Las Vegas Lakers
Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for their co-operation throughout the draft. From the Commissioner to my fellow GM’s who I had either intense trade discussions with or otherwise. We’re very happy to have the chance to run a franchise like this. We feel that the move to Las Vegas from Los Angeles signifies our intention to set the league alight in the bright lights of Vegas. We also wanted to distance ourselves from some of Los Angeles’s dirty past – from the likes of Kurt Rambis to Kobe Bryant. We hope that with the new look of the team, under our regime we will be rid of the “losers” and “second best” tags so commonly associated with the history of the Lakers franchise. On that note we present you with the motto of our team: “Growing together. Winning together.”
Starters:
Height: 7'0" | Age: 23 | Status: Defensive force.
Height: 6'10" | Age: 24 | Status: All-Star Starter.
Height: 6'9" | Age: 19 | Status: Reigning ROY.
Height: 6'5" | Age: 20 | Status: ROY Candidate.
Height: 6'1" | Age: 25 | Status: Young distributor.
Bench:Rashad McCants – Height: 6’4” | Age: 23 | Status: 6th Man
Luke Walton – Height: 6’8” | Age: 28 | Status: Hustler, young vet with finals experience.
Steven Hunter – Height: 7’0” | Age: 26 | Status: Young big man with playoff experience.
Speedy Claxton – Height: 5’11” | Age: 30 | Status: Vet PG, high risk-high reward.
Nick Fazekas – Height: 6’11” | Age: 23 | Status: Young big man, hustler
Rasual Butler – Height: 6’7” | Age: 29 | Status: Three-point specialist, vet.
Donyell Marshall – Height: 6’9” | Age: 35 | Status: Vet with playoff experience, bomber from behind the arc.
Devean George – Height: 6’8” | Age: 30 | Status: Vet, hard worker, outside shot.
Jeff McInnis Height: 6’4” | Age: 33 | Status: Vet back-up PG.
Nathan Jawai – Height: 6’10” | Age: 21 | Status: Rookie big man project.
Europe:Carlos Delfino (25) - SG
Anté Tomic (21) - C
Artem Zabelin (20) - PF/C
Petteri Koponen (20) - PG
Draft philosophy:Our philosophy was to build a championship squad with a window of 10-12 years. After a mix-up with the previous regime, our hand was pretty much forced into re-building following the Tim Duncan/Kevin Durant trade. Our philosophy from that point on was building a team around Kevin, who we believe has the potential to be the best player in the NBA one day. In Kevin we see a player with that killer mentality, he likes to take over games and has the ability to score however he likes.
We started building around Kevin with the likes of Emeka Okafor and Chris Kaman; this was a road we didn’t really want to go down, as neither player, in our eyes, would be ideal next to him. We then pursued Chris Bosh, a superstar in this league already and with the ability to lead a team for 10 more years. In Bosh and Durant we found ourselves unable to hide our excitement – we have two young and unselfish franchise players playing side-by-side. It became clear then that we had to find the right pieces in the rest of the draft, as opposed to the best player.
OJ Mayo fit the bill perfectly. In our system, playing next to Bosh and Durant, he’d be very comfortable in his first year in the NBA. The kind of comfort that we hope will limit those common rookie errors and help him not only find his feet, but excel to the elite level expected of him, effectively giving us a star-studded big three in their prime years down the line.
Continuing with our philosophy of drafting the best player that fits our team, not the best player, we completed our line-up with Chris Duhon and Darko Milicic. In Chris’s case we feel he’s ready for a starting job in the NBA. He can push the ball up court with pace; he can run the half-court offense and he can score if need be as well as do a great job defensively. He is still young and has enough experience to keep the other guys happy. As for Darko, we’re of the opinion that this is his perfect situation. Darko is a gifted defender, and that will be the word used most with Darko in his time here – defense. Playing next to Chris (Bosh), Kevin and OJ – who are no slouches on defense themselves, believe me – Darko doesn’t need to worry about offense, that’s our philosophy. He can play to his strengths, which are defending and rebounding.
Our bench is a healthy mix of youth and experience. We’ve got good locker-room guys in Speedy Claxton, Luke Walton and Donyell Marshall as well as young guys who need that leadership in Rashad McCants, Nick Fazekas and Steven Hunter. We believe that our mix of youth and experience, as well as the ability to space the floor with Rasual Butler and Donyell will strike a perfect balance for what we want.
Toughest decision:Probably deciding on whether to pick the best player available, or the best fit for our team. It’s always difficult picking a prospect over a proven vet, but we’re building a team for the future here, so in the end we managed to strike a healthy balance between experience and youth.
Best move:I’m in no doubt that my best move was the deal that brought Chris Bosh to Las Vegas. It was difficult to let go of a potentially formidable front line of Okafor-Kaman, but when we look back at the fact this trade gave us Chris Bosh, Rashad McCants and Darko Milicic, we can only say that we’re ecstatic.
