2012 CB Draft NW Division Press Conferences

[Who]

Plus what Millsap gives up due to size he takes back to a degree with quick hands and feet (as evidened by his 3rd overall rank in the entire league in steals).

Millsap finished 3rd in steals? I didn't know that. That's pretty impressive. 

I really like Millsap's activity on team defense. I think he and Dwight will form a very effective defensive partnership.

[RebusRankin]

A comment, excellent pressers and answers from all 4 GMs. TPs for all.

[Lucky17]

Roster:

BLAZER Rotation
Player(minutes)

Point Guard: Ricky Rubio (30), Beno Udrih (12), Brandon Knight (6)
Shooting Guard: Joe Johnson (29), Marco Belinelli (15), Brandon Knight (4)
Small Forward: Wilson Chandler (25), Matt Barnes (16), Joe Johnson (5), Marco Belinelli (2)
Power Forward: Paul Millsap (30), Matt Bonner (13), Wilson Chandler (5)
Center: Dwight Howard (35), Chuck Hayes (13),

Reserves: Villanueva, McRoberts

Head Coach: Erik Spoelstra

Another nice presser, with plenty of stats.

Q1. Any worries about how you'll match up against teams with length in the frontcourt?

Q2. Similarly, what happens to the offense if Rubio is contained by PGs with size, strength, and defense? Will you be easing him back into the lineup beginning on opening night? Or will he begin play a month into the season?

Thanks, Lucky.  From that opening sentence i take it that a) you read at least part of my presser, and b) there are too many stats, haha.

1) As in length on the bench? Because i think i have tons of length in this starting unit.  Yes, Millsap is undersized, but he's playing next to the best help defender in basketball.  Plus what Millsap gives up due to size he takes back to a degree with quick hands and feet (as evidened by his 3rd overall rank in the entire league in steals).

Wilson Chandler, Chuck Hayes, and Matt Bonner won't be able to stop a power-4 themselves, but with Howard back there it makes the job of containment easier.


2) We feel confident about Rubio's ability to create against any defender in the league. He'll struggle at times to get his own looks, but with the amount of scoring we have surrounded him with i don't think we really need more than the 10ppg he put up last year.  His role will be finding cutters, using screens, and getting the Ball to our two superstars in their wheelhouse.

Sorry: yes, it was the length of your bench players I was concerned about. Dwight will alleviate a lot of those concerns, but if you are managing his minutes somewhat, then guys like Hayes and Bonner will be on the court for a decent stretch of time.

Still, it's a minor quibble. Had a hard time finding much at fault with any of these teams. Will be a tough division to rank, but I think all four teams seem worthy of post-season consideration.

[RebusRankin]

All teams, how do you handle the defense of Elton Brand who I have heard is the best defensive big not named Bill Russell in NBA History?

[StartOrien]

Here's how I see it:

Portland Trailblazers
------
Utah Jazz
-----
OKC Thunder
Denver Nuggets

I think Portland's an absolute beast of a team in here. Jazz are very solid. I think the bottom two teams are going to really struggle to score the rock

[Lucky17]

A really difficult division to handicap. Potential for all four teams to make the playoffs, I think.

My rankings for the Northwest Division:

1. Portland
2. Utah
3. Denver
4. OKC

Comments, from the bottom up:

OKC: Had to differentiate somehow between these clubs. For me, the poor defense at the forward positions, and personnel at SF were what caused me to rank this team in 4th. Evans and Bynum are a terrific pair, but I thought there wasn't enough around them in terms of offensive or defensive consistency.

Denver: SG was a position of concern for me. Is Mayo capable of being an efficient starting 2 on this team? I wasn't sure about this. I also wasn't comfortable with the thought of having to rely on the consistent play of Robinson, Singleton, Speights, Korver, and the rookies. Still, the potential for a very good defensive starting unit.

Utah: A strong seven-man core, with plenty of flexibility. Eight, if you count Diaw, who could be a key reserve for the club. A lot rides on Asik's performance.

Portland: A wicked starting five, provided Rubio comes back at close to full strength. Even if not, I think Udrih and Joe Johnson can run the offense competently. The backup bigs are little dicey; I might like to see McBob activated occasionally.

Note: there's not a whole lot of separation, for me, between these clubs, with an expected dogfight for the division crown between the top three teams.

[BigAlTheFuture]

Like most divisions, this one is also a two team race. I think I'll give the edge to Portland just because of Dwight Howard. It's very close, though. Utah is definitely the deeper team but 1 thru 5, Portland can hang with the best of 'em. (cough, Phoenix Suns)

[jgod213]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Interesting on McRoberts, I kinda forgot about him myself.  I thought he showed a lof of things in Indi before getting lost in LA.  I suppose his size alone could warrant a few minutes.

