Celticsblog Mock GM Press Conferences: Central Division

[celticmaestro]

Milwaukee - You say you expect Speights and Melo to be the best forward combo in the east in three years, how will it fair against the likes of Durant and Bosh or Gay and Amare, other hugely impressive and young front courts.

What about TA's knee? Is he ready for a starting job?

Any concern with your undersized front court? Wilcox is much more of a PF than a C.

As for the PG situation, can Hinrich deliver right away? Is Sessions good enough as a first choice back-up?

[Roy Hobbs]

Milwaukee:

I liked how you've improved your team from where it was previously, when I labeled it the "worst team in the league".  I'm still not sure that you're a playoff team, but I also don't think you're the worst team in the Fake NBA (although I do stand by my earlier assessment of where you were at the time).

Questions:

1) Can you really expect big contributions from two guys who were bench players last year?

2) How is Wilcox's injury?  Any concerns there?

3) Speights...  I think he's one reason why I just don't like your team as much as you do.  If you were drafting in the "real" NBA, where would you have taken him in the 2008 draft?

4) How does your team compare to the other "build for the future" team we've seen so far, Boston?

[bucknersrevenge]

Milwaukee - You say you expect Speights and Melo to be the best forward combo in the east in three years, how will it fair against the likes of Durant and Bosh or Gay and Amare, other hugely impressive and young front courts.

In 3 years I think we'll fare well. I think Carmelo is one of the most explosive scorers in the NBA and extremely versatile in the ways he can beat you. He can go inside, outside, he gets to the line. The kid led his team to a title in college, he helped lead the Redeem Team to Gold. We think his leadership skills are growing and he's got a killer instinct.

We think Speights is gonna be terrific. Really smart player already with a pretty developed post game. He uses both hands well. He runs the floor. We don't see this pair backing down from anybody. If we stick to OUR game and don't get caught up in what other guys are doing we're gonna be alright.

What about TA's knee? Is he ready for a starting job?

We think he is. He's gonna get around 30 minutes a game though. We did draft Brandon to be the real future at this position so hes gonna get time here as well. We saw the alley at the end of last year and saw no hesitation in how he went up. I believe he's ready for this. We'd like to get him involved early in games as that seems to bode well for him from both sides of the court when he does. And you could tell after winning a title last year all this kid wants to do is contribute and just play basketball. Doesn't care about the numbers, doesn't care what he has to do. He just wants to win, and that's an attitude we want here.

Any concern with your undersized front court? Wilcox is much more of a PF than a C.

No, not too much. Wilcox is extremely strong so we think we can handle the big guys down low. and his athleticism will help him on offense and we think he can beat guys like Yao down the court. It may not be the most ideal situation at the moment but we believe with our young team our best starting unit has him starting at center right now and a solid post defender like Dice playing next to him. We've got a couple of years to see how things play out but we can use Wilcox's strengths to our advantage from the 5.

As for the PG situation, can Hinrich deliver right away? Is Sessions good enough as a first choice back-up?

We absolutely believe Hinrich can deliver right away. He's delivered everywhere he's gone. The problem since he's come to the league has been the talent he's been surrounded with(especially in the frontcourt) and slow tempo that doesn't allow much wiggle room to just go out there and make plays.

Sessions had a terrific end to last year and followed it up with a good offseason and a terrific summer league. He's got great size at 6'3 and he's developing as a solid floor general. He's got a lot of confidence on the floor right now. His last 10 games of last year he put up these numbers: 11.5 points/11.3 assists/1.5stls per game. We think he has a terrific future. But just to back him up we've got a guy like Darrell Armstrong who should be a great mentor for both Sessions and Hinrich.

[Lucky17]

Your 2008/09 Cleveland Cavaliers:

Starters:

C - Nick Collison
PF - Hakim Warrick
SF - Manu Ginobli
SG - Dwyane Wade
PG - Louis Williams

Bench Rotation:

Bigs: Josh Boone, Mikki Moore, Serge Ibaka
Wings: Bobby Simmons, Desmond Mason, Wilson Chandler
Guards: Jamaal Tinsley, Luther Head, Javaris Crittenton

Overseas: Shan Foster, Sofoklis Schortsianitis

I like your players for the most part, Champkind. Good character guys and hard workers, with the exception of Tinsley.

