Let’s start with free agency first, since that was the biggest stage for us:
Coming fresh from the championship, it was surprising that we had the chance to free up almost 2 max spots. But I think we got really lucky that the team caught fire sometime during last season and made it all the way to the end. 2-3 season earlier than my highest hope. That saw us having still a few of our guys coming of rookie contracts. Very nice, but it was always more of an imaginary number. The moment we would be able to sign someone to a max contract, was the moment we would have to sign and trade a player from our finals roster. Asset-wise a good option, but I was not really willing to let go of the core yet. Also, we were under pressure to resign Mr. Ball asap after his stunt he delivered during last years FA. And the moment he signed, I knew a max would be out of the window.
I was even contemplating keeping all rights to our vets like White and Bende, who made up a big chunk of money last season (would have been the safe decision). But ultimately deciding to free up 25Mil and try just for the fun of it.
First target was Zion, just to see if maybe DDS FA would at least give the reigning champions a hard look and maybe a league shattering FA move. Yeah sure, DDS didn’t play along pretty much as predicted and Zion didn’t even answer our call. Actually, most of the good FA had us never in their own plans and it was pretty much a waste of time.
While we were at least able to sign young PF Isaiah Jackson, it has to be seen if he can play himself in a regular bench role. The good news is that we were able to bring back Alvarado, Ball and Perry. All 3 very important to our game plan and we should be able to keep the core together for 2 more seasons until the finances really get tough.
Besides of that we resigned Tadas Vaiciunas for cheap. At least we know wat we can expect from him, and we took a flier on undrafted Izan Almansa in hopes he may boost. He had a good TC but doesn’t look like a candidate for the rating boost.
Before all this drama in FA, we of course participated in the draft and decided to move in at 22 sending out our last 2 1st’s and take a flier on a big men (yeah your are right, the team is looking hard for a replacement for the aging Chiemezie Metu) in Tristan da Silva.
Turned out my scouts pulled a joke on me and he his not clearly as ready as I hoped he would. Hard to tell what we will do with him going forward but this season he is unlikely to see playing time with the pro’s
The bottom line of how it looks right now, we lost a good bit of veteran depth for the upcoming season. Especially Coby White and PJ Washington will be missed in those games where our depth is depleted from injuries. We have to hope of some good development of guys like Waters III, Obiesie and Jackson to cover these minutes.
We are going into the next season with only one goal, try to repeat. A monumental task in CSL, not sure if it ever happened before. As mentioned before, I’m still not completely sure how much was result of good roster construction or just luck that all parts fell in line. Probably a mix of both. Hopefully our core players learned a lot and we have the age of the roster on our side. Players like Naji and Murray were still developing in TC, that gives hope we can male up some weaker depth with improved play of the out top 8 players.
Looking around at the East, it will not be easy though. All teams around us made big moves to improve. NY has the best roster since years. The new super teams in Cleveland and Chicago can’t wait to take the floor. Philly, Miami, Brooklyn are not going anywhere. Add to that teams like the Detroit Pistons, stacked with young talent on the fringe to make the next step. Fun times for sure.
