Boston Celtics 2011 Media Day

[Conroy]

GM Roy: Well the 2010 campaign didn't go exactly as we intended. We ended up exactly were nobody wants to be, just missed the playoffs yet also the last pick in the lottery. We selected Brandon Knight with the 13th pick someone we felt was the best player available. We were excited to have two former point guards guided under Coach John Calipari at UK come to Boston.

I feel like I'm no stranger to craziness with RFA so of course this year wouldn't be any different. We extended an offer to Jared Dudley with a hometown discount he rejected and actually opted not to sign during the RFA period at all which was surprising. Then we sign Spencer Hawes to a max contract, Aaron Afflalo to a near max contract, and probably our #1 target Carl Landry to $73M 4 year deal. We were thrilled but we've been here before always signing RFAs never ending up with any of them. And it looked like that would continue the Spurs almost instantly matched Afflalo, but both the Wizards and Heat were open to talking sign and trade. We were able to get both players but did give up our new rookie Knight and a future pick.

We brought back Dudley in UFA to a 5 year max taking no chances this time around. Brought in Kirk Hinrich who we are very excited about. But were disappointed to see how the rest of UFA played out. Francisco Garcia passed up a 3 year deal at $6.5M per year to sign a smaller 1 yr $4M deal, we then offered Rip Hamilton and Demarr Johnson large one year deals but not as much $$ as what some other teams could throw around. We finally reached 1 year contracts with a few guys who will compete for a roster spot.

We were thrilled with our roster construction at this point. I know people will question it, but the Center position and the PG position are very important and we had great starters and great backups there. We would experiment to see if we could even get all 4 of those guys on the court at the same time. We have a lot of flexibility. Then TC happened and kind of made our decision for us. John Wall took a major step back but at least was insured so that his potential is still there, we just have a ways to go to get back to being elite. Omer Asik decided he didn't want to become rich next offseason and is now going to be doing a lot of watching Spencer Hawes play.

We still really like our team and will experiment with a lot of different rotations, but right now I'd say we will trot out this starting lineup
PG: John Wall
SG: Rashad McCants
SF: Jared Dudly
PF: Carl Landry
C: Spencer Hawes

with Kirk Hinrich and Omer Asik coming off the bench to play heavy mins and a combination of Trevor Booker, Craig Smith, and Stephen Graham competing for the few remaining minutes.

[logpmess]

Hawes gave our Miami Heat four solid years and developed into a good young player in this league. What do you see as his long term potential as a top center in this league and as a leader on your team?

[garbageman]

Sam Smith, Bulls.com I think the Kirk Hinrich signing flew under the radar. The Celtics got a great deal on him. Can you tell us a little more about what he brings to the team?

[Conroy]

Hawes gave our Miami Heat four solid years and developed into a good young player in this league. What do you see as his long term potential as a top center in this league and as a leader on your team?

We are excited about Spencer here in Boston. He's led the league in the preseason in blocks, he's an excellent rebounder, and he can shoot free throws and the 3 well enough you must respect it. We don't want him to fall in love with the jumpshot we've always been an inside focused team but we love the extra dimension he can bring to our offense.

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Do you think Omer Asik is bitter and dejected after your vigorous signing of Hawes and Landry to be the boston front court of the future? Is it true he demanded a trade and hence put him on the trading block?

[Soundwave]

What happened to you?

[Conroy]

Sam Smith, Bulls.com I think the Kirk Hinrich signing flew under the radar. The Celtics got a great deal on him. Can you tell us a little more about what he brings to the team?

We were thrilled to see Kirk sign with us on day 1 it definitely softened the blow to the disappointments that would come later. Couple that with as a 30 year old he saw virtually no drop off in TC, his vertical isn't what it used to be, but I don't remember him being a staple in the dunk contest anyway. We will have to find a way to get him minutes, I think he'll start the season coming off the bench but if preseason was any indication we may have to roll out a small backcourt with him and Wall.

[Conroy]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Do you think Omer Asik is bitter and dejected after your vigorous signing of Hawes and Landry to be the boston front court of the future? Is it true he demanded a trade and hence put him on the trading block?

I've already shipped my luckiest GM name plate out to Philly. Essentially since Zo left we've seen Steve Francis die in TC, Carlos Boozer be the first ever UFA reject a super max offer a year removed from making it to the finals, the trade market to evaporate for Steven Hunter only to be reinvigorated a year later after I shipped him out, then John Wall and Omer Asik both die in the same TC this year.

I'm trying to wash away this salt with positivity. Our big money guys Dudley, Hawes, and Landry did not become complacent. Dudley improved his str and inside game, the areas we asked for improvement in. Hawes had a huge camp and is looking like a stud, and Landry averaged 27ppg in the preseason. Yes Omer sulked during Training Camp but at least he did it now in a contract year instead of after getting a huge salary. At least Wall was insured and his potentials remained the same.