Give Me The Rock

Many of you have either heard of or played Cyberdunk - the “world’s biggest basketball MMORPG” (I’m taking their word for it since I only know of two). Both Nels and I played it for a while and I think we stopped for the same reason – the game simulator was not good. You can only take so many 160–40 wins or losses before the game seems a little silly.

Cyberdunk is in their 6th season and it’s possible they’ve had improvements to the sim (I haven’t played since the 4th season). But, that’s not why I’m here. I’ve recently started playing a new basketball game that has been seriously draining my time over the past couple weeks: Court Rivals.

I’m always hesitant to recommend stuff on GMTR, partly because I don’t want you to hate me if you think the stuff sucks, but mostly because I never get paid for my recommendations. But after getting to know the ins and outs of the game, I’m fairly confident that if you visit GMTR, you’re going to like Court Rivals.

Like Cyberdunk, you basically create and develop your own basketball player. You’re in charge of his* training and what team he plays for. There are a number of different training categories and you can mold a player in different ways based on the way you train him. And unlike Cyberdunk, the simulation seems pretty realistic. In fact, my team recently pulled off a pretty big upset, beating a higher ranked team by the score of 100-98.

On the downside, there isn’t too much to do in the game right now besides train your player and play in games. There are no contracts (you can leave a team anytime), no money system to speak of (hence no contracts), and no betting or equipment. Maybe this will change in time, I don’t know. But Court Rivals does the one thing that’s an absolutely necessity – its games are fun and competitive.

Court Rivals also has a nice perk for new players. At the end of a season, everyone’s stats are rolled back (decreased) based on a certain formula (not all the way back, but significantly), meaning that new players don’t start sooooo far behind the veterans that they can’t complete at all.

Season 2 of Court Rivals is ending in 3 days, so if you are interested, you should be able to sign up for the start of season 3. Sadly, my team – the Ripe Mature Cows – currently has a full roster. But it is extremely easy to start your own team and begin recruit players. And with the season 3 rollback, your team will be competitive right from the start. So, if you’re looking to waste even more time at your computer - check out Court Rivals.

But wait – there’s more! If you still want to know more about Court Rivals before signing up, you can read a couple interviews with Kevin Kazimir (the wizard behind the curtain) on both And One and With Malice.

* or her, I guess. Nothing is stopping you from creating a seven foot tall woman.

Points in the Paint asks if Camby is a Consolation Prize for losing Brand. Sure, Camby is not a 20 and 10 guy, but getting him for the right to switch places in the second round with a team that is not really any worse than you in 2010 only brings up thoughts of conspiracy theory in my head. I mean, are there some hot second round prospects for 2010 that are worth someone who had 9.1 points, 13.1 rebounds, 3.6 blocks, 1.1 steals, and 3.3 assists? This was like Michael Scott inking a deal with Christian over a Blooming Onion Rose.

Of course now, Patrick’s neglectfulness of Chris Kaman looks almost prescient.

IMPACTFUL!

Clippers

Theoretically, the Clippers can slide Kaman to the 4, but his rebounds and blocks are going to go down simply because Camby gets so many of those. As a result, though, Al Thornton will have to move down the old Big Board a bit. Other than that, I’m not sure who is actually left on the Clippers besides Baron Davis.

Nuggets

As for the Nugs, well, I’m not sure how they think rebuilding with Allen Iverson and Kenyon Martin on the team is somehow a good idea… but then, I’m not running an NBA franchise. Carmelo Anthony is only 24 (and has my mom’s birthday!), so they’ve got that on their side. Nene Hilario will be 26 in September - and he figures to be a big part of the team with Camby gone. I have to figure there are some other trades in the works - and the way things are going this offseason, I’m sort of holding my breath for it - but if that’s it… the man called Nene will be looking at a jump to 11 and 7 again. And he should still be eligible as an FC for Yahoo leagues.

Well, at least there’s one thing Nuggets fans can cheer about…

Unless the Nuggets managed to trade her for Meredith somewhere around the 3rd Presidente Margarita.

