Miami Heat Preseason Conference 2006

[logpmess]

Last season. What can we say? We traded away our first round pick and the ill fitting player with our rotation Raja Bell to the Seattle Supersonics for Shawn Kemp, Jalen Rose, and Latrell Sprewell. We were hoping that the addition of these veteran presences could vault us into the playoffs. Unfortunately that did not happen. So we finished outside of the playoffs and we didn't have our pick. Not good. That pick ended up becoming the #2 pick overall in the draft. We could've added another talented player to our young team. That's neither here or there. We did find a pretty good rotation for our outside with lebron at the point, Jalen as the 2, and Latrell as the small forward. Latrell even managed a couple triple doubles last season. We had some aspirations in this season going forward. Then Latrell ended up retiring. The bastard. We ended up entering the draft three picks in a row to get some young bodies on our team to serve as cheap back ups. In free agency, we signed Allen Iverson. Iverson averaged over 20 points per game last year with the nets, and we hope he can duplicate that output in this upcoming season.

So looking forward, we don't necessarily see ourselves as playoff contenders. We hope that our players can find a way to persevere and create a winning environment to build from going forward.

Expected rotation:
C - Kemp
PF - Jefferson
SF - James
SG - Rose
PG - Iverson

Our 6th man is going to be Monta Ellis, who still needs more time to develop.

We now open the floor to any questions you have.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: Monta Ellis seems to show all the characteristics of a late bloomer. What kind of improvements do you hope to see from him this season?

[logpmess]

Random Reporter: Monta Ellis seems to show all the characteristics of a late bloomer. What kind of improvements do you hope to see from him this season?

At this point, we need him to be an offensive spark off of the bench and learn what it takes to be the go to guy when the second unit is on the court.

[kucoach7]

Do you see Jalen/Kemp/Iverson being traded for younger pieces to grow with Lebron and Monta? You could have a really special core there.

[WigNosy]

Do you have any concern about chemistry with a noted chucker like Iverson on your team?

[Conroy]

Bill Simmons Sports Guy here, Lebron has already made 2 all star games? Is this the year he makes the leap from All-Star to maybe All-League?

[logpmess]

Do you see Jalen/Kemp/Iverson being traded for younger pieces to grow with Lebron and Monta? You could have a really special core there.

We realize that those three veterans can really help a franchise that is one or two pieces away. We are open to trading any and all pieces in the franchise for the right price. Iverson is probably the least likely out of those three to be traded, but again everyone is available if you bring the noise.

[logpmess]

Do you have any concern about chemistry with a noted chucker like Iverson on your team?

We are going to encourage AI to take the shots as he sees them. He is a 20+ points per game producer. It will be nice for Lebron James to not have to shoulder the scoring alone this year.

[logpmess]

Bill Simmons Sports Guy here, Lebron has already made 2 all star games? Is this the year he makes the leap from All-Star to maybe All-League?

With the team that we built last year, we felt the necessity to move Lebron to the PG position while the development of Monta Ellis continued. Now with the addition of Iverson, Lebron can go back into his normal position of SF. We do expect that he will be more successful with this role in the franchise.