[1-0] Hawks - Rise up : Hawks at Sixers

[Oskar]

This dynasty won't be much different from my previous dynasties, yet I'll try to enjoy it as much as I can myself, otherways you probably wouldn't either. As I have mostly done, once again I simulated the first year, the 05-06 one, to do roster changes and get some good names for the team from the draft. I'll play 29 games and simulate most of them, but I'll usually intervent them and play the fourth quarter. I am not going to put so much effort into recaps anymore, instead, I'll try to finish the regular season as fast as possible and put a lot of effort to the playoffs, or the next year or anything like this.

ARCHIVES

Games:

30th October, '06 - 96 Hawks : 76ers 84 (W)

News:

24th September, '05 - NBA changes the schedule system.
3rd May, '06 - Billy Knight steps down, Jamey Cusworth's the replacement.
Around the League: 'Sonics forced to move, Draft lottery.

Other:

'05-'06 season recap
Scouting report
'06 offseason recap

[Oskar]

CURRENT ROSTER

STARTING 5

Ben Wallace : Marvin Williams : Boris Diaw : Marcus Mbembe (R) : Kirk Hinrich

MAIN BENCH

Josh Childress : Troy Murphy : Tyronn Lue (C): Roshown Pierce (R)

DEEP BENCH / INACTIVE

Loren Woods : Earl Watson : Donta Smith : Lars Jovanovski (R)

TRANSACTIONS

'06 OFFSEASON

Incoming players
Ben Wallace (FA) : Earl Watson (FA) : Loren Woods (FA) : Lars Jovanovski (FA)(R) : Troy Murphy (FA)
Marcus Mbembe (Draft) : Roshown Pierce (Draft)
Kirk Hinrich (Trade)

Outgoing players
Royal Ivey (FA) : Tony Delk (FA) : Al Harrington (FA) : Michael Stewart (FA) : Jason Collier (FA)
Kevin Willis (Retirement) : Tom Gugliotta (Retirement)
Josh Smith (Trade)

[Oskar]

PLAYER AWARDS

No player has yet to receive an award.

PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS

No player has yet to achieve anything.

INDIVIDUAL GAME RECORDS

Points: 33 by Marcus Mbembe, 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
Rebounds: 11 by Ben Wallace30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
Assists: 4 by Kirk Hinrich, 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
Steals: 2 by Marcus Mbembe and Kirk Hinrich on 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
Blocks: 6 by Ben Wallace, 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
FG Made: 10 by Marcus Mbembe, 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
3Pt Made: 5 by Marcus Mbembe, 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)
FT Made: 8 by Marcus Mbembe, 30th October '06 against the 76ers (W)

PLAYOFF RUNS

The team hasn't been to playoffs yet.

RETIRED JERSEYS

[Fresh8]

Good luck with this one Oskar! I am loving the retired jersey banners

[Oskar]

NBA changes the schedule system.



Chicago, 24th September, '05 -- After the 04-05 season, many star players around the league complained about the amount of games and fatigue. It had been like this for a while until' the league noticed and in the end of the offseason full of trades, the league came up with a big decision to change a lot in the league.

From 82 games a season to 29, teams will only face eachother once and with longer breaks. Each team will face all of the teams in the league, but not play a team twice. Not only this, but the league also changed a bit of the playoffs, instead of the old 7-7-7-7 system, a 5-5-5-5 system was approved. The first team to get 3 wins - advances.

"This will make a lot of difference," said NBA's commissioner, David Stern. "In the end of the season, going to the postseason, players will not be as worn out, instead, they'll be ready for the playoffs, which will have an even bigger meaning from now on." When asked about teams losing money, Stern had an answer. "NBA ticket prices will be a little bit higher, but since everybody is ready for the game and less player will have injury problems, every game for a the fan's favourite team is like a special event. Players will give, or even, will be able to give a hundred percent of them every game, which among other factors will sell more tickets, hence the teams will still be able to make profit.

A lot of players approve the new system, yet some don't like it. "That's definitely good news, from now on, we'll all be able to rest longer.. and, uh, play better." said Rockets' Tracy McGrady. A lot of bench players complained though, being afraid of even less minutes and a chance to prove themselves, since the rested starters will take more minutes than ever.

[Oskar]

Good luck with this one Oskar! I am loving the retired jersey banners

Thank you, Sit. Haha, took those from the official Hawks page.

[Martti.]

Interesting team choice! Looking forward to more updates!

(Edu!)

