2012 CB Draft Southeast Division Press Conferences

[ronaldo943]

Washington

What kind of season does gortat have without playing with nash?

You have zero all star players. Pau gasol is the man. The last two seasons he has been under a lot of scrutiny. Kobe repeatedly called him out and his track record as the best player on a team is not good. He by far is your best player, so tell me why on this team he can take this team to a title?

Also how many minutes are Williams and smith planning to play together?

Gortat's confidence has grown he is still going to be dominant without Steve Nash its kind of like Rondo, he wasnt that good but the big 3 made him seem good at first but then he got a lot of confidence and now he doesnt need the big 3 if anything they need him.

I can care less how many all star players i have. I'd say we easily have the best big men. Marcin Gortat is a 15 and 10 guy. Pau Gasol is a 17 and 10 guy. We also have Gerald Wallace, Steph Curry, J.R. Smith, Lou Williams and well actually all our players on our team are quite good, i'd take this group over a team with 3 all stars. Also i never said he would take us to a title, we dont see this team as a championship or bust team we see it more as a first lets make the playoffs then start thinking about winning the championship. Also how do you expect him to carry a team that has these guys as their starters Chucky Atkins, Hakim Warrick, Terrence Kinsey, Dahntay Jones?

Lou Williams and J.R Smith will most likely be together on the court Williams will play way more than J.R.

[indeedproceed]

Atlanta

Kobe shot the ball at an amazing rate last year. How do you ensure the ball is spread out more so west and Duncan are consistently more involved then Bynum and gasol were at times. Kobe loves hero ball but that seems to be a detriment now to his teams at this point in his career.

I think a big part of it is having him go back into a structured offense.  He took an average of 3 more shots per game last year than he had in the past 4 years.  Also, last year he lost a great ball mover in Lamar Odom and had a couple of sub par PG's playing along side of him. 

Grant Hill will replace Lamar Odom.  Grant is another great ball mover at the SF spot and Duncan will be passing out of the low Post which he is phenomenal at.  I think this team will be very good at spreading the ball around and keeping everybody happy. 

I think I have balanced out Kobe well, he is obviously a shot taker, but I surrounded him with several unselfish players with good leadership qualities.

Tim Duncan = Pau Gasol passing
David West = Andrew Bynum passing
Grant Hill > Barns/Artest passing
George Hill < Ramon Sessions passing

I'm not saying it won't work or anything, but when you consider that Pau Gasol played 37 MPG in 65 of 66 regular season games, while Tim Duncan played 28 MPG in 58 regular season games, I don't think you can really argue that you improved the ball movement. Not that its a bad team, but I don't think you did much to take the ball out of Kobe's hands.

[ronaldo943]

Washington, a hypothetical: Stephen Curry misses a 20-game stretch with a mild ankle sprain, and Chauncey Billups still isn't recovered yet from his major injury. How does that affect your rotation? How does that affect your win total?

This will become our rotation

Marcin Gortat
Pau Gasol
Gerald Wallace
J.R Smith
Lou Williams

Bench
Spencer Hawes
DeJuan Blair
Steve Novak
Michael Beasley
Jameer Nelson

How does that affect your win total? I dont know i cant look into the future.

I'd say it significantly hurts your win total. And that's the conclusion I reached before I traded Curry (and I bet its the one Roy reached too): He's gonna miss games.

We have depth though so it wont affect us by a lot

Not really...you've got Jameer Nelson.

Chauncey Billups, before he was injured, had become a better 2 guard than a 1. You put Chauncey next to Jason Terry, or Monta Ellis, a SG in a PG's body. Now, any kind of hope that Billups can guard the 1 is just a thing of the past in my mind.

I do think that you've got something good working with a Lou Williams/Chauncey backcourt, but again, we're talking about a 36 year old man coming off of achillies surgery. Elton Brand did it at age 28, and never got back to the elite player he was before he heard the pop, and he still took off basically an entire season.

I'd take Nelson over Jack

[indeedproceed]

Washington, a hypothetical: Stephen Curry misses a 20-game stretch with a mild ankle sprain, and Chauncey Billups still isn't recovered yet from his major injury. How does that affect your rotation? How does that affect your win total?

