Lens On The League:

Personalities, Positioning and Pop Culture

Foreword: It’s so amazing to see the buzz building in the NSL during its inaugural season. The rookie draft brought a much-needed sense of urgency to the league’s timeline and saw trading, media content and plenty of passionate discussion compliment the 2019 rookie draft. It is so great to see the personalities of all managers become more visible in some respect. The friction of differing opinions and the passion for our teams will ensure that the NSL is an absolute joy to be a part of. Don’t ever change, any of you.

So, I couldn’t help but see similarities as to why we all love this league and format so much and why we (humans) just love movies so damn much. The escapism factor for both is undeniable. Both this league and the flicks (is it just Australian slang, ‘flicks’?) give each and every viewer a chance to be something else, to experience something; whether it be a thought of inspiration or reflection, or to face a tough question, or to open up or fill a part of yourself that maybe you closed off, or maybe didn’t even know existed. It’s a thrill; a chance to identify and solve a problem before anyone else, to change the outcome for the characters involved. That feeling of seeing the subtleties that no one else does, interpreting the visuals like no one else. We all walk away with a different message, different moments we remember.

 

Each viewing experience is entirely personal. Just like managing a team in the NSL It’s a chance to live a fantasy, to have enough skin in the game to feel like it all matters. Just like in the movies. We vicariously attach our hopes and wishes and baggage and connections to these characters and feel empathy and remorse and joy. Just because the story ‘isn’t real’, the feelings still are, and that makes the experience ‘real’. This is why the NSL is so amazing. It is reality and fantasy at the same time, and without the collective imagination of the league’s managers, it wouldn’t work. Our experiences are only as real as the feelings and memories we use to process them. And boy, are there a lot of f-3-3-lingz in the NSL.

 

“Some day, Remer, I’m gonna own a big sports bar.”

 

 

The NSL gives you a chance to be who you want to be.

 

Are you the swashbuckling hero - brandishing a sword in one hand while sliding from the topsail? Are you the calculating villain - consistently putting your opponents uncomfortably close to the edge, plotting your next scheme? The quiet achiever – whose good deeds and consistency come to fruition at the climax for the validating success? The dreamer – vividly creating a goal, persisting through adversity despite all the signs telling them to stop. Do you lay it all on the line or do you cautiously approach the situation? The possibilities are endless.


So… Who are you?

I tried to place each team/manager in a category based on the following criteria: my interpretation of their management style, their draft choices/transactions and their current teams. It is hard to quantify such a unique set of traits but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try. Each category will be described by a movie quote and the teams will be likened to movie moments. They aren’t weighted/ranked at all. No category is better or worse than any other, it’s just how I viewed the material. It’s what I took away from the show.


“I’M A COCKSMAN!” – Jeremy Grant, Wedding Crashers

 

Teams: Portland, Utah, Sacramento, Chicago, Phoenix, Toronto, Miami*

 

‘See that 80+ rated 2k vet with great awareness/athleticism?’

 

‘Might as well be a bullseye.’

 

As it stands, these are the teams that will likely contend for the title, based on form, rosters and the mangers. These are the peacocks. Think Indiana Jones with that cocky smile and

 

If the manager isn’t making it known to everyone that he’s around and he is looking for win-now players, then the team is speaking loudly enough with resounding wins. Talking smack? It might be one of these managers (jmac, jessedunne, hi there). Lurking on discord and refreshing the site, these are the guys that will actually chase you up on your trade block content, looking for any kind of 2k-advantage they can gain in the Arms Race for a title. These teams will renovate their team for no reason at all, under the hope that the new shade of paint will be the difference. They will bet it all on red, they will trade their future for a chance to make the ‘now’ the dream. Almost all teams drafted win-now players during the inaugural draft, and have since made even more moves to make the team even more potent in 2k.

 

Dunadan, Klemmelo, merencio went hard during the draft, scooping up the 30+ year old vets who fell. While they aren’t shiny new toys and make eight figures, they get wins and they are the perfect pieces for a title run. Potential might sell seats but it doesn’t win games. Jmac, jessedunne, laddas are gunslinging trades every second day in a desperate attempt to build the best team. Rarely a day passes without a hit on the trade block from one of these pesky explorers.

Pistolpk had an asterisk for a reason; there is nothing brash about him – he doesn’t trade, talk smack and draft through a unique lens, but his 2k gamesmanship is unrivalled and that makes him a big ol’ peacock.

“YOU MUSTN’T BE AFRAID TO DREAM A LITTLE BIGGER, DARLING” – Eames, Inception

 

Teams: Dallas, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Detroit, LAC, LAL, Minnesota, San Antonio, Philadelphia

 

‘If we are gonna perform inception then we need imagingation.”

Just as is Eames character in the movie, these teams could end up being one move away from contending. An actor. Which role do they play? Whether it’s changes made to the team itself or mindset adjustments, these teams have the potential to be elite teams. LJ proved that his Mavericks are already really good, but can the young team sustain? Atlanta, Brooklyn, Minnesota, Detroit all already performed better than most others during the pre-season tournament, with LAC, LAL, San Antonio and Philadelphia all looking strong on paper.

