Tell Me About Your Sports Franchises!

[Chris2K]

1988 season done, and the Trail Blazers dynasty continues as they win their third NBA championship in a row, with Hakeem Olajuwon picking up Finals MVP once again. MVP went to Magic Johnson, Rookie of the Year to David Robinson of the Knicks, 6th Man to Paul Pressey, Defensive Player of the Year to Michael Jordan of the Pacers, and Hot Rod Williams was the Most Improved.

Whilst the Blazers were dominating, the rest of the league went a little crazy. The Knicks, after four seasons not making the play-offs, went all the way to the NBA Finals (although did get swept), and the Nuggets, 3rd worst record in 1987, made it to the Western Conference Finals, despite not really improving their team in the off-season. Not such great news for the Clippers who went from 4 straight play-offs to the worst record, and the Nets and Bullets continued to struggle, with the Bullets losing Reggie Miller for the season after just 21 games.

Perhaps the most shocking news is that Doc Rivers, at the age of 26, has been forced to retire after a devastating ACL injury, leaving the Hawks without their All-Star Point Guard, and inflicting his coaching and commentary on the league earlier than in reality. Artis Gilmore was the only major retirement due to age, and he didn't even get his jersey retired.

We welcome the Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets to the league, meaning we have an Expansion Draft to deal with. We also get the hilarity of the Heat being allocated to the Western Conference, because they're more geographically west than Charlotte. I'll just give you the top 5 picks for each.

Spoiler

Hornets

1. Kelvin Ransey
2. Buck Johnson
3. Bill Walton
4. Rick Mahorn
5. Trent Tucker

Heat
1. Ed Pinckney
2. Sam Bowie
3. Rpbert Reid
4. Phil Hubbard
5. Jerry Eaves

TL;DR - Both teams are terrible.

The #1 pick went to the Spurs thanks to the lottery, the Bullets finally got a high pick with #2, the Suns #3, and the Clippers fell to #6 behind the expansion teams. First round is below:

Spoiler

1. Danny Manning (PF) - Spurs
2. Rik Smits (C) - Bullets
3. Mitch Richmond (SG) - Suns
4. Hershey Hawkins (SG) - Hornets
TRADE - Pistons send Antoine Carr and Wes Matthews to the Heat for the #5 pick and Blair Rasmussen.
5. Willie Anderson (SF) - Pistons
6. Chris Morris (SG) - Clippers
7. Rony Seikaly (C) - Nets
8. Rod Strickland (PG) - Cavaliers
9. Charles Smith (PF) - Kings
10. Kevin Edwards (PG) - Bulls
11. Rex Chapman (SG) - Rockets
12. Dan Mejerle (SG) - Pistons
13. Tim Perry (PF) - Pacers
14. Michael Williams (PG) - Celtics
TRADE - Bullets send Dan Roundfield and their 2nd round pick to the Mavericks for the #15 pick.
15. Harvey Grant (PF) - Bullets
16. Grant Long (PF) - Jazz
17. Gary Grant (PG) - Hawks
18. Vernon Maxwell (SG) - Warriors
19. Brian Shaw (PG) - SuperSonics
20. Will Perdue (C) - Lakers
21. Steve Kerr (PG) - Knicks
22. John Starks (SG) - Nuggets
23. Mark Bryant (PF) - 76ers
24. Tom Tolbert (PF) - Bucks
25. Winston Bennett (SF) - Trail Blazers

Major Free Agent moves:
Dennis Rodman to the Clippers
Terry Porter to the Nuggets
Hot Rod Williams to the Lakers
Mychal Thompson to the Warriors
Kelly Tripucka to the Celtics

[DMN in the House]

Finally upgraded to 2k24, and settled on a Jordan era (1991) Lakers team. Magic is out with HIV, but he's on the roster, so I might have him return next season, we'll see. Just started, so I don't have much to say yet, but, man, having the 'NBA on NBC' music for the quarter and half music of games really hits different. Brings back a lot of memories of watching 90s basketball.

[Toe]

 

[Chris2K]

My 2K24 sim continues, but has been getting a bit repetitive. The Lakers or Trail Blazers have won the championship in 8 out of 9 years, and the Lakers have just reached another finals.

They're about to go up against rookie Shaq's Cleveland Cavaliers, because Shaq in this game is OP beyond belief. I fear Manute Bol will have some difficulty stopping him.

[DMN in the House]

I've been doing a Lakers sim where I started with the 83-84 team (just starting the 96-97 season now), went to three straight Finals (so five straight total, including the two before the game starts), lost all three to the Celtics. Magic won three straight MVPs in those years as well. Jordan went to the Clippers, they went to the Finals the year after those three, lost to the Celtics, then we went back and lost to the Knicks. We haven't been back since.

