Charlotte Bobcats Pre-season Presser 27-28

[Darth Vegito]

Welcome all! Thanks for coming out today. We'll get right into it. The time has finally arrived. We have paid off that pesky tax bill and here we are ready to finally compete. We've been waiting on this day for some time now, like 6 seasons. We had a plan in place coming into the off-season. We knew we were going to have cap space and finally be able to use it. But of course when you take into account the fact that we've been unable to compete due to the large tax bill, let's just say I probably have a bit of PTSD when it comes to the size of contracts handed out. AT the same time I didn't want to under shoot everything and miss out on every player. We first went after Josh Okogie in RFA. We offered a near max which we knew was a bit of an overpay but we were comfortable with the contract still. You won't get anyone in RFA if you don't overpay a bit and if I'm going to overpay it's going to be to someone I really like. And that was Josh Okogie. We had some negotiations with RPF but in the end we suspect the Nets GM was simply too enamored with Josh to part ways, and we don't blame him. We then had to focus on our next targets.

In UFA we offered a few maxes in Round 1 that you usually know you won't get. It's how you get creative with the rest of the contracts where you can hit it big and we did exactly that. During last season we did approach PaulyP with a solid offer for Judd. Pauly said as much but said he planned on resigning him in the off-season. He then decided later in the season to trade him to Conroy for Milburn. The Celtics then proceeded to lose Jaylen Brown and Judd Williams. Not sure what happened there but we hit the jackpot either way. We signed Judd to one of if not the best valued contract in the entire league. So we were ecstatic about that steal. As we looked around the league and what was left over in Round 2 we decided that we wouldn't have enough. Rich Paul simply wasn't quite there yet where he could give us significant bench minutes. We loved Rich and his superior athleticism but we just felt like we needed a more established player. Also, we had been searching for someone to play the point. DeAngelo is great with the ball in his hands sure but we would rather have a distributor so that D-Russ could float around a bit more and do his thing off ball at times. We then sought after Victor Newman who was in Washington. We offered them RP, who could be a younger version of Victor with a few points in training. The Wizards were also severely over the cap so knowing how scary that is for us we thought that would also be a nice aside for them. We then signed Beau Agustin in the 2nd round for another solid deal.

We are currently looking at a starting lineup of:
C: Timmy Pulley
PF: Judd Williams
SF: Grayson Allen
SG: DeAngelo Russell
PG: Victor Newman
6th men: Beau and Piazza

Any questions???

[false9]

Now that you've got the full arsenal of GM moves available to you, how long before we see the return of cocky, trash talking Darth?

[Darth Vegito]

Now that you've got the full arsenal of GM moves available to you, how long before we see the return of cocky, trash talking Darth?

Oh he's here, but he has been humbled by his own ineptitude. Even removing the 6-7 long tax jail years, it's been some time since I've been a threat to any division. It's been 24 seasons since my last Championship and in those 24 years I haven't made it past the 2nd round once. There's cocky and then there's foolish. I haven't backed it up, so we will see how this team fares and if I'll ramp it up a bit. I will say this...looking at this division, it isn't going to be a walk in the park. Outside of the Pelicants, the rest of this division is solid. It'll be a rat race for sure.

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Mike Piazza only played a limited role in his rookie season last year, so the league never got a great look at him. What are you expecting from Mike off the bench?

[Darth Vegito]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Mike Piazza only played a limited role in his rookie season last year, so the league never got a great look at him. What are you expecting from Mike off the bench?

He had some great gains in TC, just enough to where I think he'll make a great front court back up this season. We really don't need him to rebound a ton when he's in the game, we should have plenty of that. If he can come in and give us 10-13 ppg in limited minutes we'll be happy. Our front court is locked down for the next few seasons so we don't feel any rush to throw points into him. We feel like his current trajectory is perfect and we're looking forward to seeing his development this season.

[JNR]

GWR: Who do you see as the biggest threat in your new division?

[Eazy P]

You are now in a division with your biggest rival the Pelicans. Do you feel like they will be a threat to your goal of getting a title?

[Darth Vegito]

GWR: Who do you see as the biggest threat in your new division?

Long term, probably Conroy. He seems to stay pretty consistent and has little down time when he's retooling. But he and the Timberwolves look to be the biggest threats this season and going forward.

Not sure what the Pelicants plan on doing after losing Damion. I know their other pieces are on the block so maybe they are looking at a rebuild. And Cleveland could go either way.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: Do you view this season as the beginning of your return to prominence, or do you feel as if you're already back in the groove?

[digiskunk]

Your team looks incredibly strong heading forward, but one thing you may lack is help off the bench. Which bench players should we expect to provide the most valuable minutes for you, and what makes them such an asset to have coming off the bench?

[Darth Vegito]

Random Reporter: Do you view this season as the beginning of your return to prominence, or do you feel as if you're already back in the groove?

Definitely not there yet, but it's a good start. I'm happy with this team but there are holes, most notably the defense. But I do have high expectations as always. I am really hoping I can compete for the division. The playoffs this year is the goal. This fanbase deserves to have this team back in the playoffs. We'd like to not limp in but a playoff berth is the ultimate goal this season.

[Darth Vegito]

Your team looks incredibly strong heading forward, but one thing you may lack is help off the bench. Which bench players should we expect to provide the most valuable minutes for you, and what makes them such an asset to have coming off the bench?

Though I wouldn't call what we have a long bench by any means, I think the short rotation that will have will be very strong. A strong starting five with Mike Piazza and Beau Agustin playing most of the bench minutes. Beau and Mike should provide nice sparks and scoring off the bench. Now the front court is very deep as far as depth goes. I have Mike but also Arcinaga and Durbin. But only Beau in the back court so I may have to make an acquisition soon to take care of that.

[WigNosy]

How many bullets were you sweating that Okogie wouldn't be matched and you'd be saddled with that huge contract?

[Darth Vegito]

How many bullets were you sweating that Okogie wouldn't be matched and you'd be saddled with that huge contract?

I was 100% fine with it. You can see by my us a contracts that I am keeping the money in mind. In RFA you aren't getting a player unless you put out an overpay. It was an overpay but not much in my estimate. He was putting up what 17 ppg as a 4th option on that team? That's at a yellow current. He has tons of promise and in a league where new PGs are slim to none, he could be turned into one. So yeah I wasn't worried. I was so not worried about taking that contract that I offered Rich Paul before I ever won the contract. I am an Okogie fan for sure. But I was turned down and I don't blame RPF, he's got a good player.