What if? SLN had an expansion draft
What if? SLN had an expansion draft
One of the most fun parts of the NBA 2K series (or really any sports video game that fits that criteria) is being able to add an expansion team and try to put together a not-totally-ass roster from scratch. I'm bored so I am going to put together a hypothetical 30th team for SLN. The New Orleans Peli-Sims?
The way the NBA expansion draft works is basically that teams can protect up to eight players who are under contract or they are upcoming restricted free agents/have an option (no options in SLN). Players who are set to become unrestricted free agents can't be protected. Teams are also required to leave at least one player unprotected that cannot become an unrestricted free agent. Kept this basic and simple as I created the parameters.
The expansion drafting team(s) is allowed to only select one player from each team's unprotected list tops. Contracts carry over in full.
Using those criteria — and acting as if this draft was occurring going into this current season (just makes it easier to figure out who is eligible to be protected) — I went through all 29 rosters and decided which players to protect. Since this is SLN and not real life, I allowed only up to SIX protections per team, including NDL players. Not going to expound much on the reasoning behind the selections here or we'd be here forever, but here's who I chose to protect for each team.
Atlanta Hawks: Russell Westbrook, Tyreke Evans, Bradley Beal, Avery Bradley, Bismack Biyombo (RFA)
Boston Celtics: Paul George, Michael Beasley, Devin Harris, Gary Harris, Johan Petro, Larry Sanders
Charlotte Hornets: Yao Ming, Rudy Gay, Goran Dragic, Bogdan Bogdanovic
Chicago Bulls: Mike Conley, OJ Mayo, Rob Covington, Gorgui Dieng
Cleveland Cavaliers: Nerlens Noel, Zach LaVine, Harrison Barnes, Jae Crowder, Jared Sullinger, Kyle Anderson
Dallas Mavericks: Jrue Holiday, Hassan Whiteside, Rudy Fernandez, Jason Thompson, Jordan Clarkson, Michael Carter Williams
Denver Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony, Steph Curry, Monta Ellis, Kendrick Perkins, Ian Mahinmi
Detroit Pistons: Kyrie Irving (RFA), Draymond Green, Kevin Garnett, Kris Humphries, JR Smith, Jeff Teague
Golden State Warriors: Tobias Harris (RFA), Jabari Parker, Mike Muscala, Matthew Dellavedova, Spencer Dinwiddie, Rodney Hood
Houston Rockets: Eddy Curry, Blake Griffin, David Lee, Julian Wright, Al Aminu
Indiana Pacers: Jimmy Butler (RFA), Andre Drummond, Chris Bosh, Tracy McGrady, Deron Williams
Los Angeles Clippers: Boogie Cousins, Nikola Vucevic (RFA), Derrick Rose, Damion James
Los Angeles Lakers: Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, CJ McCollum
Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade, Tony Allen, Klay Thompson (RFA), Damian Lillard, Jamal Sampson, Tim Duncan
Milwaukee Bucks: Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Ersan Ilyasova, Festus Ezeli, Thabo Sefolosha
Minnesota Timberwolves: Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Eric Bledsoe, Greg Monroe, Dennis Schroder
New Jersey Nets: Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert, Kemba Walker (RFA), Tim Hardaway Jr, Robin Lopez, Otto Porter Jr
New York Knicks: Joel Embiid, Victor Oladipo, Langston Galloway, Trey Burke, Seth Curry
Orlando Magic: Julius Randle, Marcus Smart, John Henson, Anthony Bennett, Terrence Ross, Dwight Powell
Philadelphia 76ers: LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Willie Green, Spencer Hawes, Elfrid Payton
Phoenix Suns: Nikola Jokic, Greg Oden, Jeremy Lin, Shabazz Muhammad, Dewayne Dedmon
Portland Trail Blazers: Jameer Nelson, Yi Jianlian
Sacramento Kings: BOBAN, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Khris Middleton, TJ Warren, Jamal Crawford, CJ Miles
San Antonio Spurs: Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard (RFA), DeAndre Jordan, Kevin Love, PJ Tucker, Hasheem Thabeet
Seattle SuperSonics: Evan Fournier, Dion Waiters
Toronto Raptors: Shaun Livingston, Steven Adams, Aaron Gordon, Jerami Grant, Glen Rice Jr, Joe Ingles
Utah Jazz: Darko Milicic, Dahntay Jones, Marvin Williams, Davis Bertans (RFA)
Vancouver Grizzlies: Jusuf Nurkic, Clint Capela, Dante Exum, Nik Stauskas, Joe Harris, Mason Plumlee
Washington Bullets: Chris Paul, Ben McLemore, Kevin Seraphin
WHEW. Ok. That was an interesting process. I left some big contracts and older fellas unprotected. This leaves a pretty interesting player pool to pick from, of course operating under the basic cap rules, and also taking into account an impetus to win games and not immediately tank.
