2010 CB Draft: Pacific Division Press Conferences

[Rondo2287]

I really like what LA has here, I think Sac is solid and could def challenge the lakers for that first spot.  And I think Phoenix has one of the better starting 5's but really nothing beyond that.

Even if you don't agree with my two lottery pick rookies, what about Rudy Fernandez, Terrence Williams and Hedo Turkoglu?

As i said before, Terrence is a second year player, he is solid but he played for the nets last year and has no big game experience, I can't really factor him in much on a contender, and Rudy has said publicly that he wants to play in europe next year and not the NBA.  while i like him that weighs on my decision

[StartOrien]

I really like what LA has here, I think Sac is solid and could def challenge the lakers for that first spot.  And I think Phoenix has one of the better starting 5's but really nothing beyond that.

Even if you don't agree with my two lottery pick rookies, what about Rudy Fernandez, Terrence Williams and Hedo Turkoglu?

As i said before, Terrence is a second year player, he is solid but he played for the nets last year and has no big game experience, I can't really factor him in much on a contender, and Rudy has said publicly that he wants to play in europe next year and not the NBA.  while i like him that weighs on my decision

He (T-Will) did some pretty encouraging things in year 1. Isn't the second year where we see the most progress out of a player?

[celticpride07]

BTW, excluding my own team I'd rank them

1. Sacramento Kings
----
2. Los Angeles Clippers
----
3. Golden State Warriors
4. Los Angeles Lakers

As I've stated on a few occasions, that's no slight to any of the teams. Absolutely stacked divison.

man putting a team of the future ahead of the lakers, i dont know about that one.  I think you are really underestimating my team.

[jgod213]

I really like what LA has here, I think Sac is solid and could def challenge the lakers for that first spot.  And I think Phoenix has one of the better starting 5's but really nothing beyond that.

Even if you don't agree with my two lottery pick rookies, what about Rudy Fernandez, Terrence Williams and Hedo Turkoglu?

As i said before, Terrence is a second year player, he is solid but he played for the nets last year and has no big game experience, I can't really factor him in much on a contender, and Rudy has said publicly that he wants to play in europe next year and not the NBA.  while i like him that weighs on my decision

He (T-Will) did some pretty encouraging things in year 1. Isn't the second year where we see the most progress out of a player?

i like terrence williams a lot - with his experience at Louisville and with Pitino he could really be used to full court press opposing points (if you use him there) on occassion and just generally add an energy level that is unique to your team.

[StartOrien]

BTW, excluding my own team I'd rank them

1. Sacramento Kings
----
2. Los Angeles Clippers
----
3. Golden State Warriors
4. Los Angeles Lakers

As I've stated on a few occasions, that's no slight to any of the teams. Absolutely stacked divison.

man putting a team of the future ahead of the lakers, i dont know about that one.  I think you are really underestimating my team.

My bad, I confused the Warriors w/ another team.

ya, I'd go 3. Lakers, 4. Warriors. I like the Lakeshow (only in CNBA), but I would've wished you would've parlayed one of those scoring PF's to another defenisve minded guy even if you ended up getting the "short side" of the trade

[Fafnir]

I think the Warriors with Kevin Martin and CP3 wil do better than people think. Just because Who doesn't trumpet them as a title contender doesn't mean they won't win enough to get into the playoffs.

[Roy H.]

I'm not sure what to make of the Clippers.  Anybody have any thoughts?  Can Ben Wallace hold up for another season, especially with no strong backup?

[StartOrien]

I think the Warriors with Kevin Martin and CP3 wil do better than people think. Just because Who doesn't trumpet them as a title contender doesn't mean they won't win enough to get into the playoffs.

I thought that was a great start for them, no doubt. But there's too many questions to the Splitter-Randoph front court for me.

[celticpride07]

Excluding myself(lakers) i would say:

1.Kings
2.Gorillaz
3.Warriors
4.Clippers(until mgent can defend his team)

[indeedproceed]

This post got lost, so I will summarize:

I really like Phoenix, and if he were in the East not only would he likely win whatever division he was in, he'd probably take the conference, just because nobody has the quality of bigs that he has in Howard.

However, since he's in the West, he's going to lose a lot more games than one might expect. Half of the teams in the West have centers that I think can throw Howard enough off his game so as to make a difference. Beyond that though I like Salmons and Matthews on the wing, I like Baron Davis at the PG on this team, and I like that he's got some solid backups. I don't like Rudy Fernandez as the backup PG, but I think at some point we're just going to have to acknowledge that he's not going anywhere next season.

Don't like Jamison or Ed Davis but I don't think they'll be the difference between many wins and losses.

[Roy H.]

I think the Warriors with Kevin Martin and CP3 wil do better than people think. Just because Who doesn't trumpet them as a title contender doesn't mean they won't win enough to get into the playoffs.

I thought that was a great start for them, no doubt. But there's too many questions to the Splitter-Randoph front court for me.

Same here.  I think there are too many question marks about the Splitter / Randolph front court right now.  If they perform like Who anticipates, though, yes, the Warriors will be a playoff team.  I think a few of us are taking a wait-and-see approach with the front court, though.

[StartOrien]

Question for you guys:

Would it make it clearer that Hedo would be the primary ball handler when Davis isn't in if I listed him as my backup PG in my sig?

[Fafnir]

I think the Clippers will be a very good defensive team but they're struggle mightly to score.

I think their utter lack of depth and size at the C position will be their undoing. They'll be forced to play Garnett at C and don't have a good enough backup PF.

I don't like Yi at all.

[Who]

Who,

After seeing the reaction for Splitter in the draft, do you regret the pick?

No, not at all. Splitter was the right pick for my team.

I was looking for a starting caliber center because there were not many left + I wanted A.Randolph to have someone with quality who was reliable beside him while Randolph improves his game. I didn't want anyone that was weak defensively and Splitter's offensive game was a nice added option.

The choice was down to three players - Tiago Splitter, Brendan Haywood or Sam Dalembert - and I choose Splitter for three reasons:

(1) his youth (25 years old) - my team wasn't ready to compete for a title for at least another year or two and Haywood would have been 33 by then and needed replacing in the near future

(2) he had by far the most advanced offensive game. I liked having his low post scoring and his pick and roll skills fitted in very well with Chris Paul.

(3) I liked his ability to play both big man positions which gives me good lineup flexibility down the road - I was targeting Thabeet with a later pick who I consider a soon to be equal of Sam Dalembert (by title contending time).

I thought Splitter's ability to play both positions made him an ideal main backup big man. Plus, I liked his post scoring and ability to create his own shot as a sixth man option. I also loved the option of being able to play him alongside both Thabeet or Randolph. Or keep him at center and use a smaller PF (which became Aminu) alongside Splitter. That flexibility was very valuable.

Overall, I thought Splitter offered the most to my team and was the right man for the job.

[indeedproceed]

Lakers: I love Brandon Roy, I like Curry a lot, I like the fit of Prince next to CUrry and Roy, I like Harrington the way you're using him, I like Chandler's defense and don't like his heath and offense enough so that I'm luke warm on him.

I don't like Q-Rich being such a big part of your squad, I don't like McGrady being such a big part of your squad (and expect his play to suffer since he's not starting and won't get more than 20 mins a night if he's lucky), I hate Beasley starting, and I hate Bargnani (playing what, 30 mins a night?) on a team that is already defensively suspect.

I think you should forget about Bargs playing the 5 completely. Big Z and Battie can handle that, and Bargs isn't doing you any favors there.