#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

They call us problem child
We spend our lives on trial
We walk an endless mile
We are the youth gone wild
We stand and we won't fall
We're the one and one for all
The writing's on the wall
We are the youth gone wild
We are the youth gone wild

-- Skid Row, Youth Gone Wild

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Owner: Same dumb shits, different day. The only thing that could make me look forward to this day more than I have been, which isn't that much really, is if we'd made the playoffs. Injury essentially torpedoes that, but it doesn't bother me too much. You do, but that doesn't. As you should have Fryeing learned by now, I'm just going to lay in the big shit, and Puff-n-Stuff over there will get into the details, unless you say say something stupid. Let's face it, you're going to make me talk.

GM: Thank you, sir, and thank you all for coming. As our franchise owner alluded, we are disappointed that our team did not make the playoffs last season. We'd committed to ourselves to make that effort, but it fell short. We did manage to go 2-2 against he Hawks and the Raptors, the prior two champs. As such, we really do feel that our efforts were did bear fruit and circumstances got the best of us, as they do to many teams. I should lament here that that it is so truly unfortunate that injury and allegations of tampering have all but invalidated the most recent championship. These things, along with the irregularities that affected a handful of our games, are something that must be addressed by the League.

Nevertheless, the real goal of the past 3 seasons, just as we stated here in each of those 3 seasons, was to gain experience in the League and become a better organization while positioning ourselves better than we were on move-in day to actually rebuild. Bear in mind, that does not mean that we will pretend, as many organizations do, that this is a so-called "rebuild year" and that we'll be contending next season. That's not even close to possible for most teams. We are simply not in that position. We are, as we stated, in a better position than we were in 2001, and by a great bit.

We have all of our draft picks intact. We may make the push to acquire more this season, but that may come in later seasons. Our organization's research has show very clearly that draft picks and the building of talent is wildly misunderstood in the League. Therefore, there are inefficiencies in the market that we can and have exploited.

Our points bank is around where it was when we started, and we have designs on increasing it, as is necessary.

We let Mr. Iverson and Mr. Walker go in free agency, Mr. Shawn Bradley away after trading away Mr. Goldwire and Mr. Williams last season, along with Mr. Woods and Mr. Arroyo.

In their place have Mr. Michael Doleac and Travis Outlaw, and young man who we'd hoped would fall to us in the prior draft.

Owner: I Fryeing love it.

GM: Ownership is very pleased with the idea of Mr. Outlaw being the team's mascot while he is going through our developmental system.

Coach: We got to play together a team. We need energy. 110%.

Owner: Really?

GM: We expect Mr. Outlaw to be just one of our development projects. We've re-acquired Maciej Lampe with the same idea in mind. Mr. Lampe does not have the potential of Mr. Outlaw and was not a highly touted overseas player, but he's young, and we'll give him a chance. One good training camp will pay dividends on this zero-cost investment.

These are just a couple of such projects on the roster. We scoured the League and world for players that have gone from highly sought after to discards in hopes that some can actually be redeemed. We have the patience and the resources to make this happen. We know that free agency and training camps are lotteries, just like the draft lottery and drafting and training camp, but with lower risk and lower top payout. Nevertheless, this is part of our rebuilding plan, and we were quite happy with the haul of players we managed to sign, including two top 10 picks. Their availability and current status are good role players simply proves out our point about the value of draft picks, but that's a topic for another day. I'm sure this stream of talent will remain in place for us to tap in the coming seasons.

We've also re-signed Michael Redd for 4 seasons. We're happy with Mr. Redd, and clearly a couple other teams are, too. There are better max contracts in the league, and there are worse, but we are happy with the contract and the restricted free agency process. Again, we told you long ago that we were committed to Michael Redd, and it'll take a much better package to pry him away than a draft pick.

Latrell Sprewell remains with the team, and his is not on the trade market at all. We'll also pursue him heavily in the next FA period. He'll also be playing point guard this season.

The average age of our team is 24.1, and without Mr. Sprewell it's 23.4. This is a very young team. As we continue to churn through the youth, we know we're going to have a tough time on the court. We're fine with that as an organization. This is part of our rebuilding, and we're not embarrass ourselves or the League while we do it. We're participating, we're active, we're good League-mates, and we spend. We're just going to be bad. We know it, though we'll be trying to win every game.