Roster Breakdown:Darko Milicic – In Darko, we have a young starting center whose most fluent language is defense. With the offensive power we have in our trio of young studs, a defensive stopper was important, and to get one so young and with so much experience is perfect.
Chris Bosh – A starter for the Olmpic Gold-medal USA team, a starter for the Eastern All-Stars and a starter on a good playoff team. That was Chris’s outstanding résumé before coming to Las Vegas. At the age of 24, that speaks for itself.
Kevin Durant – The Rookie of the Year who has the kind of temperament that you can’t teach. He has a natural go-for-the-jugular instinct that is so rare in a player, and to have it and be able to control it at the age of 19 is a dream scenario.
OJ Mayo – We believe in OJ. We feel that his defense and offense combined will help this kid become a certified star in this league. With the abilities he possesses he’s destined to be a star, and in this team he can find his feet and let it happen.
Chris Duhon – A player who has an outstanding Ast/TO ratio and plays superb defense. Add that to his completely unselfish style of play and we have the perfect Point Guard for our team.
Rashad McCants – Rashad has so many ways of scoring on his opponent and plays good, hard defense. To be able to introduce a player of that quality and at a young age off the bench is a privilege.
Luke Walton – I’ve always been a fan of Luke. He works hard, he does all the little things, he can knock down the three and he always looks for the extra pass. He’s a young 28 with tons of experience, perfect for our young team.
Steven Hunter – With Steven, we have a player who fills straight in for Darko. Like-for-like, defense first. Another young player at just 26, he could have had a breakout year in Denver, with Camby’s minutes up for grabs, so we’re glad to have him backing up Darko.
Speedy Claxton – In Speedy we have a very low-risk/high-reward kind of player. He’s a vet PG who had a ring and is a great locker-room guy. The downside is his recent injury woes, but from what he has to say and his doctors I can only infer that this will be a great pick-up for us.
Nick Fazekas – Solid young big man who could see a lot of minutes this year backing up Chris Bosh. He’s a good rebounder, plays good defense and if he does that adequately he could establish himself as a solid player in the NBA.
Rasual Butler – Certified bomber from the outside. He’s a three-point specialist as well as a good vet. He’ll spread the floor well and when his number is called I expect he’ll deliver.
Donyell Marshall – Like Butler, he’s a three-point specialist who is a great vet to have. He’ll also spread the floor well and provide good leadership for the younger guys.
Devean George – Another solid vet who’ll provide good leadership to this young team and show a good example with his hard work and hustle style of play.
Jeff McInnis – The back-up to the back-up. Having backed up young, starting PG’s before, Jeff will be expected to do the same here this year if Speedy goes down again.
Nathan Jawai – He’ll be sent to the D-League to help him develop. We feel that he could come in and be a solid starter/rotation player in the NBA, but we don’t think he’s ready just yet.
Carlos Delfino – We were delighted to sign Carlos when no one had taken a chance on him. He’ll play in Russia this year and come back to us next year, we feel that if McCants doesn’t live up to the task of being a 6th man then Delfino would be the perfect replacement for him. He’s still young, has a lot of experience and plays great defense. We’re looking forward to having him back in the team.
Anté Tomic – We’re glad to have a player who has been highly received and coveted by other GM’s. Tomic will play in Croatia this year to gather some experience and will return to Las Vegas for the Summer League next year.
Artem Zabelin – Will be playing at CSKA Moscow this year, bulking up and priming himself for the jump to the NBA next year where we feel he could be a solid starter. A7-foot big man who has super quick feet, huge upside.
Petteri Koponen – We were delighted to acquire Petteri (along with Devean George) in a deal for Mike James. We feel that Petteri could be a great PG in the NBA. He possesses all the qualities needed in a great PG and we’re just disappointed not to have him this year due to a mix-up in the front office. Nonetheless, he’ll get great experience in Italy and we’ll welcome him back next year.
Outlook for this season and the future:For the upcoming season, our target is to be as good as we can possibly be. We have a young team, but we will go out there every night to compete. Our most important learning curve will be on the defensive end. Whether we win this year or lose, make the playoffs or enter the lottery, defense will be the key to any success further down the road. For the young players, they know what they can do offensively, but it’s defensively that they will find themselves. The pressure comes from within to succeed. This team has been put together for success, and without defense, we wont have that success. So for this season, we will go out there and compete as if it were a game 7 every night. Those players are expected to give there all and we feel that if we compete every night, that is the only way to learn. You take each loss seriously, and each win means something. For young players, that experience is pivotal.
For the future, our goal is simple:
NBA Champions. It starts here, it starts with defense, it starts with commitment and it starts with growing together. It ends with winning together.
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