RealGM

Trading is now closed, please write your write-up; it's the same as previous games. You have until Tuesday August 18 to complete your write-ups

Also, players will be judged on three criteria, how you have improved your team for the present, how you have improved your team for the future, and how well you did as a GM in general.

Every write-up should include
1) salaries of all players for next year and any future years
2) your draft pick credits and debits until 2013
3) your teams depth chart with minutes
4) your teams transactions
5) an explanation on what direction you wanted to go, include reasons that you made any big trades, and if you switch directions half way through the game explain why.
6) Your teams goals for the 2010-2011 season
7) Explain how your team is better off in the present compared to when you took over. Some teams might not have much to say here, but if you think you have improved your team considerably from where it was explain why
8) Explain how your team is better off in the future compared to when you took over. Give some explanations why, and your teams goals in the next couple of years.

Good luck writing your write-ups.

-If you have any suggestions, complaints, or comments; e-mail me them at skorf26@yahoo.com

babyjax14@yahoo.com


Story Lines -

2008-09 (The Start)

Key Players: Carmelo Anthony, Chuancey Billups, Kenyon Martin, JR Smith, Chris Anderson

I inherited a team that made a beautiful run into the NBA playoffs, and that gave the eventual NBA champion Lakers a scare in the second round. The Nuggets' success was built upon interior defense and gritty, hustle play. With the NBA in the state that it was I felt that all the Nuggets needed in order to advance past a team like the Lakers was one star player and a couple of more on-the-court leaders. I set about this by shipping out JR Smith and Kenyon Martin for pieces that would land me Roger Mason Jr, Kendrick Perkins, and Jason Richardson - by my original reasoning that would be enough to advance to the finals - and I still feel confident that if my Nuggets team had faced the Lakers they would have made it to the finals against the Magic.

2009-10 (The year we blew the tax out of the water)
Key Players: Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Jason Richardson, Kendrick Perkins, Chris Anderson

At the beginning of this NBA season I felt like there were 4 or 5 teams that were better than the Nuggets. I had retained all of my key free agents (Chris Anderson, Dahntay Jones, Anthony Carter), and signed a couple of savvy veterans, but there were still a few holes I had to fill. I decided that my areas of biggest need were interior scoring and bench depth. I started by trading next to nothing in order to acquire Luke Ridnour (the most notable player I sent was Mike James) and using a TE to trade for Anthony Johnson. Then I performed my first 'blockbuster' of the game, sending Nene, Jason Richardson, Luke Ridnour and picks in exchange for Shaq, Rodney Stuckey, and Dan Gadzuric. To follow this up I sent all my minimum players other than Antoine Wright - as well as Dahntay Jones for Francisco Garcia (a guy I would love to have on my team), and I used a TE to acquire Rafer Alston. I proceded to trade Garcia, Gadzuric and Wright for Corey Maggette and Brandon Bass - a trade that would benefit me greatly in the coming season.

2010-2011 (The year in which we say goodbye to Billups)
Key Players: Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shaquille O'neal, Corey Maggette, Kendrick Perkins, Rodney Stuckey, Rafer Alston, Brandon Bass

I started the off-season by retaining Roger Mason Jr and Shaquille O'neal while letting Rafer Alston and Craig Smith walk. It is not that I wanted to see either of them go, but the fact that the Nuggets faced a serious situation after being so far into the luxury tax the prior season.

There were two major trades that I made in order to get under the luxury tax, and to extend the Nuggets' window for a title. In a nutshell the trades amounted to Chuancey Billups, Corey Maggette, and Shaquille O'neal for Andre Igoudala, Mike Bibby, and Jermaine O'neal. Really the way I say it there was one way to break this trade down -

Igoudala>Billups
Andre is the better scorer, and is an elite level defender. Not only is he the best player on a playoff team that almost eliminated the runner-up Orlando Magic, he is also 8 years younger. Billups' stay was shorter than expected, but the extension of our championship window was well worth the risk involved.

Bibby>Maggette
Corey is overpayed and does not have the highest Bball IQ in the world. I loved him as the 'ultimate 6th man', but Bibby fit in with my team perfectly, so the timing was right to jettison Maggs.

Jermaine and no luxury tax> Shaq
Both are old, but one is 7-1. Jermaine fills a position of need, but Shaq was the better player (with more rings too) - however the big story is that this trade meant the difference between me paying the luxury tax and not paying it. My pay-roll went down about 5 million, but I also did not have to pay 4 million in luxury tax money, and I will get approximately 3 million from luxury tax payers - a savings of about 12 million. Now, isn't that downgrade a little more palatable?

Which brings me to the lineup for your Denver Nuggets!

Starting Five



Mike Bibby $6,315,840 $6,783,680 $7,251,520 $7,719,360 N/A
Andre Igoudala $12,345,250 $13,531,750 $14,718,250 $15,904,750
Carmelo Anthony $17,149,243 $18,518,574 N/A N/A N/A
Brandon Bass $5,670,000 $6,090,000 $6,510,000 $6,930,000 N/A
Kendrick Perkins $4,390,208 N/A N/A N/A N/A

Second Unit



Rodney Stuckey $2,767,126 $3,868,443 (QO) N/A N/A N/A
Roger Mason $3,850,000 $4,150,000 $4,500,000 $5,000,000 N/A
Steve Novak $854,389 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Jermaine O'neal $5,848,000 $6,315,840 $6,783,680 $7,251,520 N/A
Chris Anderson $5,000,000 $5,000,000 $5,000,000 (Team Option) N/A N/A

Third Unit



Jason Smith $2,187,913 $3,135,279 (QO) N/A N/A N/A
Rashad McCants $854,389 $884,293 N/A N/A N/A

Total: $67,087,108 (About 1.7 million under the luxury tax)

Rotation for 2010:
Perkins 26/Anderson 20
O'neal 26/ Bass 20/ Smith 4
Anthony 34/Igoudala 10/ Novak 4
Igoudala 24/Mason 20/Stuckey 4
Bibby 22/Stuckey 26

Draft Credits:
2012 Denver 1st
2012 Denver 2nd (Portland has right to swap if they don't in 2011)
2013 Denver 1st
2013 Denver 2nd
... 2015 IND 2nd, 2015 LAC 2nd (top 55 protected)

Present and Beyond -

Right now the Nuggets enjoy a well-balanced, young, and exciting team. We have elite defensive play, and a balanced offensive attack that will succeed in fast and slow-paced games.

We have 1 guy in our starting five that consistently gives 22-28 points a night, and another one who gives 18-20 points a night. Both are capable of taking over a game offensively. We also have the balanced power forward attack of Brandon Bass and Jermaine O'neal. Bass will be a consistent 8-12 points per night guy (depending on minutes) who gives us interior toughness, and O'neal is still capable of the occasional spectacular game. Mike Bibby, Roger Mason and Rodney Stuckey are also no slouches - Bibby gives me 12-15 points a night while leading my team with clutch threes, and a level head; Mason hits three pointers at a 40-45% clip and gives me 10-13 points a night with the occasional offensive explosion of 28-35 points (he is one of the most underrated players in the NBA); and Stuckey is a triple-double waiting to happen every night - remember, he's the guy that the Pistons decided to replace Chauncey Billups with (and ironically, so did I). Chris Anderson will also get his share of tips, and Novak will come in to give us instant offense. McCants will be a competent replacement for any injured players, he was a former 14 point per game scorer and has the potential to do so again.

Our offensive attack will mainly feature Carmelo Anthony pick and rolls/pops with Bibby, as well as 1 on 1 situations for Anthony, drive and kicks by Stuckey, and fast breaks by all of our players (excluding maybe O'neal and Perkins). We will also see a fare share of post-ups by O'neal, and tip-ins by Anderson and Perkins.

Our defense is the star of the show though - Igoudala can lock down his man on any given night, Anthony is one of the most physical one-on-one defenders in the NBA, and one of the few players (if not the only) who can keep up with the LeBrons and Kevin Durants of the NBA on both ends of the court. Our interior defense is one of the best in NBA history - 3 guys on my team average 2 blocks or more, and I have some terrific rebounding as well. Chris Anderson's length will compliment Jermaine O'neal perfect, and Brandon Bass and Kendrick Perkins are as physical of defenders as you will find in the NBA. Stuckey is no slouch either - with his size, speed and strength he is a tough matchup for opposing point guards.

The future is very bright for Denver - Carmelo Anthony, Andre Igoudala, Rodney Stuckey and Kendrick Perkins will continue to entertain for years. When Stuckey and Igoudala start to improve their shooting both will be matchup nightmares - and I feel that they compliment each other perfectly, Igoudala is perfectly capable of handling the ball, and taking pressure off of Stuckey - and, of course we all know what Carmelo can do.

For future trades I think we will have 4 priorities in the coming season

1- Trading Bibby for a cheaper option at point guard
2- Upgrading the power forward position (trading O'neal and Bass for a better player on a reasonable contract)
3 - Retaining Kendrick Perkins (RFA) and Rodney Stuckey (RFA)
4 - Being under the luxury tax

You can also add to that looking for bargains in free agency (there are always 2 or 3 at positions of need), and trying to add future picks. Down the road we will also have to keep looking for depth at every position.

New vs. Old

Center - Nene/Chris Anderson/Johan Petro vs. Kendrick Perkins/Chris Anderson
Perkins is a better 'true center' and defender than Nene, he is also younger, and more durable. With Carmelo Anthony and Andre Igoudala on-board Nene would have had less scoring opportunities, and been less effective.

New Wins - Barely

Power Forward - Kenyon Martin/Linas Klieza/Renaldo Balkman vs. Brandon Bass/Jermaine O'neal/Jason Smith

O'neal and Martin are both similar statistically, but Martin is the more efficient player at this time of his career (mostly due to O'neal's injury). O'neal is still a very good defender and will give us the occasional 20+ point game - and if he can make a rebound to his old form he is a much better player. Brandon Bass is an excellent young player - much better than the soft Linas Klieza, or undersized Balkman. I envision him becoming a Udonis Haslem type player, averaging close to a double-double (say 9p 8r; he already averaged 9p 5r) and defending his man with intensity. Smith is bigger, and a better shooter than Balkman, but not as tough. I felt I needed someone who could spread the floor.

Tie

Small Forward: Carmelo Anthony/Dahntay Jones vs. Carmelo Anthony/Andre Igoudala/Steve Novak

The story here is the backups, Novak is an excellent shooter, and Igoudala is a star player.

New Team wins - Landslide

Shooting Guards: JR Smith/Dahntay Jones vs. Andre Igoudala/Roger Mason Jr./Rodney Stuckey

One of the NBA's brightest and most exciting stars (Igoudala), a super role player who happens to be an excellent shooter (Mason), and an up-and-coming star (Stuckey) against an unstable - yet excellent scorer. Who wins?

New Team wins - Landslide

Point Guards: Chauncey Billups/Anthony Carter vs. Mike Bibby/Rodney Stuckey

Billups is a star player that is ageing, one of the most effective players in NBA history - Stuckey is the player that Detroit jettisoned him for. Bibby is an excellent shooter and took Atlanta from being a borderline playoff team to taking the championship Boston Celtics to 7 games as an 8th seed...Right now my point guard position is not as good, but instead of getting 35 minutes of excellent point guard play, I get 48. Plus, Stuckey could develop into one of the best points in the NBA...

Old Team wins - For Now



Transactions:

The Nuggets and Sixers have agreed to a trade:

1) Nuggets trade/Sixers receive:
Kenyon Martin $14,431,818
J.R. Smith $4,985,001
Linas Kleiza $1,824,493
Renaldo Balkman $1,369,920
Total: $22,984,232

Sixers trade/Nuggets receive:
Malik Rose $7,647,500
Tyrus Thomas $3,749,880
DeShawn Stevenson $3,616,071
Roger Mason $3,500,000
2009 WAS 2nd
Total: $18,513,451 x 1.25= $23,141,813

Why for the Nuggets: I feel that the salary flexibility I gain will easily allow me to sign a free agent in the off-season to make up for the talent drop-off in this trade. Smith is a bit of a loose plug, and although he is a good player I like the fact that I am able to get a savvy vet that hits key shots and has been the key to a championship calibre team's run this year. Taking on Stevenson sucks, but I think that on the right team he can get back to where he was pretty easily. I think Thomas will be a big part of this team moving into the next few years, and this year. I think that the Nuggets are now an elite defensive team after this trade.

2) Denver uses their 4.47 million dollar TE (Denver--Philadelphia trade) to sign Keith Bogans (2.65m).

Why for the Nuggets: Bogans is Bruce Bowen without the shooting, I think that we have enough offensive weapons that his lack thereof will not be a problem, and his defense will be key for Denver in the playoffs. He makes up for the loss of Balkman.

3) Minnesota trades/Denver receives:
Luke Ridour $6,500,000

Denver trades/Minnisota receives:
Malik Rose $7,647,500
Denver 2010 1st

Rose does not give us anything, and the pick will most likely be in the bottom 5, so giving it up is not a big deal. I gain some 2010 salary, but Ridnour expires in that year and if I am desperate for a pick I can just trade him. I also already have Charlotte's 2010 first as long as it is 12 or over--so most likely I will have a 1st round pick anyway. This works perfectly for our plan of being in the lux-tax for one year in order to set up for the next. I will have a ton of money coming off the books in 2010. Luke will be a major part of this team both this year, and next.

4) Nuggets trade/Pistons receive:
2009 second round draft pick from Oklahoma City
2009 2nd round draft pick from Washington
2010 Charlotte 1st (top 12 protected in 2010, top 10 protected in 2011, top 8 protected in 2012, top 3 protected in 2013, and unprotected in the 2014 NBA Draft).
*using $10,000,000 TE from the Marcus Camby trade

Pistons trade/Nuggets receive:
Al Harrington $10,026,875

5) Nuggets trade/ Pistons recieve:
Steven Hunter $3,696,000
Al Harrington $10,026,875

Pistons trade/Nuggets recieve:
Jason Richardson $13,333,332

It hurts not to have any draft picks now for this year, and only a second rounder next year, but getting Richardson pushes our team over the top, and makes us a legitimate contender. We still have a couple of TE's left and will use them to try and get picks if possible, but the Nuggets now have everything in place to win a championship.

6) Cavaliers trade/Nuggets receive:
Mike James $6,466,600
Craig Smith $2,300,000
Kendrick Perkins $4,250,000

Nuggets trade/Cavaliers receive:
Luke Ridnour $6,500,000
Tyrus Thomas $4,743,598
DeShawn Stevenson $3,883,929
2011 DEN 2nd (Portland has right to swap)

Denver accepts, I think that Perkins fits better with the starting five that I have than Thomas; I think that Nene would be more effective defending power forwards, and with Perkins defensive abilities it frees up a lot of options for us. Smith gives us more depth at power forward, something we sorely needed. James is a huge downgrade, and I think he is a terrible player, but since he is an expiring and I own the Bird Rights to Anthony Carter It does not hurt as much as it would normally. Stevenson was not going to see much time in Denver, so I felt he was a bit over paid for my 10th man.

7) Chris Anderson has resigned with Denver
Year 1 - 5,000,000
Year 2 - 5,000,000
Year 3 - 5,000,000
Year 4 - 5,000,000 (team option)
Chris loves Denver and is eternally grateful for them taking a chance on him last year. He loves: the amount of money, and he especially likes the length of the deal.

8) Denver resigns Anthony Carter
Year 1 - 825,497
Year 2 - 854,389

9 ) Denver resigns Dahntay Jones
Year 1 - $1,200,000
Year 2 - $1,200,000

10) Denver signs Robert Swift for the minimum
Year 1 - 825,497
Year 2 - 854,389

11) Denver signs Steve Novak
Year 1 - 825,497
Year 2 - 854,389

12) Denver signs Desmond Mason
Year 1 - 825,497
Year 2 - 854,389

13) Cavaliers trade/Nuggets receive:
Luke Ridnour - $6,500,000

Nuggets trade/Cavaliers receive:
Mike James - $6,466,600
Desmond Mason - $825,497
Anthony Carter - $825,497

Denver feels like trading Ridnour in the first place was a mistake. Since he was deep on Cleveland's depth chart we decided to group together our assets and grab him. Billups needs to have less minutes if he is going to be able to play at a high level for the rest of his contract, and since Ridnour is a starting quality guard it will really help our team. Losing a key part of our run last year (Anthony Carter) hurts, but I think that Luke is the missing link to our team and that this trade helps both sides immensely.

14) Denver signs Chris Quinn
Year 1 - 825,497
Year 2 - 854,389 (unguaranteed)

15) Wizards trade/Nuggets receive:
Anthony Johnson $2,062,800

Nuggets trade/Wizards receive:
Nothing

Nuggets use $2,110,927 TE (Tyrus Thomas)

Johnson is one of the best third string point guards in the game. He has championship experience and will be another leader in the locker room. I know that he makes our lux-tax situation a bit worse but I think having another point guard is going to give us more flexibility going forward.

