This has been massively delayed due to my work schedule, but it's finally time for the NBA Showdown 30 for 30 season's results for YEAR ONE. Without further ado, let's get into the standings, stats, and a playoff preview!!
The greatest team tournament isn't going to exclude worthy contenders simply because they didn't finish strong in the postseason -- so hold onto your hats, we've got some STRONG teams coming that didn't win it all for various reasons: injury, key player suspensions, the way the cookie crumbled, and/or running into a team with hot markers rolling straight 20s ;)
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However, I'm not going to give them equal love as the champions - fair is fair in a "greatest ever" bracket -- so these teams are going to have to earn their spots in the final bracket via a play-in tournament. But we'll get to the logistics later, let's see the teams!
So if you've been following the NBA Showdown posts on the blog, you either saw (or should see) this amazing post by Matt announcing and explaining his revamped style of NBA Showdown. As you can see in the example below, it swaps out the nebulous/often nonsensical "Speed/Power" for the straightforward and objective "Offense/Defense" methodology.
Everything else about the game is the same, but now (i) player values/ratings make more sense; (ii) give defensive players their proper value and (iii) gameplay is a simple "offensive players offense - defender's defense + roll" instead of choosing speed or power.
Hello everyone, and today is the day we are releasing the full NBA Showdown set, with a little (big) bonus at the very end for everyone to enjoy if they so choose. This was a lot of work as I said in the last post, over me battling my own thoughts before coming to a consistent method to created these cards. I had a ton of fun making the rare cards, adding a color filter on them to make them stand out a little more, and each team received at least one. I can't state this enough that the cards are based on regular season performances and stats so some players that have stepped up in the playoffs, didn't make the cut or their card just isn't that good.
Lets meet the Conference Finalists, starting in the Eastern Conference, The Milwaukee Bucks. Led by Giannis, and his two very talented teammates Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, the Bucks are a very good team in showdown terms. Multi-positional flexibility from their three stars and some decent role players, Losing Divincenzo for the playoffs was a big blow to their defense and outside shooting but the team held strong, and now look to head to the NBA Finals if they can get past the Atlanta Hawks.
With a current season set on the way, and the original based in the early 2000s, I wanted to include another generation of players. This leads to a better spread of player wealth and the 1987-88 season was a historic one for its time. While the star of Michael Jordan was shining prior, this particular season he made NBA history becoming the first player to win the league MVP, defensive player of the year and the scoring title. Also in this season John Stockton led the league in assists, which we later would find out would be the first on 9 straight years leading the league in assists. Michael Cage of the Clippers won the rebounding title over Charles Oakley by .03, one of the closest statistical margin victories in NBA history.
This project came along rather quickly and I wasn't even expecting to do something like this but, I was watching some NBA action and got the itch. During this time period there was only 23 teams in the league although 4 more would be coming in the next two seasons as in this season the NBA awarded franchises to Charlotte and Miami who would debut the following season, and Minneapolis and Orlando who would start in the 1989-90 season.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the championship over the Detroit Pistons in a seven game series. There we some iconic performances in this long series as well. Isiah Thomas scored 25 points in the third quarter of game 6, a record that still stands today. While that was impressive as is, he sustained an ankle sprain in the game prior to that, and still managed to have a 43 point effort. In game 7 "Big Game" James Worthy became the first player to record a triple double in game 7 of the NBA Finals with an impressive stat line of 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
