Philadelphia 76ers Press Conference: End of an Era

[ballsohard]

Balls O'hard: Last year was a disappointing year for us. We were in the mix until the greatest player this organization has ever seen, Baron Davis, suffered a nasty broken leg. One that we hope will recover. due to that injury and recovery timetable. We decided to scrap our build. In doing so, we traded Baron, Tayshaun, Louis, and Kyle. essentially our starting lineup for a fresh chance at the future. In doing so, we've ushered in a new era. An era that will take a lot of time, patience, and a little luck.

Balls O'hard:With all of our transactions, we are excited about our future. We have 3 first round picks this year which includes our own pick, the Suns pick and the Nuggets pick. Here's hoping for no 3 peat. We also acquired a very unique guard in Monta Ellis. We're excited about Monta for a number of reasons. Monta has one of the quickest first steps in the league and when you throw in the 2 position, he's a lightening bolt personified. when coming out of college Monta was not known as a defender, but since entering the league, he has put a focus on the skill and is maybe one of the league's most underrated defenders. Monta we believe has the ability to become a number one scorer in this league, and if he keeps progressing, an all star.

Balls O'hard:Along with the Monta acquisition, we resigned Jason Kapono who was surprisingly good for us last year off the bench. Alan Anderson who we think will be a strong bench contributor. And Carlos Delfino who is a solid player who can defend and make the right plays. We held on to Marcin Gortat who's really starting to adjust to the NBA game in his 4th year and is now a leader for us. And we held onto Mario Kasum, who we're trying to find a better home for.

Balls O'hard:That's the good news. The bad news is, we're going to struggle at the point guard position mightily. the void left by Baron Davis will be irreplaceable. We will start the year with Pargo at the 1, but we will have to be fair to him. Jannero is a scoring 1, and will struggle with what we're trying to do. We're hopelessly outgunned and dramatically inexperienced. Make no mistake, this will be a tough season in Philly. We will be irrelevant and will be using this season to evaluate the guys on the roster to see who will and who won't be around long term. We want to apologize to the fans, and hope that this will yield another championship team in the near future.

Balls O'hard:Now i'll open things up for questions.

[JNR]

Generic Wolves Reporter: All indications from training camp showed that Monta Ellis came in as a surprisingly focused defender. Did you see this improvement happening, and does it change the way you will continue to build this team?

[TheSyndicate]

You mention anticipating a rough season. Do you have any defined goals (wins, performance, all-stars, etc.)?

[LoCo89]

Jean Baptiste Van Memphis Inquisitor

Obviously a huge part of any "New Era" is free agency. In the future, do you think that being in a desirable city like LA will be a factor in getting better Free Agents, despite the recent downturn in climate, people, etc?

[ballsohard]

Generic Wolves Reporter: All indications from training camp showed that Monta Ellis came in as a surprisingly focused defender. Did you see this improvement happening, and does it change the way you will continue to build this team?

Balls O'hard: Good question. I'm not sure if Monta got a bad rep as a defender because of his slight frame or that hes a little undersized for the 2 position, but when we brought him in the our TC, which is very heavily defensive focused, he was our best defender on the perimeter. In terms of it changing our team build, I think it does. As only a scorer, Monta's value to the franchise was strong, but we only consider guys who can play both sides of the floor as key pieces. now that he's proven he can play defense, Mont's future ub Philly looks to be long lived and we couldn't be happier about it.

[ballsohard]

You mention anticipating a rough season. Do you have any defined goals (wins, performance, all-stars, etc.)?

I think the goal is to consistently improve our players performances. Asking this team to win a set number of games having never been together and not having a baseline is tough. All Star appearances for guys so young and with so much to improve upon probably isn't fair. I think us establishing who's going to be here long term and how to put those guys in the best position to display their talents is the defined goal. Thank you for the question!

[ballsohard]

Jean Baptiste Van Memphis Inquisitor

Obviously a huge part of any "New Era" is free agency. In the future, do you think that being in a desirable city like LA will be a factor in getting better Free Agents, despite the recent downturn in climate, people, etc?

Ok i'll bite... *says in a mocking voice* But we don't play in L.A.

[LoCo89]

Jean Baptiste Van Memphis Inquisitor

Obviously a huge part of any "New Era" is free agency. In the future, do you think that being in a desirable city like LA will be a factor in getting better Free Agents, despite the recent downturn in climate, people, etc?

Ok i'll bite... *says in a mocking voice* But we don't play in L.A.

Hmm... Interesting...

Pretends to Scribble furiously


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[WigNosy]

You've left quite a bit of cap space open which gives you considerable flexibility on the trade market - should we expect that to be filled in via trade before the season is over?

[ballsohard]

You've left quite a bit of cap space open which gives you considerable flexibility on the trade market - should we expect that to be filled in via trade before the season is over?

Yeah good question, and we'll have to see where it goes. As we've seen in the past, a lot of GMs don't really respect the tax or cap space as much as they should which is just mismanagement if you ask me. If you look at all the great teams out there, the number 1 killer of them is the cap and more directly the Luxury tax. A lot of those teams would have been able to sustain longer with better cap management. Being able to make the hard decisions and not keep ALL of their talent for the sake of keeping it. One organization that's done a great job at managing their cap and maintain sustainability is the Kings. they've now lost 2-3 guys in RFA which you don't see happen much. They've been able to make the tough decisions. As a GM I've been able to make these tough decisions which is why I've been successful in my career. I wonder seeing this, how many in the league will follow suit.

