2016 Executive of the Year

[Dallas Mavericks]

2016 Executive of the Year

This year there are only three shortlisted candidates for the 2016 Basketball Guru Executive of the Year Award! Each candidate will be announced from last to first over the next few days to see who has won the most prestigious award in the league!

Introduction: Commissioner's 2016 Address to the League

The 2015/16 Season was one full of surprises, excitement and confusion. First, we started off with the reload draft where the New Orleans Pelicans selected Andre Drummond to pair with Anthony Davis, the Lakers began their full rebuild by adding Jabari Parker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and the Los Angeles Clippers made perhaps the most head-scratching selection in the draft by selecting Tony Wroten Jr. ahead of players such as Eric Bledsoe, Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas and Mike Conley. 

Then, the rookie draft. The Timberwolves selected Karl-Anthony Towns with the first overall followed by Jahlil Okafor taken by the Lakers. Perhaps the best prospect in the class, Kristaps Porzingis, was selected seventh by the Oklahoma City Thunder who subsequently traded him to the Raptors in exchange for Jonas Valanciunas.

The off-season free-agency saw a surprising turn of events as the Clippers created arguably the greatest starting five of all time with Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Blake Griffin and Jusuf Nurkic all in the prime of their career. Some questionable moves such as the Dallas Mavericks offering DeAndre Jordan $21.50m a year and LaMarcus Aldridge $16m did occur but stemmed as a result of confusion regarding the league. 

Now, I wouldn't be doing the league any favor by not highlighting the greatest transaction of all-time. The Orlando Magic made a stupendous move trading away Channing Frye for David Lee's expiring contract. 

However, some credit must also be awarded to the Los Angeles Lakers for their diligence and enthusiasm in the trade market. A team currently rebuilding has garnered some championship hope and aspirations from both it's owner and the city of Los Angeles. Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday are just few of the names the Lakers have acquired this season. 


With all of this going on it's still great to say that Basketball Guru is the best sim league around!

Executive of the Year will be announced soon!


2016 Executive of the Year

^{New Orleans Pelicans}

The 2016 Basketball Guru Executive of the Year is awarded to the New Orleans Pelicans!

It's a sign of a good GM when everyone steps back, goes "woah", and already knows who the Executive of the Year will be. However I've now decided it's the sign of a truly all-time great GM when the entire league loses its mind and threatens to quit! It's the sign of a great GM when I'm not even sure whether to hand out this award to him because I'm afraid it will tear the entire league to shreds! Please welcome to the podium everyone, the New Orleans Pelicans! Let's take a look at what this General Manager/Jedi has achieved.

All of this started  in the reload draft when the Pelicans got some luck from the Draft Gods and some guy called Andre Drummond was taken first overall in the reload draft, who they've displayed a complete dedication towards since as the centrepiece of what can easily be described a dynasty team in a dynasty league. The Pelicans traded their first round pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a trade they themselves regret making. Ryan Anderson and the 14th overall pick was traded for the often injured and degrading Kevin Martin. Never deviating from his championship aspirations throughout the season, every move he has made has been but one facet of an over-arching picture (Chandler Parsons for a first and a second) that's still somehow taking shape and becoming more impressive as the league continues. It's not just been a series of big trades but an amalgamation of big and small deals that have constantly improved his team as the Pelicans has displayed a tremendous level of skill and patience in building the contender we see today.

The Pelicans this season took that next step up and cemented themselves as contenders. Their exploitation of the roster system, despite their counters that they are only adding players to replace injured players, has made them a force to be reckoned with as they set a Basketball Guru record of seventeen (eighteen?) straight consecutive wins. They went out and made intelligent signs evitable by the signing of players like Arron Afflalo, Joe Johnson and Goran Dragic. Just like the Spurs, the Pelicans have made key regular season transactions by adding underrated and undervalued players like Nikola Jokic. 

The Pelicans made one last trade at the trade deadline by trading Jrue Holiday and a pair of second rounders for Kevin Love and even though the victor of the trade has yet to be decided, Love is putting up superior numbers when compared to Holiday in an off-year. 

The New Orleans Pelicans have ascended from a fledgling mediocre treadmill team, led by Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, into an already championship calibre squad that just replenished itself with more stunning rookie talent that will lead the team to the top of the East for a long, long time to come. Only the newly introduced Roster Limit will restrain them. Whole hearted congratulations to the New Orleans Pelicans and this year's Executive of the Year!

