Post by Delap on May 3, 2017 11:07:13 GMT -6
Wow… this class is just a lot of hot garbage. Do you remember where you were in 3043? It was January 16th, Barack Obama was still president. Do you remember what that was like? I sure don’t. Somehow we are all still alive to enjoy this retrospective. Stay prayed up that we reach 5.0
MAX:
We only had 4 deals total that fell into this category for the 3043 offseason. Four. (As a reminder, these are any deals that are $12.5m or more per year.)
Chris Paul – Orlando Magic – 7 years - $120,312,500
What was deemed as a wild overpay at the time, this deal turned out to be pretty fair. CP3 had not shown anything in his first 4 years to show he was really worth a 7 MAX MAX deal… but MJ went with his gut and offered it anyway. His play has steadily improved since signing the deal… but then he was traded to Ward and the Rockets for a poo-poo platter of players and some picks. CP3 would go on to win the 3045 MVP because the software is stupid… but hey, MVP! So far those picks have netted Nikola Jokic and nothing else. Probably didn’t get value for CP3… but whatever. The contract itself was a good signing, in hindsight.
Elton Brand – Philadelphia 76ers – 2 years - $32,000,000
Great D/R big. Signed to a big deal to be used as trade filler later. Played a fantastic season in Philly (12.1 reb, 3.8 blk) before being shipped to PHX for the mercurial Meyers Leonard. Past his prime, for sure, but still a great player. Good signing all around.
Marvin Williams – San Antonio Spurs – 6 years - $93,750,000
Also considered an overpay at the time, also looks like a good signing in hindsight. Marvin was shipped to La La Land after 2 years of the deal and has maintained great averages for IanBoyd and the Lake Show. His lack of awards is a bit of a headscratcher, as he puts up the production maybe make a 2nd or 3rd team. Maybe if he got his stocks up a little bit he would get the recognition he deserves… but that is the only bad thing you can really say about him… that he lacks stocks.
Joel Embiid – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $13,000,000
Signed by Ward and traded to CLE for his last season in the league. His production didn’t dip a bit. Huge D/R numbers, decent scoring numbers. Very fair deal for a HOF center. Coincidentally, the trade to CLE netted Ward the CLE 1sts that he would later flip to MJ for CP3.
Overall… there weren’t any bad big contracts signed during the 3043 off-season. I would lean toward Marvin Williams being the best deal, but that is surely debatable.
Mid-Level deals between $5m - MAX:
A plethora of 1-year deals in this category.
Anfernee Hardaway – Portland Trailblazers – 2 years - $24,000,000
Big Penny signed a 2-year deal coming off his huge game winner in the 3042 Finals. Unbeknownst to the Blazers though, he had no intention of completing the contract. He retired after the 3043 season. In his final season, his numbers dipped across the board and he saw the writing on the wall. He left the league, but will remembered for the magic he brought to Majic and the sim people of sim Portland. He’ll probably have some sort of coffee-blend named after him in perpetuity… something tall, dark, and good to the last shot.
Gerald Wallace – Indiana Pacers – 2 years - $10,000,000
Pretty big overpay for a guy who would only get 13 minutes a game. His percentages were bad, the only thing that could be said is that his defensive stats were great on a per minute basis, but that’s about it. In the years immediately following this deal, better GMs (*cough*Delap, JHB, and dump*cough*) would give Gerald bigger minutes and see tremendous results all around (except for TOs.) Coulda been a great player for Indiana with a better GM, but oh well.
Charlie Hardnett – San Antonio Spurs – 5 years - $25,000,000
Traded immediately for a crappy PG to the Suns. Charlie would spend a year in the Valley of the Sun before being moved to Seattle in the last friendly accord between Delap and Ank. Part of the package to get Meyers Leonard, Hardnett has become a fixture in the 3-man big rotation for the Sonics/Braves. He’s put up roughly 3 blocks and 9 rebounds per game, while his FG% leaves something to be desired. This contract is definitely the best one handed out in this range for the 3043 season… good job Ank.
And now…. The 1-year deals:
Loren Woods – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $7,000,000
Robert Covington – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $7,000,000
Marcus Bol – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $7,000,000
Allan Houston – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $10,000,000
Amir Johnson – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $5,000,000
What this FA period will ultimately be remembered for is Ward’s sweeping up of some coveted middling players with lucrative one year deals. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t end with the Rockets having a successful season. Bol, Johnson, and Covington all remained with the Rockets for the duration of the season, all putting up stalwart defensive numbers… but just awful awful awful offensive production. Houston was traded with Embiid to Cleveland where he would end his career with a pretty big dip in production. Woods was traded to the Sonics for Jim Krebe in a pretty meh move. None of these signings could be considered fantastic, the Ward 1-year Plan ultimately was a failure.
