CB Draft '09 Mock Press Conference: Southeast Divison

[wdleehi]

Where are the rest of the teams?   (Atlanta.  Charlotte.)

[johnnyrondo]

Questions for the Magics:

1) In the real NBA Lebron James has been eliminated in the playoffs the past three season by teams with better supporting stars (Spurs: Duncan had Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili), (Celtics: KG had Pierce, and Ray), and (Orlando: Howard had Hedo, and Rashard). Cleveland hasn't gotten it done with Big Z, Mo "all star " Willimas, Larry Hughes, Ben Wallace etc.  You have a team that should guarantee getting to the 2nd round of the playoffs, but who will be the sidekick star that Lebron has always been missing and experts say he needs to win it all?


2) Marc Gasol put up good numbers last year on a losing Memphis team, yet they went out and drafted a defensive Center with the #2 overall pick and then traded for a low post scorer after the draft. Charlie V also put up good numbers on a losing Milwaukee team, but they didn't choose to keep him and went with Amir Johnson. How comfortable are you with these two players starting or do you see a possible switch to Foster and/or Varejoa come playoff time.

3) The real Bulls have had a love/hate relationship with hinrich as a starting point guard. he's versatile as a third guard b/c he can play defense on two guards. I like him offensively off the ball with Lebron, but will he be able to stop super quick point guards on defense? Jason Richardson didn't help the Bobcats, but the Bobcats started winning after he was traded. How will he be a good fit for your slow down offense? Is Telfair a good fit as an off the ball pg with Lebron or does he need the ball in his hands?

[Gainesville Celtic]

Orlando, best team in the division.  Sure to go deep in the playoffs.

But just like Lebron's real team, there looks like there is no one that has proven to be a big time scorer in the clutch part of the playoffs.

How are you preparing the supporting cast for when they run into the deep defensive team late in the playoffs? (SA, Boston and Orlando are the three examples in real life)

Wdleehi -- this issue came up (in various forms) in the draft thread. And Lucky17 and I certainly talked about Lebron's teams' past leading into the draft.

I think this is a case where the conventional wisdom --- that Lebron needs a big time scorer to carry the load --- is actually wrong. We believe that it's not Scoring that Lebron needs help with... it's really everything else. And that this is the mistake Danny Ferry & Mike Brown made last season.

IMO, Lebron is such a dominant offensive force & skilled distributor we decided to put guys around him that were capable, efficient and multi-skilled at the non-scoring aspects of the game. Lebron is also one of those rare players that the cliched holds true, "he makes others around him better" because of his passing and the attention the defense has to pay him.

So we have an efficient PG (Hinrich) who can hit the open shot when doubled off of, a offensively gifted if not dominant SG in Richardson, a big man who can shoot from outside and draw his man out of the paint (Villanueva) and 3 other bigs to crash the boards on both ends (Gasol, Foster, Varejao).

Here are 2 examples that I think support this idea:

1. CLE's 2006-07 Finals run
-----------

This is the model for a team built around Lebron.

CLE: At PG, Eric Snow was steady and unspectacular with 4 ppg, but an a robust 2.9 ast:to ratio. Boobie Gibson came in and added 8 points in the playoffs, double his season average. Combined Snow/Gibson averaged 10pts/3 ast/3 reb/1 3pt in the playoffs
ORL: We have Hinrich who we're confident will meet those averages (he did as a reserve in CHI last year). He has a 2.5 asst:to ratio and is a better defender than either Snow or Gibson. Telfair's contributions then will be gravy.

CLE: At SG, Larry Hughes was the next best offensive talent scoring 15 ppg, but his playoff average dropped to 11 ppg. He added nearly 4 reb/3 asst though.
ORL: Jason Richardson is a better scorer and all-around player than Hughes; Richardson raised his average 3 points in the DAL playoff upset and grabbed 2 more rebounds than he had during that season. Ultimately JRic is the guy that defenses have to be most mindful of.