Original Team
Eric Gordon
Tyreke Evans
Jrue Holiday
Ryan Andreson
Anthony Davis
Quincy Pondexter
Dante Cummingham
Toney Douglas

Current Team
Tyreke Evans
Kevin Love
Anthony Davis
Andre Drummond
Joel Embiid
Chris McCullough
Thaddeus Young
Lou Williams
Arron Afflalo
Goran Dragic
Tony Parker
Chandler Parsons
Gary Harris
Ish Smith
Nikola Jokic
Zaza Pachulia
Evan Turner
Alexis Ajinca
Norris Cole 
Aron Baynes
David West

Second Place
 ^{San Antonio Spurs}

Second place in this year's Executive of the Year race is awarded to the San Antonio Spurs!

San Antonio started the 2015/16 season with a total of six players: Tony Parker, Patty Mills, Kyle Anderson, Reggie Williams, Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter. Now, only two of those players can say they were in it from the beginning: Patty Mills and Kyle Anderson.  

The San Antonio Spurs selected Giannis Antetokounmpo with the second overall pick in the reload draft and it has paid off. Giannis Antetokounmpo over his past 10 games: 19.7 pts, 9.8 rebs, 8.0 asts, 2.0 stls, 1.9 blks, while shooting 49% from the field. Giannis has solidified himself as a top 30 fantasy basketball player in this league with much improvement and success in the future. 

In the rookie draft, the Spurs selected Devin Booker with the 13th pick in the draft, after guys like Jerian Grant and Frank Kaminsky.   

The lone trade of the Spurs which was a simple center swap of Tiago Splitter for Marcin Gortat has paid dividends for the Spurs as Gortat has become a top 15 center while Splitter sits on the bench because of a season ending injury. Although the contract of Gortat is long and the Spurs have already used their amnesty on Tony Parker, their future is bright with young players and such a contract should not impede them from future success. 

Perhaps the funniest trade all season was the Spur's trade with the Indiana Pacers that consisted of an elaborately created injury provision and Indiana sending an additional $0.3m in cap space to the Spurs as a gesture of, "good faith money for future dealings." 

The reason the Spurs have been so impressive is their slow, calculated approach. Never did the Spurs pull the trigger on lateral trade moves, instead the Spurs focused on picking up prospects and late-bloomers from the free-agent pool such as T.J. McConnell, Joffrey Lauvergne, Cory Joseph and most recently DJ Augustin. 

All of this combined to give the Spurs an excellent future but nowhere more devastatingly effective (and also lucky!) than in the regular season free agent pool! The Spur's lineup got younger and even more deadly this year, he switched things up at just the right time and all the pieces fell into place for him. There's some luck there, there always is, but the Spur's masterful orchestration of a lineup in need of a fine-tuning will pay dividends until Giannis Antetokounmpo's ready to retire.

Starting Roster
Tony Parker 
Boris Diaw
Patty Mills
Reggie Williams
Kyle Anderson
Tiago Splitter

Current Team
Patty Mills
Kyle Anderson
Marcin Gortat
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Al Horford
Devin Booker
Terrence Ross
Kawhi Leonard
Paul Millsap
Alec Burks
Monta Ellis
Marc Gasol
T.J. McConnell
Joffrey Lauvergne
Cory Joseph 
DJ Augustin

Third Place

 ^{Utah Jazz}

Third place goes to the Utah Jazz!

The Jazz have quietly become a contender in the Western Conference. Through the use of exploiting the roster numbers, the Jazz hold the record for largest roster with an impressive 25-man squad set to compete in the Basketball Guru playoffs for a championship. 

With the first move of his career, hours after being inducted as GM, the Jazz drafted Evan Turner when noone else would, at #14 back in the Reload Draft, which should be noted was a slight reach, although Utah would go on to trade Turner for Isaiah Thomas. 

The Jazz made a questionable draft decision with the selection of Stanley Johnson with the sixth overall pick in the Rookie Draft. Although many players had already been taken, players such as Kristaps Porzingis, who was taken one spot after Johnson, and Justise Winslow were still available. 

