SeattleSuperSonics Dynasty

SeattleSuperSonics

Welcome to my Sonics Dynasty!

I've been playing NBA Live for a few years now, but only recently got my hands on a copy of 2005. After a few days of testing and figuring out how I get the most realistic results:

Difficulty: All-Star
Quarter length: 9min
Sliders: pared's all-star sliders
Rosters: NLSC NBA Live 2005 Current Roster Update

I now started a dynasty with my favorite team. Here's a rundown of the 2005-06 Sonics roster:

Starters
C Robert Swift C 52 Ovrl The most talented out of our 3 Cs. Young and inexperienced. Will split time with Potapenko for now. Might be cornerstone for years to come.
PF Vladimir Radmanovic SF/PF 63 Ovrl Great shooter. Can go to the basket when he has to. Still waiting for breakout season.
SF Rashard Lewis SF/PF 77 Ovrl Key player for us. Can shoot from everywhere on the court. Watch for a lot of isolation and driving to the basket.
SG Ray Allen SG/PG 86 Ovrl Our MVP. Go to guy on offense. Great J, mid-range and beyond the arc. Good Dunker.
PG Luke Ridnour PG 60 Ovrl Good shooter, but doesn't do it often enough. Despite his age, reads game well and spreads the ball. Very talented. Buildingblock in the future. One of my favorite players, if not the, I have to admit. Old picture. Has cut his hair by now. Thank god.

Reserve
6 Ronald Murray SG/PG 63 Ovrl Another good shooter. Can post double digits despite limited time. Poor defender though. 6th man for now.
7 Nick Collison PF/C 59 Ovrl Good rebounder. Nice post-up skills. Not as talented as Swift though.
8 Danny Fortson PF/C 57 Ovrl One of the key players in the team. Brilliant rebounder and great defender. Limited offensive game and draws to many fouls. Nevertheless is he able turn a game in our favor with his attitude.
9 Reggie Evans PF/C 55 Ovrl Most things said for Collison and Fortson, can also be said for Evans. Good defense, no offense.
10 Damien Wilkins SF/SG 54 Ovrl Has talent in his genes. Son of Gerald, and nephew of Dominique Wilkins. Good scorer.
11 Mateen Cleaves PG/SG 48 Ovrl Not a good shooter, but can pass the ball well. Good attitude.
12 Vitaly Potapenko C 45 Ovrl Same old, same old. See Collison, Fortson or Evans.

Injured Reserve
IR Rick Brunson PG/SG 48 Ovrl Guard who can shoot and, well...guard. Solid defense.
IR Johan Petro C 43 Ovrl Good shot blocker. Needs to work on his offensive game. Wrong attitude. Quiet a bit of potential here, though ages behind Swift.

Coach
Bob Weiss 6 years of coaching experience, went to the playoffs 4 times. Has a 210-282 record, 42.6% wins. Not someone who identifys himself with the team like Nate McMillan did. Weiss coached Dominique Wilkins btw.

The main goal for me in this dynasty, besides having fun of course, is to build a team which consistenly goes to the playoffs, and which will be a contender every time. I want a realistic gaming experience, I don't want to win the title every year. For the first year, my goal will be to reach the playoffs, after that everything will be a bonus.

Next game: LA Clippers

November 3rd, 2004; LA Clippers 88 vs Seattle 76
The Clippers didn't really dominate us, but there never was a time when I thought that we would be able to come back.
Whenever we made a positve play on either side of the ball, a steal, a big block or a three, we would commit a turnover or allow second chance points.
We commited 20 fouls and 12 turnovers, besides that, we shot an abismal 9 of 31 from the free throw line.
A few rays on the dark horizons were observable though, we outrebounded the Clippers 45-40, collecting 18 offensive rebounds. The suprise of the game was Swift though, as he was able to grab 19 rebounds. Fortson, a distant second had 8. Top scorer was Ray Allen with 31, Lewis and Radmanovic also scored in double digits, making 21 and 10 points respectivly.

November 5th, 2004; Atlanta 96 @ Seattle 75
Tough loss. The end result doesn't really mirror the course of the game. We came out hitting a few shots to start the game.
Even though Allen seemed to have a hand in his face, he hit most of his shots. Swift started this game the way he finished the last one, grabbing rebounds.
The end of the second quarter saw Allen doing pretty much a little bit of everything, stealing and rebounding the ball on one end of the court,
and throwing and slamming it down on the other.
Even though Allen scored 14 of his 33 points in the 3rd, he did not hit everything he threw up there, but was always there in the clutch situations.
After his performance in the 3rd we narrowed down the gap of three points to only one. Well in range to win this game. But our inablity on the charity stripe,
8/23, and our FG% of just .320 through the course of the game, and just .167 in the 4th, kept us well from it.
Besides that there are a few positive things we can take out of this loss: our rebounding worked well again, as we were able to out rebound Atlanta 46-43, securing 16 offensive boards. Allen was our best player of course with 33 points, but Fortson was able to chip in 10, along with 7 rebounds.
Atlanta spread their scoring a bit more evenly, their top scorers, Stoudamire, Johnson and Smith, scoring 23, 19 and 14 points respectivly.

