Charlotte Wildcats

[Rizzo]

How many seasons are currently completed and written up?

[propthink]

I just finished season two. My goal is to try and stay about a year ahead.

[zike_42]

Louis Williams an First Teamer? Jason Terry in the second team? Whaaaa?

Anyway, the season was a success in my eyes. Who are you looking at for the second pick? Any game changers in the draft?

[propthink]

I'll have some more information on that when the time comes, but basically my two biggest needs are a starting shooting guard and starting power forward. I already have someone in mind at the shooting guard position I'd like to pick up during free agency, so I am going to focus on a power forward. I think the mock draft predicted that four power forwards are going to get picked in the top ten alone so its a pretty deep draft at that position. I am just really excited to have the second overall pick two years in a row, almost makes up for missing out on the first overall pick last season.

[propthink]

[font="Times New Roman"]Season 2, Chapter 1

As preparations were being made for the upcoming season, I received a phone call from Charlotte Wildcats owner Jordan Michaels.

“Hello Joe, I thought I would call and we could have a quick chat about the upcoming season. So tell me, how is the team going to fare this season?”

I was confident that we had made some significant improvements during the previous season, but I knew that there was still a lot of work ahead of us; if we were going to groom a truly successful franchise then we needed to keep ourselves down to earth: “It’s going to be an average year.”

“I expect better out of you and this team. Just know that I’m not going to stand for this kind of thing very long. How much are you planning on spending to underachieve this year?”

It was disconcerting to realize that Michael’s patience had worn so thin. “Right about at the cap.”

“I’m OK with that. Good luck this season.”

I was pleased with the performance of my coaching staff the year before, and thus decided not to make any changes thereof. I turned my attention to the roster:

PG Kemba Walker [3.5/4.5]($2,710,267)[23]
PG Kendall Marshall [2.5/3.0]($1,772,900)[21]

*SG Gerald Henderson [3.0/3.5]($6,202,652)[25]
SG Ben Gordon [2.5/2.5]($13,200,000)[30]
SG Terrel Harris [2.0/2.5]($1,377,000)[26]

SF Michael Kidd-Gilchrist [3.5/5.0]($4,252,000)[20]
SF Stanley Robinson [2.0/2.5]($1,525,410)[25]

PF Ekpe Udoh [3.0/3.5]($4,469,547)[27]
PF Markieff Morris [2.5/3.0]($2,207,452)[23]
*PF John Leuer [2.5/3.0]($5,250,000)[24]

C Bismack Biyombo [3.0/3.5]($3,218,474)[21]
*C Jeremy Tyler [2.0/2.0]($3,930,000)[22]

I was set at the point guard position (Walker was a leader on the court and Marshall was a leader on the bench), but shooting guard was an entirely different matter. Gerald Henderson was up for a new contract, and I was simply not willing to pay him that much money to stick around. Ben Gordon’s contract was extremely toxic and I was already looking for ways to get rid of it (he was a decent player, but he was eating up way too much cap space). I could already sense that I was going to be in the market for a starting shooting guard.

Much like the point guard position, I was also very comfortable with the small forward position. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist only needed time to develop and Stanley Robinson was a force coming off of the bench (and a Slam Dunk Contest Champion, for what it’s worth). The situation at the power forward position was less certain; Udoh lost the starting job and will likely be condemned to the trading block, but I still have some doubts about Morris going into the future. This is not to mention the plethora of talent at the power forward position available in the upcoming draft (three out of the top five picks in the mock draft are power forwards). Center Bismack Biyombo was already a very solid player with plenty of potential still ahead of him, but it was unlikely that Jeremy Tyler would be returning as his understudy given his high price tag.[/font]

[propthink]

[font="Times New Roman"]Season 2, Chapter 2

The upcoming draft featured a lot of quality talent entering the league directly out of high school; among them were our top three targets: power forwards Marshod Jennings and Robert Stanley, and shooting guard Chris Horan. Jennings was predicted as being taken with the first overall pick, having averaged 35.2 points per game and 13.0 rebounds per game throughout his high school career. It was therefore expected that we would select Robert Stanley second overall; he averaged 26.6 and 18.7 points/rebounds per game. However, we were also very interested in shooting guard Chris Horan; he recorded 36.2 points per game while still managing to collect 10.8 rebounds per game.

When draft day arrived, the Brooklyn Hoops actually decided to select center Charles Ash with the first overall pick. Although Marshod Jennings had fallen to us, I had decided that Robert Stanley would be a better fit for the team at the power forward position. While I was also tempted to pick shooting guard Chris Horan, it was obvious that Stanley was a better player overall, and so he was our final decision at second overall (Horan went to the Dinos at third overall and Jennings went to the Mystics at eighth overall). Shortly thereafter, power forward Ekpe Udoh and our second round pick were traded away to the Indiana Racers in exchange for shooting guard Alec Burks; this move helped free up a little bit of cap space and gave us some additional talent at the shooting guard position. Unfortunately, however, I was going to be stuck with Ben Gordon’s contract for one more year.

Shortly after the draft, I decided to retract our qualifying offers on Gerald Henderson, Jon Leuer, and Jeremy Tyler. I determined that these players were simply too expensive to be kept on the team.

Current Roster:
#15 PG Kemba Walker [3.5/4.5]($2,710,267)[23]
#5 PG Kendall Marshall [2.5/3.0]($1,772,900)[21]

#10 SG Alec Burks [2.5/3.0]($2,323,654)[22]
#8 SG Ben Gordon [2.5/2.5]($13,200,000)[30]
#12 SG Terrel Harris [2.0/2.5]($1,377,000)[26]

#14 SF Michael Kidd-Gilchrist [3.5/5.0]($4,252,000)[20]
#24 SF Stanley Robinson [2.0/2.5]($1,525,410)[25]

#52 PF Robert Stanley [3.0/4.5]($3,955,400)[18]
#11 PF Markieff Morris [2.5/3.0]($2,207,452)[23]

#0 C Bismack Biyombo [3.0/3.5]($3,218,474)[21]

Salary: $36,524,557
Cap: +$21,457,443

Despite the fact that Ben Gordon’s contract was eating up a lot of cap space, I still had plenty of money to work with for the time being. In the meantime, however, it was time to focus on the summer league.[/font]

[PointGuard]

Robert Stanley looks to be a hoss up front (18.7 rpg in college)! Nice.

[propthink]

Those are actually his high school stats (I allow draft entry directly out of high school); not sure if that makes much of a difference or not but it seems like the numbers he would have put up in college would have been somewhat smaller. Regardless, he certainly does look like a beast and I think I made the right choice.

If anyone is interested here is a look at his ratings post-training camp (I'm not quite there in the journal yet but I am well beyond that point in the game so this is the best I can do):



My biggest point of concern is how low his defensive ability is; that is usually a skill that I consider in high regard when scouting power forwards. However, three of my starters have a defensive rating higher than 80, so its not exactly a weakness of mine. Furthermore, his scoring abilities are solid and his rebounding potential is downright elite, not to mention his high potential for discipline and court intelligence. All things considered I am very happy with this selection and I think that he is the best fit for the team.

[PointGuard]

Wow, didn't know he had just finished HS. His ratings as a rookie look fantastic.

[Rizzo]

For a top-3 pick, I'd also like to see a better defensive rating but like you said, hopefully the other starters can pick up the slack on that end for him and he can pour in a few buckets early and often for your Wildcats.