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Did you take great joy in seeing a young player like Andre Iguodala and Chris Bosh suffer significant losses in skills during the last edition of training camp? What is it that made you consider dealing away your successful core to transition and essentially start over?

[RPF]

Mr. Nets: How difficult was the decision to trade away Baron Davis? Can you give us insight on how Baron took the news?

[ballsohard]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Did you take great joy in seeing a young player like Andre Iguodala and Chris Bosh suffer significant losses in skills during the last edition of training camp? What is it that made you consider dealing away your successful core to transition and essentially start over?

The fun answer is yes. The truth is no. As someone who's been decimated over and over again by uncontrollable circumstance, I understand how much of a kick to the nuts it is. You spend all this time planning and all of the sudden your plan is gone.

As far as what triggered the reset? Well Baron's injury and the belief that his game will have to change after it. We planned so much around his talents. With his steep decline. Tayshaun getting hammered in TC 2 years ago. Childress getting hammered twice by TC our plan kind of blew up at no fault of our own. So it was time to kind of redo everything.

[ballsohard]

Mr. Nets: How difficult was the decision to trade away Baron Davis? Can you give us insight on how Baron took the news?

It was tough, but it was time. We weren't going to make him sit through another rebuild and wanted to give him a chance to win. he was upset but he respected us for sending him to a win-now team. I'm sure he will stick it to us for years to come.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: I've noticed that the majority of your FA signings are heading into - and signed through - their primes. Were those contracts offered with a quick rebuild in mind, as guys like Kapono and Delfino will be at their best right when the fresh new talent from next season's draft will be gaining their footing in the NBA?

[ballsohard]

Random Reporter: I've noticed that the majority of your FA signings are heading into - and signed through - their primes. Were those contracts offered with a quick rebuild in mind, as guys like Kapono and Delfino will be at their best right when the fresh new talent from next season's draft will be gaining their footing in the NBA?

Thanks for the question and it's a good one concerning our strategy. We signed those guys because they have a chance to help us start winning sooner rather than later when we do get the proper pieces as well as filling up our quiver. Take a look at the guys we signed for our deals:

Jason Kapono: 15 PER 3.5 M 4 years 0%
We traded for Jason last year to bolster our bench and he did just that. Scoring 10 ppg shooting 44% from 3 and 45% from the field.

Josh Childress: 19.6 PER 2 M per year 4 years 0%
Josh has always been one of those guys who has drastically out produced his color rating in our system. it's possible a smart GM with an eye for talent sees this production and wants to snatch him up with our luxury tax rules.

Carlos Delfino: 16.8 PER 4.5 M per year 4 years 0%
Carlos can shoot the 3, score a little bit (15 ppg when Golden state started him) and play defense. Another key kog off the bench for a championship team given a GM has an eye for talent and not color set.

These are three guys that can reduce a team's tax bill, step up and play due to an injury, or be a great 6th or 7th man.

[Bowtothebill23]

Jack Markson here from The Golden Take. A lot of your players are very good 3 point shooters, but that doesn't seem to fit perfectly with Ellis, who's a career 32% 3 point shooter with just a 59 rating. How do you plan to run your offensive gameplan this year? Do you plan on gearing more to your team's strengths or to Ellis'?

[Darth Vegito]

Seattle Beat writer: So although you didn't use the word, many would say you were "tanking" and plan on landing a pretty high draft pick. Now despite this being pretty obvious, what are your feelings of the word and do you think the negative connotation of the word has been unfair?

[Conroy]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, a lot of people talk about a reset, rebuild, tank, 2 year plan, 3 year plan etc... Do you have a specific idea in mind when you beleive this team will be back in the mix of things. Or will you take what comes to you in terms of draft, trade opportunities, Free Agency, etc...

[ballsohard]

Jack Markson here from The Golden Take. A lot of your players are very good 3 point shooters, but that doesn't seem to fit perfectly with Ellis, who's a career 32% 3 point shooter with just a 59 rating. How do you plan to run your offensive gameplan this year? Do you plan on gearing more to your team's strengths or to Ellis'?

I think that can be the focus of our offense. Letting Monta drive and kick and using the floor spacing to set him free. I think initially we let Monta be our scoring focus and let the guys use his penetration ability loosen up the defense.

[ballsohard]

Seattle Beat writer: So although you didn't use the word, many would say you were "tanking" and plan on landing a pretty high draft pick. Now despite this being pretty obvious, what are your feelings of the word and do you think the negative connotation of the word has been unfair?

I think it depends on your definition of tanking. I don't really have any negative feelings towards it. We were done with our build and we got what we could for our players. We were fair to all of our former players and sent them to winning teams. We got assets, draft picks and cap space. What else can we do, you know? I think if you call that tanking, then I don't take offense to it at all. The negative connotation behind tanking, to me, is when a team just sells off it's players for cash just to be bad. A team that uses the lottery system advantage as it's sole focus for getting better. That should be frowned upon in our league as it brings the competition level down for many years and doesn't engage our fans. But that's something we clearly didn't do, which is why we don't take offense from being called a "tanker".

[ballsohard]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, a lot of people talk about a reset, rebuild, tank, 2 year plan, 3 year plan etc... Do you have a specific idea in mind when you beleive this team will be back in the mix of things. Or will you take what comes to you in terms of draft, trade opportunities, Free Agency, etc...

I think it really depends on what happens. We all know this can be a very fluid job. Ideally we'd like to be talking playoffs by 2011 at the latest 2012, but we hope sooner. We're going to make good decisions and get a little lucky with the lotto balls as well as TC and FA.