Recap: Lance: Your approach; do you get excited for draft day? Do you feel this is "Your day?" Is this your Superbowl as a GM? DM: Superbowl would be world title. Calling draft Superbowl would be like Calipari calling NBA draft greatest day in Kentucky history. Trade day, draft day, free agency are all key days. We believe draft and trades are best way to build team. Draft and Trade Deadline are key days. Lance: Fill in on Monte. Lots of people are very negative on him. Wide range of emotions about whether he is going to be good or not good (?) Lots of people say he is not committed to basketball and most of your draft picks are hardcore basketball guys? Is that a fair criticism? DM: We have a feel for the kid as a person. Had a lot of dinners with him. The questions about his competitiveness or love of basketball are absurd. Loves and breathes basketball. Fair criticism IS fair about his offense is far ahead of his defense. Marcus Morris is going to be one of our best players. Chandler Parsons Project will crack our rotation. Monte is high risk, high reward. We are betting on him being 7 feet and mobile. Hope to get him to be average on defense and rebounding. He has played professionally, but farthest away... Fill in host: When will he be over? DM: He will come over at first opportunity. Can't give more details than that. Host: Contractual issues? DM: No, but the league won't let me answer in more detail (LOL) Host: If Marcus went to PHX would you have taken the twin? DM: Yes. We wanted one of the Morris brothers. Sweated out the Utah pick, got excited when they took Burks. Lance: Twins usually drafted very closely together. When you worked them out, did you see a lot of difference in their game or did you rate them similarly? DM: We rated them pretty closely. Twin is a 4 with more talent on defense, Marcus is more skilled offensively and more of a 3. Physical attributes very similar. Lance; Do you talk to CD? DM: Yes, he was at draft last night. Lance: When I heard the draft I thought of Rodney McCray. Transitioned from 4 to 3. High end, what do you think the range is for Morris? DM: His offensive skills are high. We are NOT moving him to 3. These guys will have a hard time cracking our rotation, we finished 19-6 down the stretch last year or 18-7. We have a good rotation, most of them will be back. We feel Marcus is a versatile guy. Kevin will tell these what they need to do to get minutes on the floor, be it at the 4 or 3. Host: With all these guys who can play the 4, plus Jonny Flynn, is there another deal out there? Is this the roster you will have? DM: We are always looking to upgrade the team. Always trying to improve and upfront about that. Won't force a trade though. Comfortable with this roster. Lance; Tough questions now from fans. Duplication at the 4, maybe doesn't have the perimeter game you think. Morris very similar to Pat Patterson. What do you think? DM: We go for best players who can contribute for 2-4 years and hopefully longer. We have a lot of versatile players. The young players trying to get minutes: Terrance can play the 1..2..3, Chandler can play the 3 or 4, Marcus can play 4-3, Monte can play 4-5...We like the versatility that others see as duplication. Lance: You just mentioned Monte. maybe you mentioned that because he is coming. You tried hard to move up just like the Rubio year. Is it accurate that you tried? DM: Yes. We tried. We try every year. We really wanted to move up. Nothing was close at the top. We really liked Biyombo kid that went to Charlotte. We had a chance to move 8 and we would have taken the Morris twins there. We mapped out and decided we had a shot at one of the Morris twins at 18. Sweated it at the Utah pick. Host: Was Tristan Thompson a possibility? DM: Yes. Very good player. Didn't have an opportunity get to 4. Lance: Update on some of the overseas player. DM: Most promising is Sergio Llul. Consensus over seas is that he is better than Rubio. I'm a fan of both and don't want to say who is better. After next season or season after that he will come over. He is 23 years old. He's best player on his team over there and wants to come over when he knows he will have a rotation job. A year or two. Two others that are potential NBA players, but not quite on the tier of Sergio. Israel Kid was Euro player of the month. We've talked about bringing him over but not the right time. Leunen is in Italy is a Matt Bonner type. If we get to where we want Matt Bonner type in the rotation we'll bring him over. Host: We've mentally said goodbyes to Yao but organization hasn't closed door on him if he can be Grant Hill story. What is latest on him? Scale of 1 to 100 what are chances he puts on uniform? DM: Won't do scale thing, but we can't plan team to have him. Do think he will get healthy and if he does there is a good chance he will play again. he's a FA. We will talk to him in FA. Lance: Did you watch JVG on television? DM: We have tv on mute thankfully so we don't have to listen to the guys, though I do think Jeff is good. Hilarious that he is on the draft show. Lance; he wasn't involved in the draft! DM: Yeah, great with media. Draft not his forte. I like him on tv though. Throws cold water on excitement out there. It's tough to make this league and these guys don't walk into this league and play. Lance: Jeff went after Jackson for saying the Warriors will make the playoffs. Fran Forsunas (sp?) referred to Monte as a conscientious objector to rebounder. DM: I respected Fran but won't agree... Lance; You think he will be a good rebounder? DM: No, but Scola was said to be a bad rebounder. Remember 40 minute game over there. That said, Monte was below average on the board for Euro. Used to be good at rebounding. This year his team brought Brian Skinner in to rebound and wanted Monte to stay on the perimeter. That said, is he a plus rebounder? NO, but they think he can be average. Like he said, high risk high return pick and this franchise is in a state where those are the risks they need to take. Lance; Good luck on the CBA and good luck with the off season. Work that magic. Pulling for you to get that next guy. Can't watch Astros baseball. DM: Appreciate the kind words. Lance; Rebuilding is tough. I'd rather you be in a spot to be in a puncher's chance to get something than be the Astros where you have to go through the hard way. If you play it right you can avoid the gutter while you rebuild. DM: Absolutely. Leslie has an approach I agree with. We knew Yao and Tracy were injury prone. The right thing to do was stay competitive and hope they were healthy to make a run. Overall we really needed to be quietly looking to the future so we were ready for the future without them. That's what we've done. We hope to turn the corner without being terrible. Mr. Alexander does not want to be terrible in order to get better. Lance: What sucks is being terrible and then screwing up the high pick. DM: Getting the high pick is worth it but not going through the horrible season. Hope to turn this around and be a championship contender without ever going under 500. It's never been done before. We are hoping to get fortunate like Boston when Garnett became available.
