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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 0:43:16 GMT -6
GM Ian Quailmen: Welcome, Milwaukeans! And welcome back for a new and exciting season for the Milwaukee Bucks!
GM Quailmen: Upon the re-structure and re-draft of the NBA prior to last season, our Milwaukee Bucks were forced to face options of rebuilding a new young team or continuing our post-season presence in the post-season picture. We opted for the latter and not only made the playoffs, but posted the 2nd best record in the NBA. As the most offensively efficient team in the league, we lit up our opponents, outscoring our way to the second round of the playoffs. It was there that our Bucks met a tough challenge in the New York Knicks led by David Robinson. In a heated 7-game series, our Bucks fell short at home. While many conspiracy theorist fans blame the league front office and their ban on stadium capacity, our early exit in the playoffs allowed us to focus on some of our deficiencies that were exposed throughout the season.
GM Quailmen: It is off of these reflections that we decided to approve our team. While some of our Eastern Conference rivals have been ungoing facelifts, we decided to make only minor improvements to the best offense in the NBA while looking to improve on the rebounding and defensive fronts. Before introducing our new arrivals, I would like to re-introduce our returning stars!
Please welcome our starting board-gobbling big man at the center position, Kevin Willis!
Next, our starting power forward with a penchant for post scoring... Orlando Woolridge!
Next, All-NBA 2nd Team small forward and our superstar... Dominique Wilkins!
At our starting 2 guard spot, our young budding sharp shooting superstar-in-the-making... Dell Curry!
And off the bench being the spark that fans loved from day one... Terry Catledge!
Now let's move on to our off-season acquisitions in a section I like to call:
GM Quailmen: In our first move, we made a move in with a division rival swapping out reserve guard Johnny Dawkins, our 94 1st, and the draft rights of Marty Conlon for forward Buck Williams and defensive point guard Michael Adams. First of all, we would like to thank for Johnny for his time with us, as he was an integral part of our bench squad. But we are excited to have both Michael and Buck join us. Michael will come in and bring us some of the defensive spark we are trying to bring to our backcourt. Defense wasn't exactly our prowess last year, and Michael's addition can help shore up our perimeter defense.
GM Quailmen: I swear we brought Buck in for more than his name to marketability ratio. We envision Buck coming into our rotation down low at the 4 and supplying our bench boys with rebounding. His energy off the bench will be welcomed by all of our team.
GM Quailmen: Since shipping out Johnny, we decided to bring in another versatile weapon for our bench backcourt. In a strange twist of fate, we were contacted by the Wizards who were interested in Darnell Valentine. After a few discussions, Byron Scott's name came up and one thing led to another. Next thing you know, we are adding Byron Scott's scoring and defense to our bench. Byron's versatility allows us to play him at the 1, 2, or 3 (depending on our line-up). We are excited to add his veteran presence to our already veteran-laden team.
GM Quailmen: Lastly we brought in a few other folks to shore up our perimeter depth, Rory Sparrow, Mike Iuzzolino, and John Battle. In the unfortunate event of an injury, we believe this depth will help.
GM Quailmen: Now that I've introduced our new additions, we would love to field questions from the press regarding our off-season acquisitions, season aspirations, or lofty predicitions. Please!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2013 9:36:13 GMT -6
Despite leading the league in everything offensive, you seemed desperate to make a move for a Point Guard. We all saw the public outrage you had for then Sonics owner when you lost out on Isiah Tankstakes,and eventually traded for the talented Michael Adams who had a very disappointing season in Detroit. Can you explain the what can be perceived as desperate move for apoint guard despite your offense being so good?
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Post by 78 on Nov 16, 2013 9:49:19 GMT -6
The Rockets had try to contact you about Kevin McHale? Do you have any regrets missing out on him?
