Plymouth Taproots
| Plymouth Taproots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Conference | Eastern | ||
| Division | Northern | ||
| Founded | 1961 | ||
| History | Plymouth Taproots (1961-present) | ||
| Arena | Roots Garden | ||
| City | Plymouth, MA | ||
| Team colors | Green, Brown and Black
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| Owner(s) | OSesame Group | ||
| RL Primary Contact | XenosBlade | ||
| RL Secondary Contact | 0utFox | ||
| General manager | Timothy Appleton (male red panda) | ||
| Head coach | Kevin Boyd (male oriole) | ||
| Assistant coach | Jasper Witham (male bear) | ||
| Lead trainer | Lowell Brockton (male seal) | ||
| Championships | 6 | ||
| Conference titles | 1+ | ||
| Division titles | 1+ | ||
The Plymouth Taproots are a professional basketball team based in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They play in the Northern Division of the Eastern Conference in the Furry Basketball Association (FBA).
Franchise History
2018-19: #WildGrowth - A New Start to An Old Legacy
On August 9th, 2018, Chinese media corporation OSesame Group officially announced that they had purchased the team from former owner Chris Farrow (male cat). Shortly after, former Montana Howlers general manager Art Sadowski (male gray wolf) was appointed as the President of Basketball Operations, with former Tallahassee Typhoons scouting director Darwin Chen (male sparrow) taking the general manager position. The coaching staff also went through an overhaul as well, with former three-point specialist (and most recently FSPN analyst) Kevin Boyd (male oriole) being appointed as head coach.
Sadowski had promised for a new and improved team compared to what they had last season, and the Taproots certainly had a busy offseason with aggressive trades and free agent signings, culminating in the marquee signings of Kinny DeMarcus (Hairy Bush Viper, G) and Jake Turner (Red Fox, C/F), both with four-year contracts. The draft was also a successful one as they managed to pick two of the top three prospects in the draft class in Michael River (Water Deer, F) and Trevor Cruz (Painted Bat, G/F) with their two lottery picks. With other strong players in Tahiry Andriamatsinoro (Ring-Tailed Lemur, F), Yesina Selas (Ruffed Red Lemur, G/F), and Natalie Bellemare (Atlantic Puffin, C/F) joining the fray as well, the Taproots were set to make their mark in the league once again.
After starting off somewhat slow at the beginning of the season, the Taproots began to click together and rush towards the top of the Eastern Conference from January onwards, complete with a 14-game winning streak at one point in the season; the decision to promote Andriamatsinoro to the starting small forward position was a key point in the added success, as it meant that Turner no longer was required to put the team on his shoulders every single game to carry the team to victory. Ultimately, the Taproots finished in second place among the stacked top four teams of the Eastern Conference, only losing out to the still-dominant Bangor Tides from last year. After sweeping Tallahassee in the first round, they fought through a seven-game series against the Williamsburg Minutemen before facing the Tides in the Conference finals. Ultimately, they fell just short of winning the series after going the full distance, including a Game 7 that took up to double overtime to decide the winner.
2019-20: Back to Claim the Final Stage
With most of the core squad still intact, the Taproots were able to head into their second season while keeping the improved team chemistry that they were able to achieve last year. In the draft, the Taproots selected young point guard prospect Tory Marrón (Pampas Fox, G) to round out their squad, which was generally seen as a move to prepare for the future point guard position of the club. Carrying on the momentum that they had from last season, and taking advantage of the Bangor Tides being weakened by Leon Delmont (Cougar, G)'s departure to the Seattle Summit, the Taproots easily rose to the top of the Eastern Conference, with only the Biloxi Voodoo being able to launch a serious challenge against them for the top seed in the regular season.