[Oskar]

05-06 season recap

HAWKS' SEASON

The Atlanta Hawks didn't, as a young team, didn't manage to do much during the season. The team was practically handed to Josh Smith, but that move cost them much, since Smith, who many thought was easily the best player on the team, failed to score since all the other 4 starters managed to a lot more than him. Only thing Smith did well, was rebound, as he finished the season averaging 9.9 rebounds a game, which is rather good, compared to his 8.8 scoring average. With the teams' leader struggling and being out for 6 games thanks to a wrist injury, other young players had a chance to prove themselves. Josh Childress was one of the group and probably the best one, averaging a second-best 14.1 points to go with almost 7 rebounds and slightly over 3 assists. Al Harrington managed to do his thing without dissapointing. Tom Gugliotta, an old veteran on the team that was made the starting center for the season, finished his career with a great season, 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds, while Tyronn Lue also picked it up with 13.7 points and team high 4.4 assists, good enough to earn a contract during the offseason.

ALL-STAR WEEKEND

EASTERN ALL-STARS

PG: Allen Iverson
SG: Paul Pierce
SF: LeBron James
PF: Chris webber
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas

WESTERN ALL-STARS

PG: Steve Nash
SG: Kobe Bryant
SF: Tracy McGrady
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Yao Ming

133-128 east wins - MVP: LeBron James 24 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists

ROOKIES

PG: Deron Williams
SG: Rashard McCants
SF: Joey Graham
PF: Marvin Williams
C: Channing Frye

SOPHMORES

PG: Sebastian Telfair
SG: Josh Childress
SF: Andre Iguodala
PF: Emeka Okafor
C: Nenad Krstic

122-94 Sophmores win - MVP: Okafor 11 points, 20 rebounds, 6 blocks

SLAM DUNK COMPETITION

Josh Smith
Jason Richardson
Nate Robinson
Andre Iguodala (winner)

3PT SHOOTOUT

Mike Miller
Ray Allen
Ben Gordon (winner)
Cuttino Mobley
Deron Williams
Rashard Lewis
Tracy McGrady
Chucky Atkins

PLAYER AWARDS

COY
Avery Johnson: W% .749 H W/L 11-4 A W/L 11-3

MVP
Paul Pierce: 28.4 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 4.2 APG

MIP
Luol Deng: 15.1 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.8 APG

ROY
Deron Williams: 21.1 APG, 3.2 RPG, 6.3 APG

6th
Kurt Thomas: 7 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.0 APG

DPOY
Ben Wallace: 6.5 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 2.26 BPG, 2.17 SPG

ALL-NBA TEAMS

All-NBA 1st team:

C: Yao Ming
PF: Jermaine O'Neal
SF: Paul Pierce
SG: Kobe Bryant
PG: Steve Nash

All-NBA 2nd team:

C: Brad Miller
PF: Chris Webber
SF: LeBron James
SG: Ray Allen
PG: Allen Iverson

All-Defensive team 1:

C: Ben Wallace
PF: Kevin Garnett
SF: Andrei Kirilenko
SG: Kobe Bryant
PG: Mike Bibby

All-Defensive team 2:

C: Marcus Camby
PF: Chris Webber
SF: Andre Iguodala
SG: Joe Johnson
PG: Allen Iverson

All-Rookie team 1:

PG: Deron Williams
C: Andrew Bogut
PG: Chris Paul
C: Channing Frye
C: Andrew Bynum

All-Rookie team 2:

SG: Rashad McCants
PG: Raymond Felton
PG: Nate Robinson
PF: Marvin Williams
SF: Joey Graham

FINALS

Vince Carter, Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson carried the Nets to the finals winning the eastern conference finals, beating Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers 3-2 and went on to win much easier finals, sweeping the Phoenix Suns 3-0.

[Oskar]

Interesting team choice! Looking forward to more updates!

(Edu!)

I chose the Hawks 'cause I want to have a medicore or even bad team that needs a lot of work, since Hawks only had like 1 good player in Josh Smith, it was a good choice for me. Even better, they had a lot of cap space and since Josh Smith didn't do anything good during my first season, he's not going to be a franchise player, so the one for the Hawks is coming from somewhere else, draft, FA signing, deep bench or something along those lines. You'll see it yourself, just keep following.

Appreciate it, btw.

[kibaxx7]

Wow the Nets NBA Champions Good luck Oskar!

[Fresh8]

You need a star player!

[Oskar]

Wow the Nets NBA Champions Good luck Oskar!

Well, Vince, Kidd and RJ together make a quite good team. When I saw the Nets win it all, I really hoped Kidd would get the Finals MVP award, but a good performance by VC.

You need a star player!

I'll definitely get one.

[Oskar]

Billy Knight steps down, Jamey Cusworth's the replacement.



Atlanta, 3rd May, '06 -- After another unsuccesful season by the Hawks, the general manager, Billy Knight, decided to step down thanks to many reasons, one of them being the incident with the team owners about coach Mike Woodson. This didn't help Knight at all, instead, it only made the situation worse and led to this, Billy Knight stepping down.