This will become our rotation

Marcin Gortat
Pau Gasol
Gerald Wallace
J.R Smith
Lou Williams

Bench
Spencer Hawes
DeJuan Blair
Steve Novak
Michael Beasley
Jameer Nelson

How does that affect your win total? I dont know i cant look into the future.

I'd say it significantly hurts your win total. And that's the conclusion I reached before I traded Curry (and I bet its the one Roy reached too): He's gonna miss games.

We have depth though so it wont affect us by a lot

Not really...you've got Jameer Nelson.

Chauncey Billups, before he was injured, had become a better 2 guard than a 1. You put Chauncey next to Jason Terry, or Monta Ellis, a SG in a PG's body. Now, any kind of hope that Billups can guard the 1 is just a thing of the past in my mind.

I do think that you've got something good working with a Lou Williams/Chauncey backcourt, but again, we're talking about a 36 year old man coming off of achillies surgery. Elton Brand did it at age 28, and never got back to the elite player he was before he heard the pop, and he still took off basically an entire season.

I'd take Nelson over Jack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F15dgBzwOrc

[ronaldo943]

Washington, a hypothetical: Stephen Curry misses a 20-game stretch with a mild ankle sprain, and Chauncey Billups still isn't recovered yet from his major injury. How does that affect your rotation? How does that affect your win total?

This will become our rotation

Marcin Gortat
Pau Gasol
Gerald Wallace
J.R Smith
Lou Williams

Bench
Spencer Hawes
DeJuan Blair
Steve Novak
Michael Beasley
Jameer Nelson

How does that affect your win total? I dont know i cant look into the future.

I'd say it significantly hurts your win total. And that's the conclusion I reached before I traded Curry (and I bet its the one Roy reached too): He's gonna miss games.

We have depth though so it wont affect us by a lot

Not really...you've got Jameer Nelson.

Chauncey Billups, before he was injured, had become a better 2 guard than a 1. You put Chauncey next to Jason Terry, or Monta Ellis, a SG in a PG's body. Now, any kind of hope that Billups can guard the 1 is just a thing of the past in my mind.

I do think that you've got something good working with a Lou Williams/Chauncey backcourt, but again, we're talking about a 36 year old man coming off of achillies surgery. Elton Brand did it at age 28, and never got back to the elite player he was before he heard the pop, and he still took off basically an entire season.

I'd take Nelson over Jack

That is why you fail.

Lol you and i would both take Vasquez over Jack

[Rondo2287]

Atlanta

Kobe shot the ball at an amazing rate last year. How do you ensure the ball is spread out more so west and Duncan are consistently more involved then Bynum and gasol were at times. Kobe loves hero ball but that seems to be a detriment now to his teams at this point in his career.

I think a big part of it is having him go back into a structured offense.  He took an average of 3 more shots per game last year than he had in the past 4 years.  Also, last year he lost a great ball mover in Lamar Odom and had a couple of sub par PG's playing along side of him. 

Grant Hill will replace Lamar Odom.  Grant is another great ball mover at the SF spot and Duncan will be passing out of the low Post which he is phenomenal at.  I think this team will be very good at spreading the ball around and keeping everybody happy. 

I think I have balanced out Kobe well, he is obviously a shot taker, but I surrounded him with several unselfish players with good leadership qualities.

Tim Duncan = Pau Gasol passing
David West = Andrew Bynum passing
Grant Hill > Barns/Artest passing
George Hill < Ramon Sessions passing

I'm not saying it won't work or anything, but when you consider that Pau Gasol played 37 MPG in 65 of 66 regular season games, while Tim Duncan played 28 MPG in 58 regular season games, I don't think you can really argue that you improved the ball movement. Not that its a bad team, but I don't think you did much to take the ball out of Kobe's hands.

