2010 CB Draft: Pacific Division Press Conferences

[Who]

Randolph was put into two really bad situations early in his career.  He was put on a "JailBlazers" team that had more sex offenders on it than it did leaders, and then he had the misfortune of joining Isiah's Knicks.  The Blazers obviously felt highly enough about him to give him a 6 year, $84 million deal, which in many ways was a negative for Randolph; security isn't always a good thing for young players who haven't been shown positive role models.

Question for Sacramento:  Was Randolph "put" on that Jail Blazers team, or was Randolph a big part of why they earned that Jail Blazers nickname?

My view was always the latter.  So, to objectify this, can you find some article or website or anything that calls them the Jail Blazers before Sept 2001?

Based on everything I have heard and read on Zach Randolph ... he is basically a follower. Put him around positive characters and he's a good guy. Put him around negative characters and he's a major trouble maker.

And he stays close to far too many negative influences from his past ... so some off the court issues are never far away but you can effectively control his behaviour while with the team.

This has been repeated by a bunch of different people who have been close to him stretching back to his days as a teenager playing high school ball in Indiana.

In other words, that wasn't the proper environment to bring a young, impressionable guy into. 

That is the word that I was looking for. That describes Zach Randolph perfectly.

Not a bad kid, just highly impressionable.

[Roy H.]

Randolph was put into two really bad situations early in his career.  He was put on a "JailBlazers" team that had more sex offenders on it than it did leaders, and then he had the misfortune of joining Isiah's Knicks.  The Blazers obviously felt highly enough about him to give him a 6 year, $84 million deal, which in many ways was a negative for Randolph; security isn't always a good thing for young players who haven't been shown positive role models.

Question for Sacramento:  Was Randolph "put" on that Jail Blazers team, or was Randolph a big part of why they earned that Jail Blazers nickname?

My view was always the latter.  So, to objectify this, can you find some article or website or anything that calls them the Jail Blazers before Sept 2001?

I don't have the capability to search for news articles from nine years ago.  However, Randolph, fresh out of high school, was put onto a team with Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells, Ruben Patterson, and Shawn Kemp.  Qyntel Woods was added the following season, and the team leaders were Scotty Pippen (accused of being a quitter) and Damon Stoudamire, who had some issues himself.

In other words, that wasn't the proper environment to bring a young, impressionable guy into.  To compound matters, rather than learning their lesson, Portland continued to gamble on guys with issues, bringing in Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair, etc.

I think just about any locker room in the NBA can absorb one guy with issues, maybe two.  When you start talking about five or six, though, I can't blame a young guy for getting the wrong message about what the NBA life is all about.

[Rondo2287]

Question for Phoenix

Are you concerned starting Jamison after what KG did to him in the playoffs?  Im sure most people on the blogs most immediate memory is the celtics going to KG more than they had all season long and exploiting that matchup. 

[Who]

Bench Reasoning
Andrea Bargnani will be the sixth man for the Lakers and the offense will go through him when he’s out there.  Al Harrington will be the second scoring option off the bench.  Both Harrington and Bargnani average 17ppg last year and we have no doubts that the bench will put up points.  

Andrea Bargnani doesn't create his own offense well. He relies on others to create his shot attempts. He is good for one drive a night and is a good post up option when he has a mismatch against a smaller player. Other than that, he is almost wholly reliant on his teammates to get him a good look at the hoop.

That won't be a problem for your team though because you have two terrific playmakers in Steph Curry and Brandon Roy ... so you'll be able to keep one of them on the court with Bargnani at all times and sometimes have both out there. The offense will run through your guards and never Bargnani. Bargnani is a finisher, not a creator.

The second issue with Bargnani is that he is a lot less consistent in smaller minutes. The difference in minutes is the reason for the difference in his performances from the Sam Mitchell days to the Jay Triano days.

If you want consistent performances out of Bargnani you're going to have to lift his minutes to the 27-30 range.

[Greenbean]

Question for the Lakers. You seem to be relying on Tyson Chandler to provide elite interior defense. Are you at all concerned with his decline as both a rebounder and shot blocker the last couple of years? Do think he can provide the presence inside that your team needs with Beasley as the starting PF?

[Greenbean]

Randolph was put into two really bad situations early in his career.  He was put on a "JailBlazers" team that had more sex offenders on it than it did leaders, and then he had the misfortune of joining Isiah's Knicks.  The Blazers obviously felt highly enough about him to give him a 6 year, $84 million deal, which in many ways was a negative for Randolph; security isn't always a good thing for young players who haven't been shown positive role models.