Knight's idea was to make Josh Smith the captain of the team, coach Woodson did exactly that. After a horrid season by Josh Smith, Billy Knight put all the blame on the coach and not taking any of it on himself.

After Knight stepped down, the Hawks found a replacement quite quickly - Jamey Cusworth. Cusworth was hired as a scout in the beginning of the 05-06 season and did quite well, scouting the rookies, helping with offseason plans and so on, which led to thoughts about Cusworth being the assistant for Knight during the 06-07 season, but since everything didn't go as planned, Jamey Cusworth got the nod for the position.

"I've got some plans for the offseason, " said the 33 year old Cusworth, when asked about his new job. "The best thing is - I know all the major rookie candidates myself, I've talked to them, seen their games, know their personalities, everything, hence we'll definitely get a good rookie from this years draft."

[Oskar]

SCOUTING REPORT

Kofi Hawkins - C, 7'0", 248 lbs, 24 years old - projected 2nd

A strong and tall center who can absolutely dominate the paint. Excellent inside scorer with a lot of
different post moves along with the strength and dunking ability. Terrific rebounder with quick and
long hands. Good defensive awarness. Can shoot a good percentage from the FT line. Can also play
outside of the paint, making mid-range step-back jumpers or simply catch and shoot.

Can get tired and can't stay on the court for too long. Can't pass or dribble at all. Needs to bulk up
and add some extra weight.

Marcus Mbembe - SG, 6'3", 228 lbs, 23 years old - projected 1st

An extremely gifted athlete with the ability to jump out of the building. Thunderous dunks and
acrobatic layups make him fan favorite everywhere he goes. Can get a lot of steals. Good offensive
awarness. can hit long range bombs, especially during the final minutes of the ball game. Can play a
lot of minutes. An ironman, rarely misses games despite playing out of control. A strong body that
helps him getting to the rim at will.

Thinks about himself first, then team. Might not be too passive as he likes to shoot a lot, despite
not being a really good shooter. Gets a few steals, but gambles on defense and often leaves his team
with 4 defenders.

Mario Hammonds - SG, 6'5", 231 lbs, 24 years old - projected 3rd

A great offensive player with a lot of different moves. Excellent dribbling ability. Can shoot from
just about everywhere on the court, except from the FT line. Terrific inside scorer with the ability
to get to the paint at will. Good court vision and passing ability. Smart defensive player who never
gambles. Can stay on the court for long time.

Not going to work on his game a lot. Might be a lockerroom cancer. Shoot first, pass second type
player, despite having a great passing ability. Not a fast, neither quick player. Not going to pass the
ball during the clutch, instead, forces all the shots.

Soulis Lindquist - PF, 7'0", 276 lbs, 23 years old - projected 4th

A very good player with great fundamentals. Great size along with the skills makes him a good rebounder.
A good shooter for his size. Really strong body. Great all-around game, from dribbling to defending, from
defending to passing. A hard-worker who spends a lot of time in the gym.

Not the most interesting player to watch. Not exactly slow, but not the quickest guy on the floor.
Could take down some weight. Needs to improve his FT shooting ability. Good defensive awarness, but not
a great shotblocker and won't lock down anyone.

Ben Iwanaka - PG, 6'0", 170 lbs, 22 years old - projected 10th

A fundamental point guard. Very good passing ability. A terrific shooter with great range. Good FT
shooter. Good defender. Pretty strong for his size and position. Works extremely hard to improve every
aspect of his game. Does everything to win the game without forcing anything.

Too slow to be a lockdown defender in the NBA. Could run a fastbreak, but is too slow for that. Not a
gifted athlete. Not a good rebounder, even for a guard. Not the best dribbler. Has a weak crossover and
rarely even tries to use it.

[Oskar]

Around the league


Sonics forced to leave Seattle.

The Seattle SuperSonics who have been in Seattle since 1967, when the team was found, are now forced to leave the city. The team will move to Oklahoma City and will be named "Thunder".

Read more ..

The biggest luck by Atlanta, yet the 1st place to Philadelphia

The NBA Draft lottery is done and the top three teams are the following - 76ers get the first pick, Hornets the second and Hawks, thanks to an huge luck, get the third pick.

The 76ers, who received the first round pick from Orlando during the season, got the ability to pick first. Last time when Philadelphia had the first draft pick was in 1996, just 10 years ago. That day, they used their pick on Allen Iverson, who is still with the club and led them deep into the playoffs this year, where they lost to the eventual NBA Champions, New Jersey Nets.

Hornets getting a high draft pick isn't something special, because they didn't manage to do too much during the season, being led by the rookie PG, Chris Paul, who was one of the top candidates for the rookie of the year award. Look for the Hornets to draft a big man, probably Kofi Hawkins - if available.