1. A propos of Tinsley, are you concerned about him accepting the backup role? Thoughts of trading him (he's got some value to a contender)?

2. You've already discussed moving Ginobli to 6th man (injury rehab and effectiveness dictate the move), sliding Warrick over to SF, and plugging in Boone in the starting frontcourt. Any thoughts about starting Moore with Collison, and bringing Boone off the bench, where there's less pressure for him to perform?

3. Looks like you've got an open roster slot. Any thoughts about a waiver wire pickup?

I'll have to see how the rest of the conference shakes out, but you may have a playoff squad.

[Lucky17]

pg: derrick rose / bobby "my perrogative" brown
sg: monta ellis/ karim rush/ fred jones/ alando tucker
sf: james jones/ rodney carney / jared jeffries
pf: rasheed wallace/ brandon bass
c: sam dalembert/ kosta koufos

Certainly, the Ellis injury is a setback. If he loses several months, the season may be lost, and then we go into Sheed-watch. As it is, you're a borderline playoff team.

I think you could benefit from a trade to balance out your roster a bit. A few too many wing players, not enough depth at PG or frontcourt.

[Lucky17]

Starters
PG-Kirk Hinrich 41% FG 35% 3pt 11.5pts 3.3rebs 6ast 1.2stls
SG-Tony Allen 43% FG 32% 3pt 6.6pts 2.2rebs 1.5ast .83stls
SF-Carmelo Anthony 49% FG 35% 3pt 25.7pts 7.4rebs 3.4ast 1.27stls
PF-Antonio McDyess 49% FG 0% 3pt 8.8pts 8.5rebs 1.1ast .78stls
 C-Chris Wilcox 52% FG 0% 3pt 13.4pts 7rebs 1.2ast .74stls

Bench
PG Ramon Sessions C/PF Marreese Speights, G/F Brandon Rush, G/F Dahntay Jones, C Hilton Armstrong, PF Brian Cook, PG Darrell Armstrong,

Reserves
F Bill Walker, F Ryan Anderson, Ian Mahinmi

McDyess is a personal favorite of mine, and I also like Wilcox. Anthony's off-court drama could be a distraction; hopefully, his head's on straight for the season.

I also think Hinrich would do fine as your starting PG. Tony Allen is the X-factor: if he can play under control for 30 minutes a night, your team could do quite well.

What your bench players lack in cachet/household-name status, they make up for in work ethic and effort. That said, I expect you to scrap with your division mates for one of the final playoff spots.

[bucknersrevenge]

Milwaukee:

I liked how you've improved your team from where it was previously, when I labeled it the "worst team in the league".  I'm still not sure that you're a playoff team, but I also don't think you're the worst team in the Fake NBA (although I do stand by my earlier assessment of where you were at the time).

Questions:

1) Can you really expect big contributions from two guys who were bench players last year?

First, appreciate the kind words. I think Tony's main contributions will be on the defensive end which really caters to his skill set. Tony isn't gonna be asked to do anything he's never done before: play defense, finish at the rim, hit an occasional jumpshot last year battling the recovery from the knee and all his issues with that he posted these numbers as a starting guard: 9.6 points/2 assists/1.5 steals in 29mpg. And that was with confidence problems. We think after a full offseason to heal he can do better than that.

Im not sure which other guy you're referring to though. Hinrich, Carmelo, and Dice started every game last year. Wilcox played in 62 games and started in all but 7 of those.

2) How is Wilcox's injury?  Any concerns there?

No we think his pinkie will be alright. He shut it down early last year because it was the best move for his future. An offseason of rehab and he should be ready to go this year. If he's not obviously we'll have to deal but we believe he's gonna be OK.

3) Speights...  I think he's one reason why I just don't like your team as much as you do.  If you were drafting in the "real" NBA, where would you have taken him in the 2008 draft?

