I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that Samid didn't improve over the off season, and that he still probably won't play much. The good news is that there is one other player worse than him on the team. The actually good news is that playing time still doesn't matter for development, so he might jump by +15 next time for all we know. He's got some time too, because the Lakers are not good. He's not missing out on much. Actually, the really good news is that the one thing that does matter for development in this game is how much the team spends on coaching, and the Lakers spend more than anyone except the Knicks.
No trades involving any of you, and only small trades overall. This is why I'm going to turn up something called the AI Trade Factor. Thinking from 1 to 5. If still nothing happens, we'll get wild with it. Anyway, so it's not a total waste, here are the current conference standings at the time of the trade deadline. Right now all 6 teams that are missing the playoffs in the West have a Cafite on them, which seems not great.
No trades involving any of you, and only small trades overall. This is why I'm going to turn up something called the AI Trade Factor. Thinking from 1 to 5. If still nothing happens, we'll get wild with it. Anyway, so it's not a total waste, here are the current conference standings at the time of the trade deadline. Right now all 6 teams that are missing the playoffs in the West have a Cafite on them, which seems not great.
7.2 minutes per game. But in those 7.2 minutes you've got a PER (a performance metric the game really likes) of 19, which is the second highest on your team. But because of your low overall rating the AI coach won't play you a lot. @Samid is suffering from the same problem, just even worse since his rating is 3 lower than yours. He plays 3.2 minutes per match, but in those has a PER of 22.1, which is the clear highest on his team.
Basically this might be a sign that as soon as you guys get a slightly higher rating, you'll be pretty good players.
All Star Weekend is back, baby. I'll also give you an updated look at the playoff race, even though it's only been a few weeks (in game) since the last time.
Still not able to replicate the Round 2 appearance of his first dunk contest, but just getting invited is a good sign for Salt Bailly. His team is spectacularly bad right now, so he needs every encouragement he can get.
3 Point Contest
We again have several Cafites participating, and I'll try something new. Let me know if the amount of spoilers is TOO DAMN HIGH
@Samid, @V.O., @Solius and last year's winner @BenitoSTARR all return for this year. Last year BenitoSTARR took out Solius in the final. Can he repeat the feat, or will one of our other Cafites outgun him? Or could they even all fail, and let some non-Cafite player win? They better not.
Round 1 (4 advance)
Jason Williams: 26
Voshon Leonard: 17
Jerry Stackhouse: 19
Chauncey Billups: 19
Our players need 27 to guarantee they go through. If there is a tie there will be a tie-breaker
Decent start by Samid, but it means at least one Cafite will be out as you won't all beat Jason Williams' 26.
BenitoSTARR is through!
V.O. is through! Solius now needs at least 25.
25 for Solius, which means he and Samid will have to shoot a tiebreaker round to see who goes through.
Solius will join BenitoSTARR, V.O. and Jason Williams in the 2nd Round! Perfect shooting by Solius there.
Round 2 (2 advance)
Jason Williams: 19
Only 19 for Jason Williams, and BenitoSTARR starts out with a near perfect round.
25 for V.O. means Solius will have to shoot at least a 25 to force another tiebreaker.
More great shooting by Solius! This means we'll have a replay of last year's final round, with Solius facing BenitoSTARR.
Final Round
Very good start by BenitoSTARR, but Solius has bested that score twice already today. Can he do it again?
So close! Those early misses ruined his chances, but still a very impressive showing from Solius.
Our 3-Point Contest winner is @BenitoSTARR - again!
I'm beginning to think you guys are allergic to knockout rounds.
Western Conference:
@Solius, @The Cat and @weetee making the playoffs again, as expected. Should hope to do better in the playoffs than last time, though. @sebsheep's Portland also managed to make it, by a reasonably comfortable margin despite the 7-seed. Out of the rest, only @hobbers and his Spurs were tipped to make it, so if anyone should be disappointed it's probably him. @Dr. Dwayne and @Stobzilla got closest out of the have-nots, while @altodevil, @Samid and @Salt Bailly were all nowhere near making it.
Eastern Conference:
@BenitoSTARR's Knicks beating the odds again, taking the 1-seed. And beyond that it's a sad sight. @oneniltothearsenal was predicted to bring his Heat into the playoffs, but in the end they finished 3 games behind the 8-seed. @Dan, @Skizzo, @V.O. and @reelworld never really had much hope of making the playoffs, and in fact finished exactly where they were predicted to end up.
Let's do this. Here's a reminder of the playoff bracket:
It's going to take some doing to get some Cafite v Cafite matchups.
Round 1 result
And we're already down one player. @sebsheep's Portland couldn't get past Houston. To be fair, nobody expected them to in the first place. The Seattle Boys (@Solius, @The Cat, @weetee) made it past the first round this time, so that's good. @BenitoSTARR also got past Chicago. Both of those matches were sweeps as well.
Conference Semi results
Upset! We won't have a 2-time NBA Champion this year, as BenitoSTARR and his New York Knicks have been taken down by the 4-seed New Jersey Nets. We very nearly lost the Seattle players as well, as they had to come back from 1-3 down to win 4-3. It didn't help that Solius played through an injury for half of the series. Now they will face Houston in the Conference Final.
Conference Final results
4-1, no problem. That brings them to the final, where they will face the Nets, who have already completed two upsets. Will they take out another 1-seed?
NBA Final
And just like that we've got three new NBA Champions! Congratulations to @weetee, @The Cat and @Solius. In the end New Jersey proved no challenge at all. This time weetee was the one who played through an injury, while Solius had a massive 39-point performance in the opening game.
Playoff stats (points/rebounds/assists per game) and Best game
sebsheep: 12/3/1 - 10.6 gamescore > 16/3/1 on 4-9 shooting in 28 minutes
BenitoSTARR: 16/4/7 - 28.6 gamescore > 25/5/9 and 5 blocks on 10-15 shooting in 40 minutes
The Cat: 3/2/1 - 6.2 gamescore > 5/7/0 on 2-3 shooting in 15 minutes
Solius: 24/3/9 - 33 gamescore > 40/1/9 on 13-21 shooting in 44 minutes
weetee: 6/1/7 - 15.1 gamescore > 13/1/7 on 3-5 shooting in 21 minutes