I personally think you are underestimating West and Hill.  But I think the part of it you are ignoring is that on that team you had Bynum, a punk, Gasol who kobe turned into a punching bag as Kane mentioned earlier and Matt Barnes.  Replace that with West, Duncan and Grant Hill and I think you have alot more accountability for Kobe.  Surround Kobe with Unselfish high character guys and good things will happen. 

In general look at what replacing delonte west with a guy like Keyon Dooling did for the celts.  Even replacing low character bench guys with high character bench guys has a deep effect on a team.

[Fafnir]

Kobe isn't changing who is his anymore than Tim Duncan is.

[Rondo2287]

Kobe isn't changing who is his anymore than Tim Duncan is.

Im not sure what that means, Im not saying Kobe will change who he is, im just saying he will go back to the 07-10 Kobe rather than the 11-12 kobe who shot 3 more shots per game.

[ronaldo943]

Atlanta

Kobe shot the ball at an amazing rate last year. How do you ensure the ball is spread out more so west and Duncan are consistently more involved then Bynum and gasol were at times. Kobe loves hero ball but that seems to be a detriment now to his teams at this point in his career.

I think a big part of it is having him go back into a structured offense.  He took an average of 3 more shots per game last year than he had in the past 4 years.  Also, last year he lost a great ball mover in Lamar Odom and had a couple of sub par PG's playing along side of him. 

Grant Hill will replace Lamar Odom.  Grant is another great ball mover at the SF spot and Duncan will be passing out of the low Post which he is phenomenal at.  I think this team will be very good at spreading the ball around and keeping everybody happy. 

I think I have balanced out Kobe well, he is obviously a shot taker, but I surrounded him with several unselfish players with good leadership qualities.

Tim Duncan = Pau Gasol passing
David West = Andrew Bynum passing
Grant Hill > Barns/Artest passing
George Hill < Ramon Sessions passing

I'm not saying it won't work or anything, but when you consider that Pau Gasol played 37 MPG in 65 of 66 regular season games, while Tim Duncan played 28 MPG in 58 regular season games, I don't think you can really argue that you improved the ball movement. Not that its a bad team, but I don't think you did much to take the ball out of Kobe's hands.

I personally think you are underestimating West and Hill.  But I think the part of it you are ignoring is that on that team you had Bynum, a punk, Gasol who kobe turned into a punching bag as Kane mentioned earlier and Matt Barnes.  Replace that with West, Duncan and Grant Hill and I think you have alot more accountability for Kobe.  Surround Kobe with Unselfish high character guys and good things will happen. 

In general look at what replacing delonte west with a guy like Keyon Dooling did for the celts.  Even replacing low character bench guys with high character bench guys has a deep effect on a team.

At this point in his career i think you are overestimating Grant Hill.

[Rondo2287]

Atlanta

Kobe shot the ball at an amazing rate last year. How do you ensure the ball is spread out more so west and Duncan are consistently more involved then Bynum and gasol were at times. Kobe loves hero ball but that seems to be a detriment now to his teams at this point in his career.

I think a big part of it is having him go back into a structured offense.  He took an average of 3 more shots per game last year than he had in the past 4 years.  Also, last year he lost a great ball mover in Lamar Odom and had a couple of sub par PG's playing along side of him. 

Grant Hill will replace Lamar Odom.  Grant is another great ball mover at the SF spot and Duncan will be passing out of the low Post which he is phenomenal at.  I think this team will be very good at spreading the ball around and keeping everybody happy. 

I think I have balanced out Kobe well, he is obviously a shot taker, but I surrounded him with several unselfish players with good leadership qualities.

Tim Duncan = Pau Gasol passing
David West = Andrew Bynum passing
Grant Hill > Barns/Artest passing
George Hill < Ramon Sessions passing

I'm not saying it won't work or anything, but when you consider that Pau Gasol played 37 MPG in 65 of 66 regular season games, while Tim Duncan played 28 MPG in 58 regular season games, I don't think you can really argue that you improved the ball movement. Not that its a bad team, but I don't think you did much to take the ball out of Kobe's hands.

