Bulls on Parade (Chicago Bulls 1984 onwards)

[Anderz]

 

BULLS ON PARADE

A Chicago Bulls Dynasty

 

I've recently purchased the game and thought I'd give a dynasty thread a whirl. I can see that the community here is pretty much gone, but hopefully the few of you out there enjoy the story of my game. This is my first real game so I'm sure there will be plenty of mistakes and errors along the way.

 

I start in 1984 with the Chicago Bulls - fresh off picking up the hotly rated Michael Jordan, who will wear the #17.

 

My goals for this game are as follows:

• Win an NBA Championship during the 1980's
  
• Win more than 6 Championships before the year 2000
  

 

A few notes; at this early stage my trading style is probably best described as "reactive" as I'm not actively chasing trades - I want to slowly build the team up properly and not ruin the harmony and cohesion by changing too much too soon. That's not to say I won't do any trades, but it will likely be trying to trade up in the early drafts as we build and moving around parts of Jordan's support. It's also worth noting that the colour ratings in my game go 'red-amber-green-blue-silver-gold' so don't be alarmed that the colours don't match the default settings.

 

Enjoy the ride.

[Anderz]

<p></p><div style="text-align:center;"><p><strong><span style="font-size:24px;"><span style="color:#FF0000;">1984: PRE-SEASON</span></span></strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

I didn't want to make any changes to the side early on, figuring that it's best to find out what really needs changing and where we really need to improve before making any moves.</p><p> </p><p>

This is our starting roster; ranked by current ability:</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="L2imKLH.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/L2imKLH.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

As you can see, we have a really good side to start the season - no duds and I wouldn't be surprised if we made the playoffs without making any wholesale changes.</p><p> </p><p>

It's clear that the star will be <strong>Jordan</strong> but I fully expect both <strong>Woolridge</strong> and <strong>Dailey</strong> to be very good for us. We're well stocked for Power Forwards on the bench but without many options at Small Forward.</p><p> </p><p>

We went into the preseason with decent expectactions and found pretty good results with our starting five being:</p><p> </p><p>

C: #43 Johnson</p><p>

PF: #35 Woolridge</p><p>

SF: #17 Jordan</p><p>

SG: #20 Dailey</p><p>

PG: #1 Matthews</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="oL2o2tT.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/oL2o2tT.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

Woolridge scored an average of 26.8 pts; with Jordan on 23.8 and Dailey at 20.5. We were quietly confident of a playoff berth and maybe even a challenge for the Central Division title.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

The NBA made their predictions for each division:</p><p> </p><p>

Atlantic: Boston Celtics</p><p>

Central: Atlanta Hawks (Bulls at #2)</p><p>

Midwest: Dallas Mavericks</p><p>

Pacific: Los Angeles Lakers</p><p> </p><p>

Jordan was predicted to make both the All-Rookie and All-League teams.</p>

[Anderz]

<p></p><div style="text-align:center;"><p><strong><span style="font-size:24px;"><span style="color:#FF0000;">1984/85: REGULAR SEASON</span></span></strong></p><p><strong>

TO ALL-STAR BREAK</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="mwHhYcW.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/mwHhYcW.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

The Bulls started on an absolute tear; winning the first 9 games on the bounce before losing in overtime at the Nets. <strong>Jordan</strong> was lighting the court up, taking two Player of the Week awards and both the Rookie and Player of the Month for November.</p><p> </p><p>

We also secured our first trade on November 10th; sending PF Sidney Green to the Cavaliers along with our 1st round pick for 1986 to get starting PG <strong>John Bagley</strong>.</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="97bwiC8.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/97bwiC8.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

We continued into December on a hot streak but injuries were about to hit us hard. We lost <strong>Woolridge</strong> to a sprained knee for 7 days after beating the Pistons; <strong>Dailey</strong> strained his back against the Cavaliers and was out for 17 days; <strong>Woolridge</strong> came back and broke his finger against the Nuggets - out for another 12 days; before <strong>Matthews</strong> pulled his groin against the Hawks to miss 9 days.</p><p> </p><p>

After that chaos, here are our stats at the turn of the year:</p><p>

<img alt="3xIMp1C.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/3xIMp1C.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