Owner: Which is why this season, we'll be publicly berating the teams who lose to us. It's the only way I'd agree to this horseshit.

GM: As you can see, not every battle is on the court, and sometimes you have to give to get.

Any questions?

Blind man in the box that will probably die
The village kids laugh as they walk by
A psycho is on the edge of this human garbage dump
And the vultures in the sewers are telling him to jump
Into the fire from the frying pan
Tripping on his tongue for a cool place to stand
Where's this shade that you've got it made
To me it's just monkey business

-- Skid Row, Monkey Business

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GWR: In this transition year, are you going to experiment with a lot of different lineups?

Hollywood reporter: Do you still think you won FA?

JNR wrote:GWR: In this transition year, are you going to experiment with a lot of different lineups?

GM: Yes. We have to. Some positions are locked along with minutes. We're going to experiment with who comes off the bench, things like that. We're also going to be experimenting with trying to dial in certain emphases... Lower turnovers, raise rebounding, etc. Being able to really tune your lineup for particular results is something we value.

Inner_GI wrote:Hollywood reporter: Do you still think you won FA?

Owner: What the Frye does that even mean?

GM: Uhhh... We accomplished our goals given our resources, which are not much at the start of free agency. I'm sure others accomplished theirs. Still others may have to check with other GM's for validation, but we are quite comfortable with the plan we laid out 3 years ago.

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: What led into the thought process to bring back the former #1 pick Michael Redd? Do you think he ate half the money he received during RFA to turn into a green monster?

42PhD wrote:

Inner_GI wrote:Hollywood reporter: Do you still think you won FA?

Owner: What the WIG does that even mean?

GM: Uhhh... We accomplished our goals given our resources, which are not much at the start of free agency. I'm sure others accomplished theirs. Still others may have to check with other GM's for validation, but we are quite comfortable with the plan we laid out 3 years ago.

viewtopic.php?t=1735#p16305

"When the Cavs come out looking good, y'all <expletive deleted> up.

Signed,

The Cavs"

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You've made it repeatedly known that if a team asks about Spreewell, they are added to the no-trade-list. Why is this?

NOLa. wrote:You've made it repeatedly known that if a team asks about Spreewell, they are added to the no-trade-list. Why is this?

Random Reporter: ...And to piggyback off of this question, why has Sprewell been off the trade block when literally everyone else has been? What's so special about Spree that keeps him in Cleveland?

Inner_GI wrote:

42PhD wrote:

Inner_GI wrote:Hollywood reporter: Do you still think you won FA?

Owner: What the WIG does that even mean?

GM: Uhhh... We accomplished our goals given our resources, which are not much at the start of free agency. I'm sure others accomplished theirs. Still others may have to check with other GM's for validation, but we are quite comfortable with the plan we laid out 3 years ago.

viewtopic.php?t=1735#p16305

"When the Cavs come out looking good, y'all <expletive deleted> up.

Signed,

The Cavs"

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GM: I see. You clearly are mistaking the language. Ironic for a reporter, but I can help you nonetheless.

That was a quote from ownership about restricted Free Agency. The Cavaliers made one bid on one free agent: Michael Redd. The bid was designed, as it turns out, to outprice the Lakers' maximum offer by $1 in the initial year, just in case he had little interest, we would not have to try to work out a sign-and-trade for pieces in which we had no interest. The other max bids were not worth trying to game, as they were too high or they had interesting players.

Of course, Michael received a maximum offer, as was expected, and we rejected sign-and-trade discussions outright. Some were still had, a testament to the interest level in Michael, but we matched without hesitation, save waiting for our Indian food we ordered prior to getting the bid news. It was a chicken vindaloo, and it was delicious.

So, we had 3 options, no more, no less. Let Mr. Redd go to Charlotte (or elsewhere had we not exercised his rights) for nothing, work a trade, or sign him for a max deal over 4 seasons. We feel we chose the best of those 3 actual options. In that sense, we won this transaction, to use your inappropriate parlance.

