The Chaos had their worst season last year under GM Whetzel. Fans were excited to see the high scoring Lindstrum/Lerch duo, but they were quickly disappointed by inconsistent play by Carroll Lerch. The 31 year old had his lowest scoring season in three years. The Chaos defense as a whole was lackluster and allowed opponents to score 109 points against them on average.
The Chaos have struggled with point guard issues for the last few years. James Bergmann, Fredric June and Preston Braun each had stints as the starting PG, but other than Bergmann earning Second Team Defense honors, there was definitely a huge need for improvement. The good news was that with the 2nd worst record in the league, the Chaos had a good chance for a nice lottery pick.
Once offseason hit, there was big news happening in the OBWL. Some of it was bad news in a sense, but it turned out to be great news as far as the Chaos were concerned. Some big changes happened league wide. Two teams in the OBWL were disbanded. The South Florida Sharks and the Philadelphia Americans are gone! Not great news as far as a league goes. It is never a good thing to see a league shrink, but what happened next turned out great for the Chaos.
With the Sharks out of the picture, that made the Chaos have the worst record, meaning they have the best chance at getting the number one pick in the lottery, which they did. Add on top of that the fact that there are now several great OBWL players that are suddenly without jobs. The remedy to that was a Dispersal Draft. The Chaos landed the first pick in that draft as well.
Without hesitation, GM Whetzel selected 20 year old PG Brandon Wells, who played 2 seasons for the Sharks. Brandon is an incredibly talented shooter who is starting to bloom. GM Whetzel told us that he has had several trade offers for Wells, but he knows what he has in this young talent and he’s not letting him go.
The next step for the Chaos will be the Rookie Draft and GM Whetzel will have a choice to make. Draft PG in Octavio Watson or fill another team void at SG or SF. GM Whetzel tells us he had received trade offers, but has his mind made up and his choice will be revealed on draft day.
Other news that could be considered good or bad is that Ben Johnson has taken over as GM of his old team, the Arizona Thunderbirds. It is good news for the league as a whole, because Johnson is one of the craftiest GM’s in the league. It is bad news for the other teams in the National Conference, but Whetzel is glad to see that one of his old rivals is no longer in his Conference. Whetzel said, “We had many seasons where we moved on to the second round only to have my prize be that I had to face Johnson’s team. It was super tough. It worked out in our favor once, but that was not usually the case.”
After the drafts will be free agency and the Chaos should have a little money to throw at a support player, probably at the SF position. There are lots of changes coming for the Chaos and the league as a whole.
