GM-a-Team: Detailed Reports/Write-Ups (VOTING HAS BEGUN)

[Teddy KGB]

sorry for the lack of writeup guys i had to go on an impromptu trip to Beijing [suddenly got tix for olympics, couldnt pass that shizz up] so i didnt have a chance to get my writeup in.

my sincerest apologies.

[skorff26]

sorry for the lack of writeup guys i had to go on an impromptu trip to Beijing [suddenly got tix for olympics, couldnt pass that shizz up] so i didnt have a chance to get my writeup in.

my sincerest apologies.

No big deal. I'm sure if any of us had a chance to go to the Olympics we wouldn't pass it up either, and we also wouldn't have worried about our write-up.
So have fun and if you do have time to do a write-up, post it up; and I would then delete your roster page once your write-up is posted, thus giving a better description of your team and to give some explanations to help with the voting.

[Teddy KGB]

yeah since the judging hasn't started i'll get my write up in as soon as i can

[Teddy KGB]

General Manager:JHo's Hydro AKA ss_mav


1. From the Start:
PG: Devin Harris/Jason Terry/J Barea
SG: Jerry Stackhouse/Eddie Jones/Trenton Hassell
SF: Josh Howard/Devean George
PF: Dirk Nowitzki/Brandon Bass/Juwan Howard
C: Erick Dampier/DeSagana Diop

Other: Mo Ager, Nick Fazekas

Note: Jason Kidd trade had not yet taken place

2. The Roster:

Staring Line-Up:



Cc: Erick Dampier
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
SF: Paul Pierce
SG: Kevin Martin
PG: Louis Willliams

In terms of my starting line-up I think that it is quite evident that there has been a huge improvement. Firstly, Paul Pierce is definitely the big name that should stick out. Dirk has, since Nash and co left, not had another top 10-15 player [hell, not even a top 30 player] and I managed to add Paul Pierce who is unquestionably at least top 15. Should be a very potent 1-2 combo IMO. Josh Howard has been traded but not for Pierce. He brought in Kevin Martin who is already about as good as JHo with the potential to become a lot better. Kmart is also a better fit as a 3rd option as a ridiculously efficient 24 pt a game guy. All in all, I think that my big 3 now of Dirk-Pierce-Martin is a helluva lot more potent than the starting big 3 of Dirk-Howard-Terry. Only downgrade is at PG but even then it doesn't matter since Dirk/Pierce/Martin can share playmaking duties meaning that Lou will be just a Gibson-esque scorer from the PG spot.

Bench/Rotation (From 1st off the bench, to the last)

PF Brandon Bass
SG Marquis Daniels
SF Des Mason
Cc Robert Swift
PG D Stoudamire

D-League/Bench Warmers

PF Kenny "dog sh*t plays better than me" Thomas
PG Jose Juan Barea
PF Robert Horry

3. Transactions:


Dallas trades Jason Terry, Mo Ager, Trenton Hassell, DeSagana Diop and 2008 1st DAL in a 3 way trade with PHX and HOU for Shawn Marion, Dikembe Mutombo, Darrel Armstrong and DJ Strawberry

Talentwise steal for me, Terry is good but nowhere near the level of Marion. Cost me Diop as well but w.e, Marion is better than the whole package I sent.

Dallas trades DJ Strawberry to NOH for Melvin Ely and 2010 2nd NOH

Strawberry was surplus to requirements, got a 2nd for him. Ely was just filler

Dallas trades Devean George, 08 2nd DAL and 09 2nd DAL to MIA for Alonzo Mourning

Yeah no explanation for this one. Feel stupid about this but at least it was only george and some crappy 2nds.

Dallas trades Devin Harris, Shawn Marion, Jerry Brickhouse, Alonzo Mourning, Juwan Howard and Melvin Ely in an 8 way deal with GSW, BOS, DET, PDX, CLE, HOU and CHA for Baron Davis, James Posey, Marquis Daniels, Matt Barnes and Brian Scalabrine.

Did I lose talentwise on this one? Absolutely. However, I traded a 3rd option and a 4th option for a 1sts option type guy in BDiddy and I needed that as I feel Dirk needs another superstar next to him to relieve some of the pressure. Got quite a few useful role players too; with Daniels, Posey and Barnes.

Dallas trades Matt Barnes, Eddie Jones and Nick Fazekas to SEA for Johan Petro and Desmond Mason

I traded two guys who wouldn't play much in my wing rotation for Mason who is IMO better than both while getting a good young C in Petro.