We also feel he was about the best contract we could actually get for someone with his skill and age. Training camp was not good to Michael this season, and the same is true for many you players. He has years to recover, and that risk is present for all players. The results are not an indictment if the decision-making process. That is not how gambling works, which someone with at least a modicum of education will tell you, and this is gambling. It all is.

The move left us with cap space this season to clear our tax bill and a good player help lead us through our rebuild while our core forms over the next fee seasons.

Ownership's comments were also directed at some others teams' bids in Free Agency, and their decisions. We feel some others teams made poor decisions relative to the Cavaliers. However, the claim was never having "won" anything. It was that some teams moves were poor, using the reputation Cleveland gained prior to current ownership for making poor decisions in free agency as a humorous comparison. You simply failed to appreciate the subtlety, which is why you are a reporter and not a writer. Don't worry, it's not your fault. You can't help your deficiencies, and I don't judge you for them.

Now, I have to get back to the actual reporters.

Next question?

78# wrote:What's the goal this year for your team? Is it to hold the ship steady until more help arrives? What's the long-term goal beyond this season?

GM: We have a number of small goals. One is to make any positive trades in terms of our long term assets. We're not focused on maximizing wins this season. We're focused on getting every win we have given our roster on any given day, and we've assembled a roster with a number of former first round draft picks.

Another goal is to make sure we are getting all we can out of our roster. As noted earlier in the press conference, we're going to play Mr. Sprewell at point guard. Why? He is the best passer on the team with the best handles. His scoring has taken a step back, as well, due to his dropping athleticism. Last season, we tried other people at point guard, but some . . . irregularities that have yet to be fully explained . . . got in our way of really implementing this or similar moves. The result of these irregularities potentially cost us the playoffs, but we filed our grievances and have put ourselves in a position to deal effectively with our roster without outside interference.

At any rate, besides this, he's also big at that position and defensive. As noted by the Wizards, this is certainly a consideration of the top teams who are not resting on their past glories.

This was not the case in preseason, and while the team won two games, they were trounced in their losses. The team's defense is actually showing up, which was the design, and we intend to develop through our roster churn. We feel confident we can pick up one-dimensional scorers from other teams who did not build appropriately to accommodate them but spent as if they did.

We'll also be experimenting with fine tuning our 6th and 7th men and how to best deploy them.

It's all about the roster and coaching, really, aside from trades. In the offseason, we'll see what upgrades we can make then, plus we'll have to make a decision on re-signing Mr. Sprewell, which we are likely to do.

Next question?

Your team is clearly in a rebuilding stage right now; what would you say you want your teams identity to be once you've finished this build? Or would you say you'll let the pieces form its own identity?

ballsohard wrote:Your team is clearly in a rebuilding stage right now; what would you say you want your teams identity to be once you've finished this build? Or would you say you'll let the pieces form its own identity?

GM: We'll follow the lead of the realities of training camps, trades, free agency, the draft, just like any other team, but the direction we have now, so we hope, is to dial in a competent defensive efficiency, once we get that going as good as it situation allows, week work on rebounding and generating steals and reducing turnovers and fouls. After we dial that in, layering on the little things with our young roster, we can see about bringing in the right kind of scorers and hit the nitrous.

We're going to really be studying game tape to see if we have some gems. I bet we do. Darius Miles, for instance... a lot of our guys, really, but just to name one of many... Darius Miles looks like a guy who can really take off in the right circumstances. We're intent of finding if that's true. If we find one gem a year, even a guy who'll be a great 6th or 7th man, then we've done ourselves, the player, and the League a favor by salvaging guys others could not. We know they won't all take off, and we have very obvious development projects to, but we're sticking with out plan until we don't.

So, this is true until opening tip. After that, who knows?

Was getting a player that is above average or decent ever part of your 3 year plan and in what year will you net one of those "decent" players?

Brian Windhorst wrote:Was getting a player that is above average or decent ever part of your 3 year plan and in what year will you net one of those "decent" players?

GM:The 3 years you refer to just ended. We have put our team in a better position to build than we were when we took over from a roster, assets, and experience perspective. It needed to happen for is, being new to the League.

Our plan forward is more open-ended, and that is the sad truth. Even the Kings said they needed some luck on top of their skill. We have to be prepared when lightning strikes. Our plan is to make that a reality. We shall see.

Next question?