2010 CelticsBlog Draft: Southwest Division Press Conferences

[WeMadeIt17]

San Antonio:

How will you defend tough post threats? Your two top big men are Bosh and Ibaka, neither excels in post defense.

Who is going to be your playmaker on offense? Devin Harris is below average at running an offense for others, won't Bosh have too large a burden in that area?

How do you feel about only having two SFs on your roster? Does it worry you with Artest's age, CDR isn't all that an exciting of a backup if he gets hurt.

How will your bench unit defend? They're undersized at the PG and PF/C spots and overall severely lack rebounding. That spells a bad combination.

Second question about your bench, how will they score? Will you be relying on Barea in that area?

Well as for Ibaka he proved that he was a very good defender in the post season this year and is working hard. We have him guarding Chris while in training camp to improve. As we know Chris is one of the best big men in the league. As for a play maker on offense, Harris is our play maker. He hasn't had the chance to play with a Chris Bosh in his career and will bring the best out of him. As for Ron's age, Doesn't scare me one bit. The SF situation, I feel we have guys who can guard multiple positions. Where we can have combos of Harden at SF and Dahntay at SG. I not to worried about that because of the athletic ability that can make up for the lack of size. I hate to cut short but we have I have to get back to you little later. Will try to get to all of your questions in  good time! Thank you again!

[Fafnir]

Harris is our play maker. He hasn't had the chance to play with a Chris Bosh in his career

Isn't Dirk a better scorer and passer than Bosh?

Harris played with him for a long time and his playmaking wasn't better then than it was in NJ.

[Who]

Camby / Curry / Pittman
West / Millsap / (Villanueva)
Deng / Villanueva / Carney
Arenas / Iverson / Walker
Miller / Telfair

For the love of all that is holy ... start Paul Millsap!

Deng + Millsap + Camby is a very interesting frontcourt. Lot of quality. Excellent at creating extra possessions, very good team defense, great quickness, good in transition. Lots of nice stuff there. 

They are also a very nice complement to the gung-ho ways of Gilbert Arenas and the undersized backcourt.

----------------------------------------------

The starting lineup is pretty interesting but the bench is a train wreck. David West is the only rotation worthy player there + Carney as a borderline rotation guy.

Eddy Curry, Charlie Villanueva, Allen Iverson, Sebastian Telfair ... guys who will have a negative impact on your squad and hurt your team.

[indeedproceed]

Harris is our play maker. He hasn't had the chance to play with a Chris Bosh in his career

Isn't Dirk a better scorer and passer than Bosh?

Harris played with him for a long time and his playmaking wasn't better then than it was in NJ.

He's been remarkably consistent actually.

2 and change assist/to ratio, excepting 08-09.

[Who]

I wish Dallas would've stuck around, I think I was a logical trade partner for them.

The Duncan trade wasn't all that bad though I don't like them giving up Ariza as apart of the trade. IMO, they'd be better off with Ariza than Deng.

Deng is way better than Ariza.

IMO Ariza is the much better fit for this team.

Why?

Deng is a better defender, a more consistent offensive option, and isn't a high usage guy by any means. Plus Ariza is inconsistent at the 3 point line and that limits him to cutting to the basket and fast break points. Deng can get all of that and is also an excellent 18-12 foot jump shooter.

I agree that Deng is the better player but I don't think the difference is all that large.

I would rate them a largely comparable defensively. A slight advantage for Deng as a defensive SF but only slight. Deng being more of a combo forward defensively (top defensive SF + solid defensive PF/SG) while Ariza can cover all three perimeter positions at a very high level. Deng being the superior man-to-man defender with better fundamentals in team defense with Ariza being the superior team defender overall + capable of creating havoc in the passing lanes with his length and quickness.

Deng is a slightly superior rebounder to Ariza (7rpg to 6.5rpg) but Ariza is better at creating extra possessions with his defense (steals, deflections) and probably creates more possessions than Deng overall. 

Deng scores more (17ppg) but does so with a TS% of about 53% which is nothing to write home about ... while Ariza is a solid 12-14ppg guy with a TS% of 56%. Again, not much difference between the two.

Ariza is an excellent transition player. Deng is very good. Both are exceptional cutters. Deng has a better midrange game but that element of his game is vastly over-rated. Ariza has more range on his jump shot and is an efficient jump shooter when has a teammate (a Kobe Bryant type figure) who can tee him up. Neither is all that good at creating their own shot off the dribble. Neither is a playmaker. Neither is much of a ball-handler.

If Deng can find a way to get back to where he was a few years ago when he was scoring 19ppg on 56% TS% as one of Chicago's main scoring threats then he will create a large advantage offensively ... but he hasn't shown himself able to that so I am reluctant to give credit to him here.

Overall, I agree Deng is the better player but I think the difference is fairly small.

[Lucky17]

I've risen from the dead, and reappeared at work, where I can once again access the Celticsblog forums. [Strangely, I can't seem to do that via my laptop at home.]

Presser pending. I'll also go back to the other presser threads and weigh in.

[StartOrien]

I've risen from the dead, and reappeared at work, where I can once again access the Celticsblog forums. [Strangely, I can't seem to do that via my laptop at home.]

Presser pending. I'll also go back to the other presser threads and weigh in.

Clear cache, clear cookies.

[Lucky17]

I've risen from the dead, and reappeared at work, where I can once again access the Celticsblog forums. [Strangely, I can't seem to do that via my laptop at home.]

Presser pending. I'll also go back to the other presser threads and weigh in.

Clear cache, clear cookies.

