Milwaukee Bucks Presser for 1981-82

[IamQuailman]

Good morning, you beautiful people!

The Milwaukee Bucks are BACK for yet another pre-season presser. Last season ended with a thunk, although it turned out our early exit from the playoffs came at the hands of the CHAMP. Congrats to @RPF for his 1st Sim League championship & being the 1st Champ of NPBSL! If we had to lose, I'm glad it was to your squad!

But enough about slurping the Nets to make ourselves feel better. Last season we made a monstrous splash to acquire Robert Parish in the attempt to make a deep run in the playoffs. We instantly became the front runners for best front court and possibly best back court in the NBA. The team hit a snag when our glue guy, our lunch pail kid, Bill Hanzlik got hurt for the last month of the season, including a large portion of our series. Bill tried to come back early, but unfortunately was not 100% right. It's a shame, we really felt that confidence going into the playoffs that Bill and Robert would just dominate their way through the East. But here we are, ringless in Milwaukee.

So what did we change? Not much. The team we ended the season with essentially is coming back as is. We did manage to add some depth in Billy Knight, who we are looking to bring off the bench as our 6th man. But other than that, we are sitting exactly where we left off, although everyone on the squad came back in the best shape of their playing careers this training camp. We are excited to show what we have possibly in the works.

As for goals this season, it's the same as where we aimed last year. Championship or bust. We've engaged in some conversations that have tempted us to stray, but nothing exactly strong enough has come through that makes us waver from staying on course... but who knows. Until then, we will dominate the East this season.

[BigDaddyd8720]

Picks Emmington of the SLOE gazette,

With such high hopes last season, especially after the trade to acquire Parrish, how do you foresee this team bouncing back? Do you notice any areas of concern right now or do you still feel that what you did last season worked and just need to get lucky and not get hit with the injury bug?

[WigNosy]

Steve Duin, Blazers beatwriter for the Oregonian...

Any nerves about having minimal future assets to offer in trades (due to the Stepien rule) if your team doesn't perform to expectations? If this iteration of the Bucks doesn't work, what is your path to pivot to the next iteration of the team? Also, any concerns that Billy Knight seemed to lose a step athletically this off-season?

[IamQuailman]

Picks Emmington of the SLOE gazette,

With such high hopes last season, especially after the trade to acquire Parrish, how do you foresee this team bouncing back? Do you notice any areas of concern right now or do you still feel that what you did last season worked and just need to get lucky and not get hit with the injury bug?

I still feel really confident with this team, but I do think depth is a little lacking. So if some things go awry or we get hit with an injury bug we mostly avoided last year, we may have to pivot.

[IamQuailman]

Steve Duin, Blazers beatwriter for the Oregonian...

Any nerves about having minimal future assets to offer in trades (due to the Stepien rule) if your team doesn't perform to expectations? If this iteration of the Bucks doesn't work, what is your path to pivot to the next iteration of the team? Also, any concerns that Billy Knight seemed to lose a step athletically this off-season?

Great questions!

It all depends on what we are looking at in terms of future assets. I think this team's core could stay in tact and compete for at least playoffs over the next 3 seasons, which means those picks would be late teens at worst. But ya know, I always pay attention to who has my pick in which year... because history shows i love me a "tradeback". lol

As for Billy Knight, while he did lose a slight step, it wasn't as drastic as the shock of color change indicates. We really had planned to bring him in as a bench wing to bring a scoring punch while a starter or two are catching a breather. He was never to supplant Hanzlik, who we feel really great about as a young player in this league who came out and really impressed last year with his ability to play complementary basketball as a rookie.