Van Memphis Grizzles 2014-2015 Presser

[LoCo89]

Van Memphis (Elder), South Dakota
(Midway Between Vancouver and Memphis)

GM Enrique: Good Morning. Well lets start today by looking at last season. As we kinda thought after training camp, the poor showing by Carl Landry, Tony Allen, and Devin Harris all hurt us pretty bad in the standings. We went from a team that barely missed the playoffs, to a team that was firmly out of the playoff race. Seeing where we were contract-wise, this offseason, we came in with the goals of getting some younger talent in here to groom, and bringing on a veteran or two to contribute before we move on to our next core of Jimmy & Kawhi. I'm glad to say we were able to do both.

GM Enrique: For the draft, we had the 11th pick and we decided that we liked a couple of guys in that area. So we made a deal with the Spurs to send 11 and cash for 14 and 17. With these picks, we selected Elfrid Payton out of ULL and Memphis's own Tarik Black out of Kansas. We see Elfrid sticking to our liking of a defensive minded player with some spectacular passing ability already. Tarik brings us a new big man who scored a lot in college and we hope he can bring that here and help bolster our bench. We liked what we saw out of preseason from both in some limited minutes and hope they can find time on the floor for us this season.

GM Enrique: Free Agency. We knew pretty early on that we were gonna let Devin Harris walk and needed to replace him with more than just Elfrid. With that in mind, we brought in a solid vet in Tony Parker. We also knew we wanted to grab some scoring punch for off the bench, but that we had limited minutes to give anyone. With that in mind we decided to bring in a handful of career scorers. We brought in Kobe Bryant, Joe Johnson, Brandon Roy, and Gilbert Arenas. While they are certainly past their collective prime, we're hoping they can come on in limited minutes and be somewhat effective for us.

GM Enrique: And Finally Training Camp. We saw about what we expected from any normal camp. Our younger guys got better while our older players looked... well, old frankly. We continued to be disappointed with what we saw from Landry & Allen, but we were pleasantly surprised by Elfrid. We're not quite ready to have him start for us, but he has earned himself the backup PG spot.

GM Enrique: With that, are there any questions

[garbageman]

I'd like to get some insight into your goals and expectations. Given the landscape of the West, are you focused on making it into the playoffs after missing last year, or is that, at this point, looking too far ahead?

[JNR]

GWR: The preseason showed that your offense has a ways to go. Are you planning on changing anything for the season to make Kawhi or Jimmy more aggressive?

[NOLa.]

Looking at your starting lineup, PG is the obvious glaring hole that will hold the team back. The future is bright with Leonard, Drummond, Butler and Payton, but will you look to make a move for a starting caliber PG while Payton develops?


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[LoCo89]

I'd like to get some insight into your goals and expectations. Given the landscape of the West, are you focused on making it into the playoffs after missing last year, or is that, at this point, looking too far ahead?

One of the issues with the poor showing we had at training camp last season was that we knew for better or for worse, we were likely locked in to that result for last season and this. So right now we're thinking once again no playoffs

[LoCo89]

GWR: The preseason showed that your offense has a ways to go. Are you planning on changing anything for the season to make Kawhi or Jimmy more aggressive?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We've had very few individual "high volume scorers" come through our doors. Some guys are just solid 15-18 ppg scorers and it's on me to surround then with other scorers. It's certainly more of a challenge when we've got more defensive talent at our big men positions.

[LoCo89]

Looking at your starting lineup, PG is the obvious glaring hole that will hold the team back. The future is bright with Leonard, Drummond, Butler and Payton, but will you look to make a move for a starting caliber PG while Payton develops?


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We've been open to trying to find a more solid PG prospect but haven't been able to nail anything down quite yet

[ballsohard]

Can you talk into the disappointment into Eric Bledsoe's fall from prospect oozing with talent to barely in the league guard and how or if that slowed down your build?


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[78#]

You've barely missed the playoffs the last two seasons. Do you feel like you're any closer this season and would you be willing to trade someone like PAyton for a more established PG if the team had a chance to make the playoffs?

[LoCo89]

You've barely missed the playoffs the last two seasons. Do you feel like you're any closer this season and would you be willing to trade someone like PAyton for a more established PG if the team had a chance to make the playoffs?

As I said before, when we made our deal for Tony Allen, for better or for worse, we resigned ourselves to the idea we'd be around the same place for the next two years. So without making a trade no I don't think we're in the playoff picture right now.

On the subject of trading Elf, we won't speculate too much on his future with the team on the eve of his debut, but if the right trade comes along we are always willing to exhaust all of our options for improving our team

[LoCo89]

Can you talk into the disappointment into Eric Bledsoe's fall from prospect oozing with talent to barely in the league guard and how or if that slowed down your build?


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In this league, every GM gets a player that falls into their lap and is a surprise. Eric Bledsoe was one of those guys for me. At one point we were willing to go with him as our PG of the future and moved on from Ish Smith. However that never really materialized.

Bled was always athletically gifted, able to get a basket, and even though we heard about the showing he had in Brooklyn's TC I'm sure he'll be able to find his place op n a team bc of that. We wanted to bring him back especially after the season he had for us last year, but we'll never fault a player for taking more money. We wish him all the best in Brooklyn

[Soundwave]

*Soundwave walks into Grizzlies presser. Remembers where he is. Hears GM say he is not talking about basketball today, but instead will be discussing the wonderful lives of Lemurs. Soundwave exits.*

[LoCo89]

*Soundwave walks into Grizzlies presser. Remembers where he is. Hears GM say he is not talking about basketball today, but instead will be discussing the wonderful lives of Lemurs. Soundwave exits.*

WHOA WHOA WHOA Look i get youre on this weird crusade but thats no reason to pick on a poor innocent animal.How dare you leave out the kangaroo too

[Soundwave]

*Soundwave walks into Grizzlies presser. Remembers where he is. Hears GM say he is not talking about basketball today, but instead will be discussing the wonderful lives of Lemurs. Soundwave exits.*

WHOA WHOA WHOA Look i get youre on this weird crusade but thats no reason to pick on a poor innocent animal.How dare you leave out the kangaroo too

But I came here to talk about basketball, it seems I came to the wrong place. No clue why I would walk into a basketball GM's press conference expecting to talk about basketball. Shame on me.

[LoCo89]

But I came here to talk about basketball, it seems I came to the wrong place. No clue why I would walk into a basketball GM's press conference expecting to talk about basketball. Shame on me.

Exactly, shame on you

[Inner_GI]

You may claim 3 points for your presser. (Didn't ask questions)