25 Years With GSW: A Different Kind of Dynasty Study

[VlaDiv]

Everyone here does some great graphic dynasties. I would like to be the first one that covers all 25 years and focuses more on player development ad study how it works in live 06. Most dynasties done here feature reports on game-by-game basis and cover the first couple seasons. When I play game-by-game I find dynasty can get old fast so I mostly sim. I'm playing on console so forgive my lack of pics. I'm more interested in how the dyansty engine works itself through development, as you'll see below. I picked GSW because they are a potentially interesting young team on the verge of success.



This is the story of the Warriors and their journey towards respectability, where they strive for the playoffs for the first time since 1993-94!



2005 preseason

I don't want to make too many moves or trades since you can't see how guys develop if you don't keep them for many years. When you start making a lot of trades, it doesn't feel the same as using a roster you build slowly.

So after getting the usual coaches and scouts, I do make two moves to use up that cap space of 7.89 mil.

Warriors sign SG Latrell Sprewell to a 2 year deal.

Warriors cut PF Chris Taft and sign C Peja Drobjnak for 1 year.

Sprewell becomes an instant 6th man candidate off the GSW bench. With a rating of 73, he is the kind of addition that could get us playoff bound. Hey, he was part of that 94 team!

Taft, rated 54, simply isn't ready to contribute. The veteran big man Drobjnak, rated 63, isn't one of my favorite players but he can at least crack the rotation.

2005-06 Season

Our lineup is as follows:
Rating
C Diogu 71
PF Murphy 73
SF Dunleavy 73
SG Richardson 86
PG Davis 90
6 Sprewell 73
7 Fisher 70
8 Pietrus 70
9 Biedrins 66
10 Cabarkapa 65
11 Foyle 63
12 Drobnjak 63
13 Cheaney 61
14 Miles 59
15 Ellis 56

Team Rating: 87

Average Age: 26 (1979 birth)

Since I want to get 25 of this and not burn out on the grind of a full dynasty, I simmed a 29 game season.

Our record: 12-17.

This simply isn't good enough to make the playoffs, once again. But we do have another lottery pick coming up and the team is mostly young.

2006 Off-season

Time brings changes and this season is no different. To clear room for our picks, two transactions occured.

Warriors announce SF Calbert Cheaney retires from the NBA after 13 seasons at age 35.

Warriors waive Monta Ellis.

Cheaney had an outstanding career from his days at Indiana where he teamed with Eric Anderson (knicks) and Alan Henderson under Bob Knight. He led Washington Bullets in scoring early in his career before becoming a journeyman for teams including Denver, Boston and Utah.

Ellis was a young kid who's rating never stood a chance, like Chris Taft. These guys can get chances on teams like Atlanta or Charlotte, this team is looking towards the playoffs sooner.


We have the 12th pick in the draft. We worked out a young forward named Tyson Gibson, projected as the #2 pick. We never expected he would still be on the board at #12, but he was! Perhaps that's because of the questions about his "limited" potential.......... but his initial rating is 66.

In the second round we grabbed Levar Preston, an SF who flew under the radar. Rated 62, he isn't ready to contribute yet but he's closer than Monta Ellis was.

So that's it, only two swaps going into season 2.

2006-07 Season

I have invented the following method for a Development Chart based loosely off the old live 2001 graph. I c an't get the allignment perfect but you can follow it. The number after the name is birth year. So for example, Spr70 is sprewell, born 1970. You can figure in 05 he was age 35, and so on.

---------05 06
Spr70 73 73
Che71 61
Fis74 70 70
Foy75 63 63
Dro75 63 63
Dav79 90 90
Mur80 73 74
Dun80 73 74
Ric81 86 87
Cab81 65 66
Pie82 70 71
Mil83 59 60
Dio83 71 73
Ell85 56
Bie86 66 67
Gib82 66
Pre82 62

(same starting lineup as last year)

It's interesting to note that Sprewell, at 36 did not decline. In reality he is already retired but the game, and I believe it too, suggests he could still play. Diogu showed the most promise, improving by 2 points following his rookie year.

