NC Domination [6-3] 6 Games and Way Way Way Too Many Trades

[shadowgrin]

Needs more stats/boxscores. It's been a month since you posted one. It's the only thing that brings me to this thread.

[rise]

One Year...

Yeah, it surprises me too, but it's been a full year since I started this franchise. I'll recount what has happened, for all those who have not read this from start to now. One year ago, there was no star player, in fact, nobody on the roster would have a legitimate claim of being a starter on a decent team. It was full of the 9th men, bench warmers, contenders' injured reserves, and fringe players of the NBA. Some guys, like Jared Dudley, Acie Law, and Walter Herrmann, met, exceeded, and even set high expectations. Others, like Kyle Lowry, Jerryd Bayless, and Adam Morrison wilted under suddenly high demands. The whole team struggled with inconsistency and an inability to finish close games, resulting in a 2-19 start. The team then won five of their last eleven games, but still finished next to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Things changed quickly. Jared Dudley was an All-Star in the new team's inaugural season, and as a result, won the MIP Award. As a nightly 30-point threat, the Domination knew they had something special on their hands and did their very best to keep him happy by surrounding him with talented players. With the third pick of the 2011 Draft, they picked one of the most athletic point guards in NBA history. Corey Harrington, a 6'6, 201-pound high-flyer with the play-making ability of Rajon Rondo, the defensive skill-set of Gerald Wallace, and athleticism superior to that of Derrick Rose and rivaling that of LeBron James, he was clearly the right choice. Although his scoring ability was not as good as expected, the rookie sensation became an All-Star.

However, Harrington was not the only change. Tyson Chandler and Wilson Chandler were signed that offseason to bolster the front line. Tyson may have killed the chemistry a bit with a continuing feud with DeJuan Blair, but it was clear that, as Harrington and Tyson were both All-Stars, Chandler was every bit worth the loss of Blair via trade. Aside from Blair, who went on to win a ring with the Heat that season, the Domination gave up Jerryd Bayless, Kyle Lowry, Adam Morrison, and Brandan Wright for the likes of Paul George, Gerald Henderson, and Patrick Patterson. The team made the playoffs, and beat their home state rivals, the Bobcats in the first round, before being slammed by the Celtics, with Rajon Rondo being a quadruple-double threat in several games. Nobody could doubt the fact the young team was getting better, but needed more experience.

But the team was about to get even better. The Domination picked Alexander Henderson with their 18th pick, a shooting guard with solid potential as a scorer. The team realized during training camp that Alexander was not playing up to standards and decided to boost chemistry, and traded off Wilson Chandler and Paul George to Minnesota for the fourth pick in the 2012 Draft, Alexander's brother, the Boris Diaw clone, Chris Henderson. (fun fact: Diaw was traded for Josh Smith and both have become All-Stars) The two rookies teamed with the three All-Stars on the roster (Harrington, Chandler, Dudley), and behind them was a solid bench.

The Domination's third season was a bit of a mess. They regressed slightly, despite trading an underachieving Shannon Brown for an All-Star candidate, MIP candidate, and perfect sixth man Rudy Fernandez. The team had several problems: the East became a lot stronger, minor injuries nagged players all season, and there were distractions, including a third of the team skipping practices one weekend so that Adam Morrison, Marcus Haislip, and others could record a rap album together during the All-Star weekend. Despite going 15-15, the Domination just barely held on to an eighth seed in the East, and made the playoffs. Many hints point to an interesting offseason, but more importantly, the team needs to focus on trying to beat the Heat, who will try to take them out in the first round, and have delivered the worst losses to the Domination.

--

Anyway, a few shoutouts:

Axel, Radioman/osaki, Thierry, Valdis, Mavs4Life, Cruzerr: regular readers whose association stories I enjoy following and have had an impact on my own recap style.

Sit, Andrew, Lamrock, Martti, antho (creator of the Scal & Swifty association), badreligionau, The X, hova, KidJustin, Phil89: guys who don't post much in my thread, but they all have influenced, in some way, the recap style, the events in the story, or even changes to my team (iirc I traded for Nic Batum after seeing him score 64ppg in Lamrock's fake association.)

Cleveland wins, Houndy, Porkyjoker, lefisto, megarover, puttincomputers, George7, Badger, azid, Larvae, Gamebreaker, oskar, Derrick Williams, Cream Lander, Icefox, Ch40s, MarioCH, JDRochholz: guys who posted a few times, then kind of disappeared from the thread, and in some cases, the forums. Regardless, I'm glad you guys cared enough to post here and I probably wouldn't have continued if I knew that only like three guys cared enough to post here anyway.

