#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

GM Kevin U. Coach: Let's start with a little history lesson. In 2001, we were coming off our fourth losing season in a row. We traded all of our assets except for our star prospect and his sidekick, Dirk Nowitzki and Cuttino Mobley, to put together a contender. We had the best regular season in franchise history and made it out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in team history. Expectations were high when we were able to bring back the same squad for the next year. Everything went wrong though. Dirk took a big step backward in training camp. The other stars got older and we missed the playoffs despite finishing the season 10 games over .500.

Fast forward to last season. We traded all our assets outside our young star, Derrick Rose. Thanks to training camp insurance, he didn't die, but he tried to die. We went on to our second best regular season ever and our best playoff performance ever by making the Western Conference Finals. So why aren't we celebrating? Why am I not up here bragging?

Well, it feels like deja vu all over again. I just have a hunch this season is going to look a lot like 2002. We brought back the same team. Rose had a monster camp but is a season behind because of last year's camp. We got destroyed in free agency. I was not as aggressive as I could have been but I made many competitive offers and just couldn't get a fish to bite. We went 3-3 in pre-season after going 5-1 last pre-season. Our team cohesion is still bad. Even after all our success last year players still don't want to be here.

So, you heard it here first. The Blazers are not going to be good this year. In fact, they'll be lucky to make the playoffs. I'll now take questions.

Random Reporter: Are there any positives you've taken from this offseason?

GWR: Other GMs are skeptical of your assertion here today. After all, your chemistry has always been bad, but your defense being good seems more importance. Don't you think you're being a little too modest?

Based on your presser, things seem to be on a downward spiral in Portland. Will we see this team move towards a rebuild this season through trades?

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Xist2Inspire wrote:Random Reporter: Are there any positives you've taken from this offseason?

Yes. On paper Old Man KG looks like a huge downgrade but he was far more productive than Griffin last year with a 19+ PER, almost 16 points, and 8 and a half rebounds per game compared to Griffin's 11.2 PER, 6.3 PPG, and 8.1 RPG. Also, we really like Jarvis Hayes off the bench. And Jimmer didn't die in training camp. . . yet.

JNR wrote:GWR: Other GMs are skeptical of your assertion here today. After all, your chemistry has always been bad, but your defense being good seems more importance. Don't you think you're being a little too modest?

There may be some level of anti-jinx going on here. From a defensive perspective, we took a hit with Griffin fleeing town but hopefully younger guys like Rose and Lee can step up their games to make up for the loss.

NOLa. wrote:Based on your presser, things seem to be on a downward spiral in Portland. Will we see this team move towards a rebuild this season through trades?

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No rebuild in the picture. We don't have our pick, we have a ton of talent (we're actually picked by the computer to win the division), and we're committed to trying to win for years to come. . . for now.

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, the defense looks like it will still be stout in Portland with Hunter down low and Artest on the perimeter, whats the plan for the offense in this upcoming season?

Conroy wrote:Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, the defense looks like it will still be stout in Portland with Hunter down low and Artest on the perimeter, whats the plan for the offense in this upcoming season?

As of right now, feed Artest and Rose. We have considered making Hunter or even Morrison more integral parts of the offense but we're not sold on that yet.