Rating: 91 (4 point improvement)

Age: 27 (1979.53)

Record: 21-8

A very strong record, the small improvements went a long way. In the playoffs, we suffered a heartbreaking loss to Indiana in the Finals.


Record So Far
05 12-17
06 21-8 F


I have simulated this into the 10/11 season but I will keep writing depending on the feedback, whether anyone is interested and whether I get flamed for not having pictures or something. Hope you guys enjoy as the development of the team gets interesting as they fight back from that finals loss and go into year 3......

[Sir Robbie]

It's an interestingly different way of doing a dynasty. The only thing I'd say is that if this is based more on player development (stats) then maybe you could post more player stats - such as season averages.

[VlaDiv]

good idea. Unfortunately the game does not keep stats past last season and I'm in season 6 already so I've lost a few. I think Baron Davis averaed 23 ppg and 10 apg in the first year and made all-nba.

But I've been following Ike Diogu in particular with the development of his stats. I'll fast forward you a little bit.

05 15.8 ppg 8.7 rpg 1.18 bpg
06 17.9 ppg 8.8 rpg 1.41 bpg
07 19.0 ppg 8.9 rpg 1.60 bpg (all-star)
08 19.8 ppg 9.0 rpg 1.61 bpg (all-star)
09 19.7 ppg 9.8 rpg 1.75 bpg (all-star)

[Mikki]

I thought this dynasty would start during the 25th year.

[VlaDiv]

2007 Off-season

Who stays, who goes? That's the name of the game.

Warriors cut C Adonal Foyle and C Peja Drobjnak

Foyle had some years left on his deal, but oh well. These two 32-year-olds were rated in the low 60s and not getting any better, so bye-bye and let's get some rooks.

We don't have a lottery pick this time, but it's a stronger draft.

we grabbed a guy named SHIELDS with our first rounder. He's a big bruising PF who should be decent right away. In the second, we gambled on Fred Walton, a short SG.
In live 06, it seems there are a lot of 6"1 SG and 24 year old rookies. Interesting.

[VlaDiv]

I thought this dynasty would start during the 25th year.

That would be different. But wouldn't the characters just seem anonymous faceless madeup nothings? haha.

[VlaDiv]

Current Development Spread

---------05 06 07
Spr70 73 73 71
Che71 61
Fis74 70 70 68
Foy75 63 63
Dro75 63 63
Dav79 90 90 90
Mur80 73 74 75
Dun80 73 74 75
Ric81 86 87 88
Cab81 65 66 68
Pie82 70 71 72
Mil83 59 60 61
Dio83 71 73 76
Ell85 56
Bie86 66 67 69
---Gib82 66 66
----Pre82 62 63
------Shi84 65
------Wal86 61

The greatest increase was again Ike Diogu, now rounding out into allstar form with a 19 ppg 9 rpg type of line. the new big man, Mr. SHIELDS is putting up .95 blocks per game in very limited bench time. Impressive stuff for a guy whose name just screams DEFENSE.

Rating: 92

Age: 27 (1980.86)

Record: I'll tell you tomorrow.

[Jugs]

I like this dynasty, I love simming dynastys too. Playing gets boring for me but fun if you keep it to a limited extent or add something to it (like posting it on the forums)

[Marquis]

Keep it up VlaDiv

Do some trades

[VlaDiv]

The 07/08 season ended with a record of 19-10, securing a playoff spot for the second straight year. An injury to Baron Davis seemed to seal our fate against the clippers in the first round. Notice he is about to turn his foot over.



The players headed back to the locker room dejected, no one said a word to each other. The coach looked around at the veterans like sprewell and fisher and wondered how we could get to the top again. Would it take a trade, a rookie? The offseason shall reveal.

