CB Draft '09 Mock Press Conference: Pacific Divison

[Evantime34]

Looking at our division if we can't get three teams in the playoffs then there has been a travesty committed.

I have three teams from your division in my top six, it's just a matter of sorting them out.

When sorting teams out you have to look at several categories in my opinion.
1. Experience
2. Bench (depth)
3. Head to Head match ups
4. Players who can hit big shots.
5. Usually the top tier teams will have a young player who breaks out (Ariza, Rondo).

I think I have check marks next to all those criteria

Okur=Okur if not injuried
Boozer < best boozer of utah
Deng  alittle bettero
Magette...nefense
this years Nash << Deron williams

I cant see u being better than real life est Utah
team who happens to be out in one or two rounds every other playoffs
even if I do think u have a very good team

The thing is in this league, due to no cap restrictions and the snake draft teams are more even than in real life. So a team that is as good as the real life Jazz would actually fare better than the actual Jazz (if that makes sense).
Boozer is Boozer, you can't have one Boozer better than another. So in my count Williams is better than Nash, but Deng is better than Kirilenko, and Maggette is better than Brewer. Plus my bench is better than theirs.

[indeedproceed]

2) How do you stack up with your two biggest division rivals, Phoenix and Buffalo?

Phoenix, great team, but too young to win anything this year. Out of PHX three best player all are younger than 24 and only one has playoff experience. The bench just doesn't do it for me, Nate jacking up all the shots playing point, not being able to find Korver or Bowen on the wing. The back up post players are ok.

Well since you started it....

The Phoenix Suns' "Young Three" as the Phoenixians (Phoenicians?) are calling them, have all been full-time starters for three years each.

All three have played significant mins in the playoffs (hat tip JR).

2 of the 3 have made it out of the first round of the playoffs.

1 of the 3 has a championship ring as a full time starter.

2 of my "young" front line individually have more rebounds than any other one player on Golden State's team.

Al Jefferson, a player whose health has already been called into question, and is only 24 years old, has started more games than Carlos Boozer over the last 3 years.

I would say Phoenix's bench surpasses Golden State's because A) Both teams are not going to be playing their entire second unit at the same time. They're going to be sprinkled with starters, and I've got better starters), and B) I'm 4 deep with proven, and excepting Nate Robinson, playoff tested rotation players. Korver hasn't missed the playoffs since he's been traded to Utah, and his mins haven't dropped. Bowen and Oberto both have chip rings with San Antonio.

There has been a lot of Nate Robinson bashing lately. Let me just say you are bashing less than 15 mins total of playing time. For 2 mins here, three mins there, I will take Nate Robinson's scoring rate, franzied play, and tough guy swagger over Tyreke Evans's rookie jitters or Eddie House's defensive flaws anyday...this year at least. Eventually Tyreke Evans should turn out to be better than Nate Robinson. Not today though.

Speaking of rookie jitters, you're calling the Suns young, but you're relying pretty heavily on Demar Derozen, Danillo Gallinari and Tyreke Evans for a team with such high hopes. Sure, this could be an all-star team in 2014, but right now my rotation youth, that is my starters, are all borderline all-stars, completely unjustly robbed
should have been in the all-star game but wasn't which is bullpoop, or solid elite players for their position (I will let you figure out which is which).

I think the Suns have the Warriors pretty handily, both in the regular season and the playoffs.

[Edgar]

Looking at our division if we can't get three teams in the playoffs then there has been a travesty committed.

I have three teams from your division in my top six, it's just a matter of sorting them out.

When sorting teams out you have to look at several categories in my opinion.
1. Experience
2. Bench (depth)
3. Head to Head match ups
4. Players who can hit big shots.
5. Usually the top tier teams will have a young player who breaks out (Ariza, Rondo).

I think I have check marks next to all those criteria

Okur=Okur if not injuried
Boozer < best boozer of utah
Deng  alittle bettero
Magette...nefense
this years Nash << Deron williams

I cant see u being better than real life est Utah
team who happens to be out in one or two rounds every other playoffs
even if I do think u have a very good team

The thing is in this league, due to no cap restrictions and the snake draft teams are more even than in real life. So a team that is as good as the real life  Jazz would actually fare better than the actual Jazz (if that makes sense).
Boozer is Boozer, you can't have one Boozer better than another. So in my count Williams is better than Nash, but Deng is better than Kirilenko, and Maggette is better than Brewer. Plus my bench is better than theirs.

yes you can have a better boozer or worst at mid term check
and about deng being better than kirilenko
thats very very very debatable

as for the bench

with korver and others i dont know..not fully sold yet
but yes i accept is a little better

[Roy Hobbs]

Fight, fight, fight!

