DIFFICULTY: All-Star
QUARTER LENGTH: 6 minutes
SEASON LENGTH: 28 games
ROSTERS: 2000/01
The Bulls are my favourite team, and therefore natural choice for my franchise, even though this team had to be one of the worst they ever fielded. I’ve exploited Live in the past and made stupid trades in my favour to build a good team, but I’m not doing that this time – I thought it’d be more fun, and a good challenge, to try and win with either leaving the team pretty much as it is, or at least making realistic trades where I don’t completely screw the other team. Here’s my roster as of the start of the season, although I'm doing the ratings from memory so they're probably wrong:
C – Brad Miller (74)/Dragan Tarlac (70)
PF – Elton Brand (80)/Michael Ruffin (68)
SF – Ron Artest (73)/Marcus Fizer (71)
SG – Ron Mercer (75)/Fred Hoiberg (66)/Corey Benjamin (62)
PG – Bryce Drew (71)/Jamal Crawford (68) /AJ Guyton (63)
IR - Jake Voskuhl (62), Dalibor Bagaric (59), Khalid El-Amin (66)
I made the following trades on 20th November:
Hoiberg to Minnesota for Anthony Peeler (66) – this gives us a good three-point shooter off the bench, and someone with veteran experience.
Tarlac and El-Amin to Indiana for Sam Perkins (70) and Tyus Edney (63) – Perkins is old, but we need some offense off the bench, and his contract expires at the end of the season anyway. Edney and El-Amin were needed to make the trade work.
So my roster now looks like this:
C – Brad Miller (74)/Sam Perkins (70)
PF – Elton Brand (80)/Michael Ruffin (68)
SF – Ron Artest (73)/Marcus Fizer (71)
SG – Ron Mercer (75)/Anthony Peeler (66)/Corey Benjamin (62)
PG – Bryce Drew (71)/Jamal Crawford (68) /AJ Guyton (63)
IR - Jake Voskuhl (62), Dalibor Bagaric (59), Tyus Edney (63)
At this point I’m 4-5, having just lost two on the bounce, including a 59-28 loss to Minnesota.