[VlaDiv]

I have decided that a true "story-type" would take too long. So let me just cut to the development issues I was interested in.
I am now in the 21/22 season and the original core has retired. Only Ike Diogu and Biedrins remain as older role players. I have won 4 championships in 7 trips to the finals and missed the playoffs only twice in 16 seasons.


age ----------24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
B Davis ------------90 90 90 91 91 89 88 86 83 79 76 73 70 (ret-67)
Murphy ----------73 74 75 76 77 77 77 77 77 76 74 71 (ret-68)
Dunleavy --------73 74 75 76 77 78 78 79 80 80 79 76 73 69 66 (ret-63)
Richardson --86 87 88 88 88 87 86 85 83 80 77 73 70 67 (ret-64)

All four original starters had pretty solid careers. Davis held onto a nice 91 prime in ages 29-30 before slowly falling off. He was still a freestyle superstar through age 34 and a starter through age 37. When he finally retired at 39 he was just starting to lose his place in the rotation after a 20 year career.
Murphy held onto his 77 peak for quite a while, ages 29-33. Though never a superstar, he held the starting role until his ratings slipped at 34 and when he retired at 37, which is the earliest of this group but still a good 16-year career.
Dunleavy rose for a quite while, not peaking until ages 33-34 when he held an 80 rating! Is that age realistic? Maybe for Sam Cassell! With such a late peak, dunleavy had a ways to fall before retiring finally when he was 40.
Richardson, the highflyer, was earliest to decline with his peak occuring at 26-28 and already losing his athleticism at 29. This is kind of realistic since his style is dunking while a player like dunleavy has more of a shooting game. Richardson started through age 35 before retiring at 38.
Good scouting has led to a number of young players to take the place of the 05/06 core. When I finish the 25 seasons I'll let you know it went.

[Marquis]

wow interesting development story

You could write some intersting rookies' development

[VlaDiv]

One interesting rookie development was "Brody Wales". This guy was an SF listed at 6"9 with excellent potential. He was 24 when taken #2 in the 2010 draft. He was an instant contributor who could handle the ball, pass and shoot, and shut down scorers on defense. He wasn't the greatest athelete, but you couldn't say he had any real major weaknesses. His typical stat line would be 17 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists with over a block and a steal. He was at least of the Antoine Walker/ Keith Van Horn quality SF/PF. Since we all have the same thousands of players in the CPU pool, maybe some of you guys have seen him.

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
75 77 79 80 81 82 80 79 75 72 69 66 (ret-63)

The thing is, his development wasn't excellent. He was assigned an assistant coach with an A+ on offense for many weeks in his first few seasons. Though he was certainly a good player, his height of rating came as only 82 and he never became a freestyle superstar or made an all-star team. Then his decline was rather sharp, losing 4 points at 32. He spent his last couple seasons on the end of the bench as we won back-to-back championships.

So it points to NBA Live changing some things: for one, it should say the development potential IN the draft. And while I like the randomization where his development was merely average, it should be possible to get him better faster with coaching. Also, many rookies are 24, even 25. Most real rookies are 23 at most. And they need a cyberface/picture, not the missing face.

[Shing]

This is really interesting stuff man, good reports too! I'd like to know how other rookies have done, or whether you charted rookies that were drafted from other teams.

Keep up the good work!

[bigh0rt]

Cool idea.

[VlaDiv]

A very clutch shooter and a long-term starter for the warriors was

"Aivar Edgar"
Potential: Good, Top 10 projected
6"9 SF DOB: 1991
years played: 2013-2025
2-time all-star
3-time nba champion


Edgar was as smooth as they come. He could play the SG spot as well as the PF spot. He was big, versatile and could handle the ball. Drew comparisons to Stojakovic or Nowitzki. But he also was a bit like reggie/horry as he hit a gamewinner in the nba finals to seal the 2020 championship.

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
70 73 76 79 80 80 80 80 79 78 77 76 (ret-74)

He did retire a bit early with a lot left in the tank. Well, two or three starting years at least. His rating wasn't sky high, but he could score and that made him a star.

