I have already talked extensively about my team, but I'm waiting on roommate to get home to go do some sh*t, so might as well talk about it some more.
Round One: 87-88 Charles Barkley - $8,690,263
a) He's my favorite player of all-time.
b) He's one of a very select few that score 60%+ from the paint, and he makes 60% of his field goals while doing it.
c) He'll get to the line a ton and, unlike Shaq, make a good many of them.
d) He gives me tons of offensive boards and a few on the other end, too.
I always go nuts trying to decide between this season, 88-89 (better on boards) and 89-90 (better fg%). I chose this one for this team for two reasons: 1) It worked last time and 2) I needed the possessions.
Round Two: 72-73 Artis Gilmore - $10,113,702
The closer the 2nd round got to me, the more I believed I could do this. 56% efg% - but that'll turn into 60%+ with KJ and running up-tempo. He doesn't actually turn the ball over that much when you look at the minutes he plays. I'll live with it, though, since he'll give me close to 20 points a game with 60% shooting. Not quite Wilt when it comes to free throws, but he'll get to the line a bit. He'll block a few shots, and oh yeah, he has 12%/28% oreb%/dreb%. He fouls a lot, and that makes it really hard to get 102% of his RL minutes, but I'll do what I can.
Round Three: 96-97 Kevin Johnson - $5,689,117
At this point, I'm debating, do I pick Reggie Miller from my old squad or KJ. I don't believe either makes it back to me, and since there are more guys like Reggie than KJ in the sim, I went KJ. Another deciding factor for me was the fact that KJ was an all-time favorite player of mine.
What's to like? 30%+ ast%. 22.6% usg%. 54%+ efg%. Gets to the line a lot and makes a high percentage there. He'll give me around 100 threes as well. And this is his best turnover season, too. Still a 16% tov%, though. His defense is below what I like to use, and he only plays 2600 minutes, but hey, he only costs $5.6 million bucks, which is definitely a concern when you've spent almost $19-million on 1st two rounds.
Round Four: 02-03 Michael Redd - $4,614,431
Redd was my 6th man on my previous team, and he was incredible. He'll start this time, though. He gives me a ton of threes, has a usage over 22.1%, a must with the rest of my starting line-up already in place (in my head, at least), and one of the lowest tov% in the history of the game (6.5%). Important when you look at Barkley, Gilmore and KJ. He doesn't get to the line as much as I'd like, and he's a little expensive for 2300 minutes, but synergizes well with the rest of my starters. He gives me decent boards (4%/13%) from the 2.
Round Five: 07-08 Jason Richardson - $5,994,052
And this is my new 6th man. Has a nice usage (26%), so whether Redd or Barkley is off the floor, he'll pick up the slack and keep me from hitting the penalty. 200+s threes at over 40% make... 52%+ efg%, low tov% (9%). Gets decent boards for a 2, has a nice 11% ast% to help KJ. Doesn't get to the line as much as Reggie, though, and was more expensive (and fouls more), so that kept me from getting the 8th man I wanted. But anybody that can do a through-the-legs dunk, I'm a fan of.
Round Six(a): 08-09 Matt Bonner - $3,338,059
This is the 2nd difference from my previous team (I used 95-96 Chuck Person). What are the differences? Well, for starters, Bonner has an even higher efg% (over 60%) and even lower tov% (6.something%). He gets as many boards on both ends (5%/16%) and fouls about the same. I lose a couple of points on defense, that's all, and almost no assists are lost. He does not, however, get to the line as much nor does he make the sheer volume of threes the rifleman did. He also plays 200 less minutes. But with J-Rich on the squad, neither of those are an issue. With him in the starting line-up, all three members of my frontcourt will shoot an efg% of 60% or higher, which I dig in clutch situations (since the sim plays your starters at the end of the game).
Round Six(b): 03-04 Charlie Ward - $2,229,468
I almost went a different way here, too, but I decided to stick with him for several reasons. Most importantly, he makes the list of my all-time favorite players. Secondly, he gives me good efg% (51%), ast% (23%) and about 100 threes. He also plays good defense and can swing 100% at SG for the excess minutes (him and KJ x 1.02 will be more than 3936, but not much more). He gets me some steals, too. He also gets me some fouls, which sucks, but at this point, can't be too picky.
This me just enough to get 5 scrubs to flesh out my line-up. That I didn't care for, as I had a particular guy in mind for my 8th man, but J-Rich costs 800k more than Reggie, so it didn't work out.
All-in-all, I have respectable on-the-floor numbers (sum of advanced stat * minute% for each player, then multiplied times five):
usage: 110.8%
efg%: 55.44% (before ast% and up-tempo applied)
oreb%: 35.07%
dreb%: 83.55%
ast%: 63.83%
stl%: 7.85%
blk%: 7.75%
defensive rating: 60.81
and here's the bad: 13.03% tov% (which means it'll actually end up being over 15%) and 19.92 fouls per 48 minutes.
Those last two numbers can mean a 7-game playoff series can go very badly for me.