16) Bobcats trade/Nuggets receive:
Shaquille O'Neal - $21,000,000
Rodney Stuckey - $1,805,040
Dan Gadzuric - $6,749,260

Nuggets trade/Bobcats receive:
Nenê - $10,520,000
Jason Richardson - $13,333,332
Luke Ridnour - $6,500,000
Robert Swift - $825,497
2011 DEN 1st
2010 DEN 2nd (Portland has the right to swap)

Why the Nuggets do it: The 2010 free agency class is going to be one of the strongest in NBA history (even with Bosh and Wade signing extensions). As it is the Nuggets have a solid core of Billups/Richardson/Melo/Nene/Perkins, but I feel that in order to become a championship contender we need to have the assets to add a third "superstar" to our core.

Financial flexibility is one of the things that NBA teams covet, and after this trade I drop almost $17,000,000 in guaranteed salaries for next year, and almost $30,000,000 the year after that. We give away a lot of future assets, and a big chunk of our core to get a guy who will likely retire after the end of his contract, but I think that Stuckey/Melo/Perkins will be a good core even after Billups and Shaq retire. We will have the opportunity to consistently add good free agents every year, and I feel that we also have a chance at winning the championship this year.

Losing the first and Ridnour then adding Gadzuric is a pretty big blow on top of what I already give up, but since his contract is the same length as Richardson's and he will have a role on this team I don't see it as a bad thing. I also have a ton of point guard depth, so I don't have any major worries about the loss of Ridnour.

17) Denver signs Antoine Wright
Year 1 - 825,497
Year 2 - 854,389


18) Nuggets trade/Bobcats receive:
Anthony Johnson $2,062,800
Dahntay Jones $1,200,000
Chris Quinn $825,497
Sonny Weems $736,420

Bobcats trade/Nuggets receive:
Francisco Garcia $5,800,000

Why the Nuggets do it:
Our backup small forward position is pretty weak and this trade gives us some more depth off the bench. I really liked Johnson and Quinn as my backup point guards, and Jones as my backup shooting guard, but I signed Antoine Wright, so one of he and Jones had to go.

19) Nuggets Trade/Pacers receive: (NOT APPROVED YET)
Cap Space (using $5.67 million TE)

Pacers Trade/Nuggets receive:
Rafer Alston $5,250,000
2015 IND 2nd

This is exactly what trade exceptions are for, finding guys who are buried on another team's bench and making a trade that gives you depth and a boost in talent. It puts us WAY over the tax this year (which hurts), but next year when we have to resign him, O'neil, Smith and Mason we won't be nearly as far over (especially after Gadz expires). Our bench of Alston-Stuckey-Garcia-Smith-Perkins should be good enough to give us a shot at the title this year.

20) Clippers trade/Nuggets receive:
Jason Smith - $2,187,913

Nuggets trade/Clippers receive:
Cap Space via TE

Why the Nuggets do it: We are looking to fill out our power forward rotation, and I think that if Smith comes back from his injury well he can be a good backup power forward in the future for us.

21) Nuggets trade/Bucks receive:
Dan Gadzuric - $7,248,325
Francisco Garcia - $5,500,000
Antoine Wright - $854,389

Bucks trade/ Nuggets receive:
Corey Maggette - $9,600,000
Brandon Bass - $5,670,000

Why the Nuggets do it: I feel like this trade is essentially Garcia and spare parts for Bass and Maggette. I am in need of a skilled power forward, and I think that Bass, while slightly over payed, can fill that role. Maggette is that 16-20ppg bench player I have been looking for all game long, and I am happy to get him on my team--although I might be forced to trade him for salary purposes.

22) Shaq resigns with Denver
Year 1 - $6,500,000
Year 2 - $7,150,000 (Player Option)
Shaq really likes what Denver has done with their team and wants to be a part of it.

23) Roger Mason Jr. resigns with Denver

Year 1 - $3,850,000
Year 2 - $4,150,000
Year 3 - $4,500,000 (ETO)
Year 4 - $5,000,000

Mason is a key component to what I feel is by far the best team in the West. He will get plenty of open looks from the attention payed to Billups, Anthony, O'neil and Stuckey.

24) Denver signs Rashad McCants
Year 1 - 854,389
Year 2 - 884,293

McCants is a starting quality shooting guard and gives me some flexibility when it comes to trades.

25) Nuggets Trade/Bobcats Receive:
Chauncey Billups $13,150,000
Corey Maggette $9,600,000
Shaquille O'neal $6,500,000

Bobcats Trade/Nuggets Receive:
Andre Igoudala $12,200,000
Andre Miller $6,315,840
Jermaine O'neal $5,848,000

Why the Nuggets do it:
I get under the luxury tax while staying competitive. I might not be competing for the championship this year, but I will have several years to add better players around Anthony, Igoudala, Stuckey, and Perkins.

26) Nuggets Trade/Cavaliers Receive:
Andre Miller $6,315,840


Cavaliers Trade/Nuggets Receive:
Mike Bibby $6,315,840

Why the Nuggets do it: With Igoudala's lack of three point shooting I feel that Bibby is a better fit in our starting five.

Minnesota Timberwolves
GM: jbail10@verizon.net


1) salaries of all players for next year and any future years

PLAYER 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015
Rudy Gay $14,325,000 --- $15,471,000 --- $16,617,000 --- $17,763,000 --- $18,909,000
Al Jefferson $13,000,000 --- $14,000,000 --- $15,000,000
Randy Foye $5,848,000 --- $6,315,840 --- $6,783,680 --- $7,251,520 --- $7,719,360
DeMar DeRozen $3,880,920 ---$4,151,640 --- $5,251,825 --- $6,827,373
Brandon Wright $3,398,072 --- $4,580,601
Jordan Hill $3,192,000 --- $3,414,720 --- $4,329,865 --- $5,776,040
Ryan Gomes $3,000,000 --- $3,500,000 --- $3,500,000
Rasual Butler $2,500,000 --- $2,500,000 --- $3,000,000
Stephen Curry $1,803,720 --- $1,929,600 --- $2,958,077 --- $4,135,391
Tyshawn Taylor $1,823,280 --- $1,959,960 --- $2,096,760 --- $3,105,301 --- $4,319,473
DeMarcus Cousins $1,563,120 --- $1,680,360 --- $1,797,600 --- $2,761,113 --- $3,898,691
Renardo Sidney $473,604 --- $788,872 --- $915,243
Rodrique Beaubois $473,604 --- $788,872 --- $915,243
Jordan Hamilton $473,604 --- $788,872

TOTAL TEAM SALARY: $55,754,924

own the rites to
#36 (2009) Nick Calathis PG/SG (decided to sign in Europe)
#53 (2009) Henk Norel PF/C (staying in Europe)
#57 (2009) Nando DeColo PG (staying in Europe)
#44 (2010) Nihad Djedovic SG/SF (staying in Europe)
#60 (2010) Semen Shashkov SF (staying in Europe)

2) your draft pick credits and debits until 2013

2011
Boston 1st
Philly 1st
Minnesota 2nd
Chicago 2nd
L.A. Clippers 2nd
Utah 2nd

2012
Minnesota 1st
Orlando 1st
Minnesota 2nd
Sacramento 2nd

2013
Minnesota 1st
Minnesota 2nd
Utah 2nd

3) your teams depth chart with minutes

PG- Foye (30), S.Curry (18), Taylor, Beabois
SG- DeRozen (25), S.Curry (10), R.Butler (13),
SF- Gay (33), Gomes (15), Hamilton
PF- J.Hill (20), B.Wright (23), Gomes (5), Sidney
C- A.Jefferson (35), J.Hill (5), Cousins (8)

4) your teams transactions

1. Minnesota trades J.Collins, S.Williams, and K.Ollie to Detroit for J.Maxiell, K.Brown, W.Herrmann, 2011 Detroit 1st (unprotected), 2009 Detroit 2nd, and Minesota's 2009 2nd round pick (returned)
2. Minnesota trades B.Cardinal, C.Smith, R.Carney and 2 2009 2nd rounders (both owed by Miami) for A.Law IV and E.Snow's contract
3a. Minnesota trades S.Telfair and B.Brown to Philladelphi for W.Bynum, T.Ratliff, D.Marshall, Toronto's 2009 2nd, and Detroit's 2010 2nd
*waive T.Ratliff and D. Marshall
3b. Minnesota trades K.Brown to Philladelphia for R.Ivey, B.Skinner, M.Collins and Philly's 2011 1st
4. Minnesota trades M.Madsen, M.Collins, and Boston's 2009 1st to Indiana for M.Baston and J.McRoberts
5. Minnesota trades J.Maxiell, W.Hermann and B.Skinner to Detroit for A.Afflalo, M.Ager, and C.Atkins
*waive Josh McRoberts
6. Minnesota trades E.Snow, C.Brewer, Miami's 2009 1st, Utah's 2010 1st and the rites to Petovic to Golden State for Jamal Crawford and Golden States 2009 1st
*waive M.Ager
7. Minnesota trades M.Miller and R.Ivey to N.O. for T.Allen, D.Mason, G.Davis and N.O.'s 2011 1st
8. Minnesota trades J.Crawford, Detroit's 2009 2nd, Detroits's 2011 1st, and N.O's 2011 1st for E.Watson and S.Marks
9. Minnesota trades E.Watson to Indiana for R.Butler and R.Davis
10. Minnesota trades R.Davis and D.Mason to Golden State for M.Blount, G.S.'s 2010 2nd, and G.S.'s 2011 2nd
*claim Kevin Ollie off of waivers
11. Minnesota trades T.Allen to Detroit for W.Herrmann
12. Minnesota trades G.Davis to Philladelphi for TPE and 2012 Philly 1st (unprotected)
13. Minnesota trade K.Ollie and A.Law IV to Philladelphia for S.Williams and a 2011 2nd
*claim Jake Voskul off of waivers
14. Minnesota trade S.Williams, W.Herrmann, 2009 pick #39, G.S.'s 2011 2nd and Philly's 2012 1st to Los Angelas Clippers for M.Daniels and Minnesota's protected future #1 returned
*claim Lorenzen Wright off of waivers
15. Minnesota trades 2011 Philly 2nd and M.Baston to Orlando for J.J. Reddick
16. Minn trade Gadzuric, Afflalo, and pick #36 to Philly for M.Banks, R.Balkman, R.Hollins, and Philly's 2013 1st
17. Min trades 2011 1st to Houston for 2009 picks # 41 and # 53 (2nd rounders)
18. Minn trades 2009 pick # 8, 2010 Minn 1st (if pick is top 3 Min gets Sac 2011 1st but Sac keeps the 2010 pick) to Sacromento for 2009 pick #3, 2012 Sac 2nd, 2012 Atlanta 2nd
19. Minn trades M.Blount, L.Wright, and 2009 pick # 11 to Boston for L.Ridnour, A.Grey, 2009 picks #19 and #24, and Boston's 2010 1st (top 10 protected, unprotected in 2011)
*waive S.Marks
20. Minn trades M.Banks, 2009 pick #24, Detroit 2010 2nd, and Atlanta's 2012 2nd to Dallas for M.Bonner and G.Green
21. Minn trades L.Ridnour to Denver for M.Rose and Denver's 2010 1st (unprotected)
22. Minn trades R.Balkman and M.Rose to New Jersey for S.Pavlovic, R.Swift, and 2009 pick #27
drafted SG James Harden # 3
23. Minnesota trades the draft rites to James Harden and pick # 19 to the LA Clippers for Pick #4, pick 12, and Clippers 2011 2nd round pick
Minnesota selects SG/SF Demar DeRozen # 4
Minnesota selects PF/C Jordan Hill # 6
24. Minn trades pick #27, G.S 2010 2nd, and M.Bonner to Detroit for pick #34, Charlotte future 1st (protected), and S.Hunter
25. Minn trades pick #12, #41 and Philly's 2013 1st to Chicago for #17, #26 and Chicago's 2011 2nd
Minnesota selects SG Gerald Henderson
Minnesota selects SG Wayne Ellington
Minnesota selects PG/SG Nick Calathis
Minnesota resigns Ryan Hollins
26. Minn trades W.Bynum to Phenoix for pick #57 and Indiana's 2010 1st
Minnesota selects the rites to PF/C Henk Norel
Minnesota selects the rites to PG Nando DeColo
27. Minn trades R.Butler to Miami for TPE and Miami's 2010 2nd
28. Minn trades R.Gomes to Atlanta for LA Clippers 2010 2nd, Atlanta's 2011 1st and A.Morrison
Minnesota signs undrafted rookies Alade Aminu and Luke Nevill
*waive the partial guaranteed contracts of Sasha Pavlovic and Chucky Atkins
29. Minn trades R.Hollins to Pheonix for Robin Lopez and Charlotte's 2010 2nd
Minnesota signs undrafted rookies Donte Cunningham and Dominic james to unguaranteed contracts
30. Minn trades Kevin Love, W.Ellington, D.James and Boston's 2010 1st (top 10 protected) to Golden State for Rudy Gay, B.Wright, and A.Morrow
31. Min trades A.Morrow and S.Hunter to Orlando for D.Collison, D.Wilkins, and Orl 2012 1st
*waive the unguaranteed contracts of Mardy Collins and Donte Cunningham
32. Minn trades G.Henderson to Dallas for Stephen Curry
33. traded D. Collison and pick #24 to San Antonio for M.Finley and Boston's 2011 unprotected 1st
drafted Tyshawn Taylor with the 14th pick in the 2010 draft
34. Traded Robin Lopez and pick #21 to Milwaukee for pick #17
drafted DeMarcus Cousins with the 17th pick in the 2010 draft
35. traded #40 and ATL 2011 1st to Sac for #31 and #36
36. traded pick #49 to Utah for Utah's 2011 and 2013 2nd round picks
Drafted R.Sidney (31), R.Beabois (33), J.Hamilton (36), N.Djedovic (44), S.Shashkov (60)

5) an explanation on what direction you wanted to go, include reasons that you made any big trades, and if you switch directions half way through the game explain why.

My goal all along was to build a young team around Al Jefferson. I wanted to try to be as real life as possable with building around my franchise player. I made a ton of moves, but never switched from this original goal. In most of my trades I added picks because that is how I felt this team would rebuild. I am set with a ton of young players and 2 proven young superstars in Al Jefferson and Rudy Gay.

6) Your teams goals for the 2010-2011 season

My goal for the upcoming season is to continue to grow and start to WIN. I think this team is ready to explode into a contender for years to come. While most other teams are filled with older name players that most are past their prime, we are just reaching our potential. In 2010/2011 I truely believe both Al Jefferson and Rudy Gay will be premier players in the league. Randy Foye has already proven he can score in this league and every year his PG skills have been improving. We are super high on our 2009 draft picks Stephen Curry, Jordan Hill and Demar DeRozen and look at all 3 to play major roles on our team. Plus still like the potential of 2008 draftee Brandon Wright. We added 2 of the must underrated solid role playing veterans this off seaon in Ryan Gomes and Rasual Butler.

7) Explain how your team is better off in the present compared to when you took over. Some teams (like Charlotte) might not have much to say here, but if you think you have improved your team considerably from where it was explain why

Well when this game started, Minnesota really had no identity. They were above the cap and had not much to build on. I traded away all bad contracts and older plarers and added youth and tons of draft picks. Were most teams wanted older name players, I kept in mind that this was for the 2010/2011 season and most of those players (Nash, Shaq, Duncan, Dirk, Allen, Pierce) will be close to the end of their careers and a shelll of themselves.

2008/2009 Depth Chart
PG- Foye, Telfair, Olley, B.Brown
SG- M.Miller, C.Brewer, Carney
SF- R.Gomes, B.Cardinal
PF- Love, C.Smith, S.Williams
C- Jefferson, Jason Collins, M.Madsen
TOTAL SALARY = $68,919,764

2010/2011 Timberwolves

PG- Foye, S.Curry, Taylor, Beabois
SG- DeRozen, (S.Curry), R.Butler
SF- Gay, Gomes, Hamilton
PF- J.Hill, B.Wright
C- A.Jefferson, J.Hill, Cousins, Sidney
TOTAL SALARY= $55,754,924

8) Explain how your team is better off in the future compared to when you took over. Give some explanations why, and your teams goals in the next couple of years.