Would be fun to see people take a pass at this in the comments and construct their own teams. And obviously my logic in protecting players isn't the same as each GM's would be. But, here's the roster I came up with.
Starters
C Desagana Diop — $11,550,000 — Was a tough call for SAC on who to protect, like the cost controlled stability he adds even in decline
PF Al Horford — $8,942,917 — POR couldn't protect him, since he was expiring and a UFA. Would be willing to pay his next deal/risk losing him.
SF Josh Howard — $1,000,000 — Plug and play cheapo wing to fill the gaps by min/maxing contracts
SG Manu Ginobili — $26,383,134 — Need to sell tickets and I think we've taken on enough cost controlled guys, might retire soon anyway
PG Lou Williams — $18,033,290 — lol, Toronto can't protect him, idea would be give him the big deal on the next deal as cornerstone PG
Bench (7 players)
C Joakim Noah — $3,302,625 — Worth taking on to see if he re-signs cheap, reunited with Horford, great third big
C Andrew Bynum — $965,850 — Great value on this deal even though he may be hard to retain
PF Dario Saric — $1,814,828 — one of the better prospects left unprotected, can go to NDL
SF Marcus Morris — $3,115,963 — take a flyer and maybe try to re-sign him, but might get priced out if Manu doesn't retire
SF Andre Roberson — $1,950,977 — Weird fun prospect, cost controlled
SG Yaroslav Korolev — $4,455,000 — useful rotation wing at SG/SF, has re-signed cheap before
PG Ty Lawson — $3,171,840 — maybe young enough to be interesting as a backup?
So my strategy here was basically try to win now but also try and take on guys with a history of re-signing cheaply to fill in the gaps. This has me just under the hard cap. I'm assuming Manu retires which would enable the gamble here putting Horford and Lou on new deals. Tried to get some youth off the bench so there's development opportunities to grow the roster. This feels like a solid playoff team for a year, with enough talent to trade and rebuild if needed. There are so many ways you could go here though, and some other interesting players I left unprotected.
Some other unprotected names/expirings I considered building around: Al Jefferson (hard to re-sign), Pau Gasol (expensive), Brandon Jennings, Raymond Felton, Eddie Griffin, Andrew Bogut, Brandon Roy, Nic Batum, etc.
Would love to see people take these parameters and run with it/create their own expansion teams in the comments for shits! How many games would this team win? (It would be better than the current Raptors, that's for sure!) The rules themselves are challenging, and teams that had a lot of expirings and couldn't protect star-level guys would be in trouble (if we were actually able to do this we might need more broad safeguards to not totally screw teams over).
If the goal was to tank, this roster might look a lot different, but that would be boring to just take guys off the bad teams lol. Who would you actually protect for your teams if you only had six? Who can build the best team out of the available guys and constraints???
Anyway — hope this was good food for thought. Enjoy the long weekend!