CLE: At PF, Drew Gooden and Donyell Marshall combined for 15 pts, 10 reb, and the threat of a 3pt with Marshall (0.5 for the playoffs)
ORL: Villanueva will stretch the defenses like Marshall did at times and Foster alone would match Gooden's rebounding. Even if Villanueva only grabs 4-5 boards a game, were stronger at the PF spot.

CLE: At C, Ilgauskas and Varejao brought 18 pts, 16 rebounds night in and night out.
ORL: Gasol is not quite the outsider shooter Big Z was but is a bit more mobile and just as good a rebounder. Varejao is better now than he was then --- our Bigs will be able to rebound better, IMO than, CLE did throughout the playoff run to the Finals

CLE: Pavlovic and Damon Jones --- other bench guys who brouht outisde shooting
ORL: Afflalo & McGuire are not as offensively talented as Pavlovic/Jones, but they bring more defense freeing up JRich and Lebron to carry a bigger offensive load.


2. CLE/BOS epic game 7 (the Pierce/Lebron game)
-----------
In the full playoffs for CLE in 2008, the 2-4 leading scorers were: Big Z (13.1), Delonte (10., Wally (10.8   ), Gibson (9.0) --- a respectible distribution that we're confident Hinrich, Richardson, Villanueve, and Gasol can match.

In that awesome Game 7, the thing that terrified me as a Celtics fan wasn't that those 4 guys would get their averages but that Lebron would take over and will the team to victory. And our fears were nearly realized:

Lebron - 45 pts
Delonte - 15 pts
Big Z - 8 pts
Pavlovic - 7 pts
Joe Smith - 6 pts

No one else had more than 5 pts, but the Cavs were 1 loose ball that Pierce got to first from winning.


Summary
----------
In a game 7, we're going as far as Lebron takes us --- which is far. To get to that game 7, JRich, Hinrich and Villanueva will ease the offensive load and are good enough shooters/scorers that they'll feast on the opportunities created by our primary distributor (Hinrich) and secondary distributor (Lebron).

Our offense is going to be run by Hinrich, but much of it will go through Lebron. Less diversification, not more, is really what CLE's offense lacked in the last year and their defense got worse as Z & Wallace got older. It's the threat of that secondary offense (Richardson, Hinrich, Villanueva) that we have more of than teams Lebron has been on in the past --- and we think this will lead the way to him realizing his full, dominant offensive potential.

[Tradetime]

Your 2009-10 Fake Bobcats
 

 
Stephen Curry     28.6 ppg  5.6 Ast 2.5 Stl

 

Darren Collison    14.4 ppg 4.7 Ast  1.6 Stl
 


Patty Mills  18.4 ppg 3.9 Ast 2.2 Stl
 


 
Wayne Ellington 15.8 ppg 4.9 Reb
 

 


 
Christian Eyenga




Jermaine Taylor 26.2ppg 5.2 Reb 0.8 Blk 1.3 Stl
 
 
Caron Butler 20.8ppg 6.2 Reb 4.3 Ast 1.7 Stl 


Danny Green 13.1 ppg 2.7 Ast .418 3p%  4.7 Reb   1.3 Blk  1.8 Stl
 


 
Blake Griffin 22.7ppg 2.3 Ast 14.4 Reb 1.2 Blk 1.1 Stl
 


 
Jeff Pendergraph 14.5ppg  8.2 Reb  1 Blk
 


 
Javale McGee 6.5ppg 3.9 Reb  49 Fg%
 


 
BJ Mullens  8.8ppg 4.7 Reb 1.1 Blk
 
Stephen Curry/Darren Collison/Patty Mills
Wayne Ellington/Jermaine Taylor/Christian Eyenga
Caron Butler/Danny Green
Blake Griffin/Jeff Pendergraph
Javale McGee/BJ Mullens
 
So, we started off the draft with Blake Griffin and Caron Butler, a one two punch that we felt would compete with any 3/4 matchup in the League. In order to obtain these guys, we did have to give up our 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounder. We drafted Andre Miller on a trade that we obtained to regain a third rounder, then traded him for Gilbert Arenas in a deal that was proposed to us. We felt like we needed another solid offensive threat, and Gilbert has been at atop the league in scoring before. We felt like this was a good move for our team, and branded two players together that have had a lot of experience in real hardcourt time in Butler and Arenas.
 
