Heated 69

[Mike Lowry]

I remember when I was a kid I had a dream of making it to the league.
I stayed after school every day and played pick up ball.
I worked moves in the middle of the night at the park by myself.
I watched film of all the greats of my era and tried to craft my skills strategically for an evolving game.
And then, around my junior year of high school, I just wasn't athletic enough to compete at the next level.
I became a solid role player off the bench and never looked back.
Thing is, high school role players don't become college role players, high school stars do.
All that to say that I'm damn glad that I'm a GM and not a young punk with a chip on his shoulder trying to make a name for himself in this league.
My job is to do business.
If you saw Lester Quinones on draft night, just disregard his picture in the Heat jersey.
Everybody has a price!
I went into free agency looking for guys to come in and have an immediate impact, flash in the pan, and then move on day 60.
Keep an eye on Gary Rockwell if you wait til he wins player of the month the price will surely go up.
And don't sweat the fact that Blakeslee had a rough camp.
We absolutely expect him to exceed the value of his contract and move on.
Garuba and Brimah are still in the building.
Fred Claytor came in handling his business.
We got motion!
Tap in or get tapped out.

Our Starting 5 will be:

Amidah Brimah
Frederic Claytor
Gregory Coleman
Edward Bonilla
Gary Rockwell

Holla

[IamQuailman]

What are your goals for this season? Is this a transitional year where you just ride it out or do you have a long term plan in mind?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Now that you're out of tax jail, how does that affect your perception of the game, especially when it comes to evaluating trade offers and potential free agent offers given that you haven't been able to make offers over a min in some time and your goal is no longer to get out of the tax?

[Mike Lowry]

What are your goals for this season? Is this a transitional year where you just ride it out or do you have a long term plan in mind?

My long term plan won't take effect until I clear the dead money I took on when I was in the tax building.
Next season my payroll will look much different.
My plan is to keep fishing for good bargains in free agency until I sign a few players to build around at very good rates.
In the meantime, I will look for guys that fill needs for the teams that are competing and sell them for low prices.

[Mike Lowry]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Now that you're out of tax jail, how does that affect your perception of the game, especially when it comes to evaluating trade offers and potential free agent offers given that you haven't been able to make offers over a min in some time and your goal is no longer to get out of the tax?

This is actually everything.
What I learned from jail is that no player is worth the headache of seeing those bars.
Right now I'm on some easy come, easy go stuff because my build is a ways off.
I don't think I can really build a contender without strategically acquiring the right contracts as a foundation.
What got me in jail was starting with inflated contracts for players that weren't worth the money.
Basically, the dollars have to make sense.