The way the NBA expansion draft works is basically that teams can protect up to eight players who are under contract or they are upcoming restricted free agents/have an option (no options in SLN). Players who are set to become unrestricted free agents can't be protected. Teams are also required to leave at least one player unprotected that cannot become an unrestricted free agent. Kept this basic and simple as I created the parameters.
The expansion drafting team(s) is allowed to only select one player from each team's unprotected list tops. Contracts carry over in full.
Using those criteria — and acting as if this draft was occurring going into this current season (just makes it easier to figure out who is eligible to be protected) — I went through all 29 rosters and decided which players to protect. Since this is SLN and not real life, I allowed only up to SIX protections per team, including NDL players. Not going to expound much on the reasoning behind the selections here or we'd be here forever, but here's who I chose to protect for each team.
Atlanta Hawks: Russell Westbrook, Tyreke Evans, Bradley Beal, Avery Bradley, Bismack Biyombo (RFA)
Boston Celtics: Paul George, Michael Beasley, Devin Harris, Gary Harris, Johan Petro, Larry Sanders
Charlotte Hornets: Yao Ming, Rudy Gay, Goran Dragic, Bogdan Bogdanovic
Chicago Bulls: Mike Conley, OJ Mayo, Rob Covington, Gorgui Dieng
Cleveland Cavaliers: Nerlens Noel, Zach LaVine, Harrison Barnes, Jae Crowder, Jared Sullinger, Kyle Anderson
Dallas Mavericks: Jrue Holiday, Hassan Whiteside, Rudy Fernandez, Jason Thompson, Jordan Clarkson, Michael Carter Williams
Denver Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony, Steph Curry, Monta Ellis, Kendrick Perkins, Ian Mahinmi
Detroit Pistons: Kyrie Irving (RFA), Draymond Green, Kevin Garnett, Kris Humphries, JR Smith, Jeff Teague
Golden State Warriors: Tobias Harris (RFA), Jabari Parker, Mike Muscala, Matthew Dellavedova, Spencer Dinwiddie, Rodney Hood
Houston Rockets: Eddy Curry, Blake Griffin, David Lee, Julian Wright, Al Aminu
Indiana Pacers: Jimmy Butler (RFA), Andre Drummond, Chris Bosh, Tracy McGrady, Deron Williams
Los Angeles Clippers: Boogie Cousins, Nikola Vucevic (RFA), Derrick Rose, Damion James
Los Angeles Lakers: Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, CJ McCollum
Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade, Tony Allen, Klay Thompson (RFA), Damian Lillard, Jamal Sampson, Tim Duncan
Milwaukee Bucks: Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Ersan Ilyasova, Festus Ezeli, Thabo Sefolosha
Minnesota Timberwolves: Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Eric Bledsoe, Greg Monroe, Dennis Schroder
New Jersey Nets: Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert, Kemba Walker (RFA), Tim Hardaway Jr, Robin Lopez, Otto Porter Jr
New York Knicks: Joel Embiid, Victor Oladipo, Langston Galloway, Trey Burke, Seth Curry
Orlando Magic: Julius Randle, Marcus Smart, John Henson, Anthony Bennett, Terrence Ross, Dwight Powell
Philadelphia 76ers: LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Willie Green, Spencer Hawes, Elfrid Payton
Phoenix Suns: Nikola Jokic, Greg Oden, Jeremy Lin, Shabazz Muhammad, Dewayne Dedmon
Portland Trail Blazers: Jameer Nelson, Yi Jianlian
Sacramento Kings: BOBAN, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Khris Middleton, TJ Warren, Jamal Crawford, CJ Miles
San Antonio Spurs: Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard (RFA), DeAndre Jordan, Kevin Love, PJ Tucker, Hasheem Thabeet
Seattle SuperSonics: Evan Fournier, Dion Waiters
Toronto Raptors: Shaun Livingston, Steven Adams, Aaron Gordon, Jerami Grant, Glen Rice Jr, Joe Ingles
Utah Jazz: Darko Milicic, Dahntay Jones, Marvin Williams, Davis Bertans (RFA)
Vancouver Grizzlies: Jusuf Nurkic, Clint Capela, Dante Exum, Nik Stauskas, Joe Harris, Mason Plumlee
Washington Bullets: Chris Paul, Ben McLemore, Kevin Seraphin
WHEW. Ok. That was an interesting process. I left some big contracts and older fellas unprotected. This leaves a pretty interesting player pool to pick from, of course operating under the basic cap rules, and also taking into account an impetus to win games and not immediately tank.