As I already have stated I added tons of talent and youth around my 2 supoerstars in Al Jefferson and Rudy Gay. Randy Foye is a yound talented scoring PG and Brandon Wright has tons of raw ability. I added 3 of the most talented prospects from the 2009 draft (all top 10 picks in real life NBA) in Stephen Curry, Demar DeRozen and Jordan Hill. And we also will drafted in 2010, PG’s Tyshawn Taylor and Rodrique Beaubois (2nd round steal that was actually a 2009 1st rounder) and 3 of the best 18 year olds in the country in DeMarcus Cousins (PF/C), Renardo Sidney(PF/C), and Jordan Hamilton (SG/SF). We also have a ton of international talent stashed overseas waiting to come over in Nick Calathis PG/SG (#36 in 2009), Henk Norel PF/C (#53 in 2009), Nando DeColo PG (#57 in 2009), Nihad Djedovic SG/SF (#44 in 2010), and Semen Shashkov SF (#60 in 2010)

Not only are we ready to make a run in the playoffs now, we are built to contend for a long time!

Plus we have not morgaged our future because we still have a 6 picks in 2011 (2 in the 1st) and 4 in 2012 (2 in the 1st).

And not to be forgotten, I want to thank skorff for all the thankless work he put into this game. No commish would ever be able to make everyone happy, but I truely think skorff has done the best job anyone could have asked for. This was a fun experience and I am already looking forward to the next game. Good luck to all!

Boston Celtics



Roster with Salaries:



Depth Chart:
..................PG.........SG.........SF........PF.........C
1st string:
..............Sessions.Richardson.Dunleavy....West.....Horford

2nd string:
...............Augustin..Chandler....Moute....Jianlian...Hibbert

3rd string:
...............Walker.....Dyson.....Babbitt...Thomas....Ogilvy

Minutes:

PG: Sessions (28)/Augustin (20)
SG: Richardson (32)/Chandler (16)
SF: Dunleavy (28)/Mbah a Moute (10)/Chandler (10)
PF: West (32)/Jianlian (10)/Mbah a Moute (6)
C: Horford (32)/Hibbert (16)

Draft Picks:

2011

Credits: SAS’s 2nd round pick
Debits: 1st round pick

2012----->

Credits: None
Debits: None

Transactions:

1. Traded Kevin Garnett, Mikki Moore, Gabe Pruitt, Brian Scalabrine, and Bill Walker to ATL for Speedy Claxton, J.J. Hickson, Al Horford, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Solomon Jones, and ATL’s 2009 1st round pick

2. Traded Ray Allen, Solomon Jones, and Stephon Marbury to NYK for Wilson Chandler, Cuttino Mobley, and Chris Wilcox

3. Traded Tony Allen, Speedy Claxton, Glen Davis, Eddie House, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Paul Pierce, and Leon Powe to NOH for Hilton Armstrong, Jerryd Bayless, Antonio Daniels, Raef LaFrentz, Malik Rose, Thabo Sefolosha, Julian Wright, PDX’s 2009 1st round pick, and NOH’s 2010 1st round pick

4. Traded J.R. Giddens and Chris Wilcox to MIL for Joe Alexander and Luke Ridnour

5. Traded Raef LaFrentz and Malik Rose to CHI for Aaron Gray and Jermaine O’Neal

6. Traded Hilton Armstrong, Jermaine O’Neal, and Thabo Sefolosha to WSH for Daequan Cook, Larry Hughes, Etan Thomas, and WSH’s 2010 2nd round pick

7. Traded Kendrick Perkins and Etan Thomas to CLE for Yi Jianlian and Anderson Varejao

8. Traded Larry Hughes and Anderson Varejao to LAL for Shannon Brown, Ben Wallace, and CLE’s 2009 1st round pick

9. Traded Aaron Gray, Luke Ridnour, ATL’s 2009 1st round pick, PDX’s 2009 1st round pick, and BOS’s 2010 1st round pick (top 10 protected, unprotected in 2011) to MIN for Mark Blount, Lorenzen Wright, and MIL’s 2009 1st round pick

10. Drafted Jonny Flynn with the 11th overall pick in the 2009 draft

11. Traded Cuttino Mobley, Rajon Rondo, CLE’s 2009 1st round pick, and BOS’s 2009 2nd round pick to CHA for D.J. Augustin, Matt Harpring, Roy Hibbert, and CHA’s 2011 1st round pick (bottom 50 protected)

12. Traded Joe Alexander, Daequan Cook, Julian Wright, and NOH’s 2010 1st round pick to LAL for Josh Childress, Chris Mihm, Walter Sharpe, and LAL’s 2011 1st round pick

13. Traded Mark Blount, BOS’s 2010 1st round pick, and LAL’s 2011 1st round pick to NOH for David West

14. Traded Josh Childress and Jonny Flynn to MIL for Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Ramon Sessions, DEN’s 2010 2nd round pick, and MIL’s 2010 2nd round pick

15. Drafted Luke Babbitt with the 34th overall pick in the 2010 draft

16. Drafted A.J. Ogilvy with the 38th overall pick in the 2010 draft

17. Drafted Kemba Walker with the 41st overall pick in the 2010 draft

18. Drafted Jerome Dyson with the 51st overall pick in the 2010 draft

19. Traded J.J. Hickson to SAS for Mike Dunleavy and SAS’s 2011 2nd round pick

20. Traded Jerryd Bayless and CHA’s 2011 1st round pick (bottom 50 protected) to HOU and NOH for Jason Richardson

21. Signed Kurt Thomas to a 1-year contract

How I built the Celtics:

When I first took over as the GM of the Celtics, I knew that I wanted to rebuild. I quickly got to work as I traded Garnett, Allen, and Pierce in my first three trades of the game. I wanted to get three things out of the trades: young players, picks, and 2010 cap room. I got all three, so I feel that those trades were a success.

I then made various moves where I acquired additional young players, picks, and even some more cap room, such as in the trade of Perkins.

The one so-called “questionable” move I then made was trading Rondo. I felt that the fact that Rondo would need to be resigned in 2010 would hurt my cap space, so I wanted to trade him to eliminate that problem. I probably could have gotten more in a trade than just Augustin and Hibbert, but trading Rondo was pretty much a must in order to help preserve my cap space for 2010.

Some more trades were made, including one to get an all-star PF in West, and then 2010 free agency hit. After striking out on the top free agents, as the other teams with cap room also did, I decided to make use of my cap room by trading for Richardson and Dunleavy, both of whom can help my team now and in the future, as their contracts expire in 2011, to give me flexibility at the trade deadline or during the summer of 2011.

My goals for the Celtics during the 2010-2011 season:

I feel that the Celtics can certainly make the playoffs, and maybe even advance to the second round. Hopefully my young players can gain experience and really grow as a team. Richardson and Dunleavy will be in the plans to be major players on my team, but if the right deal comes along for their 2011 expiring contracts, then I would not hesitate to move them.

How my team is better in the present than when I took over:

I guess this is one area where I can’t really say much. Obviously this team isn’t going to win a championship right away like the Celtics of 2007-2008, but they were getting old and probably weren’t going to win another championship, so I decided to rebuild and get some value out of them while I still could.

How my team has improved for the future:

This is pretty clear. With the aging core of Garnett, Allen, and Pierce, the Celtics were headed for a pretty bleak future after they really started to decline. I moved them while they still had considerable value, and I was able to acquire many young pieces such as Horford, Chandler, and Sessions. I also will have a lot of flexibility in the 2011 offseason, where I can have cap room again, or I can trade the expiring contracts of Richardson and Dunleavy at the 2011 trade deadline to make a real push in the playoffs. Either way, this team certainly has a much better future than if the Celtics had just let their core decline and fade out.

And of course…

Thank you to skorf for running this game. There were clearly some bumps along the way, but overall, you were a very unbiased commissioner who tried his best to please everyone. I’m looking forward to the next one!

Best of luck to all of the other GMs in the game; this was the most competitive GM a Team game yet!

Arkavious989 at hotmail.com


Starters


Bench



Salaries



Depthchart


Player Minutes
Mo Williams(36)/Dionte Christmas(6)/Luther Head(6)
Carlos Delfino(32)/Stephen Graham(16)/Wesley Matthews
Antoine Wright(30)/Joey Graham(18)
DeJuan Blair(32)/Tyler Hansbrough(16)
Rasho Nesterovic(24)/Tyler Hansbrough(16)/Sear Sene(8)

Robert Dozier/

Draft Picks
2009 First Round Draft Pick (New York) #9 - DeJuan Blair
2009 First Round Pick (Houston) #24 - Tyler Hansbrough
2009 2nd Round Pick (Indiana) #43 - Robert Dozier
2009 2nd Round Pick (Cleveland) #49 - Dionte Christmas
2009 2nd Round Pick (Cleveland) #60 - Wesley Matthews
2010 Second Round Pick (Detroit) - Marko Keselj
2011 First Round Draft Pick (New York)
2011 Second Round Draft Pick (New York)
2011 Second Round Pick (Cleveland)
2012 First Round Draft Pick (New York)
2012 First Round Pick (Miami)
2012 Second Round Draft Pick (New York)
2012 Second Round Pick (Atlanta)
2013 First Round Draft Pick (New York)
2013 Second Round Draft Pick (New York)

Rights to: Marko Keselj

Trades and Transactions

1.) Eddy Curry and Chris Duhon to Cleveland for Wally Sczerbiak, Daniel Gibson and Cleveland's 2010 Second Round Pick.

2.) Jered Jeffies, Larry Hughes and David Lee for Mike Bibby, Brian Cardinal and Cleveland's 2011 Second Round Pick.

3.) Danilo Gallinari and Cleveland's 2010 Second Round Pick to Detroit for Amir Johnson and Detroit's 2009 First Round Pick.

4.) Cuttino Mobley, Chris Wilcox, and Wilson Chandler to Boston for Ray Allen, Solomon Jones and Stephon Marbury.

5.) Picked up Theo Ratliff and Donyell Marshall off of Waivers.

6. Waived Joe Crawford

7. Ray Allen to the LA Lakers for Lamar Odom, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, LA's 2009 First Round Pick, and LA's 2009 Second Round Pick.

8. Al Harrington, Courtney Simms and LA Lakers 2009 2nd round pick to Detroit for Leandro Barbosa and Sebastian Telfair.

9. Daniel Gibson and Amir Johnson to Milwaukee for Chris Wilcox.

10. Wally Szczerbiak, 2009 LA Lakers First Round Pick to LA Clippers for Rasheed Wallace.

11. Chris Wilcox, Nate Robinson, 2010 2nd New York to LA Lakers for Maurice Williams.

12. Renounced Veteran Free Agent rights to Stephon Marbury, Solomon Jones, Theo Ratliff and Donyell Marshall.

13. Drafted DeJuan Blair with the #9 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

14. Detroits 2009 First Round Pick #15 to Dallas for Houston's 2009 First Round Pick #24, 2010 Detroit 2nd, 2012 Atlanta 2nd, 2009 IND 2nd (#43), 2009 CLE 2nd (#60), and Miami's 2012 First Round Pick.

15. Drafted Tyler Hansbrough with the #24 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

16. Quentin Richardson, Brian Cardinal and Leandro Barbosa to Orlando for Tracy McGrady.

17. Drafted Robert Dozier with the #43 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

18. LA Clippers 2010 2nd Round Pick to Atlanta for #49 in the 2009 NBA draft.

19. Drafted Dionte Christmas with the 49th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

20. Renounced Veteran Free Agent rights to Lamar Odom, Mike Bibby and Rasheed Wallace.

21. Signed Dejuan Blair and Tyler Hansbrough to their Rookie Contracts

22. Signed Dionte Christmas and Robert Dozier to 3 Year Unguaranteed Contracts.

23. Picked up Didier Ilunga-Mbenga's option/unguarateed contract to make it guaranteed

24. Drafted Wesley Matthews with the 60th pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

25. Signed Wesley Matthews to a 3 year mimimum contract, last year unguaranteed.

26. Signed Rasho Nesterovic, Stephen Graham, Joey Graham, Luther Head, and Sear Sene

27. Sebastian Telfair to Toronto for Carlos Delfino

28. Drafted Marko Keselj with Detroits 2010 2nd - he will be staying in Europe

29. Signed Antoine Wright to a 3 year vet minimum deal last year unguaranteed.


Goals for 2010-2011
By looking at the teams in the East I feel this team could actually compete for the 8th seed which makes it kinda sad how bad some teams in the east are. And thats fine by me with the Roster I started out with which would probably compete for 14th seed at best.

Now
I would not say that I have made the team EXTREMELY better player wise but I was able to move some almost unmovable players and not take back longer contracts. When I started with this team the payroll was over the Tax, now however I am at 26 million in total with 13 players on my roster. In hard economic times that is a bonus. I still have all my draft picks plus a few more. The only downside is that I was not able to Land any big name free agents with all my capspace. However, the reason behind that is I played the game like it would be in Real Life, the FA offers I made were realistic and would not have hindered my teams future. However, some teams made max money offers to players who definitely do not deserve it and I hope this is accounted for when people look at their Rosters. Also chances are I end up with another Lottery Pick this year so I get to add more young talent to the team to build around.

Future
I would have to say that I am probably the only team with more than the MLE to spend in this years upcoming offseason. I will have approximately 35 Million to spend. In which the likes of Dirk Nowitzky, JR Smith, Tayshaun Prince, Paul Pierce, Tyson Chandler, Al Horford, Josh Howard, Shane Battier, TJ Ford, Al Thornton, Michael Redd, Kevin Duarnt, Greg Oden, Jason Richardson, Tony Parker, and Caron Butler are all Free Agents. I may or may not get any of them either but then the next year I will still have lots of money because of my savy financial planning.

The Houston Rockets



Salaries

Samuel Dalembert 13,012,823
Manu Ginobili 13,000,000
Paul Millsap 11,050,000, 12,100,000, 13,150,000, 14,200,000 (ETO), 15,250,000 (PO)
Brad Miller 8,000,000
Trevor Ariza 8,000,000, 8,500,000, 9,000,000
Jamaal Tinsley 7,650,000
Mike Conley Jr. 4,913,000, 6,480,256
Drew Gooden 2,500,000
Leon Powe 2,400,000, $2,650,000 (PO)
Goran Dragic 1,972,000
Quentin Richardson 854,389
Mike James 854,389

Total Salaries in 2010-2011: $74,205,778
Total Salaries in 2011-2012: $27,080,256/$29,730,256 without option.

Draft Picks

2011 Draft - 11x 1st-round pick (Indiana, Minnesota, Miami, Oklahoma, Detroit, New Orleans, Denver, Sacramento, Atlanta, Los Angeles), 1x 2nd-round picks (1 being a conditional pick)
Round 1: Rockets own this pick.
Round 2: 2011 2nd round pick (From Grizzlies) protected in all prime numbered picks and all odd multiples of 5 and #50(31,35,37,41,43,45,47,50,53,55,59) to the Bobcats.

2012 Draft - 1x 1st-round pick
Round 1: Rockets own this pick.

2013 Draft - 1x 1st-round pick, 1x 2nd-round pick
Round 1: Rockets own this pick.
Round 2: Rockets own this pick.

Rotations

PG Conley(32)/Tinsley(16)/James/Dragic
SG Richardson(13)/Ginobili(35)/James
SF Ariza(35)/Richardson(13)
PF Millsap(35)/Gooden(13)/Powe
C Miller(25)/Dalembert(15)/Gooden(8)

Transactions

4/10/09-Tracy McGrady, James White for Rashard Lewis, Mickael Pietrus, 2009 2nd round pick
4/12/09-Shane Battier, Luis Scola for Manu Ginobili, Drew Gooden, and 2009 2nd round pick
4/13/09-Carl Landry, Kyle Lowry for Raja Bell, 2009 2nd, and 2010 1st (only if the pick falls between 6-12)
4/15/09-Brian Cook, Brent Barry for Jamaal Tinsley
4/24/09-Ron Artest, Joey Dorsey, for Troy Murphy, Sacramento 2010 2nd, and 2011 1st.
4/29/09-Rashard Lewis, 2010 Charlotte draft credit for Brad Miller, Darius Songaila, 2011 1st.
4/29/09-2 2009 2nds for 2011 1st.
5/20/09-Resigned Drew Gooden, Von Wafer. Signed Marquis Daniels, Theo Ratliff, and Adonal Foyle
6/08/09-Traded Troy Murphy, Raja Bell, and the Houston 2011 2nd for Josh Smith, Andres Nocioni
7/1/09-Paul Millsap for Josh Smith
7/9/09-Yao Ming, Marquis Daniels, Chuck Hayes, 2010 1st (#19 pick) for Richard Jefferson, Nick Collison, 3 2011 1sts (OKC, DET, NOH)
7/13/09-Richard Jefferson, Andres Nocioni for Trevor Ariza, Samuel Dalembert, and 2011 1st (DEN)
7/31/09-Jason Richardson for Goran Dragic and 2011 1st (LAL)
8/1/09-Re-signed Brad Miller
8/2/09-re-signed Manu Ginobili
8/8/09-Signed Quentin Richardson and Mike James to team.

