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, with former three-point specialist (and most recently FSPN analyst) Kevin Boyd (male oriole) being appointed as head coach.
Sadowski had promised 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, F)'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 won 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...
2022-23: GM change
Before the 2022-23 season, the team's GM Darwin Chen decided to leave the team. In came a new face: Timothy Appleton (male Red Panda). He studied basketball for years before then and took some managerial jobs in Europe to gain experience. His first task was dealing with free agency, mainly resigning the star center Jake Turner. While clearly nervous, the new GM managed to re-sign Turner for two more years but didn't feel the same way about Kinny DeMarcus, who he opted to not resign, letting him go back to the West with the Arctics. He mainly focused on the roster depth, recognizing the massive strength of the core 5, and brought in players to compliment them (Georges Poulletier (Chicken, F) and Barbara Wiser (Beagle, G) among others).
The season started quite decent. Taproots made a fortress out of the Roots Garden, but it took them a while to start winning on the road. It was night and day, they were unbeatable at home, but unable to win away. Only in the second half of December, they started to win on the road too, and it looked like they'll be on their way to the top of the conference. But in February they started losing at home. 3 home losses in a month after 3 months without a single home loss. Was the team starting to crumble? Thankfully not, the team managed to recover from the slump and kept themselves in the fight for the conference title with the Mayors and the Firestorm. With the season being close as never before, it took them until two weeks before the regular season's end to lock a spot in the playoffs, but they still showed that they're a big favorite to win it all again, and as the regular season came to its end, things were VERY tight at the top. The Taproots were assigned the #3 seed, thanks to their division title, meaning they will play Bangor in the first round and avoid all the teams they feared until the Conference Finals.
The 'Roots started well in the first round, and thanks to willing to experiment a bit with the starting lineups, they won the series in 6, with Feckle and Turner being the top players. In the Conference Semifinal, they faced the Moonshiners, who rather shockingly beat the 2-seed Huntsville in 5. Tennessee was dubbed by many to be the strongest 7 seed in years, and underestimating them would be a fatal mistake. Both teams held their home ground in the first 4 games. But then the Moonshiners won Game 5 and Plymouth were left with their backs against the wall. Tennessee only needed to beat them once to turn the advantage in their favor, now they needed to do the same to get it back. But they didn't, as Moonshiners won Game 6 and the series to advance to the Conference Finals against Firestorm, and later on to the FBA Finals against the Howlers. Plymouth made it one step further than last year, pretty much as the new GM wanted. Wanting to win it all in the first year under new management would be too much, but it's definitely good that the team, at least for now, stopped the decline since their 2020 Championship.
2023-24: End of an Era?
Heading into the 2024 season, Plymouth unveiled a new, modernized identity, with a new logo and uniforms. GM Appleton felt happy with the team's core, and so not many changes to the roster were made. The star point guard Marrón stayed on board, while forwards Ju and Selas found new homes in Alaska and Baltimore respectively. Outside of the draft where the team acquired a promising European center Alvaro Tejón (European Badger, C), the only new acquisition was Hjelä Weber (Thorold's Deer, F) as an investment for the future. And with rumblings that this might be Jake Turner's last season as a Taproot, the GM felt obligated to get a better season than last year. And things were looking up in the regular season, PLY was near the top all year and were battling for the regular season title with Huntsville Mayors. It however slipped though the team's fingers with an overtime loss against Tennessee, with Huntsville beating them to it thanks to a better conference record. That also meant the Taproots will have to face their playoff demons: Baltimore. The jokes and mockery had to come to an end. And indeed, Plymouth would not give the critics more ammunition as they beat the Spirits in 6 and gained a morale boost heading into the conference semifinals against Tallahassee. In the matchup, both teams defended their home forts, but the Typhoons were getting dangerously close, as the Taproots had to win Game 5 in overtime. TAL was getting closer each time: 10 points behind in Game 1, 7 points in Game 2, overtime in Game 5, while Taproots weren't able to do the same at the Merrill Palace. They had to rely on the home court advantage... but it wasn't enough. Tallahasse won the last game at the Roots Garden by two points to advance to the Conference Finals, leaving the Plymouth players distraught. They did all they could...2nd in the league after 80 games, only losing out on the top spot by conference record...and it didn't matter. They failed to convert a home court advantage into a deep playoff run for two years in a row now, lost a game 7 for the third time in a row, and with Jake Turner possibly leaving, one can't help but ask: was this their last real chance at a title?
