NBA SIMS LEAGUE
NSL Insider - Team by Team: San Antonio Spursby Dylan, updated on Thursday, December 05 2024, 07:00 am EST San Antonio Spurs TBT 2023/2024 Record: 63-19 The San Antonio Spurs were once again one of the powerhouse teams of the competition. Having won the NSL Championship twice they had already started shining the cabinet to add another trophy in 23/24. However, it wasn’t the year they had envisioned ultimately falling short in the playoffs. Season Highlight: The Spurs cruised through the regular season as they always seem to do collecting big wins on the back of the most polarising 2k player that’s graced the game since LeBron in Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Spurs lead the league in almost every defensive statistical category to bully teams to a 63-game win total, this won them the 3rd seed and once again the Spurs were on their way to the playoffs for the 4th time in 5 seasons. Season Lowlight: Being bounced out of the Playoffs by the 6th seed. Star player Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury had the Spurs in trouble after rolling through their opponents the Spurs looked to take the playoffs by storm but were ultimately cut down by an injury to their star player. Giannis would not take part of the 23/24 NSL Playoffs leaving a rather shallow outfit to attempt to win a series in hopes The Greek Freak would return for the semi-finals and steady the ship. Ultimately this wasn’t to be as the Spurs would go down in 6 games to the Houston Rockets. One could argue the downfall of the way GM Nels builds through looking for glitchy oversized players may have led to the team not being strong enough to compete against another playoff team when their star player was not available. Could they have survived the Rockets with a more balanced team build? Potentially. Either way this is where the season ended for the Spurs. Best Trade Spurs send: Nikola Vucevic who at the time of the trade was averaging 7ppg, 7rpg, Reggie Jackson, Dante Exum (injured and not playing) and Charlottes 2024 1st rounder (Pick 12). Spurs received: Khris Middleton, Dalano Banton and Indiana’s 2024 1st rounder (Pick 14) A masterclass of trading was seen here as the Spurs were able to convince a bad team that did not hold their own 1st round pick to send them their best player for an underdone (at the time) bench big man, an injured player and Reggie Jackson and barely move up the lottery odds to land Khris Middleton who is still very good in 2k and went on to average 18 points per game on 46/58/90 shooting splits. Then in the playoffs went on to average 29/5/6 on 47/48/79 shooting splits. How the Spurs seem to pull off these heists every year is a question for the 2k Gods. Worst Trade: Spurs send: James Harden Spurs received: Jrue Holiday This isn’t exactly a bad trade, the Spurs just did so little trading last year that there were no other trades to choose from other than pick swaps. They went all in on a defensive build around their star player at the expense of Harden who was showing signs of offensive regression in the NBA. I think I’d still have preferred to have Harden as a little regression doesn’t seem to matter all that much in 2k unless the player completely drops off a cliff i.e. Simmons, Westbrook Star: As spoken on already Giannis Antetokounmpo, the All NLS, All NSL Defense, 2-time NSL MVP, 1-time NSL DPOY 7-foot wing had another stellar year for the Spurs with averages of 31ppg, 11rpg, 4apg, 1.1spg, 2.4bpg on 61/31/67 splits. There were no major individual awards this season for Giannis due to an alien entering the league even though blocks aside I felt Giannis was the DPOY last season as his team lead the league in all major defensive stats. Giannis still finished the year with some reward for his work with another All NSL 1st team appearance, All NSL defense 1st team appearance and another All-Star nod to add to his impressive NSL resume.  Flop: JaVale McGee honestly wasn’t really a flop he played his role and played it at a good enough standard when Giannis was in the game with him. No one can really flop when they play with a top 5 player due to 2k raising the floor of their teammates whenever they share the court with them. McGee only gets this due to his inability to stop Jokic in round 1 of the playoffs leading to their elimination which is a harsh reason given who Jokic is, but flop must go to someone. Draft Grades: D Pick 47: Ulrich Chomche: Extremely raw athlete out of Cameroon. Biggest strength is his athleticism, he can jump out the gym on alley oops, for rebounds and to block shots. Issue is he’s never played at the NCAA level or any other high professional level in his young career. Huge risk on a player like that but at pick 47 you don’t always find a player that can stick in the league. Future: Things look rather grim for the Spurs future with an aging roster, not many picks to speak of and a shallow team that shows when they don’t have Giannis, they aren’t putting up much of a fight so unless trades are made, they are at the mercy of Giannis’s health every season. This is the cost of building a championship team through trading though assets will be thin, and you will be at the mercy of your star. |
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