Chandler Chandler – Kansas City Kings – 1 year - $5,000,000
JaMychal Green – Kansas City Kings – 1 year - $6,000,000
Good signings, great production… not a great result as a team. But… 2poor wasn’t trying to win, so that can be excused. Ultimately these 2, along with King James, kept the Kings from being a sham of a team. They were too good to tank.
Calbert Cheaney – Utah Jazz – 1 year - $6,000,000
Signed to be the backup wing behind Larry Bird and Bonzi Wells, Mr. Cheaney turned in some very efficient numbers in limited minutes, but provided almost nothing defensively. Good signing for sure, led to a division championship.
Jonathan Bender – Memphis Bobcats – 1 year - $8,000,000
We finally reach the best of the 1 year deals. Bender put up stats that you expect from a MAX player. He doesn’t take anything off the table and this team could’ve really made some noise with a better PG and/or D/R big to throw out with Drummond. Great signing though.
MLE:
Like last season, I’ll break up the MLE guys by starters/real contributors and backups. If you were an MLE backup, congrats… but you don’t get a write-up. If you were an MLE who got fewer than 10 minutes a game, you stole money… congrats. I’ll denote those guys with *s… they will be the worst MLEs of the year.
Backups:
Hot Rod Hundley – New Jersey Nets
Jabari Parker – Charlotte Hornets
Clark Kellogg – Indiana Pacers
Bismack Biyombo – Milwaukee Bucks
Guy Rodgers – Vancouver Grizzlies
Borat Sagdiyev – Portland Trailblazers
Slava Medvedenko – Philadelphia 76ers** (though it’s not really his fault, the team was really good)
Martell Webster – Oklahoma City Thunder
Starters:
Brendan Haywood – New York Knicks
The big man in the middle for the champion Knickerbockers. Haywood was dominant with nearly 4 blocks and 15 rebounds per game (leading the league in rebounding!). Easily the best MLE of the year, even with awful FG% and FT%. In fact, this is the winner of Delap’s Contract of the Year… best overall… blue ribbon winner. Nice work.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – Indiana Pacers
Average contract for a very average player. Shouldn’t have played ahead of Gerald Wallace. An in-tune GM would’ve realized that.
Otto Porter – Orlando Magic
Pretty decent numbers… but no defense whatsoever. The 3043 Magic had a real interesting roster… just the wrong time of the career for a lot of them. Oh well.
George Mikan – Phoenix Suns
Great D/R big… shoots too much though. The Suns, like the Magic, had a really interesting roster. Coulda been a contenda!!!
LLE/MIN:
We’re looking at the guys who made an impact on winning teams here, good bargain basement buys. And for teams that finished Top 5 in West/East… not a whole lot of purchases here.
Gorgui Dieng – New York Knicks – LLE
Gheorge Muresan – New York Knicks – MIN
Steven Adams – New York Knicks – MIN
Elmore Spencer – New York Knicks – MIN
Johan Petro – New York Knicks – MIN
Julius Randle – New York Knicks – MIN
Brady Sturgell – New York Knicks – MIN
Wow. You may notice a trend here. Do you see it? Yup… they are all guys who don’t value money and choose to live in the most expensive market in SIM league. Stupid all around…
In all reality, this was peak eric… which led to his only title… so you can’t fault him for doing it year after year. Six… SIX centers on LLE/MIN deals. Some barely played, but Randle and Dieng were both instrumental in holding down the interior with Brendan Haywood. I’ll single out Dieng as the best LLE/MIN signing of the year… but if you argued for Randle, I wouldn’t mind.
Dolph Schayes – Indiana Pacers – MIN
Gerald Green – Indiana Pacers – LLE
I keep harping on this, but this team could’ve really challenged New York, but rested on their laurels in not maximizing talent. Neither of these players meant much at all, which ultimately could’ve been the difference between a championship and getting bounced out of the playoffs.
Donnie Butcher – Utah Jazz – LLE
Came in as a backup to Gerald Henderson, Donnie performed admirably in limited minutes, but up great shooting %s, and generally made the people of Utah proud with his clean-cut look.
Cris Schayes – Portland Trailblazers – MIN
No real impact here, just a roster filler. Nothing to write home about.
