2012 CB Draft Pacific Division Press Conferences

[StartOrien]

9,000 POSTS.

LAKERS RULE!

[KCattheStripe]

There is something about that LA Lakers team that makes me feel like they'll be a greater beast come playoff time than they will in the regular season.

Similar to those Larry Brown Detroit Pistons teams in 2004 and 2005. I question whether they have the offensive firepower to really rack up the regular season wins.

Plus, like the Pistons, I think they'll be a monster when their intensity / focus is cranked up to the highest level but it's difficult for a team like that to maintain that intensity through the season. I don't know. They just remind of the Larry Brown Detroit Pistons in those ways. Very good in the regular season and downright dominant in the postseason.

So, with that said, I am leaning towards the LA Clippers and Phoenix Suns to lead the division. With the LA Lakers third. All three teams as legitimate title threats in the West. Golden State fourth and playing for a low-seed playoff spot.

FWIW: Detroit Pistons regular season standings.

2001-2002: 1st place in the Central
2002-2003: 1st place in the central
2003-2004: 2nd in the Central
2004-2005: 1st in the Central
2005-2006: 1st in the Cental
2006-2007: 1st in the central
2007-2008: 1st in the Central


So unless Who's going to give us the title right now, I'm not sure we don't win the division.

[Rondo2287]

9,000 POSTS.

LAKERS RULE!

You will have to live with this 9,000th post for the rest of your life

[Roy H.]

9,000 POSTS.

LAKERS RULE!

Do you really want to play that game?

CrotoNats ReUnited:  Almost 72,000 Posts.  Basketball Is Our Lives.  Lebron, Lebron, Lebron, Lebron.

VOTE PEDRO EDGAR.  MAVS RULE, LAKERS DROOL.

By my math, that makes us 8 times more dedicated than you.

[StartOrien]

9,000 POSTS.

LAKERS RULE!

You will have to live with this 9,000th post for the rest of your life

Hahaha, on my death bed

Son: Do you have any regrets?

Me: Of course. My 9,000th post on celticsblog.com said 'Lakers Rule!' and i haven't slept a day since

[BigAlTheFuture]

Excuse the typos and boringness of this presser. I rushed the whole thing.

CB Phoenix Suns

The Squad

Coach: Mike K.

1. Steve Nash/Andre Miller
2. Jason Richardson/Jamal Crawford/Willie Green
3. Tayshaun Prince/John Salmons
4. Kevin Love/Antawn Jamison/Jason Maxiell
5. Joakim Noah/Reggie Evans/Tristan Thompson

Starting 5

Steve Nash - Not much to say about this guy. 2 time NBA-MVP. Probably the best passer in the league. Can still hit the open 3. 38 year old Steve Nash led a very bad Phoenix Suns team to a near playoff berth last year. One of the few players in the league that can actually make his teammates better.

Jason Richardson - Great fit with Nash. Obviously not the scorer he once was in his heydey but can is still a very reliable scorer. A player that has played with Nash before and had his most efficient scoring seasons in Phoenix. I don't see why he can't return to that level of play now that Steve Nash is distributing him the ball.

Tayshaun Prince - Very good perimeter defender. Prince has been overlooked and forgotten these past few years due to Detroit's irrelevancy. People forget that this guy was one of the best defenders at his position back in 07. He is very long and versatile. He provides hard-nosed D and hustle. A perfect fit for any team.

Kevin Love - The best PF in the league, no doubt. Not quite the flashy player that Blake Griffin or Amare Stoudamire is, but when it comes to overall play, give me K-Love any day of the week. Any 6'11 big man that can hit the long range 3 is valuable in my eyes. Not to mention this guy is a rebounding machine. Now that Steve Nash is his teammate, I don't see why the Love-Nash duo could transform into a legitimate pick and roll threat that Amare and Nash was.

Joakim Noah - Noah is the best type of player. Hustle, hard nosed defense, not afraid to dive for looseballs, and he hits the glass hard. We can't count on him to score 20 for us, but he's a great fit next to Love.

Key players off the bench

Andre Miller - One of the most durable players in the league. He's a veteran and is very consistent. His leadership will also be very valuable to us. I think he will be a perfect Backup for Nash.

