This move was important as I flipped Baker and Outlaw for fellow rookie Shane Battier, who had the build of a solid defensive SF which I like on my team. In the end, the moving of Camby allowed me to acquire Arenas and Battier, which I don't think is a bad get.
We ended up with a 52-30 record and finished 5th in the Pacific. Yes, you heard that right. 5th in the Pacific. While that record is usually good enough to claim a top 4 seed in the playoffs with homecourt advantage, this was not to be. I was actually surprised how well my team performed without Camby for the first season with an unpolished roster. I was happy with my performance in the regular season and ended up grabbing the 6th seed in the Western Conference playoffs where I met divisional opponent Portland Trailblazers led by Shaq and Dirk. Needless to say, I had no answer for Shaq as he wiped the court with our anuses and proceeded to sweep me. For the first time and most likely not the last time, I had really missed Camby.
But no matter, speedbumps were expected and I cruised to another 50+ win season. McGrady really came into his own as an elite player in the league at such a young age and others stepped up as well.
Moving into this offseason, we didn't make big splashes. We drafted Marko Jarik who hopefully continues his development for a small role as backup SF. He had the potential talent in some key areas we liked and was happy to get him at such a late point in the draft. We tried to grab Kandi from the Washington Wizards but were unsuccessful in coming to terms with a S&T. With no frontcourt piece besides Muresan, I knew I had to make a move in UFA for a PF.
I was at least successful in grabbing Samaki Walker, who we felt has never been given a full chance at playing the PF spot as a starter. While the signing didn't make splashes, Walker was a 26 year old player flying under the radar with a great set of skills down low in rebounding and defending, and is a very strong prospect with above average quickness for a PF. His combination of athleticism and presence down low made him priority #1 in signing. In a very weak class, I felt I got a steal on a team friendly deal. We continued to fill out the roster with other prospects to complete our team.
Training camp was very kind to us as well. Tracy McGrady is now one of the very few P/P players in the league and Shane Battier received a tremendous boost with a tied-for-2nd TC gain of +53 or something. His potentials in defense went up along with practically everything else and we are excited to see him grow into what we know he can become.
We have big plans to train Battier in Gym Rat and eventually get his weight up. Once his post defense develops I want to get him around the 250 lb weight so that he can fill in as a stretch PF. I love versatility, and with McGrady being versatile as well I hope to have 2 guys that can play 4 positions in the future.
Arenas also had a weird camp, in which he lost a bunch of points in post defense, blocking, rebounding, and 3 point. The 3 point reduction hurt, but his Inside scoring matched his loss there so we feel good since we are not a 3 point outside focused team. He made gains in Inside, as previously stated, handles, passing, and athleticism. He really is becoming the scoring threat I hoped he could be and played really well in preseason shooting 18 ppg at 45%. We plan on using him as a primary 6man role as backup SG/PG.
That's about it. The team is still growing and developing, so I expect the speedbumps are not over yet. However, the team has the talent again to obtain another 50+ win season the fans have expected from the team despite the Western conference getting stronger, notably in the Midwest. We tip our hats to our other Western friends there as they have improved over the last few seasons.
Floor is now open to questions or comments.