As the draft went on, we realized that we wanted to build around the youth of Blake Griffin, so many of our picks were aimed towards players that could grow with him and be successful. We made the picks of Javale McGee, whom we thought of as a real steal in the 8th round, Wayne Ellington, who will be our starting shooting guard, Darren Collison for his steady hand at directing an offense and looking for his own when necessary, and BJ Mullens whom we believe will be a contributor right off as a backup to Javale. We think Mullens wasn't given a chance to fully show his offensive repertoire while under Thad Motta in college, but will be given ample playing time on this team. Christian Eyenga and Jermaine Taylor are very athletic 2- guards, and anyone unfamiliar with their games is more than welcomed to checkout their highlight reels over at Youtube. They will provide depth at their position.  Jeff Pendergraph is a smooth shooting big that will be a nice complement to the inside game of Blake at the 4 position. Danny Green is a sharpshooter and will give us a dangerous outside threat alongside Curry of course, and we feel that Patty Mills, an explosive and determined point guard that was able to blow by American competition in the Olympic games will provide an excellent third option at the point guard position.
 
Very late in the game, after drafting was done, we decided to further complement Griffin's youth, and we went out and traded for Stephen Curry, who is an explosive scorer and a threat from deep that can create for himself off the dribble as well. We feel his point guard skills will only get better with time, and we like him with the ball predominantly as this will most often end up in his getting fouled by cheating competition reaching in on him. So we expect big numbers from him from the get go. e feel that trading Arenas for him is a move that looks like we gave up a stud all star for a rookie yet to have proven himself, but we were concerned with Gilbert's health over the past few years, and as stated previously we wanted more players that we could place around Griffin. We feel that Griffin and Curry will lead this team in the years to come.
 
And as touched upon earlier, we really liked choosing Butler as our 2nd pick in the 1st round. He is an all-star that believes in playing on both ends of the floor, which is a hard find with many wings. He will provide a veteran presence as good as anyone in the league could provide, and we aim to see that his teammates follow his example on the court.
 
We will now open up the floor for questions.

[jgod213]

Charlotte:

certianly your team is in the running for team of the future.  my question is, with the quantity of young players on your team, how do you expect guys like collison/mills/prendergraph/mullens/mcgee to develope without any veterans (besides butler) to guide them?  Are you concerned that some of these young guys like mills and collison won't be able to deveople properly due to the emphasis on development that you'll have to place on the likes of curry/ellington/mullens/ect?

basically what i'm saying is this team looks like a college all-american team, which is nice, but there seems to be no leadership here.  can caron butler be expected to help mentor an entire roster of rookies/sophmores?

[ChampKind]

Charlotte:

Your team is extremely young, and you've got 3 open roster slots.  Any thoughts of signing some veteran FAs?  If so, who?

[Tradetime]

Charlotte:

certianly your team is in the running for team of the future.  my question is, with the quantity of young players on your team, how do you expect guys like collison/mills/prendergraph/mullens/mcgee to develope without any veterans (besides butler) to guide them?  Are you concerned that some of these young guys like mills and collison won't be able to deveople properly due to the emphasis on development that you'll have to place on the likes of curry/ellington/mullens/ect?

basically what i'm saying is this team looks like a college all-american team, which is nice, but there seems to be no leadership here.  can caron butler be expected to help mentor an entire roster of rookies/sophmores?

Quite frankly, we are going to throw these guys into the proverbial fire and see what happens. We drafted these guys as we felt they would make fine professionals in the league. Our starting five of Curry, Ellington, Butler, Griffin and McGee will be a lineup that can move the ball around and will not play a stand around offense. We do expect that at first the likes of Curry, Griffin, and Butler will carry the team, with Ellington and McGee able to feed off of the play of those aforementioned players. We feel that Curry and Griffin will both be great players in the league, and will adapt much in the same way as Lebron had to when he first came into the league, minus having to deal with knuckleheads extaordinare Darius Miles and Ricky Davis. We'd rather have the good character of the players chosen than veterans who play the game for themselves.