Dallas trades Josh Howard, Brian Scalabrine and Johan Petro to SAC for Kevin Martin and Kenny Thomas.

As I mentioned before I think that KMart is simply more valuable and a better player than JHo. Thus I had to take on KT's contract [which ends in 2010 so it doesn't matter] but that was easily worth it to swap JHo for KMart.

Dallas lets James Posey become an UFA and leave for Houston

Re-signing Posey wasn't really a top priority as I knew teams would offer him way more than he's worth just because of the Finals.

Dallas signs Robert Swift, 5 years for 10M [portion of MLE]

A good young C for 2M a year for 5 years? That's a veritable steal IMO and one of my proudest acquisitions. If he doesn't pan out, whatever, it's only 2M a year. At the worst a big body and even stiffs who are big cost more than 2M a year. But if he pans out [don't see why he shouldn't, he has tremendous potential just been injured a lot] then it's even better a signing for me.

Dallas re-signs Baron Davis, 5 years 65 million

This was a front loaded deal as well as being the exact same amount as the deal he got in real life so I can't see anything at all wrong with this signing.

Dallas trades Baron Davis to BOS for Paul Pierce

Talent upgrade, a true 1st option to put next to Dirk to make 2 1st options [Baron was imo a quasi-1st option]. Created a huge hole at PG but I love the Truth so much and had been chasing him for so long that I didn't care.

Dallas signs Robert Horry, 1 year 1.2M [vet min]

Got a cold blooded veteran to be used almost exclusively in clutch situations and in the playoffs. Just the vet min.

Dallas signs Louis Williams, 5 years for 22M [portion of MLE]

Another proud acquisition of mine, I think that this is the year Lou will break out in a big way [a thought shared by many others]. He filled the huge hole at PG quite adequately at a very reasonable cost.

Dallas signs Damon Stoudamire 2 years for 2.4M [vet min]

Needed a good backup PG so I signed Mighty Mouse.



4. Description of the plan/strategy you took to make these moves

When I first started off as the Mavs GM I was decided only on one thing, that I would either completely rip this team up and start over [i.e. trade Dirk for young 'uns] or get another superstar to put next to Dirk and compete for real. In my eyes, the Mavs team I started with was very good as a unit but simply lacked that second superstar who could prevent Dirk from being triple teamed as in the GSW series. I figured that the direction of the team would be set by the first trade I made.

The first trade I made was to bring in Shawn Marion for bench pieces which definitely indicated to me that I would be competing to win now which is the option I had hoped for in any case. However, Marion was not the 1st option type I was hoping to put next to Dirk so I searched on. I soon got my chance and consolidated some talent in the deal to bring in Baron Davis. With Dirk-Davis Howard I had a trio capable of doing quite some damage in the playoffs but seeing how strong some of the other teams had become I knew that I couldn't rest on my laurels and that I would have to further improve my team to be called a real contender.

The next big trade that came along was trading Josh Howard [my fave player, hated giving him up] for Kevin Martin while swapping Scalabrine's and KT's awful contracts. Kevin Martin is a young guy who just put up 24 [!!!] ppg on the ridiculous percentages everyone's heard about. I thought that a better fit next to Dirk and Baron would be hard to find because against a trio of Baron/Dirk/Martin where all of them score from anywhere on the court who the hell do you double team?

My moves didn't end there as I brought in the biggest piece of my tenure as Dallas GM. The straight up swap of Baron Davis for Paul Pierce IMO got me a superstar in his prime who has shown just how good a player he is over the last playoffs. I heart the Truth and so I was delighted to get him and later simply closed up the holes created by my wheeling and dealing through some key signings in FA. IMO the team I have now is just straight up superior in all ways to the Dallas team I had started with. Breaking down the starting line-ups:

E Dampier = E Dampier
D Nowitzki = D Nowitzki
P Pierce >>>>> J Howard
K Martin >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> [x infinity] J Stackhouse
L Williams <<< D Harris

As you can see, improvements have been made and I think I deserve a lot of credit for these changes as honestly Dallas just had 4 valuable trading tools if I was to keep Dirk: JHo, Harris, picks and Bass. Of these, I left 2 untouched and basically turned JHo, Harris and Terry [JT has very little value, maybe even negative due to contract] into Pierce, Kmart and Lou Williams; each of whom is more valuable than their counterpart imo.

