BAR HARBOR STORM

[GM Lucas]

"Um..Hello, I just noticed sending in your offers that you have already reached the salary cap of 90 million, you are currently over by 9,250,000. Your coaches salaries put us over. We won't be penalized unless we lock in over. I sent in the offers. If they accept, we better have the money to payout or we are going be penalized day 2. We still have up until we lock in for summer camp to release guys. Don't make this painful"

[GM Franchise]

Got it, thank you for the information, Rosita. I'm working on that now and we will be in compliance with all league regulations by the time the deadline arrives.

[GM Franchise]

Rosita, can you get me in touch with Krillin Gobochov Babayaga please, thank you.

—-

Krillin, nice to speak to you again. I'm contacting you because I'm working on a trade for your client Julius Hardwick. The other team is unable to trade for him due to his contract and I would need to restructure his contract again in order to facilitate a trade. Would that be possible to do in order to accommodate the other team who are looking to build around him?

[GM Lucas]

"So, ze-first, you ask, eh, Harvick to chnage ze-deal, last seazon to bring in Chazvick. Then, you, ze-pay, Chazvick and now vant Harvick to, take Ze-less money, to, Ze-trade avay. GM-Ze, Frenzize, you, don't do a-good buizness, no. My Clizent, Harvick, now vants 3 yearzs and thirdy mill-li-zion or vill signz with Ze-IBA."

[GM Franchise]

Three years for $30 million? Honestly, I'm sorry to say that I don't think we'd be able to put together a competitive roster without going over the salary cap if we signed that contract.

[GM Lucas]

"My Clizent iz going to Zign wit Ze-IBA, Me and you, I no longer Ze-help you with ze-cli-zents. Ze-no more deals. You pay now for all ze-cli-zents!"

[GM Franchise]

Rosita, can you send in Coach Long please, thank you.

—-

Coach, welcome back from vacation. We've got a full roster which was a challenge but I got it done. This team is a lot different than last season. Losing Hardwick is a massive loss and the contract issue there with him killed us in the first two days of FA but we got Kazlauskas who's going to be a star and I got us some depth after the drama was resolved. PF is the only position I'm concerned about which is why we got loaded up on them in FA. One or two of them can double up as back up C. SF is definitely our strongest position. I think we'll get some good play from both players just like last season and we got Chadwick for three more seasons which is huge for us.

[GM Lucas]

"Losing Hardwick was big, but he was also big pain in the ass, so his lost isn't completely missed. We might think differently though a month into the season. So now, we have a lot of unproven commodities with potential. We also have the two biggest trash talkers I've ever met on this team with Dunkatron and Nico, not a bad thing but we are going to have to keep an eye on that. Try to get them to direct that at the other team and not each other. As far as all the other young guys, who we send to summer camp will matter. I see some guys who can shine but it will be tricky. Alot of potential that is going to be thrown to the fire and they are going to have to be ready because out the gate we play Manhattan.

[GM Franchise]

I love that Nico and Dunkatron are trash talkers. If a team has players who rattle or get emotional easily we'll get to the free throw line if they start fouling us because of that. I agree about summer camp. Being very strategic and smart with who we send will be the key to improving the team more sooner than later. It's like chess, the moves with make with summer camp will lead to checkmates later in the season.

[GM Lucas]

"When it comes to really evaluating talent, I would talk to Church. I go with what I see on film, I'm about strategy, using guys to their strengths and allowing them to play. Maybe I'm a dying breed but math never won a title, so I don't depend on it to tell me if a player is good or not. Church is your numbers guy. He's the guy I got to for figuring out who plays better in what quarters, how many minutes are guys most productive, statistics and data and all that other stuff. I'm not against it, it just isn't me. But anyway, he may help you out if you having trouble deciding what guys to send, he may be able to break some equation down"

[GM Franchise]

Copy that, I'll talk to Church and get things squared away before the season starts. I love that you're great with strategy which is exactly why we went as far as we did last season. I think we'll be good to go once things get going once the season starts. I'll let you get to things and I'll talk to you again before we lock in.

—-

Rosita, can you send in Coach Church please, thank you.

—-

Coach, nice to talk to you. I'm looking into what players would benefit from summer camp and preseason training. Coach Long suggested talking to you about this. I'm interested in your insights about the rookies we have on the roster and who would benefit from some extra training.

[GM Lucas]

"We have a ton of guys who can benefit from it, as long as we send Aleksandras Kazlauskas, whoever the second guy is up to you, figure out who you want to start at power forward and point guard and make a choice. I would say Power forward is our biggest need right now, if we have to depend on Drissel, we are going to be in for a long season"

[GM Franchise]

I agree with all of that. Phillips, McCullugh, and Lindquist are our only options at that position. One of them will be going because we're going to be in trouble, like you said, if Drissel is who we depend on at PF this season.

