mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Jermaine O'Neal says hi.
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mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Greg Stink wrote:Just CRUSHED CB's willingness to play hurt.
mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Yuri Vaultin wrote:mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Jermaine O'Neal?
lolwut wrote:mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Jermaine O'Neal says hi.
mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
mowcrowbar wrote:lolwut wrote:mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Jermaine O'Neal says hi.
*who can rebound*
Jermaine O'Neal ?mowcrowbar wrote:lolwut wrote:mowcrowbar wrote:He tried everything? yea right.. did he ever bring in a defensive center?
Jermaine O'Neal says hi.
*who can rebound*
GTFO !!!!!!!!Rhettmatic wrote:How's your summer going?
- It's been one of those summers. There really hasn't been much time for anything other than trying to figure out the best way to put this team together. The big domino was Chris, that decision was made and maybe even forecasted before it came to pass. We've got a few things going here that have changed the look of our team dramatically. Obviously Chris is the big piece, and Turk not coming back is another, we've got an evolution of sorts with the rest of the team. The young guys are coming along and showing all kinds of enthusiasm and athleticism. It's been fun to watch internally. And then you've got some pieces we've added -- Ed Davis, Kleiza. It's addressing certain parts of what is going out the door and we still have other pieces to fill in. I'ts obviously going to be very difficult to fill the void that Chris left, but you might see our team play a different style and it might be more appealing at the end of the day.
Is LK a starter?
- He very well could be. Right now, I'd say he's the guy you'd probably slot in there unless we do something else. He's versatile, plays the 3 and 4 spot. He can play both inside and outside. He's got an ability to post up some smaller 3s and less athletic 3s. You've got a guy who can also spread the floor. He can knock down the 3 point shot. His midrange game is a little awkward, to say the least. He's got the inside post stuff or he's got the outside game, it's not much in-between. But people talk about how tough he is and how mentally tough he is. It's physical and mental. He's not backed down from teh likes of Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony and I think they respect him a lot for that. They talked about bringing him back but couldn't for tax reasons. He took a nice deal in Europe, had the option to stay, but decided to come back to the NBA.
When you say awkward, are you saying he doesn't shoot well off the dribble?
- No, he's not a guy who's going to create a shot for himself between the perimeter and the post but he's a guy who can score a variety of ways. He might be one of our best post-up options, that's how efficient he is down there. He just doesn't have much of a midrange game. That's not a terrible negative for him. He's not a shot creator, per se, but he can score.
What happened to Matt Barnes?
- It's a long story. It's better to just say things didn't work out. Sometimes you got a fish on a line and it doesn't happen. Because it was determined at some point the deal was not going to happen, we basically were one of several teams that were looking at bringing him in. At some point, he was looking at minimum deals or slightly above minimum, and he turned down more money in Cleveland to play with L.A. He turned down Miami and us at minimum. I think they had 1.7 or 1.8 in an exception that enabled them to get him. Clearly, he's joining a team that is the defending world champion and he's got a chance to have a big impact there. It's his hometown. NOt necessarily his hometown, but that's where he played college ball. That was an easy choice. It's unfortunate it didn't work out, it's also unfortuante that another deal we had agreed to slipped through our fingers, but you can't control everything in this business and you can't control the things that get out there prematurely.
Could you have imagined you were going to do such massive renovations to this roster?
- If htings don't work Bob, you know I'm always going to try to make them work. We tried in vain to put pieces around Chris. Different pieces, different styles. It didn't work out. He was the key piece on a team, he was the franchise piece, the cornerstone if you will. But no matter what type of player we brought in, it didn't seem to have the right mix with him as that centrepiece. This year it seemed like everything was rolling along. We were 29 wins into the season at the ASB tying a franchise record and the wheels fell off. Part of that was Chris was hurt, he sprained his ankle. Despite limited swelling and any excessive damage on an MRI, he felt like he needed to sit for six more games. That was a very important period fo rus. Then coming back from not working out, his timing was off, conditioning was off, we were set back even further. 6 games stretched to 9 games. Then when he finally came back, his face got broken. We had a tough season based on the timing of that injury and that sequence. I talk so much about those voices that might have been speaking to him at all-star, I think it's pretty obvious now what some of those voices were. Whether he was mentally checked out or just wasn't quite into it down the stretch, he wasn't the same guy. I think everybody saw that, but no one wanted to acknowledge it. At the same time, I never felt we were in the game. There was too much out there, too much built up for him to take an easy out here, and he decided to do that. It's a choice, and it's one that someone else made -- LeBron made the same choice in Cleveland and they had a lot of success last year.
Listen, how it all happened and when it happens fo reach individual is different. This has been brewing for a while, it's quite obvious. I don't call this tampering even though the rule says players can't recruit players. I think that's like when a GM tells a player, hey, go make sure that player wants to play for us next year. Players have the right to talk about these things in my opinion. THey've been talking about it for a long time. All the way back to when these deals were structured. It's something that played into a perfect storm. You've gotta give Pat Riley credit for getting the space together for putting them all in. Then he sold them the Kool-Aid, and they all drank it. They made the choice to leave money on the table. Chris left money on the table. What was potentially a $126-million deal becomes a $110-million deal. Look, these guys, they made choices, you can't fault them for what their choices are, they're all taking advantage of a great opportunity and credit the Miami Heat for how they handled it.
Did you at the time at least believe right after the ASB when CB4 got hurt, when he didn't play in those 6 games, did you believe he had checked out at that point?
- No, I really don't. I don't bleieve he had checked out at that point. But it was clear that at some point, he was not coming back. And I'm not talking about the injury, I mean Toronto. It was post-season. When you're in the heart of the season, there was a lot coming at us with injuries and losing, I'm not even questioning Chris's injury. I'm telling you he was cleared to play subject to tolerance on his part, and the tolerance just apparently wasnt' there and he chose not to play. The fact that our season was spiralling downward and we were hoping he'd come back sooner and we were also dealing with a few other things at that point. Hedo wasn't exactly playing up to his best performance or what he was capable of. We were really struggling there. The season's over now, we can talk about the future. I'm excited about some of the young guys who are here and doing some growth and development within us. We're a different team. We're going to play with speed and athleticism, we're going to get the ball moving a lot more than we did last year.
As efficient as our offence was, we scored,we got to the FT line, it wasn't enough to sustain success. We need to get better in defence, rebounding, toughness, mental and physical, and that's something we've tried to address. We move forward. But to say that I was planning to overhaul the roster this year? No, it wasn't my first choice.
Another deal coming?
- Yeah, we're working on a few things. There's been a lot of balls up in the air. Some teams are in that lull where the rush of free agency has happened. A lot of deals are being considered.
Interview over.
dillio wrote:Recap please