Despite the injuries we were still comfortably leading the division.</p><p>

<img alt="hg604E9.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/hg604E9.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

January saw us suffer more injuries and make a couple of big trades - but we could never find a rythm.</p><p>

<img alt="cmLpc6y.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/cmLpc6y.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

First injury of the month was <strong>Dailey</strong> for 19 days thanks to a broken jaw at the Pistons; this was followed by the loss of <strong>Higgins</strong> with plantar fasciitis for 59 days; and then a huge loss of <strong>Jordan</strong> with a broken ankle against the Bullets for 49 days forcing him to miss the All-Star game; finally <strong>Dailey</strong> returned and was out again with patellar tendanitis against the Clippers missing another 33 days.</p><p> </p><p>

Our first trade on January 8th was a view to the future; sending both David Greenwood and Wes Matthews to the Los Angeles Clippers along with our 1st round pick for 1985 in order to gain their 1st round pick for 1985 (potentially the #1 pick). We then traded out of neccessity due to injuries - sending Caldwell Jones and our 2nd pick for 1986 to the Knicks in return for <strong>Rory Sparrow</strong>.</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="e7h6yuf.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/e7h6yuf.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p>

The majority of Sparrow's stats here are from the Knicks obviously.</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="habIOSD.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/habIOSD.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

Still comfortably at the top of the division and the conference despite missing Jordan.</p><p> </p><p>

In other news, <strong>Orlando Woolridge</strong> became my first All-Star - playing a whole 1 minute for the East.</p><p> </p><p>

Bring on the final run to the Playoffs.</p>

[Anderz]

<p></p><div style="text-align:center;"><p><strong><span style="color:#FF0000;"><span style="font-size:24px;">1984/85: REGULAR SEASON</span></span></strong></p><p><strong>

TO PLAYOFFS</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

With a skeleton squad it was looking like our run-in might get a little difficult. We'd exhausted all our options so getting more numbers in before the trade deadline was not happening.</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="40C9Y8C.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/40C9Y8C.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

Aside from <strong>Bagley</strong> missing a game due to a migrane, the rest of February was quiet on the injury front as we slowly got more players back but couldn't build momentum. Along the way <strong>Woolridge</strong> took a Player of the Week award proving his All-Star status <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/wink.png.686f06e511ee1fbf6bdc7d82f6831e53.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="lcRM0Qo.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/lcRM0Qo.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p>

<img alt="T0WlCyh.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/T0WlCyh.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

March however, was back to our very best and put beyond a doubt that this season was an unmitigated success. <strong>Jordan</strong> came back and put up some good numbers - taking back-to-back Player of the Week awards from the league. The 17 missed games was too much and kept him out of MVP contention and he missed both the All-Rookie and All-NBA teams.</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="Juhn8db.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/Juhn8db.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Bagley</strong> was our only constant on our starting line as he didn't miss a game (even played an extra game due to the timing of his trade). Scoring was all about <strong>Woolridge</strong> and <strong>Jordan</strong> - and it's scary to think how this season could have gone without injury.</p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="hvTVXj9.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/hvTVXj9.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

<img alt="jPlp5Ds.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/jPlp5Ds.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

We cruised to the Eastern conference title and will take the #1 seed into the Playoffs at our first attempt. Over the in West, take a look at the 2-win Clippers season - the worst in history. To make matters worse for them, we have their first round draft pick as they got desperate and traded it away for a couple of our bench warmers.</p><p> </p><p>

And here is the lineup for the 1985 NBA Playoffs:</p><p>

<img alt="qccEfgi.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/qccEfgi.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p>

I'm not expecting anything from this post season; if we make it to the East Finals I'll be ecstatic. We should get past the Pacers but I'm a little nervous about the Hawks and Wilkins. The Finals will probably be taken by whoever comes out of the West on top - either the Trail Blazers or the Lakers; but I'll take a punt on Portland to take home the chip.</p>

[tg01]

Always awesome to see any dynasty in this forum, but I'm pretty excited about this one as the Bulls are such a fun powerhouse team to work with. And having that first round pick thanks to those incredibly sucky Clippers should be interesting as there are some great names available in the next draft!