2010 CB Draft: Pacific Division Press Conferences

[indeedproceed]

Sorry Roy if I'm not in love with your team like others are.

Who else just got deja vu?

I also like Phoenix over Sacramento, in large part because there is no cure for Deeeeeee-White. I also think Rashard at the 3 is a big mistake, and Phoenix looks more traditionally like a team to me.

I also don't think Richard Jefferson is bouncing back to 2007-2008 Richard Jefferson anytime soon, and while Derrick Rose is better than Baron Davis, he's not head and shoulders better than he is..not to the level where he can determine the series if Baron continues his improvement from last season and builds on it, which I think he would with Dwight. On the off guard I give Phoenix the slight edge there too.

While I like Sac's PF rotation quite a bit more than PHoenix's, I don't think it is such a grand disparity of talent that it can come close compensating for the havoc that Dwight Howard will impose upon them.

Let's save it for the playoffs.    I'm not going to compare my team to Phoenix at this stage, other than to say I'm saving it for the playoffs.  I think highly of Phoenix, and think that they are one of the top two teams in the conference (with Sacramento being the other).

(I will say that I think my team is better equipped for the regular season than Phoenix.  Phoenix is working a couple of rookies into the rotation, and Baron Davis will inevitably miss at least a handful of games, like he does every season.)

I could see a situation where Davis got hurt for 10 games or so, and Phoenix goes 3-7 over that stretch. They'll end up needing to play someone at the point guard who has no business being there.

[Roy H.]

Sorry Roy if I'm not in love with your team like others are.

Who else just got deja vu?

I also like Phoenix over Sacramento, in large part because there is no cure for Deeeeeee-White. I also think Rashard at the 3 is a big mistake, and Phoenix looks more traditionally like a team to me.

I also don't think Richard Jefferson is bouncing back to 2007-2008 Richard Jefferson anytime soon, and while Derrick Rose is better than Baron Davis, he's not head and shoulders better than he is..not to the level where he can determine the series if Baron continues his improvement from last season and builds on it, which I think he would with Dwight. On the off guard I give Phoenix the slight edge there too.

While I like Sac's PF rotation quite a bit more than PHoenix's, I don't think it is such a grand disparity of talent that it can come close compensating for the havoc that Dwight Howard will impose upon them.

Let's save it for the playoffs.    I'm not going to compare my team to Phoenix at this stage, other than to say I'm saving it for the playoffs.  I think highly of Phoenix, and think that they are one of the top two teams in the conference (with Sacramento being the other).

(I will say that I think my team is better equipped for the regular season than Phoenix.  Phoenix is working a couple of rookies into the rotation, and Baron Davis will inevitably miss at least a handful of games, like he does every season.)

I could see a situation where Davis got hurt for 10 games or so, and Phoenix goes 3-7 over that stretch. They'll end up needing to play someone at the point guard who has no business being there.

And thus, why Sacramento wins the division.  Davis missed 7 games last year, and has missed at least 15 games in seven of the last nine seasons (including seasons of 36, 32, 28, 26, 19, 17 and 15 missed games).

[celticpride07]

Also, a rough rotation if anyone is interested:

Wallace(30), Jialian(18)
Garnett(30), Jialian(8 ), Nocioni(6), Evans(4)
Marion(33), Nocioni(12), Parker(3)
Richardson(36), Parker(12)
Billups(33), Arroyo(10), Parker(5)

(regular season)

I am really concerned with this teams lack of depth..because garnett and wallace will not be able to hold up with this roster. Yi is a tall toothpick and i think he is not that good..i don't see nocioni as a power forward either..I think you are hurting this team by not giving reggie evans a lot more minutes in the rotation...but it's not like evans is a difference maker but he could be more use than Yi.

I really am a big billups fan..and i love billups running this team...I think a big concern with you starters is that they are older and not the same as they use to be...Besides billups and Richardson you don't really know what KG or Marion or Wallace will bring to the table on any given night...I wouldn't say KG is over the hill but as we know his consistency is concerning.


My rankings for this Pacific Divison is very similar to how the AL East is in baseball. Theres three teams that are good enough to win the division..one team that will hang around but gradually fade..and one team that that is competitive but just can't hang.

1.Lakers/Kings/Gorillaz
4 Clippers
5.Warriors

[Roy H.]

I did my preliminary playoff rankings, and the Pacific puts four teams into my top eight in the West.

[nickagneta]

I did my preliminary playoff rankings, and the Pacific puts four teams into my top eight in the West.

