#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

The cat stalks into the Atlanta press room, bleary-eyed and obviously in a foul mood. In other words, exactly what the reporters in Atlanta have come to expect. The cat hops up onto the table, bats at the microphone until it screeches to make sure it's on, then clears its throat and begins to speak in a gravelly voice...

Sixty-seven wins. No title. That's all you need to know about last season. I could try to put on a brave face and tell you I thought we overachieved in the playoffs with our starting forwards out with injury the first two rounds and not seeing Draymond until the Knicks put us away in the conference finals... but the bottom line is, we lost. Last year's team was built to survive injury, the Knicks lost Chandler midway through the series, and we still lost. It didn't leave a good taste in my mouth.

So what did I do in the offseason? I stewed, of course. Decided to move James Harden to Orlando for Harland Ellinger and a lottery pick we used to take Kenneth Williams. After training camp, suffice to say my scouting department was fired. All I heard this offseason is how Williams had the look of an absolute beast inside... well, yeah, once we got him in here and I took a look at him after training camp, they were fired. The whole idea of unloading an all-league player like Harden was to add quality young depth. We got younger, but I'm not convinced we got quality depth. And one out of two isn't enough. We even tried loading up on young players in the hopes one of them would show me the work ethic it would take to become a star. I think they all just assumed, "well, Atlanta wins all the time so we don't have to try." They will be learning very quickly I don't tolerate coattail-riders - ask them to look up Archie Goodwin.

I mean, I expected that some of our older guys would get roughed up by TC. It's why I tried to offset this by bringing in a lot of youth. Unfortunately, TC decided to rough up all our youth, too. Thank goodness for insurance.

But now I'm tired of hearing myself talk about this topic. Let's move on.

The one success of the offseason was bringing in Steph Curry. We are sure he had larger offers from other teams but our understanding is these other offers had him as a second or third priority - and when their first choices signed and soaked up all their cap money, we were still assuring Steph he was our first choice. He's not James Harden, but I expect he'll be able to do a reasonable impression.

Joakim Noah and Marc Gasol are, of course, back and a little older. We're basically the same team as last year except a little weaker at center (age) and point guard (Curry instead of Harden and age hurting Nate) but a little stronger on the wings (moderate improvement from Middleton, Draymond, Randle).

Do I expect 67 wins again? No. I think it was flukey last season.

Do I expect to compete for the Southeast Division crown and be among the favorites at the end of the season? You betcha. I always expect to do that. But it won't be easy and it will take everyone on this team being as committed as I am to win.

From the looks of it, you didn't exactly have an ideal offseason — aside from bringing in Stephen Curry, of course. But now that James Harden is gone and both Ellinger and Curry are in, I'm curious: How do you think these moves will affect the offensive dynamic of your team? Additionally, how many victories are you anticipating in the upcoming season?

What do you see from Ellenger that Harden does not provide? Was it a move based purely on his age and rookie contract, or do you see greater offensive potential than Harden?


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There's been recent rumors about you pulling out catnip during trade discussions to gain favor of your trade partner. What say you to these allegations?

digiskunk wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 6:44 pm From the looks of it, you didn't exactly have an ideal offseason — aside from bringing in Stephen Curry, of course. But now that James Harden is gone and both Ellinger and Curry are in, I'm curious: How do you think these moves will affect the offensive dynamic of your team? Additionally, how many victories are you anticipating in the upcoming season?

I think it is fairly simple. Ellinger is our point guard of the future. But he is not ready yet, so Curry is our point guard of the present. Nate is starting to get a little long in the tooth so we will give both Ellinger and Nate opportunities to be the third guard in the rotation. And in case of injury, we have depth there so I am comfortable with our backcourt rotation.

As to wins, I think nothing less than 16 will do... as long as all of those come after the middle of April.

NOLa. wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 7:18 pm What do you see from Ellenger that Harden does not provide? Was it a move based purely on his age and rookie contract, or do you see greater offensive potential than Harden?


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Cost savings plus the addition of a lotto pick. One analyst said Harden is now what Ellinger hopes to become and I think that is accurate. I had hoped to improve my depth with that pick and that was important to me. But now that TC has scuttled that I will just have to make lemonade out of lemons.

ballsohard wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 7:29 pm There's been recent rumors about you pulling out catnip during trade discussions to gain favor of your trade partner. What say you to these allegations?

Security!

Though it's natural for a team to have confidence in its abilities, this is the first time in a good while that the Hawks weren't considered a lock to win the division. How are the players reacting to the differences in media portrayal?

garbageman wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:17 pm Though it's natural for a team to have confidence in its abilities, this is the first time in a good while that the Hawks weren't considered a lock to win the division. How are the players reacting to the differences in media portrayal?

I think all the guys who were here last year understand they still have a chance to succeed but it won’t be easy... and at least they won’t have a target on their backs which I think is a relief for some of them. The rookies still think they can show up and win 70. They will learn fast about how to fetch Gatorade.

Your team has been lauded for its ability to maintain players across the spectrum on the roster (developing, prime, wiley vets). It looks like you still have that. Do you think that you'll ever decide to go all in again or do you want to remain patient, letting players develop when they could be swapped for an imediate upgrade?

kucoach7 wrote: Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:18 am Your team has been lauded for its ability to maintain players across the spectrum on the roster (developing, prime, wiley vets). It looks like you still have that. Do you think that you'll ever decide to go all in again or do you want to remain patient, letting players develop when they could be swapped for an imediate upgrade?

Every year, the goal is to win the title. Some years, a move to let me go all in presents itself. Other years, it does not. I try to take advantage when it does and be patient when it does not.