[indeedproceed]

Fight, fight, fight!

It must be pretty nice to spend 30-40 words asking a question then have some yokle waste half an hour and 500 words answering it.

How do you see the west, and how do you see my take on Suns/Warriors (like 4 pages back)

And did you think my Al jefferson defense answer was as good as it going to get?

[Roy Hobbs]

Fight, fight, fight!

It must be pretty nice to spend 30-40 words asking a question then have some yokle waste half an hour and 500 words answering it.

How do you see the west, and how do you see my take on Suns/Warriors (like 4 pages back)

And did you think my Al jefferson defense answer was as good as it going to get?

I'll give everybody a preview of how I see the west, so they can all get their scorn out of their system a couple days early.

1. Portland
2. Buffalo
3. Dallas
4. Seattle
5. Phoenix
6. Golden State
7. Utah
8. Memphis
9. Houston
10. Denver
11. Minnesota
12. Sacramento
13. San Antonio
14. New Orleans
15. Las Vegas

4 through 6 are all pretty subjective, followed by 7 through 9, and then 10 through 13.  It's subject to change, but that's how I see it.

[indeedproceed]

Fight, fight, fight!

It must be pretty nice to spend 30-40 words asking a question then have some yokle waste half an hour and 500 words answering it.

How do you see the west, and how do you see my take on Suns/Warriors (like 4 pages back)

And did you think my Al jefferson defense answer was as good as it going to get?

I'll give everybody a preview of how I see the west, so they can all get their scorn out of their system a couple days early.

1. Portland
2. Buffalo
3. Dallas
4. Seattle
5. Phoenix
6. Golden State
7. Utah
8. Memphis
9. Houston
10. Denver
11. Minnesota
12. Sacramento
13. San Antonio
14. New Orleans
15. Las Vegas

4 through 6 are all pretty subjective, followed by 7 through 9, and then 10 through 13.  It's subject to change, but that's how I see it.

You have Dallas as the division winner, but do you have them as a better team than Seattle and Phoenix?

[Roy Hobbs]

Fight, fight, fight!

It must be pretty nice to spend 30-40 words asking a question then have some yokle waste half an hour and 500 words answering it.

How do you see the west, and how do you see my take on Suns/Warriors (like 4 pages back)

And did you think my Al jefferson defense answer was as good as it going to get?

I'll give everybody a preview of how I see the west, so they can all get their scorn out of their system a couple days early.

1. Portland
2. Buffalo
3. Dallas
4. Seattle
5. Phoenix
6. Golden State
7. Utah
8. Memphis
9. Houston
10. Denver
11. Minnesota
12. Sacramento
13. San Antonio
14. New Orleans
15. Las Vegas

4 through 6 are all pretty subjective, followed by 7 through 9, and then 10 through 13.  It's subject to change, but that's how I see it.

You have Dallas as the division winner, but do you have them as a better team than Seattle and Phoenix?

It's debateable.  I could see any of Seattle, Phoenix, and Golden State winning the Southwest, especially due to their size advantages.

[Hoyo de Monterrey]

Fight, fight, fight!

It must be pretty nice to spend 30-40 words asking a question then have some yokle waste half an hour and 500 words answering it.

How do you see the west, and how do you see my take on Suns/Warriors (like 4 pages back)

And did you think my Al jefferson defense answer was as good as it going to get?

I'll give everybody a preview of how I see the west, so they can all get their scorn out of their system a couple days early.

1. Portland
2. Buffalo
3. Dallas
4. Seattle
5. Phoenix
6. Golden State
7. Utah
8. Memphis
9. Houston
10. Denver
11. Minnesota
12. Sacramento
13. San Antonio
14. New Orleans
15. Las Vegas

4 through 6 are all pretty subjective, followed by 7 through 9, and then 10 through 13.  It's subject to change, but that's how I see it.

You have Dallas as the division winner, but do you have them as a better team than Seattle and Phoenix?

It's debateable.  I could see any of Seattle, Phoenix, and Golden State winning the Southwest, especially due to their size advantages.