My attempt (paraphrasing): Doesn't know when Motiejunas will be able to come over (can't talk about it due to NBA rules?). Let me be clear, we're not slotting Morris at the 4. He's like a 3/4. We like both Morris brothers and would've taken either of them. We really don't focus on position in the draft. Our players are versatile. Terrence can play the 1, 2, or 3. Chandler is mostly a 3 but he can play a little 4. Morris can play the 4 or the 3. Motie can play the 5 or the 4. We really did want to move up if we could. We really liked the Biyombo kid. We had a chance to move up to 8, we would've taken one of the Morris kids there. We liked Tristan, very good player, we just didn't have an opportunity to get to 4. Most folks in Europe say Llull is considerably better than Rubio. Probably the best player on his team. May come over next year 2012 or the year after. He wants to come over when he knows he will have a prominent role. Eliyahu-missed it Leunen-a Matt Bonner type, if we need that role Yao-We have to plan our team like we can't plan for him (to come back). I do think he'll get healthy. He's a FA and when we get a chance to talk to FA then we'll talk to him. Likes JVG doing the draft. Says he's great and humorous that he does the draft show. Throws the appropriate of cold water on all the excitement out there (in the draft). The game in Europe is only 40 minutes so players look poorer in rebounding. Motie was very perimeter oriented b/c his team wanted this. That hurt his rebounding numbers some. The reality is we knew Yao and Tracy were injury prone and we worked with our team around that. Went all-in with Ron at that time. We were trying to get ready for time when they'd be gone. Les wants us to turn the corner/rebuild while remaining competitive. Talked about Boston getting lucky when they got KG and hopes we can do something like that in the future.
Good recap by justtx. Wow. Makes me think we're trading for a 3. He was emphatic about Morris not being a 3, that he can play it in some matchups. If he's going to be a 4 then I would've rather had Markieff if he had been available (not a big deal, though). He's also clear that the new draftees have to earn their way to get playing time.
Recap: LZ: Do you get excited, is it your day on draft day, your Super Bowl? You get to try to improve your team. DM: Super Bowl = WC. Not winning championship on draft day. Try to upgrade the team. We believe in draft and trades to build the team. Those two days (trade deadline, draft) key times. LZ: Tell us about Montiejunas. Seems to have a wide range of emotions about himself about talent. Is he all in on basketball, committed? Do you have a feel. DM: Good feel, multiple dinners with him. Criticism is absurd regarding loving basketball. Lithuanians live and breathe basketball, Montie included. Defense criticism fair. MM will be one of our best players over time. Feel good about Parsons cracking rotation. Similar to Budinger pick a couple of years ago. Must focus on defense and rebounding with Montie. Offensive game is there. LZ: Gameplan on when he comes over. DM: Likely to come over at first opportunity. Can't comment other than that. LZ: Had Morris gone to phoenix, would you have taken twin brother? DM: YES. liked both. quality pros. Sweated out the 12th pick, really wanted one of the Morris twins. Were concerned they wouldn't be there. Excited when Burks went at 12. LZ: Twins drafted closely together historically. When you worked them out, did you think they were very different? Rate them diff? DM: No, rated right next to each other. Marquiff more 4, less skilled offensively, Marcus more talented higher upside, plays the 3, skilled offensively. Decided positions playing together growing up, small vs big forward. LZ: Do you talk to CD? DM: Yes. LZ: I thought of Morris and Rodney Mccray. He was limitied in range, but I wondered high end what Morris range is. DM: Offense is skilled. We are not moving him to the 3 (note: seemed to imply that they weren't going to force him at the 3). All 3 picks have a tough time cracking the rotation. We finished 19-6 down the stretch or 18-7, solid rotation. Most will be back, so these guys may not play right away. Marcus is a versatile guy, KMac will tell them what to do to get minutes. LZ: Other deals to clear up depth? DM: We're always looking to upgrade. Not going to force a trade. Feel comfortable with roster now. LZ: Ready for tough questions? Fans wanna know...duplication at PF. If Marcus doesn't have perimeter game, HIll, Budinger, PP, Morris, etc. DM: We go for talent. Guys will help us over 2-4 years. Don't focus on position. Versatile guys. Starting rotation is set. Terence can play 1,2,3, Flynn is straight 1, Chanlder is mostly a 3 can play 4, Marcus can play 4 or 3, Montie can play 5 or 4. Gives Kevin a lot of lineup options. LZ: Trading up. Told us in the past you tried to move up. Reports across sources about trading up. Is that accurate? DM: