#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Wig sighs as he looks around the press room after yet another lost season.

So, as many of you are aware, we fell short yet again last season. I could blame the fact that we suffered injuries to our starting PG and starting C to start the playoffs, and still persevered - except the team that finished us off, the Sixers, had to deal with injury as well. Injury isn't an excuse, it's an opportunity for players to step up... and while our starters stepped up, our bench didn't.

Going into this offseason, the team was at a crossroads. We've been in the luxury tax for three seasons now and while we came within a sniff of one title, it was clear to me we were taking steps back. Small steps back, but it was clear our core as constituted wasn't going to be enough to get over the hump.

That said, I had faith that the young core of the team had room to grow. It's going to be a matter of putting the right mix of veteran pieces around them. Duncan and Gasol elevated us to championship contenders, but both are now well along the back end of their careers. It is time for us to start focusing on youth.

With Restricted Free Agency, we renewed our commitment to spend money on difference-makers. Joakim isn't ever going to set scoring records, but he's got a marvelous floor game and we feel that, in the mold of Ben Wallace, there is a place on the Hawks for a Center who can do everything but score. As Chuck Barkley said years ago, "any knucklehead can score."

We shopped Gasol most of the offseason and what offers we did get were - we felt - not even close to commesurate with his talent level. So Pau will be back, even though he took a modest - but predictable - hit at the hands of Father Time in Training Camp. We offered Duncan what we felt was a fair contract given our projections of his diminished role over the next few seasons, but he got a much bigger offer from Minnesota. We don't blame him at all for taking it and wish him well. Duncan's departure clears our three-man rotation for Gasol to take a full-time starter role. We'll rely on the growth of Ed Davis, who filled in admirably when Duncan got hurt last year, to fill the role of primary backup big we had envisioned for Tim this season.

We looked to free agency to shuffle the mix of veteran pieces around the Noah/Rudy Gay duo and were gratified Tim Thomas elected to join us. We've been trying to convince him to join us for years now and while he will not be called upon to carry the offense as he was in his younger years, we still value his ability to snipe from long range, as well as contribute with his all-around game from the starting Small Forward spot. While Bojan Bogdanovic was our draft pick and we expect him to contribute in the future - and are encouraged he had an excellent training camp - he probably won't be seeing a lot of minutes this season. He's too raw.

Rudy Gay made tremendous strides in training camp this season and while he's had plenty of help the past few seasons, we're going to be transitioning to Rudy being our primary scoring option in a way he hasn't seen since his rookie year. He'll give us tremendous size at the Shooting Guard spot and we hope his outstanding preseason reflects the preparation we know he has put in to prepare himself for the time when he would be asked to lead. He's in his sixth season now. He's ready. We're happy Michael Finley decided to rejoin our team this season and he'll probably be the primary backup wing for us this year.

At point guard, Devin Harris is back as well after an unfortunate injury knocked him out of the playoffs last season. While we miss Ramon Sessions, who did a great job landing in Philly after we let him go via trade last season, Chauncey Billups filled in well last season. He's back this year, but we're mindful of the mileage on his body. Adding depth at point guard will be a priority.

Ricky Davis, one of our long-ago draft picks, returned home as well as Alonzo Gee. Brendan Haywood joined us but had a disappointing training camp, and someone tells me that Landry Fields is still on the team. I don't much out of them this season but I guess it's good to have warm bodies in case the injury bug strikes again.

I expect we'll be a playoff team again, but with Duncan gone, whether or not we are a title contender will depend very much on how much Noah and Gay step up. It's going to be tough to hold off the Cavaliers and Raptors in the division this season. We'll be looking to make moves all season - but the direction of those moves (other than hoping we will find a way to trim a little salary to get under the apron) will depend a lot on how this team performs out the gate when the games count. If we come out like gangbusters, we may be looking to turn some of our prospects into immediate veteran help. If we struggle, we'll probably be looking to go the other way. One way or another, this is a team in flux and I think we're a couple of seasons away from hitting a stable mix again.

GWR: I want to give you a chance to talk about Antonio McDyess, a man who has spent his entire career in Atlanta. I know he won't be a viable contributor on the court for you, but how important has his stability and vegan leadership been over the past few years?

With the loss of Duncan, how heavy will you now have to lean on Noah leading the frontcourt that your team has been foundationally known for lately?

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JNR wrote:GWR: I want to give you a chance to talk about Antonio McDyess, a man who has spent his entire career in Atlanta. I know he won't be a viable contributor on the court for you, but how important has his stability and vegan leadership been over the past few years?

He has done a great job encouraging our players to get in shape and cut out meat from their diets. But seriously he has been an absolute pro's pro his tenure here. He was drafted during some lean years and was one of our first TC kneecappings. But he persevered and helped us get over the TC smackdowns delivered to Ricky Davis, Al Harrington, Sebastian Telfair, and I credit his vegan teachings almost as much as TC insurance for making sure TC blasts only slowed, rather than reversed, the growth of Gay and Noah. He was an underrated part of our back to back titles - he gave up a ton of his touches to make things work and then reasserted himself as the team got older and we needed him again. Then to gracefully hand off to Duncan and Gasol and mentor Noah... yes, we have been fortunate to have a quiet, graceful superstar here. We can only hope to have more career Hawks like him.

NOLa. wrote:With the loss of Duncan, how heavy will you now have to lean on Noah leading the frontcourt that your team has been foundationally known for lately?

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Noah will be called on to be our defensive captain. He will be our lynchpin on that end of the floor. Any offense he throws in will be gravy as we expect Pau to make use of the added space and TT, Gay, and Harris to fill in the freed up shots.

Lol vegan. This is what happens when you try to sim league from Europe.

Good shit Wig.

Can you talk about your longstanding dominance of the Central division and how your success has played a role in teams in that division rebuilding early and often?

ballsohard wrote:Can you talk about your longstanding dominance of the Central division and how your success has played a role in teams in that division rebuilding early and often?

I can't explain the reason other teams rebuild early and often - I've probably tried to compete a little too long with some of my teams (going all the way back to the 1992 season where my team wasn't a title contender but I made trades on the theory they were). I assume it's got to be other teams' worry about the repeater tax. As far as I'm concerned, if I'm a title contender, the tax - even repeating - isn't an issue. It's when I'm clearly not a contender that I need to avoid the tax.