Next game:
November 7th, 2004; vs San Antonio (2-0)

Around the League:
11/3/04 The Trail Blazers sign K.Kittles for 18.68M for 5 years.
11/3/04 The Hawks release M.Stewart.
11/5/04 The Grizzlies sign J.McCoy for 870K for 1 year.
11/6/04 The Warriors sign L.Williams for 3.85M for 5 years.

comments and critisism appreciated

Weiss looks like a dork..

Bad Luck on your first two losses, good luck with this dynasty, i hope you continue this before you get live 06...

Hope you rebound back. Good analysis of the players.

Thx for the comments guys. San Antonio will be tough though.

November 7th, 2004; San Antonio 113 @ Seattle 95
Lady Luck was anywhere, but at Key Arena today, probably sitting somewhere in the Spurs HQs, waiting for Duncan, Parker and Ginobli.
I can't believe I was actually up by 10 after the first quarter. Miss Luck must have left after that, probably catching an early flight back to Texas.
After that everything was just a blur of the Spurs hitting everything and me hitting seemingly nothing. I don't know what the record is, but the Spurs always had a hand in my face and collected 16 blocks. Thats one reason I only completed .387 of my FGs, compared to the Spurs .596.
My free throw percentage of just .485 is somewhat missleading, because I was finally able to hit a few in a row, Allen making 11 of his 15 attempts, for a total of 40 points.
I don't know wether to be happy about him scoring big everytime, or kinda concerned that Lewis and Fortson were distant second, with 15, and third, with 14 points respectivly. Allen seems to remain our only big threat on offense. I don't want to imagine what a bad game of his would mean for us (even though we're 0-3 right now...).
But I do know that I can be happy about Swift grabbing 16, and Fortson 12 rebounds respectivly. Grabbing a team total of 39, and a season-high of 20 offensive rebounds.

Next game:
November 9th, 2004; vs Denver (2-2)

comments and critisism appreciated as always

November 9th, 2004; Denver 102 @ Seattle 94

I actually had a chance to win this one, as I was only one point behind after the first quarter, and the score being all even at 49 at the half.
During the third quarter though I asked my computer several times if he was kidding me, as the Nuggets were just pulling off amazing lay-ups and jumpers, even when surrounded by two or even three of my guys.
My players were seemingly less impressed and I was able to pull within reach of Denver. Only behind by three with one and a half minutes to go, I was sending Denver players to the stripe a few times, and tryed to pull even with threes by Allen or Radmanovic.
As the final score shows it didn't work.
Even though Swift grabbed his share of rebounds once again, 13, 6 of those offensive, I was outrebounded 41-46. Denver had 11 off. rebounds but scored 2nd chance points on probably every attempt, but I wasn't able to capitalize on many of my 17 offensive rebounds.
Allen was our top scorer once again with 38, but Radmanovic, Lewis and Ridnour were also able to score in double-digits, making 13, 13 and 12 points respectivly.
Top scorer for Denver was Miller with 26, 18 of those through FTs, closely followed by Camby who scored 24, along to grabbing 15 rebounds and leading the team in that category. Martin second with 12.

Next game:
November 10th, 2004; @ Sacramento (0-3)

Hopefully I'll get my first win here, seeing that the Kings are struggling also. I still think I'm too limited on offense as I look for Allen on almost every play, besides that I don't have many big scoring threats from my bench, a few have potential, but nobody has stepped up yet. I also think I'm a little too foward heavy, so I might be looking into aquiering another guard, Martell Webster would be perfect, even though I think he's listed as SF, but he can shoot threes well and has alot of potential. As SG he could take over for Allen once he retires or leaves as a free agent.
What do you guys think, should I look into a trade for Webster or for another player? Oh yeah, did I mention Webster's from Seattle? That would please the "fans".

I want a realistic gaming experience, I don't want to win the title every year.

I like your attitude.

And your game reviews are awesome (though you´ve had tough luck in your first four games). Keep it up; I enjoy reading that stuff.

Good luck in Sacramento - time for a win now!

I'll see when I get around to it, maybe this weekend. Thx for reading.

So how's it going, man? Just wanted to tell you I actually check back here frequently to see what the Sonics are up to.

And on a sidenote, you just might have gotten me to play a full season with Seattle, too. (Not a dynasty, though - don't want the full-on hassle with drafts, trades, salaries and all. I'll be happy to finish one 82-game-season plus Playoffs. )
I've only gotten the game a couple weeks ago and played nothing but the Mavericks so far. Looking for a change and a somewhat more average team, the Sonics came to mind. Just played them vs. the Mavs too, twice. In Dallas, it was a blowout and I was somewhat discouraged. But on the home court, I beat them 96:101. And it was a friggin' exciting game, too, close score all game long.

Errm, yeah. Didn't mean to hijack your thread. Just tell us already whether you beat Sacramento.