And for the 5 people who’ve visited from Denver in the past month: 2008-09 Audition Information.

Instead of trying to keep up with the clusterf**k of free agent signings and trades this off season, it’s much easier to let other people do the heavy lifting and then link to their work while making derogatory comments in this post about how they lack the ability to make intelligent, coherent thoughts and they’re loser hacks because of it.

Nah, I wouldn’t do that to the fantasy basketball blogging community. They’re all good people. Even the ones I don’t know. You have to be to make a conscious decision to give up your time for no pay to basically write about basketball statistics for a made up fantasy game when there are other… ahem… slightly more arousing topics available to the would-be-blogger.

So, the community has done what I could not and has stayed on top of every* trade and free agent move this summer. And, believe it or not, they’ve had some smart things to say.

I already reviewed Brand pulling a Carlos Boozer and heading to the Sixers, but Maxmillien from Sport Chit Chat chimes in on Brand and also gives a thorough review of the Toronto/Indiana trade and Corey Maggette’s move to the Warriors.

Speaking of Corey Maggette and the Warriors, it’s a great signing… for Corey Maggette’s bank account. It’s not bad for his fantasy prospects either, although I’m not sure what the Warriors were thinking with the movie. “Hey, we need to be more like the 2007 Clippers” is not something you usually hear from smart basketball teams.

Stephen at Hoops Fantasy hits us up with the good news and bad news we can expect from Maggette joining Golden State. I’d personally lean more towards the good news for fantasy purposes. Nellie Ball makes everyone better!**

Brian McKitish of ESPN reviews all the free agent signings so far in some good detail. He also makes a valid point that I neglected to mention in my post about Brand (although it was brought up in the comments by Hawthorne Wingo). Chris Kaman comes out as a big winner in the Brand signing. Not that he’s going to get any better than he was last year; it’s that the trade allows him to maintain that same level of creepy goodness.

McKitish also loves Mickael Pietrus on the Magic. McKitish loves him to the point where I was worried that he was doing something inappropriate to his body while writing about Pietrus. From the article:

Pietrus is the perfect complement to a Magic team that, first, needed a shooting guard, and second, needed a defensive presence on the perimeter. Last season, he saw meaningful minutes in only one month (March), and he responded by averaging 12.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 0.7 blocks and 1.1 3-pointers in 31.3 minutes per game.

Granted, Pietrus could be a breakout player if he slides into Orlando’s starting SG spot. McKitish is calling for Pietrus to see 35 minutes on the high end, which seems quite optimistic for a team that currently has 5 shooting guards on its roster. Pietrus isn’t quite as exciting at 25-27 minutes a game, although he still could be solid late-round sleeper material. I love you Mickael, just not that way.

The problem with sleepers is that once everyone starts calling them a sleeper, they’re likely overrated. If everything works out just right, Chris Duhon could have some legitimate fantasy value on the Knicks. “Everything” would include the Knicks finding a way to get rid of Starbury, Mike D’Antoni shunning Nate Robinson as a PG altogether, and Duhon playing up to his maximum capabilities.

Stephen Kersey of Hoops Fantasy thinks Duhon could become a 10 point, 8 assist type of player. Sure, it’s possible, but he could also remain a 6 point, 4 assist player. I think either outcome is about equally likely.

Screaming Sports discusses a whole bunch of moves and has this to say about the Bucks/Nets trade:

Look for Jefferson’s fantasy value to at least remain the same, if not go up with this trade. Jefferson will be receiving passes from Michael Redd and Mo Williams, both of whom will set him up nicely for easy baskets.

I’m not sure what’s so great about Michael Redd ‘s passes compared to Vince Carter’s, but ok, I’ll go with it.

Fantasy Basketball Daily discusses the current fantasy winners and losers of the off season. Beno Udrih? Always a winner.

Finally, via Pat’s Sixers Blog, Rotoworld sadly reports that Jamaal Tinsley’s magical mystery tour with the Indiana Pacers has come to an end. Store this in the “padding the word count with redundant words that mean the same thing as each other” file:

Jamaal Tinsley’s contract will likely be bought out by the Pacers, meaning there’s almost no chance he plays another game for the team.

