1. How did you discover the game of basketball and what eventually turned you on to sim leagues?
My mom signed me up to play basketball when I was 5 years old, so we can all thank her for how much I love the sport today. To be honest though, I didn't fall in love with basketball right away. I wasn't very good, hardly ever scored points or made any particularly noteworthy plays, and the first sport I really loved and tried hard at was baseball. I was a much better baseball player than basketball player, but in 4th grade the basketball team I was on had to split into two teams, and I suddenly got a lot more playing time and had a lot more responsibility (we also sucked way worse than we did before as a team). Finally having an opportunity to step up and contribute really helped me fall in love with the game, and I started taking basketball way more seriously. It wasn't really until middle school that I just straight up ditched baseball and football and focused all my time into being the best short, unathletic, white bench player I could be (so pretty much I shot 3s, took charges, and yelled "let's go!" from the bench).
When I started playing basketball video games like NBA Live, I found myself frequently just simulating seasons and making trades, as opposed to playing all the games myself. I found it really fun and rewarding to play GM as opposed to playing the game. I started playing baseball simulator games first, as those are much more well-known on the internet, and in my senior year of HS I discovered DDS for basketball. I was hooked, I played so much DDS2, constantly trying to dig worse and worse teams out of the holes they were in and make them into contenders. I found the NLL on the WS Forums, joined up, quit like a week later because it was really overwhelming, but then came back in my first semester in college (about 6 months later) when I didn't have as much homework as everyone always says you will in college and had more free time. So I threw myself into the NLL, and almost 10 years later, I'm still in basketball sim leagues.
2. Favourite CSL player that you've ever had?
I've had a few players that I've had total soft spots for. Nik Stauskas was one of the first players that I ever felt a strong connection with because I drafted him and he was awesome pretty much immediately. I really wanted to win with him but he was just too flawed of a player and my Dallas team just wasn't very good. Monte Morris was one of my favorites from the early Denver days, as I had no good players and he really stepped up as a scoring threat. I was also proud of him because I acquired him as a throw-in in a trade, but he was someone that I identified and thought he would be a much better player than he ever had a chance to show in his CSL career. But at this point, the obvious answer is Jayson Tatum. This kid is special and the league is going to run through him as soon as the Nuggets get a competent GM.
3. Tatum for MVP?
Absolutely I think Tatum is the MVP of the CSL this season. Not to say that there aren't other great candidates, but I just think Tatum edges out every single one of them. Malik Monk is a turnover machine, and Ben Simmons doesn't shoulder the same scoring load that Tatum and Monk do. Tatum is scoring an insane amount on good efficiency, and does so without turning the ball over or being a defensive liability (he's not good on that end but he's not bad either). Tatum is carrying our offense in a way that few other players can even come close to imitating.
4. What constitutes a "successful season" in your eyes?
I mean, that's so dependent on team context. I think a successful season is one that gets you closer to winning a championship. If you are a contender, that means putting yourself in a position where you are maximizing your chances at winning a title (cause let's be real, you aren't going to be a CSL champ without some luck, so at a certain point you just have to put your hands together and pray). If you aren't a contender, that means ending the season in a better spot along the journey than where you started the season. Maybe that's tearing down the team to generate assets, maybe that's starting to put the pieces together. But if you want to say you had a successful season, you gotta be closer to winning a championship at the end of it than you were at the start of it (even if it means making yourself worse in the short-term).
5. Tell us more about your style of GMing, are you a trader or a drafter? What kind of strats do you prefer?
Uhh I don't think I really have a set style. I've gone through phases of being hyper-reliant on drafting well, to the point where I had spreadsheets upon spreadsheets that triangulated ratings and gave me likely outcomes for every player so that I could maximize my draft picks. I've gone through phases where players get traded like baseball cards on the playground. I think I've changed a lot in the last 10 years and who I was 8 years ago wasn't who I was 5 years ago isn't who I am today.
As for preferred strategies, I think this kind of bleeds over from my philosophies as a basketball coach. I've always preached winning the turnover battle and winning the rebound battle, and those are two areas that I've always wanted to be better at with my sim league teams. My ideal team doesn't turn the ball over, doesn't allow high shooting percentages from our opponent, and wins the rebounding battle every game. Outside of that, it doesn't matter as much how the team is constructed.
6. You have a very traditional team - rebounder/defensive anchor at C, rebounder at PF, scorer at SF, spacer at SG, distributor at PG - was this done on purpose?
I think I kind of fell into that. I've had a lot of different team styles over the years but I think there are two things that have always been true about my teams: 1) I try to build around my star player (if I have one), and 2) I don't pay the premium for star point guards so I've never really had one. In the NLL I had BJ Mullens who was the best center in the game, and he was very much an old-school back to the basket scoring center, so I tried to put a team around him that would maximize our chances of winning, with plenty of spacing and a point guard that could get him the ball. After that didn't work, I tried to acquire as much defense as possible to put around him, to mask the fact that my center wasn't a dominant defender. Once I got Tatum, I knew I had to do something similar, to just get him the ball and have the rest of the team fill in the needs around him.
I will say though, I very much have an archetype when it comes to team-building in NBA 2K. Pretty much all of my teams have helio-centric offenses, with one ball-handler driving the whole offense, a defensive-minded rim-running big man/pick and roll partner, and the rest of the players are basically 3&D guys. So I would say that's the kind of team I typically build, and honestly these Nuggets aren't that far off. Give the ball to Tatum, run pick and roll with Drummond, kick out to my shooters if the defense collapses.
7. What would have to happen for you to stay on board with the CSL next season?
The reality of the situation is I'm starting to get to the point in my life where I'm looking at buying a house, building my career, that sort of thing, and while it has been nice the last four years working a super laid-back job that allows me to spend a lot of time on my hobbies, it also doesn't pay enough for the lifestyle I want to live one day (especially since I'm not leaving Southern California any time soon). Add that to the fact that since December of 2017, I've been working hard for a baseball/football website and hoping to grow my reputation in that space, and my sports hobby time is pretty much filled up with that. Big things keep happening for me in that space (got brought on to host the football site's flagship podcast, getting my own podcast on our baseball podcast network, hopefully getting the opportunity to help launch our basketball website but shhhhh on that one) and I'm finding that the more time I put in to this avenue, the more I'm getting back from it.
So basically, unless one of you all has a six-figure job that requires minimal work to offer me, or a nice home somewhere in Orange County, CA, to sell to me for far below market value, I'm just not going to be able to dedicate the time to the CSL anymore, as much as I love this league and this community. When we started this league back in... June 2013 I want to say, I never would have believed that it still would be running in 2021. That says a lot about the amazing leadership we've had over the years, but also a lot about the incredible community that we have here. I feel really blessed to say that I have been a part of this and I hope it remains as strong as ever for years to come.
I hope you enjoyed this look into yet another integral player of this league, and if you are interested in being interviewed please express your interest either in this thread or a PM if you prefer. It'll be first come first serve, and I'll gauge interest and go from there.
