Post COVID-19 NBA Fantasy Season
- Philip Jurkovsky
- Mar 25, 2020
- 3 min read
The 2019/20 NBA season was on track to be one of the more memorable ones in history. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, this NBA season will be always be remembered for one reason — the immediate shutdown of the NBA due to the Corona-virus Pandemic.
With no games to watch or league news to discuss and debate, I decided to have a bit of fun and keep myself (and hopefully you) entertained in the meantime.
In the midst of self-isolated induced boredom, accompanied by the empty hole of despair brought upon by the NBA lock-down, I decided to create a COVID-19 Fantasy competition to provide some form of NBA fix.
League Outline
The fantasy league would see 10 teams compete against each other, with the best players and best coaches vying for the lucrative COVID-19 Championship.
The 5 top teams in both the Eastern and Western Conferences (according to current standings) have won the right to compete in the NBAC19 league.
With the help of fellow author and NBA enthusiast — Eddie Abed, we drafted 100 of the best current players to fill out the league. Eddie took control of the five Western Conference teams, and I turned General Manager for the Eastern Conference.
Every current player was entered into the greatest draft pool in NBA history, in which the 10 teams would draft 10 players to compete for their franchise.
A serpentine style draft took place, with the draft order as follows:
Pick 1: Lakers
Pick 2: Bucks
Pick 3: Clippers
Pick 4: Raptors
Pick 5: Nuggets
Pick 6: Celtics
Pick 7: Jazz
Pick 8: Heat
Pick 9: Thunder
Pick 10: Pacers
Due to self-isolation measures, we were forced to complete the draft via Face Time and Google Docs in the safety and comfort of our own homes.
There is no salary cap and no trades. It is the best of the best competing against each other.
Meet the Squads
The season will be simulated using the MyLeague game play mode on NBA 2K20. This will provide the most in depth analysis possible, with player ratings, player attributes/tendencies, team chemistry, coaching game-plans and just about everything that can effect a game to be taken into consideration.
I edited and created a new roster with the updated line-ups (which took far too long) and started up a new league, set within the 2019/20 season. Unfortunately, I couldn't delete the non-competing teams, so I emptied out any player who possessed the slightest skerrick of talent, and replaced them with G-League scrubs. This therefore meant a regular 82 game season had to go ahead, however, our 10 teams are a lock to make playoffs, where the real action will unfold.
So here are the teams!
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Starting 5
Bench
Coaching Game-plan
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
TORONTO RAPTORS
DENVER NUGGETS
BOSTON CELTICS
UTAH JAZZ
MIAMI HEAT
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
INDIANA PACERS
There will be 5 parts to the competition. I will stop the simulation after every team has played 20 games to check out the standings, to view the league leaders in stats and to review the best game during that period along with player and team stats.
I will then simulate the next 20 games, stop to review and continue this process until the season ends.
The 10 teams will then enter the playoffs to determine which fantasy lineup will take home the inaugural COVID-19 NBA Championship.
To be continued...
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