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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 10:09:49 GMT -6
Despite leading the league in everything offensive, you seemed desperate to make a move for a Point Guard. We all saw the public outrage you had for then Sonics owner when you lost out on Isiah Tankstakes,and eventually traded for the talented Michael Adams who had a very disappointing season in Detroit. Can you explain the what can be perceived as desperate move for apoint guard despite your offense being so good? Thank you for the question. What some saw as desperation, we viewed it as an opportunity to improve a position in which we did not have our future invested into yet. During the draft last offseason, we selected Johnny Dawkins to be out PG of the future. We saw talent paired with his youth that we perceived to be potentially great. However, he didn't fit well in our starting line-up and worked better coming off the bench. This allowed us to start Darnell Valentine. While we loved how Darnell ran our offense, he was more of a stop gap than the future, with his age and contract expiring after this season. With a few other key players coming off the books next year as well, we weren't sure if we would financially be able to bring them back along with Johnny and Darnell. GM Quailmen: This is where the courting of the now-resigned Sonics GM and Pistons GM come into play. First of all, the asking price for Isiah was dirt cheap that we couldn't ignore. On top of that, the star power he has was also enticing. Meanwhile, around the league, the Pistons GM was making it known that Michael Adams was not a part of their rebuilding plans and was on the block. As many of the other GMs can attest to, the former Sonics GM's trustworthiness was and should always be in question until the trade is officially proposed and signed off on by him. I fell for his convincing and snakelike charm, but luckily we had also put my feelers out there to the Pistons gauging their trade demands. Once things broke down with the Sonics without me even knowing they broke down, I reached back out to the Pistons and more seriously opened up talks. On top of the demand of the 94 1st, it took a player (Johnny) and draft rights to a late first (Marty Conlon) to get the deal done. GM Quailmen: But in the end, I think this organization is ecstatic to have Michael here. I think we were enamored with Isiah's starpower, but Michael is the better fit. He brings some ferocity to our backcourt defense. On the offensive side, I think in Detroit he was forced to do more than he was comfortable with. The young Detroit team last season didn't have many other scoring options outside of Reggie Miller, and Michael at times had to do some things outside of his comfort zone. When we brought him in and discussed our plan and how he fits and asked him his expectations, they matched up almost identically to the T. His main goal is to defend on defense and facilitate on offense, and that's exactly what we envisioned for him. |
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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 10:16:42 GMT -6
The Rockets had try to contact you about Kevin McHale? Do you have any regrets missing out on him? I think all things happen for a reason, and I try not to have many regrets in life. But this miss on this trade falls on me. It was rainy out, and I decided to step out of the office for the day to surprise my wife with lunch and a movie. While watching Hook, my beeper battery died, and I did not receive the page to contact the Rockets GM until well after McHale had been traded. It would have been neat to have McHale on our team, but things work out in strange ways. Had we gotten McHale, it's possible that we would've missed out on Buck. |
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jhow0036
Junior Member
Chicago Bulls
Posts: 712 
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Post by jhow0036 on Nov 16, 2013 11:24:15 GMT -6
First I'd like to congratulate you in what I believe was a successful off-season. What teams do you think are the biggest threats to you this year? Biggest sleeper team?
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Post by NOLa. on Nov 16, 2013 11:25:47 GMT -6
Hi, Jason Jones from the KingsKorner.
The Hawks won the championship last season and made a handful of moves after, trading away picks and players for more picks and players. Do you feel your team, if you can mimic the offensive display you put up last season, can finish with the 1st seed?
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Post by bowtothebill23 on Nov 16, 2013 11:39:16 GMT -6
Jack Markson here from The Golden Take. With Willis, Adams, and Curry, you have some sneaky good defensive players. How do you plan to cover for the rest of your players though? Is the plan just to lockdown those three positions and outscore the rest?
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PaulyP
Junior Member
Posts: 605
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Post by PaulyP on Nov 16, 2013 11:56:41 GMT -6
Jon Snow, Westeros Sports Network, Orlando Woolridge and Dominique Wilkins had fantastic years for your squad last year, making some people skeptical of them putting up such great numbers again. Do you feel like you need them to replicate their respective numbers from last year in order to be successful or do you feel you could survive if they take a step back?