I personally think you are underestimating West and Hill.  But I think the part of it you are ignoring is that on that team you had Bynum, a punk, Gasol who kobe turned into a punching bag as Kane mentioned earlier and Matt Barnes.  Replace that with West, Duncan and Grant Hill and I think you have alot more accountability for Kobe.  Surround Kobe with Unselfish high character guys and good things will happen. 

In general look at what replacing delonte west with a guy like Keyon Dooling did for the celts.  Even replacing low character bench guys with high character bench guys has a deep effect on a team.

At this point in his career i think you are overestimating Grant Hill.

I don't think so, Solid defensively, ball mover, 8-10 ppg.  I think thats 100% realistic for Grant.

[riah32]

Orlando Magic presser:

Starters:

Pg: Jeff Teague- good shooter will run the pick and role with Amare
PPG   APG   RPG   PER
12.6   4.9   2.4   15.83

SG: Gerald Henderson: energy guy who can a little defense
PPG   APG   RPG   PER
15.1   2.3   4.1   14.05

SF: Loul Deng-Good all round guy and solid defender
PPG   APG   RPG   PER
15.3   2.9   6.5   14.13

Pf: Amar’e Stoudamire-Superstar still, just had an off year do to playing with the ultimate chucker Melo.
PPG   RPG   BLKPG   PER
17.5   7.8   1.0   17.73

C: Javelle Magee-Up and coming center who showed some promise with Denver. Change of scenery from Washington did him some good. Solid Shot blocker
PPG   RPG   BLKPG   PER
11.3   7.8   2.2   19.90

Sixth Man:
Lamar Odom and Marcus Thorton
Odom: will see the floor a lot with Amar’e shifting to center, stats for last year miss leading.
Marcus Thornton-Microwave, can score a ton of points, will see a lot of playing time. Might even run some pick and roll with Amar’

PPG   APG   RPG   PER
18.7   1.9   3.7   17.43

Bench:
Marvin Williams-solid back should rebound this year, very good defender
Mullins-Capable big who can play both pf and center and can shoot.
Mo Williams-Points off the bench with see a lot of playing time
Vince Carter-energy and points of the bench will see some playing time
CJ Watson-nice 3 pointer shooter and ball handler should see playing time
Larry Sanders-shot blocker and can score a little. Play mainly in defensive situations.

Rotation:
With the exception of Amar’e no one will play heavy minutes and no one should really complain since their all equal stars.

Coach:
Doug Collins-great defensive coach

Expectations-All honesty I think were the deepest team in the league and should have no problems finding are way to the Finals and maybe even winning. I know we don’t have that sexy name outside of Amare but I think Amar’e and this team really thrive together.
Best Move-Traded back out of the 1st round got 1st round talent in the second round. Also like moving one of my 2nd picks for even more depth.

[Fafnir]

Kobe isn't changing who is his anymore than Tim Duncan is.

Im not sure what that means, Im not saying Kobe will change who he is, im just saying he will go back to the 07-10 Kobe rather than the 11-12 kobe who shot 3 more shots per game.

Kobe shot at roughly the same rate last year as he has in the past. He's shooting 20 to 21 shots per 36 minutes the past 6 years.

He was just playing 5 more MPG for Mike Brown than for Phil in 2010-2011. The number of shots per minute were essentially the same.

Kobe is who he is, he'll get his 20-21 shots per 36 with a usage of around 32 to 35. Small variations that don't really amount to a big difference.

[ronaldo943]

Atlanta

Kobe shot the ball at an amazing rate last year. How do you ensure the ball is spread out more so west and Duncan are consistently more involved then Bynum and gasol were at times. Kobe loves hero ball but that seems to be a detriment now to his teams at this point in his career.

I think a big part of it is having him go back into a structured offense.  He took an average of 3 more shots per game last year than he had in the past 4 years.  Also, last year he lost a great ball mover in Lamar Odom and had a couple of sub par PG's playing along side of him. 

Grant Hill will replace Lamar Odom.  Grant is another great ball mover at the SF spot and Duncan will be passing out of the low Post which he is phenomenal at.  I think this team will be very good at spreading the ball around and keeping everybody happy. 

