Post by Skillz on Jun 1, 2012 11:43:26 GMT -5
It's the Dime! W/ Aar!
1. Aar, good to have you on. Needless to say, this was a busy off-season for you. How excited are you to finally start this season and what is your early win prediction?
I predict between 65 and 70 wins and a championship.
I think that this team is better on paper than Repole's Magic was last year, but that we'll have growing pains trying to work out DC kinks.
I'm exceptionally excited to see what this team can do. I'm salivating to see our first sim and am getting antsy.
I feel like I may have jumped the gun on my Davis/Pistol for Cowens/Mix trade and should have seen what we did in an outside offense, but I love the idea of a Cowens/Bingo/Mix frontcourt.
2. You acquired Bingo, we all know that, but tell us about the other trades you made and why you made them? Why not just stick with the Bingo+Willie formula?
For starters, I really wanted to put my own stamp on this team and win a championship my way.
If I like what I see, I'll stay put and if I don't, I'll make moves until we get it right.
If Cowens doesn't shoot good percentages, he's packing his bags. That simple. We're winning a championship.
The last thing that I wanted to do was win a championship with Repole's core and that's why Green is coming off the bench and I traded Willie.
I also really wanted to make this team younger and that's why I like Cowens and Mix, both are in their prime and haven't hit 30 yet. Neither moved in TC, which I also like.
3. Over the next 4 seasons, what do you consider a success? 2 titles? 3? 4?
3 out of 4 would be awesome. Keep in mind, in four seasons, Bingo will be 35. That said, he's better than Gerald Wallace ever was and Wallace was great until his late 30s. Bingo will get worse, but will still be a stud.
I'd love to win four or five championships in a row, but I doubt that'll happen.
If I win even one championship, to me, that's a success, because I add to my resume.
4. Are you worried you are almost in a lose-lose situation? If you win, it's because Repole "gifted" you Bingo. If you lose, you aren't as good as Repole?
Repole didn't "gift" me anything. The Grizzlies are in disarray and Repole now has four of their next five picks. Walton, when I traded him, was a top-10 value player and Dennis Johnson was considered a top prospect in the league.
Nobody else even put in a serious offer for Bingo and I was chomping at the bit to get a deal done.
Here's some background on the trade, my initial offer was Walton and four Grizzlies 1sts for Bingo. Repole countered with our exact deal minus Lamar Green. I asked for Green and he added him.
So I don't think that I was gifted Bingo at all. I gave up what could have been a dynasty with those Grizzlies picks.
5. Who is the biggest threat to you in the East and how do you matchup with them?
I still think it's the Bobcats and I think that we outmatch them just based on Bingo's sheer brilliance as a player. I think that the Bobcats were better than Repole's Magic in three out of five positions and I think they're better than us in three out of five positions.
People keep talking about getting a "Bingo stopper", but if Bingo can do the type of stuff he's done against the league's elite bigs in the past, we'll be tough to stop.
6. Predict Don Buse's stat line for this season and tell me why he's a better player than Bingo Smith.
13.5 ppg, 8.2 apg, 4.4 rpg, 2.4 spg, 1.2 bpg, 2.5 topg
Very run of the mill numbers.
We're running a system that does not suit Buse and his offensive strengths at all.
But I love Buse and I'm happy that he'll provide some nice defensive intangibles.
7. Who will be the best player from this draft class?
Michael Cooper. He exploded in TC and with some ACs and RCs, plus more TCs, he's going to be a stud.
I'm thinking B+ A- B+ A B C when all is said and done. Stud.
8. Broph has had some nice luck with the Trailblazers. If he doesn't win a title in the next 5 seasons, how does that affect his legacy as a upper tier GM?
It doesn't. Broph is great at building teams, but over the next five seasons, it'll be tough dealing with my team and some of the other up and coming teams. Once that window closes, however, Broph's team will be really hard to beat. He'll have Kermit, Bobby, Tree all in their primes (assuming he keeps them, which he should) and that could be a top-5 frontcourt of all-time.
9. Who are you gonna AC? You have a lot of good players!
Steve Mix. Hasn't had a single AC, so he'll likely get three of them right away.
Cowens has one left as well, but Steve Mix is my focus right now.
10. Do you remember that you fired me in your sim league like 7 years ago? I was like 13! It was mean. Why'd you do it?
I remember how badly you sucked when you first started.
You made horrible trades.
The second time around, you were more careful, took the advice of other GMs and blossomed into one of the best sim GMs out there.
I'm taking partial credit.