 

Which one of these GMs will be brash enough to first start looking for improvements, or is everyone content just standing pat and seeing what happens? Sometimes patience wins out but other times it’s the kid with the biggest stick. Each team has its draft assets more or less.

Breece, Andrew, greenmig, darko and nenjabin to an extent are all cautious GMs – keeping their hands very close to their chest and waiting for some real signs before concluding their next move. Willing to only move the more peripheral of their pieces. Banderson has shown a penchant for making big moves if he feels his team can’t truly compete so my money is on them to first start swinging. Sheed, if he is still around, also loves to get on the trade block and tell you who is available. Newcomer nels is a proven trader in other formats and has already been making moves that have almost pushed him to the contenders (if it weren’t for a poor tournament showing).


“JUST KEEP SWIMMING, JUST KEEP SWIMMING, JUST KEEP SWIMMING.” – Dory, Finding Nemo

Teams: Cleveland, Denver, Indiana, Memphis, Houston

‘I’d say it’s half-full.’

I look at these rosters and I can’t help but be unsure as to what their aim is for this season. The inaugural draft was a clean slate – it allowed all managers to get a fair slice of the value pie, and choose their picks out of a vast sea of potential players. Most teams got the pieces they wanted and in theory, with thirty capable managers, the value was sliced evenly, too. But value is totally subjective. These teams got what they wanted but I can’t pick which direction they are going. As it stands, are they too balanced – the win now guys with the future prospects? Can you be ‘too-balanced’ – isn’t it similar to ‘keeping your options open’?

 

This by any means isn’t a slight against the managers, because the value is there. I just feel that the combinations of pieces, as it stands, might leave teams in limbo; not good enough to genuinely make a playoff push and not poor enough to maximise their own draft picks in upcoming drafts. Spud, rootsey and to a lesser degree digeze are all proven traders, happy to entertain deals throughout the season.  Vitt keeps a close eye on the league and on the incoming rookies but seems averse to any big changes. I don’t know much about the Cleveland GM and he has arguably been quieter than anyone around the league since the inaugural draft. Who decides to put their foot all-in or all-out and shake it all about? Or do the teams continue to not look too far ahead and just see what happens? Just keep swimming!

 

“GREAT MEN ARE NOT BORN GREAT, THEY GROW GREAT” – Mario Puzo, The Godfather

 

 

Teams: New Orleans, OKC, Golden State, Washington

 

‘A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults.’

Just like Michael Corleone, the hopes of these teams rest on young shoulders, thrust into the role of leader and responsibility arguably before their time. Despite being made for the role, it still takes time for them to grow into their shoes. These are the teams who drafted with the aim of being great down-the-line. Each team have valued their pieces through the same lens; young, upside, high draft picks. Leeroy has already made arguably the biggest trade in league history by moving Kawhi Leonard to add more young talent to their young core and align the values. Wizkid drafted young, as did mailo and the Warriors. Joshua decided that Gasol didn’t fit and got rid of him. Heck, he even thought a 28-year old Vucevic was too old.

 

These GMs are sowing the seeds for 20-21 and beyond, and will enjoy the highs and forgive the lows along the way. They will be happy just waking up and gazing lustfully at their roster full of 20-something upside and upstart winning potential.


“YOU’RE WAITING FOR A TRAIN; A TRAIN THAT WILL TAKE YOU FAR AWAY. YOU KNOW WHERE YOU HOPE THE TRAIN WILL TAKE YOU, BUT YOU CAN’T KNOW FOR SURE.” – Cobbs, Inception

 

Teams: Boston, Charlotte, Orlando, Milwaukee, New York

‘Our dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake we realise things were strange.’

My preccciiioooouusssssssss! If you fell into this category, you are the stargazer. You admire the beauty and lustre and spectacle of something so big and far away. You have no urgency to do anything other than wait and stockpile assets that’s value won’t be appreciate until years later. Picking the best young players available and valuing long-term value over all else. ‘Potential’ is the name of the game, here.

And it’s really hard to do (from personal experience). Because consistently believing in a better tomorrow (future wins) means you don’t value today (wins). There is no more subjective difference than when you compare teams that want to go all-in and teams that want to invest in the future and ride the draft year after year. These assets tend to be the most valuable/as valuable as any; the young potential star. It’s still not easy getting it all to workout, as drafts always have a crapshoot element to them. However, it’s a way of life that isn’t for all GMS. These teams have a particular commitment and stamina that most others don’t.

Orlando stand out here, as they are just throwing the towel in for the season and traded off their vets as opposed to the other teams who sought out the youngest players available in the draft. They have invested in an injured Durant and bought low on him taking their team to instant contention next next season.  New York thought even Clint Capela was too old for their build and wanted to be at the bottom of the cycle for a few more seasons.

The other teams, I don’t think will be trading for much apart from draft picks. Nic froffs over Luka and co., toby froffs over Tatum and co. and badwolf gets to hoard draft picks, make great selections and make savvy trades all over again.

 

Potential > playoffs.

 

It is fascinating to look over the teams and just see how different they all are. The diversity is what makes the league great and the NSL will be at its best when we are all slightly different shades of the same colour. Good luck with all of your future moves and endeavours!