Me too... I like a lot of the West teams really, and personally think that despite the hype Seattle could still be tough for Portland in the season, and I truly believe the Sonics could take a 7 game series. I also have Dallas at the top in the southwest, but don't think they are a better team then we are. That said, I'm the guy who made the Sonics so my opinion could possibly be a little biased

[Roy Hobbs]

Me too... I like a lot of the West teams really, and personally think that despite the hype Seattle could still be tough for Portland in the season, and I truly believe the Sonics could take a 7 game series. I also have Dallas at the top in the southwest, but don't think they are a better team then we are. That said, I'm the guy who made the Sonics so my opinion could possibly be a little biased

I think a healthy Portland squad kills Seattle, even though I like their team.  You have the best player, but we like our backcourt better, and the front court better outside of Duncan.  We prefer our depth, too.

[Hoyo de Monterrey]

Me too... I like a lot of the West teams really, and personally think that despite the hype Seattle could still be tough for Portland in the season, and I truly believe the Sonics could take a 7 game series. I also have Dallas at the top in the southwest, but don't think they are a better team then we are. That said, I'm the guy who made the Sonics so my opinion could possibly be a little biased

I think a healthy Portland squad kills Seattle, even though I like their team.  You have the best player, but we like our backcourt better, and the front court better outside of Duncan.  We prefer our depth, too.

I disagree. A completely healthy Portland is probably unrealistic, plus I really think the overall athleticism of Seattle is too much for the geriatric CrotorNats.

[indeedproceed]

Phoenix:  I really liked the potential of Jason Smith when he entered the league.  What is your team going to do to allow him to reach some of that potential and be your 3rd big man?

We're going to rotate him in with the starters and give him a chance to get his feet wet without too much pressure. At the beginning of the year my first sub each game is Korver for Mason Jr, and Smith for Jefferson. Later on in the year it will be SMith for Biedrins with Jefferson rotating to the 5, but at the beginning, to get Smith ready to play, and give the kid some confidence in his legs, he'll play with the starters.

Are you going to win the dunk contest this year?

I dunno if you heard or not but the asking price on Gerald "Mo' Cup-Cakes" Green is a bag of chips and Pooh Jeter. I currently have neither.

Nate Robinson will participate but he will not be allowed to win anymore based solely on him being "just a wee lit-lul guy".

Explain how you are going to get a top 4 seed?

I've said it before, but it all hinges on the ability of one of Kosta Koufos or Jason Smith to elevate their game to capable post defenders, and the ability of one of Josh McRoberts or Ersan Ilyasova to elevate their game into consistent rotation level 3/4's.

If I can do that, I can play with my lineups to matchup with just about anyone. There may be players who I can't match up with (Dwight Howard comes to mind), but there won't be any teams.

In the meantime, if you look at this table:

I'm looking at scoring 107 points a game based only on my players performances last season. I'm not talking about playing Gerald Green 35 mins a game after him averaging 7 points a game in 10 mins...I based the rotation very much on what the players have already shown themselves capable of doing, I have I kept their playing time comparable to what they currently have.

This is all assuming nobody takes a serious dip in scoring, however, since most of my team besides Bowen Livingston and Oberto are all entering or in their respective primes, I think in nearly all cases scoring output should stay static, or increase.

My team is a very dangerous offensive team with clearly defined, realistic roles. Talent-wise by the end of the season I see the Suns being the 3rd most talented team in the West at worst if my expectations work out like I project them to. I don't think they're unrealistic but if anyone wants to take a look at the numbers and talk about it, I'm down.

BTW I wasted a ton of time on those graphs. Please bask in admiration of them, they're very informative.

[indeedproceed]

I am now going to try to answer the rest of Roy's questions. Wish me luck.

[Roy Hobbs]

Me too... I like a lot of the West teams really, and personally think that despite the hype Seattle could still be tough for Portland in the season, and I truly believe the Sonics could take a 7 game series. I also have Dallas at the top in the southwest, but don't think they are a better team then we are. That said, I'm the guy who made the Sonics so my opinion could possibly be a little biased

I think a healthy Portland squad kills Seattle, even though I like their team.  You have the best player, but we like our backcourt better, and the front court better outside of Duncan.  We prefer our depth, too.

I disagree. A completely healthy Portland is probably unrealistic, plus I really think the overall athleticism of Seattle is too much for the geriatric CrotorNats.

Our guys are far from "geriatric".  As noted, 14 of our 15 players are younger than Ray Allen and KG, and 13 of our 15 are younger than Paul Pierce.  Also, of course, 14 of our guys are all younger than Tim Duncan.

[indeedproceed]

How of your guys are a year or less younger than Bruce Bowen, who is 38 years old?