Team Direction

2008-2009: Contending

The team began as a contender, but many of the moves made were rendered poor choices thanks to amazing real-life playoff performances from Scola, and everyone else on the Rockets in the series against the Lakers. Tracy McGrady was jettisoned for Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus, trading a 2010 expiring for winning talent.

2009-2010: Damage Control + Rebuilding

The team was looking okay (3rd in the West for 2009-2010), until Yao Ming went down extremely hard. Suddenly he was nearly untradeable for what I thought his value was worth, and the Rockets went into a complete rebuild. Although Yao might make a recovery (if the voters decide he still has something left), the Rockets were nowhere near the top in terms of contention, and parted ways.

2010-2011 Goals

The Houston Rockets are still a playoff team (5-8 seed). With Conley and Millsap developing nicely and Ariza bringing in championship experience and another youth to add to the previous core, the Rockets are solid when adding in Manu Ginobili and Brad Miller to the lineup. The depth of the team isn't too shabby either, with Jamaal Tinsley, Quentin Richardson, Drew Gooden, Samuel Dalembert, and Leon Powe coming off the bench. Dragic and Mike James will probably see no minutes. The main goal for the 2011 season is to get into the 6th seed or above, and get the core some playoff experience. The team is all expirings, so they will all have some incentive to play hard to get the next payday, so a 2nd-round appearance and making some noise from the Rockets is not out of the question.

Taking talent out of the equation, we still have a great team because all of the players in the starting 5 are unselfish.

Team Improvement

The team is a little worse than when it started, but it has improved in terms of health and youth. Manu, while he won't be an all-star producer, still can shoot extremely well and his injuries this last real-life season are really from lack of rest (NBA Finals-->Olympics-->Training Camp). Brad Miller is old, but he has never been a flight risk, and his workload in terms of minutes is considerably less.

In terms of finance, we are way less tied up than we seem. The team is paying an average-to-high sum now, but as early as next season, we're paying less than 30 million, allowing us to make a splash in the 2011 free agent market.

For the present: My team is a little worse results-wise than it was when the game began, but factors outside my control were at work. Namely, Yao went down for a season, and his very career was in jeopardy. I believe, as a Yao fan, that at this point unless he gets an adamantium skeleton like Wolverine, he'll only be a fraction of what he was. Also, Tracy McGrady was also injury-ridden, so Ron Artest and Shane Battier were the swingmen. We have a decent center rotation, a better power forward rotation, the wings are better (Ariza is comparable to Battier, Manu is better than Artest) and the point guards are more able to win now, with Conley vs. Brooks being a wash.

For the future: Here's where we have improved the most. Sure Manu, Dally, Miller, Gooden, Tinsley, and Quentin Richardson won't be around next season, but Conley, Ariza, Millsap, and possibly Powe will be around. Add the 11 players being added via draft (most likely we will package a few of them for higher picks since we also want room to spend in FA) and also 2011 FA and 30 mil in capspace so recognize that the future, while not completely set, is very bright, even if it is just drafting the next superstar shooting guard (a la Jordan, Kobe, Lebron). We are due for one in 2011.

The Future

The magic number here is 11.

Houston has Mike Conley, Trevor Ariza, and Paul Millsap. They are not extreme-upside superstars, but a solid core of youngsters that will see this team to the playoffs for the next 5-6 years. Conley is the youngest of the three. He will be 23 at the outset of the 2010-2011 season, with the other two at 25. Leon Powe may pick up his player option, and he is a welcome hustle player.

The main advantage this team holds over the other rebuilding franchises is the 11 2011 1st-round picks we own. There are two likely top-10 picks, with Sacramento's likely to be in the top 5. There also 2 other likely lottery picks besides. With 11/24 odds, we will find 3-5 all-star talents, at least. One of them will be a franchise player.

If they aren't, 11 1sts are wonderful assets down the road. Consider that we have almost half of the 2011 draft marked with Houston stamps. That holds a lot of the league hostage in a bid to scrape the last talented players in the 2011 draft, and then we can also sign some great players in 2011 FA with out 30 mil in cap space.

So the future of the Rockets is Conley/Ariza/Millsap + 11 1st round picks from the same year battling it out in the most intense training camps ever since nobody is proven, but all the talent is there. The future is extremely bright.

Gremz

Email/MSN: elfgremlin@hotmail.com
AIM: Elfgremlin2

Depth Chart

Starting Line Up
......PG........SG.........SF............PF............C.....

....Hinrich.....Allen......James....Duncan.....Camby
Second String

....Udrih.......Bell.........Hill......R.Wallace...Foster
Pine Patrol

....House......Murray..Brewer...B.Wallace..Magloire

Assets

Roberto Duenas (58th pick, 1997)

Salaries

Tim Duncan- $18,700,000, $21,300,000
LeBron James- $17,190,000, $18,994,950, $20,799,900, $22,604,850, $24,409,800, $26,214,75
Kirk Hinrich- $9,000,000, $8,000,000
Ray Allen- $9,000,000
Jeff Foster- $6,655,000
Beno Udrih- $6,478,600 $6,925,400 $7,372,200
Marcus Camby- $5,848,000, $6,315,840
Rasheed Wallace- $5,000,000
Corey Brewer- $3,702,000
Raja Bell- $3,000,000, 3,240,000
Grant Hill- $3,000,000
Flip Murray- $2,191,320, $2,366,626, $2,555,956, $2,760,432
Eddie House- $2,080,000
Brian Skinner- $854,389
Stephon Marbury- $854,389
Jamaal Magloire- $854,389
Ben Wallace- $854,389


Blue- Team Option
Red- Qualifying Offer
Orange- Unguaranteed
Green- Player Option
Purple- Early Termination

Total Salaries

2010/2011- $94,408,087
2011/2012- $68,155,276
2012-2013- $30,728,056

Draft Picks

2011 MIA 2nd Round Pick

2012 MIA 2nd Round Pick
2012 GSW 2nd Round Pick

2013 MIA 2nd Round Pick

Depth Chart

PG- Hinrich (32)/Udrih (16)
SG- Allen (32)/Hill (16)
SF- James (40)/Hill (8)
PF- Duncan (34)/R.Wallace (14)
C- Camby (30)/R.Wallace (18)

On The Block
Anyone can be had for the right price, but i'm currently content with the current roster.

Transactions

1. Miami trades Mark Blount, Michael Beasley, Dorrell Wright, James Jones and Daequan Cook for Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, DeShawn Stevenson, Darius Songaila and 2009 WAS 2nd Round Pick.

2. Miami trades Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson for Tayshaun Prince and Kareem Rush.

3. Miami trades Luther Head, Jamario Moon and the TOR 2010 1st (with protections) for Grant Hill and Matt Barnes.

4. Miami trades Jermaine O'Neal, Mario Chalmers, 2010 MIA 1st Round Pick and 2009 WAS 2nd Round Pick for Kirk Hinrich and Brad Miller.

5. Miami trades Brad Miller, Darius Songaila and MIA 2011 1st for Rashard Lewis and CHA 2010 1st (with protections).

6. Miami trades Rashard Lewis, Tayshaun Prince, Yakhouba Diawara, Jamaal Magloire, IND 2009 2nd, CLE 2009 2nd, 2012 MIA 1st for David West, Josh Howard and Rashad McCants.

7. Miami trades a TPE worth $4,330,000 for James Jones.

8. Miami trades Udonis Haslem and James Jones and 2012 MEM 2nd (top 55 protected) for Reggie Evans, Bruce Bowen, Antoine Wright and Joey Dorsey.

Miami signs Free Agent Antonio McDyess.

Miami signs Free Agent Eddie House.

Miami signs Free Agent Flip Murray.

Miami signs Free Agent Stephon Marbury.

9. Miami trades their MIN 2010 2nd Round pick and a TE worth $3,945,000 for Rasual Butler.

10. Miami trades Bruce Bowen, Rashad McCants, Antoine Wright, Chris Quinn and Joel Anthony for Jeff Foster, CJ Miles and a 20112 GSW 2nd Round Pick.

Miami signs Free Agent Jamaal Magloire.

11. Miami trades Josh Howard, David West, Brendan Haywood and Rasual Butler for Tim Duncan, Mike Miller, Leon Powe and Royal Ivey.

12. Miami trades Leon Powe, CJ Miles and CHA 2010 1st for Rasheed Wallace.

13. Miami trades Mike Miller, Joey Dorsey and Antonio McDyess for T.J. Ford and Stephen Jackson.

14. Miami trades Dwyane Wade and a 2013 MIA 1st for LeBron James.

15. Miami trades TJ Ford and Reggie Evans for Ray Allen and Beno Udrih.

16. Miami trades Stephen Jackson for Raja Bell and Corey Brewer.

Miami signs Free Agent Marcus Camby.

Miami signs Free Agent Ben Wallace.

2008-09

Utilizing some friendly contracts and quality young assets, we looked to pick up some specific pieces in which to surround our star, Dwyane Wade. We were lucky to pick up some quality guys in the process such as Kirk Hinrich (trade 4), Brendan Haywood (trade 1), Josh Howard and David West (trade 6), all of which helped push us towards a more extensive run at the playoffs.

2009-10

Making some big splashes, we managed to pick up Tim Duncan (trade 11), who essentially pushed us to another level. We proceeded to take on some higher tier contracts at this point (see Stephen Jackson for example) to strengthen our depth.

2010-11

At this point, we were lucky enough to net ourselves LeBron James (trade 14) at the cost of our oringinal start Dwyane Wade. This worked quite well, as the complimentory team we had in place for Wade, also reflected James' game well.

After this acquisition, we managed to add a veteran star in Ray Allen, and strengthen our 3rd string squad, to ensure that injuries won't be a concern. Trading Stephen Jackson late in the game gave us future flexibility when our salaries drop to only roughly $30m during the 2012-13 season.

Final Thoughts

I wanted to obtain a win now team this time around, and feel I've managed to do a solid job all around. We have two major pieces and depth all around.
The window we have will give us another 2-3 solid championshiip runs, before being able to re-tool around a young superstar in LeBron.

Atlanta Hawks



1) salaries of all players for next year and any future years

Player................2010/2011.......2011/2012.......2012/2013

Kobe Bryant.........$24,186,094.......$26,725,634.......$29,265,174.......$30,000,000.......$30,000,000
Andrew Bynum.......$13,842,332.......$15,157,667......$16,473,002
Troy Murphy.........$11,968,254
Gerald Wallace......$ 9,500,000.........$9,500,000.......$9,500,000
Jameer Nelson.......$ 7,700,000........$7,700,000.......$7,700,000
Shawn Marion........$ 6,315,840.......$ 6,783,680.......$ 7,251,520......$ 7,719,360
Darius Songaila.......$4,818,000
Joe Alexander........$2,763,600.........$3,515,299.......$4,738,623
Luke Ridnour .......$2,500,000.........$2,700,000.......$2,900,000.........$3,100,000.........$3,300,000
Pops Mensah-Bonsu..$1,105,000
Marcus Thornton.....$1,063,200.........?????
Tiago Splitter.........$1,035,960.........$1,113,600.........$1,191240.........$2,150,188.........$3,203,780
Jason Williams........$854,389

Total Salaries 87,652,669

Team Option
Qualifying Offer
Unguaranteed
Early Termination
Player Option

[size=150]2) your draft pick credits and debits until 2013

Debts

2010 2nd round pick to Los Angeles Lakers
2011 1st round pick to Minnesota Timberwolves
2012 2nd round pick to Sacramento Kings

Credits

2011 2nd round pick from San Antonio Spurs
2011 2nd round pick from Detroit Pistons
2012 1st round pick
2013 1st round pick
2013 2nd round pick

3) your teams depth chart with minutes

Andrew Bynum (28) / Tiago Splitter (20) / Darius Songaila (insurance in case of injuries)
Troy Murphy (30) / Pops Mensah-Bonsu (18) / Darius Songaila (insurance in case of injuries)
Gerald Wallace (17) / Shawn Marion (31) / Joe Alexander (insurance in case of injuries)
Kobe Bryant (34) / Gerald Wallace (14) / Marcus Thornton (insurance in case of injuries)
Jameer Nelson (28) / Luke Ridnour (20) / Jason Williams (insurance in case of injuries)

4) your teams transactions

Trade #1:

Atlanta In: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Maurice Williams, Delonte West, JJ Hickson
Cleveland In: Josh Smith, Mike Bibby, Acie Law IV, Othello Hunter

Trade #2

Atlanta In: Kevin Garnett, Brian Scalabrine, Gabe Pruitt, Bill Walker, Mikki Moore
Boston In: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Speedy Claxton, Al Horford, JJ Hickson, Solomon Jones, ATL 2009 1st round pick (unprotected)

Trade #3

Atlanta In: Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson
Orlando In: Marvin Williams, Delonte West

Trade #4

Atlanta In: Ike Diogu
Sacramento In: Brian Scalabrine + Atlanta 2012 2nd round pick

Trade #5

Atlanta in: Pau Gasol, Adam Morrison, Josh Powell, Sun Yue
Lakers in: Mo Will, Hedo Turkoglu, Zaza Pachulia, Ike Diogu, Atlanta 2010 1st round pick (unprotected), Rights to Josh Childress

Signed Mikki Moore for 2 years for the minimum.

Trade #6

Atlanta in: LAC 2010 second round pick
NYK in: Atlanta 2009 second round pick

Trade #7

Atlanta In: Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Antawn Jamison, Ethan Thomas
Cleveland In: Kevin Garnett, Joe Johnson, Pau Gasol, Gabe Pruitt

Signed Shawn Marion for the full MLE
Signed Jason Williams for 2 years for the minimum.

Trade #8

Atlanta in: Ryan Gomes
Minnesota in: Adam Morrison, LAC 2010 2nd round pick, Atlanta 2011 first round pick.

Signed Joe Smith for the LLE

Trade #9

Atlanta In: Pops Mensah-Bonsu
Toronto In: Bill Walker

Trade #10

Atlanta In: Allen Iverson, Joel Anthony
Philadelphia In: Etan Thomas

Trade #11

Atlanta In: Kurt Thomas
Detroit In: Maurice Evans, Joe Smith

Trade #12

Atlanta In: Gerald Wallace, Joe Alexander, Goran Dragic
Los Angeles Lakers In: Antawn Jamison, Atlanta 2010 2nd round pick

Trade #13

Atlanta In: Kenyon Martin, Marcus Thornton, Rights to Tiago Splitter, San Antonio 2011 2nd round pick, Detroit Pistons 2011 2nd round pick
San Antonio In: Allen Iverson, Ryan Gomes, Joel Anthony, Goran Dragic, Jason Williams

Trade #14

Atlanta In: Darius Songaila and Troy Murphy
Dallas In: Kenyon Martin

5) an explanation on what direction you wanted to go, include reasons that you made any big trades, and if you switch directions half way through the game explain why.

I decided that Atlanta core was too young to seriously contend and i did not want to rebuild, i decided Atlanta had enough value to build a real contender. Once i decided i wanted to contend and seriously try to win a championship the next step was to bring in a real star to build the team around.

In my 2nd trade i believe i got that star in Kevin Garnett.

I also decided to not gamble on expiring players (Marvin and Bibby) that would limit my options and i would need to worry about overpay to extend them since a lot of teams were clearing cap space. So i decided to trade both of them and bring in more experienced/proved players.

After the trade #5 I had 4 all stars (Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett, Joe Johnson, Jameer Nelson) but not particularly a strong team, i don't think they were a good fit together, so i decided to pack them together and bring one of Kobe or LeBron back. I had the option to trade that package for either of them, and i decided to bring in Kobe. He is my favorite NBA player and he have the experience to lead a team, he is a coach on the court, he work hard with their team mattes to get them involved, and he have won 3 championships. While i think at the end of their careers, LeBron have the Potential to look better and see he was better than Kobe, right now and for the next few years Kobe IS better than LeBron, and i don't want to gamble on potential, i wanted the real deal.

Kobe option was better for another reason, i managed to bring Bynum and Jamison in that deal. I wouldn't have any cap space to build a team so it was important to bring as many solid players to surround my star player as possible. After that trade i had a core of Jameer/Kobe/No one :p/Jamison/Bynum.

That year free agent class was very strong at SF, Turkoglu/Marion/Ariza/Artest. So i decided to stand pat and try to add one of those FA to complete my team. I managed to get Marion for the MLE. After that my team was already complete but i had no bench.

