#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

GM Roy: Welcome, welcome. Sorry I'm still a little agitated reviewing the results of TC. A team with an average age of 27.5 has a collective loss of -32 points averaing a -3.2 per player. Just great, fan-fryeing-tastic. OK enough whining about that. We had a pretty successful season last year all things considered. We battled through multiple injuries and our ideal starting 5 maybe played about a quarter of the season together. Luckily they were healthy during the playoffs and we went on a nice little run that even though it ended disappointingly. The Heat beat us and beat us convincingly 4-1, but to be up 1-0 steal home court advantage like that it was devestating to then drop 4 straight, with the last 2 games being by a combined 6 points. With the TC we had last season Asik and Wall both getting killed we were pretty pleased to be up 1-0 in the conference finals, we must have let that just happy to be here attitude doom us.

Then came RFA loco and the Grizz put in a pretty sharp offer on Asik, it was too much to make me want to accept, but not to much of an overpay to immediately decline. The grizzled gm didn't seem too interested in any sign and trades and we had an internal struggle on what to do. In the end it was just too much money to pay what would essentially be a backup center. Our other option was to resign him as the starting center and trade Hawes, but we value what Spencer brings to the team too much. And the torture that is the trade market is not something I feel like subjecting myself to this season. So we rejected the contract something we figured we would have to do because Omer would get overpaid, but it wasn't so bad we knew what to do immediately.

UFA was a moderate success we hoped to bring back Hinrich (an all-star for us last season), and Craig Smith while adding one more impact player. We got our starting SG in Gilbert Arenas on day 1 and we feel he fits this offense perfectly as an inside focused player. He lost a little bit of athleticism in TC which is expected at the age of 30, but he was such an athelete to begin with we don't feel it was too detrimental. We got our boy Craig Smith back on day 2, but Hinrich accepted a massive two year contract which he earned, we had him at a major discount last year and happy his hard work paid off. Which left us ironically enough without a backup Center, we signed about 14 of them during the FFA period and hope someone will separate themselves.

All in all, terrible tc's aside I'm pretty happy with this team. I really like our starting 5 and 6th man, and hopefully will be able to round out the depth in some form or fashion during the season.

Any questions?

GWR: Carl Landry had a great year last year. Do you think this year he finally becomes an All Star?

No real mention of Jared Dudley. Do you see him transitioning to more of a role player this season, or will he step up to be a high volume contributor?

How do you see the talent level of your competition in the East this year compared to last year, and where do you see the Celtics fitting into the puzzle?

Random Reporter: Your starting five seems just as strong as last year's, but your bench seems to have taken a hit. How are you planning to address this issue going forward, and is there anyone on the roster right now who you're looking towards to step up?

JNR wrote:GWR: Carl Landry had a great year last year. Do you think this year he finally becomes an All Star?

The PF position is always loaded, that's why I love finding these under the radar, under appreciated guys who can excel at the position. Derrick Coleman and Armen Gilliam are two others that come to mind I don't believe either were All-Stars while playing here, but those guys also shared the paint with Mourning. Landry is the focal point of our offense so I hope for his sake he gets recognized for his talents, he's improved his scoring every year he's been in the league so yes I think he deserves and becomes an All-Star this year.

logpmess wrote:No real mention of Jared Dudley. Do you see him transitioning to more of a role player this season, or will he step up to be a high volume contributor?

Well the team was somewhat put together to give every starter a role. I feel like the term role player is usually demeaning. But Wall is the distributor and serves to disrupt the other teams offense. Arenas' role is to attack the rim, Dudley will space the floor on offense and guard the opposing teams best wing player, Landry is the main scoring option, and Hawes cleans up the glass and protects the rim.

So yes Dudley will play a "role" on this team, but we expect him to be a major contributor.

garbageman wrote:How do you see the talent level of your competition in the East this year compared to last year, and where do you see the Celtics fitting into the puzzle?

The East is extremely talented, you've got the guys who've always been there balls and Wig with extremely talented teams. The Heat who represented the East last year in the finals brought everyone back and added OJ Mayo, the Cavs probably still have the best big 3 in the league, then there will always be a team or two who nobody saw coming. The only thing I can say with confidence is the Raptors will suck...Frye Soundwave.

And to answer your second question, I have no idea where we'll fit in. We had a disappointing regular season but we were injured. We have overachieved in the playoffs, but played an injured Cavs team then had a good matchup. We just look to be competitive.

Xist2Inspire wrote:Random Reporter: Your starting five seems just as strong as last year's, but your bench seems to have taken a hit. How are you planning to address this issue going forward, and is there anyone on the roster right now who you're looking towards to step up?

Well one thing the Heat did show us last year was it's more important to have a great starting 5 than to have depth. They were able to get 40+ mins from their starters for entire series' at a time. Ideally you have a great starting 5 with a great backup PF/C and great PG/SG, but yes we'll look into trading picks or whatever we have to do if a lack of depth starts leading to losses.

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Without Kirk Hinrich, How confident are you in John Wall's ability to lead this year on his own? Have you advised him not to go to the local shooting range with Gilbert Arenas?

Follow up question on the Raptors. Over under on their win total: 40. Also, do you think that Aminu's demise is a direct result of Soundwave's management?