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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 12:06:26 GMT -6
First I'd like to congratulate you in what I believe was a successful off-season. What teams do you think are the biggest threats to you this year? Biggest sleeper team? Thanks for the question, good sir. I appreciate the congratulations you send our way and send them back at your own team for a successful offseason as well. The Eastern Conference is a tough conference, but the Central Division where the strength of this conference lives. So when I name threats, my top ones in the conference I would have to face 4 times a year. The Hawks are the Hawks. The Pacers gave us fits last season. And the Cavs have made big strides to improve upon their already impressive playoff berth last season. Outside the division, I would have to say the Celtics have made some interesting moves this off-season and will be a challenge to match up with. The Wizards are a completely new and competitive team, not to mention that Darnell will probably come and play his best basketball of the season in games against us.And last but certainly not least the Knicks who brought our season to an end last year. They are all viable threats this season and all teams that I think make the playoffs in the East. And if you make the playoffs, we consider you a thread to the Eastern Conference crown that we are aiming for. |
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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 12:13:13 GMT -6
Hi, Jason Jones from the KingsKorner. The Hawks won the championship last season and made a handful of moves after, trading away picks and players for more picks and players. Do you feel your team, if you can mimic the offensive display you put up last season, can finish with the 1st seed? Thanks for the Question, Jason. The #1 seed is the Hawks to lose. Obviously a goal of our organization is to be the best, but we like to take our season one game at a time. That being said, the Hawks seem to have this air about them that anything they touch turns to gold. They know how to pull the best out of their players' skill sets and put them in the position to be successful. The race to 50 wins last year was a difficult one, and we will need to find our stride early on if we want to do that again. That said, only time will tell if we will overtake the Hawks, but with our assembled team, the sky is the limit. |
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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 12:20:25 GMT -6
Jack Markson here from The Golden Take. With Willis, Adams, and Curry, you have some sneaky good defensive players. How do you plan to cover for the rest of your players though? Is the plan just to lockdown those three positions and outscore the rest? Thanks for the question, Jack. And a good one that is. This off-season our focus was to retain our offensive production while improving on our individual and team defense and team rebounding. Michael is a prime example of a defensive upgrade while maintaining offense. Both Dell and Kevin have been working hard during training camp to improve on the defensive side of the court and we expect great results. We have never been known as a defense first team, and honestly, I'm not sure we ever will be. We love scoring and we love outscoring opponents even more. So while we may not lock down scorers at certain positions, our plan is to use overall improved defense to create more possessions for our explosive offense. |
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Post by IamQuailman on Nov 16, 2013 12:26:43 GMT -6
Jon Snow, Westeros Sports Network, Orlando Woolridge and Dominique Wilkins had fantastic years for your squad last year, making some people skeptical of them putting up such great numbers again. Do you feel like you need them to replicate their respective numbers from last year in order to be successful or do you feel you could survive if they take a step back? Welcome to Milwaukee, John, and thanks for the great question! Orlando and Dominique dominated on the inside last year, and we would love to see that continue. However, I think our team has been improved upon to pick up the slack if one of these two falls off slightly, although we do not foresee that. With the way Terry Catledge plays, it's hard to ignore his production, rebounding, and ability to get to the line. On top of that, we envision Dell stepping up and becoming a bigger contributor in this offense. We love his skill set and believe we have only scratched the surface. On top of that, Byron Scott comes in and provides even more bench scoring. However on top of bench scoring, he helps us to stretch the defense a bit as he can also hit the 3. All in all, we are very excited to see it all come together on the court this season. |
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Post by coltsguy510 on Nov 16, 2013 14:25:00 GMT -6
What are your expectations for this year? Do you think you'll finally get that monkey off your back and win a title?
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Post by Nick Malone 77 on Nov 16, 2013 16:01:32 GMT -6
Nick Melon - Charlotte Observer. Congrats on defeating the then Pelicans last year in the playoffs. Now looking forward to this season, if Dominique were to ever go down with a significant injury, who would you say is the player or players you feel could pick up the slack without missing a beat?
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J2
Junior Member
Washington Wizards
Posts: 955
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Post by J2 on Nov 16, 2013 22:47:53 GMT -6
Johnny Junior, The Washington Post. Given your stellar regular season last year and your many improvements this offseason, it's safe to say that the Bucks are one of the few teams who appear to be in a "Championship or Bust" situation. Is that indeed the case? Will anything other than a Finals appearance be considered a disappointment here in Milwaukee?
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Post by IamQuailman on Dec 10, 2013 22:11:22 GMT -6
(via Darth PM) AWARDED 5 POINTS! THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!
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