Deron Williams – Seattle Supersonics – LLE
See above. Nate Robinson outplayed him and was given the reins to backup the Purple One.
MAX:
We only had 4 deals total that fell into this category for the 3043 offseason. Four. (As a reminder, these are any deals that are $12.5m or more per year.)
Chris Paul – Orlando Magic – 7 years - $120,312,500
What was deemed as a wild overpay at the time, this deal turned out to be pretty fair. CP3 had not shown anything in his first 4 years to show he was really worth a 7 MAX MAX deal… but MJ went with his gut and offered it anyway. His play has steadily improved since signing the deal… but then he was traded to Ward and the Rockets for a poo-poo platter of players and some picks. CP3 would go on to win the 3045 MVP because the software is stupid… but hey, MVP! So far those picks have netted Nikola Jokic and nothing else. Probably didn’t get value for CP3… but whatever. The contract itself was a good signing, in hindsight.
Elton Brand – Philadelphia 76ers – 2 years - $32,000,000
Great D/R big. Signed to a big deal to be used as trade filler later. Played a fantastic season in Philly (12.1 reb, 3.8 blk) before being shipped to PHX for the mercurial Meyers Leonard. Past his prime, for sure, but still a great player. Good signing all around.
Marvin Williams – San Antonio Spurs – 6 years - $93,750,000
Also considered an overpay at the time, also looks like a good signing in hindsight. Marvin was shipped to La La Land after 2 years of the deal and has maintained great averages for IanBoyd and the Lake Show. His lack of awards is a bit of a headscratcher, as he puts up the production maybe make a 2nd or 3rd team. Maybe if he got his stocks up a little bit he would get the recognition he deserves… but that is the only bad thing you can really say about him… that he lacks stocks.
Joel Embiid – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $13,000,000
Signed by Ward and traded to CLE for his last season in the league. His production didn’t dip a bit. Huge D/R numbers, decent scoring numbers. Very fair deal for a HOF center. Coincidentally, the trade to CLE netted Ward the CLE 1sts that he would later flip to MJ for CP3.
Overall… there weren’t any bad big contracts signed during the 3043 off-season. I would lean toward Marvin Williams being the best deal, but that is surely debatable.
Mid-Level deals between $5m - MAX:
A plethora of 1-year deals in this category.
Anfernee Hardaway – Portland Trailblazers – 2 years - $24,000,000
Big Penny signed a 2-year deal coming off his huge game winner in the 3042 Finals. Unbeknownst to the Blazers though, he had no intention of completing the contract. He retired after the 3043 season. In his final season, his numbers dipped across the board and he saw the writing on the wall. He left the league, but will remembered for the magic he brought to Majic and the sim people of sim Portland. He’ll probably have some sort of coffee-blend named after him in perpetuity… something tall, dark, and good to the last shot.
Gerald Wallace – Indiana Pacers – 2 years - $10,000,000
Pretty big overpay for a guy who would only get 13 minutes a game. His percentages were bad, the only thing that could be said is that his defensive stats were great on a per minute basis, but that’s about it. In the years immediately following this deal, better GMs (*cough*Delap, JHB, and dump*cough*) would give Gerald bigger minutes and see tremendous results all around (except for TOs.) Coulda been a great player for Indiana with a better GM, but oh well.
Charlie Hardnett – San Antonio Spurs – 5 years - $25,000,000
Traded immediately for a crappy PG to the Suns. Charlie would spend a year in the Valley of the Sun before being moved to Seattle in the last friendly accord between Delap and Ank. Part of the package to get Meyers Leonard, Hardnett has become a fixture in the 3-man big rotation for the Sonics/Braves. He’s put up roughly 3 blocks and 9 rebounds per game, while his FG% leaves something to be desired. This contract is definitely the best one handed out in this range for the 3043 season… good job Ank.
And now…. The 1-year deals:
Loren Woods – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $7,000,000
Robert Covington – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $7,000,000
Marcus Bol – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $7,000,000
Allan Houston – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $10,000,000
Amir Johnson – Houston Rockets – 1 year - $5,000,000
What this FA period will ultimately be remembered for is Ward’s sweeping up of some coveted middling players with lucrative one year deals. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t end with the Rockets having a successful season. Bol, Johnson, and Covington all remained with the Rockets for the duration of the season, all putting up stalwart defensive numbers… but just awful awful awful offensive production. Houston was traded with Embiid to Cleveland where he would end his career with a pretty big dip in production. Woods was traded to the Sonics for Jim Krebe in a pretty meh move. None of these signings could be considered fantastic, the Ward 1-year Plan ultimately was a failure.