Gordon Hayward spent a stint with the Jazz after what was, at the time, considered a questionable trade for the Jazz as Hayward looked to be an emerging small-forward.  Then, the Jazz decided to trade Marcin Gortat for Tiago Splitter. An impressive trade to say the least, especially when taken into consideration the fact that Gortat is guranteed for the next three seasons while Splitter's expires next season. Although Splitter will not be logging any minutes for the rest of the season, the financial flexibility the trade gave to the Jazz in both the present and future will benefit them no doubt. Continuing their pursuit of cap-clearing and roster overhauling, the Jazz traded Lou Williams, Otto Porter Jr., Raymond Felton, Arron Baynes, and Bogan Bogdanovic for Dirk and a future first rounder from the Portland TrailBlazers who's season has not been shaping up till this point. Dirk would not stay in Utah for long as he was shipped out for another first rounder from the Sacramento Kings. 

Finally, the Jazz traded away Terry Rozier for a second rounder. Although a very minor transaction, the trade looks to favor the Jazz. 

Throughout the 2016 season the Jazz didn't hastily pull the trigger on any big-value deals except to shed some cap space and acquire draft picks but the foundations are clearly in place for a perennial championship calibre team of the future. 

Starting Roster
Gordon Hayward
Derrick Favors
Alec Burks
Trevor Booker
Dante Exum
Rodney Hood
Rudy Gobert
Grant Jerrett
Bryce Cotton
Jack Cooley
Elijah Milsap

Current Roster
Evan Fournier
Derrick Favors
Dante Exum
Rodney Hood
Rudy Gobert
Isaiah Thomas
Stanley Johnson
Reggie Jackson
Robin Lopez
Tristan Thompson
Brook Lopez
PJ Tucker
Boban Marjanović
Derrick Williams 
Tyler Johnson 
Marreese Speights
Alex Len
E'Twaun Moore
Brandon Bass
Joe Johnson
Maurice Harkless
Jarrett Jack
Lance Stephenson
Bojan Bogdanović
Omer Asik

[akadyje]

#RapsForExecutiveOfTheYear #MakingBasketballGuruGreatAgain

[Dallas Mavericks]

Third Place

^{Utah Jazz}

Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:


Third place goes to the Utah Jazz!

The Jazz have quietly become a contender in the Western Conference. Through the use of exploiting the roster numbers, the Jazz hold the record for largest roster with an impressive 25-man squad set to compete in the Basketball Guru playoffs for a championship. 

With the first move of his career, hours after being inducted as GM, the Jazz drafted Evan Turner when noone else would, at #14 back in the Reload Draft, which should be noted was a slight reach, although Utah would go on to trade Turner for Isaiah Thomas. 

The Jazz made a questionable draft decision with the selection of Stanley Johnson with the sixth overall pick in the Rookie Draft. Although many players had already been taken, players such as Kristaps Porzingis, who was taken one spot after Johnson, and Justise Winslow were still available. 

Gordon Hayward spent a stint with the Jazz after what was, at the time, considered a questionable trade for the Jazz as Hayward looked to be an emerging small-forward.  Then, the Jazz decided to trade Marcin Gortat for Tiago Splitter. An impressive trade to say the least, especially when taken into consideration the fact that Gortat is guranteed for the next three seasons while Splitter's expires next season. Although Splitter will not be logging any minutes for the rest of the season, the financial flexibility the trade gave to the Jazz in both the present and future will benefit them no doubt. Continuing their pursuit of cap-clearing and roster overhauling, the Jazz traded Lou Williams, Otto Porter Jr., Raymond Felton, Arron Baynes, and Bogan Bogdanovic for Dirk and a future first rounder from the Portland TrailBlazers who's season has not been shaping up till this point. Dirk would not stay in Utah for long as he was shipped out for another first rounder from the Sacramento Kings. 

Finally, the Jazz traded away Terry Rozier for a second rounder. Although a very minor transaction, the trade looks to favor the Jazz. 

Throughout the 2016 season the Jazz didn't hastily pull the trigger on any big-value deals except to shed some cap space and acquire draft picks but the foundations are clearly in place for a perennial championship calibre team of the future. 