Anywhere between 7-10. The Clippers made a mistake not taking this kid though Gordon has talent. Jersey DEFINITELY should've taken him over Lopez. Check his DraftExpress profile specifically the first 2 articles:

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Marreese-Speights-1183/

Also this quote came from ESPNs David Thorpe who does NBA scouting:

Marreese Speights, Sixers
I worked out Speights one time two years ago and thought he was the closest thing to Amare Stoudemire that I'd ever seen. I still think that. He is incredibly agile and explosive for such a big man, and his skill game is superb. He throws the ball in, period. Sitting behind so many players in Philly will not help spur development, but I suspect his coaches understand that and will work to keep him engaged.

4) How does your team compare to the other "build for the future" team we've seen so far, Boston?

We think our team compares favorably. With all due respect to Boston who we believe has a fine future that's a team whose centerpiece is an "unknown" coming off a lost season due to injury. Our core consists of 3 guys that won titles in college(Melo, Rush, and Speights) and a guy that made it to the championship game(Hinrich). Unlike a number of "future" teams I've seen ur group has a visible hierarchy, a top 5 scorer coming off a Gold medal in the Olympics, veteran players with the EXPERIENCE to mentor their growth including a guy who won it all, and a number of solid 2-way players with the ability to make an impact at both ends of the floor. Not to mention in reserve we have a guy who by many accounts has lotto talent, a conference leading scorer and top rebounder and a guy that played on team that won overseas and then led his D-League team to their Finals.

We have a lot of guys on our team with a winning pedigree. Some of them have had success in this league so far already. But what I think I like about our group the most is that we have a group of hard-working kids and have put in an environment with seasoned professionals who can help guide them to becoming better.

[bucknersrevenge]

Starters
PG-Kirk Hinrich 41% FG 35% 3pt 11.5pts 3.3rebs 6ast 1.2stls
SG-Tony Allen 43% FG 32% 3pt 6.6pts 2.2rebs 1.5ast .83stls
SF-Carmelo Anthony 49% FG 35% 3pt 25.7pts 7.4rebs 3.4ast 1.27stls
PF-Antonio McDyess 49% FG 0% 3pt 8.8pts 8.5rebs 1.1ast .78stls
 C-Chris Wilcox 52% FG 0% 3pt 13.4pts 7rebs 1.2ast .74stls

Bench
PG Ramon Sessions C/PF Marreese Speights, G/F Brandon Rush, G/F Dahntay Jones, C Hilton Armstrong, PF Brian Cook, PG Darrell Armstrong,

Reserves
F Bill Walker, F Ryan Anderson, Ian Mahinmi

McDyess is a personal favorite of mine, and I also like Wilcox. Anthony's off-court drama could be a distraction; hopefully, his head's on straight for the season.

I also think Hinrich would do fine as your starting PG. Tony Allen is the X-factor: if he can play under control for 30 minutes a night, your team could do quite well.

What your bench players lack in cachet/household-name status, they make up for in work ethic and effort. That said, I expect you to scrap with your division mates for one of the final playoff spots.

Appreciate the kind words Lucky. I definitely wanted to hold on to McDyess after I acquired him for such a young team. Having solid professionals for players to learn from who have been through the wars is a good way to speed up the learning curve for young players. That's one of the reasons i'm not really worried about our REAL Boston Celtics. You can't find 3 better veterans to learn from ANYWHERE in the NBA than the 3 guys we got here.

I like the way our bench players fit in with the starters. Hinrichs versatility allows Sessions to come in and play next to his for periods. Speights I believe could fit in fine at PF or C. Rush can handle either of the swing spots adequately, as could Jones who is a real scrapper. Just a hard-working kid who has fought and clawed to make a place for himself in this league. Cook, I think is a terrific complement for Hinrich and for post up options Anthony and Speights with his ability to spread the floor. It didn't start pretty but I think we did a good job of putting together a roster of players that fit together on the court and fit what we're trying to do at both ends and at the same time put together a collection of tough, hardworking guys young and old in an environment where they can learn from each other and make each other better.

[Lucky17]

No Chicago or Detroit writeup?

Chicago has Kobe and who else? And I seem to remember Detroit was a contender for the Eastern crown. Who do they have again?

[StartOrien]

Ellis being out for a little certainly does hurt, and in all honesty could potentially put Sheed on the trading block (waiting to hear the seriousness of the injury first).

