Bobcats Presser

[Darth Vegito]

Morning all! Thanks for coming out. I think it's been a few years since we've done one of these and for good reason. We SUCKED. Not to dwell on the past but if you don't already know, here it is: we created a plan that we thought would lead us to multiple championships. A particular player on the team had other ideas and the plan failed horribly. That left us with no championships and a HUGE tax bill of 328 points. Fast forward 6 seasons later we are in position to pay the tax off when this season concludes. We were finally able to accumulate some assets that we could flip in to players that could compete now. That couldn't be done until we actually had some assets and didn't have to throw them all away in a win now scenario.

So the basic idea now is to put some wins under our belt for the next 2 seasons while Donald and Harland are under contract. I suspect they will be on the trade block sometime next season but not a second before. We will be building around Doka who has a bit of growing to do. Cruz is part of our future as well but is super raw and we'll need to see lots of improvement in him in a rather short period of time. We have one sim under our belts and the results are basically exactly what we expected. We will be a middle of the road team and win some games. Now the goal is to make the playoffs. We will consider this season a bit of a failure if we don't make the playoffs. We are trying to pay off the remaining 100 points in one season and making the playoffs will help in that regard immensely.

It will take a few sims to fond the right combination of starters/gameplan but I am confident we can finish the season in the top 8 in the East. We'll knock the rust off and get to it. We have some young guys and we have some vets to show them the way. We do have some glaring weaknesses in the team build which was unavoidable when trying to bring in a few guys that could up our level of play. We do think Bradley Beal is going to be a great addition this year and really help out that back court. As of right now we are looking at Ellinger/Beal/Cruz/Donald/Lopez as the starting 5. Jrue and Doka will come off the bench for now and we'll re-evaluate after each sim as always.

That's all I have, if any of you have any questions feel free to ask!

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: You touched on the history of the tax situation...would it have been an easier storm to weather if it had won the Bobcats a championship? Also, the strategy of stacking your team would have probably worked if not for the Kyrie betrayal and the Jordan injury...knowing that, is it a strategy you would try again?

[Darth Vegito]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: You touched on the history of the tax situation...would it have been an easier storm to weather if it had won the Bobcats a championship? Also, the strategy of stacking your team would have probably worked if not for the Kyrie betrayal and the Jordan injury...knowing that, is it a strategy you would try again?

So a few things....if it had worked out like I would have liked the storm would have been a lot easier imo. I can't prove this but obviously the extra points from a titles and long playoff runs would have helped a ton. Also me accumulating points to pay off a huge tax bill would have been much easier to swallow had my GM title count stood at 4 or 5. I knew I was going to have a bill. Did I underestimate the depths...definitely.

Also as far as stacking a team goes...everyone looks at what I did as foolish. But look at the league right now. If you don't stack your team you have no chance at contending. The Nuggets, Spurs, and Magic are probably the 3 faves this season...all 30 mil+ over the cap. I just didn't do it right. And I took too much risk. Sure I'll run the cap up again when I'm ready to compete but I'll also have a plan for not incurring a huge tax bill. That's the difference.

[78#]

Throughout your years of being GM, you've had a ton of good prospects ranging from Penny Hardaway to Lavar Ball. How does Udoka Azubuike stack up compared to others as far as potential?

[Darth Vegito]

Throughout your years of being GM, you've had a ton of good prospects ranging from Penny Hardaway to Lavar Ball. How does Udoka Azubuike stack up compared to others as far as potential?

I'm not sure yet tbh. I will say that i doubt anyone will get to that Penny level when it comes to the various aspects he affects the game. But bigs with great potential are wierd. I also want to point something out about Doka's purple potential. The ONLY reason he has purple potential is because his categories that are A's all shot up into the 130s. In TC he gained no new As. The potentials in those categories just went up which we all know is meaningless since no rating can be over 100. So while he is "purple" he may be the fakest purple in the history of the league. He's got a long way to go but I am hopeful he'll get there.

[TheSyndicate]

There are rumors that one of your key young pieces could be on the move - any truth to that rumor? Also, some have complained about the officiating in the SLOE playoffs - what are your thoughts on officiating in major sports playoffs?

[drkavarga]

Will your team be singing Everyone Wants to Be a Cat like it’s The Aristocats if your team makes the playoffs?