VanMemphis Grizzlies Pre-season Presser

[LoCo89]

GM LoCo: Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to our preseason presser. The guys just had their last practice of training camp and will be available to answer questions shortly. Before coach Brian Winters and some of the guys join us, I'll recap the previous season, and we have a short presentation from the VanMemphis cheerleaders I'm told. 

Last season was a success in many ways. After a rough start due to Mark Jackson's injury, we had a rough start. However, after the All-Star break and Mark Jacksons return, the boys were able to put together a dominant 23-5 run to finish the regular season and take the Midwest Division crown. Besides the teams success, Gatling and Daugherty also had individual achievements as Gatling took home a 6MotY award and an All-NBA Defensive team award. Brad was able to secure another All-Star selection. Both also received All-NBA 3rd team awards.

Even after a great regular season and even most of the playoffs, our team fell short in the Western Conference finals as they lost to the eventual champions, the Lakers. While it was disheartening to lose, we hope that being so close to the top is something that fuels the guys on our team to play better.



(Someone comes and whispers in LoCo's ear and hands him a sheet of paper)



GM LoCo: ...Alright, I'm being told that the guys and coach are almost ready to take any questions you may have. However the presentation from the VanMemphis cheerleaders will not be happening, as I'm being told their bus had some issues. However, we do have a... errr.... slightly different presentation... (unfolds a sheet of paper) "We here of Canadian have always prided ourselves on being forward thinking. Thus I would like to present to you, for your entertainment pleasure, the SimBA's first All-Mall Dancing and Singing Troupe, Being brought to you from St. Patty's Day 2013, the Van Memphis Sexy Pitches:



(The room is silent, Coach Winters's mouth is agape as he stares at the performers that are now filing out. Isiah Thomas, Brad Daugherty, Joe Dumars, Chris Gatling, and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf have all taken their places and are at various points of breaking out into laughter, from Thomas's huge smile, Dumar's shaking head, and Daugherty repeatedly smacking Gatling on the back as he is trying to hold back his snorting laughter.)

GM LoCo: Ummm... well that was.... certainly different. Well... if anyone has any questions for me or the guys, (Pleading eyes as he looks at the reporters) please ask them at this time.

(Gatling bursts out into full body guffaws as Daugherty smacks him in the head once more)

[WigNosy]

That was incredible. Would you consider renting out your A/V staff by the hour to other teams?

[TrayWithAnA]

You have introduced a new form of media. Bonus points for that. Incredible.

[coltsguy510]

You obviously have a front court, but you're backcourt is a weakness. Do you have any plans to try and improve your backcourt during the upcoming season?

[Nick Malone 77]

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Well, that was definitely.... Great and progressive. Creative and I genius. My question was did it take you the entire offseason to film all that?

[Inner_GI]

Just here to applaud this amazing article.

[LoCo89]

Mar 15, 2014 19:08:19 GMT -6 WigNosy said:

That was incredible. Would you consider renting out your A/V staff by the hour to other teams?

Of course, our motto in VanMemphis is "We love points!"

[LoCo89]

Mar 15, 2014 20:00:22 GMT -6 coltsguy510 said:

You obviously have a front court, but you're backcourt is a weakness. Do you have any plans to try and improve your backcourt during the upcoming season?

Not anything particularly. While losing Mark Jackson hurt us, we believe that Joe and Isiah bring us probably our most well rounded backcourt that we've ever had here in VanMemphis. While they are admittedly a bit more... "seasoned" than we'd like, we think that in no means hurts us. We also have Rauf coming off the bench as usual who has always provided a great spark as our first or second player off the bench. Finally, we feel that given our front court strength between Daugherty, Anderson, and Gatling, we could afford to get more reliable players who dont have to be relied on too heavily.

[LoCo89]

Mar 15, 2014 21:15:04 GMT -6 Nick Malone 77 said:

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Well, that was definitely.... Great and progressive. Creative and I genius. My question was did it take you the entire offseason to film all that?

Nope apparently 30 minutes and shots is what im told

[LoCo89]

Mar 15, 2014 21:25:26 GMT -6 Inner_GI said:

Just here to applaud this amazing article.

Thanks

[Soundwave]

Clark Kent, Daily Planet
Amazing video aside, will Gatling continue his role as a 6th man this season?

[PaulyP]

You gave 1.6 million dollars over 2 years to Lionel Simmons in Free Agency, even after his downturn as a player a couple years ago. You gave an aging Isiah Thomas 3 million and you traded for overpaid backup Andrew Lang. You went to the Western Conference Finals last season and these are the moves you've made in return, can you take us through this "plan" and how this is going to help your squad moving forward?

[LoCo89]

Mar 16, 2014 15:19:08 GMT -6 Soundwave said:

Clark Kent, Daily Planet
Amazing video aside, will Gatling continue his role as a 6th man this season?

(Gatling looks up confused, before going back to admiring his 6MotY trophy)

GM LoCo: I think I'll allow Coach Winters to answer that.



Brian Winters: We tried out starting Chris in his rookie season before realizing that he was a bit over-matched and that it may have been a bit too soon in his development to have him in that position. He has grown by leaps and bounds since then, proving last year he was among the league's best, even coming off the bench. This gave us the confidence to start a few games in the post-season, and we went into the off-season knowing that we wanted Chris and Brad starting for us this season. So to answer the question, as of right now, the plans are to have Chris starting from game 1.

(There's a crash as everyone looks, Gatling's trophy is now smashed on the ground as Gatling has a hurt look on his face)

[LoCo89]

Mar 16, 2014 20:58:43 GMT -6 PaulyP said:

You gave 1.6 million dollars over 2 years to Lionel Simmons in Free Agency, even after his downturn as a player a couple years ago. You gave an aging Isiah Thomas 3 million and you traded for overpaid backup Andrew Lang. You went to the Western Conference Finals last season and these are the moves you've made in return, can you take us through this "plan" and how this is going to help your squad moving forward?

(ASS. HOLE.

GM LoCo: I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last. GMing isn't easy, and Free Agency is probably the hardest part of my job. Did we go in looking to make different moves? Of course. We'd love to have the best Free Agents come here, but plans change and the market is what dictates that. Going in, we knew who was going to probably be staying and who would probably be leaving. Those that were staying, form one of the best groups in the league at the 3, 4, and 5 spot. We are well aware that Isiah and Joe have their best playing years behind them. We felt that both however still have plenty to give, as they each showed last season, not to mention that both together, give us as good of a punch at the guard positions as we've perhaps ever had.


On that note, the trade for Andrew allowed us to move an under-performing older vet who had a longer contract that was never lived up to. With the trade, we gained someone who can give valuable back-up minutes and was still young enough to improve. The move allowed us to free up cap space sooner then we would have, while also gaining a draft pick. We're happy with this

Finally, while yes we did make the WCF last season, we felt it was important to keep our team flexible in the future. While it would have been easy to keep the same team, overpaying for players can cripple a team, especially after this past CBA agreement, which implemented a luxury tax imposed on teams over the cap. We felt it was in our best interest to both field a competitive team and one that maintained that flexibility.

[IamQuailman]

AWARDED 5 POINTS (Count towards your 93-94 media day press release 5-pt accrual)! THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!