5. Are you a win-now team, or a win-later team, or both? Why?

My team was built with winning now in mind as I've mentioned, with a provision for ripping the team apart if it doesn't work and building around a young franchise player in Kmart. I think that with my Dirk/Pierce/Martin trio can compete with any in the league without any problems and my role players are also seasoned vets and energetic youth who can bring punches off the bench.

Unlike some other teams which have gutted all their youth to win now, I actually have better youth now than I started with. IMO the only significant pieces of youth I had to start with were Devin Harris and Brandon Bass whereas to end I still had Bass with KMart instead of Harris. I don't really think there's any debate as to who's better between Harris and Martin. So in terms of youth I've gotten better while I have also kept most future picks [09 2nd traded] meaning that a quick retool or rebuild is definitely possible.

6. What's your team's committed salary figures from 2008-2009 until 2014-2015?

Cc: Erick Dampier $11,553,000 $12,115,500
PF: Dirk Nowitzki $18,077,904 $19,795,714 $21,513,524
SF: Paul Pierce $18,077,904 $19,795,712 $21,513,521
SG: Kevin Martin $8,760,335 $9,680,170 $10,600,005 $11,519,840 $12,439,675
PG: Louis Williams $4,000,000 $4,320,000 $4,480,000 $4,640,000 $4,800,000
PF Brandon Bass $826,269
SG Marquis Daniels $6,864,200
PF Kenny Thomas $8,562,500 $8,775,000
SF Desmond Mason $5,400,000
Cc Robert Swift $1,900,000 $1,976,000 $2,052,000 $2,128,000 $2,204,000
PG Jose Barea $687,456
Cc Robert Horry $1,265,700
PG Damon Stoudamire $1,262,275 $1,262,275

Total Salary value for 08-09: $87,237,543
Salary value for the real Dallas Mavericks: $84,206,021

I'm not looking to have cap space any time soon and in the summer of 2011 I would extend Pierce and Dirk [if I don't have to blow the team up]. The reason I don't really give a sh*t about cap space is cap space almost always results in having to overpay and even if you do offer you may not get a player you want. My core is locked up for at least 3 years and I'm happy to keep it that way. My salary value is only 3M over the real Dallas Mavericks and this becomes 6M when taking into account salary tax. However, my team is far superior than the real Mavs and I have no doubt that Cuban would gladly pay 6M more for such a vast improvement.


7. Which draft picks have you acquired and which ones do you personally own? Give some reasoning for having the amount you do.

Draft Picks:

'09 DAL 1st
'10 DAL 1st
'11 DAL 1st
'12 DAL 1st
'13 DAL 1st

'10 DAL 2nd
'10 NOH 2nd
'11 DAL 2nd
'12 DAL 2nd
'13 DAL 2nd


8. Who is your franchise player and/or co-franchise player? Who's the team captain? Is there a future franchise player on your team?

There are currently 2 franchise players on my team in Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce, who will also be co-captains. They are the franchise players simply because they are the best players on the team. They are captains because in their time in the league they are both proven to be phenomenal motivators.

The future franchise player is Kevin Martin and it's obvious why really; he is the best young player and only young guy I have capable of becoming a franchise player.


9 A) What is special about your team?

I think the thing that sticks out to me the most about this team is that it's definitely among the most potent offensive teams. Ever. You have 3 guys who score at least 22 a game with each capable of scoring in the high twenties consistently. You have Dampier cleaning up the offensive glass and kicking out to 4 phenomenal shooters [I have easily the best shooting team in the league IMO]. Dirk will devastate teams without being constantly doubled and sometimes even tripled because Pierce/Martin/Lou is more than enough to keep defenses honest. Dampier can't be left open right under the basket either. Pierce will also be devastating with his penetration and kicking out to wide open shooters once the defense collapses. KMart will see nowhere near the defensive opposition he's used to in SAC so he should become even more ridiculously efficient. Basically, with my big 3 playing off of each other I really really can't see even the best defensive teams shut my team down.

9 B) What do you feel are some areas your team could improve on?

I think that the bench depth is still not really that great but it's ok. I don't really have a post up big man or a true defensive anchor in the paint but I'm not blaming myself for that as there are only a few of those in the league and those are hard as hell to obtain and I didn't have one to start with. So the team has some holes but these aren't really holes that are easily filled and I think that my team can win at least 1 championship even with these weaknesses.