Yeah, accurate. Accurate every year. Wanted to move up if we could. At the top there was nothing really close. Liked Biyumbo. We had a chance to go to 8, would have taken a Morris twin there, thought we'd get one at 14. Sweating at 12 hoping they would be there. LZ: Tristan Thompson? DM: Liked him. Good player. Didn't have an opp to get to 4. LZ: Overseas players update? DM: Lllull considered better than Rubio. I'm a fan of both. Llull will be after next season or season after when he comes over. Best player on team in Europe. I think he is 23. Wants to have a rotation job when he comes over, or likely job. Look at him in a year or two to bring over. Others are Eliyahu -- top Euroleague player of month last year, looked to bring over a couple of times, timing not right. Marty L. out of Oregen, Matt Bonner type. When we're wanting to plug Matt Bonner types, we'll bring him over. Ready to play when we need that role. LZ: Yao, not closing the door. Grant Hill story. on scale of 1 to 100, what are chances? DM: Won't do the scale, but he is somebody we have to plan without. I think he'll get healthy. good chance he'll want to play again when he gets healthy. Will talk to him in FA. We'll look at situation and decide what's best. LZ: Did you watch JVG during draft? DM: We have it on to track picks, but on mute. Thankfully so we don't have ot listen to them, but I do like Jeff. Think it's funny he's on the draft show. LZ: He wasn't even involved in your draft. DM: Draft is not his forte, not involved with us. (laughter). Puts the appropriate amount of cold water on picks (laughter). These guys don't just walk into the league and play. LZ: Mark jackson on playoffs. Jeff "why would he say that". You can't make comments like that. More on Montie's rebounding..."conscious objector to rebouding" DM: No, he's not a rebounder. He's not an "objector" to it. Scola was considered not a rebounder, we thought he could and he did. only 40 min games over there, fewer posessions. Monty was a below avg rebounder, early in his career slighlty above average. They brought in Brian Skinner this year. All his job was was to rebound, Monty became very perimeter oriented. Not a plus rebounder but could be average. 7' with mobility. High risk high return pick. LZ: Good luck with CBA. Playoffs were exciting. Good luck in offseason. Work that magic to get the next guy to get over the hump. Cant watch Astros all year long. DM: Appreciate the kind words. LZ: Would rather you be in a spot to have a punchers chance than a spot like the astros where there is no question that you have to rebuild. If you play it wisely, you can avoid the gutter of the league. I like the fact that you avoid that, even though it's not good enough for you. DM: Absolutely. Agree with Les' approach. Knew Yao and Tracy were injury prone, so we tried to stay competitive even so we went all in. Stayed ready for time when yao and tracy were gone, and that's where we're at. Don't want to be terrible, want to turn the corner while remaining competitive. LZ: Being terrible and screwing up draft picks is the worst place to be. DM: That's the thing. If we can turn this ship without going below .500 and finally competing for a title I'll be proud. We're on a path to attempt that. Hopefully we can pull something out of the hat like we did in Boston.
Thanks for the recap, justtx. Hey LTF, remember what I said about trading up to 8 to nab Morris? Not bad, huh.
Diehard, good add there about his implication. When he first said Marcus Morris was not being moved to 3 it almost sounded like he was saying "He IS a three, we're not moving him there" but he didn't go further like I thought he was so I'm not sure what the intent was. He was clear throughout the interview that Morris is a 3/4 and the team likes his versatility.
Where did he say that? He meant that they were not going to FORCE him into a 3. Whatever matchup fit, they would play.
Yeah. What he actually said was "We are not moving Morris to the 3" in a tone that sounded like meant we aren't forcing him into a position. He kept talking about his versatility in the interview and even called him "more of a 3" while calling the twin "more of a 4."
I didn't hear it that way, I heard it that they aren't going to try to force him into either position right now and will see how things go and where he earns the minutes best.
Exactly, that is what I got out of it as well. Morey wasn't very clear, but the scout who was interviewed was. They see his "upside at the 3". Meaning they think he can play it, they will try to play him there, and if they can get away with it, that is the position that he will be most effectively utilized.
LOL It was a hilarious moment. Daryl is such a funny guy. The JVG segment was also hilarious. Daryl loves him some Jeff but they talked more about how it was crazy that he was on the draft show when he never cared about the draft. I didn't put the full segment into my recap but it was funny.