Question for Sacramento:  Was Randolph "put" on that Jail Blazers team, or was Randolph a big part of why they earned that Jail Blazers nickname?

My view was always the latter.  So, to objectify this, can you find some article or website or anything that calls them the Jail Blazers before Sept 2001?

I don't have the capability to search for news articles from nine years ago.  However, Randolph, fresh out of high school, was put onto a team with Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells, Ruben Patterson, and Shawn Kemp.  Qyntel Woods was added the following season, and the team leaders were Scotty Pippen (accused of being a quitter) and Damon Stoudamire, who had some issues himself.

In other words, that wasn't the proper environment to bring a young, impressionable guy into.  To compound matters, rather than learning their lesson, Portland continued to gamble on guys with issues, bringing in Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair, etc.

I think just about any locker room in the NBA can absorb one guy with issues, maybe two.  When you start talking about five or six, though, I can't blame a young guy for getting the wrong message about what the NBA life is all about.

I hear your argument Roy but get Pippen out of there. Everything I have read about that team credits Pippen for keeping the ship straight enough to even make it to the WCF. He had one moment of weakness questioning Phil Jackson in a big game. He is a winner.
Rant over.

That being said I want to deter from the Randolph bench issue.

I want to talk about how you think your team matches up against Dwight Howard. Is Dampier still enough of a force to keep him out of the paint?

Also, how do you hide Derrick Rose's awful man defense. Chicago did it last year with Kerk Heinrich. Do you see Lee as your Heinrich?

[Who]

Question for the Lakers. You seem to be relying on Tyson Chandler to provide elite interior defense. Are you at all concerned with his decline as both a rebounder and shot blocker the last couple of years? Do think he can provide the presence inside that your team needs with Beasley as the starting PF?

There was a very interesting stat on Tyson Chandler that I came across the other day.

Of those three 5's, Nazr will be getting the bulk of the minutes, as long as his health allows. And while that would seem to improve things for Charlotte - well, looks can be deceiving. Last year, Nazr and Tyson played somewhat similar minutes with the other starters - Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton, Stephen Jackson, and Boris Diaw. Here are their respective results:

   Time With Starters    Offensive Eff    Defensive Eff
Nazr    454    103.4    109.3
Tyson    341    104.6    99.3

Nothing in that table can be construed as good news for the Bobcats - the team fared 10 points worse defensively with Nazr replacing Tyson, and 11 points worse overall. That expected bump in offensive output didn't even occur. The interesting thing is that when you look at Nazr's individual defensive numbers, you do not see a cause for concern. Nazr held his man to a PER of over 0.5 points better than expected - not great, but solid. However, the team defense took a significant hit - when Nazr was on the court last season, overall the Cats allowed 106.4 points per 100 possessions - without him, 100.8 (these numbers include the postseason).

That is from the most recent post on Queen City Hoops (ESPN's Bobcats blog).

Tyson Chandler is still a high impact player when he is on the court.

[Who]

Also, how do you hide Derrick Rose's awful man defense. Chicago did it last year with Kerk Heinrich. Do you see Lee as your Heinrich?

I disagree with this assessment of Derrick Rose's defense. He is a very good man-to-man defender and was a solid man-to-man defender as a rookie.

The big problem, when he was a rookie, was that he got lost on team defense the minute his man passed the ball and that created countless holes in the Bulls defense (missed rotations, not closing down shooters, missing cutters) ... but he has shored that up for the over past season.

Derrick Rose has quietly become a good defensive player and is on track to become one of the best defensive players in the league at his position.

[celticpride07]

Question for the Lakers. You seem to be relying on Tyson Chandler to provide elite interior defense. Are you at all concerned with his decline as both a rebounder and shot blocker the last couple of years? Do think he can provide the presence inside that your team needs with Beasley as the starting PF?

Chandler is still a good above average defender and he still provides a shot blocking presence.

[Greenbean]

Question for the Lakers. You seem to be relying on Tyson Chandler to provide elite interior defense. Are you at all concerned with his decline as both a rebounder and shot blocker the last couple of years? Do think he can provide the presence inside that your team needs with Beasley as the starting PF?

There was a very interesting stat on Tyson Chandler that I came across the other day.

Of those three 5's, Nazr will be getting the bulk of the minutes, as long as his health allows. And while that would seem to improve things for Charlotte - well, looks can be deceiving. Last year, Nazr and Tyson played somewhat similar minutes with the other starters - Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton, Stephen Jackson, and Boris Diaw. Here are their respective results:

   Time With Starters    Offensive Eff    Defensive Eff
Nazr    454    103.4    109.3
Tyson    341    104.6    99.3

Nothing in that table can be construed as good news for the Bobcats - the team fared 10 points worse defensively with Nazr replacing Tyson, and 11 points worse overall. That expected bump in offensive output didn't even occur. The interesting thing is that when you look at Nazr's individual defensive numbers, you do not see a cause for concern. Nazr held his man to a PER of over 0.5 points better than expected - not great, but solid. However, the team defense took a significant hit - when Nazr was on the court last season, overall the Cats allowed 106.4 points per 100 possessions - without him, 100.8 (these numbers include the postseason).

