Hornets 08-09 Media Day

[NickMalone77]

One season after reaching the NBA finals, the Boston Celtics dispatched us on our own home court in the first round. It was a disappointing result where things had looked so promising for the first half of the season, competing with the Bucks and the upstart Hawks. Things ran its course and injuries changed the complexion. Its easy to place blame on excuses. Our team was not prepared and it came to a screeching halt in an unpleasant manner. We had many options at the end of the year concerning our core and cap space. We were determined not to sit still and be complacent.

We drafted Nikola Pekovic with the 17th pick. Given our roster, we had holes to fill at the 1 and the 5. This draft was definitely deep with bigs. Given who was around at where we were picking, you had guys like Timofey Mozgov, Roy Hibbert, McGee, and Pek all around our spot. Given his abilities as a strong rebounder off the offensive glass and his potentials to block shots and be a decent option inside the paint, we could afford to take the long term project and give him the time to develop with all of our seasoned veterans like Jamison and Randolph and our newest center...

Jamaal Magloire. Through our own faults and mistakes, we sent in some paperwork to Magloire's agent and the league that was of our own error. I'm sure he received plenty of other offers that were worth a lot more than what we gave him but for this season ahead, Magloire is one of the best rebounders in the league and last year, we struggled a great deal cleaning up plenty of missed shots with the aging Chris Webber now on another team. Magloire will be a necessary force to protect our official leader on the court, Zach Randolph.

Training camp brought about a mixed bag of results. Coming off his new max contract, Andre Iguodala got hit a great deal in a lot of key categories. We still feel however that Iggy will be an important member to our clubs success and without him, we are a worse team as the record between the first half and second half reflected after his broken leg last year. Iggy will move back to the wing this season ahead. We're still looking and calling other GM's to address our point guard situation. While Iggy faltered, and Jamison declined slowly, ZBo took the challenges to rise up to the next level to be the leader we knew he could turn into the day we acquired him. Randolph saw incremental gains on his offensive game and grew into a strong rebounder where he could realistically be a double-double threat this season ahead.

We have to be realistic about our assessments this season. The Hawks, the Bucks are vastly improved teams with their offseason maneuvers, seeking out the teams that were busy thinking about the next draft and kudos to them. We don't expect to lay down and let them take the division from us however. We will fight as we always do and hope the veteran moxie that's around our club will be productive enough to sustain a long and fruitful season. Now, the floor is open to any questions.

[LoCo89]

Jean Baptiste, Van Memphis Inquisitor

For all the justified praise you give Big Cat's ability as an all around big man, paired with the looming free agency of Randolph and the potential 3 year tax bracket (which you could get out of by killing your teams depth), would it not have been more beneficial to give him a longer term deal, not necessarily the mistake of the 2 year team option that you speak of, but a 3 or 4 year deal? Especially since we see big men with his type of ability and IQ generally play well even as they age, the issue of losing the ability to sign another "bigger" FA if you re-sign Z-Bo next year, and also the great price you got him at.

[ballsohard]

You're in the same division as the Bucks. you have roughly the same winning percentage as the Bucks. You've made it to the playoffs the exact amount of times as the Bucks. You've won trades and been TRAPED (Artest) by the Bucks. You guys have name called. Fought, and made-up. Is it safe to say that your rivalry with the Bucks is the best rivalry in the league?



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[NOLa.]

To piggy back of of that previous question, would you say the Bucks have a slight edge over this sim-league-greatest rivalry?

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[NickMalone77]

Jean Baptiste, Van Memphis Inquisitor

For all the justified praise you give Big Cat's ability as an all around big man, paired with the looming free agency of Randolph and the potential 3 year tax bracket (which you could get out of by killing your teams depth), would it not have been more beneficial to give him a longer term deal, not necessarily the mistake of the 2 year team option that you speak of, but a 3 or 4 year deal? Especially since we see big men with his type of ability and IQ generally play well even as they age, the issue of losing the ability to sign another "bigger" FA if you re-sign Z-Bo next year, and also the great price you got him at.

Great question, Jean. While holding onto this core the last few years of ZBo, Iggy, and now Jamison, this core has brought us a lot of success and has put us in a position to win on a nightly basis. Keeping that core is important to me. And while the signings have restricted our cap room to address our depth the last two years, we've found success in finding bigs in the FA market that fill out a lot of necessary needs for our club while we allow a project like Pekovic to grow these next few years to where we won't need to add another FA market Center. Plug and play. A guy like Magloire is someone we've targeted the last few years even in regard to the trade market. We're definitely glad to have him on our club and we hope he can be a big bost defensively to what we were lacking last year when we had Webber. Of course, it would've been great to add him to a longer term deal. He might not have signed if it were for 3-4 years. Our #1 priority next season will be to sign ZBo to the contract he deserves and if we signed Magloire to a longer deal, it might've hindered that kind of deal we want to work out with ZBo.

[LoCo89]

Jean Baptiste, Van Memphis Inquisitor

For all the justified praise you give Big Cat's ability as an all around big man, paired with the looming free agency of Randolph and the potential 3 year tax bracket (which you could get out of by killing your teams depth), would it not have been more beneficial to give him a longer term deal, not necessarily the mistake of the 2 year team option that you speak of, but a 3 or 4 year deal? Especially since we see big men with his type of ability and IQ generally play well even as they age, the issue of losing the ability to sign another "bigger" FA if you re-sign Z-Bo next year, and also the great price you got him at.

Great question, Jean. While holding onto this core the last few years of ZBo, Iggy, and now Jamison, this core has brought us a lot of success and has put us in a position to win on a nightly basis. Keeping that core is important to me. And while the signings have restricted our cap room to address our depth the last two years, we've found success in finding bigs in the FA market that fill out a lot of necessary needs for our club while we allow a project like Pekovic to grow these next few years to where we won't need to add another FA market Center. Plug and play. A guy like Magloire is someone we've targeted the last few years even in regard to the trade market. We're definitely glad to have him on our club and we hope he can be a big bost defensively to what we were lacking last year when we had Webber. Of course, it would've been great to add him to a longer term deal. He might not have signed if it were for 3-4 years. Our #1 priority next season will be to sign ZBo to the contract he deserves and if we signed Magloire to a longer deal, it might've hindered that kind of deal we want to work out with ZBo.

Technically it wouldn't have except for cap purposes with the bird rights you have, and he seems to be a lock for a max somewhere but I gotchu


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[NickMalone77]

You're in the same division as the Bucks. you have roughly the same winning percentage as the Bucks. You've made it to the playoffs the exact amount of times as the Bucks. You've won trades and been TRAPED (Artest) by the Bucks. You guys have name called. Fought, and made-up. Is it safe to say that your rivalry with the Bucks is the best rivalry in the league?



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I would say that our rivalry over the year has been a tad one sided in terms of results with the Bucks mainly holding the edge over the division titles and NBA finals appearance department but in regards to every other team in our division, there's not another team I get more excited to play and win (when we do) than the Bucks. Even when we were in Charlotte, the Bucks always had that kind of team that was regular season dominant but never quite able to get over that hump during the post season. I'll always root for them if we aren't playing them or anyone from the Central to do well because that means the entire division is well represented in the end.

In terms of rivalries here in SLOE, if the Bucks feel mutually that our rivalry is warranted and it's one people most look forward to watching whenever we play then I'll take notice and enjoy it that much more.

Rivalry: Accepted.