A 76ers Story: The Baron and the Prince

[ballsohard]

Balls O'Hard: Good morning 6'ers Nation. Today i'm here to do my first press conference for this 76ers team. Like every year in my past as a GM, I am bringing out 2 players with the team: Baron Davis and Tayshaun Prince.

Balls O'Hard: First things first we can talk about the offseason and then move towards the season. This offseason was a bit of a controversial one for our front office. We traded a guy with immense talent, Rip Hamilton, to the timberwolves for a platter of players. One of the biggest pieces to that platter was Tayshaun Prince who is sitting next to me. Tayshaun will have a significant impact for us and our plans. We hope he will be a part of our long term future here and help build an identity for our team. We also got a guy in Louis Scola who we think will have more of impact in the future, but we think brings the type of versatile skill-set we're looking for as a 76er. We will give Scola an opportunity to take the starting role early in the season and see how he responds to it. The last piece we got in the deal was the #12 pick. We selected a bit of a Utility player in Josh Childress. We are enamored with his talent. We think Josh can be a huge piece of what we're building in the future. Josh has the ability to be good in almost every aspect of the game and the ability to play 3 positions. He will start out as a guy coming off our bench with the opportunity to earn a larger role as time goes forward.

Balls O'Hard: It's not in my nature as a GM to trade away the best player in the deal to take a bit of a platter in return, but in this instance , it felt very justified. Instead of having one guy playing one position, we feel we have 3 guys that can come in and contribute to support our franchise player in Baron Davis.

Balls O'Hard: Baron, we feel was very underutilized under the last administration and plan to give him the chance to prove he's the best point guard in the league. With a new year comes new expectations. Right now we haven't set exactly a bar for this team. We have had so many moving parts. With only 4 players returning last year, we understand this whole process will take time. We would like to make the playoffs by next year at the latest though. We feel the division is pretty strong at this point. There are probably 3 teams right now that could take the crown, and another 2 that could make the playoffs if all goes well. Hopefully we will be one of those teams.

Balls O'Hard:With that I'll open up the floor for questions.

[JNR]

GWR: Welcome back to the league, sir. It's no secret that this team has been mismanaged over the past few years. Your moves have already started to rectify it. Not to go too into details, but are there more moves on the horizon, or do you plan to ride your new acquisitions to see how they do this season?

[ballsohard]

GWR: Welcome back to the league, sir. It's no secret that this team has been mismanaged over the past few years. Your moves have already started to rectify it. Not to go too into details, but are there more moves on the horizon, or do you plan to ride your new acquisitions to see how they do this season?

Thank you for the question and it's a good one. It's really kind of up in the air and i'd like to feel the flow of the team first. We're excited for the guys we have, but we also know this group by itself isnt a contender. We need to infuse a little more talent and start getting some players that can fill true roles for us. I think at this point we've got a lot of guys who have the potential of doing a lot of things well on the court. Baron Davis, Scola, and Childress are great examples. But we're missing the guys who can come in and do one or two things on an elite level and really play a role with the team, like Tayshaun. I wouldn't count us out with moves, but we;re also not in the position to give away assets because we're one piece away. Hopefully this answered the question for you.

[kucoach7]

Nathan Sliver, sevenfortyseven.com: I see you're a little rusty, forgetting where pre-season press conferences should be posted. You signed four guys to four year non-min deals, three of those guys being back-ups that are probably min guys and three of which are 28 or older. Why did you decide to lock up 10 million for each of the next four years for Robinson, Mobley, McPherson, and Blount?

[ballsohard]

Nathan Sliver, sevenfortyseven.com: I see you're a little rusty, forgetting where pre-season press conferences should be posted. You signed four guys to four year non-min deals, three of those guys being back-ups that are probably min guys and three of which are 28 or older. Why did you decide to lock up 10 million for each of the next four years for Robinson, Mobley, McPherson, and Blount?

Well there are a few reasons we locked up 10
Million over 4 players. One, we need the players and we think they're good players. Two, the league is obsessed with cap space but it's not very often it really turns into much unless you're massively overpaying for guys. If I can get good minutes out of 4 players for 10 million versus good minutes out of one that's overpaid, I think it's money well spent. Third, those low but not min contracts are very useful in terms of flexibility when it comes to deals. We're happy with all the signings.

[42PhD]

Dr. Rocker, The Cleveland Rocker: Congrats on the title. Now, if you make the playoffs, is that actually bad? You need to use all avenues to build anything in a shit hole town like Cleveland, so I understand your situation in Philly, but how much are you relying on the draft compared to development, free agency, and trades?

[ballsohard]

Dr. Rocker, The Cleveland Rocker: Congrats on the title. Now, if you make the playoffs, is that actually bad? You need to use all avenues to build anything in a shit hole town like Cleveland, so I understand your situation in Philly, but how much are you relying on the draft compared to development, free agency, and trades?

Thank you for the question. I think the folks in Cleveland can relate to my answer as you said. We can't rely on the draft because there's so much uncertainty. I think there was an article about the draft written that showed that waiting on your lotto picks isn't some full proof plan. We plan on using all avenues and being as liquid in our plan to get to get a ring for as long as possible until our situation organically takes solid form. I don't think making the playoffs would be a set-back by any means though.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: Does your stellar resume, as well as the fact that your former franchise just won it all, put any added pressure on you to turn this ship around quickly?

[78#]

Henry Gates, Houston Chronicle:

You were waiting to look for the right job. Some speculated the Knicks may hire you. Another rumor was a possible expansion team in your hometown of New Orleans. What was it about this organization which made you get out of your television duties and get back on the hot stove?

What is the plan and how many seasons do you anticipitate it will take to reach that plan?

[ballsohard]

Random Reporter: Does your stellar resume, as well as the fact that your former franchise just won it all, put any added pressure on you to turn this ship around quickly?

I put a ton of pressure on myself to succeed so i'm not sure any outside forces are driving me to move more swiftly than i normally would. We're happy for the Lakers and their championship. We knew a lot of players on that roster and are glad they were able to get another chip. That championship means as an organization we left them them in a good spot when we left; and it also means the new GM did a hell of a job making adjustments to make himself successful.

[ballsohard]

Henry Gates, Houston Chronicle:

You were waiting to look for the right job. Some speculated the Knicks may hire you. Another rumor was a possible expansion team in your hometown of New Orleans. What was it about this organization which made you get out of your television duties and get back on the hot stove?

What is the plan and how many seasons do you anticipitate it will take to reach that plan?

Thanks Henry. We liked the 76ers job for the challenge and a place where we could be successful. I also kind of got the desire to do this again and preferred something different than the Pacific which I've been at my whole career.

In terms of timeline, I would say a loose timeline is 3 years before we call ourselves true contenders.

[Brian Windhorst]

How many times has the Lakers ownership called you personally and begged that you return to their franchise?

[ballsohard]

How many times has the Lakers ownership called you personally and begged that you return to their franchise?

Enough times to block their calls.

[Conroy]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, the Lakers and the Celtics always seem to have had a pretty strong rivalry going 1-1 in the finals nearly 10 years ago. Will you bring any of those old feelings with you to Philly or are you looking for a fresh start and the rivalry is between those 2 franchises?