Something to chew on...

[GreenFaith1819]

Rankings. Incredibly close for me.

The difference between first and fourth isn't that much.

1) Dever - I like KG and Boozer. Boozer had a 95 D rating and I think his rebounding and shooting go well with KG. Him and Conley have an effective pick and pop game. I like Mayo in the Ray Allen kind of Role. Not the same shooter but a better creator. Similar in some regards to this year's Celtic Team. Just no Pierce, an upgrade for the bigs, an upgrade at SG and a downgrade at PG.

Still I think it wins by a nose

Kane,

I think you're minimizing the impact of a team with Pierce/Allen/Rondo...i didn't even think that's possible, haha.  I also think you're a bit delusional with Dwight missing part of the season, but i'll skip that part for now...

-A slight downgrade from Connely from Rondo? I mean you watched the playoffs, right?

-JUST no pierce? the drop off from pierce to ariza is drastic.

-Mayo as an upgrade to Ray? I mean it might be a wash, but did you catch Mayo's numers last year? mediocre shooting at best and an aweful postseason.


I like GreenFaith but this team doesn't have a single mismatch or advantage over Portland's starting 5.  Their biggest strength of KG/Boozer is completely nullified by my 2 bigs.  Your rankings, I just don't see it...

Are you sure that Dwight/Milsap nullifies KG/Boozer?

Here are Head-Head stats for KG vs DH, while KG's been at Center:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=howardw01&p2=garneke01

Don't even pay attention to 2010-11 games, because KG was at PF then. But look very closely at 2012 games...KG's Celtics won BOTH meetings (23Jan 2012) and (26Jan2012) vs ORL - with KG in the middle.

In the Jan 23 game, KG held Dwight Howard to 4-15 shooting, believe it or not. KG went 5 for 9 in the same game.

BOS won.

In the 26Jan game, KG went 6 for 14 and DH went 6 for 12.

BOS won.

I think ANY coach can live with DH getting on 14-16 pts and 14-16 rebs, don't you think?

Boozer-Milsap?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=boozeca01&p2=millspa01

While Milsap appeared to play very well, so did Boozer - and Boozer's team won both matches.

I'm not sure you took your own advice here, my friend.  Basketball-reference lets you compare anyone head to head. 

KG wasn't installed yet as the C's center in January, as evidenced by Jermaine O'neal and Greg Stiemsma combining to play for almost 30 minutes.

http://www.nba.com/games/20120123/ORLBOS/gameinfo.html#nbaGIlive

The Jan 26th game was mostly KG at center so i'll give you that one, though if you plan to beat my Blazers i think you'll need more than 12 points from KG.

Good Point, jgod - didn't notice that before. So we can say that in the ORL-BOS game in BOS, it was the "Three-headed Monster" of Stiem/JO/KG that fueled that win and held DH in check.

But a defensive effort that I'm sure KG had a sizeable hand in, being that he was +26.

I do have another concern about DH, though - how comfortable do you feel with him being at the line? He shot less than 500 from there last yr.

I certainly wouldn't employ my team in "Hack-A-Dwight" schemes, but do you consider this to be a major concern against perhaps other teams?

[indeedproceed]

Dwight Howard played on a really, really terrible team as well. Without Dwight, that team misses the playoffs.

You can argue that without KG, so do the Celtics, but I'm extremely skeptical.

[indeedproceed]

I think Utah might have enough to overtake Portland for regular season wins. Brandon Knight is just...he's not the guy you want starting a lot of games. I know jgod swung for the fences here, but I wish he had a more stable option.

But at the same time, Joe Johnson enabled Jeff Teague to snag a starting role, because he took some of the burden off of him.

I'm thinking

Portland/Utah
Denver/Okc.

I think there will be some separation between the top two and bottom two, but in the real NBA, they're likely all playoff teams.

[GreenFaith1819]

Your CelticsBlog Summer Draft 2012 Denver Nuggets:

Roster and minutes breakdown:

[/u][/b]

PG - Mike Conley(33) / Nate Robinson(10) / Gary Neal(5)
SG - O.J. Mayo(34) / Gary Neal(14)
SF - Trevor Ariza(24) / Kyle Korver(16) / Chris Singleton(Eight)
PF - Carlos Boozer(32) / Marreese Speights(Eight) / Andrew Nicholson(Eight)
C - Kevin Garnett(30) / Zaza Pachulia(10) / Meyers Leonard(Eight)

Another nicely done presser. NW looking strong (and media savvy).

