76ers Preseason presser

[ballsohard]

Balls O'Hard:Good afternoon everyone, i want to thank you for coming. Obviously this presser has a lot different feel to it than it has in year's past. No longer are we in the stages of contending, but are now working on a rebuild. We lost last year in the finals, which was very disapointing after beating a great Atlanta Hawks team. We want to congratulate the Los Angeles Clippers on their first championship. We know it took a lot of work building that team. Being gifted the 1 pick and drafting Durant and TC making him unstoppable probably caused countless hours of GM work and we can appreciate that. So take this as a fond congrats from the 76ers organization.

Balls O'Hard:On to the future though. every build has a life cycle, and we felt ours had come to an end. While we believe all the guys in our run still have a few good years left in the league, we felt it was out best time to move forward. We wish Ramon Sessions a break out year in Chicago.We wish Tracy McGrady all the luck in his pursuit at another ring. We wish Amare great personal stats in Denver, but hopefully a crash when we have their pick. And last we wish our first and most important piece, Titan Chandler, all the best from our org. He was everything the league thinks he is and more.

Balls O'Hard:With the end of a build comes the beginning of a new one. While we're sad to move on from our most dominating runs, we're also intrigued at the prospect at building another team to lead to a championship. We welcomed a lot of new faces: Demarcus Cousins, Andrew Bynum, Thomas Robinson, Jonas Jerebko, Gordon Hayward, Tony Snell, Evan Turner, Marcus Thornton, Julyian Stone, and Raymon Felton. And of course we bring back lifelong 76ers Demarre Carrol and Taj Gibson.

Balls O'Hard:As you can see we have a lot of new names on the roster, and with that comes a lot of uncertainty. With a lot of overlap at each position, the organization will give everyone ample opportunity to earn their future with our organization, and we won't let namesake make that decision for us. We're excited to get started, but as it seems the players weren't. A few of our guys didn't understand how the 76ers do buisness in the offseason and showed up out of shape. That along with play on the court will be some of the things we be taking into account when deciding the future direction of our organization. With that i open the way with question.

[IamQuailman]

BucksNation.Com Correspondent, Will Maukie: Despite being in a rebuilding process, you have a lot of talent on this team. Do you feel like this squad can make the post-season or do you feel like you need to take it slow this this group for a year to see what fits and what doesn't?

[TheSyndicate]

Woody Paige - Denver Post:
While you have youth and depth and almost every spot, a glaring exception is at the point. Will you really go into the season with a 29 yr old Raymond Felton logging big minutes at the 1, or are you looking to even out your roster via trade?

[Inner_GI]

What's the next step for the Bynum and Boogie pairing? Do you see them working on the court together?

[ballsohard]

I think we have a few options there and it'll be a bit of a test from week to week. For one, yes we're in the market for a young 1 and i think we have the pieces if someone's willing to deal. Second, I think we're going to give Evan Turner a go at the position, if not starting then backup minutes. What he lacks in foot speed, he makes up for in size. He's got a great make-up for a combo type guard. We think he can be a glue guy who does everything well on the court, but probably nothing elite.

[ballsohard]

What's the next step for the Bynum and Boogie pairing? Do you see them working on the court together?

I think we're going to be a slow paced team so they have a chance to work out. This team has a great chance to dominate the boards 1-5. While we don't really have any elite rebounders outside of T Rob, everyone is pretty good. We think Bynum and Boogie can be a part of a very special elite team rebounding combo.

[ballsohard]

BucksNation.Com Correspondent, Will Maukie: Despite being in a rebuilding process, you have a lot of talent on this team. Do you feel like this squad can make the post-season or do you feel like you need to take it slow this this group for a year to see what fits and what doesn't?

It's really hard to tell what we have honestly. Yeah, there's a lot of talent but how does it fit? Ultimately i think we can make the playoffs, but in the logn run this team won't be judged off of what we do and where we go in terms of wins and losses. We'll be judged on if the right or wrong guys stayed with the team.

[TheSyndicate]

Crazy Scientist Stepping out of a Delorian:

I just came from the FUTURE. I snapped this picture. Are you concerned at all?

[garbageman]

With the Gordon Hayward trade, I understand the match on DeMarre Carroll...he was going to sign with the Hornets for a very reasonable price, and nobody was gonna have that. Question is, how are you going to work them together in your lineup with neither player really suited for another position?

[ballsohard]

Crazy Scientist Stepping out of a Delorian:

I just came from the FUTURE. I snapped this picture. Are you concerned at all?

Future? Training camp already happened bro.

[ballsohard]

With the Gordon Hayward trade, I understand the match on DeMarre Carroll...he was going to sign with the Hornets for a very reasonable price, and nobody was gonna have that. Question is, how are you going to work them together in your lineup with neither player really suited for another position?

