Post by TrayWithAnA on Oct 24, 2014 13:15:16 GMT -6
Welcome to the 1997 Detroit Pistons Presser.
Seeing as I am having trouble even remembering what happened last year, I will keep this part short. Our pick was in the hands of a very close friends again, and while we didn't try as hard to prevent them from having as good a pick as we did the year before (Wil Maukie, Sup?), the sim ones and zeros saved us from a pretty humiliating scenario of making the Lakers even greater than they look now on paper for the DED Terry Catledge.
Apparently in the end, my trape of Nuggets proved more even than was previously graded out. (Still doesn't justify the Miller/Robinson bloodbath, Syndicate.) We decided to go in a different direction with the team. After having a 1 and 1a scorer for most of our tenure in 1990s #SLOE, we decided that Houston was more detrimental to the team than he was helpful. We decided to capitalize on him as much as we could and shipped him off to Minnesota for a couple of mid-20s picks. The biggest thing we were able to get was relief from the extension that we had just inked with him only months before. We would take this cash into free agency the following offseason and see if we could find a better use for the money. More on that later.
One other note from last season was our failed attempt at a trade with the Clippers for Hakeem and Van Exel. This would have been a great deal for us if executed, sure, but the more important piece of failing on this deal was gift wrapping the championship for the Dallas Mavericks. If we had been more convincing or sweetened the package, maybe the league wouldn't be dealing with this right now.
How can you blame him though? The joys of completely dominating someone on the way to your first major championship is too much to keep in.
So to move along to the current season, we were able to sign more pieces with our Houston/Elliot/Roberts money that we hope can turn our franchise back around.
Our biggest signing was the former Celtic bench player, Bimbo Coles. We had attempted to either steal a major RFA guard or in general wreck a few people's salary cap in our attempt, we accomplished the later and had to move on to plan B. Bimbo Coles does all of the things you would ask from your starting PG well, without being elite in any of them. Since Steve Smith is still growing defensively (slowly and painfully), we needed someone who could help in that avenue for the backcourt. It didn't hurt that he was also very good at ball handling and passing, so Smith will no longer be required to play the 1 like he spent most of the year starting at last year. His $4.5M starting salary is less than a max and he could prove just as efficient. We are glad that Bimbo is here to play second banana to Steve Smith.
In the first wave of free agency, we were also able to upgrade our front court, although maybe still not as strong as we would have liked it. We loved Vlade Divac and thought about sending a ridiculous offer his way, but we split it up between Horace Grant, our new starting Center, and Tyrone Hill, our new starting PF. Laphonso Ellis is now given the opportunity to shine as our 6th man and play backup at both the 3 and the 4. We will keep an eye on his time at the 3 as we are generally concerned with his defensive abilities to cover elite starters, but he should be able to put up significant contributions from the bench. Other than the big improvement to our rebounding ability in the front court, NO ONE DIED IN TC THIS YEAR. Our green greens stayed green green unlike last year when TC massacred Detroit for the first time.
Expectations now, right? We expect to be .500 as we develop a game plan that will hopefully prove successful in the following season. Rome wasn't built in a day unless you are the Celtics and then yeah, Bo does good work in that days time. There is no reason to believe that this team will win the division or challenge anyone in round 1 unless they gel together really well with a great DC.
I'm turning the floor over to you guys while I make a few appearances in other media sessions.
Seeing as I am having trouble even remembering what happened last year, I will keep this part short. Our pick was in the hands of a very close friends again, and while we didn't try as hard to prevent them from having as good a pick as we did the year before (Wil Maukie, Sup?), the sim ones and zeros saved us from a pretty humiliating scenario of making the Lakers even greater than they look now on paper for the DED Terry Catledge.
Apparently in the end, my trape of Nuggets proved more even than was previously graded out. (Still doesn't justify the Miller/Robinson bloodbath, Syndicate.) We decided to go in a different direction with the team. After having a 1 and 1a scorer for most of our tenure in 1990s #SLOE, we decided that Houston was more detrimental to the team than he was helpful. We decided to capitalize on him as much as we could and shipped him off to Minnesota for a couple of mid-20s picks. The biggest thing we were able to get was relief from the extension that we had just inked with him only months before. We would take this cash into free agency the following offseason and see if we could find a better use for the money. More on that later.
One other note from last season was our failed attempt at a trade with the Clippers for Hakeem and Van Exel. This would have been a great deal for us if executed, sure, but the more important piece of failing on this deal was gift wrapping the championship for the Dallas Mavericks. If we had been more convincing or sweetened the package, maybe the league wouldn't be dealing with this right now.
How can you blame him though? The joys of completely dominating someone on the way to your first major championship is too much to keep in.
So to move along to the current season, we were able to sign more pieces with our Houston/Elliot/Roberts money that we hope can turn our franchise back around.
Our biggest signing was the former Celtic bench player, Bimbo Coles. We had attempted to either steal a major RFA guard or in general wreck a few people's salary cap in our attempt, we accomplished the later and had to move on to plan B. Bimbo Coles does all of the things you would ask from your starting PG well, without being elite in any of them. Since Steve Smith is still growing defensively (slowly and painfully), we needed someone who could help in that avenue for the backcourt. It didn't hurt that he was also very good at ball handling and passing, so Smith will no longer be required to play the 1 like he spent most of the year starting at last year. His $4.5M starting salary is less than a max and he could prove just as efficient. We are glad that Bimbo is here to play second banana to Steve Smith.
In the first wave of free agency, we were also able to upgrade our front court, although maybe still not as strong as we would have liked it. We loved Vlade Divac and thought about sending a ridiculous offer his way, but we split it up between Horace Grant, our new starting Center, and Tyrone Hill, our new starting PF. Laphonso Ellis is now given the opportunity to shine as our 6th man and play backup at both the 3 and the 4. We will keep an eye on his time at the 3 as we are generally concerned with his defensive abilities to cover elite starters, but he should be able to put up significant contributions from the bench. Other than the big improvement to our rebounding ability in the front court, NO ONE DIED IN TC THIS YEAR. Our green greens stayed green green unlike last year when TC massacred Detroit for the first time.
Expectations now, right? We expect to be .500 as we develop a game plan that will hopefully prove successful in the following season. Rome wasn't built in a day unless you are the Celtics and then yeah, Bo does good work in that days time. There is no reason to believe that this team will win the division or challenge anyone in round 1 unless they gel together really well with a great DC.
I'm turning the floor over to you guys while I make a few appearances in other media sessions.
