Presti news conference

jambalaya · Post #1 » by **jambalaya** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:02 am

Hi Sam. A few questions.

Your team improved from 15th place on offensive efficiency in 2018 playoffs to 11th this season. Is that encouraging to you?

The team's defensive efficiency fell from 8th to 10th. Do you think you can get back to top half next season against your next first round opponent?

Blazers pretty much controlled pace this series, Was that ok?

Team was 12th on 3pt fg% and 8th on FT rate in playoffs. Is that acceptable to you?

6th at getting to rim but only 13th best at hitting them. Just bad luck or did the Blazers' defense surprise your guys in some way?

11th on own efg%, 12th on own turnover rate, 8th on offensive rebounds , 5th on ft/fga. Which of these do you need to improve for next time?

No real strengths on defensive factors. How did that team priority slip away to become an overall non-factor or weakness?

You spent $123 million on your top 6 players and arguably only George played well and not really that well. What did they or Coach Donovan not do right to create this under-performance?

What do you think about the series Russell had? Did his -10 on the court plus minus and -21 on /off concern you? Did Billy's heavy reliance on 2 lineups that were getting poor results concern you? Was there any consideration to change them? Why weren't they?

Were you satisfied with the gameplan? In retrospect what would you change?

What thing or things were you most encouraged by from this playoffs?

Kizz Fastfists · Post #2 » by **Kizz Fastfists** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:20 am

I'm not taking any questions. I have a prepared statement. Donovan is returning because he is a dear friend and he allows the players to do what they want and that keeps them happy. The players doing what they want is entertaining to the fans so them not knowing how to win games is irrelevant as long as we continue to sell out the arena. We accomplished our goal of making the playoffs and while we would have like to have won a playoff series PG was hurt and Roberson will be back next year and Russ just wasn't shooting well. We hope to be healthy for the playoffs next year and for our shots to fall. I hope you all enjoy our off-season which we are calling treadmill off-season #3.

Pillendreher · Post #3 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:56 am

If Donovan is retained, George should ask for a trade. We already wasted a year of prime Durant and four years of prime Westbrook on Donovan. Don't need to add George to the list.

Post #4 » by **slick_watts** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:41 am

Pillendreher wrote:If Donovan is retained, George should ask for a trade. We already wasted a year of prime Durant and four years of prime Westbrook on Donovan. Don't need to add George to the list.

paul george and russell westbrook appear to like and support billy donovan.

Pillendreher · Post #5 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:52 am

slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:If Donovan is retained, George should ask for a trade. We already wasted a year of prime Durant and four years of prime Westbrook on Donovan. Don't need to add George to the list.

paul george and russell westbrook appear to like and support billy donovan.

Which is a massive problem in itself. Donovan has found his niche as a sort of chaperone and the players enjoy it because they get the freedom to do whatever they want. Where is the "leadership" supposed to come from when both the players and the coaching staff are in this kind of symbiotic relationship with both parties just feeding off of each other's carelessness and non-chalant attitude?

Post #6 » by **slick_watts** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:01 pm

Pillendreher wrote:
slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:If Donovan is retained, George should ask for a trade. We already wasted a year of prime Durant and four years of prime Westbrook on Donovan. Don't need to add George to the list.

paul george and russell westbrook appear to like and support billy donovan.

Which is a massive problem in itself. Donovan has found his niche as a sort of chaperone and the players enjoy it because they get the freedom to do whatever they want. Where is the "leadership" supposed to come from when both the players and the coaching staff are in this kind of symbiotic relationship with both parties just feeding off of each other's carelessness and non-chalant attitude?

would you have endorsed a coaching change if you thought it might have an effect on paul george's decision to re-sign or westbrook's decision to extend?

Pillendreher · Post #7 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:29 pm

slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
slick_watts wrote:
paul george and russell westbrook appear to like and support billy donovan.

Which is a massive problem in itself. Donovan has found his niche as a sort of chaperone and the players enjoy it because they get the freedom to do whatever they want. Where is the "leadership" supposed to come from when both the players and the coaching staff are in this kind of symbiotic relationship with both parties just feeding off of each other's carelessness and non-chalant attitude?

would you have endorsed a coaching change if you thought it might have an effect on paul george's decision to re-sign or westbrook's decision to extend?