I have the final Pacific team in 8th but pretty close.

[Donoghus]

I did my preliminary playoff rankings, and the Pacific puts four teams into my top eight in the West.

I have the final Pacific team in 8th but pretty close.

We're still waiting on one Western Conference press conference, correct?

I'm holding off 'til then.

[Donoghus]

I did my preliminary playoff rankings, and the Pacific puts four teams into my top eight in the West.

I have the final Pacific team in 8th but pretty close.

We're still waiting on one Western Conference press conference, correct?

I'm holding off 'til then.

But I will say, upon intial impressions, I'd probably have 2-3 teams out of the NW, 3-4 out of the Pac, and 1-2 out of the SW.  

EDIT: Good luck guessing which teams and in what order, though. 

[StartOrien]

Sorry Roy if I'm not in love with your team like others are.

Who else just got deja vu?

I also like Phoenix over Sacramento, in large part because there is no cure for Deeeeeee-White. I also think Rashard at the 3 is a big mistake, and Phoenix looks more traditionally like a team to me.

I also don't think Richard Jefferson is bouncing back to 2007-2008 Richard Jefferson anytime soon, and while Derrick Rose is better than Baron Davis, he's not head and shoulders better than he is..not to the level where he can determine the series if Baron continues his improvement from last season and builds on it, which I think he would with Dwight. On the off guard I give Phoenix the slight edge there too.

While I like Sac's PF rotation quite a bit more than PHoenix's, I don't think it is such a grand disparity of talent that it can come close compensating for the havoc that Dwight Howard will impose upon them.

Let's save it for the playoffs.    I'm not going to compare my team to Phoenix at this stage, other than to say I'm saving it for the playoffs.  I think highly of Phoenix, and think that they are one of the top two teams in the conference (with Sacramento being the other).

(I will say that I think my team is better equipped for the regular season than Phoenix.  Phoenix is working a couple of rookies into the rotation, and Baron Davis will inevitably miss at least a handful of games, like he does every season.  The regular season isn't solely about H2H matchups; depth becomes much more important, and Sacramento is clearly the deeper team in my opinion.)

If that's not lawer speak I don't know what is:

I'm not going to say a bad word about this team, but what I don't like is.... 

[Roy H.]

Sorry Roy if I'm not in love with your team like others are.

Who else just got deja vu?

I also like Phoenix over Sacramento, in large part because there is no cure for Deeeeeee-White. I also think Rashard at the 3 is a big mistake, and Phoenix looks more traditionally like a team to me.

I also don't think Richard Jefferson is bouncing back to 2007-2008 Richard Jefferson anytime soon, and while Derrick Rose is better than Baron Davis, he's not head and shoulders better than he is..not to the level where he can determine the series if Baron continues his improvement from last season and builds on it, which I think he would with Dwight. On the off guard I give Phoenix the slight edge there too.

While I like Sac's PF rotation quite a bit more than PHoenix's, I don't think it is such a grand disparity of talent that it can come close compensating for the havoc that Dwight Howard will impose upon them.

Let's save it for the playoffs.    I'm not going to compare my team to Phoenix at this stage, other than to say I'm saving it for the playoffs.  I think highly of Phoenix, and think that they are one of the top two teams in the conference (with Sacramento being the other).

(I will say that I think my team is better equipped for the regular season than Phoenix.  Phoenix is working a couple of rookies into the rotation, and Baron Davis will inevitably miss at least a handful of games, like he does every season.  The regular season isn't solely about H2H matchups; depth becomes much more important, and Sacramento is clearly the deeper team in my opinion.)

If that's not lawer speak I don't know what is:

I'm not going to say a bad word about this team, but what I don't like is....  

Haha.  I just mean that I'm not going to get into specific matchups, or debate whether Richard Jefferson is more likely to bounce back from an off year than Hedo Turkuglu.  Those can wait.  

EDIT:  Plus, I just talked up Rudy in another thread for you, so there.  Since we can't vote for our own teams, there's going to be a "1" going up next to your team when I do my voting.

[mgent]

Questions for the Clippers:

1.  Ben Wallace is 36 years old, and played 29 minutes per game last year.  Your backup center is a poor defender who didn't play any center at all in New Jersey.  With the size in the Pacific division, is this a concern?

2.  This is how a Raptors blogger described Reggie Evans:

There was also Reggie Evans, a poor man-defender but a decent rebounder, who was traded for to address rebounding. Due to injury and an unexplainable addiction to convert the rare rebound he got to a failed field-goal attempt, was about as useless as a Raptor ever was.