10. What are your plans in the future FA markets? (begin with 2009, 2010, and so on until the summer of 2011)

As I've mentioned, getting cap space is not a priority for me; I don't want any. My core is locked up for 3 years with Dirk and Pierce expiring in 2011 where they should re-sign as they earn big money already and my team will definitely be doing its share of winning.

[Teddy KGB]

btw when exactly is "soon"?

[Mascot]

probably around october the way this game is

[TMACFORMVP]

Sorry guys, have been real busy lately and to be honest, kinda lazy haha. Anyways, don't want to be penalized for not doing a writeup, so here it is..(Not going to include everything, but most of it).

AIM- tmacformvp2007
Email- t_mac_1123@hotmail.com


Starting Lineup


[PG] -Jason Kidd------- $21,372,000
[SG] -Tracy McGrady------- $19,614,000
[SF] -Shane Battier------- $6,373,900
[PF] Rasheed Wallace----- $13,930,000
[C]-Yao Ming--------- $15,070,550

Bench Players


[PG] Jason Terry--------- $9,696,000
[SG]- Martell Webster---- $3,771,133
[SF]- Bruce Bowen------ $4,000,000
[PF]-Carl Landry-------- $1,900,000
[C]-Jeff Foster---------- $5,500,000

Other
Jacque Vaughn----------$1,262,275
Dominic McGuire--------$427,163
Courtney Lee-------------$427,163
Dikembe Mutumbo------$1,446,720




Draft Picks
No Draft Picks Until 2010

Depth Chart

PG-Kidd-Terry-Vaughn
SG-McGrady-Allen-Lee
SF-Battier-Bowen-McGuire
PF-Sheed-Landry-Bonner
C-Yao-Foster-Mutumbo


Transactions

1.) Traded Mike James and Kirk Snyder for Boris Diaw and Sean Marks.

2.) Traded Shane Battier, 2008 1st (Top 5 protected), Steve Francis and Steve Novak for Mike Miller, Kyle Lowry and Hakim Warrick

3.) Traded Hakim Warrick, Rafer Alston, Luther Head, Bonzi Wells, Dikembe Mutumbo for Raja Bell and Jason Terry

4.) Traded Mike Miller, Ruben Patterson, and Sean Marks in exchange for Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, Patrick O'Bryant

5.) Traded Boris Diaw for TE and 2010 2nd.

6.) Signed Luke Jackson, Carlos Powell and Stephen Lasme to minimum level contracts

7.) Traded Rip Hamilton, Matt Barnes, and Patrick O'Bryant for Tracy McGrady, JamesOn Curry, and Adam Haluska

8.) Cut Adam Haluska and JamesOn Curry

9.) Traded TE for Alonzo Mourning, Matt Caroll, and Mickael Gelabale

10.) Traded Hilton Armstrong for Eddie House, Luke Jackson and Stephen Lasme, then traded Hilton Armstrong in exchange for Eddie House

11.) Overall in a three part trade with the Miami Heat traded Chris Wilcox and Matt Carroll for Deaven George, Malik Allen, Rasual Butler, Earl Barron, Chris Quinn, and Charlotte's 2008 first.

12.) Traded Alonzo Mourning, Hilton Armstrong, Deavan George, Rasual Butler, and Charlotte's 2008 1st Round Pick for Rasheed Wallace

13.) Picked up Randolph Morris

14.) Traded Luke Jackson and Chris Quinn for Eddie House, Dominique McGuire, and Carlos Powell

15.) Traded Carlos Powell and Malik Allen for Luther Head

16.) Trade Chuck Hayes for Boki Nachbar

17.) Traded Earl Barron, Dominic McGuire, and Mickeal Gelable for Jarron Collins, Sean Marks, and Stephen Graham

18.) Traded Bostjan Nachbar, Eddie House, and Jarron Collins for Joel Pryzbilla.

19.) Traded Luther Head and Stephen Grahm for Tony Allen.

20.) Traded Randolph Morris for Ryan Bowen and #31 overall pick in 2008 draft.

21.) Traded Stephen Jackson, Joel Pryzbilla, Von Wafer, Ryan Bowen, Sean Marks and Awvee Storey for Shane Battier, Rasual Butler, Jeff Foster, Mickael Gelable, Dominic McGuire, Jacque Vaughn, Brian Skinner and Rubean Patterson.

