Usually, that's a pretty morose question to ask. The days of Damian Lillard, and Blake Griffin, and Greg Monroe, have long since passed. All we've had to show for it the last few years was a stench of missing the playoffs these last three years. Our struggle hasn't come without benefit though. Buddy, Ekbert, and Damion, have all blossomed into players we hoped they would turn into when they were drafted, or acquired. Some have struggled, but we've steadily increased our win total over the last three years to finally be on the precipice of the playoffs once again. So I ask the important question again that only time has the real answer to.
Will this finally be the year?
With our record being what it was, we were slated with the 13th pick in the last draft. San Antonio had more interest in making that pick than we did so a trade was possible to bring in a stretch forward in James Webster. Webster's unique skill set was enticing enough to bring him in as an option for some minutes behind the three or 4. He won't play much defense but he can certainly help us more than waiting on prospect #13 to develop a few years from now and the options left in that draft at that spot weren't exciting enough to buy back in. We knew the ownership situation with the Knicks was also left up in the air with the league. We also knew Elfrid never really fit in the way we hoped down here and was looking to leave during FA. So, that brought up a need to bring in a point guard. A trade arose with the Knicks and we brought in long time vet, Ish Smith. Ish is a more than capable guy to be a lead point guard still even if he was a step slower than last year. Sent out some cash considerations along with Lawrence Arbogast and we had our new point guard, for now.
Will this finally be the year?
With our cap situation being what it was, we tried being aggressive to fix our issues at the 1 and the three. We threw out multiple offers out there that we thought were cost efficient and worth it to pursue to many of the top free agents and even medium sized free agents. A lot of spurned advances but we were fortunate to sign Rodney Hood and bring in Patrick Riordan. In Hood's case, he may start at the three or play important 6 man minutes behind James Pearsall. Riordan will be one of the first guards off the bench and with his skill set, we see him as more of a 2 than a 1 even with the height difference. We were able to take advantage of the Flemming Cheeks process and fill out the rest of our roster with vets that were cast aside often due to budget cuts. Now that we have our roster, we're imagining our roster and depth to resemble something a little like this...
C: Ekbert/Hawes
PF: McNary/Webster
SF: Hood-Pearsall/DeRozan
SG: Buddy/Riordan
PG: Ish/Dinwiddie
Will this finally be the year?
You're probably tired of me thinking that, so here's a happy picture of a Pelican.
