The Brewster

After a season that featured sneaking into the playoffs and losing in 6 to the Impalers, the Hammers are retooling and are going to try and make sure that they can stay under the salary cap. What this means is that some players may be put on waivers. GM Ben Heuring is planning to agressively look for youth in the farm system or in the FPL down the road, a strategy that has been deemed as risky. Yes, it is risky. The thing is that players are going to get more expensive, and there was no expansion draft for Kuwait and Athens in order to shed some salary, and Heuring wants to look at players in the FPL. Which is why he has been going to Florida for the event at the expense of the team.

The FPL is a great showcase, and it is no different than scouting the WCB. Yes, the Showdown of Four is not going to determine who is the best team in the future. The thing is, the BBA is likely going to stay at 32 unless someone makes Matt an offer that he can't refuse. So, what Heuring wants to do is to look at the FPL to get an idea of how the players perform under pressure away from the BBA. Some of these players are going to not make it to the Show in the BBA, and that's fine. Heuring wants to be visible to players in order to show them that there is another league that will love to have those players. In fact, rumor has it that Heuring will be doing some writing on the FPL at some point.

A lot of the FPL prospects will be binned by their impatient GM’s, so it’ll be good to have a few names in the notebook. I was starting the youth movement in Cairo from the bottom up. It’ll be hard to find anyone who can make an instant impact at UMEBA level but there’s plenty out there that run through the FEBL and the SABL will be sound contributors in two, three or four years time