Sim 1 (S28)

Swope

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For $3M, give me an early season surprise from one team in each conference and why. You may not pick your own team.
 

CLB3

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West: Nuggets

This is Scott Eatherton's league and we're just living in it. I definitely don't think the wins will continue to flow in, but they're atop the West for now


East: Bullets

Great start, but they just don't have any true star players. Dlo is close, but he's not that big time scorer you want as your lead guy. The bigs are decent and young, but no big time impact guys. I think this team needs more time develop, or a trade to land a big fish.
 

yrtb

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CLB answered the same teams I would have, so I’ll pick others to keep it interesting

East: Cavs

They have a dope core, but I thought they were still a TC or two away from the top of the East. RJ looks improved, the diffy supports the record, and June Mar is pretty damn good. Cavs might be a top 3 seed in the east this year

West: Jazz

They don’t really have bigs, but the west sucks enough that I thought Luka and Beasley would be enough to drag them to a 4 or 5 seed. They need to add a big to be better than a .500 team it looks like.
 

Hooper

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West:

Mavs. They have a +12 differential and I actually think it's going to stick. Beats memed his way to a pretty damn solid team

East:

Cavs. 12-2 but 12.5 differential isn't anything crazy in the central division these days. Needs to get to 15,16,17 to be where Bucks / Hawks / Spurs were last year. However I do think Cavs underperformed last season, so with incremental growth, I could see them being the fourth best team in the east. But would result in the 5 seed due to divisions.
 

G9.

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West:

Suns. I am technically trying to lose but I did not think we would go 1-12. I will take it, but after two full seasons of tanking and even making an FA signing this past offseason, 1-12 is kind of embarrassing.

East:

Knicks. Curry is also technically trying to lose but it is below him to just roster 12 LFAs. He held onto a couple of decent players and is still right up there contending for a top pick.
 

Swope

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WEST: Sonics

Should we really even be surprised anymore? This team has no shiny pieces but is off to a 9-2 start and just continues to collect above average talent and churn out wins. Kind of wild.

EAST: Bulls

This team has seemingly been on the verge of dying off the past few seasons with aging stars but Kawhi is having none of it. Anthony Randolph is defying Father Time and Bogdanovic has inserted himself as a huge addition to this team. 15 point diffy for now and in the mix among the top of the East
 

Panic!

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East - Bucks - They still have Kyrie and Ayton. Walden is still a decent player. Even with the AD injury, they should still have a better record.

West - Nuggets - They have Ricky Rubio and that's it. They have a guy named Scott Eatherton leading the team in scoring and stocks (steals + blocks) despite having C defense. Josh Hart was also injured for 7 games. But for some reason they have a +19 differential and an 11-3 record.
 

G9.

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West:

Suns. I am technically trying to lose but I did not think we would go 1-12. I will take it, but after two full seasons of tanking and even making an FA signing this past offseason, 1-12 is kind of embarrassing.

East:

Knicks. Curry is also technically trying to lose but it is below him to just roster 12 LFAs. He held onto a couple of decent players and is still right up there contending for a top pick.
i cant read the rules

West:

Timberwolves. 1-18 with a 30ppg legitimate top option is impressive. You would think he would have willed them to at least a few wins against the other tanking teams.
 

The Godfather

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East - Bullets... Basically the Nuggets of the East always have been always will be..

West - Sonics.. even the great Godfather scratches his head as how this team is capable of anything past .500
 

Kings

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East - Bullets are incredible. Trae finally has respectable handles and can board up nicely at SG. Russell has grown into one of the best PGs in the league. Great homegrown talent besides them, good mix of role players and youth. They’ll be competing for a while

West - Mavericks look really good. I like what Beats built out there. Good depth, good bigs and the goat Sherill
 

LukaSZN

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West: Nuggets are you fucking kidding me. The west is a sickness. Eatherton leading a first place team??? Also Jazz 23📈

East: Is going how it should go lol. None of the lotto teams are really close. Answer has to be the Bucks, whoare mid but only due to injuries so it’s a cheap answer.
 

notail

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West: Nuggets with Eatherton 24/13 with 1.7bpg is amazing but I don't know how sustainable it is. I don't imagine Nuggets maintaining their winning record. I see Spurs coming out top

East: Bucks being 9-7 is surprising given Kyrie and Ayton. Even with AD injury, I feel they should be higher than near .500. I see them getting closer to 50+ win team by the end of the season though
 

SoftLettuce

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West: Nuggets def the surprise out west. Brandon Jefferson contract is real nice. They might be able to keep somewhat close to this pace since the west isn't super stacked after Spurs/Rockets

East: Orlando probs. I assume they have had more than just the oden injury cause they're real good. Much better than that record. Once they're fully healthy I'm sure they'll be back up at the top of the east.
 

Username

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East:Bullets are surprising because they don’t really have any great bigs. Some good guard play from Dlo and Trae though. Will be interesting to see going forward.

West: Mavs are surprising especially after beats decided he was going to run inside, after trading for dame.
 

Foreman

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West: Sonics. They don't really have anyone special, just a full team of mid with good enough stats.

East: Bullets. Didn't expect as big as a step up from everyone but they've built a solid team and are very well balanced.
 

Xxplayerxx23

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It’s the nuggets lol they aren’t close to that good no shot.
East ill go cavs. They’re really good but not this good to me. I think they’ll be a 4-6 seed tbh
 

BradS4President

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East: Bullets have a good team but im not sure if their bigs will be good enough for them to contend. However, will be interesting to see if Josh makes a couple moves to improve

West: Nuggets have some decent guard play but no bigs. Very hard to see them keeping this up over the course of the season. However, Henny tends to have semi competitive teams so we will see what happens.
 

GB

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West: Nuggets. That roster blows lol. But it's the West so anything goes I guess.

East: East is tough. Kind of went as expected other than I guess the seeding in the top/middle but that was mostly due to a bunch of different injuries that happened I think. I guess I'll go with Knicks because they actually have a few ok players and tanked extremely well, which is very difficult to do it feels like most years.
 

AiRuPtHeRe™

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East - Bucks going 9-7 with a healthy Kyrie/Ayton. They lost AD but should still have won most of those games.

West - Sonics - 9-2 record. They have a random guy named Ziming Fan who I've never heard of. 16/9 for him. They have a random amount of players who just work lol.
 

brooks

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East - Bucks. They didn’t perform nearly as well as I’d expect, but Sim 1 likes to throw some curveballs out there every now and then.

west - nuggets. When you look at the record, it’s amazing. But,if you dig into their schedule, they SHOULD be playing this well. They played tanking teams for almost every single game lol. I think 5games against okay teams.
 
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