Authors Introduction
To begin with, I'm doing this for the first time. And also, apologies since the dynasty has been underway for thirty games already, but I just recently returned to these forums and figured it will be interesting to -broadcast- my dynasty's progress.
I use default rosters for the game with my own sliders. Focus is not on hardcore realism and I tweak settings when I see my team doing better in certain team stats compared to some other team average in the league, and I don't believe my team has players who could really push such an effort (like reducing Blocking slider if my team blocks are too high in average, yet I don't have good blockers in team).
Also, I recently created Jeffrey Jordan, Michael Jordans son, in game and signed him into my team. While it's obvious no one would sign Jeffrey nowadays in real NBA, I just liked the what-if touch of it. He's rated merely 64 though, higher than in real life but low enough to be among lowest rated players in my team. Since this is fictional dynasty in the first place, I liked to spice it up a little while trying to stay within realism without losing fun.
I'm playing 7 minutes per quarter with Computer simulated for 12 minutes (which makes my teams average points per game similar to that of simulated games). This might improve later on when I might try and play longer offence.
Anyways, any sort of critique, input or support would be welcome since I'm bound to make mistakes. I'm also interested in what people would like to read about more.
-Chris
CHICAGO BULLS DYNASTY
OVERVIEW AND RECAP OF EVENTS SO FAR
Chicago Bulls management hired a new general manager Chris Waher at the end of last season in hopes to build a championship worthy dynasty in upcoming years. While the negotiations and details of the contract and agreements are unknown. What's been published before in media is that the focus for Waher is to build a team that brings together young yet experienced players who could study the aspect of teamwork this year in hopes to find success in team talent instead of individual talent.
From 2006 NBA Draft, Chicago Bulls picked Adam Morrison. It became quickly obvious that Waher's focus will be on building a team that has constant jump-shot threat all across the floor, as Morrison joined Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni as prominent backcourt support. The Bulls also received Harold Armstrong from the draft, as well as signed Tskitishvili from the free agents.
Waher arranged private meetings with most players of the Bulls to discuss his plans and what he expects from them. After Ben Wallace was signed, many wondered about the probable concerns over the veterans age. While considered by many still as one of the best defensive players, Bulls was already known as a good defensive team and the invested money was believed to be wasted. Waher commented the situation by saying that even though Ben is a player who will not be on top of the league in few years, he still is a player with valuable defence, physically and mentally, and is in many ways a morale figure in the team "being able to inspire next generation of Bulls defence".
However such dreams and hope set by Waher for the fans of windy city's basketball team came crushingly down as the season finally took off.
NOVEMBER - The Test
Chicago Bulls lost the opening game to reigning champions Miami Heat. This of course did not worry many of the fans who knew that it will take some time until Bulls will be able to find chemistry with new additions in their team. Many even found great hope in the situation, as Adam Morrison who came off the bench in game finished with 24 points in his debut in the league.
But things got much worse very quickly. Morrisons great game was merely a sparkle that soon disappeared, as Chicago Bulls lost the next five games. Losses against Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers were especially terrible. Cleveland broke Bulls spirit in thirty five points with LeBron James scoring forty points.
The Bulls managed to gather themselves in Dallas, by winning the Mavericks with fifteen points 100-85. Nevertheless this was not hope to many of the Bulls fans since Mavericks star player Dirk Nowitzki was injured in the first week of the league.
The terrible perfomance continued with loss against Rockets where great perfomance by Yao and McGrady led their team to 110-128 victory, followed by being eaten alive by Spurs defence and then by Kobe two days later. Another loss came against Nuggets which broke the hearts of many Bulls fans since by half-time it seemed the Bulls will take the victory when they led by twenty points.
By that point, Kirk Hinrich was leading the team, and league, with most points per game. Many shrugged such perfomance off because the team was losing and was losing terribly.
Thankfully the game schedule took a change towards teams that were better to handle for the young Bulls. The two days of break were heated in the Bulls, newspapers critiqued the team, coach and manager, and coach critiqued his players. And manager critiqued his coach. And players.