I've kept it pretty realistic, working with my low draft picks because we're usually a solid team, got guys like Rod Strickland, Hot Rod Williams, Michael Curry, solid roleplayers. I ended up trading James Worthy in the early 90s because he didn't want to re-sign, which brought us back Mitch Ritchmond, who I then traded when he didn't want to re-sign for a draft pick that ended up turning into Jalen Rose (I used my own that season for Juwan Howard). I swung one BIG trade, though, sent Joe Barry Carroll (my starting C) and 5 first round picks (three in 1992, my 1994 and 1995) to Minnesota for the first overall and drafted Shaq. I then started setting up by trading guys I wasn't going to re-sign for 1996 lottery tickets, and it paid off with the first overall, so right now we've got a starting line-up of 37 year old Magic Johnson, Rod Strickland, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, and Shaq, with rookie Kobe as the sixth man and Michael Curry as our defensive stopper.

We've kept Pat Riley as the coach the entire time, and I don't think we've missed the playoffs once, even if we haven't won any titles, but I've had fun with the roster. Magic also wants to re-sign instead of retire, so I might be able to get a couple years of Magic/Kobe/Shaq which, man, that would be fun to watch.

Oh, and Dr. J is our head assistant. We've also had Rick Adelman and Rudy Tomjanovich as assistants at different points.

EDIT: I guess with the way this game has gone, I should probably start loading up on lottery tickets for 2003, yeah?

EDIT 2: WE FINALLY WON A TITLE!

Edited May 3 by DMN in the House

[DMN in the House]

AHHH, I fucked up and put the wrong draft in and can't fix it! My last other save was in 1995 when I made a separate one so I could play as expansion Toronto...

Edited May 3 by DMN in the House

[Chris2K]

Heading into the 1996 playoffs in my 2K sim and I made a drastic decision - after 11 consecutive trips to the play-offs and no championships, I blew up the Indiana Pacers - which meant trading Michael Jordan. I offered him out and the best deal came from the Cavs (although I added a couple of extra draft picks manually), so now MJ is teamed up with a man named Shaq. For the Pacers, they have ended up with the second worst record, and multiple first round picks with a draft featuring Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen and Ben Wallace on the horizon...

Thankfully for my sanity the Lakers/Blazers dominance in the West has ended, and now it is very much open with the Rockets, Spurs, Warriors, Lakers and Blazers all having good teams. In the East the Bucks have emerged as the big team and have won the last two NBA championships behind Mark Jackson, Danny Manning and Dikembe Mutombo, however a resurgent Celtics, the dream team Cavaliers, and a "where did they come from" Washington Bullets have taken the top 3 seeds, the Bullets had only made the play-offs once since 1985 and now they're the 3 seed.

Also the Timberwolves were able to draft Kevin Garnett, which was nice.

Here's the list of teams and their three best players:

Spoiler

76ers: Hershey Hawkins (84), Derek Harper (83), Tom Gugliotta (80)
Bucks: Dikembe Mutombo (90), Danny Manning (87), Mark Jackson (86)
Bullets: John Stockton (85), Jamal Mashburn (85), BJ Armstrong (82)
Bulls: Karl Malone (89), Toni Kukoc (86), Isaiah Rider (84)
Cavaliers: Shaquille O'Neal (95), Michael Jordan (92), Derrick McKey (83)
Celtics: Chris Webber (92, and reigning MVP), Glenn Robinson (86), Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (82)
Clippers: Tim Hardaway (84), Terry Cummings (81), Ron Harper (80)
Grizzlies: Kenny Anderson (85), Bryant Reeves (77), Terry Mills (76)
Hawks: Brad Daugherty (88), Rodney Rogers (82), Dominique Wilkins (81)
Heat: Latrell Sprewell (87), Kevin Willis (81), Chris Morris (81)
Hornets: John Starks (80), Dennis Scott (79), Olden Polynice (77)
Jazz: Dan Majerle (86), Christian Laettner (82), Charles Oakley (81)
Kings: Billy Owens (82), Greg Anderson (79), Detlef Scremppf (79)
Knicks: David Robinson (94), Joe Dumars (87), Mike Brooks (81)
Lakers: Magic Johnson (90), James Worthy (86), Chris Gatling (83)
Magic: Grant Hill (86), Kendall Gill (84), Shawn Bradley (79)
Mavericks: Mark Aguirre (86), Dane Barros (84), Jayson Williams (79)
Nets: Larry Johnson (85), Kevin Johnson (84), Calbert Cheaney (83)
Nuggets: Reggie Miller (87), Cliff Robinson (83), Otis Thorpe (80)
Pacers: Damon Stoudamire (82), Horace Gran (78), Andrew Toney (78)
Pistons: Isiah Thomas (86), Jerry Stackhouse (81), Antonio Davis (80)
Raptors: Steve Smith (81), Danny Ferry (77), Greg Anthony (76)
Rockets: Scottie Pippen (92), Alonzo Mourning (91), Gary Payton (91)
Spurs: Patrick Ewing (90), Penny Hardaway (89), Charles Barkley (86)
Suns: Vlade Divac (84), Vin Baker (84), Lamond Murray (77)
SuperSonics: Antonio McDyess (82), Nick Van Exel (82), Rick Smits (81)
Timberwolves: Kevin Garnett (85), Hot Rod Williams (81), Sean Elliott (81)
Trail Blazers: Hakeem Olajuwon (93), Clyde Drexler (86), Fat Lever (83)
Warriors: Jason Kidd (88), Chris Mullin (87), Sleepy Floyd (85)