Discuss.

3.  Andres Nocioni played very poorly at SF, and has for several seasons.  Is that a worry?

(In case you're sensing a theme, I like your starters, but I'm not sold on your bench.)

4.  The question all Celtics fans care about:  is KG going to bounce back next year, or will he continue his decline?  Also, can he still defend bigger players?

1.  Yes, Ben is old, but he is pretty reliable.  I don't consider the size in the Pacific to be particularly overwhelming.  Yi obviously wasn't playing center with Brook Lopez in NY, but is 7ft 250lb so I'm not concerned.  He's not a bad defender and he has potential.  He's improved over the summer also, putting up 25/10 in FIBA.

2.  Ankle injury.

3.  Define poor, it's his natural position.  The season before last with the Kings he got 14 points and 6 rebounds a game while shooting 44% from behind the arc.  His defense isn't great but I don't think it's really any worse than it is at the 4.

4.  KG will without a doubt have a better season this year than he did last year, the question is how much better will he be.  He improved throughout the season as he got further away from the injury.  KG will lead the Celtics and the Clippers to the championship.

[indeedproceed]

4.  KG will without a doubt have a better season this year than he did last year, the question is how much better will he be.  He improved throughout the season as he got further away from the injury.  KG will lead the Celtics and the Clippers to the championship.

Why do you believe that? I mean beyond the fact they you're a fan, why do you believe that?

[Roy H.]

1.  Yes, Ben is old, but he is pretty reliable.  I don't consider the size in the Pacific to be particularly overwhelming.  Yi obviously wasn't playing center with Brook Lopez in NY, but is 7ft 250lb so I'm not concerned.  He's not a bad defender and he has potential.  He's improved over the summer also, putting up 25/10 in FIBA.

2.  Ankle injury.

3.  Define poor, it's his natural position.  The season before last with the Kings he got 14 points and 6 rebounds a game while shooting 44% from behind the arc.  His defense isn't great but I don't think it's really any worse than it is at the 4.

4.  KG will without a doubt have a better season this year than he did last year, the question is how much better will he be.  He improved throughout the season as he got further away from the injury.  KG will lead the Celtics and the Clippers to the championship.

I would disagree that Yi is anything other than a bad defender. 

As far as Nocioni, he's been in consistent decline in terms of his mobility, to the point where he now gets killed playing the small forward position.  The "real life" Kings scored 99.1 pts/100 possessions and gave up 106.6 pts/100 when Nocioni was at SF; they scored 103.6 and gave up 105.5 when he moved over to PF.  Neither is good, but his play at PF was appreciably better.  (Also, SFs actually shot a higher percentage against Nocioni than PFs did, believe it or not.)

I hope you're right about KG.  He looked great defensively in the first three rounds, before falling off pretty substantially against the Lakers.  It's hard to admit it, but Pau pretty much dominated him.

[Roy H.]

I did my preliminary playoff rankings, and the Pacific puts four teams into my top eight in the West.

I have the final Pacific team in 8th but pretty close.

We're still waiting on one Western Conference press conference, correct?

I'm holding off 'til then.

But I will say, upon intial impressions, I'd probably have 2-3 teams out of the NW, 3-4 out of the Pac, and 1-2 out of the SW.  

EDIT: Good luck guessing which teams and in what order, though. 

For whatever it's worth, I have Utah as #3 in the West (and thus, #2 on my ballot).  I think that in the regular season especially, it's going to take some time to get Yao back into playing shape.

[Donoghus]

I did my preliminary playoff rankings, and the Pacific puts four teams into my top eight in the West.

I have the final Pacific team in 8th but pretty close.

We're still waiting on one Western Conference press conference, correct?

I'm holding off 'til then.

But I will say, upon intial impressions, I'd probably have 2-3 teams out of the NW, 3-4 out of the Pac, and 1-2 out of the SW.  

EDIT: Good luck guessing which teams and in what order, though. 

For whatever it's worth, I have Utah as #3 in the West (and thus, #2 on my ballot).  I think that in the regular season especially, it's going to take some time to get Yao back into playing shape.

And I'm keeping my lips sealed beyond the statement I already made.   

[mgent]

4.  KG will without a doubt have a better season this year than he did last year, the question is how much better will he be.  He improved throughout the season as he got further away from the injury.  KG will lead the Celtics and the Clippers to the championship.

Why do you believe that? I mean beyond the fact they you're a fan, why do you believe that?

Because of what I just said.  He improved the further he got from the injury.  Now he's a full year removed.