Would be fun to see people take a pass at this in the comments and construct their own teams. And obviously my logic in protecting players isn't the same as each GM's would be. But, here's the roster I came up with.
Starters
C Desagana Diop — $11,550,000 — Was a tough call for SAC on who to protect, like the cost controlled stability he adds even in decline
PF Al Horford — $8,942,917 — POR couldn't protect him, since he was expiring and a UFA. Would be willing to pay his next deal/risk losing him.
SF Josh Howard — $1,000,000 — Plug and play cheapo wing to fill the gaps by min/maxing contracts
SG Manu Ginobili — $26,383,134 — Need to sell tickets and I think we've taken on enough cost controlled guys, might retire soon anyway
PG Lou Williams — $18,033,290 — lol, Toronto can't protect him, idea would be give him the big deal on the next deal as cornerstone PG
Bench (7 players)
C Joakim Noah — $3,302,625 — Worth taking on to see if he re-signs cheap, reunited with Horford, great third big
C Andrew Bynum — $965,850 — Great value on this deal even though he may be hard to retain
PF Dario Saric — $1,814,828 — one of the better prospects left unprotected, can go to NDL
SF Marcus Morris — $3,115,963 — take a flyer and maybe try to re-sign him, but might get priced out if Manu doesn't retire
SF Andre Roberson — $1,950,977 — Weird fun prospect, cost controlled
SG Yaroslav Korolev — $4,455,000 — useful rotation wing at SG/SF, has re-signed cheap before
PG Ty Lawson — $3,171,840 — maybe young enough to be interesting as a backup?
So my strategy here was basically try to win now but also try and take on guys with a history of re-signing cheaply to fill in the gaps. This has me just under the hard cap. I'm assuming Manu retires which would enable the gamble here putting Horford and Lou on new deals. Tried to get some youth off the bench so there's development opportunities to grow the roster. This feels like a solid playoff team for a year, with enough talent to trade and rebuild if needed. There are so many ways you could go here though, and some other interesting players I left unprotected.
Some other unprotected names/expirings I considered building around: Al Jefferson (hard to re-sign), Pau Gasol (expensive), Brandon Jennings, Raymond Felton, Eddie Griffin, Andrew Bogut, Brandon Roy, Nic Batum, etc.
Would love to see people take these parameters and run with it/create their own expansion teams in the comments for shits! How many games would this team win? (It would be better than the current Raptors, that's for sure!) The rules themselves are challenging, and teams that had a lot of expirings and couldn't protect star-level guys would be in trouble (if we were actually able to do this we might need more broad safeguards to not totally screw teams over).
If the goal was to tank, this roster might look a lot different, but that would be boring to just take guys off the bad teams lol. Who would you actually protect for your teams if you only had six? Who can build the best team out of the available guys and constraints???
Anyway — hope this was good food for thought. Enjoy the long weekend!
Last edited by jwoo on May 27th, 2024, 3:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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I think you take all of these really good type of players and flip them all for a bunch of picks like some of the hockey expansion teams have done. Odds of being able to build a legit contender from day 1 is low. But hey, how about them Golden Knights right
Awesome read
Reminds me of being a kid and starting at the Texans potential expansion choices for hours
Tony boselli all time cuck job!
Reminds me of being a kid and starting at the Texans potential expansion choices for hours
Tony boselli all time cuck job!
dude this was the exact madden game i was remembering having lol
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+200 PRIMO CONTENT BOOST
FINAL = 1625 RP
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