Differently from the Hornets, the Hawks got their 3rd draft spot by luck, huge luck. They were projected to get a pick somewhere around the 10th place, but went higher and higher, til' they ended up having the third pick. A big possibility is, that a top 3 pick in this years draft will also be the best player for the Atlanta Hawks.

Read more ..

_____________________________

If there's anything I could do better, write more interestingly or anything like that, tell me. I'll try to do it as good as I can do it for you, while keeping it good for myself.

[Oskar]

'06 offseason recap


NBA Draft

A few weeks after scouting and the draft lottery, where the 76ers got the first pick, New Orleans the second and Atlanta the third, the NBA Draft was coming. Scouts saw it as a draft without no one standing out too much more than others, instead, a very very deep draft with many of the top 10 being eventual all-star caliber players in the league.

The draft started off pretty strangely, with the Philadelphia 76ers drafting the 6'5" shooting guard from UCLA, Mario Hammonds. Everyone expected the 76ers to draft Marcus Mbembe, but the 76ers general manager later said, that they didn't want a backcourt of two undersized shooting guards, and this is exactly how it would've been with Iverson and Mbembe. Instead, they get a big, strong and athletic guard next to Iverson.

The second pick by New Orleans was a no-doubter, everyone knew they were going to pick the 7 feet behemoth from Michigan, Kofi Hawkins. None was wrong, as they did exactly as everyone knew they were going to. Hawkins said, that he's extremely happy to be with the Hornets, he loves the city and the organization, especially playing together with a pass-first point guard in Chris Paul. They're both looking forward to go side-by-side for a long time and have the team winning.

The third pick by Atlanta, was a probably the most interesting one. They had no players to build around at that point, they got the 3rd pick by huge luck and the player they would pick, would probably end up as the franchise player, unless a big free agent is signed. The Hawks didn't dissapoint their fans, picking Marcus Mbembe from Oklahoma. Mbembe, a 6'3" combo guard is happy to be in Atlanta and is looking forward to play with his new team.

In the second round, the Hawks drafted Roshown Pierce - a 6'10" PF from Congo. If Pierce is going to get some playing time in his 1st year, most of it will probably be in the center position, despite him not being too big.

Read more ..

Free Agent signing and trading period.

The FA signing wasn't too spectacular. Not too many star players left their teams to look for better offers from different teams. Despite this, there were still some that did, such as Jason Richardson, Ben Wallace, Al Harrington, Donyell Marshall to name a few.



The biggest signings were probably, when the Hawks signed Ben Wallace and Troy Murphy and the Hornets signing both, Al Harrington and Donyell Marshall to get an even better team around Chris Paul and 2nd pick, Kofi Hawkins. There were a lot of roleplayers signed aswell, but none for a big contract or something that should be pointed out.



The trading period wasn't an amazement either, with only one major trade being done, between the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks. The trade sent Josh Smith to Chicago for Kirk Hinrich. This trade will give Atlanta a young, yet experienced point guard who can shoot, make plays and defend really good. Chicago, therefore, get a young, athletic forward in Josh Smith, who fits exactly to the description of what the Bulls needed. Smith can do almost everything except for shooting, and the Bulls have enough shooting ability and range from the guards, Chris Duhon and Ben Gordon.

"Ofcourse, we're extremely happy to get Kirk Hinrich to Atlanta," said the Hawks' new GM, Jamey Cusworth. "He's a big defensive minded guard who can make plays for his teammates and he can also shoot. Tyronn Lue, who did the similar things last year, when he was playing better than many expected, earned himself a contract extension to play behind Kirk Hinrich at the point guard spot. Hinrich, Mbembe, Lue and Childress will give us a nice depth at the guard spot."

Read more ..

[Fresh8]

Nice recaps man! I'm enjoying it!

[kibaxx7]

Big Ben nice

[Mandich]

As usual things are looking great, lets hope you can make a long run with this dynasty

[Martti.]

Great signings, especially Big Ben! I like Hinrich a lot, but I wouldn't have traded Josh. Although Diaw is great with the 05-06 rosters.

[XpLosibo]

nice team, do u have flexible team cap? Too bad u dont have Al Horford, i think he's the best workhorse in atlanta.. Goodluck "Rising Up"

[Martti.]

Any updates with this?

[Oskar]

Yeah, I'll prolly just start off with game recaps soon, school almost over, will have more time. Had a lot of final tests etc in the last couple of days, yesterday I tried to do the first game, but always got mad at Live thanks to Chris Webber leaving my team to dust.

Anyways, thanks everybody, hope y'all keep following.

[Oskar]

__________

Not a special recap, sorry. If you agree, I'll prolly do a better design next time etc, that one is just ugly.

[kibaxx7]

Liking the layout Good game by Ben, Iverson didn't play well.