22.) Drafted Courtney Lee with the 31st overall pick.

23.) Signed James Posey to a full MLE contract

24.) Re-signed Carl Landry to a 2 year LLE deal.

25.) Traded Courtney Lee, Rasual Butler, Matt Bonner and James Posey for Martell Webster and Andres Nocioni

[i]Traded Andres Nocioni for Courtney Lee, Bruce Bowen and Dikembe

[b]1. Roster from when I started:

PG- Rafer Alston--Mike James--Aaron Brooks
SG- Tracy McGrady--Bonzi Wells--Luther Head
SF- Shane Battier--Steve Novak
PF- Luis Scola--Carl Landry--Chuck Hayes
Cc- Yao Ming--Dikembe Mutumbo

4. General overview of my team in terms of what I was trying to accomplish and how I did that?

Obviously looking at my roster it's built to compete and win now. Adding one of the most underrated post defenders and best power forward fits next to Yao (can guard the other team's best post player all while giving Yao the space to operate with his superior shooting range makes him one of the better fits in the league besides the obvious). What's T-Mac's main problem? He gets injured, and part of that is due to the fact has has to do too much on the floor in terms of scoring, defending and most importantly handling all the play-making. While Alston is solid in that department, his main job is to bring the ball and dump it to McGrady to create space and not only create for himself (which these days largely result in jump-shots) but to create for others to get guys like Yao good position inside, Alston, Head and Battier open jumpshots.

Now with Kidd at the helm, who's still at this age one of the Top 5 passers in the game should not only reduce the stress on McGrady, but Yao as well. He might not be the greatest percentage shooter, but he's a solid three point shooter (over 35%) and some eye popping shooting numbers in Dallas. He's still one of the best rebounders at his position and a solid defender at the PG position especially with his ability to guard bigger guards.

What I like best about my team is it's bench. From one that was up their with one of the worst benches in the league (James sucks, Mutumbo rarely played when Yao was in the lineup, no backup PG and only real spark was a rookie second round pick Carl Landry) and turned that to
into my opinion one of the best benches in the league, if not THE best. It's versatility in terms of scoring (Terry, Landry, Webster), defense (Bowen, IMHO the best perimeter defender in the league, still), rebounding (Foster) and overall balance of all words gives my a team a little bit of everything whenever they're on the floor. What's the best part is the fact that all my players have had experience coming off the bench and shown they're just as successful being spark-plugs off the bench.

So overall, I wanted to transform this team from a pretender to a contender, and I feel I've done that considering I've greatly improved the bench and players that perfectly fit the system and overall provides in the long term better durability for my two star players which is not something that could have been said before considering the amount of work they had to do when on the floor and the lack of depth behind both of them.

2.) Why should I be ranked higher than most would think?
Well, basically what I had to work with, lol. I acquired two all-stars that are good fits with my team without giving up my three most valuable/best players. And outside of that, there's honestly nothing that was of too much value. Scola, Alston and to an extent Brooks were the only one that really garnered interest of the players traded and that's not the overall value of what other teams had the luxury of giving up to make their teams better.

3.) Are their any future plans? Doesn't look like it?
In fact, my team does. My team basically has a two year window to accomplish what I was trying to reach when I took the spot as the Rockets GM. By the year 2010, the Rockets will have over 60m expiring contracts and assuming no contracts will be signed and only key players get contracts re-signed to lesser sums (which is very reasonable imo) then the Rockets would have over 30 million dollars in cap space to spend ot build around Yao. It'd be even more if I was assured I'd rebuild considering I could dump Terry (got many expiring deal contracts for him) and get even further capspace to sign two more high profile FA's in what's expected to be one of the most deepest FA pools in terms of superstar ability in the past so much odd years.

So overall, considering lack of assets, and what I've accomplished, I feel the Rockets overall deserve a spot as one of the GM's that have done a better job in this competition.

And besides, this competition needs the last competition champ to repeat!

[dunkonu21]

New Orleans Vs. Golden State in the championship. New Orleans wins.

Cleveland gets third place.

Props to the New York Knicks, way to dump that salary and get some talent back too.

[Mascot]

New Orleans Vs. Golden State in the championship. New Orleans wins.

Cleveland gets third place.

Props to the New York Knicks, way to dump that salary and get some talent back too.

West vs West

[LeQuitterNotMVP]

Yeah, but in order for the Hornets or Warriors to win, they'd have to go through my team.