* And when I say everything, I mean everything, including Brent Barry signing with the Rockets.

** Nellie ball guarantee does not apply to Austin Croshere or Chris Webber.

Well, that was a quick moment of relevance for the LA Clippers. A week after Baron Davis opted out of the final year of his contract and signed a 5 year $65 million contract with Los Angeles, Brand has walked away from his verbal agreement with the Clips and, according to the LA Times, signed a five year $82 million contract with the 76ers. This was after Brand’s agent, David Falk, said that he was opting out of the final year of his contract to “give the Clippers more payroll flexibility to strengthen the team around Brand.” The Sixers offer was apparently on par with that of LA’s, so someone – and the word on the street is that it’s Falk – really, really despises the Clippers. I mean, it’s like he can’t even stand the way the Clippers smell.

Sixers

This signing basically completes the 76ers roster for next season and leaves the Clippers in shambles, so it’s really only worth discussing the fantasy implications for the Sixers at the moment.

Brand will presumably slide into the PF spot on the Sixers and immediately become their best player (no offense, Andre Iguodala). While his legs have seen better days, he should still be able to keep up with the young guys and becomes the low post threat that the Sixers sorely lacked last year. Brand is still good enough to be a 20-10 guy (ok, maybe a 20 and 9 guy) while shooting 50% from the floor on just about any team, including this one.

Andre Miller’s scoring will certainly drop from the career high 17.1 a game he averaged last season – and back to the 13ish range that he has averaged most of his career. With Brand now fronting a lot more of the offense, Miller can focus on his PG duties, which will hopefully boost his assists back into the 8+ a game range (they fell to 6.9 last season). The trade for Brand also puts the Sixers in clear “win now” mode, which is good for Miller’s status with the team and his playing time – at the unfortunate expense of Louis Williams (we might have to console Nels - I believe he was in the running for the vice presidency of the Louis Williams fan club).

We’ll have to wait to see how much, if at all, Andre Iguodala is hurt fantasy-wise from this trade. Word on the street is that he could move to the SG position, which would allow Thaddeus Young move to his more natural SF position and Willie Green to his more natural bench position. Iguodala’s game is so well-rounded that I think he’ll be ok even if he loses a few touches on offense and a rebound a game because of the move to SG. Young will be a nice sleeper going into the year who will improve on his rookie season, as long as the minutes are there for him. And Samuel Dalembert… who the hell knows? I’d be afraid that he might regress a little bit by playing alongside a great player like Brand, but the opposite could be true.

Clippers

Does Baron Davis want a do over on this one? The poor Clippers just can’t catch a break. In additional to losing Brand, the icing on the irony cake is that Corey Maggette jetted to the Warriors on the same day. That leaves them with a starting 5 of Baron Davis, Cuttino Mobley, Tim Thomas, Al Thornton, and Chris Kaman. Not exactly a group I’d want to go into battle with.

But the Clippers offseason is far from over. Just ask Mike Dunleavy: “Now, we’ll just have to go out and find new good players.”

Wow, I never knew it was that easy. The Clippers DO have the cap space and are supposedly going to be meeting with Josh Smith and Emeka Okafor, so something good could be in store for them*. But as long as the Clippers have their current roster in place, Al Thornton really starts to shimmy his way up draft boards. To be continued…

* Although the amount of goodness exuded by Emeka Okafor is very debatable

Well, Nels has finally gone and done it. GMTR now has a Big Board, and it’s 4 times as big as Yahoo’s Big Board. If Yahoo and GMTR were male porn stars, we’d be John Holmes, snorting cocaine off the backs of truck stop toilets and turning tricks to support our habits… or… you get the point.

So, the GMTR Big Board is up and running for your browsing/critique. Nels and I each ranked players from 1 to 200+ and then averaged our rankings together to create one all-powerful super-score. Or as Nels put it, 2 become 1.