I'll try that later, although I thought I'd done that fairly recently. TP.

[StartOrien]

I've risen from the dead, and reappeared at work, where I can once again access the Celticsblog forums. [Strangely, I can't seem to do that via my laptop at home.]

Presser pending. I'll also go back to the other presser threads and weigh in.

Clear cache, clear cookies.

I'll try that later, although I thought I'd done that fairly recently. TP.

If it's just one website in particular it's either that, or if you have a windows computer try ipconfig/ dnsflush in the command prompt

[StartOrien]

Question for San Antonio

How concerned are you with this:

Law enforcement sources tell us Artest was cited because the registration on the car was expired. But get this -- we're told the car isn't even registered to Ron ... but somebody out in Tennessee.

Ron -- who was smiling throughout the entire incident -- was eventually sent on his way ... but sources tell us cops were "very happy" he was wearing a helmet.

[jgod213]

After the dust has settled, i actually kind of like that Mavs team...

Obviously there are character issues...maybe Miller, Deng and Camby can take control of this team, but they've never really been vocal leaders, and when you combine West, Curry, Villanueva, Arenas, Telfair, and Iverson - wow.  That's just going to be a free-for-all in the locker room and out on the town.

That being said, they have a lot of interchangable parts in the backcourt.  I like the idea of letting the sure-handed Miller run the team while using Arenas at the 2 and letting him fire away.  I've never been a huuuge Luol Deng fan, but i like what he brings to this team.  The 4 position is VERY deep between Millsap, West, and Villanueva.  The big concern i have is you're asking a ton out of Marcus Camby...too many minutes for him.  Pittman i like, but he's not ready yet.  David West might have to play out of position at C to spell Camby.

I can definitely see this team fighting for and possibly securing a playoff spot.  Chemistry issues are huge, but this team can flat out score.

[Roy H.]

After the dust has settled, i actually kind of like that Mavs team...

Obviously there are character issues...maybe Miller, Deng and Camby can take control of this team, but they've never really been vocal leaders, and when you combine West, Curry, Villanueva, Arenas, Telfair, and Iverson - wow.  That's just going to be a free-for-all in the locker room and out on the town.

That being said, they have a lot of interchangable parts in the backcourt.  I like the idea of letting the sure-handed Miller run the team while using Arenas at the 2 and letting him fire away.  I've never been a huuuge Luol Deng fan, but i like what he brings to this team.  The 4 position is VERY deep between Millsap, West, and Villanueva.  The big concern i have is you're asking a ton out of Marcus Camby...too many minutes for him.  Pittman i like, but he's not ready yet.  David West might have to play out of position at C to spell Camby.

I can definitely see this team fighting for and possibly securing a playoff spot.  Chemistry issues are huge, but this team can flat out score.

Even assuming that Arenas both stays out of trouble and stays healthy, I'm not a fan of the Mavs.  The starting lineup could be decent enough (although defensively vulnerable), but outside of PF the bench is terrible.  I mean, Telfair and Walker are going to have to be big parts of Dallas' rotation, as will one of Curry/Pittman. 

I also worry about having only one three point shooter in the starting lineup (Arenas, who is a pretty average 3PT shooter), and only two shooters on the team, period (Bill Walker being the other one).  Lastly, I'm not sure that Miller and Arenas can co-exist; Miller has bristled in the past when he hasn't been the primary ball-handler and distributor, and he's a pretty poor option to play off the ball.

[Fafnir]

Harris is our play maker. He hasn't had the chance to play with a Chris Bosh in his career

Isn't Dirk a better scorer and passer than Bosh?

Harris played with him for a long time and his playmaking wasn't better then than it was in NJ.

He's been remarkably consistent actually.

2 and change assist/to ratio, excepting 08-09.

His assist percentage went up quite a lot on NJ, and his turn overs went down.

I'd expect his numbers to go down playing with a player like Bosh again.

[indeedproceed]

Harris is our play maker. He hasn't had the chance to play with a Chris Bosh in his career

Isn't Dirk a better scorer and passer than Bosh?

Harris played with him for a long time and his playmaking wasn't better then than it was in NJ.

He's been remarkably consistent actually.

2 and change assist/to ratio, excepting 08-09.

His assist percentage went up quite a lot on NJ, and his turn overs went down.

I'd expect his numbers to go down playing with a player like Bosh again.

Year, Assists per 48, turnovers per 48
2010, 9.1ap48, 3.9top48
2009, 9.2ap48, 4.1top48
2008, 8.8ap48, 3.8top48
2007. 6.7ap48, 3.4top48
2006. 6.7ap48, 3.2top48

Fafnir wins. Harris became a better passer in NJ.

[Fafnir]

Harris is our play maker. He hasn't had the chance to play with a Chris Bosh in his career

Isn't Dirk a better scorer and passer than Bosh?

Harris played with him for a long time and his playmaking wasn't better then than it was in NJ.

He's been remarkably consistent actually.

2 and change assist/to ratio, excepting 08-09.

His assist percentage went up quite a lot on NJ, and his turn overs went down.

I'd expect his numbers to go down playing with a player like Bosh again.

Year, Assists per 48, turnovers per 48
2010, 9.1ap48, 3.9top48
2009, 9.2ap48, 4.1top48
2008, 8.8ap48, 3.8top48
2007. 6.7ap48, 3.4top48
2006. 6.7ap48, 3.2top48

Fafnir wins. Harris became a better passer in NJ.

I don't think he became a better passer, I think he had the ball more and was making plays with it instead of running an offense designed for other high quality players.

But I don't think Bosh will help his production.