Q1. Any qualms at having two rookies and a second-year player logging 8 minutes a night for your club? Speights has also been pretty uneven in his career to date.

Q2. Do you feel that Korver and Robinson can provide enough bench scoring for your club?

Q3. Will you need to have one of Mayo or Conley on the floor at all times, in order to run the offense, or do you feel confident in Neal/Nate as distributors?

Thanks, Lucky17.

For question 1, I have no issues with the my rookies playing the allotted time of 8 minutes. From what I've seen in the Summer Leagues, both Meyers and Nicholson will certainly see a decent amount of playing time. There will be games where KG sits out, and that means Zaza would start and then Meyers would move up the depth chart rather quickly.

Same scenario with Nicholson, although I consider Boozer to be rather durable at this stage in his career still.

And for Chris Singleton, his defense alone with demand him min - mostly at SF, but I'm considering trying him at PF in some small-ball lineups or even at SG in big lineups. As a rookie in WAS, he averaged over 22 min per game.

And I don't recall any negative comments about Speights from MEM...I followed his play a bit during the regular season, and Lionel Hollins seemed thrilled with him filling in like he did for ZBo. OF course he didn't put up the same numbers, but Marreese Speights' play was instrumental in allowing them to go 41-26.

Speights was rather steady, if I remember correctly.

For question 2, I feel that Korver and Robinson will provide plenty of bench scoring for our team - as well as Speights and Zaza up front. Zaza avgd 8 pts 8rebs in 28 min, and Speights avgd 9 and 6 in 22 minutes of play.

Gary Neal has proven to have a hot hand off our bench, too, as well as Nate.

For question 3, I feel more comfortable with Nate Robinson running the offense off the bench, being that he did a decent job of it (in limited min) in BOS and was doing the same in GSW. Gary Neal has also proven capable of doing this, but I see Gary as more of a SG.

In other words, if I understand your question - I don't see us having to keep Conley or Mayo on the floor at the same time for the offense to run smoothly.. 

[GreenFaith1819]

For Lucky17:

Denver: SG was a position of concern for me. Is Mayo capable of being an efficient starting 2 on this team? I wasn't sure about this. I also wasn't comfortable with the thought of having to rely on the consistent play of Robinson, Singleton, Speights, Korver, and the rookies. Still, the potential for a very good defensive starting unit.

I don't see SG as an issue for me. Look at Mayo's stats when he started for MEM 2 yrs ago, in 2008-09 and 2009-10:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mayooj01.html

He shot roughly 45% from the field, and 38% from deep for those two yrs as a starter.

I'm not sure what you mean with "Consistent Play?" from the players you mentioned? As the backup PG on most nights, Nate Robinson will provide this team with nearly 4 assists, and he can shoot nearly 37% from deep so he isn't a total liability on offense from the bench.

Speights averaged nearly 7 pts and 4 rebs in a sub role during the playoffs once ZBo returned to the starting lineup. He put up a 19.1 PER during that time, too, in only 14 min per game.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/speigma01.html

Korver's numbers suffered in the post-season (minus Rose and decent PGs), but in this format he will regain his form and provide an offensive threat. Eithe Conley (or Nate) will be able to find him on a regular basis.

And finally, I'm not sure why you are trying to paint the team as a "very good defensive starting unit"...I appreciate the comment, but this team will have ample offensive options with the starters and the bench.

But thanks for the comments.

[GreenFaith1819]

Here's how I see it:

Portland Trailblazers
------
Utah Jazz
-----
OKC Thunder
Denver Nuggets

I think Portland's an absolute beast of a team in here. Jazz are very solid. I think the bottom two teams are going to really struggle to score the rock

Can you give reasons why you believe that DEN will have trouble scoring?

Just for POR alone, Rubio he shot 35% from the field..he did shoot 34% from deep, but I still believe that on some occasions his defender can (and will) sag off of him based off of this.

This leaves Joe Johnson as perhaps the most difficult to defend, here. Dwight Howard is a potent force, but his free throw shooting is one reason why I consider Andrew Bynum to be a better overall player than him. Paul Millsap has very good stats for the regular season, but he didn't play well at all, seemingly, during the post-season last yr:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/millspa01.html

[indeedproceed]

OJ Mayo is a bit of a connundrum for me. He's talented, he can create off the dribble alright, he can pass alright, he's got a rep (and the stats) as a sound defensive player, and he seems to be an alright shooter.

But something is amiss for me there. Why'd he lose his starting spot to Tony Allen? Allen is a wicked defender, but he's not a shooter, he's not good off the dribble unless he's really picking his spots, and he can't even hit the corner 3 like Battier always could. I can see wanting his scoring off the bench, but I mean...

So what's the deal there?