I wouldn't see any cap space on the forsee future, and i had a few expiring players, so i decided to trade expirings for talent and managed to build a weak 2nd unity doing that. (Iverson/Joel Anthony/Pops/Ryan Gomes)

Later i manage to do a few trades to tweak my team, Again i had a couple of expirings and managed to trade them for more talented players locked on long contracts (Gerald Wallace)

I also had a big hole, no reliable backup Center and after realize San Antonio had no intention in use Tiago Splitter i decided to trade for him. He is a fantastic and young player. My favorite basketball player in fact, i watch him play since he was 17 years old. I took some extra salary back and a few young players from San Antonio.

My last deal was to tweak my team. I believe i had enough toughness and defense with Bynum/Crash/Marion/Kobe/Splitter but i still lacked some 3 points threat to pair up with Jameer Nelson. Trading K-Martin for Troy Murphy provided me another fantastic 3 pointer and added another fantastic rebounder at the cost of some toughness and defense. Nelson and Murphy are going to be able to spread the floor for my team and Kobe/Bynum will surely take advantage of it. Songaila is a veteran big man and he is welcome as a insurance for my team.

6) Your teams goals for the 2010-2011 season

My team goals for 2010-2011 season is the conference finals, the owner is expending a hell lot of money in luxury tax so i believe a deep playoffs run is needed to pay the bills

7) Explain how your team is better off in the present compared to when you took over.

The team i took over was a young, cheap and talented team, my actual team is still young (only 4 players over 30, J-Will/Kobe/Marion/Songaila) but all my players should be at their peak in the next few years, and imho that's what you want when you are contend, too much youth should mean too many mistakes from inexperience, my team don't have any low bbiq player, have a real leader and winner in Kobe and have enough depth to cover injuries. I also improved the 2nd unity a lot, Atlanta 2nd unity was really terrible, my 2nd unity is very solid imo.

Bynum / Horford
Troy / J-Smoove
Crash / Marvin
Kobe / JJ
Nelson / Bibby

The old Atlanta had no center and wasn't as ballanced as my actual team is. Also Kobe is a much better leader than JJ and a lot more vocal. Marvin/J-Smoove/Horford have a fantastic potential but they still need to prove they can advance from 1st round of the playoffs, while Nelson/Bynum and Kobe already proved it. Crash and Troy are fantastic role players and should compliment the other 3 nicely while they lead the team.

8) Explain how your team is better off in the future compared to when you took over. Give some explanations why, and your teams goals in the next couple of years.

Atlanta had a fantastic young core but they had two serious issues. At the two positions i consider the key positions. PG and Center.

Bibby is old and it's true that PGs can play effectively at an advanced age but i believe Nelson is already better than him and have potential to be much better in the future.

Al Horford is a fantastic player but the main problem is, he is forced to play at Power Foward and he is not effective as PF imho, Bynum is a true Center and is younger than Horford. At the top of it i also managed to get another young true 7 foot Center, and he should be a very valuable asset, 7 feet skilled Centers are very rare in the league nowdays, so if needed i believe is hould be able to deal one of Bynum or Splitter to fill future needs.

So basically i believe i have the two key positions locked with young and talented players. Gerald Wallace is also young and versatile, so he fits the young core well.

Also financialy next season we should get under control. We have two 2nd round picks to fill the roster and we have Songaila, Troy Murphy and Joe Alexander leaving the books saving us almost 20 millions So we should still pay the Luxury Tax after fill the starting PF spot (hopefuly resigning Troy on a much cheaper deal) but the payroll should lower in at least 5-10 million x2 due to Luxury Tax. Kobe Jersey's sales and deep playoff runs should cover the team's high salaries i hope

I guess that's it. Sorry for the crap english and sorry for some trouble i caused during the game (i really think what JordanL did was disgusting and sadly it went through and i expressed my disappointment more than i should)

Lastly Thanks for the game Skorff i think you did a really great job, in the future i think you should get someone else to help you, it's too much work for one person, i believe it take a lot of your time to run this game, so thanks a lot for doing it

Starters



Chauncey Billups: $13,150,000
Vince Carter: $17,522,375
Tayshaun Prince: $11,147,760
Pau Gasol:$ 17,823,000
Shaquille O'Neal: $6,000,000

Key Reserves



Chris Duhon: $4,500,000
Anthony Parker: $2,080,000
Corey Maggette: $9,600,000
Lamar Odom: $6,315,840
Desagana Diop: $6,478,600

Situational: Jordan Farmar,Sasha Vujacic, Tony Battie, Louis Amundson

Minutes Per Game
Chauncey Billups [30] Chris Duhon [18]
Vince Carter [30] Corey Maggette [10] Anthony Parker [8]
Tayshaun Prince [32] Corey Maggette [16]
Pau Gasol [20] Lamar Odom [28]
Shaquille O'Neal [25] Pau Gasol [15] Desagana Diop [8]


Team Direction:


When I originally took over for the bobcats, my intention was to continue with the youth movement and pursue a marquee player in the prized 2010 FA period . I ran into a few problems primarily because of the bad contracts on my roster.

Raymond Felton / DJ Augustin
Raja Bell/ Sean Singletary/
Gerald Wallace/ Vladamir Radmonovic*
Boris Diaw/ Juwan Howard/ Alexis Ajinca
Emeka Okafor/ Nazr Mohammed*/Desagana Diop*


2009 - 2010
Rebuild


Analysis:
As one of the few teams in the NBA without a true superstar, I decided that it wasn't worth paying 60 million dollars for a 10th seed team. I really wanted to contend asap, but with our lackluster roster it wasn't possible. I set in motion a plan that would allow me to contend for a championship the following year...

The first order of business was to gain more assets and package them with a bad contract in order to clear cap space. I quickly traded Emeka Okafor/Raymond Felton to IND for Brandon Rush, Roy Hibbert and Mike Dunleavy. Following that deal, we sent Dunleavy to SA for the expirings of Bowen/Oberto and Nazr/Radmonovic for Dampier. We continued to clear as much space as possible all while competing in the east. We ended the year with a roster of:

Rondo-Rush-Wallace-Milsap-Hibbert
Hill - Bowen - Dampier
(8th seed in the playoffs)

Offseason:

Originally we wanted to contend for a championship after acquiring a big name FA but decided not to put all of our eggs in one basket. I started the process of going into full blown contention without going after a "certain" FA that I wanted.

This eventually turned into my current roster:

Billups/ Duhon / Farmar
Carter/ Parker
Prince/ Maggette
Gasol/ Odom/ Amundson
Shaq/ Diop / Battie



How is my team better in the present than when I took over:

The original Bobcats were a team in limbo. They were neither rebuilding or contending...mediocre at best. We had no post presence, no true point guard and no consistent perimeter scorer ( I had the team after the Jrich-Bell trade). I fixed this problem by adding players who have competed at the highest level and could make this team a winner instantly. I sacrificed what little youth i had in order to win a ring and I think we have a really good chance at accomplishing that.

Current Situation: Our team has a 2-3 window as is. Billups/Carter/ have both maintained solid production but after next season we'll use Tayshaun Prince as our primary ball handler.

PG:Even now, Billups is one of the better playoff performers in the league and should maintain for at least two years at that level. Duhon is an ideal fit behind CB with his ability to push the ball, shoot 40% from 3 and play solid defense.

SG: Vince Carter may have lost some of his athleticism, but he's proven to be one of the craftiest/clutch players in the league. In his final year in NJ, he proved that he could still avg 20 PPG 5 RPG and APG (39% 3P) while playing 2nd fiddle to Devin Harris. Carter obviously won't be asked to carry all of the load offensively, but if the team is down 2 with 5 seconds left...He'll have the ball in his hands. Anthony Parker was a huge steal for our team. What more can you ask of this guy? He shoots a high percentage on 3's, defends extremely well and is such the pro.

SF: Tayshaun Prince has never been given the chance to have total control of a team...but he will soon. For now, he'll be asked to fill the same role that he did "oh so well" with the championship pistons team: Defend, Hustle, Hit the open shot. Prince is exactly what every championship team needs because he makes things that much easier for his teammates. He'll be asked to guard the opposing teams toughest players. Corey "Big Checks" Maggette was an interesting pickup for me. I hate his contract but he's the ideal 6th man. A terrific rebounder for his size and a solid scorer, he fits nicely next to carter or prince.

PF: Pau Gasol - The offense goes through him in the post..no question. He's one of the best PF's in the game today simply because he does it all. Great scoring touch at 18 PPG (56 %), excellent passer and a capable defender. Gasol is one of the 8 former champions on our team and by far one of the most important & at only 30 Yrs old, he'd still be in his prime. Lamar Odom = Steal of the game for me. An extremely unselfish player who (although playing off the bench) still manages to put up better numbers than a few starters in the league. Odom is a matchup nightmare for teams with his ability to handle the ball on the wing and on the block. After this season we plan on moving Odom back into the start 5 next to Gasol.

Center: The Big Fella - Shaq (whom will no doubt be playing in his last 2 seasons) will round out our starting 5. Even at the young age of 38-39 he's still one of the better c's in the game. Plus, we still think he can do wonders for us at 20 MPG as he's still a threat to put up 15-18 PPG on any given night. Gasol will be playing the C spot for a majority of the time with Diop getting the leftovers.

NEW JERSEY NETS

Depth Chart:
Lopez 34 / Gortat 14
Scola 28 / Speights 20
Gallinari 28 / Balkman 20
E. Gordon 34 / Sefolosha 14
Harris 34 / Lowry 14

Spot minutes: Douglas-Roberts, Mahinmi
D-League: Bradley, Lucas

Salaries:
Devin Harris - $8,981,000 (9.32 / 8.50)
Luis Scola - $6,000,000 (6.5 / 7.0 / 7.5 / 7.0)
Marcin Gortat - $4,000,000 (4.25 / 4.25)
Thabo Sefolosha - $3,500,000 (3.78 / 4.06 / 4.34)
Danilo Gallinari - $3,304,560 (4.92 / Q.O. 5.59)
Kyle Lowry - $3,250,000 (3.51 / 3.77 / 4.03)
Eric Gordon - $3,016,880 (3.83 / Q.O. 5.14)
Brook Lopez - $2,413,320 (3.08 / Q.O. 4.12)
Renaldo Balkman - $2,250,000 (2.4 / 2.5 / 2.5)
Avery Bradley - $2,020,000 (2.17 / team option & QO years)
Mareese Speights - $1,773,960 (2.72 / Q.O. 3.82)
Ian Mahinmi - $1,623,959 (Q.O. 2.66)
Chris Douglas-Roberts - $854,389 (non-guaranteed)
Kalin Lucas (second-round pick money, which I can’t find anywhere)

Bought out: Keyon Dooling - $500,000
TOTAL (approximate) - $44.1M / 48.2M

Draft Choices:
2011 NJ 1st, NJ 2nd; also GS 1st (top-14 protected, with declining protection for 2012 and 2013)
2012 NJ 1st, NJ 2nd
2013 NJ 1st, NJ 2nd

Transactions:
4/11 - Acquired Josh Smith and Sasha Pavlovic from Cleveland for Vince Carter and Yi Jianlian.
4/14 - Acquired Mareese Speights, Danilo Gallinari, Jason Collins (expiring) and Robert Swift (expiring) from Detroit for Josh Smith, Eduardo Najera, and Maurice Ager.
4/21 - Acquired Eric Gordon, Mike Taylor, and the #27 pick in the 2009 draft from the LA Clippers for the #2 pick in the 2009 draft, Sean Williams, and Jarvis Hayes.
4/30 - Acquired Renaldo Balkman and Malik Rose (expiring) for the #27 pick in the 2009 draft, Robert Swift, and Sasha Pavlovic.
5/2 - Re-acquired Jarvis Hayes from the Clippers in exchange for a TPE.
5/21 - Signed free agent Anthony Parker to a one-year, $4,000,000 contract.
5/24 - Acquired Marcin Gortat from Washington in exchange for Josh Boone.
5/24 - Acquired Luis Scola and Ian Mahinmi from New Orleans for Ryan Anderson, Jarvis Hayes, and a future protected draft pick that turned out to be the DAL 2010 1st.
6/3 - Picked up 2010-11 team options on Brook Lopez, Mareese Speights, Danilo Gallinari, Eric Gordon, and Ian Mahinmi.
6/14 - Signed Renaldo Balkman to a four-year contract extension.
7/10 - Drafted Avery Jordan with the 12th pick in the 2010 draft.
7/12 - Bought out the final year of Keyon Dooling's contract for $500,000.
7/15 - Drafted Kalin Lucas with the 42nd pick in the 2010 draft.
7/31 - Re-signed Luis Scola to a 5-year, $34M contract.
8/1 - Signed Kyle Lowry to a 4-year, $13.5M contract. Waived Mike Taylor.
8/2 - Signed Thabo Sefolosha to a 4-year, $15.8M contract.

Rationale / Current and Future Prospects

Let’s see: free agency 2010. LeBron James, or… Thabo Sefolosha and Kyle Lowry? OK, I guess that didn’t work out exactly as I hoped.

But LeBron was always a long-shot. My plan was to build a team of strong young players, supported by a few key veterans, that would mature together and have a chance to contend for years – and to do this while respecting the Nets’ precarious financial situation. And I think I’ve accomplished all of that quite well.

Current situation (plan for 2010-11): This is at least a playoff team, and clearly not a championship team; it’s hard to predict how deep in the playoffs they can go, given that we’re guessing at the development of Lopez, Speights, Gallinari, and Gordon. We know that they all played very well in their rookie seasons (Gallinari only in limited minutes, of course, because of the injury). At minimum, we’ve got a terrific offense, with post scoring from Lopez; some of the best three-point shooting in the league from Gallinari and Gordon; excellent mid-range jump-shooting from Scola and Speights; and the ability of both Harris and Gordon to get to the basket. The bench is filled with outstanding defenders in Gortat, Balkman, Sefolosha and Lowry. So the plan is to let them develop. If we can pull off a trade for a star veteran, packaging some of the young talent and future picks, we take it. If not, see below.

Future situation: This team should get steadily better for several years. At the beginning of the 2011 season, here are the ages of the key players:
Starters: Lopez 23 Scola 31, Gallinari 23, Gordon 22, Harris 28.
Key reserves: Gortat 27, Speights 24, Balkman 27, Sefolosha 27, Lowry 25.
The young guys will be entering their fourth season, while Harris should be at his peak and Scola still highly productive. And we’ll have still have significant cap space, plus our two first round picks. Championship contender? Only with the right trade, or if one of the young guys turns into a superstar. But at the very least this is a team that goes deep in the playoffs just a couple of years down the road and stays at that level for quite a while.

Comparison with the real Nets: (Edited to compare my team to what I started with - I originally posted a comparison to the Nets as currently constituted)
-- C: Brook Lopez and Marcin Gortat vs. Brook Lopez and Josh Boone. Lopez is Lopez; Gortat may be the best backup C in the league, signed at a much more favorable deal than his real-world full MLE. Advantage: NEW
-- PF: Luis Scola and Mareese Speights vs. Yi Jianlian, Ryan Anderson, and Sean Williams. Scola is just the kind of tough and savvy veteran to build a young team around, and Speights is a terrific prospect. Advantage: NEW, and unless you think a hell of a lot more of Yi or Anderson than I do, it's by a very wide margin.
-- SF: Danilo Gallinari and Renaldo Balkman vs. Jarvis Hayes, Bobby Simmons, and Eduardo Najera. Gallinari vs. a couple of guys on the downside of their not terribly impressive careers is an easy call. And Balkman is a young and still healthy version of Najera. Advantage: NEW, again by quite a bit.
-- SG: Eric Gordon, Thabo Sefolosha, Chris Douglas-Roberts, and Avery Bradley vs. Vince Carter and Douglas-Roberts. Carter is still a very productive player, but by the 2010-11 season I don't think anyone will want him more than Gordon, and Gordon will be a very good player long after Carter is done. Sefolosha adds a strong defensive presence off the bench. Advantage: NEW
-- PG: Devin Harris, Kyle Lowry, and Kalin Lucas vs. Devin Harris and Keyon Dooling. Harris is Harris, and Lowry is younger and a better defender than Dooling. Advantage: NEW
-- DRAFT PICKS are identical, SALARY SITUATION looks good for both my team and the real Nets. So I think we've got the advantage everywhere, and overall my team is quite a bit better.

