Post by Charles on Feb 15, 2019 22:17:12 GMT
Detroit Pistons: 42-40 (.512) in 2038, now 43-18 (.705)
The Pistons have had quite a start to their 2039 campaign and it is crazy to think that the majority of their roster is the same as last years. The one major difference in their starting lineup comes in Tyler Ringgold, a player who has only put up over 15 PPG twice in his career. He's going for 20/12 every night right now on fantastic percentages and also helping Detroit on the defensive end by bringing a real shot blocking presence to the team. Last year, the Pistons only averaged 6.7 BPG, this year that total is up to 8.5. Between that and Djordje Pazin's development, it makes sense that the team would be better. Pazin is up to 24 PPG while last season he was only able to score 16. He's showing that he is at least a true #2 option in the league (if not a #1).
Philadelphia 76ers: 44-38 (.537) in 2038, now 39-19 (.672)
The 76ers lost their veteran point guard at the end of last season and he was a hell of a floor general. John Roosma won a MVP and was a multi year all-star and all-league member. That had to make going into this season difficult especially having to rely on a younger player to fill in his role. However, the 76ers upgrade massively at the SF position for just over the cost of the MLE to land Fuzzy Vandivier. They also improved their defense just like the Pistons, their team stats are up in steals, blocks and rebounds per game. When you put it all together it makes sense that they are performing at such a strong level this year.
Toronto Raptors: 14-68 (.171 in 2038), now 36-22 (.621)
I don't know how much of a surprise this should really be since they basically were tanking last season and then were able to make some big moves like acquiring Jean-Paul Beugnot mid-season for who they drafted in the offseason, Jordan Toles, John Isaacs and DJ Thomas. All these players fit in very nicely with the already solid duo of Ed Macauley and Miki Berkovich. It'll be interesting if success can be sustained on the Raptors though with the amount of expiring contracts and Toles and Thomas being 35 and 33 years old respectively. Being only committed to half the cap next year means that the Raptors could look very very different come this time again next year.
Cleveland Cavaliers: 46-36 (.561) in 2038, now 26-29 (.473)
It's kind of hard to imagine that the Cavaliers would show up on this list, especially for negative reasons but they are currently struggling and I think it's easy to see why. They have an aging roster and they lost a couple of nice bench contributors from last seasons team. Jim Pollard is one of my favorite small forwards who has never gotten much in terms of accolades but he's a good player and fit in the role perfectly for Jcog. Harlan Page is now 34 years old and his FG% has dropped 4% which might not seem like a lot but he's down from 27 MPG / 17 PPG to 26 MPG / 13 PPG which is pretty big. The majority of the team's big scorers are down in their FG%. Overall, this team is gibing up a point less per game then last year but they're scoring 7 less per. That's a huge problem.
New York Knicks: 53-29 (.646) in 2038, now 17-38 (.309)
This is a total joke right here, due to GMs being swapped multiple times this team ended up pulling in the corpse of Quentin Grimes to start for them at SG and then won 53 games. That is pretty impressive in my opinion and it really shows how great Cliff Hagan and Everett Case are. The sad part is that they are both on team friendly deals and even their big men duo were being paid nicely. Yet the Knicks couldn't put it all together for a real title run when they should have been able to. Now picking up someone like Grimes in the offseason should have been an easy request but with the new GM that failed to happen and now they're rolling out Togo Palazzi., a SF, to start. Not like it really matters because he's averaging about 9 points a game but what the actual F. The Knicks are literally so close to being a great team and with one good offseason (maybe it's this one since they're going to have a ~Top-5 pick and cap space). It's disappointing that they're on this list for the wrong reasons. If we check back next season though it would not shock me to see them back over .600 ... or right back in the bottom of the lottery if they make no acquisitions.
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