I think I have balanced out Kobe well, he is obviously a shot taker, but I surrounded him with several unselfish players with good leadership qualities.

Tim Duncan = Pau Gasol passing
David West = Andrew Bynum passing
Grant Hill > Barns/Artest passing
George Hill < Ramon Sessions passing

I'm not saying it won't work or anything, but when you consider that Pau Gasol played 37 MPG in 65 of 66 regular season games, while Tim Duncan played 28 MPG in 58 regular season games, I don't think you can really argue that you improved the ball movement. Not that its a bad team, but I don't think you did much to take the ball out of Kobe's hands.

I personally think you are underestimating West and Hill.  But I think the part of it you are ignoring is that on that team you had Bynum, a punk, Gasol who kobe turned into a punching bag as Kane mentioned earlier and Matt Barnes.  Replace that with West, Duncan and Grant Hill and I think you have alot more accountability for Kobe.  Surround Kobe with Unselfish high character guys and good things will happen. 

In general look at what replacing delonte west with a guy like Keyon Dooling did for the celts.  Even replacing low character bench guys with high character bench guys has a deep effect on a team.

At this point in his career i think you are overestimating Grant Hill.

I don't think so, Solid defensively, ball mover, 8-10 ppg.  I think thats 100% realistic for Grant.

All im saying is if Hill was on my team he would be my 12th-13th guy

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/336/grant-hill

[Rondo2287]

Atlanta

Kobe shot the ball at an amazing rate last year. How do you ensure the ball is spread out more so west and Duncan are consistently more involved then Bynum and gasol were at times. Kobe loves hero ball but that seems to be a detriment now to his teams at this point in his career.

I think a big part of it is having him go back into a structured offense.  He took an average of 3 more shots per game last year than he had in the past 4 years.  Also, last year he lost a great ball mover in Lamar Odom and had a couple of sub par PG's playing along side of him. 

Grant Hill will replace Lamar Odom.  Grant is another great ball mover at the SF spot and Duncan will be passing out of the low Post which he is phenomenal at.  I think this team will be very good at spreading the ball around and keeping everybody happy. 

I think I have balanced out Kobe well, he is obviously a shot taker, but I surrounded him with several unselfish players with good leadership qualities.

Tim Duncan = Pau Gasol passing
David West = Andrew Bynum passing
Grant Hill > Barns/Artest passing
George Hill < Ramon Sessions passing

I'm not saying it won't work or anything, but when you consider that Pau Gasol played 37 MPG in 65 of 66 regular season games, while Tim Duncan played 28 MPG in 58 regular season games, I don't think you can really argue that you improved the ball movement. Not that its a bad team, but I don't think you did much to take the ball out of Kobe's hands.

I personally think you are underestimating West and Hill.  But I think the part of it you are ignoring is that on that team you had Bynum, a punk, Gasol who kobe turned into a punching bag as Kane mentioned earlier and Matt Barnes.  Replace that with West, Duncan and Grant Hill and I think you have alot more accountability for Kobe.  Surround Kobe with Unselfish high character guys and good things will happen. 

In general look at what replacing delonte west with a guy like Keyon Dooling did for the celts.  Even replacing low character bench guys with high character bench guys has a deep effect on a team.

At this point in his career i think you are overestimating Grant Hill.

I don't think so, Solid defensively, ball mover, 8-10 ppg.  I think thats 100% realistic for Grant.

All im saying is if Hill was on my team he would be my 12th-13th guy

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/336/grant-hill

And that would be your mistake but I wouldnt want to bury a guy like that in the rotation, and I don't think the clippers plan on that either.

[ronaldo943]

Question for Orlando:

You say you think you are deepest team but have you seen the Wizards?
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2758/marcin-gortat
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/996/pau-gasol
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/1026/gerald-wallace
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2799/lou-williams
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3975/stephen-curry
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3211/spencer-hawes
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3965/dejuan-blair
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2444/jr-smith
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3018/steve-novak
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/63/chauncey-billups
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2439/jameer-nelson
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/4235/greg-stiemsma
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3418/michael-beasley