[HonorGlow]

Man, how I wish you had the PC version...as your approach to the game is what I've been looking for in terms of stat evaluation...

...check out my Live 2004 Dynasty...I'm at Year 2021...eek...not all games were played but not all games were simmed either...AND DARKO and KWAME BROWN are still around!

[VlaDiv]

Yeh, I should look for the PC version once the price drops.
Darko is a monster in live 2004. Nobody knew he was going to be such a non-factor. He is the youngest guy in the game and usually jumps up to a 99 after a few years and stays there for a while. By 2021 he's probably rated a little lower, since guys drop really fast in live 2004, but probably still a key player on his team. Probably rated about 60 right?

[HonorGlow]

Yeh somewhere between 40 and 60...but definitely not 60 at 2021....LeBron James, Lampe, Darko, are still around...Tony Parker retired this last year. There's about 2 other guys but non-significant.... Match 66(Mark) is still in the game though =) DId you have Live 2004 on PC...perhaps I can put your dynasty in my environment!

[VlaDiv]

I don't have any of the PC versions.... yet.

Speaking of current guys who are still around 20 years from now, the last man standing in my dynasty is Carmelo Anthony.
In 2023/24 there was lebron and melo on rosters, so that means the 2004 and 2005 draft classes all retired prior to those two superstars. The two free agents who were "real" were s. telfair and marvin williams. In the 2024 offseason, those two FAs were gone and Lebron hung it up at 40 after 21 seasons! That's the same span Moses Malone had in 1974-95.
But Melo has stuck around, this is his late-late show:

39 40 41 42 43
78 75 72 69 ?retire?

So at 42 in the 2026-27 season he is a 23 year vet in his 24th season and still playing! He isn't a starter, but does nicely off the bench. Two years earlier, at 40, he was quite a bit better, kind of like jordan with the wizards.
Will he hang it up at seasons end? So far 43 is the upper limit I saw. Seems old enough, maybe 44 is the extreme.

[HonorGlow]

Yeh I had a customized player when I didn't know anything about 'keeping it real' who had over inflated stats and FINALLY after 19 seasons, his rating dropped from 99 to 97...Let'ssee if he can pass that age of 44 years....

...Yeh if you get the 2004 version which you can pick up pretty anywherefor 9.99 or less I'll put your dynasty in my Dynasty...provided that you've grown to be attached to your Genomes... The X treats his Live 2004 genomes like they were his own children!

[VlaDiv]

I'll bet there is a set age they have to end it at, but rating seems to have something to do with it. Sounds like your guy should last for a while though if he's a 97 after 19 years! I don't know much about putting dynasties in other players dynasties but I might pick up PC to use some of those throwback 90s rosters.

melo did end it at 43 after 24 years in the league! He outlasted the other last real guy, lebron, by 3 years.

Let's look at another solid player from my dynasty.

Grant Kovalev
7"0 Center
Dublin, Ireland
Potential: Good, late 1st, strong draft
DOB: 1990
Years played: 2013-27
accomplishments: -reached the finals six times: in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024, becoming an 3-time NBA champion in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 series.
-Was the 2019/2020 6th man award winner, getting 12 ppg and 9 rpg off the bench
- was a starter for three seasons, 2020-23

Kovalev was a pretty good offensive center. He was a bit like Ilgauskas. However, he couldn't get off the pine for most of his career because he was stuck on GREAT teams that reached the finals 6 times and the playoffs 10 times in his 14 seasons . Earlier, he was playing behind Andris Biedrins and Ike Diogu. For a brief period between the aging of Biedrins and the development of a young center named Orekhov, he started. But later on, Big Bill Orekhov took over his starting role until retirement.

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
67 69 70 72 74 75 75 76 75 74 73 71 70 67 (ret-63)

Pretty even-sided career, 14 years with a peak at 30, exactly halfway through the career. And his first and last active rating was 67. He put up 17 ppg, 10 rpg and 2 blocks when he was starting at his peak rating of 76.