[nickagneta]

Regarding the criticism of the DC Boxers by the brother of the NY Knicks general manager. I am sorry if I have had the stance that the general manager of the Knicks should have stepped down if he was not going to completely participate in this endeavor. Many other blog members were interested in becoming members of teams and would have given 100% participation which would have enhanced the game for all players involved. If your brother, a brother of a moderator at CB, was not the owner of the Knicks, it is my stance his team would have been passed on to someone else. Instead we have to assume he made his picks though the actions of others and that he is allowed to skip league mandated press conferences.

As for his team being better than the Boxers, let's see:

NY has Deron Williams, a great PG, Vince Carter, a selfish all for me and my stats player, Kendrick Perkins, a good defensive but offensively challenged center, and a bunch of rookies and soft defenders and left overs. His team chemistry makes no sense and neither does his drafting

Williams/Dooling
Carter/Buckner
Williams/Maxiel
Sefelosha/Balkman
Perk/Rasho/Krstic   this is is depth chart with 4 rookies from the worse draft since the Kenyon Martin Draft and you expect them to compete with players the caliber of Jackson, Wallace, Sessions, Scola, Przybilla(who is every bit as good as Perk right now), Hill(who was outstanding in place of TP last year), Morrow(the league's leading three point shooter by a wide margin), Wright(an up and coming defensive stopper that was brilliant in summer league and in the Hornets off season workouts) and Gadzuric(who is every bit as good as Rasho).

Now take the individuals players out and take a look at the makeup, tools, attitudes, the experience and chemistry of the talent assembled. The Boxers clearly makes sense. The Knicks does not.

I don't know if the Boxers will make the playoffs or not. The go against some conventional themes as to how to make an NBA winner. There's no super duper star. They are fairly young. there's no go to offensive player to dominate late game.

But they have tons of players with multiple excellent skills. They are great defenders. The are relatively injury free recently. They all have good attitudes towards the team concept and they are all easy to coach.

This will be a team who's whole will be greater than the sum of it's parts like no other in this league and I believe if they make the playoffs and get into 7 game series with team, the match ups will be very, very difficult for opposing teams to beat.

[johnnyrondo]

Questions for Boxers

1) How do you think Darko will fare as your backup big?

2) Your very high on George Hill (as I was) predict his numbers for you this yr on the Boxers.

3) You have stated that you goal is to win the division, how might you win more games than the favorite, Orlando and if you met them in the playoffs how might you win the 7 game series?

4) You made a big trade for Sessions and Morrow. What was the impetus for that deal? Better fits?

[Tradetime]

Charlotte:

Your team is extremely young, and you've got 3 open roster slots.  Any thoughts of signing some veteran FAs?  If so, who?

We want to give the roster we have assembled as much playing time as possible. The more they play, the quicker they will learn from their failures, but also their successes. If by chance we happen to fall victim to the injury bug and lose a couple of players, we will take a look around the league and see who is available at that time. We're fine with having 12 players at the moment.

[johnnyrondo]

Question for Charlotte and Miami:

What needs to happen for your team to make the playoffs this year? Is this a goal?

[Tradetime]

Question for Charlotte and Miami:

What needs to happen for your team to make the playoffs this year? Is this a goal?

We will certainly aim to compete with every team we face. Being as young as we are, there are a lot of things to take into consideration, such as how quickly our guys will pick up their plays designed for them and where to be on defense and when. We have one of the better defending wings in the league in Caron Butler to show them these things in practice, but we also believe the guys will show up and play the game right every night. Our players have solid basketball IQ's and we see it translating quickly to the pro game.

[johnnyrondo]

Btw great Presentations guys. Rather impressive. TP"s to each of you.

[nickagneta]

Questions for Boxers

1) How do you think Darko will fare as your backup big?

2) Your very high on George Hill (as I was) predict his numbers for you this yr on the Boxers.

3) You have stated that you goal is to win the division, how might you win more games than the favorite, Orlando and if you met them in the playoffs how might you win the 7 game series?