Reserved for raptors

The Dallas Mavericks

Salary
Kenyon Martin 16,545,454
TJ Ford 8,500,000
Marco Jaric $7,6250,000
Vladimir Radmanovic $6,883,800 N/A N/A N/A
Jared Jeffries 6,883,800
Jason Kapono 6,641,440
Reggie Evans 5,080,000
Eduardo Najera $3,000,000 $2,750,000
Gerald Henderson --- $1,627,920 --- $1,741,440 --- $2,674,582 --- $3,776,891
Josh Boone 1,500,000 $1,500,000 $1,500,000 (TO)
DeMarre Carroll 1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000
George Hill $771,440 $1,390,906 $2,052,978
Mac Koshwal $473,604 $788,872 (unguaranteed)
Paul Harris $473,604 $788,872 (unguaranteed)
Patrick Beverley $473,604 $788,872 (unguaranteed)

Waived/still on contract
Nazr Muhammad $6,883,800
Marcus Banks $$4,847,586 N/A N/A N/A
DeShawn Stevenson 4,151,786
Josh McRoberts $1,000,000

2010/2011 - 84,362,838
2011/2012 - 10,748,962

Draft picks
2012 1st
2013 1st and 2nd

Depth Chart
PG - George Hill (32), TJ Ford (16), Marko Jaric
SG - Gerald Henderson (36), TJ Ford (12), Marko Jaric
SF - Vladimir Radmanovic (20), DeMarre Carroll (20), Jason Kapono (8)
PF - Kenyon Martin (34), Reggie Evans (14), Jared Jeffries
C - Josh Boone (30), Jared Jeffries (10), Mac Koshwal (8)
Inactive: Eduardo Najera
D-League: Paul Harris, Patrick Beverley

History of Transactions
**Booz era**

- Devean George, Jerry Stackhouse and Ryan Hollins for Samuel Dalembert
- Erick Dampier and J.J Barea for Desagana Diop, Vladimir Radmanovic and Kyle Lowry
- Jason Kidd and 2009 Dallas 1st Round Pick for Gilbert Arenas and Mark Blount
- James Singleton, Gerald Green, Shawne Williams and Antoine Wright for Beno Udrih
- Picks Up Gerald Green off Waivers
- Kyle Lowry and Mark Blount for Corey Maggette
- Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Bass, 2011 1st Round Pick and Jason Terry for David West, Steve Nash, Matt Bonner and Rashad McCants
- Josh Howard, David West and Rashard McCants for Tayshaun Prince, Rashard Lewis, Yakhouba Diawara, Jamaal Magloire, Indiana's 2009 2nd, Cleveland's 2009 2nd, and MIA's 2012 1st
- Matt Bonner and Gerald Green for Marcus Banks, 2009 1st Round Pick No. 24, Detroit's 2010 2nd Round Pick, and Atlanta's 2012 2nd Round Pick
- Picks Up Sean Marks Off Waivers
- Corey Maggette, Sean Marks, Yakhouba Diawara and Steve Nash for Ray Allen, Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton
- Drafts Stephen Curry

**Dr. Mufasa era**

- Rashard Lewis, Luke Walton traded for Marcus Camby, Bruce Bowen, Brian Skinner, Jason Kapono, Kris Humphries. Bruce Bowen, Brian Skinner immediately waived
- Samuel Dalembert traded for Erick Dampier, Josh McRoberts.
- Gilbert Arenas traded for Udonis Haslem, Nazr Muhammed, George Hill
- Marcus Banks waived, Josh McRoberts waived
- Tayshaun Prince, Kris Humphries, 2010 2nd traded for Lamar Odom, Jerome James
- Udonis Haslem, Jerome James, 2012 2nd traded for Al Harrington, Walter Herrman
- Stephen Curry traded for Gerald Henderson
- Jason Kapono traded for Marco Jaric

skorff26 era
-Ray Allen sign and trade, Beno Udrih for TJ Ford, Reggie Evans
-Lamar Odom, Sasha Vujacic, Desagana Diop for Eduardo Najera, Kenyon Martin
-Signed Josh Boone, DeMarre Carroll, Patrick Beverley, Paul Harris, Mac Koshwul
-Dampier, M. Carroll for Jeffries, Stevenson, Kapono
-Waive Nazr Mohammed, Deshawn Stevenson

Direction of Team
Booz era: He wanted to acquire as much talent as possible regardless of salary implications.

Dr. Mufasa era: He wanted to bring in some cheaper veterans and still be competitive

skorff26 era: I wanted to remove the dead weight contracts of Diop, M. Carroll, and Udrih. I was also looking more towards 2011. I set myself up for 2011, and I have a couple of players that I really like on my current team.

Direction Dallas is now rebuilding. This past offseason we decided to begin the rebuild. Our old core was getting up their in age and we were probably around a borderline playoff team. Our first order of business was to try to move Diop, Udrih, and Carroll; and we accomplished all 3. The first trade we moved Udrih with Ray Allen, we got back TJ Ford and Reggie Evans. Ford will provide veteran mentorship for George Hill and Reggie Evans is a solid bench player that can give 15 minutes a night, plus we got out of Udrih's deal. We then traded Odom, Vujacic, and Diop for Martin and Najera; Odom was on a very good deal so he was hard to trade away, but he is an older player and we were looking for younger players, it also helped to move Diop as well. Martin is someone that I really like and will be our team leader this coming year. Our final trade was Dampier and Carroll for Stevenson, Jeffries, Kapono; we did this trade to get out of the final 3 years of Carroll's deal. Dampier's deal would have saved us some money, but Cuban has never been against spending his money; this trade will help us maximize our cap room for next year.

Outlook for 2010-2011
We will play to win and try to get our young players some minutes when they can. We don't have our 2011 draft pick so there won't be any tanking on our part. We will rotate 2 of Harris, Beverley, and Koshwul through the D-League and try to get the other 8-12 minutes a game with our team; this way we can see if we have any NBA caliber talent (I like all 3 so IMO there is). I am really high on George Hill and Gerald Henderson, the previous GM's did a great job in getting those 2. They will both be given a ton of minutes and a chance to develop into key contributors.
PG: George Hill will be given a lot of minutes (over 30 a night). we have a very capable backup PG in TJ Ford who will take the majority of those other minutes. If something were to happen then Jaric could play some PG as well. Also when Beverley is up with the team, he will see some minutes at PG as well
SG: Gerald Henderson will be given a lot of minutes (probably 35+ a night), we feel that he will be one of the better players out of the 2009 draft. Any other minutes will be taken by TJ Ford and Marko Jaric. Also Beverley or Harris could see some minutes here when they are with the team.
SF: We have 3 players that will see minutes here, Vlad will see the most at the start of the year; but as the year goes along Carroll will see more and more minutes. Kapono will probably player about 8-12 minutes a night throughout the year. Also Harris will play some minutes here when he's with the team
PF: Kenyon Martin will get the majority of minutes. He will play about 34 minutes a night and Reggie Evans will back him up. We feel that this is one of the strong points on our team with a solid player like Martin and a solid backup like Evans.
C: Josh Boone will be our starter, we feel that he can be a decent starting C in the league. He will be given the minutes and hopefully our faith is not misplaced. We have Jared Jeffries to back him up and feel that he is an adequate backup. Koshwul will get some minutes here when he is called up and if he plays well, by the end of the year could be seeing 20+ minutes a night.

Trade Deadline: We will be looking to package Najera with one of our expirings (maybe Ford) for another expiring. Vlad, Kapono, Jeffries, Jaric, Ford, or Evans would all be available for another expirings + some small incentive. Kenyon Martin would be available as well if the right deal came along. We would be hoping to dump Najera and his partially guaranteed 2011-2012 deal and pick up a few picks a little bit later on in the draft.

Better off now We aren't better off now, our team made a run for a title and it didn't work out and now we are rebuilding

Better for the future We have 2 very good young players in Hill and Henderson. We will have about 10 million in committed salary for next year which means that we will be able to offer 2 max deals. We feel that if we can bring in 2 max players with the Hill and Henderson still on our team, then we will be in very good shape.

Chicago Bulls

Starters



Reserves



1) salaries of all players for next year and any future years

2) your draft pick credits and debits until 2013

None.

3) your teams depth chart with minutes

PG - Derrick Rose (34) / Jrue Holiday (14) /
SG - Josh Howard (36) / John Salmons (14) / Kelenna Azubuike
SF - Caron Butler (34) / John Salmons (14) / Kyle Singler
PF - Elton Brand (32) / Joakim Noah (16) / Ryan Andersen
C - Chris Kaman (32) / Joakim Noah (16) /

4) your teams transactions

5) an explanation on what direction you wanted to go, include reasons that you made any big trades, and if you switch directions half way through the game explain why.

My goal is to build a competitive team around Rose. I would have wanted to create a young team with star and superstar potentials but opportunities werent there. As such I opted for upgrades on every position.

6) Your teams goals for the 2010-2011 season

Develop Rose to a point guard version of Lebron and Wade. Keep Brand, Butler and Kaman healthy. Then Compete.

7) Explain how your team is better off in the present compared to when you took over. Some teams (like Charlotte) might not have much to say here, but if you think you have improved your team considerably from where it was explain why

Before:
PG - Rose / Hinrich
SG - Gordon / Salmons / Hinrich
SF - Salmons / Deng
PF - Thomas / Deng
C - Noah / Miller

After:
PG - Rose / Holiday
SG - Howard / Salmons / Azubuike
SF - Butler / Salmons / Singler
PF - Brand / Noah / Andersen
C - Kaman / Noah

PG - Rose will only get better. Hinrich to Holiday is a downgrade but we have to accept the fact that Hinrich is paid 8-9 million per year as back-up PG in our line-up. Back-up PG will just play 10-12 minutes per game so we think Holiday can handle the job and we will develop him from there.

SG - Downgrade from standpoint of being able to shoot from almost anywhere from the floor but upgrade on almost every other facets of basketball player. Howard is longer and a legitimate slasher.

SF - Butler / Salmons is > Salmons / Deng.

PF - We like what we saw in Tyrus in 2008-2009 season but we dont see Tyrus as our long-term guy in 4 position. We were able to bring down Brand for cheap and will hedge from there.

C - Kaman / Noah - Better defensively and offensively than Noah/Miller.

8) Explain how your team is better off in the future compared to when you took over. Give some explanations why, and your teams goals in the next couple of years.

We have cap flexibility next season. Outside of Brand we have no overpaid long-term contracts. We will try to make a run on Carmelo Anthony instead.

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS


PLAYER SALARIES
Kevin Garnett - 18,866,934 / 21,281,934
Joe Johnson - 17,190,000 / 18,990,000 / 20,790,000 / 22,590,000 / 23,390,000
Nene - 11,360,000 / 11,600,000 (ETO)
Raymond Felton - 8,000,000 / 8,600,000 / 9,270,000 / 10,000,000
Andre Miller - 6,315,840 / 6,783,680 / 7,251,520 / 7,719,360
Mike Miller - 5,848,000 / 6,315,840 / 6,783,680 / 7,251,520 / 7,719,360
Jason Maxiell - 5,000,000 / 5,000,000 / 5,000,000 (PO)
Jeff Green - 4,455,988 / 5,908,641 (QuO)
Matt Carroll - 4,300,000 / 3,900,000 / 3,500,000 (QuO)
Willie Green - 3,976,000
Hilton Armstrong - 3,854,449
CJ Miles - 3,700,000 / 3,700,000 (TO)
Wally Szczerbiak - 2,000,000
Anthony Carter - 854,389

DRAFT PICK DEBITS
LAL 2011 2nd
DEN 2011 2nd (POR has right to swap)

DRAFT PICK CREDITS
2011 to NY

DEPTH CHART
Raymond Felton (35) / Andre Miller (12) / Anthony Carter (Spot Duty)
Joe Johnson (38) / CJ Miles (8) / Willie Green (4) / Matt Carroll (Spot Duty)
Jeff Green (35) / Mike Miller (10) / Wally Szczerbiak (4)
Kevin Garnett (38) / Jason Maxiell (10)
Nene (36) / Hilton Armstrong (10)

TRANSACTIONS
1. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Maurice Williams, Delonte West, and JJ Hickson to Atlanta for Josh Smith, Mike Bibby, Acie Law, Othello Hunter.
2. Eric Snow and Acie Law to Minnesota for Rodney Carney, Craig Smith, Brian Cardinal, two 2nd round picks (both via Miami).
3. Wally Szczerbiak, Daniel Gibson, 2010 2nd to New York for Chris Duhon and Eddy Curry.
4. Mike Bibby, Brian Cardinal, 2011 CLE 2nd to New York for Jared Jeffries, Larry Hughes, David Lee.
5. LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Darnell Jackson, 2009 1st to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, 2011 2nd.
6. Josh Smith, Sasha Pavlovic to New Jersey for Vince Carter, Yi Jianlian.
7. David Lee, Larry Hughes to Washington for Antawn Jamison, Mike James.
8. Anderson Varejao, Yi Jianlian to Boston for Kendrick Perkins, Etan Thomas.
9. Mike James, Craig Smith, Kendrick Perkins to Denver for Luke Ridnour, Tyrus Thomas, DeShawn Stevenson, 2011 DEN 2nd (POR has right to swap).
10. Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Antawn Jamison, Etan Thomas to Atlanta for Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Gabe Pruitt.
11. Luke Ridnour to Denver for Mike James, Anthony Carter, Desmond Mason.
12. (Waived Tarence Kinsey) Mike James to Washington for Jason Maxiell and Brent Barry.
13. Pau Gasol, Chris Duhon for Nene, Jeff Green, CJ Miles, Dahntay Jones.
14. Vince Carter for Hedo Turkoglu, Antonio McDyess.
15. Hedo Turkoglu, Dahntay Jones, Desmond Mason to Los Angeles Lakers for Raymond Felton, Wally Szczerbiak.
16. Eddy Curry to Phoenix for Jason Kapono and Willie Green.
17. Antonio McDyess to Indiana for Hilton Armstrong.
18. Jason Kapono, Deshawn Stevenson, Jared Jeffries for Erick Dampier (*waived immediately), Matt Carroll.
19. Mike Bibby for Andre Miller.[/size]

TEAM DIRECTION - PAST
In the beginning of the game, I had no direction. I was simply trying to acquire talent, and guys that I personally like. Obviously, my first major deal was to trade LeBron for Kobe and Bynum. At the time, my two biggest needs were SG and C, which is why I made the deal. Looking back on my transactions, that was one of my roughest patches of the game. I really don't know why I made a few of the trades I did.

Towards the end of the game, I began to realize how big of a mess I was in. I was accumulating talent, but was making no consideration for the salary cap. I think, at one point, that my team salaries totaled somewhere near $120M. That was when I decided to rebuild, retool, and go both younger and cheaper. I made some key moves to acquire some of my core players. A few of them are locked into deals longterm, but their deals are somewhat reasonable. We went from a title contender with older players to a playoff team with two key veterans (Garnett, Johnson) and young talent that will continue to get better.

TEAM GOALS - NEXT YEAR
I think we have a decent shot to contend for home-court advantage in the East come playoff time. If not, we will still be a tough team to beat in a 7-game series. We have a star post player with an excellent jumper (Garnett), a complementary center to our PF (Nene), a star shooting guard (Johnson), a slashing forward (Green), and a point guard who can shoot and pass well (Felton). In addition, we have a solid bench rotation of veteran perimeter players and solid young post players. Home-court advantage is not outside the realm of possibility.

TEAM REFLECTION
Som of you may look at our roster and think that just because we traded LeBron James, that we are not a very good team. However, I feel we are a better team now than we were at the beginning of the game. At the beginning, it was LeBron and nobody else (Remember that we began this game before the real-life acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal). Now, we have Garnett and Johnson as our star players, leading a group of young role players that will continue to get better. The younger talent of our team is another thing I feel we improved on in comparison to the beginning of the game. Before, the young talent was only LeBron, Mo, Delonte, Hickson. Now, its Felton, Nene, Green. Our young talent is no longer asked to shoulder the load of leading our team to the Finals. Now, we have experienced veterans to lead the team, so the younger guys can concentrate on just playing their roles. We are also in a better financial situation compared to earlier in the game. We currently sit at $95.7M, which means we shed roughly $25M during the rebuilding process.

We may not be Finals contenders anymore, but we are still a solid playoff team that has the potential to get even better.