Chandler Chandler – Kansas City Kings – 1 year - $5,000,000
JaMychal Green – Kansas City Kings – 1 year - $6,000,000
Good signings, great production… not a great result as a team. But… 2poor wasn’t trying to win, so that can be excused. Ultimately these 2, along with King James, kept the Kings from being a sham of a team. They were too good to tank.
Calbert Cheaney – Utah Jazz – 1 year - $6,000,000
Signed to be the backup wing behind Larry Bird and Bonzi Wells, Mr. Cheaney turned in some very efficient numbers in limited minutes, but provided almost nothing defensively. Good signing for sure, led to a division championship.
Jonathan Bender – Memphis Bobcats – 1 year - $8,000,000
We finally reach the best of the 1 year deals. Bender put up stats that you expect from a MAX player. He doesn’t take anything off the table and this team could’ve really made some noise with a better PG and/or D/R big to throw out with Drummond. Great signing though.
MLE:
Like last season, I’ll break up the MLE guys by starters/real contributors and backups. If you were an MLE backup, congrats… but you don’t get a write-up. If you were an MLE who got fewer than 10 minutes a game, you stole money… congrats. I’ll denote those guys with *s… they will be the worst MLEs of the year.
Backups:
Hot Rod Hundley – New Jersey Nets
Jabari Parker – Charlotte Hornets
Clark Kellogg – Indiana Pacers
Bismack Biyombo – Milwaukee Bucks
Guy Rodgers – Vancouver Grizzlies
Borat Sagdiyev – Portland Trailblazers
Slava Medvedenko – Philadelphia 76ers** (though it’s not really his fault, the team was really good)
Martell Webster – Oklahoma City Thunder
Starters:
Brendan Haywood – New York Knicks
The big man in the middle for the champion Knickerbockers. Haywood was dominant with nearly 4 blocks and 15 rebounds per game (leading the league in rebounding!). Easily the best MLE of the year, even with awful FG% and FT%. In fact, this is the winner of Delap’s Contract of the Year… best overall… blue ribbon winner. Nice work.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – Indiana Pacers
Average contract for a very average player. Shouldn’t have played ahead of Gerald Wallace. An in-tune GM would’ve realized that.
Otto Porter – Orlando Magic
Pretty decent numbers… but no defense whatsoever. The 3043 Magic had a real interesting roster… just the wrong time of the career for a lot of them. Oh well.
George Mikan – Phoenix Suns
Great D/R big… shoots too much though. The Suns, like the Magic, had a really interesting roster. Coulda been a contenda!!!
LLE/MIN:
We’re looking at the guys who made an impact on winning teams here, good bargain basement buys. And for teams that finished Top 5 in West/East… not a whole lot of purchases here.
Gorgui Dieng – New York Knicks – LLE
Gheorge Muresan – New York Knicks – MIN
Steven Adams – New York Knicks – MIN
Elmore Spencer – New York Knicks – MIN
Johan Petro – New York Knicks – MIN
Julius Randle – New York Knicks – MIN
Brady Sturgell – New York Knicks – MIN
Wow. You may notice a trend here. Do you see it? Yup… they are all guys who don’t value money and choose to live in the most expensive market in SIM league. Stupid all around…
In all reality, this was peak eric… which led to his only title… so you can’t fault him for doing it year after year. Six… SIX centers on LLE/MIN deals. Some barely played, but Randle and Dieng were both instrumental in holding down the interior with Brendan Haywood. I’ll single out Dieng as the best LLE/MIN signing of the year… but if you argued for Randle, I wouldn’t mind.
Dolph Schayes – Indiana Pacers – MIN
Gerald Green – Indiana Pacers – LLE
I keep harping on this, but this team could’ve really challenged New York, but rested on their laurels in not maximizing talent. Neither of these players meant much at all, which ultimately could’ve been the difference between a championship and getting bounced out of the playoffs.
Donnie Butcher – Utah Jazz – LLE
Came in as a backup to Gerald Henderson, Donnie performed admirably in limited minutes, but up great shooting %s, and generally made the people of Utah proud with his clean-cut look.
Cris Schayes – Portland Trailblazers – MIN
No real impact here, just a roster filler. Nothing to write home about.
Deron Williams – Seattle Supersonics – LLE
See above. Nate Robinson outplayed him and was given the reins to backup the Purple One.
