#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Welcome all to the 2035 Blazers Preseason Press Conference. Given the circumstances, we felt last season went about as well as it could've. Luguentz Dort represented Portland as the Rookie of the Year. He was joined on the First-Team All-Rookie team by Brian May and Nikolas Lynch as well. Though the Kings were an absolute train wreck all season, we were able to secure good lottery odds while simultaneously getting our young guys plenty of play-time, and acquiring points via trading vets in order to better train our young stars.

Despite entering the lottery with the 2nd best odds, we wound up at pick #4, something we weren't all that upset with given we viewed the draft class as lacking a true superstar with a lot of really good players. But we did have one guy a bit above the rest when it came to our Draft Board: we viewed Justin Patton as the guy with the highest ceiling and the best chance of anyone in the class at hitting that ceiling. While we let the first two picks move on by, when it got to three, we heard rumors of different teams trying to move up to #3. Nervous that other teams might be seeing what we were, we traded #4 and the rest of our picks in the draft, including the last pick of the first round and multiple second rounders, for the #3 pick so we could grab, for the second year in a row, the #1 guy on our board. We're very excited about the future Patton has here, especially with Dort.

We dabbled throughout the offseason with the possibility of moving some of our assets for some win-now pieces, so that we could be competitive in the present with Dort and Patton on the backburner. But there wasn't enough to materialize. We received a handful of really good offers, but nothing that would allow us to acquire multiple stars so we are running the young guys back out there for one more season. Similar to last season, we filled out our roster with solid veterans with the hopes of bolstering our young core. We are still ever-looking for a chance to bring in a star to Portland.

We hope to be sitting here next season with another future star from the draft, along with a guy or two who's ready to compete now, talking about how we are excited to be a playoff team while our young guys develop. With that said, we'll open the floor to questions.

Who can we expect to see on the opening day starting lineup for the Blazers?

Random Reporter: While you've made it clear that Dort and Patton are your future, Lutes and Brooks are still referred to as assets rather than essentials, despite making more immediate strides to greatness this offseason. What would they have to do this season to lift their heads off the choppi - er, I mean trade - block and add themselves to your core?

garbageman wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:39 am Who can we expect to see on the opening day starting lineup for the Blazers?

I think it depends a bit on trade offers, but we are going to let the vets have the first crack at the starting lineup to show what they can do for potential bidders. I'd imagine something like Ketchum, Brooks, Lynch, Harrison, and Edison starting us off with Dort and Lutes right behind on the bench.

Xist2Inspire wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:58 am Random Reporter: While you've made it clear that Dort and Patton are your future, Lutes and Brooks are still referred to as assets rather than essentials, despite making more immediate strides to greatness this offseason. What would they have to do this season to lift their heads off the choppi - er, I mean trade - block and add themselves to your core?

It's less about them and more about Dort/Patton/the fact that we will add another high draft pick this season. We came back into the league with a relatively low point bank, and while we're trying to do things to earn points (submitting DC's, voting, press conferences, writing articles, etc.), we're mostly dumping those points back into our young stars. We don't have enough leftover to train guys like Lutes and Brooks unfortunately. And because of our lack of points, we need to be very careful with our cap situation. While it's not dire at all in the near future, we still need to be careful about the contracts we hand out before we inevitably have to max out Dort. It would take another boost in TC honestly for each of them to get to the point where I could comfortably feel as though they are a borderline-max player that I'd like to invest in and pay as such.

What teams do you see as potential threats in your race to the bottom for another top-3 pick?

You've said that you are looking to bring in a star, but even that statement can be broken down more. For instance, you could be only searching for the young star to match Dort's rise, which is harder to obtain given that most teams don't want to give up young stars. Or is your star search more open regarding age and contract?

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When you say there were other teams that had their eyes on Patton at #3 - you're definitely correct per my sources. Let's play what-if. If you stuck at #4 and Patton was off the board, who's your pick and why?

Patton looks pretty raw. Has there been any consideration of a red-shirt year for him?

Keepit100 wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 11:55 am What teams do you see as potential threats in your race to the bottom for another top-3 pick?

Right now, the main ones I see are the Hawks, Knicks, and Kings. I'm sure there will be another team or two that tries to completely bottom out, but I think us four have set ourselves apart from a talent deficiency perspective.

MexicanMamba wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 12:08 pm You've said that you are looking to bring in a star, but even that statement can be broken down more. For instance, you could be only searching for the young star to match Dort's rise, which is harder to obtain given that most teams don't want to give up young stars. Or is your star search more open regarding age and contract?

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Obviously, we'd prefer a younger star, but we understand those may not be available. We're probably not looking for guys like Boban or someone who needs to win this exact season, but we're not just limiting ourselves to someone who is 25 or younger by any means. But with the stars who are a bit older, we want to make sure that if we do go after them, we can get multiple guys so we're not just wasting a season of them.

TheSyndicate wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 1:02 pm When you say there were other teams that had their eyes on Patton at #3 - you're definitely correct per my sources. Let's play what-if. If you stuck at #4 and Patton was off the board, who's your pick and why?

That's a really interesting question. As I joked with a couple of GM's, I was playing a little bit of the "if I don't consider any other scenario, maybe it has to happen. If he were gone though, Hubert Partin (now Brandon Boston Jr.) of the Cavs was the next highest guy on my board.

false9 wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 12:19 pm Patton looks pretty raw. Has there been any consideration of a red-shirt year for him?

Absolutely, the goal is for him to be able to redshirt this season and continue to progress as we move forward.

It's been noted already that Patton looks raw, and it may take a while for him to develop without your intervention in paid trainings. What's the plan for him as he can be a versatile weapon to mold how you want him to look?

NOLa. wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:58 am It's been noted already that Patton looks raw, and it may take a while for him to develop without your intervention in paid trainings. What's the plan for him as he can be a versatile weapon to mold how you want him to look?

I think he's got really good potentials across the board. I think something that could help him with that is turning him from a solid athlete across the board into a really good one. I think one other thing that could help a lot is bumping his perimeter D to make him a borderline All-NBA caliber defender.