GM: TMACFORMVP
Email: t_mac_1123@hotmail.com

STARTING LINEUP


[PG] - Rajon Rondo - $9,500,000
[SG] - Stephen Jackson - $8,453,250
[SF] - Danny Granger - $10,973,202
[PF] - Amar'e Stoudemire - $17,686,100
[Cc] - Dwight Howard - $16,647,180

BENCH


[PG] - Nate Robinson - $4,750,000
[SG] - Tony Allen - $854,369
[SF] - Nick Young - $2,630,503
[PF] - Craig Smith - 2,848,000
[Cc] - Antonio McDyess - $4,124,520

OTHER
- Danny Green (signed to minimum contract for three years, last year being unguaranteed)
- Joey Dorsey - $947,140
- Channing Frye - $854,369

Depth Chart
[PG] - Rajon Rondo (33) - Nate Robinson (15)
[SG] - Stephen Jackson (17) - Nick Young (22) - Nate Robinson (5)
[SF] - Danny Granger (35) - Stephen Jackson (13)
[PF] - Amare Stoudemire (24) - Antonio McDyess (24)
[Cc] - Dwight Howard (36) - Amare Stoudemire (12)

Situational: Frye (Cc), Dorsey (Cc), Smith (PF), Green (SF), Allen (SG)

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

Transactions
1.) Traded Mike Dunleavy, Roy Hibbert, 2009 Dallas 2nd rounder, and Brandon Rush for Emeka Okafor, Raymond Felton, and Sean Singletary.
2.) Traded 2010 Indiana First, 2010 Dallas Second Raymond Felton, Rasho Nesterovic and Travis Diener for Steve Nash and Alando Tucker.
3.) Traded Maceo Baston and Josh McRoberts for Mardy Collins, Mark Madsen and 2009 Boston First Round Pick
4.) Traded Jamaal Tinsley and Mark Madsen for Beno Udrih, 2010 Sacramento pick (top 32) Francisco Garcia, and Rashad McCants
5.) Traded Beno Udrih for Antoine Wright, Gerald Green and Shawnee Williams.
6.) Traded Emeka Okafor, Marquis Daniels and 2009 IND First for Amare Stoudemire and Reggie Evans.
7.) Traded Steve Nash and Rashad McCants for Andre Iguodala and Brian Skinner
8.) Traded Ricky Davis and Rasual Butler for Earl Watson
9.) Traded Troy Murphy, Sacramento 2010 2nd, and own first round pick for Ron Artest and Joey Dorsey.
10.) Traded Ron Artest, Earl Watson, and Francisco Garcia for George Hill, Bruce Bowen and Chris Kaman.
11.) Traded Jeff Foster, Brian Skinner and 55th pick for Dan Gadzuric, Acie Law, Aaron Afflalo, and the 33rd pick in 09.
12.) Selected Danny Green with 33rd pick.
13.) Traded Acie Law for 51st pick and Hilton Armstrong.
14.) Selected Jeff Pendergraph with 51st pick in the draft
15.) Traded Reggie Evans, Antoine Wright, Bruce Bowen and Joey Dorsey for Udonis Haslem and James Jones.
16.) Traded Dan Gadzuric for Nazr Mohammad.
17.) Traded George Hill, Nazr Mohammad and Udonis Haslem for Gilbert Arenas
18.) Traded James Jones, Jeff Pendergraph, Chris Kaman and Shawnee Williams for Shaquille O'neal.
19.) Signed Josh Powell and Morris Almond
20.) Traded Shaquille O'neal and Rodney Stuckey for Cuttino Mobley, Paul Millsap and TJ Ford.
21.) Traded Gilbert Arenas for Andre Miller and Stephen Jackson
22.) Traded Stephen Jackson and TJ Ford for Joey Dorsey, Antonio McDyess, and Mike Miller.
23.) Traded Bobby Brown and Alando Tucker for Jordan Farmar.
24.) Traded Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller and Jordan Farmar for Luke Ridnour, Rajon Rondo and Brandon Rush.
25.) Traded Paul Millsap and Indiana 2011 2nd for Josh Smith
26.) Traded Brandon Rush, Morris Almond, 54th pick, Luke Ridnour, and Josh Powell in exchange for Nick Young and Hedo Turkoglu.
27.) Traded Hedo Turkoglu and Antonio McDyess in exchange for Vince Carter.
28.) Traded TPE and First for Jarrett Jack
29.) Traded remaining TPE in exchange for Corey Brewer.
30.) Traded Vince Carter, Josh Smith, Jarret Jack, IND 2013 First, and Aaron Afflalo in exchange for Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson.
31.) Split the MLE between Raja Bell and Craig Smith.
32.) Signed Channing Frye to the minimum.
33.) Traded Hilton Armstrong for Antonio McDyess
34.) Traded Raja Bell and Corey Brewer for Stephen Jackson.
35.) Signed Tony Allen to the minimum.


Team Direction: Our goal was to remain young, keeping my franchise player in Granger, and build a core that's not only to compete in the present day, but in the future as well. We felt we've done that bringing in not only more talent to the squad, but a core that should be able to compete for many years to come. Stephen Jackson, and Antonio McDyess are the exceptions to ultimate youth, but I figure veterans are needed on any team, and both provide huge roles in our ultimate goal of winning a championship. And effectively, we feel we have talented young players to replace them when their time comes in Nick Young and Craig Smith, two player who have already proven they can be a difference maker off the bench.

What's Changed? I took over the Indiana Pacers, a team in transition. They had their franchise player set with Danny Granger, and two promising pieces in Brandon Rush and Roy Hibbert. Aside from them, is a roster more built to compete with players on questionable contracts, ex. Mike Dunleavy. The rotation was as follows:

PG - Jack/Ford
SG - Rush/Daniels
SF - Granger/Dunleavy
PF - Murphy/McRoberts
Cc - Nesterovic/Hibbert

I'll admit, it was tougher than I originally thought it would be, I traded Rush/Hibbert in my first deal, so the only player that had relatively good trade value after that point was Murphy coming off a terrific double double season, but depending on the circles you ask, some would argue Murphy is still overpaid due to his lack of winning, and porous defense.

Here we improved defensively, with the best defensive player in the league, an All-NBA Defensive PG, and another wing defender in Jackson, who's above average, especially in the right situation (ala, the Spurs, or even Pacers). We've added two more all-stars around Granger, and whom we feel two more players that could be argued as all-star caliber players. Robinson is one of the best sparks off the bench, and replacing the old guys in Jackson and McDyess, we have two players whom we're real high on, in Nick Young (over 17 points per game PER36), and Craig Smith, proven to bring some toughness offensively, and the ability to rebound the basketball.

Our goal for 2010-2011 is the same thing we intended for when the competition first began. The ultimate goal for any team is to win the championship. We feel we have a team that can potentially accomplish that goal, and most certainly do it in the future. Alot of teams can add talent, but I tried to stay true to a team concept with each player having well defined roles:

- Rondo, the initiator of the offense, rebounds the ball, starts the break, or uses his quickness in the halfcourt to get to the rim. Defensively he wrecks havoc with his long arms, and knows how to play off better players that draw more attention while keeping his effectiveness. His role is the same exact thing with Boston, initiate the offense, play defense, and score efficiently on offense.

- Jackson, the perimeter defender, shooter from distance, and secondary ball-handler. A similar role to what he had on Spurs, with slightly greater offensive responsibility due to the advancement in his game from that time.

- Granger, the superstar perimeter scorer, can beat you from anywhere on the floor, inside/outside and surprisingly good defensively, improving on his all rounded game every new season. He'll also be used as the main floor spacer, his ability to make a high volume of threes on an efficient percentage puts him at an elite level in terms of NBA shooters.

- Amare, he does what he does best, SCORE. Running the break with our youthful team, finishing in transition, coming off the pick and roll with Rajon Rondo, or the pick and pop similar to he and Kevin Garnett in Boston. With his vastly improved jumpshot, he's yet another guy that creates space for Dwight on the inside.

- Howard, the defensive anchor, the NBA's best defensive player, and rebounder. He will be the focal point of the offense, he's not Shaq or Hakeem offensively, not even close, but he demands attention in the post and will open up the game for the rest of my scorers. Draw double teams, score efficiently on the outside and anchor the defense.

Off the bench, Nate Robinson and Nick Young are the sparks off the bench, both proven to be effective in that role, while the likes of Tony Allen, Craig Smith, and Antonio McDyess are the hustle, defensive and rebounding core off the bench. Others like Dorsey and Frye create additional depth on the inside.

The Financial Side
We tried to stay aware of the cap during the whole game, when I took over the Pacers, they were just at the luxury tax -- roughly 67-68m, so I figured I had a goal to stay within 5m of the luxury tax, because the organization wouldn't mind paying that extra money for what I felt would be a much improved team. Unfortunately after some bigger acquisitions towards the end, we felt we had a team that could legitimately compete for an NBA championship, thus regard for the cap wasn't as much as it was just under a month ago. Saying that, it's certainly not the highest payroll in the league, but considerably over the luxury tax. The numbers are as follows:



What allowed us to have this sort of spending over a three year stretch is that we've assembled a young team that can grow together. No one is seriously overpaid, everyone has a role, and the production from the core of the Pacers will continue to produce for a long time.

Draft Picks
No excuse for the lack of draft picks the Pacers own, but again going with a more younger core, we felt draft picks weren't needed as much. Our main core is here to stay for a long time, and our draft picks start to coincide in a time where our players are FA's, and possibly the beginning of the end of an era. Our draft picks are as follows:



Conclusion
It's really a been a great competition, and a bunch of GM's have done fantastic jobs with turning around their team, and I know it will be a PAIN to judge on whomever the winner is, definitely the most active from the start to finish and competitive Be A GM I've ever been in. A large part in the smoothness of the competition was skorff's commissioning, he was prompt, available and always there from the start to the end. There were some problems, but nothing escalated due to the leadership of skorff throughout, definite props go out to him. As always looking forward to the next one.

Utah Jazz


Roster:
Year---------------10-11-----------11-12--------------12-13
Michael Redd----- $18,300,000
Carlos Boozer----- $15,120,000------$16,240,000------$17,360,000
Deron Williams---- $15,202,590------$16,647,180--------$18,091,770
Ronald Artest------$9,500,000-------$9,000,000--------$8,500,000(PO)
Mehmet Okur------$8,000,000------$8,000,000--------$8,000,000 (TO)
Ronnie Brewer-----$5,900,000------$6,519,500--------$7,139,000...
Kyle Korver----------$4,000,000-------$4,420,000-------$4,840,000(TO)
Willie Warren-------$3,105,500-------$3,338,400--------$3,571,300...
Rafer Alston--------$3,000,000--------$3,000,000--------$3,000,000
Zaza Pachulia-------$3,000,000--------$3,000,000
Carl Landry---------$3,000,000
Jose Barea----------$1,815,000
Kosta Koufos------ $1,298,640-------$2,203,792--------$3,206,517
James Johnson-----$1,417,800-------$1,516,680---------TO... then QO..
Michael Washington$854,389--------$884,293---------TO...

Rights Owned:
Christian Eyenga
Tasmin Mitchell

Picks:
2011
1st

2012
1st
2nd

2013
1st

Depth Chart:
Deron/Alston/Barea
Redd/Warren/Korver
Artest/ Brewer/Johnson
Boozer/Landry/ Washington
Okur/Pachulia/ Koufos

Transactions:
1. 4/30/09 Traded Paul Millsap, Matt Harpring, Brevin Knight, Jarron Collins for Ronald Artest, Carl Landry, and JJ Barea.

I wanted to trade Millsap before he got a huge payday. I thought I would be able to re-sign Boozer and strengthen other positions while doing this. I was pleased with getting Artest, Landry, and Barea for him.

2. 5/6/2009 Utah selects James Johnson with the 20th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

Value pick here. Looks like it will be a pretty good steal.

3. 5/9/2009 Traded Adrei Kirilenko, CJ Miles, and the 50th pick in the 2009 NBA draft for Michael Redd and the 36th pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

With Artest manning the SF spot and Boozer and Landry at PF, I swapped overpaid players. Redd can be a legit 1st/2nd option on a team, so I was pleased.

4. 5/6/2009 Utah selects Michael Washington with the 36th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

Looked to get a talent that would go back to school and could move up in the 2010 draft. Check.

5. 7/7/2009 Utah selects Willie Warren with the 4th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.

With practically a bonus pick, I felt I was drafting from a position of strength. It was a tough choice between Aldrich and Warren, but with Koufos and Pachulia already backing up center and Redd expiring after 2011, I went with Warren.

6. Utah traded 2011 and 2013 2nd round picks for the 49th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.
7. 7/17/2009 Utah selects Christian Eyenga with the 49th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.
8. 7/18/2009 Utah selects Tasmin Mitchell with the 56th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.

***I did not include signing/re-signing players in transactions, but I added Pachulia and Alston, and I was able to retain Artest, Okur, Brewer, and Korver.****


Team Direction:

For this game, I took a different approach. I felt that I had a team that could compete for the championship but still have a group of young guys that could compete after the next three years. I tried to base my trades and transactions off of that.

Goals for the Present:

Since this game starts to ridiculous with the amount of stars on a team, I knew that I would need a "Big Four". I think I have accomplished that with Deron, Redd, Artest, and Boozer. The next thing I needed was a compliment to them. While I would have liked to have a more defensive center, I couldn't get one for the price I was willing to pay and Okur compliments Boozer nicely on offense. I defensive center most likely would have clogged the lane for him. What I think separates my team from the other top teams is depth. My team is able to overcome injuries throughout the season, and have everyone rested well for the playoffs.

Obviously my goals for the present is to win a championship. I think I have to West locked up pretty easily and have the firepower to compete with the top teams in the East.

This team over real Utah for Present:

I think this team is more well balanced. It has talent spread across the board while the real Utah had three guys whose best position is PF. This team also has a legit backup PG for when Deron goes out of the game. While Brewer starts for the real Utah, he becomes one of the best 6th men in the league on my team. My team also has a great backup center in Zaza Pachulia who provides some toughness to the team. Artest and Pachulia add that element to this team that the real team doesn't have.

This team over real Utah for Future:

This team now has a core for the future. Deron at PG, Warren at SG, Brewer and James Johnson at SF, Boozer at PF, and Koufos at C. These guys can be eased into the league on a championship team while still getting some minutes, and be ready for the future right when my older guys are done.


Overall:

I accomplished the goals that I set out to do and felt that I have a championship team right now, and bright young future waiting. I had a couple opportunities to either go in full rebuild with all young guys, or go in full championship mode sacrificing some of my young guys. In a year or two, I believe I will have the best backcourt in the the league in Deron and Warren. I believe I have the inside presence that is crucial to successful teams in Boozer. I enjoyed playing the game and want to say thanks to skorf for doing a great job.

Team Salary

B.Diaw------9,000,000 / 9,000,000
A.Nocioni 6,850,000 / 6,650,000 / 7,500,000
A.Iverson- 6,315,840
C.Bell------- 3,851,440 / 4,099,920
K.Brown--- 3,000,000 / 3,240,000 / 3,480,000
J.Bayless-- 2,292,600 / 3,042,380 / 4,164,882
G.Monroe 2,563,300 / 2,755,660 / 2,947,800 / 3,749,601 / 5,054,463
E.Clark---- 2,224,600 / 2,379,800 / 3,037,100 / 4,090,539
T.Williams 1,898,760 / 2,031,240 / 3,008,267 / 4,184,499
J.Jordan 1,731,960 / 1,861,920 / 1,991,760 / 3,053,361 / 4,268,609
E.Maynor 1,546,560 / 1,654,444 / 2,544,529 / 3,610,686
J.Hickson 1,528,920 / 2,354,537 / 3,357,569
S.Collins-- 1,042,320 / 1,192,440 / 1,198,680 / 2,162,419 / 3,206,867
Cunningham 762,195 / 884,293/ 915,243
Pendergraph 762,195 / 884,293

Still Paying

J.Jones- 1,856,000 / 1,984,000 / 2,112,000
R.Gomes 1,000,000 / 1,000,000 / 1,000,000

Total Salaries

48,226,690 (15 players) / 45,014,927 (14 players) / 34,145,830 (11 players)

Starting Line & Minute Rotation

Jerryd Bayless (30)/Eric Maynor (14) Sherron Collins (4)
Terrence Williams (32) Charlie Bell (8) Sherron Collins (4) Eric Maynor (4)
Andre Nocioni (15) Earl Clark (30) Daunte Cunningham (3)
Greg Monroe (34) J.J. Hickson (12) Daunte Cunningham (2)
Kwame Brown (24) Jerome James (24)

Total

Monroe 34--Williams 32--Bayless 30--Clark 30--Brown 24--James 34--Maynor 18--Nocioni 15--Hickson 12--Bell 8-- Collins-8 Cunningham 5

DNP-CD/Injury Back-up

Allen Iverson/Boris Diaw/Jeff Pendergraph

Draft Picks

2011 San Antonio 1st
2011 Orlando 1st
2011 Houston 2nd

2012 San Antonio 1st
2012 San Antonio 2nd

2013 San Antonio 1st
2013 Houston 1st

CB-Blazer Era Transactions


Josh Smith/Marcus Thornton/Sergio Llull for Gerald Wallace/Andray Blatche/2011 2nd

Jason Terry for Marco Belinelli/Jamario Moon/Dorrell Wright (exp)/Utah 2010 1st

Gerald Wallace/Baron Davis for David Lee/Nate Robinson/Matt Bonner/Walter Sharpe

Jamario Moon/Lou Williams/2010 Utah 1st for Shawne Williams/James Jones/Jeff Pendergraph

David Lee for Brian Cardinal (exp)/2011 Unprotected Boston 1st

M.Finley Boston 2011 1st for Darren Collison pick # 24

Jarret Jack, Andray Blatche, Nicolas Batum for Greg Monroe, Charlie Bell, Kris Humphries

Nate Robinson/Derrik Favors for Earl Clark/Houston 2011 2nd/2013 1st

Marco Belinelli, Kris Humphries, 24th pick for Boris Diaw, Terrence Williams

2013 SAS 2nd Rounder for 2010 27th pick, Julian Wright

[i]K.Martin, Marcus Thornton,Splitter, 2011 DET 2nd for Iverson, Gomes, Anthony, Williams

Jasion Williams for capspace

J.Wright, Dragic, Mullens, Collison for Tayshaun Prince, Eric Maynor

Mike Dunleavy Jr. , 2011 SAS 2nd for J.J Hickson

Tayshaun Prince for Jerryd Bayless, Andrea Nocioni

Team Direction

When I took over as GM for the Spurs, they were a team that was 60+ million payroll over the next 3 seasons. The best players were Kenyon Martin and Josh Smith and were nowhere near title contention despite the extremely large payroll.