That is from the most recent post on Queen City Hoops (ESPN's Bobcats blog).

Tyson Chandler is still a high impact player when he is on the court.

Very interesting. I guess his man defense is why he is getting so much burn on team USA. That being said, he only played 22 minutes a game for the Bobcats. Should the Lakers be worried counting on him so heavily?

His rebounding percentages have still gone from elite to average the last couple of years.

I guess you can point to injuries but it wouldnt make me less concerned.

[riah32]

Issues with the three teams so far:

Lakers: All your bigs are soft on the inside and provide little defense outside of Chandler....this will be big problems
I'm also not sold on Mcgrady as a reliable backup at sg.

Phoneix: Not sold on your backups at pf and C

Kings: Not sold on your SG postion.

[Greenbean]

Also, how do you hide Derrick Rose's awful man defense. Chicago did it last year with Kerk Heinrich. Do you see Lee as your Heinrich?

I disagree with this assessment of Derrick Rose's defense. He is a very good man-to-man defender and was a solid man-to-man defender as a rookie.

The big problem, when he was a rookie, was that he got lost on team defense the minute his man passed the ball and that created countless holes in the Bulls defense (missed rotations, not closing down shooters, missing cutters) ... but he has shored that up for the over past season.

Derrick Rose has quietly become a good defensive player and is on track to become one of the best defensive players in the league at his position.

I whole heartedly disagree with your assesment of him man defense. He is always out of position and gets burned by guards with a quick first step. He over commits on every move and gets beaten badly at times. I have been watching him on team USA and I dont see anything different. He is a great athlete but he is not laterally "quick" footed.

Edit: Have to add that he is not quick footed "yet". I had the same assesment of LeBron James until about 2 years ago.

[Roy H.]

That being said I want to deter from the Randolph bench issue.

I want to talk about how you think your team matches up against Dwight Howard. Is Dampier still enough of a force to keep him out of the paint?

Also, how do you hide Derrick Rose's awful man defense. Chicago did it last year with Kerk Heinrich. Do you see Lee as your Heinrich?

Any player in the NBA is going to struggle against Howard, I think.  Even Perk, one of the best defenders in the NBA, gave up games of 32, 30, and 28 points against Howard.  However, Dampier can slow him down -- Dallas' defense was appreciably better when Dampier was in the game last year, and Dampier has the size and muscle to make Howard work.

The biggest worry from Howard isn't his offense so much (Bargnani scored almost as much, for instance), but his defense and his rebounding.  Sacramento mitigates that rebounding advantage by having four of the top 22 rebounders in the NBA in terms of rebound rate, and two of the top five rebounders overall.  That's going to be huge in matching up against Phoenix.  Also, while Howard will always be a good defender, the fact that Sacramento's offense has two big men to stop, rather than just one like most teams, will make it harder for Phoenix to shut us down.

Regarding Rose, his defense was somewhat average for part of last season, but was much better after the all-star break last year, and by all indications, he's made another leap in that area this summer.  He's always had the physical tools to be a great defender; he's finally starting to learn how to be consistently aggressive to the point of being disruptive on the defensive end.  (No PG defender in the league can consistently shut down his opponent, but Rose has the skills to make PGs work.)

Also, I think Garcia and Lee are both very good backcourt pairings for Rose, as they're both guys who play hard, are good defensively, and who are willing to do the dirty work necessary to win without complaining.

[celticpride07]

Issues with the three teams so far:

Lakers: All your bigs are soft on the inside and provide little defense outside of Chandler....this will be big problems
I'm also not sold on Mcgrady as a reliable backup at sg.

i wouldn't consider Big Z soft but i agree they are more offensive than defensive players but they will not be relied so much for their offense since they are bench players and can focus on being better defensively...As far as T-Mac goes i believe he will have a bounce back year with a reduced role off the bench...he is motivated to prove he is not done...a 2 time scoring leader is a reliable shooting guard backup imo.

[StartOrien]

Phoneix: Not sold on your backups at pf and C

I don't mean this to be snobby, its an honest question:

Are you not sold on them b/c you question their ability to play well in the NBA, or are you not sold on them becuase you're not familiar with them?