--

I've had a lot of fun with the Domination, I plan to continue at some point in the near future, and quite honestly, I can't wait to reveal the interesting things next season will bring.

[Cruzerr]

[Houndy]

Damn, I have some catching up to do.

[Axel The Great]

Congrats on the anniversary. This has been somewhat of a unique dynasty; expansion team starting with a bunch of scrubs and turning a few into All-Stars while acquiring some more All-Stars through trades and the draft. Not to mention Ammo's rap was the highlight of the thread.

[Gamebreaker]

Aw, thanks for the shout out, I don't think I deserved one. I read more than I reply, if that means anything.

Happy anniversary. And I hella respect a continuing franchise story where the team is struggling. You got heart, boy.

[Mavs4Life]

Good job!

[rise]

Good job!

Thanks guys.

Damn, I have some catching up to do.

No kidding, bro. Willie Lewis missed out on a lot of chances to improve his ratings. don't worry though. of all the NLSCers, yours actually progressed the best during the simmed offseasons.

Congrats on the anniversary. This has been somewhat of a unique dynasty; expansion team starting with a bunch of scrubs and turning a few into All-Stars while acquiring some more All-Stars through trades and the draft. Not to mention Ammo's rap was the highlight of the thread.

It's been more unrealistic than I expected it to be. I didn't expect to have three All-Stars, and then having a trio of All-Stars and barely making the playoffs is extra weird.
Ammo's rap was probably the most fun I've had while writing this. I thought about writing a second one, but I definitely don't have the will to do that right now.

Aw, thanks for the shout out, I don't think I deserved one. I read more than I reply, if that means anything.

Happy anniversary. And I hella respect a continuing franchise story where the team is struggling. You got heart, boy.

I gave a shoutout to everyone who has posted and showed interest. Don't worry, I'll be posting in yours as soon as the games start.
I have so much fun with J-Dud, TC, & Co. that we could go 0-30 and I'd still continue. Thanks for the kind words.

[rise]

I'll post the playoffs at some point in the next week or so. Until then, what playoff predictions do you guys have?

[Cruzerr]

All-Rookie Second team! Any kind of NLSC update coming?

[rise]

I'll post one at some point, probably after the playoffs though.

[Fresh8]

Thanks for the shoutout. You're far too kind!

[rise]

How could I not giving you a shoutout? Your story was among the first I ever looked at.

[kibaxx7]

Hey thanks for the shoutout man! I never thought I would see Jared Dudley among the scoring leaders, but you did it

[rise]

(1) Miami Heat Defeat (8) North Carolina Domination 3-1

Every game but one was a contest until the end, but the experience and sheer talent of the Miami Heat's Big Three was too much for the talented, but young, team from North Carolina. While Tyson Chandler was fantastic against DeJuan Blair and Jared Dudley scored on every defense put in front of him, the two-time-defending championship squad simply was too much for the Domination to handle.

GAME 1:

The Domination were neck-and-neck with the Heat in the first half, mainly because of Tyson Chandler's dominance. He had 14 points and 11 rebounds, to go along with three blocks, in the first half alone. His Dwight Howard-esque show did not last long, however, as he would be limited to 2 points, 5 rebounds, no blocks, and five turnovers, and fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter, after picking up just one foul in the first half. Chris Bosh pretty much abandoned Christopher Henderson and Walter Herrmann for the majority of the second half to double-team Tyson Chandler, while LeBron James seemed to guard both forward positions at once. Jared Dudley, who had been fairly quiet in the first half, scored 22 points in the second half, including four threes. Walter Herrmann also did his share, chipping in 14 for the game, along with a surprising five steals, despite playing less than half the game. Harrington and Law were non-factors on offense, but did their share trying to control Dwyane Wade, who exploded for 39 points and 11 rebounds anyway.

The Heat offense really took off in the second half. LeBron James looked fairly taken aback by Jared Dudley's suddenly tenacious defense, as LeBron saw four turnovers in the opening quarter, while Dudley had three steals. James was headed toward a painful showing, scoring just six points, two rebounds, and five assists in the first half, but those numbers jumped to 27/8/8 by the game's end. Bosh chipped in 8 points and 12 rebounds, while Jrue Holiday had a double-double of 12 points and 12 assists. The bench didn't stand out, but put up reasonable numbers, as Mario Chalmers led the Miami bench with a trio of three pointers and a pair of steals in just six minutes of action. The Heat won 114-107 in regulation. The final basket that sealed the deal was a long two by Wade.