We needed to rebuild and that is what we have done.

2010-2011 Goals

Our team goals for 2010-2011 is of course to reach the play-offs but we will not do that at the expense of gaining experience for our core players. While the play-offs is our goal, we realize that it is a longshot. We would be extremely happy to see progess from all of our young players while they learn to mesh together as a team. We have put the pieces in place to rebuild. We are past phase one and now we just need to improve as a team.

Why are the Spurs better off?

When I took over the the Spurs, Manu, Duncan and Parker where gone. We were at a 60+ million dollar payroll for the next 3 years with Kenyon Martin and Josh Smith as our two best players. I knew when I took that roster over, we were not going to contend. I decided to slash salary, add young talent and add future draft picks so I could build a contender the correct way.

I don't remember the exact roster but we had the long contracts of Kenyon Martin, Jason Terry, Lou Williams and Josh Smith. I think getting rid of those contracts was a task by itself, let alone adding future picks and prospects to the mix.

Through a series of trades I ended up with 8 rookie contracts and team salaries of 48,45 and 34 million dollars over the course of the next 3 seasons. I also added a few future picks in the process and elite young talent like Greg Monroe, Jerome Jordan, Earl Clark, Terrence Williams, Eric Maynor and Jerryd Bayless. I also added two rookie scale contracts that I full expect to turn into solid rotation players in J.J. Hickson and Sherron Collins.

Overall, my team met the goals to cut salary, add young talent and future draft picks. We have improved in the present and the future in almost every aspect of the game.

When judging, please take into consideration only the moves that were made after I became GM, not prior.

Bench


Third Stringers


1)
Dirk Nowitzki $17,000,000/ $18,000,000/ $19,000,000/ $20,000,000/ $21,000,000/ $22,000,000
Paul Pierce $15,000,000/$16,000,000/$17,000,000/ $18,000,000/ $19,000,000/ $20,000,000
Emeka Okafor $10,538,938/$11,540,375/$12,541,813/$13,543,250/$14,544,688
Rip Hamilton $11,625,000/$12,650,000/$12,650,000/$12,650,000
Jason Kidd $8,500,000/$8,500,000/$8,500,000/$8,500,000
Shane Battier $6,864,200/$5,848,000/$6,315,840/$6,783,680/$7,251,520/$7,719,360
Tracy McGrady $5,848,000/$6,315,840/$6,783,680/$7,251,520/$7,719,360
Maurice Evans $2,500,000
Joe Smith 1,990,000
Ty Lawson $1,859160
Bobby Jackson $825,497
Francisco Elson $825,497

2)
Draft Picks

1st/2nd: 2012
1st/2nd: 2013

3)

Jason Kidd (33) /Ty Lawson(10)/Booby Jackson(5)
Rip Hamilton(28)/Tracy McGrady(20)/Maurice Evans (injury insurance)
Paul Pierce(30)/Shane Battier (18)
Dirk Nowitzki(35)/Joe Smith(5)/Shane Battier(8)
Emeka Okafor(38)/Francisco Elson(10)

4)

1.
DET INCOMING:
Jason Collins $6,200,000 (expiring)
Shelden Williams $3,395,760 (expiring)
Kevin Ollie $797,581 (expiring)

for

MIN INCOMING:
Jason Maxiell $1,877,572
Walter Herrmann $2,000,000
Kwame Brown $4,000,000
DET 2nd Rounder 09
MIN 2nd Rounder 09 returned
DET 1st 2011, unprotected


2.
DET INCOMING
Marreese Speights
Andre Iguodala
Samuel Dalembert
Reggie Evans
Thaddeus Young
Willie Green
1st Rounder 2009 (top 5 protected)
1st Rounder 2010 (top 5 protected)

for

Walter Sharpe
Antonio McDyess
Richard Hamilton
Rasheed Wallace
Tayshaun Prince
Will Bynum
Tor 2nd Rounder 2009(pick 35?)
Det 2nd Rounder 2010


3.
DET INCOMING:
Robert Swift- $3,579,131 (expiring)
Anthony Parker-$4,550,000 (expiring)
Chucky Atkins- $3,240,000 (expiring)

for

TOR INCOMING:
Samuel Dalembert- $11,238,564
Kevin Ollie- $797,581 (expiring)
2010 PHI pick (top 5 protected)


4.
DET INCOMING:
Amare Stoudemire-$15,070,550
Leandro Barbosa-$6,100,000

for

Thaddeus Young-$1,968,120
Allen Iverson-$20,840,625
DET 2010


5.
Danilo Gallinari-$2,873,520
CLE 2nd 2010
for
Amir Johnson $3,666,667
DET 1st rounder 2009 (no protection)


6.
Smith 10,000,000
Najera 3,500,000
Ager 1,042,400
Total 14,542,400

for

Robert Swift 3,579,131 (used this expiring instead of parkers, assume it doesn't matter)
Collins 6,200,000
Speights 1,542,600
Gallinari 2,873,520

Total 14,245,525



7.
Emeka Okafor $9,537,500
Marquis Daniels $6,864,200
IND 2009 1st

for

Reggie Evans $4,640,000
Amare Stoudemire $15,070,550


8.
Josh Smith $10,000,000
Marquis Daniels $6,864,200
Anthony Parker-$4,550,000
Shelden Williams $3,395,760

Willie Green $3,388,000
IND pick 09 (unprotected)
PHI pick 09 (top 5 protection)
CLE 2nd rounder 2010
DET 2nd rounder 2011

for

Paul Pierce $18,077,903
David West $9,862,500
Michael Finley $2,500,000
Ime Udoka $1,080,000
Matt Bonner $2,978,000

trade 2
Barbosa 6million
for
Battier 6.82 mill?



9.
Maxiell (1,877,572), Walter Herrmann (2,000,000) and B.Skinner (1,262,275)
to Detroit in return for
Afflalo (1,015,400), Ager (1,042,440), Atkins (3,240,000)


10.
Richard Hamilton $10,812,500
Renaldo Balkman $1,369,920
Sebastian Telfair $2,300,000

for

Shane Battier $6,373,900
Eduardo Najera $3,250,000
Rodney Stuckey $1,687,320


11.
Andre Iguodala $11,300,000
B.Skinner $1,262,275
2012 2nd rounder

for

Steve Nash $12,250,000
Rashad Mccants $2,620,126


12.
Rashad Mccants $2,620,126
Matt Bonner $2,978,000
David West $9,862,500
Steve Nash $12,250,000

for

Dirk Nowitzki $17,178,100 3
Jason Terry $9,696,000 4
Brandon Bass $826,269 1
2010 1st rounder


13.
Leandro Barbosa $6,100,000
Marquis Daniels $6,864,200

for

Jason Terry $9,696,000 4
Michael Finley $2,500,000
DET 2012 1st rounder


14.
daniels = $6,864,200
davidson = $422,725
udoka = $1,080,000
DAL 2011 pick
TOTAL = 8,655,717
8,655,717 * 1.25 + 100k = $10,919,646.25

for

Miller = $10,333,333


15.
T.Allen (2.5)


to Detroit for

Hermann (2)



16.
Jamario Moon $711,517
Jason Richardson $12,222,221
Luther Head 1,962,378
for
Andre Miller $10,333,333
Jason Maxiell $1,877,572



17.
Tony Allen $2,500,000
Luther Head 1,962,378

for

Louis Williams $4,500,000
Fred Jones $459,782


18.
Leandro Barbosa $6,100,000
Sebastian Telfair $2,300,000
8400000 x 1.25 + 100,000 = $10,600,000

for

Al Harrington $9,226,250
Courtney Sims $711,517
2009 LA Lakers 2nd
$9,937,767


19.
Nuggets trade/Pistons receive:
Steven Hunter $3,696,000
2009 second round draft pick from Oklahoma City
2009 2nd round draft pick from Washington
2010 Charlotte 1st (top 12 protected in 2010, top 10 protected in 2011, top 8 protected in 2012, top 3 protected in 2013, and unprotected in the 2014 NBA Draft).
*using $10,000,000 TE from the Marcus Camby trade

$10,000,000+$3,696,000=$13,696,000

Pistons trade/Nuggets recieve:
Jason Richardson $13,333,332


20.
pick 34
Charlotte protected 1st
Hunter ($3,696,000)
for
pick 27
GS 2nd 2010
Bonner (3,256,500)


21.
Kurt Thomas $3,800,000
Walter Sharpe $736,420
NO 1st 2009 (21#)
NO 2nd 2009 (51#)

for

Louis Williams $4,972,500.00
LA 2nd 2009 (59#)
GS 2nd 2010



22.
Willie Green $3,682,000
Shane Battier $6,864,200

for

Al Harrington $10,026,875.00
33#


23.
27#/51#/DET 2012 2nd

for

22#


24.
Corey Maggattee-$8,937,931
2010 Atlanta First
2011 Bobcats Second

Detroit Send
Matt Bonner-$3,256,500
Willie Green-$3,682,000
Walter Sharpe-$736,420


25.
29#

for

ATL 2010 1st
CHA 2nd 2011



26.
Charlie Bell - 3,602,960
Damien Wilkins - 3,300,000
TOTAL - 6,902,960

for

Cory Maggette - 8,937,931
Chase Budinger - 1,266,120
TOTAL - 10,204,051


27.
Delonte West/2011 1st/2010 2nd for Damien Wilkins/Darren Collison


D West = $4,254,250

Wilkins/Collison = $3,300,000 + 1,012,900 = $4,312,900


Jose Calderon/Marcus Thornton for Delonte West/Jamario Moon/Elson



28.
Marcus Thornton $800,000
2011 ORL 1st
2010 ORL 2nd

for

Ty Lawson $1, 859160


29.
Jose Calderon $8,219,008
DaJuan Summers $800,000

for

Greg Buckner $4,080,916 (Unguaranteed)
Mike Conley $3,883,800


30.
Kelenna Azubuike/Alexis Ajinca/Steven Hunter for Mike Conley/Charlie Bell

$3,100,000 + $1,372,080 + $3,696,000 = $8,168,080

$3,883,800 + $3,602,960 = $7,486,760 x 1.25 +100g = $9,458,450


31.
Andre Miller ($5,848,000) and Alexis Ajinca ($1,372,080) in exchange for Jason Kidd ($8,500,000).


32.
Atlanta sends Joe Smith and Maurice Evans

Detroit sends Kurt Thomas

1,990,000 + 2,500,000 = 3,490,000
3,800,000
[size=50]

5)

Direction:

Well at first I looked at DET's roster, and I said it would be better to rebuild. I made a few moves, and accumulated some young talent, but then decided to compete now since everyone was rebuilding. I sent out most of my youth for vets, and the prize jewel was Dirk. He is in his prime, and I surrounded him with a lot of other vets that are hungry for a ring as well. Kidd/Dirk is a damn good tandem in DAL right now, throw in PP/Rip/Tmac/Battier to the mix, and Okafor to protect the basket and we think we are able to compete for a ring.

6) Goals? Win a title, and develop Lawson and Okafor along the way.

7) The Pistons right now, are a mess. To many SG's, no true starting C (Kwame is a good backup) and no real hope for the near future. We decided to pay the lux tax, and try and win a title as opposed to watching Ben Gordan and Rip Hamilton fighting for the starting spot.

8) Our future isn't as bright as it was when I took over but we think that we have a 3-4 year window to win a ring and that is what we wanted. After that we will have cap room, and a prime Layson to build around.

Oklahoma City Thunder

E-Mail: pacerfan4life82@yahoo.com
AIM: xGrangeR33x

Starters:

Yao Ming
Chris Bosh
Kevin Durant
Marquis Daniels
Russell Westbrook

Depth Chart:

Yao(30)/Chandler(18)/Davis
Bosh(36)/Davis(12)/Hayes/White
Durant(34)/Warrick(12)/Henry(2)/Rush/Ginyard
Daniels(30)/Crawford(10)/Henry(8)/Rush/Ginyard
Westbrook(32)/Crawford(16)/McClinton

Roster:
Name - 2010/2011 - 2011/2012 - 2012/2013 - 2013/2014 - 2014/2015

Yao Ming - $17,686,100
Chris Bosh - $15,779,912 - $17,149,243 - $18,006,705 - $19,447,241 - $20,887,778 - $21,658,276
Tyson Chandler - $12,250,000 - $13,150,000
Jamal Crawford - $9,360,000 - $10,080,000
Marquis Daniels - $5,848,000 - $6,315,840
Hakim Warrick - $5,000,000 - $5,000,000 - $5,000,000
Kevin Durant - $4,796,880 - $6,053,663 - $7,900,030
Russell Westbrook - $3,755,640 - $4,017,720 - $5,082,416 - $6,703,706
Ed Davis - $2,710,560 - $2,913,840 - $3,117,120 - $3,958,742 - $5,308,674
Chuck Hayes - $2,104,000
Xavier Henry - $1,250,000 - $1,429,200 - $1,528,920 - $2,354,537 - $3,357,569
D.J. White - $1,036,440 - $1,108,680 - $2,001,167 - $3,001,751
Kyle Weaver - $870,968 - $935,484 - $1,000,000
Kareem Rush - $825,497 - $854,389
Jack McClinton - $457,588 - $762,195
Marcus Ginyard - $457,88 - $762,195

Total Salary: $71,433,310 (Need to update)

Team Option
Qualifying Offer
Unguaranteed
Early Termination
Player Option

Draft Picks:
2011 Second Round Pick
2012 First Round Pick
2012 Second Round Pick
2013 First Round Pick
2013 Second Round Pick
Transactions:
Trade 1: Jeff Green, Robert Swift, Chucky Atkins, Damien Wilkins, and 2009 1st(Protected) for Chris Bosh and Roko Ukic

Trade 2: Nenad Krstic, Malik Rose, Desmond Mason, Thabo Sefolosha, and Roko Ukic for Tyson Chandler, Peja Stojakovic, Ryan Bowen, and Sean Marks

Trade 3: Earl Watson, and Sean Marks for Jamal Crawford, 2009 Pistons Second Round Pick, 2011 Detroits First Round Pick(Unprotected), and 2011 Hornets First Round Pick(Unprotected).

Signed Hakim Warrick

Signed Kareem Rush

Trade 4: Peja Stojakovic, Austin Daye, and 2010 First Round Pick for Richard Jefferson

Trade 5: Richard Jefferson, Nick Collison, and 3 1st Round Picks(OKC, DET, NO) for Yao Ming, Marquis Daniels, Chuck Hayes, 19th Pick

Team Direction

I started off with a young core with a bright future, I wanted to add some veteran leadership and other All-Stars to make a young nucleous that could compete for years. I think I did that by adding Yao, Bosh, Chandler, and Crawford. I also think the addition of Ed Davis is huge, because he is widely looked at as the #2 pick for next years draft. Xavier Henry is also looked at as a prized recruit. Basically, I feel like I got a team together that can win now, but still compete for years down the road.

Goal for 2010/2011 Season
My goal is to win the Championship. In 2 years time, when this game takes place, Durant should be a top 3 player, Yao will be healthy, Bosh will be Bosh, Westbrook should have blossomed and so on. I feel like I got a team that can hit you from every angle, and compete. I even have valuable backups in Chandler, Davis, Warrick, Henry, and Crawford. I feel like Crawford will be a great spark off the bench for us.

Why My Team is Better
I made the team a Championship contender while adding more youth to the Thunder. I feel like I improved the team a lot in both aspects of the competition. We now have All-Stars added to Durant and Westbrook, and have guys like Ed Davis and Xavier Henry for the future.