[GM Franchise]

Good talk, Coach. Thank you for all of the good information. I'll get that all set up and let you get to things.

—

Rosita, can you send Coach Long back in please, thank you.

—-

Coach, here's what we're going to do for Summer Camp.

Aleksandras Kazlauskas - Shooting (Outside)
Corey Lindquist - IQ

[GM Lucas]

"Good Choice"

[GM Franchise]

Once I get the preseason training list done we'll be good to go for the season. PG and PF will be the focus for it going by how our roster is currently.

[GM Lucas]

"Splitting pre-season isn't bad. Let's me know how our young guys respond to a little adversity. So, I like Lightfoot he showed me with some playing time, he's gonna develop into a nice little swiss army knife to have around. A guy can do a bit over everything. The thing is, right now we have a few of those. Aleksandras looked great and Nico has to get used to the WBS, once he realizes he isn't playing on the streets of West 4th, he should be fine, I hope. Now, Hilton looks like a nice player to come off the bench when we need  a little energy plus he has a good shot. Philips on the other hand, well, we need depth. He isn't going to hurt us but I don't see him helping us much at the moment."

[GM Franchise]

That's pretty good. The depth part is concerning.I was worried about that going into this but this is a good start.having multiple Swiss Army knives on the team is a really good thing.

[GM Lucas]

"So our decision is, either, see what we got early and give the guys with the best potential a chance to see what they do with meaningful minutes, or, go hard with our starters and bring the guys in when needed and hope they can step up"

[GM Franchise]

Let's see what we've got early and go hard with the starters later in the season if it doesn't work out. Basically we're going with Plan A and will switch over to Plan B if that doesn't work out.

[GM Lucas]

"Got it, don't wait too long. Every team has gotten better in our division. I'm going to assume Chadwick is our captain?"

[GM Franchise]

Yes, that would be correct. He's an elite player and definitely will be the key to our success this season.

[GM Lucas]

"Let me know when to lock this in"

[GM Franchise]

Let's lock in and see what we've got. We'll make adjustments after the first batch of games.

Lock in.

[GM Franchise]

1. Discuss your week 1 results. Who surprised you, good or bad. Any concerns?

"This was a great week for us. Pairing up Chadwick with Kazlauskas and Dunkatron was a great move. It's paid off early this season and I'm hoping that this trend continues. I really like what I'm seeing so far from the team overall. Things are looking good with room to grow."

2. How are you dealing with your injuries (If you suffered an injury)

"We have no injuries at this time so this is not applicable to us."

3. Talk about changes if any you plan to make.

"No changes to be made because if it's not broken there's no need to fix it."

4. After seeing your team play this first week, how are you going to approach next weeks opponents?

"We'll approach them strategically on a game by game basis. If they have weaknesses we will exploit them, let them make adjustments, and then find vulnerabilities in those adjustments that we can attack to further our advantage."

5. Discuss any other news from around the league.

"The first noticeable new story was about the Texas bench. That's a huge liability for the, going forward going by what I'm seeing. Sawyer bricking all those threes should be dealt with by their coaches. Again a big liability. Attack the paint if the jump shots don't flow. Vancouver is looking dangerous but then again so is global warming and the freeze will start to melt at some point."

[GM Lucas]

"That global warming line killed it in the back, if Vancouver is the bear, we'll be the stick that pokes it. How you want to handle these next few games"

[GM Franchise]

They're an injury or drama incident away from all of that momentum going away which is why I said that. Plus they're in the other conference so any competition being eliminated by them helps us. Let's keep the same rotation and if we need to tweak it so be it. I liked how we started the season given all the changes around here.

[GM Lucas]

"Splitting with Manhattan was a big boost, especially since they were close games. We need to use that as our launching pad and keep surprising people."

[GM Franchise]

Agreed, and with the players we've got I think that's easily achievable right now. We've got some underaged talent that we can utilize this season.

[GM Lucas]

"I say keep giving these young boys playing time in the starting line up until it no longer works."

[GM Franchise]

I concur. Let's lock in and keep everything the same.

Lock in.

[GM Franchise]

First of all I'm proud of how my team is playing. We're literally in the most exciting games in the WBS every week and it's definitely generating some buzz. Also congratulations to Jerald Chadwick on winning player of the week honors. He's the best there is and it's time that started being recognized. Now to the fight. My opinion on it is this. There's some whiny crybabies involved who were mad that their team was losing. Mexico City took a cheap shot, bottom line. Karma is going to get them down the line. Now to the other news. If AIME wants to tank then we're always available to take on their best players if they want to go all in. Chadwick is right, we should be 8-2 and the fact we're playing this many games this quickly when some teams are only playing 3 games when we're already at 10 games is suspicious to me. That's a large difference in games played and it's likely effecting the team's energy level especially if we're playing teams with only 3 or 4 games played. It'll even out but it's definitely something that's set me off after looking at the disparity in the standings.