4) You made a big trade for Sessions and Morrow. What was the impetus for that deal? Better fits?

I will admit that I am taking a bit of a risk with Darko. I'm not sure you are going to get the frank response from other GM's about their weaknesses that I will give you. Having Darko as a major part of my rotation scares the heck out of me. But frankly, I was put into a tough position by losing a couple of trades in the draft early on due to my inexperience and Darko was a lot better option than what I had there before. I want rebounding and defense from my backup bigs with the ability to score on garbage. I think Darko, Gadzuric, Howard and Humphries can do just that.

Depending on the minutes he sees, i think George hill will be very productive for us. His per 40 minutes number last year were 13.5 points/5 rebounds/4.5 assists. But he shot tentatively and was unsure at times. If he can get his per 40 numbers up to 18/6/8 and be shooting at 45% this team will be in great shape going forward at the end of the year.

I've built this team to win now even if it isn't built in the conventional thinking of win now teams. My model is more in the 2004 Pistons mode where defense and balance ruled the day. I believe we should make the playoffs and once we do, I believe in our coaching staff to formulate game plans that we help us to win every game we possibly can.

The impetus behind the obtaining Morrow and Ssessions is quite easy. We feel they are better players than the player that had previously held those positions. There's really not much more to it than that.

[wdleehi]

Regarding the criticism of the DC Boxers by the brother of the NY Knicks general manager. I am sorry if I have had the stance that the general manager of the Knicks should have stepped down if he was not going to completely participate in this endeavor. Many other blog members were interested in becoming members of teams and would have given 100% participation which would have enhanced the game for all players involved. If your brother, a brother of a moderator at CB, was not the owner of the Knicks, it is my stance his team would have been passed on to someone else. Instead we have to assume he made his picks though the actions of others and that he is allowed to skip league mandated press conferences.

As for his team being better than the Boxers, let's see:

NY has Deron Williams, a great PG, Vince Carter, a selfish all for me and my stats player, Kendrick Perkins, a good defensive but offensively challenged center, and a bunch of rookies and soft defenders and left overs. His team chemistry makes no sense and neither does his drafting

Williams/Dooling
Carter/Buckner
Williams/Maxiel
Sefelosha/Balkman
Perk/Rasho/Krstic   this is is depth chart with 4 rookies from the worse draft since the Kenyon Martin Draft and you expect them to compete with players the caliber of Jackson, Wallace, Sessions, Scola, Przybilla(who is every bit as good as Perk right now), Hill(who was outstanding in place of TP last year), Morrow(the league's leading three point shooter by a wide margin), Wright(an up and coming defensive stopper that was brilliant in summer league and in the Hornets off season workouts) and Gadzuric(who is every bit as good as Rasho).

Now take the individuals players out and take a look at the makeup, tools, attitudes, the experience and chemistry of the talent assembled. The Boxers clearly makes sense. The Knicks does not.

I don't know if the Boxers will make the playoffs or not. The go against some conventional themes as to how to make an NBA winner. There's no super duper star. They are fairly young. there's no go to offensive player to dominate late game.

But they have tons of players with multiple excellent skills. They are great defenders. The are relatively injury free recently. They all have good attitudes towards the team concept and they are all easy to coach.

This will be a team who's whole will be greater than the sum of it's parts like no other in this league and I believe if they make the playoffs and get into 7 game series with team, the match ups will be very, very difficult for opposing teams to beat.

First suggestion, know who is actually on the team.


2nd


Williams > Sessions
Carter > Jackson
Williams > Wallace (Wallace is TA with a chance to start on a bad team)
Kristic < Scola(except if Kristic returns to a form closer to his NJ days)
Perk > Przybilla


bench

Maxiell is the best player on either bench.  He will be a starter this year in Detroit.  Has a lot of playoff experience. 

Gadz is good against one team, Boston.  That's it.  His numbers have been dropping since. 

Thabo and Drooling are defensive role players. 


And Walton (though I don't like him) is a solid role player on the Lakers. 



I am starting to think this wanting to overlook the Knicks as a ploy to get yourself into the playoffs.