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GAME 2:

Two words: LeBron, Wade. The highly-praised Domination defense seemed totally hopeless against the high-powered duo. Jared Dudley took 27 shots in this one, and scored the same amount of points. He shot a miserable 3-of-13 from the three-point line, while Rudy Fernandez looked totally lost, so lost in fact, he took ten shots, plus six more foul shots, and finished with two points, just two free throws in the first quarter. While Tyson Chandler played strong on the boards (16 rebounds) and on defense (3 blocks, 1 steals), he was only restricting the games of Chris Bosh and DeJuan Blair. Chris Henderson was having an off-game, as was his brother and most of the rest of the team. The Henderson brothers combined for six points, seven assists, four steals, and four rebounds. The bench was miserable as well as contributed little, if any, help at all.

D-Wade and The King simply overwhelmed the Domination, culminating in a 120-81 blowout. As if the Domination could feel any worse, the post-game interviewer mentioned that the Miami duo scored two less points than the entire NC squad, and that Bosh added another nineteen points. With Wade's 43 points and LeBron's 36, each rebounded the ball seven times, and they picked a total of eleven steals over the course of the game (Wade had seven and James had four). Holiday and Blair each dropped seven points in the game, and the entire Heat bench scored a total of eight points, not that they needed more. Even though the Heat led by 27 at the end of the third quarter, the Big Three stayed in the game, likely just to de-moralize their opponents. It definitely worked, as Jared Dudley, among others, nearly lost his cool in the locker room after the 39-point blowout.

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GAME 3:

Revenge finally came. Behind Corey Harrington's 31 points, 14 assists, and 7 steals, the Domination bounced back from their ugly loss two days prior and ended up with a 110-102 win, despite many questionable calls against North Carolina. Dudley chipped in 22 points and 9 rebounds, while Tyson Chandler went scoreless, despite his third 16-rebound performance in a row. The bench played a big role, as the Hendersons once again evaporated. Rudy Fernandez bounced back nicely from the horrible performances in games one and two and scored 14 points on perfect 5-5 shooting, including a jaw-dropping and-one dunk and a trio of threes. Acie Law was a nice spark in the late second quarter as well and helped the Domination to get to their largest lead of the night (15 points) by way of the three-point shot. The Heat could not stop the three. The Domination dropped 14 threes out of 24 attempts, while Miami was just 3-of-14.

D-Wade was nearly limited to long jumpers thanks to Corey Harrington. Harrington just had a killer game on both ends of the floor. He had seven steals, including several "did he really get that?" steals. D-Wade had four turnovers, and many more missed shots, as he went just 6-22 from the field, and finished with just 23 points, ten of these coming at the line, out of eleven attempts. Chris Bosh was Miami's hero in this, and got the Heat out of a 14-point hole in the fourth quarter and made it a six point game with under three minutes left. Bosh carried the Heat in the fourth, scoring 14 of his 18 points in the final period, aided by LeBron James, who only scored one basket in the period, but dished the rock several times, finishing the game with 16 points, 11 assists, and 4 rebounds, despite being limited by a wrist sprain he sustained in practice the previous day. The Heat still lead 2-1.

GAME 4:

The Heat eliminated the Domination in this one: a 117-107 come-from-behind win. The Domination held a double-digit lead at halftime, but they were outscored by 12 in each the third and fourth quarters. Dudley had 32 and 11 rebounds in the game, while Rudy Fernandez, Walter Herrmann, Chris Henderson, Tyson Chandler, and Corey Harrington all scored at least 10 points. Harrington's playmaking was solid, but fell apart in the second half, particularly on defense. Acie Law was an amazing spark of energy late in the first quarter, draining three outside shots in the span of two minutes, but was held scoreless for the rest of the game. Tyson Chandler had 12 rebounds this game, and finished the playoffs averaging 15.0 rebounds per game, but just 8.5 points. Jared Dudley could have been the Domination's savior in this one, but the Heat had other plans.

The Heat's hero was Dwyane Wade, who had waited quietly while Chris Bosh and LeBron James did their damage early, before doing his damage. Bosh and James scored 35 of the Heat's 46 first-half points, while Wade basically acted as a pass-first point guard. Once Bosh and James proved they had come out of the half cold, Erick Spoelstra unleashed the real Dwyane Wade. Bosh and LeBron combined for thirteen points in the second half, while Wade erupted for 19 in the third and 15 in the fourth, for a total of 34 in the second half and 37 for the game. LeBron James and Jrue Holiday picked up a ton of assists, and along with Wade, marked the first time a trio of players have recorded 12 assists and three steals apiece on the same team. More importantly, the Heat now go on to face either the 4th seeded Bobcats or the 5th seeded Cavaliers, ending the Domination's playoff run in the process.