2024-25: Small Steps Forward
Before the 2025 season, Plymouth was facing a difficult decision: would they re-sign Jake Turner? If they did, he’d have to take a massive pay cut, and he wasn’t getting any younger either. In fact, signs were pointing towards retirement. So GM Appleton opted not to re-sign him, committing to Alvalo Tejón as the new main center. So imagine what surprise he and the rest of the league woke up to when Turner signed with Baltimore. But he wasn’t deterred by this; the main focus was to keep the rest of the starting five and improve the depth. And the red panda managed to do just that: Cruz, Feckle, and Bellemare all signed new contracts, and he brought in Mads Rindahl (Western capercaillie, G/F) from Montana, who drafted the capercaillie right under his nose in 2022. The season itself could be summed up as follows: The team had a great year, right when others had even better seasons. Taproots finished the regular season with a 55-25 record, the best record since their 2020 championship season. And just like in their championship season, others had even better seasons: Las Vegas, Dakota, and crucially for the Taproots, Tallahassee. That was despite the Roots Garden becoming a fortress; the team didn’t suffer a single home-court loss throughout the entire regular season. Plymouth quickly dispatched the Mayors in the first round and were on course to repeat it against the Keystones in round 2… but the Keystones managed to win Game 5 in Plymouth. The only team to win a game in Plymouth all season. That rattled the ‘Roots a bit, but they finished off Pittsburgh in Game 7 and went up against the Typhoons in the Conference Finals. Appleton, in fact, predicted the FBA Finals all the way at the start of the season: Wildcards vs Typhoons. Not that he didn’t believe his own team’s abilities, but Tallahassee had such a superteam that it seemed foolish not to tip them for the championship… and yet, there was a chance, Taproots were very close to winning on their court twice and brought the series to Game 7…but just like the year before, Typhoons came out on top. They would win the championship, proving Appleton right. As for the Taproots, it was a successful season, despite the feeling of what could have been. The team was showing great promise for the future, and proved they could move on from the departure of their legendary center.
2025-26: Playoffs collapse
Heading into the 2026 season, GM Appleton declared a serious push for the FBA championship. He used Biloxi's lottery pick to draft Jesús Hamilton (Lynx, C/F), a top bigfur from Gibraltar. But that decision almost blew up in his face, due to the international friction with his Spanish-born #1 center Alvaro Tejón. Part of running a team built mainly from foreign players is making sure they all get along, and international relations can be tricky sometimes.
After some time, assured there won't be any conflict between the two, the red pand GM could get back to work. He managed to keep Tejón for three more years, and bringing more players to bolster the depth of the roster. Biggest hit was signing of Yigori Ryurikov (Sable, F) from Pittsburgh, who settled into the team really well, becoming a solid 6th fur and nearly winning the 3-pt contest during the All-Star weekend. The team itself continued their strong run of form from last season, and actually winning the regular season title, securing home advantage for the entirety of the playoffs. In a repeat from 2025, the team quickly dispatched the Mayors in 5, moving on to the Conference Semis. And again in a repeat from 2025, they would face the Keystones...but something was different. The lingering feeling from last year, Pittsburgh being the only team to beat Plymouth in the Roots Garden in the whole 2025 season...The team needed to be wary. First two games went their way, but couldn't take the next two, losing both by close margins. Then...it happened again, Keystones won Game 5. Suddenly the top seed for the entire playoffs was on the backfoot. They dug deep and won Game 6 right back in Pittsburgh, with the series going the distance again... with Keystones on top this time. The team around Nur Iwata (Jorunna parva ("sea bunny"), G) and Margo Warrior (White-tailed Jackrabbit, C) somehow found another gear and won at the Roots Garden again, crushing the Taproots' hopes. Plymouth was eliminated in the second round again. Since their last championship in 2020, they were never worse than a 3 seed, yet failed to make even the Conference Finals five times, every single time getting beaten by a lower seeded team. Serious questions were getting raised. Was this the end of Kevin Boyd as the coach? Will the players want to stay? Not to mention the FBA community labeling the team as chokers and underachievers...