We've entertained a few offers for Sheed but for the most part the trade offers aren't anywhere close to the amount that we're going to command in order to make the trade.

Again, I have a lot of confidence in Bobby Brown as a backup PG and I feel pretty good about those two splitting all the minutes at the PG spot (and if Brown breaks out, we could possibly entertain the idea of a 2 PG system though I'm not crazy on the idea with these two as both are more of pass first guys).

And as much depth as we have at the swing position right now, I don't have full confidence in any of them so we'd be more likely to move for a 2 or 3 with an obvious preference for 3.

In a perfect world, Ellis comes back 2 months into the season and becomes the player that I expect him to be (a breakout season similar to the one Wade had when they wont he finals), Dalembert continues his steady progress and in real life shows how much he can benefit from a post player like Brand, Sheed to not show signs of aging, and for one of our small forwards to break out.

[Roy Hobbs]

Detroit's roster, and CFF's last comments on it:

C:  Yao Ming/Jake Voskuhl/Jason Collins
PF: Shawn Marion/Carl Landry/PJ Brown
SF: Hedo Turkoglu/Al Harrington/Steve Novak
SG: Michael Redd/Flip Murray/Gerald Green
PG: Earl Watson/Kyle Lowry/Steve Francis


The way I see it, we are contenders in the East for the next 3-5 years.

I got a slight logjam at PG, and not that many good back-up big guys. Stevie Franchise or Lowry could be available for a good big man.

But otherwise, I think my team is pretty darn good.


Most likely Green, Voskuhl, and Novak (injuries) inactive:

So minutes-wise:

Center: Yao 34, Brown 6, Landry 4, Harrington 4    (gonna play some small ball at times)
PF: Marion 35, Landry 10, Harrington 3
SF: Turkoglu 35, Harrington 13
SG: Redd 35, Murray 8, Francis 5
PG: Watson 28, Lowry 12, Francis 8


Total minutes:

Turkoglu 35
Marion 35
Redd 35
Yao 34
Watson 28
Harrington 20
Landry 14
Francis 13
Lowry 12
Murray 8
Brown 6


Plenty of rest for my starters and runs for the guys on my bench

Chicago's roster:

Nazr/Foster/Bonner
Smith/Powe/Shareef
Wally/QRich/Wilkins
Kobe/Sasha/Bayless/Wright
Knight/Quinn/Jones

Kobe, Jeff Foster, Jerryd Bayless, Nazr Mohammed, Leon Powe, Joe Smith, Sasha Vujacic, Quentin Richardson, Wally Szczerbiak, Brevin Knight, Shareef Abdur-Raheem, Chris Quinn, Matt Bonner, Damon Jones, Antoine Wright, Damian Wilkins

Steve on whether he still would have made the 1st, 2nd, 3rd for the #5 and a 6th trade:

Interesting question...  I think there's two different questions there in that, no, I think if I had to do it all over again I wouldn't make the trade I made, which gave me the fifth pick rather than the four.  Though I'm very high on the likes of Deron Williams and Garnett/Duncan, there were four truly transcendent picks in this draft in LBJ, CP3, Howard and Kobe.  It was a lucky break that enabled Kobe to fall into my hands, and I think I'd be in an even greater pickle than I already am here if that hadn't occurred.  With that said, I'll stand by what I did for now as 'the ends possibly justifying the means.'  I do stand by the belief ... that it is important to have a big-time player (multiple players, really, which I don' thave) aboard the ship, and I made the move to ensure that I had a franchise centerpiece with whom I was happy.  Gave up a lot, but I think the verdict remains to be seen on how my team shakes it when all is said and done (and just how much better bdm860's Nets are in comparison to my Bulls).  Hope that helps answer the question at least a bit.

[Roy Hobbs]

I think Detroit is obviously the class of the division.  Chicago, though, did some good things with its roster, adding quality vets.  I think they're a playoff team.

[wdleehi]

This was an easy one to pick. 

[Edgar]

I still think dallas is better than houston   


ahh

yes this was central....I will go Rock city too.

[RebusRankin]

I think the Clippers are better than Dallas and will give Houston a good challenge. What? I thought we were touting our teams? 

So Milwaukee worried about your bench depth? What about TA's health?