created. He has some solid players in Michael Finley, Christian Laettner, Rasual Butler, and Raja Bell, but the team isn’t that good. They are stuck with Finley’s awful contract as he’s turned into a major bust. However the Hornets to have 5 1st round draft picks and of the five 2 are lotto. The Cavs are the projected 13th pick and the Hornets pick is tied with Denver for the 3/4th pick. They also have mid teen and early 20s picks. They enter the offseason with a solid amount of cap that while also having 5 picks in the deepest draft ever in the UOSLR. They could be a team who makes a huge jump from worst to first type record if everything falls into place. Things looked even more incredible for the Hornets when the Cavs traded their entire team but the trade wasn’t a done deal as a few minor signatures were needed from the Cavs GM before he was found decimated in Lake Erie.
The West has the best team? No way!
Yes ladies and gents the UOSLR’s best team record wise hails from the weak and fragile Western Conference. The Houston Rockets have built their house upon the muck and mud and built a very solid foundation to dominate for years. With solid role players holding down the front court and doing all the dirty work in the muck the team is led by the high flying wings. Vince Carter, Ronnie Fields, Randolph Childress, Mike Bibby, and Predrag Danilovic are all stars on the wings and. Carter and Bibby are the headliners of this team who might be the most talented on the wings. They quickly state don’t count them out because they are in the west but instead take them seriously. Ducky has built a power house and its one that is like an RV, always on the move. Bibby is a free agent after this season and could be gone, but why would he want to leave such a fantastic place to play.
The Blazers are alive!
Portland looked like a tweek here and an adjustment there and they’d be right back into the mix for a shot at the title. Hell, look at the names on this team, ZO, KG, LJ, Spree, and Alston. All very good players. Eric Snow, Calbert Cheaney, and Eure Zukauskas are also solid role players for this star studded team. They thought about breaking the team up and starting over but after much debate and ridicule the Blazers stuck to their guns and showed the league they are who they thought they were and not who we thought they were. The Blazers stormed up the standings week after week and now find themselves 2nd in the west. Problem is the west is considered to be stupid and dumb and to show you are truly an elite team you must beat the east. Good luck getting past the Rockets and then beating an eastern conference team.
The Sun is rising in Phoenix
Eddy Curry, Jamal Masburn, Lamar Odom, Rashard Lewis, Tariq Abudl-Wahad, Manu Ginobili, Andre Miller, and Raul Lopez. Some of the league’s best young players entering their prime or just getting into it. The future is very bright in Phoenix and one that has lots of people from all over the Valley talking Suns basketball. They run and gun, they are long and lanky, and they are athletic. That makes a fun brand of basketball to watch and for the people of Phoenix that is what they like to do when not getting their tans on or hitting up the streets of Tempe looking for ASU sluts. The Suns however might hit a major debacle to the big party under the sun. Lots of the team’s star players are all free agents. Rozier, Odom, Manu, and Miller could all walk to other teams to be a bigger focal point for a team. Jah needs to be able to find a way to get enough touches for all these young stars or some or all could be gone to shall we say, ‘greener’ pastures. Odom and Miller will both be high level free agents demanding the max while Manu and Rozier will also take a good chunk of change. Can this team stay under the hard cap too? Oh and they have two more draft picks in the mid teens in the league’s deepest draft to add to this talented team.
Did Denver strike gold?
DeShawn Stevenson has been maybe one of the biggest surprises in UOSLR history with his development. He can play point, off-guard, or small forward and be a high level player at each spot. When he plays shooting guard or small forward he can be considered to be one of the top 10 players at his position. Did we say he’s only 20 too? YIKES! Oh and he thinks he’s the most hated player in the league, already. He has a feud with LeBron James and they haven’t even played let alone think about being teammates possibly! The Nuggets are most likely the youngest team in the league with an average age of only 22. Caron Butler is another young up and coming small forward. Crawford was 2nd team all Rookie at SF while playing major minutes this season at PF. The Nuggets are putting a lot of their future in the hands of the Lotto in hopes of landing the top pick and then signing big names in this equally big free agent market. Jamal Crawford, Earl Watson, Dan Dickau, and Marcus Fizer are solid role players who will help the team down the road.
The quest for a trade to be approved!
First at the start of the year the Lakers were involved in a trade that ended up being vetoed and left the Lakers wondering what they did wrong and how they could get back to rapping Gms. Then at the end of the year the agreed again to another lopsided trade and looked to get LeBron James and add Tim Duncan and Ben Wallace to a core of Pau Gasol, Zach Randolph, Desagana Diop, and Tayshaun Prince. Did we forget about all the gizzlion picks the Lakers have in their pocket too? Well the trade was once again vetoed and the Lakers are left wondering what must be done to get a trade to go through. Back to the drawing board to rapping another team.
Who declares and who leaves the draft?
The 2003 draft has been one draft that almost every GM in the league has tried to acquire a top pick in. Even if you had a late lotto pick you would still be getting a guy who could come in from day one and challenge for starting minutes. Mid to late picks were getting solid role players. You have a first this year you are golden, you have two….well you just jizzed in your pants, yes, jizz.
LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Josh Howard, Brois Diaw, Leandro Barbosa, Travis Outlaw, TJ Ford, Luke Ridnour, Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison, David West, Darko Milicic, Kendrick Perkins….we could go on forever it seems.
There is simply so much talent some guys would be smart to pull back. However could that back fire and all the stars want to be the number 1 pick and do it at the same time? Most likely not, but don’t be shocked to see a few big names drop out in fear of falling out of good graces with the sports agents.