It's said that Waher had a long discussion with two team leaders, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Wallace over what will happen in the following weeks. Rumours reached the papers soon after and it became known that Bulls will begin looking around the league for possible trades. Names like PJ Brown, who had performed well as a support for Ben Wallace, was under the question, along with Luol Deng who had a terrible beginning to his season, scoring merely eight points per game.
The two days of rest and player meeting benefitted the Bulls as they defeated 76ers at Philadelphia by 83-77. Bulls were unimpressive by having hard time hitting the basket, but luck was on their side since Iverson had his aim off for the night.
Then Chicago Bulls, being motivated by the win in Philadelphia, had a back to back game in New York and came up with a victory 101-88. The game itself was loose and saw the Knicks struggling as they had struggled the whole season. The Bulls finally returned home after seven games in the road and faced the Knicks again, taking another win with a game that was nearly a copy of the game three days before (with a score 101-89).
With those three wins, the Bulls had taken somewhat different direction. Ben Gordon who had struggled all season long scored 22 points per game those three games and Kirk Hinrich was trying to get the whole team involved. Players of the Month in November were Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudamire, rookies Randy Foye and Brandon Roy. The league was led, surprisingly, by Indiana Pacers who had luck in their side the whole first month.
DECEMBER I - Fulfilling the Deal Terms
The rumours took off as the second month began. Waher was said to be looking into possible trades involving PJ Brown and Luol Deng and couple of bench players. Luol Deng did not comment the issue though it was obvious in the media that he is disappointed. PJ Brown talked about it with Chicago newspapers and said that he appreciated the time he spent in Chicago but is willing to be traded without media fuss to another team if management finds it necessary. PJ Browns issue was the most heated, since Bulls players, bench and starters alike liked PJ on and off the court.
Bulls began December with two victories, one over Hornets 91-85 and another a narrow win against Celtics 91-87 in a game where Bulls took over in the final quarter coming out from behind. The next week had it's ups and downs. Bulls lost to Wizards in an ugly game 81-74, then lost large against 76ers 109-73 (a game which saw Iverson post 44 points). Bulls however broke their team-points in one game record for this season by scoring 120 points against Raptors, taking a win 120-97 and then losing to Wolves 85-82 the very next night.
Next week however was a trouble. The last time Chicago Bulls played with PJ Brown and Luol Deng in it's lineup, was against league leader Indiana Pacers. PJ made his best effort and finished his time with Bulls by scoring eighteen points and grabbing ten rebounds, a double double that Bulls fans gave a stand-up ovation for after the game. The Bulls won at home, 84-75. Two days later, it was a different team.
Chicago Bulls announced in the morning of 11th December the trade involving PJ Brown and Luol Deng who joined the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team for Kwame Brown and Vladimir Radmanovic. The trade was critiqued by many fans of the Chicago Bulls, for another shooter in the team was hardly what they needed, and while Kwame is young, fans had their doubts. Many of these doubts were eliminated, though with mixed feelings, as the refreshed Bulls lost to Supersonics at home 90-84.
The next few days saw more trades that actually created some inner team problems with the Bulls as players started to feel uncertain about their position in the team. The four-team trade resulted in Charlie Villaneuva ending up in Trail Blazers, Tskitishvili and Armstrong ending up in Atlanta Hawks and pointguard Marcus Williams and Chris Duhon ending up in Seattle Supersonics. Bulls received from this trade Ridnour from Sonics, forward Marvin Williams from Hawks and Aldridge from Trail Blazers. The Bulls pulled off another quick trade with New Jersey, trading rights to D.Wilkins from Sonics to Nachbar.
The next morning in Chicago Bulls training was a mess. Chicago had lost alot of it's players as a result of Waher feeling that the team needs to be shaken up. This was seemingly also part of the original deal between administration and team manager, as the November was considered more of a test period to see which players the Bulls needs as well as to get a clearer picture over other young talent in the league to invest in.
The team chemistry received a quick hit and many critiqued the manager for such moves. The few really positive feedback came from Lakers as Luol Deng and PJ Brown commented on liking their new team and the chance to work with Phil Jackson, as well as from Sonics who had a point guard without injury trouble as Ridnour had missed all but two games this season.