[GM Lucas]

"Good evening GM Franchise, Malika Andrews of Wake up on ESPN, you talk about schedules and being suspicious of disparity of games played. To my knowledge the schedule balances out. Are you suggesting the heavy load for Far Harbor is intentional?"

[GM Franchise]

I said it would even out at the end of my initial press conference comments. I'm not saying it's intentional but there's some teams playing three or four games while others have played double that. Someone would point that out, it might as well be me because we'd probably have seven or eight wins if we're weren't playing so many games so quickly. Other teams will have the same problem later in the season for the same reason.

[GM Lucas]

"Manhattan, Vancouver and Motor City. Playing all these games are actually good for us. It's testing us and we are clearly answering the bell, and when it comes time for us to rest, everyone else will be beating each other down. So what you thinking boss. I hear the owner is planning to sit in the suite at Motor City"

[GM Franchise]

Exactly, we're going to be well rested down the stretch. These are all big games and I'm hoping we win out to show that we're not messing around this season. We're rolling right now, let's keep the same strategy. The owner sitting in the suite is going to be a big deal. That's the game we need to unleash the team in and kick some ass.

[GM Lucas]

"I'm ready to get this rolling but just remember at some point you should have a pow wow with the team captain, just to make sure things are going smooth or se e if there are any issues even I'm not aware of, not saying there is but don't forget the guys that help us keep our jobs"

[GM Franchise]

That's true. In fact I'll do that this week before we lock in. The sooner we deal with any issues the better for us in the long run.

[GM Lucas]

"OK Then"

[GM Franchise]

I'll let you get to practice, Coach.

—

Rosita, can you send in Jerald Chadwick please, thank you.

—

Jerald, congratulations on winning the Player of the Week award. You've been playing phenomenally this season so far and I'm glad you're getting recognized for it.

[GM Lucas]

"Thanks Boss, but honestly, I've had many player of the week awards. I have had the MVP, all-star MVP, Player of the month and two titles from my time in Vancouver. But now I want a championship in Bar Harbor. I like it here, I want to win here and I like the young team we got. They are coming into their own, but honestly boss, if we are going to look long term to compete with Manhattan and Motor City We are going need some help in the form of a veteran who I can trust in big moments when I got the other team double and triple teaming me. I know it's early but thats just Something to think about."

[GM Franchise]

Copy that, that's definitely good info to have and I'll work on getting that done at some point this season. I think we're in good shape except for missing that extra veteran presence so far this season. I'll see what sort of trade options pop up this season and go from there.

[GM Lucas]

"Sounds good, I'll you do your job and I'll make sure and do mine."

[GM Franchise]

Sounds good to me. I'll let you get back to practice.

—

Rosita, can you send Coach Long in please, thank you.

—

Coach, I think we're good to go minus acquiring a veteran that can take the defensive heat off of Chadwick. That will definitely be something I'll have to look into doing that this season.

[GM Lucas]

"Sounds good, I trust what ever you come up with will help us out. I'm ready when you are boss

[GM Franchise]

Let's keep everything the same and lock in.

Lock in.

[GM Franchise]

1) Your thoughts on the punishments handed down for those who were part of the brawl between Texas and Mexico?

I like the suspensions that were given. The punishments to the teams were fair too. If there are any repeat offenses by the players and teams involved the punishments should be more severe. That's my opinion about it.

2) What do you think about the announcement of a World championship All Star game?

I like it. Our Bar Harbor players will gladly take part in this and dominate this game because that's what we do best. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. I think it'll be good for the league and the sport in general.

3) Mention any other news if you like

Bowser Black resigning is a big shocker. Hopefully he gets a job somewhere because he's really good. Motor City is looking really good too. They're a championship threat but then again so are we. Bring it on. We're on a mission to get past them after the game this week. Lastly now we have players arguing with fans. It'd be a shame if anything would happen with that. We've had enough fights this season already.

[GM Lucas]

"We need to put meaningful wins together to stay close to Motor City. We can't let Manhattan get close and start to think playoffs"

[GM Franchise]

I agree. If we get the momentum going we can definitely accomplish that. We need to keep ahead of Manhattan and then go for Motor City.

[GM Lucas]

"After this set of games I hear Oakland maybe having a fire sale and finally hiring an owner slash GM. let's keep our ears open"