Good question. I guess my counter to that would be that if those two only stayed because they thought they could just screw arround without any repercussions, then I'd wonder how committed to winning they were in the first place. Culture is well and good, but you can't let it turn into a kind of parody of your initial objective: There needs to be a greater good/a common goal and that can't be just keeping guys happy while they get rich and don't have to worry about a thing because there are no expectations and demands.

Post #8 » by **ThunderBolt** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:52 pm

Billy Dononvan is a lot like Enes Kanter. He sucks and he is a problem for this organization. Getting rid of him doesn’t necessarily solve any or all problems with this team. If he goes to another team he will suck there but will likely make us look foolish when he faces us if the other issues aren’t fixed.

Post #9 » by **slick_watts** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 2:38 pm

Pillendreher wrote:
slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
Which is a massive problem in itself. Donovan has found his niche as a sort of chaperone and the players enjoy it because they get the freedom to do whatever they want. Where is the "leadership" supposed to come from when both the players and the coaching staff are in this kind of symbiotic relationship with both parties just feeding off of each other's carelessness and non-chalant attitude?

would you have endorsed a coaching change if you thought it might have an effect on paul george's decision to re-sign or westbrook's decision to extend?

Good question. I guess my counter to that would be that if those two only stayed because they thought they could just screw arround without any repercussions, then I'd wonder how committed to winning they were in the first place. Culture is well and good, but you can't let it turn into a kind of parody of your initial objective: There needs to be a greater good/a common goal and that can't be just keeping guys happy while they get rich and don't have to worry about a thing because there are no expectations and demands.

winning a championship has never been this team's #1 priority.

Post #10 » by **ThunderBolt** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:06 pm

Read on Twitter

?

False.

Pillendreher · Post #11 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:07 pm

ThunderBolt wrote:

Read on Twitter
?

False.

"For 70 % we were playing at an extremely high level"

They are really buying into their own bull. The offense was above average for about 6 weeks. And the defense was great for the first half of the season; afterwards league average at best.

jackrabbit00 · Post #12 » by **jackrabbit00** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:09 pm

It seems that Billy is staying. Not something I was hoping for. It seems it's going to be another dissapointing season.

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Post #13 » by **ThunderBolt** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:16 pm

Read on Twitter

Treadmill

Post #14 » by **ThunderBolt** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:17 pm

Read on Twitter

Post #15 » by **ThunderBolt** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:19 pm

Read on Twitter

Meaning?
Edit: Nevermind. It means they believe the team is fine and will stay the course.

Read on Twitter

Pillendreher · Post #16 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:20 pm

ThunderBolt wrote:

Read on Twitter

He actually sounded like he tries to be passive and let Donovan go on his own. Maybe Donovan can help us out if this **** doesn't want to.

jackrabbit00 · Post #17 » by **jackrabbit00** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:22 pm

"Ball movement penetration team" what a bullsh*t, he is just making excuses. Only reason we were good was because everyone was hitting their shots, we had no offensive plan, and that was exposed badly against Portland.

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Pillendreher · Post #18 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:22 pm

ThunderBolt wrote:

Read on Twitter

Meaning?
Edit: Nevermind. It means they believe the team is fine and will stay the course.

Read on Twitter

Nothing. It's a common rhetoric device you regularly see with politicians who try to pretend to take responsiility without actually doing it. Nothing will change, but he's adding an extra ounce of emotional outbursts to the whole thing so it looks like he actually cares to the extent people think he should.

Pillendreher · Post #19 » by **Pillendreher** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:31 pm

ThunderBolt wrote:Edit: Nevermind. It means they believe the team is fine and will stay the course.

Read on Twitter

Same goes for this: He's deflecting from the failure that has been this season by getting the talking point out there that people calling for consequences are just simpletons driven by emotions, while he and the people actually responsible for this are portrayed as the sort of people who always act rationally.

Getting rid of people who have made mistakes and have been bad at their job becomes by definition unacceptable.

jackrabbit00 · Post #20 » by **jackrabbit00** » Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:32 pm

Problem with things that Presti is talking about is that a lot of them were here last year too. He said that we should be better at free throws, but that was a thing last year, we weren't good at ft last year too.He should be asked what exactly are they going to do to improve on those things. It's easy to say we had problems here and there, but how are we going to improve is what he isn't saying and that is concerning.

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