We're going to start out with them both in the starting lineup. We feel they have complimentary talents. Demarre is a bull on defense and can board on that end, while Gordon is a good offensive guy that can grab boards on the offensive end. They both can shoot the 3 as well. if things dont workout like that then we'll toy around, but we want to give them a chance to play right away. In terms of RFA, Demarre wanted a chance to showcase his talents and we supported him on that wish, but the other party has to be willing to deal to make a trade. Demarre knows that and was understanding. The Hornets are a hard team to gauge when it comes to trade talks. They suffer from a little team build schizophrenia from time to time which you can see from the non sign-and-trade then the UFA session.

[NOLa.]

We're sorry to see Cousins not approach the 76ers training camp seriously.


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[JNR]

GWR: Let's talk about Thomas Robinson. He had a great camp but has two big names in front of him in Bynum and Cousins. Where will his time come in, and do you think he can maximize his minutes?

[Soundwave]

Did you fire the guy that "forgot" to insure Bynum?

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: Thornton is an interesting piece to have long-term, as he's proven himself to be a fairly standard scoring combo guard despite scouts swearing that he could be something more. In fact, he's shockingly similar to Monta Ellis, a player that was quickly cast out of Philly years ago. What led you to give Thornton a long-term deal?

[false9]

Lack Zowe, Landgrant:

Will Tony Snell have an opportunity or is this more of a red-shirt year for him?

[ballsohard]

We're sorry to see Cousins not approach the 76ers training camp seriously.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He and Andrew Bynum were a little too excited to indulge in the Philly cheese steaks and got it with wiz. (look it up)

[ballsohard]

GWR: Let's talk about Thomas Robinson. He had a great camp but has two big names in front of him in Bynum and Cousins. Where will his time come in, and do you think he can maximize his minutes?

I think we're going to have to do what's right for the organization and the induvidual players to give each of them a chance to shine. We're going to give the guys ample opportunity to get time on the court, but after a year or two we're going to have to diversify our talent a little more and possibly do a send-off to a team with more playmaking talent to let one of our bigs shine elsewhere. As of right now, we're going to have open competition and you can't forget Taj. He's a guy who is a stud on defense and does everything pretty well.

[ballsohard]

Did you fire the guy that "forgot" to insure Bynum?

I definately am to blame for that one. It was a rare mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. I take full responsibility for the lack for foresight.

[ballsohard]

Random Reporter: Thornton is an interesting piece to have long-term, as he's proven himself to be a fairly standard scoring combo guard despite scouts swearing that he could be something more. In fact, he's shockingly similar to Monta Ellis, a player that was quickly cast out of Philly years ago. What led you to give Thornton a long-term deal?

That's an interesting take. I don't think they're quite as similar as a lot of the media portrays them. Monta is really a combo sized guy who wants to score while Thornton, lacking in height, has a little more girth to him. Also, Monta is more of a volume guy. He's shot .400 (exactly) once in his career, while Thornton has never shot under .400 his entire career. The Wolves organization did a great job at teaching him to pick his spots as well as indoctrinate him in the defensive culture. While he'll never be a stopper on that end, he can play and can guard the 1 and 2 at a decent clip. We're excited to have him for the rate we have him at. Our ideal role for him is 6th man and hopefully he can infuse some life into the 6th man race.

[ballsohard]

Lack Zowe, Landgrant:

Will Tony Snell have an opportunity or is this more of a red-shirt year for him?

I don't think Tony is a guy who will see the court much unless we make some moves. We're really excited about his potential as a 3 and D type of guy, but he's got to adjust to the speed and power of the NBA before we think he's going to contribute.

[Conroy]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, Your team, at least from my private eyes (that's been watching you), has seemed to lost that classic ballsohard agressiveness which resulted in bad beat after bad beat. Now luck appears to be on your side. Will the less hapless more fortuitous version of the 76ers/Lakers GM continue to reign or will the old championship pedegree despite my bad luck Ballsohard come back out to play?

[ballsohard]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, Your team, at least from my private eyes (that's been watching you), has seemed to lost that classic ballsohard agressiveness which resulted in bad beat after bad beat. Now luck appears to be on your side. Will the less hapless more fortuitous version of the 76ers/Lakers GM continue to reign or will the old championship pedegree despite my bad luck Ballsohard come back out to play?

Seems like the media in Boston has been casting a lazy eye at our team about as much as thre Celts GM on his own team Bill. If you call 2 guys getting hit in TC, the franchise changer you traded for and the center you gave max money to in the offseason lucky, well you certainly haven't been paying attention.

[Conroy]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, Your team, at least from my private eyes (that's been watching you), has seemed to lost that classic ballsohard agressiveness which resulted in bad beat after bad beat. Now luck appears to be on your side. Will the less hapless more fortuitous version of the 76ers/Lakers GM continue to reign or will the old championship pedegree despite my bad luck Ballsohard come back out to play?

Seems like the media in Boston has been casting a lazy eye at our team about as much as thre Celts GM on his own team Bill. If you call 2 guys getting hit in TC, the franchise changer you traded for and the center you gave max money to in the offseason lucky, well you certainly haven't been paying attention.

Ballsohard is much better than me in anway except luck...Thanksomuch