Friendly Fire in DC

[Mike Lowry]

Good Morning and Welcome!
Back to another season of Bullets flyin wrecklessly across the league with the intention of tearing down Nets.
We're excited as ever to make a run at the title, and see if we can continue our growth along the same trajectory.
We were bounced in the second round 2 consecutive years before making the ECF, and last year we went 7 games with the Cat for the ship. We're counting on this being our year, but we know work has to be done.
Have to say that we aren't a clear cut favorite to win anything.
Truth is, we're mostly being slept on, and we're all right with that.
Some of the things we're excited and not so excited about are as follows:
Definitely hated to see Paul Pressey grow a vagina during TC!
Father should have changed his name to Paul Pussy.
I know many people wondered about us moving DG with him as the most notable name coming back, but we weren't blown away by DG's production to begin with, and we loved the prospect of snatching A.C. Green with the 12 pick!
That kid got some bounce and great technique on his defense. Real class act.
We also brought in a hired gun in Adrian Dantley who more than replaces the points we were getting from DG, but also does so with efficiency. Last year we dropped a few games because DG froze up and Marquez Johnson was chuckin 3 for 25. Shit was ridiculous.
Everyone knows the super power of this squad comes from our front court led by Buck Williams and Larry Nance, that won't change. We are excited about Sleepy Floyd though, kid had a good camp and we expect him to put pressure on defenses that try to focus on our big 3.
All in All, we're siced about the season.
Think this squad is pretty Tuff!

Starting 5 is fairly obvious:

Nance
Williams
Dantley
Floyd
Lucas

Who's first with the questions?

[JNR]

GWR: Was losing in the finals a confidence boost for getting there or a gut punch for not getting it done?

[Mike Lowry]

GWR: Was losing in the finals a confidence boost for getting there or a gut punch for not getting it done?

It was a bit of a gut punch.
I know my headliners are still young and have room to grow, but I haven't had any other chances to win it all thus far, and getting that close, only to lose hurts.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: There's been a lot of roster turnover for a team that just made the Finals. Can you shed any light on what things you saw that led you to make these moves?

[WigNosy]

Steve Duin, the Oregonian:

A lot of people were surprised that you passed on Gerald Wilkins to take A.C. Green with the 12th pick in the draft. What was your thought process there, and what role do you see A.C. playing in the future in Washington?

[greepleairport]

Hey man, I know it's tough to lose in the finals, but making it was definitely a huge win after the years of hard work you've put into sim league. If you could have done anything differently in Game 7, what would you have done? If you make it all the way again, who do you expect to be facing?

[Mike Lowry]

Hey man, I know it's tough to lose in the finals, but making it was definitely a huge win after the years of hard work you've put into sim league. If you could have done anything differently in Game 7, what would you have done? If you make it all the way again, who do you expect to be facing?

The thing I beat myself up about was not chasing Tripucka with Griffith
My lineup could have shifted the same positions, and I feel like I let him run from my advantage.

The West is a beast again.
I expect the Blazers to fall off after losing Rambis and the Spurs to step up.
Also expect someone to make a major move and challenge that prediction.

[AngryBanana]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: You mention your team being slept on, but do you also think that your division is getting slept on as well? This division has been notoriously weak for the past few years, but appears to have rebounded in a strong way. Do you have any thoughts on this?

[Mike Lowry]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: You mention your team being slept on, but do you also think that your division is getting slept on as well? This division has been notoriously weak for the past few years, but appears to have rebounded in a strong way. Do you have any thoughts on this?

I know you chose to do a full rebuild but I don't know about notoriously weak.
In five years in the new league the Nets won a ship and I lost game 7 of the finals.
The Knicks have been pretty competitive since the draft with 2 different builds.
I don't think anyone is sleeping on the Nets, and most of us have you pegged just about right as well.
This is one of, if not the strongest division in the league.
It's not a secret.

[Mike Lowry]

Random Reporter: There's been a lot of roster turnover for a team that just made the Finals. Can you shed any light on what things you saw that led you to make these moves?

Couple things:
I lost the finals, albeit in 7 games, but I saw things I didn't like.
The things that jumped out farthest were Griffith not shooting enough, and Johnson shooting too much.
He has good defense, but having my p/p player with 100 INS end up s my 3rd leading scorer despite being listed among key players didn't add up.
I feel great about getting Sleepy for Johnson, even though he haas some growing to do.
He Started with a great camp.
And initially I felt great about the crew I got for Griffith until they showed up to camp with bad attitudes.
Pressley, who was supposed to have the highest potential really tanked, and Vinnie Johnson had a plus camp by like 4 points and managed to go from g/g to y/y.
On the flip AC Green came in and performed as we had hoped, and Wayne Cooper maintained value.
We really expected to give up some star power and replace it with quality depth.

[Mike Lowry]

Steve Duin, the Oregonian:

A lot of people were surprised that you passed on Gerald Wilkins to take A.C. Green with the 12th pick in the draft. What was your thought process there, and what role do you see A.C. playing in the future in Washington?

We LOVE AC Green!!!!!
His mix of athleticism and skill potential are exactly what we look for in players for our rotation.
Wilkins is okay, but he doesn't have the defensive technique that AC does, nor the bounce.
We think he will be a favorite in the dunk contest before long.
After Terry Porter came off the board, there was not another player we wanted more than AC.
If we had the 5 pick we may have taken him there, but we judged correctly that others were overlooking him, nd made the trade into the perfect spot to get him.
In all honesty, without this move our decision to trade Darrell Griffith may have not taken place.
That's how excited we are about him.
His future will be backing up Buck Williams for the near future, but he will be a big part of our rotation in the near future.