DECEMBER II - Post-Trade period
The Bulls were all around the newspapers with these risky trades and rumours were thrown around about how players feel uncomfortable in the Bulls. In the practise there had been numerous conflicts between new players and the old and Kirk Hinrich spent a good hour in a meeting with Waher in the evening. Kirk Hinrich and Waher held a press conference prior to game against Bucks in which they discussed the situation with the media.
Waher assured that this was the plan all along, and that this was one of the things he was told at the very beginning when he signed the deal with Bulls administration. The focus was to play a month and see where the team would be headed prior to trying to find suitable young players around the league to build the team with. Waher commented that it is very important for Scott Skiles to have a young team with young experienced leaders like Kirk Hinrich leading the cavalry of Bulls and experienced veteran like Ben Wallace holding back the charge of opposing teams.
It was also mentioned by Waher that the team was built around Kirk Hinrich in hopes to secure a long term deal with Kirk at the end of the season when his contract ends. Kirk however did not comment the issue of his contract and merely said that "time will tell".
The Chicago Bulls new lineup however started with a streak. The very next game against Bucks, Kirk Hinrich posted teams this seasons record in points, ending with 54 points and eleven assists to hold back charging Bucks and Redd who finished with 40 points, in a victory 104-86. While the stats imply that Bulls did not perform like a team, the truth is different. Hinrichs 54 points came from wonderful individual perfomance, however one that could not have been achieved without teamwork. Ben Wallace grabbed fifteen rebouncs and Ben Gordor pulled off eleven assists with Kirch Hinrich being at the receiving end of most of them. Hinrich himself shot more than fifty percent on the field and finished with nine three-point shots out of thirteen attempts which kept the Bulls crowd on their feet for a long time.
The Bulls next opponents were teams that obviously favored the recent trades, teams that many considered lottery bound or otherwise shaky. The Bulls won in Atlanta against Hawks 97-94, then took a win in home against former teammates Luol Deng and PJ Brown by defeating Lakers 95-103. Next weekend had two other games, one against Knicks 116-92, and another against Bobcats who, despite having signed talented Al Harrington from free agents, were not able to stop the Bulls despite Harringtons dominance in the game, 94-79. The Bulls seemed to be on a way to victory against Minnesota on 26th, however Garnetts tremendous perfomance in final minutes resulted in Wolves taking a victory 98-102.
Bulls next faced Miami Heat who had trouble with O'Neals recent injury and while Wade scored 32 points, the Heat lost 101-83.
THE END OF DECEMBER - Jeffrey Jordan
Chicago Bulls management and coaching staff held a press conference in 28th of December. Chicago Bulls signed Jeffrey Michael Jordan as a free agent. Jeffrey Jordan is, as the name implies, son of Bulls legend Michael Jordan, and while merely a point-guard in height and lacking in defence and hustle, Bulls management hopes that young Jordan has a bit of his fathers competitive spirit in him and hopes to turn him into a good player in handful years.
The press conference quickly turned into reporters Jeffrey versus Michael issue. Waher was asked if it isn't risky taking in such a young player since the league has seen many too-young players falling under stress, some even brought out the now-very-much-Bulls Kwame Brown issue. Waher replied that it is often the media that creates the pressure and not the coaching staff and management, but he also said that he believes that young Jeffrey is able to handle it.
Jeffrey Jordans name, surprisingly, was not in the headlines as "The Next Jordan?" in next mornings newspapers. This is obviously because Jeffrey is very different from his father, far from dominant in gameplay and nor is he highlight material. Newspapers also wrote about Jeffrey's training schedule and it was confirmed that Jeffrey is training actively with the team and assistants in hopes to play handful minutes per each game.
The first game as official Bull however did not see Jeffrey on the court. The game in Toronto was the first game where Jeffrey was seen on Bulls bench, yet Skiles did not give him his first minutes. The game was won with good teamwork and hilight material by Andres Nocioni who scored his season best 28 points in the game.
And thus ends the recap of the season so far.
Al Harrington signs as a Free Agent to Charlotte Bobcats