 

[Meacon Keaton]

I don't know how I'm just learning about this mode in the NBA games, but I'm going to buy 2K24 tomorrow and play this. I wish other sports did modes like that.

Do teams draft players based on the IRL drafts or from hindsight? Like in '84, does Bowie still likely get drafted before Jordan or does MJ go #1, Hakeem/Barkley/Stockton go 2-4?

(Also, my lawd what a draft class)

[Chris2K]

It's hard for me to answer really, as I play as all the teams because I really enjoy doing the drafts and free agency side of things, so I've done all the drafts myself and used my knowledge of their future ability to draft players accordingly. You can of course do it as a true simulation and let the CPU do everything, you still need to play as one team I believe but can apply all the simulation settings to that team as well.

It's also worth noting that the official 2K draft classes only contain players who are part of the NBPA and have signed up for their likenesses to be used in 2K games, so while you mention Charles Barkley, he's not in the game unless you use a user-created draft class because he's refused for his likeness to be used. Same with Reggie Miller and Anthony Mason (and some others listed here) for the same reasons as Chuck, and pretty much every second round pick or undrafted player (even some late 1st rounders aren't there) because I guess there's a limit to how detailed 2K are willing to go. Unfortunately this means that the draft pools are filled with fake, randomised players, some of which have the potential to be MJ/LeBron levels of talent and completely disrupt the accuracy of the simulation as a result. All of the above goes for the starting rosters as well, which have fake players in them to make up the numbers to a 15 man squad unless you start from the present day.

You get the option to download user-made draft classes before every season which adds in the major missing players and, in the case of the ones I use (Huff Hoops), the fake players are still there but have their attributes lowered to rock bottom so the CPU never plays them. Unfortunately the level of detail still isn't there, as I can't get through the first round without having to start picking players from the fake player pool.

[Chris2K]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the combination of MJ and Shaq was enough for the Cavaliers to win the championship, sweeping the Rockets in the finals. Larry Bird, Moses Malone and Adrian Dantley then all retired in the off-season.

The big 1996 draft resulted in the following, the Pacers falling to #4 really didn't help their big move to trade Jordan.

Allen Iverson to the Grizzlies (the 76ers AI tried to trade for him later on)
Kobe Bryant to the Raptors (joined by Alonzo Mourning who left the Rockets in free agency)
Antoine Walker to the Pistons
Marcus Camby to the Pacers
Jermaine O'Neal to the Heat
Stephon Marbury to the Mavericks
Shareef Abdur-Rahim to the Magic
Peja Stojakovic to the SuperSonics
Ray Allen to the Jazz
Erick Dampier to the Timberwolves
Steve Nash to the Suns (he fell so far because he was so low ranked I didn't even see him for the first 10 picks)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas to the Clippers

Shaq was a free agent, but unlike real life he didn't leave the team that drafted him at the first opportunity, he stayed with the Cavaliers. The 23-32 combination continues into 1997...

[Chris2K]

I'm not saying I'm a great GM, but the Pacers blowing up the team resulted in them getting Tim Duncan with the #1 pick in 1997, and they're back in the play-offs (although lost to MJ's Cavaliers). So I blew up the Clippers in a similar way, and whilst I'm waiting to see what happens to the Clippers, one player they traded away (Mitch Redmond) is now the starting SG for the... 1998 NBA champions, the Seattle SuperSonics. Nick van Exel was Finals MVP.

Things are starting to become more varied, the days of two teams being the only threat in the West are long gone, and three of the last four champions (Bucks, Cavaliers, Celtics and SuperSonics) all failed to make the finals the next year. I haven't actually finished the 1999 play-offs yet. The 76ers have also now been blown up, resulting in ironically a season record of 6-76, by far the worst record in history based on percentage.

The Raptors have soared to the #1 seed behind Kobe, Alonzo Mourning and 1998 pick Mike Bibby, whilst the #1 pick was Vince Carter to the Knicks. Michael Olowokandi did not make the top 10 (he ended up with the 76ers, which might explain that record). Dirk Nowitski is a Hornet, and Paul Pierce is a Grizzly playing with Allen Iverson. 

I brought the Play-In concept into the league two decades earlier than reality because I'm a big fan of it, meaning Magic Johnson's final NBA game was at the Staples Center in a defeat to the Timberwolves in the 8-9 game.