You might be wondering how this relates to fantasy basketball and 2 becoming 1. Just go with it.

The board will be updated throughout the summer and regular season. And since it’s still so early in the free agent season, expect some more clarity in the board as teams and player roles get fleshed out. Until then, enjoy our wild ass guesses on how valuable players will be, especially in the lower 100 of the board.

Over at Yahoo, they’ve started a fantasy basketball mock draft for 08-09.

Now, I was working on a Big Board of GMTR Rankings… which I guess is essentially the same as a mock draft, but still, the difference in concept of Rankings vs. Mock Draft is an Evel Knievel-like chasm.

Nevertheless… I’ve started a new spreadsheet: the GMTR Mock Draft Roundup for 2008-09. There’s only one mock draft on there (and it’s only 2 rounds deep so far), so I’m not going to share that all with you just yet. I will let Patrick post the Big Board just as soon as he’s finished up his rankings and the two become one. (Note to Patrick: Feel free to post the Big Board whenever you finish your rankings; feel free to use a picture of Victoria Beckham to embody the “two become one” concept)

And as note to anyone who might be conducting a mock draft: If you include not only the round number and pick number, but the overall pick number, that really helps me out. Not that the guys at Yahoo

The participants: Jonathan Tom, esteemed Fantasy Basketball Cafe contributor and winner of the 2007-08 Y! Friends and Family League; a Yahoo! Sports triumvirate of Brandon Funston, Matt Buser, and Matt Romig; Justin Phan, an FBC and fantasybasketball.com contributor; and David Klyce of HoopsKlyce.com (and 2006-07 F&F league champ).

are going to listen to me. But, anyone else out there, throw me a bone.

According to Drive and Dish who provides no links, but Rotowire via Yahoo also says that on July 9th, The Baron will sign with the Clippers.

Did I mention it’s The Everybody Wants a Point Guard Era?

I’ll be on vacation without internet access on the 9th (I know, poor planning), and since I leave for that vacation tomorrow, I don’t really have time to analyze right now. But, here we go anyway…

As for Davis himself, assuming that his signing is enough for the Clippers to bring back Elton Brand, I see his scoring dropping slightly. He’ll probably still be in the high teens and may even get the 20 PPG he had in 07-08. I’m hoping that with Eric Gordon backing him up on the Clippers he won’t have to play 39 minutes and can preserve his oft-injured body (before 07-08, the last time he played 82 games was in 2001-02). The Clippers offensive attack will be slower than the Run-N-Gun Warriors, but with Brand on the inside, Davis should get open three-point looks and connect on 1.5-2 per game. He’ll still be taking 5 free throws (that just seems standard for him at this point) and making only 70% of them, and if he shoots higher than 44% it will be a blessing from above, or some sort of sign that the Clippers are a team of destiny.

I had Baron at 15 on my initial Point Guard rankings, and I’d say he should still be a solid second round pick. The Point Guard this hurts is Brevin Knight, who I’d already dropped to 163 with the arrival of Eric Gordon. So, unless you’re in a league with more than 12 teams, you probably don’t need to worry about him. Everyone else on the Clippers should be more or less unaffected - we still have to see where Brand and Maggette go, though.

As for the Warriors, they’d better hope Monta Ellis can make the change from SG to PG. He is already listed as just a G on Yahoo, and he played almost 38 minutes per game last season, and the Warriors still plan to run it and gun it (as far as I know), so he should be good for his 3rd round pick status. Will he move up in the draft? Probably. I think people will see this as his opportunity to take over the Warriors. And while it certainly is that, it also increases both the defensive pressure and offensive pressure on him, and takes away a scoring threat, and means he’ll have to play with Kelenna Azubuike by his side, which - no offense - is a downgrade from Baron.

Yes, Ellis is a free agent, but Golden State will give him as much money as he wants if they’re smart. Unless they can get Gilbert Arenas, in which case, well, who knows.

Okay, that’s all I can muster right now. If you have any ideas, advice, questions, etc. go ahead and leave a comment. We’re pretty awesome at responding to comments.