Post by Phoenix Suns on Nov 19, 2020 18:03:03 GMT -6
The Early Years
The 2015-2016 season was marred by a cheating scandal where Crooked Kings ran two franchises at once. Horrendous trades and bad GMs forced the creation of the Trade Committee.
The 2016-2017 season featured a major controversy with the Lakers being $30m over the salary cap halfway through the season, with a final featuring a team with a $120m roster against a team with an $85m one.
This would lead to the biggest change in league history: the ban on trading salary cap space to other teams.
Salary Cap Era
The $90m soft cap became a $90m hard cap, dramatically improving the quality of the league. Features that had not worked (such as RFAs and trading expired contracts) were removed.
The 2017-2018 season was won by the Nearly-Perfect Knicks with an incredible 20-1 record in the league's first non-controversial season, as he triple crowned finishing #1 in playoffs, points, and seed.
The 2018-2019 season was won by the Suns, building on the successes of the prior season, triple crowning the season. After four seasons of dominating the league and winning half the EOTYs, Choking Pels rode off into the sunset.
The 2019-2020 season was ended by the pandemic, as Covid shut down the NBA in March. The Suns won a controversial NBA 2k playoff simulation, finished with the most points for, and led playoff FPPG projections, while the Nuggets finished with the top seed. The asterisks keep on comin'.
The 2020-2021 season was filled with an abnormally large number injuries due to the contracted season, along with covid-related absences. Nevertheless, Pelicans persisted and edged out Mavs in an incredibly close final -- a mere 2 points separated them!
The 2021-2022 was a return to normalcy, as the league featured its strongest crop of GMs in Guru history. Mavs had a 1 in 9 chance of his lotto picks getting the #1 and #2 selections, and hit on it in a historically strong draft. Mobley and Cade powered his team to the final, where Adam Silver rescinding Luka Doncic's suspension in the final game of the season clinched Dallas his first title over the Suns in an epic battle decided by a mere 19 points where Suns lineup on the last day of the season was benched due to the NBA resting its players before the playoffs.
The 2022-2023 season was the first in Guru history to feature 16 returning GMs. The Nuggets posted the first 16-0 season in history, but was taken down in the Semi-Finals by the Wizards, who then fell to the Bucks in the championship game, in a changing of the guard at the top: It was the first Finals that didn't feature the Suns, Pelicans, and Mavs facing each other since the 2017-2018 season.
The 2023-2024 season continues to feature new GMs rising to the top, with Bucks, Wizards and Bulls favorites to win the title, although veterans like Nuggets and Clippers are in the mix. Suns has re-emerged from a 1-year tank and is a dark horse to win as well. Blazers and Pelicans have entered tanks while Mavs misses the playoffs for the first time in half a decade. Spurs III joins the league and makes a splash rebuilding via trades.
