Good morning all. I’d like to take a moment. Not a somber moment, but a moment of thanks and acknowledgement to two players I consider pillars of this organization and how far the Thunder have come since the days past of GMs like Make It Rain and Darth Vegito.
Obviously last year was an all in attempt. We were cruising through the regular season after making moves to acquire Tex and Delmar. We had one of the beat starting fives seen in a while. We then had the opportunity to get an upgrade with Blakemore, which in hindsight was a good and bad thing. First it was good because of Tex’s injury. My starter pre trade I think would have been Odell and that would not work. However, taking on Blakemore’s salary, combined with injuries, caused me to go even deeper into the tax then originally projected. So I was VERY close to loosing Wade for nothing this offseason with a tax looming. So I churned out articles this season and last once I realized my dilemma. I did enough to be able to retain my sweet Wade.
I realized that this build was no longer sustainable for me given my tax and point situation. So I started working the wires for places for Wade and Maker. I wanted to find a place for them to compete, but the Thunder organization comes first as well. The first domino to fall was Tex. He was moved quickly and I got what I needed in that deal. Surprisingly, the Maker shiniest object. I had several suitors and when I was approached for a three team deal that got me prospects and cap relief, it was perfect. Next after longggg and intense talks, the bucks and I finally saw appropriate compensation for both sides to get the purple player they needed. I hope that Wade and Maker both go on to be outstanding things moving forward.
Now what’s gone is gone.
We are excited about moving forward. Our core now consists of Blakeney, Nix, Lizarraga, Cuevas, and Cagel. I’m really excited to see what Nix does this season in a more premier role. Blakeney I’m hoping will win ROY. Cuevas looks to be on track for a stellar scorer, and Lizarraga will continue to develop. The future is so bright I need some shades.
Delmar and Tubbs are also still around. Delmar will hopefully still be the
that he is. Hopefully he will get us some all league love, or we are able to move him to a winning team to get them over the hump. Either way I’m ecstatic to have a legend like him around for these young guys. Tubbs is also still a very solid center that will either play well for us all year, or we can flip to a team where he will contribute to a winner. All in all I really don’t know what the year will bring forward. I think we will win games as much as we loose, so I’m just along for the ride. Concerning starters I’m not sure. I’ll either tweak it to see who does well where, or go rec/same through the season some.
Questions?
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