Starting Roster
Gordon Hayward
Derrick Favors
Alec Burks
Trevor Booker
Dante Exum
Rodney Hood
Rudy Gobert
Grant Jerrett
Bryce Cotton
Jack Cooley
Elijah Milsap

Current Roster
Evan Fournier
Derrick Favors
Dante Exum
Rodney Hood
Rudy Gobert
Isaiah Thomas
Stanley Johnson
Reggie Jackson
Robin Lopez
Tristan Thompson
Brook Lopez
PJ Tucker
Boban Marjanović
Derrick Williams 
Tyler Johnson 
Marreese Speights
Alex Len
E'Twaun Moore
Brandon Bass
Joe Johnson
Maurice Harkless
Jarrett Jack
Lance Stephenson
Bojan Bogdanović
Omer Asik

[mishof]

I accept this reward with great pride, I forgot that I turned Turner into Thomas...what a steal!

[Boston Celtics]

Mar 9, 2016 19:30:03 GMT -6 Dallas Mavericks said:

Finally, the Jazz traded away Terry Rozier for a second rounder. Although a very minor transaction, the trade looks to favor the Jazz. 

Oh, just you wait!

[Dallas Mavericks]

Second Place
^{San Antonio Spurs}

Second place in this year's Executive of the Year race is awarded to the San Antonio Spurs!

San Antonio started the 2015/16 season with a total of six players: Tony Parker, Patty Mills, Kyle Anderson, Reggie Williams, Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter. Now, only two of those players can say they were in it from the beginning: Patty Mills and Kyle Anderson.  

The San Antonio Spurs selected Giannis Antetokounmpo with the second overall pick in the reload draft and it has paid off. Giannis Antetokounmpo over his past 10 games: 19.7 pts, 9.8 rebs, 8.0 asts, 2.0 stls, 1.9 blks, while shooting 49% from the field. Giannis has solidified himself as a top 30 fantasy basketball player in this league with much improvement and success in the future. 

In the rookie draft, the Spurs selected Devin Booker with the 13th pick in the draft, after guys like Jerian Grant and Frank Kaminsky.

The lone trade of the Spurs which was a simple center swap of Tiago Splitter for Marcin Gortat has paid dividends for the Spurs as Gortat has become a top 15 center while Splitter sits on the bench because of a season ending injury. Although the contract of Gortat is long and the Spurs have already used their amnesty on Tony Parker, their future is bright with young players and such a contract should not impede them from future success.

Perhaps the funniest trade all season was the Spur's trade with the Indiana Pacers that consisted of an elaborately created injury provision and Indiana sending an additional $0.3m in cap space to the Spurs as a gesture of, "good faith money for future dealings."

The reason the Spurs have been so impressive is their slow, calculated approach. Never did the Spurs pull the trigger on lateral trade moves, instead the Spurs focused on picking up prospects and late-bloomers from the free-agent pool such as T.J. McConnell, Joffrey Lauvergne, Cory Joseph and most recently DJ Augustin.

All of this combined to give the Spurs an excellent future but nowhere more devastatingly effective (and also lucky!) than in the regular season free agent pool! The Spur's lineup got younger and even more deadly this year, he switched things up at just the right time and all the pieces fell into place for him. There's some luck there, there always is, but the Spur's masterful orchestration of a lineup in need of a fine-tuning will pay dividends until Giannis Antetokounmpo's ready to retire.

Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:

Starting Roster
Tony Parker
Boris Diaw
Patty Mills
Reggie Williams
Kyle Anderson
Tiago Splitter

Current Team
Patty Mills
Kyle Anderson
Marcin Gortat
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Al Horford
Devin Booker
Terrence Ross
Kawhi Leonard
Paul Millsap
Alec Burks
Monta Ellis
Marc Gasol
T.J. McConnell
Joffrey Lauvergne
Cory Joseph
DJ Augustin

[Dallas Mavericks]

2016 Executive of the Year

^{New Orleans Pelicans}

The 2016 Basketball Guru Executive of the Year is awarded to the New Orleans Pelicans!

It's a sign of a good GM when everyone steps back, goes "woah", and already knows who the Executive of the Year will be. However I've now decided it's the sign of a truly all-time great GM when the entire league loses its mind and threatens to quit! It's the sign of a great GM when I'm not even sure whether to hand out this award to him because I'm afraid it will tear the entire league to shreds! Please welcome to the podium everyone, the New Orleans Pelicans! Let's take a look at what this General Manager/Jedi has achieved.

