#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

*gargling reception on speakerphone*

Good morning everyone from Japan! I’m out traveling again, with my priorities in the right place… BEING RIGHT HERE WITH YOU ALL FOR THIS PRESEASON PRESSER! Apologies for the reception but just trying to make do with a phone so this is pretty much what I have going for me. As a result, this press conference may be a bit shorter than we are used to.

Basic recap of last season, we overarchieved a bit until we made some big splashed and then the team suddenly began to underachieve when it mattered most. What we did take away though was that Vaughn Milsap who started the season as a trade throw in was a bonafide alpha dog and a real one. So he was our top priority this season. Our next priority was to add another big piece to the fold ahead of RFA/UFA. And we swung big. We managed to snag and all-league, all-defense center in Harold Schiff. We are so thrilled to pair him with Ned Lomax as our big 3. It’s wild that all this talk and these players are overshadowing Lauri Markannen and the progress he’s made in just one offseason. He went from a healthy scratch redshirt season to someone looking to play starter minutes in the NBA. We couldn’t be more thrilled with his development.

Unfortunately after that, our offseason acquisition list was pretty bland. We struck out a lot on some mins and whatnot, only bringing in Pardo. We’ll see how our season goes from there and adjust as needed!

Any questions?

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Konichiwa Misutāsuraimu...how is PBSL viewed differently in Japan than it is in the states and who are the most popular players over there?

garbageman wrote: Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:33 am Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Konichiwa Misutāsuraimu...how is PBSL viewed differently in Japan than it is in the states and who are the most popular players over there?

It’s a growing market, although I’ve been pushing for years. The Bucks were the country’s unofficial team for a decade, but I’m currently in negotiations with Rakuten, 7-11, & McDonalds to become our top sponsors from Japan! The uniqueness of those Japanese brands will really help catapult the Pistons into the top seed of international viewership.

As for players, Keisei Tominaga has a MASSIVE following, even though he’s kinda a bum

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: You have had some of the more premier upcoming talent go through your roster the past few years (AB , , Saddiq Bey, Victor Wembanyama etc...) How would you rank Lauri compared to some of the ones just mentioned, and who would you rank top 3 among those?

Lauri won’t be as dominant offensively as those guys but he is a physically gifted 2-way player. I would still currently rank those 3 ahead of him, because Bey & AB are some all time great talents… but you never know what surprises TC holds in store for him.

Will there be any Piston home games played in Japan this season?

Would the idea of seeing what Schiff and Dirks did last year in Orlando inspire you to want to pair Lomax with Schiff once you acquired Lomax from New Orleans? Do you think adding a talent like Schiff will maximize Zike’s ability to run the offense?

Eazy P wrote: Fri Jun 09, 2023 10:13 am Will there be any Piston home games played in Japan this season?

We’ll be playing a friendlies match vs the Ibaraki Robots before preseason

NickMalone77 wrote: Fri Jun 09, 2023 11:21 am Would the idea of seeing what Schiff and Dirks did last year in Orlando inspire you to want to pair Lomax with Schiff once you acquired Lomax from New Orleans? Do you think adding a talent like Schiff will maximize Zike’s ability to run the offense?

I dont know if they inspired it, but pairing two elite bigs together can never go wrong in terms of efficiency or production. We barely got to see Zike play in sim 1 but in like 14 minutes he already had 6 assists. The future is bright