Post by Outlawz on Jun 15, 2009 18:03:56 GMT -5
Welcome Ladies to the Hot Seat. Today we are joined by the 2 time BBS champ and GM of the Memphis Grizzlies, Skillz.
Good to have you on Skillz.
YEEE for hot seats!
Let's talk about your team. You usually dont rebuild what made you go for the rebuild and how do you feel about the big moves you made this offseason? We all know more moves are coming but is there anything you feel your team lacks at the moment?
Yea, I hate rebuilding and will never do it again. Both titles I won came from retooling from older teams, and actually came in years when I initially didn't think I'd contend. I got to the point where I didn't think I had enough pieces to retool well, as we had Mercier+Diego, but NO picks to use at all. Just had a weird mix of talent. Rebuilding was horribly boring and while it ultimately came out okay, I'll never do it again. Probably would have been in a better position had we tanked another year but I didn't want to do that. As far as our team, we have an interesting mix of talent. We have some vets (Henry, Davidson) but the team is for the most part young. I don't really know what to expect out of the young guys because they are different type of spects (inside oriented, B potential), but hopefully they have some upside. I suspect we'll be a pretty good team even though we lack some star power. Our backcourt will never turn it over and we have two awesome shot blockers in Joffer and Sutton. Hopefully top 4 in the West.
Season predictions. Who will be in the finals next season? Can the Sonics repeat?
Don't think so. The Sonics are great but they lost some key players in FA and overachieved a bit last year. I like the Bucks, they have a sick team and finally have a center. After them, probably the Sixers.
Let's talk about the state of the league right now. There has been a lot of talk about retro and half the league is split on it. What's your take on it and explain why you either like it or don't
I never really liked retro for some reason. Maybe i'm young, IDK. I was initially very opposed to it, but I've warmed up to it and don't really see a huge difference between fake players and retro players. I just like the interesting storylines that can be created with fake players. I also don't like how the skill set of prospects have changed in a big way. The next few drafts might be weak with so many inside-oriented players.
If you can add something to the league or improve it in any way possible what would you do?
I think it says a lot about the league that it took me a long time to think of something. I'd consider increasing the HC and I'd give more points to articles than others. An article that takes 10 minutes shouldn't be worth as much as one that take 30.
Who are your top 5 gm's followed by the bottom 5.. Explain the bottom 5
Top 5 (excluding my great self of course!)
1. Outlawz--Originally thought he was overrated because of his formula (rebuild for a while, win, etc.) but he's impressed me lately. Collecting consecutive picks of even good teams is really smart as Outlawz has gotten Mercier+Bigelow by just doing that and I was one of the few who liked the Reed thing...it was genius
2. Nanz--Consistent winners and knew when to tear it down. Staying under the hc with those players for so long as impressive.
3. Aar--Has had a lot of different teams over the years but they always seem to be good. Clearly is good with the DC too because his teams constantly overachieve.
4. Jordan--Only one title but consistent success. Always has awesome teams and they are normally young. If he could make that one move to get over the hump every year he'd have more rings.
5. Mark--Lots of guys could go 5th, struggled with this one. Only one title again, but the Nets are the other team I always associate as a consistent winner. Team has been up and down lately though.
Bottom 5: (no particular order)
1. CC--Ya, congrats on the title, but I still don't think CC is a good GM. Made an awesome deal with Kd so maybe he's improving, but I can normally tell if you're a good gm just by talking trade and CC is not.
2. Ducky--Hasn't done anything since his run a while ago. Always the same thing: rebuild, become good for a while but never do anything worth noting. Boring, and he admittedly sucks at DC's. How? I don't know.
3. Pig--He has and could be a top 10 gm but has done absolutely nothing in this version of BBS. Hasn't been very active and his good teams have always been old
4. Galo--I like Galo and we should probably give him time but it was he who fucked the Clippers in the first place. Has been good in the past, but not so much in this version.
5. Nova--Ya, didn't think I'd go this route but looking at things, Nova's track record has been horrible in this version. No titles, no finals, and 3 or 4 CY's. He assembles good young teams but always has to trade them for his CY. He always loses 3 years and tries to compete, which only lasts 2 more years. Meh.
T 5. Dru!--Ya, what has he done? I'm sure he's a good GM, but Idle did a better job with the Hornets.
Let's talk about Martinez. He's great for activity but he always seems to want to quit and then ends up getting new teams.. How do you feel about that?
Martinez should go away. We all know he's secretly obsessed with BBS. He's notorious for quitting, and even when he said "I'm out for good, I'm done," he still came back like the next day and argued with Krup/Spencer, I forgot. Now he's back again and i'm sure he'll quit/get fired in a few more months. He's definitely good for activity which is a positive and he's awesome for the first month he rejoins but he becomes a hassle/extremely annoying to the point where spence/the whole league will want him out again.
If you had to fire 2 guys for wateva reason who would it be and why?
Pretty easy, pig and Eb. If they get their activity up (which looks to be the case recently,) definitely two of the better gm's in the league without a doubt. However, it's no secret that they've been the least active gm's over the last few months.
The CY has 3 teams in its sight with the Magic, Heat, and Pacers. Do they all make it?
Magic will make it easily. They are even a dark horse for a title IMO.
Pacers won't with their existing team. However, Nova will make trades and I see them finishing with 43-47 wins after some moves. Their 3-5 is awesome, but starting Irish at PG (which nova is doing) instead of Abernathy is dumb. If they get a 2 guard and go Abernathy-2-guard-carter-chamberlain-jackson they should get it pretty easy.
Heat will just barely get it. Rivers, to me, makes that big of a difference.
Skillz, you are now off the hot seat! Thank you for participating