After easily winning against the Moonshiners in the conference quarterfinals, the Taproots had a scare against Baltimore when Jake Turner was taken out of the game early in Game 5 and were forced to an elimination game away in the conference semis; however, the Taproots still had Trevor Cruz up their sleeve, as he averaged over 30 points in the final two games of the series to win back a tense seven-game series and carry the team to the conference finals for the second straight year. The conference finals would be against the Voodoo, who had swept them in the regular season; the team, however, stepped up once again from their regular season form and won all of their home games as they won yet another seven-game series in the playoffs. In the finals against the Kahunas, the Taproots rode a heroic series of performances by Turner as they overcame the Hawaiian team's home-court advantage, and won their sixth ever FBA title in six games, their first in thirty years.
2020-22: Slow decline?
The offseason in 2020 was expected to be turbulent for the defending champions, as their starting small forward Andriamatsinoro had retired, and both of their young stars Michael River and Trevor Cruz would be leaving through free agency, along with quite a bit of their depth as well. However, the Taproots managed to keep Cruz to a four-year deal, and sign-and-traded River to the Voodoo for Tanya Feckle (Gerenuk, F/G) to fill their small forward position, with bigfur Natalie Bellemare (Atlantic Puffin, C/F) being promoted to the starting lineup. After selecting Lóránt Petrán (Kuvasz Dog, F) in the draft to bolster their forward depth, they then used what was left of their cap space to gather up some good bench depth, a combination of both returning veterans and fresh talent. The Taproots took the Western Conference title again, and early in the playoffs all looked good after eliminating Tennessee, but in the Conference semifinals, they got eliminated by Baltimore in a 7-match series. The Spirits got their revenge from 2020, meaning the Taproots wouldn't take the back-to-back trophies.
In 2021 the team looked promising at the start. The Taproots managed to keep Tory Marrón and later in the year managed to get a rookie power forward Ju Chaehwan (Yellow-Throated Marten, F) via a trade from Arizona. However, the season didn't go that well for them. They traded wins and losses more often and finished 3rd in the conference, not even taking the Division title, which went to Bangor. But they still made the playoffs, as long as they do well there, all will be good. The only problem was that their first opponent was what now could be considered their arch-nemesis: Baltimore. The Taproots won their 2020 clash and then went on to win the championship, while the Spirits won the year after. This was the tiebreaker, and once again the series reached Game 7. That match even went into overtime, but the Taproots couldn't do it. The Spirits moved on to the next round and Plymouth ended their season in the first round, much earlier than expected. It looked like the team was perhaps starting to decline...
Current Roster
| Starters | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | Shooting Guard | Small Forward | Power Forward | Center | |||||
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| 39 | Tory Marrón (Pampas Fox, G) | 69 | Trevor Cruz (Painted Bat, G/F) | 86 | Tanya Feckle (Gerenuk, F/G) | 17 | Natalie Bellemare (Atlantic Puffin, C/F) | 33 | Jake Turner (Red Fox, C/F) |
| Bench | |||||||||
| Swingfur | Guard | Forward | Swingfur | Forward | |||||
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| 6 | Yesina Selas (Ruffed Red Lemur, G/F) | 7 | Barbara Wiser (Beagle, G) | 8 | Ju Chaehwan (Yellow-Throated Marten, F) | 12 | Advit H Dhokia (Bengal Monitor, F/G) | 14 | Georges Poulletier (Chicken, F) |
| Reserves | Deep Reserves | ||||||||
| Center | Swingfur | Guard | Center | Forward | |||||
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| 68 | Woodbury Storer (Beaver, C) | 41 | Gary Elsinore (Crowned Lemur, F/G) | 20 | Sheila Starr (Golden-hooded Tanager, G) | 90 | Spiro Fotiadis (Phoenix, C) | 67 | Romeo Latourelle (Crocodile, F) |
| Head Coach Use Only: | |||||||||
| 2022-2023 Budget for | Total Cap |
Contracts Paid |
Buyouts | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth Taproots | 90.0 | 83 | 0 |
7 |
Plymouth Taproots Team Contracts
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