All of this started  in the reload draft when the Pelicans got some luck from the Draft Gods and some guy called Andre Drummond was taken first overall in the reload draft, who they've displayed a complete dedication towards since as the centrepiece of what can easily be described a dynasty team in a dynasty league. The Pelicans traded their first round pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a trade they themselves regret making. Ryan Anderson and the 14th overall pick was traded for the often injured and degrading Kevin Martin. Never deviating from his championship aspirations throughout the season, every move he has made has been but one facet of an over-arching picture (Chandler Parsons for a first and a second) that's still somehow taking shape and becoming more impressive as the league continues. It's not just been a series of big trades but an amalgamation of big and small deals that have constantly improved his team as the Pelicans has displayed a tremendous level of skill and patience in building the contender we see today.

The Pelicans this season took that next step up and cemented themselves as contenders. Their exploitation of the roster system, despite their counters that they are only adding players to replace injured players, has made them a force to be reckoned with as they set a Basketball Guru record of seventeen (eighteen?) straight consecutive wins. They went out and made intelligent signs evitable by the signing of players like Arron Afflalo, Joe Johnson and Goran Dragic. Just like the Spurs, the Pelicans have made key regular season transactions by adding underrated and undervalued players like Nikola Jokic. 

The Pelicans made one last trade at the trade deadline by trading Jrue Holiday and a pair of second rounders for Kevin Love and even though the victor of the trade has yet to be decided, Love is putting up superior numbers when compared to Holiday in an off-year. 

The New Orleans Pelicans have ascended from a fledgling mediocre treadmill team, led by Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, into an already championship calibre squad that just replenished itself with more stunning rookie talent that will lead the team to the top of the East for a long, long time to come. Only the newly introduced Roster Limit will restrain them. Whole hearted congratulations to the New Orleans Pelicans and this year's Executive of the Year!

Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:

Original Team
Eric Gordon
Tyreke Evans
Jrue Holiday
Ryan Andreson
Anthony Davis
Quincy Pondexter
Dante Cummingham
Toney Douglas

Current Team
Tyreke Evans
Kevin Love
Anthony Davis
Andre Drummond
Joel Embiid
Chris McCullough
Thaddeus Young
Lou Williams
Arron Afflalo
Goran Dragic
Tony Parker
Chandler Parsons
Gary Harris
Ish Smith
Nikola Jokic
Zaza Pachulia
Evan Turner
Alexis Ajinca
Norris Cole 
Aron Baynes
David West

[murg]

I felt as though I can write two different acceptance speeches for this. One nice and modest, and saying how much fun the league has been, how anyone can win it come playoffs time, and talk a bit about the enjoyment of the last few months participating in this. The other would be thanking the lot of you for being bad GMs and making this award easy for me.

In a break from character, I actually really want to thank Guru, and each of you GMs that stuck fat this season and haven't left the league. Guru puts in plenty of time thinking of rules, improvements and generally keeping up with everything 15 other coaches are doing. We all have differing amounts of time that we can commit, some of us busier than others, but everyone of you still turns up talks trades, make moves. (despite the inevitable loss you will face this season (that was the last arrogant comment (of this speech, not the season))). So thank you all for making this a great fantasy league.

Some moves I have made this year haven't worked out, (ahem, Ryan Anderson, ahem) and others have exceeded all expectations (Ish Smith, Nikola Jokic, Norris Cole, Drummond, even Gary Harris). There is a lot of luck involved. But I have enjoyed this season, I enjoyed looking for potential free agents to sign during the season and hopefully I can win the title out of respect for our injured superstars of J. Jack, T. Evans, J. Noah, and J. Embiid.

Apart from that, good job by all, this league is the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning to see how my players played the night before and that is because I just really want to beat every one of you. Especially the rebuilding teams, because I know in a couple of years it will be you destroying me.

That is all from me on this subject, good luck in playoffs for those playing, good luck off season planning and attempting to stop me from going back-to-back for all 15 GMs.

[Los Angeles Lakers]

Congrats man well deserved , I know I haven't been here from the start but I have seen how much you care for your team and how much you want to win.