Jamal Crawford - Former 6th man of the year. He can score with the best of them. Crawford is also very clutch. Wouldn't be surprised if he led the team in scoring for a handful of games. He is just the type of player we need off the bench. Instant offense and a dangerous threat from outside.

Draft Philosophy

My plan coming into the draft was to build around two star players. He just didn't want to give up too many picks to get there. So when Nash fell to me in the 2nd round, I was ecstatic. I believe Nash is still an all-star level player at his old age. After I picked up Nash, the plan the rest of the way was to surround him and Kevin Love with the shooters and defense. I think I did a good job filling out the 1st unit with Jason Richardson, Prince, and Noah. It was a simple blueprint that, imo, worked out great. I have a team full of hungry veterans that is dying for a championship. Steve Nash's best team was probably the 09-10 Phoenix Suns that he led to the WCF. Imo, this team is, without a doubt, better than that WCF team that pushed the Lakers to the limit.

Best Move: Trading Rudy Gay for Joakim Noah. Noah is just a better fit for my team. Not to mention, there wouldn't be many good centers available. I felt like I could replace Rudy Gay easily so it wasn't a hard decision to make this trade.

Worst Move: I did a pretty bad job drafting in the last few rounds. After round 7, I drafted without a spreadsheet. Bad idea.

Toughest decision: None, because I'm a chicken when it comes to big trades.

[Roy H.]

Phoenix,

How far can your defense take you?  Outside of Noah and Price, do you have any above-average defenders?

[BigAlTheFuture]

Phoenix,

How far can your defense take you?  Outside of Noah and Price, do you have any above-average defenders?

I'd say Andre Miller is a pretty good defender. Reggie Evans and Jason Maxiell can also hold their own. John Salmons is also a very good perimeter defensive player and Thompson is a decent shotblocker. I wouldn't say I have a lot of above-average defenders, but, they aren't horrible either. I think they can all play quality defense.

[The Walker Wiggle]

Can either Manu or Iggy be a full time PG on a good offense?

I'd contend a great offense. Unless you're unwilling to concede that the Philadelphia 76ers, a strong playoff team with the best efficiency differential in the league, primarily ran their offense through Iguodala? He lead the 76ers - a team with two notable point guards - in both assist rate and assist to turn over ratio. His 5.5 assists per game was better than 12 NBA starting point guards, and better than every wing except Lebron James himself. And more importantly Iguodala makes great reads with the ball, his assist to turnover ratio (2.95) was 11th best in the league, markedly better even than James's (1.82).

(Side note: He did all this without conserving himself on the other end - holding every opposing team's best wing defender to a 8.7 PER. League average is a 15.)

Oftentimes they're running their offense through Iguodala, who I think is a tough match-up because of all the different things that he does.

And, to give him some margin for error, I've paired him with Manu, who's assist rate was tops among shooting guards, more than a full assist better per 40 than the next best two guard, Monta Ellis, on a Spurs team with the league's best regular season record and highest offensive rating.

Manu is not a traditional shooting guard in the Reggie Miller or Ray Allen mold that needs someone to create for him to spot up. Ginobili is at his best with the ball in his hands creating for himself and others, just like Parker and most traditional PGs. Manu is able to adapt to playing with Parker because aside from being a scorer/creator he can also fill in as a shooter, which allows the Spurs to play the two together. The reason Manu came off the bench for so long was to maximize both his and Parker's time handling the ball and the only reason taking the ball out of Manu's hands makes sense is because Parker is also and elite scorer/creator. Making Manu a spot up shooter to make room for a mediocre but ball-dominant guard makes absolutely no sense... That's just one example of how discarding traditional positional nomenclature and instead focusing on roles and skill sets can improve our ability to understand the game.

This in a Hall-of-Fame Sloan run offense that minimizes traditional player roles and pick-and-roll heavy point guard action with off the ball movement, and strong offensive options who do their best work off the ball, Thompson, Davis, Frye, Teletovic.

And the first guard off the Dubs' bench is Delonte West, one of my favorite combo-guards, a player who can relieve either Iguodala or Ginobili of some of their play-making duties while playing very effectively off of a ball-dominating wing. (See his successful run in Cleveland, where he sometimes looked like the second best player on the team after Lebron.)

