#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Ladies, gentlemen, esteemed members of the PBSL media. Welcome to the United Center.

I want to start off by saying that I'm proud of this team. We had an excellent regular season, posting 60 wins, and we made a deep run into the playoffs, making it all the way to game 7 in the PBSL Alpha Conference Finals. We couldn't get the win when we needed it and had to watch the Finals at home, but I guarantee, we'll be back. We are very confident that we have the talent to get there, and we think with Leroy, Wanderlei, and Patrick leading this team, we're in good shape to be a contender for several seasons to come.

The progression of those three guys, along with the hard work Alton Hill put in this training camp, really show that they want to get there, and this season, we hope to see all four of those guys playing the best ball of their careers.

Our free agency got off to a rocky start due to some errors in our accounting department, but I still feel like we were able to put together a strong team around our big four. Jaylen and Jamey Brown, the leaders of our second unit, came back to play another season for us, and we're happy to welcome back Angelo Chancellor, who has grown into a Swiss Army Knife of a player. We were happy enough with Cedric Pruitt's play last year to bring him back, and we added Julian Muldrow, Dennis Sapp, and Aaron Gordon for extra depth.

We're also very excited to see what Brian Spano and Epifanio Merino can do. We plan on giving them spots in our rotation to see if both rookies can give us some production right out of the gate.

We know the regular season is a whole different animal, but we're encouraged by our start in preseason, and we're very excited to get out there and give it our all and keep building towards bringing another championship back to Chicago. If you all have any questions, I'd be happy to take them.

After having a spectacular pre-season in which you guys went undefeated (6-0), what are your [realistic] expectations heading into the regular season? Do you believe that you have the talent required to bring home the chip?

digiskunk wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 9:04 am After having a spectacular pre-season in which you guys went undefeated (6-0), what are your [realistic] expectations heading into the regular season? Do you believe that you have the talent required to bring home the chip?

Winning a championship this year would be nice, but it's a little premature to say that after this preseason. For starters, it's only preseason. A lot of teams, us included, weren't using the same game plans or lineups that you'll see in the regular season. Our preseason schedule was also a bit light. The best team we faced ended preseason with a 3-3 record.

That being said, it'll be interesting to see what we can do without Andrew Wiggins. I don't know if we're going to hit another 60 win season, but our goal is to come as close as possible to where we were last year. Next offseason, we'll have the cap flexibility to really stack our roster, but this season is all about seeing how far we can go with Leroy, Wanderlei, and Patrick leading the way.

One of the biggest news in free agency was the Pelicans' signing of Andrew Wiggins. How are you planning to replace his contributions? Will we see Edmunds take over at full-time at the 2?

With the potential of a three time repeater tax looming, will there be a concerted effort to get under the apron before the deadline? Or will winning take precedence?

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: Do you believe you have enough depth to withstand an injury to one of your starters?

Xist2Inspire wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 1:20 pm One of the biggest news in free agency was the Pelicans' signing of Andrew Wiggins. How are you planning to replace his contributions? Will we see Edmunds take over at full-time at the 2?

We wanted to bring Wiggins back, but we were not planning on offering anyone over 20 million in free agency before our accounting mixup, so we had anticipated that he might go somewhere else for more money.

We do like Edmunds at the 2 full time, and we think we're going to see a big year from him.

false9 wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 1:26 pm With the potential of a three time repeater tax looming, will there be a concerted effort to get under the apron before the deadline? Or will winning take precedence?

Yes. We have a couple paths to get under the apron, and we don't think either of them will compromise this team's ceiling too much.

AngryBanana wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 2:16 pm Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: Do you believe you have enough depth to withstand an injury to one of your starters?

We hope we don't have to, but with plenty of backup wings and Angelo Chancellor's ability to play several positions, we'll be fine.

What are the off-season moves around the league that you feel makes the biggest impact on your team's ability to gave continued success this coming season?

MexicanMamba wrote: Mon Jul 08, 2019 4:04 pm What are the off-season moves around the league that you feel makes the biggest impact on your team's ability to gave continued success this coming season?

I think time and money are the two biggest factors that will contribute to our success. The monolithic Spurs are in tax trouble and are in the middle of disbanding, and the Nuggets, while still a strong team, are all exiting their primes. While we lost Andrew Wiggins, our best players right now are all just nearing their primes. Leroy is 28. Wanderlei is 26. Patrick's only 25. And right now, all of them look like top 25 players in the PBSL to me.

Once our payroll opens up next season, we're going to do whatever we can to use our cap space before re-signing our core. We still think we're one of the strongest teams in the Alpha division this year, but for the next several years, Bulls fans can expect this season to be the floor of what we're going to do.