--

The rest of the playoffs will come next, along with an NLSC update and offseason/draft previews.

[Houndy]

Ayeee dominated

[rise]

Yeah, I saw it coming. The Big 3 were fucking insane during the regular season. I'm just glad I won one game.

[rise]

Corey Harrington Diagnosed With Torn MCL

Sources have confirmed that Domination point guard Corey Harrington suffered a torn MCL in a pickup game following their first-round exit to Miami. According to Tyson Chandler, who was playing in the game, Harrington landed awkwardly on Chandler's foot after making an acrobatic layup. Harrington lost balance and tore his right MCL. Harrington is expected to undergo surgery this week and will recover enough to return to playing in about six months. Zee Otoo commented, "Injuries like that are things that you can't control. We've just got to hope the injury doesn't take too much time to recover from, and we hope to have him back in time for next season."

[kc2135]

What's the offseason plans?

[rise]

Hey thanks for the shoutout man! I never thought I would see Jared Dudley among the scoring leaders, but you did it

My goal is to get J-Dud the finals MVP, and if I can pick up a scoring title on the way, that would be great.

What's the offseason plans?

I'll post a few more things and then you'll find out.

[rise]

Hiatus again because there's no way I hell I'm posting lengthy recaps over the next few weeks anyway. Blame exams and shit.

[Axel The Great]

That sucks. I've been stuck with a shit load of homework and the usual BS life always gives. Hope to see this one back up and running soon.

[kibaxx7]

Tell me about it

[rise]

It's been about two months before I've posted any recaps; expect a few over the next few days. Maybe even one tonight.

[rise]

Rumors Leave Dark Clouds Swirling Over Domination

Many signs point to changes for the NC Domination. For example, every team no longer playing games due to elimination from the playoffs has had something to say in the trade market. However, few teams have gotten as screwed over as the NC Domination. A trade that would have sent last year's lottery pick Chris Henderson to Detroit for a lottery pick in this year's draft has caused turmoil within the team, when the trade fell through. Detroit's pick will likely be a top-three pick in the draft, while Henderson made the All-Rookie Second Team. Henderson was unable to live up to expectations in his rookie season, but all the same, it caused outrage among the players, fans, and even the coaching staff.

As a result, Henderson was visibly disappointed. "I think they've given up on me. It's a mistake they shouldn't make. I'm capable of a lot, I was a lottery pick for a reason. I may not have had a great rookie season, but if they think it's OK to trade me, then I think I am better off somewhere else." Jared Dudley, team captain, was unmistakably upset throughout his interview, but he said, "The front office has told us again as again that anyone could be dealt at anytime, lottery pick, superstar, veteran, doesn't matter, until there's a solid core that can compete for a title, we knew that anyone could be dealt. There were a lot of trade rumors surrounding all of us, and I understand Chris's frustration, but he can't say he wasn't warned about something like this happening. You can't let trade rumors distract you and keep you from playing your game. I've learned that again and again throughout my career. Even now, I know that if I re-sign, there's always that outside chance that I'll be dealt for a superstar. You just got to deal with it and learn to tune it out."

Reports say that Chris Henderson continues to be shopped by the team's front office and that his younger brother Alex Henderson is likely to move along with him in the event he is traded. Neither brother really impressed during his rookie season, however the two have tremendous chemistry with each other on and off the court. Alex was drafted just inside the top 20 last season. Both brothers started for the Domination last season, but neither made significant strides toward stardom. Both proved that they were solid, versatile role players who could contribute on both ends of the floor. Sources indicate that the two may be getting dangled together for a high lottery pick or multiple later picks in 2013's super-stacked draft. Alex Henderson took the news much better, "They're doing what's best for the franchise and I respect that. It's nerve racking to not know what part of the country you're gonna be living in next week, but that's business, and I'm OK no matter what the turnout is. Being with my brother is an added bonus though."

The Domination are clearly in a tough spot. They are shopping two guys filled with potential, but how much potential? Teams will have to gauge the Hendersons' futures accurately to avoid a major front office screw-up. A trade involving these two would be a super-high risk move considering the fact that NC wants draft picks, but the rewards could turn out great or they could be an absolute train wreck. With draft prospects being compared to Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Lamarcus Aldridge, teams would have to be awfully high on the Henderson brothers to trade a lottery pick for them.