I've put a lot of thought into my personal, and don't believe I'm up against whether Iguodala or Ginobili can run a team successfully, but rather the preconception that no small forward or shooting guard can? If that's your opinion I'm not sure I have the ammunition to convince you otherwise. Obviously I disagree.

[Roy H.]

I've put a lot of thought into my personal, and don't believe I'm up against whether Iguodala or Ginobili can run a team successfully, but rather the preconception that no small forward or shooting guard can? If that's your opinion I'm not sure I have the ammunition to convince you otherwise. Obviously I disagree.

Iggy was probably the primary ball-handler on that Philly team, but the 76ers ranked 20th in offensive efficiency.  That's why I talk about running a good offense.  I love AI2, but I'm not sure I want him as my point guard.

I do like that you've matched him up with Manu. 

I worry, though, that your starting lineup averaged a combined 37.8 points at the NBA level last year.  Combine that lack of scoring production with a non-elite PG (at least in terms of raw assists), and you have an offense that is looking at some major problems.

Ball movement is nice, but somebody has to put the basket in the hoop.  I can buy a non-traditional offense, but convince me that your non-traditional offense has the ability to win when none of your starters averaged as many as 13.0 points per game last year.

[Who]

I am leaning towards Phoenix as my pick for division winner.

[StartOrien]

The Suns lineup kind of emphasizes why I'm not super crazy in love with Kevin Love.

To me, a good player, but how much worse would this team be if he went down and they were forced into playing Antawn Jamison his minutes?

[Lucky17]

1. Steve Nash/Andre Miller
2. Jason Richardson/Jamal Crawford/Willie Green
3. Tayshaun Prince/John Salmons
4. Kevin Love/Antawn Jamison/Jason Maxiell
5. Joakim Noah/Reggie Evans/Tristan Thompson

In terms of press conferences, sometimes less is more.

Q1. Any concerns about how Prince and Noah performed last season? Both had a bit of an off year. Any worries that Prince, now 32 years of age, may begin to lose a step or two?

Q2. How devastating would a serious injury to Noah be for this club?

Q3. Any worries about your frontcourt rotation in a division that sports so many talented big men who are 6'10" or taller (and longer)?

[BigAlTheFuture]

1. Steve Nash/Andre Miller
2. Jason Richardson/Jamal Crawford/Willie Green
3. Tayshaun Prince/John Salmons
4. Kevin Love/Antawn Jamison/Jason Maxiell
5. Joakim Noah/Reggie Evans/Tristan Thompson

In terms of press conferences, sometimes less is more.

Q1. Any concerns about how Prince and Noah performed last season? Both had a bit of an off year. Any worries that Prince, now 32 years of age, may begin to lose a step or two?

Q2. How devastating would a serious injury to Noah be for this club?

Q3. Any worries about your frontcourt rotation in a division that sports so many talented big men who are 6'10" or taller (and longer)?

Q1. It seems like every player had an off year last season. Haha, no concerns here. It was a short/lockout season. Their offensive numbers might have dropped a little bit but their defense is still top-notched. Regarding Prince's age, I think he still has a few more years of quality basketball left in him. He was never a player that relied on athleticism a whole lot. Prince stayed relatively healthy throughout his career, as well.

Q2. Any injuries to any player would be devastating. Noah is obviously the defensive anchor on my team. So yeah, it'll be pretty tough to see him go down. But, I don't think it would be a huge blow to us. This team is built around Love/Nash.

Q3. I think our big man rotation is one of the best in the division. We may not be taller than opposing teams but we're definitely the toughest and strongest. We play bigger than them, imo.

[Kane3387]

The Suns lineup kind of emphasizes why I'm not super crazy in love with Kevin Love.

To me, a good player, but how much worse would this team be if he went down and they were forced into playing Antawn Jamison his minutes?

As in Jamison is basically on Kevin Love's level? Presently?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=loveke01&y1=2012&p2=jamisan01&y2=2012

Points, Rebounds, FG%, FT%, and 3 pt % K Love is far superior.

Adavanced stats aren't even close. WS/48 Love is .223 and Jamison is .070. WS Love is 10 to Jamison's 3.1. Offensively Love has a rating of 117 to 103 and his defensive rating is actually better by 5. Love's TS% is .568 and Jamisons is .481. Their PERs aren't close either.