2000-2001 Miami Heat Pre-season Press Conference

[logpmess]

Welcome everybody. First lets talk about last year.

What an up and down year. Dealing with injuries throughout the whole season, our team stepped up and made the playoffs. Unfortunately, we matched up to our achilles heel: the Boston Celtics. Going back and forth, we brought the 1st round to game 7. Lo and behold, we won that game. We won our first playoff series!! I want to give a lot of credit to our team, especially our leader Gary Payton, for powering through against a great team. In round 2, we faced up against the powerful Toronto Raptors. Unfortunately for the opposition, they lost their best player to injury. We know how that feels having lost top players in the past playoff berths. We always prefer to play teams at their best, but we had to play the game that was presented to us. We took that round to a game 7, and holy crap, we won again. In the Eastern Confernece finals (never thought I would say that any time soon), we faced off against the revamped Milwaukee Bucks. We won game one in Milwuakee, but lost game 2 by two points in overtime. We are feeling confident at this point having stolen home court advantage. We lost two heartbreakers at home by a total of 5 points. At that point, we lost everything we had. In game 5, we got blown out by 12 points. Although we were on the brink of making the finals, this past season is the best season in franchise history and I am proud of our team for all that we overcame.

In the draft, we drafted shooting guard Desmond Mason out of Oklahoma State. At this point, he seems like a backup player at best, but who knows, maybe he will develop.

We had a starter going into RFA in Tony Delk. We are really high on his abilities, and see him as a vital part of our team going forward. The VanMemphis Grizzlies won the bid for Tony by maxing him, but not putting any increase in salary. We felt that Tony is worth that money, so we decided to match the offered salary. We are excited to welcome Tony back to Miami. We look forward to his future development and leadership.

In free agency, we were in a bind as we were basically maxed out on salary. We decided to pursue our small forward Jim Jackson. We offered him max salary with a 12% increase in salary per year. He decided to join the Minnesota Timberwolves instead of taking that offer. The only thing I can think of his departure is that the 4th year had a team option. Either way, we wish I'm luck and I hope he has some winter coats to account for the climate change. After his departure, we were looking for a fill in for his position at small forward. We pursued a few players, but we ended up signing the veteran George McCloud. We look forward to seeing what he can contribute to this team.

We headed to training camp without much roster movement other than McCloud/Jackson. We saw rising star Tony Delk take the next step in development. Some of our other players fluctuated up and down. Overall, we are happy with training camp. We want to see how our team performs during the preseason to determine who is going to start on day one of the season.

We have three spots pretty much locked up for starters, but as of right now this is our lineup:
C: vacant
PF: Adam Keefe
SF: vacant
SG: Tony Delk
PG: Gary Payton
We anticipate a battle for the center position between veteran Dino Radja and youngster Todd Macculloch. At small forward, we have the same veteran versus youngster debate between George McCloud and Pat Garrity. Alvin Williams will be backing up the guard positions again this year.

Although we like our team, we find that we are at a crossroads. We don't see the ability to improve much do to cap restrictions in the future, but we have a solid team that does not really allow for a rebuild. Everyone is available to trade. Well not everyone. Tony Delk is not able to be traded due to RFA restrictions.

With this team, we are looking at a borderline playoff team. At best, 3rd in the Atlantic. At worst, last in division.

Alright, the floor is now open to questions.

[WigNosy]

What is it about Tony Delk's game that made you confident about matching the contract Van Memphis offered? Also, you said everyone but Delk was available... is the Gary Payton Era coming to a close in Miami?

[logpmess]

What is it about Tony Delk's game that made you confident about matching the contract Van Memphis offered? Also, you said everyone but Delk was available... is the Gary Payton Era coming to a close in Miami?

We like the two way play of Tony Delk. He has the ability to be a leading scorer as well as shut down perimeter guards. He came in the league as a point guard, so he is a little undersized at shooting guard, but we still think that he can become a top 2 guard.

As far as Gary is concerned. He has been the leader of the franchise since I took over the team in 1992. We like his leadership and he is a top player in the league. We don't want to lose him. We want him to retire a member of the Heat. However, we are a franchise committed to winning, and we have concern about being able to get over the hump with the current team. If we can garner a rebuilding team built around Tony Delk, I can see this franchise back in the mix of the playoffs in a couple of years.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: With two starting spots up for grabs and little to no cap room, do you plan on finding a way to bring new talent in to compete for/fill those spots, or is this season's edition of the Heat a finished product?

[logpmess]

Random Reporter: With two starting spots up for grabs and little to no cap room, do you plan on finding a way to bring new talent in to compete for/fill those spots, or is this season's edition of the Heat a finished product?

We are always looking to build a more complete team. We have never been a team that trades often. Expect this team to be the team we roll with unless we can improve it through a trade.

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon: Charlotte Observer: Last season was quite the magical year for you guys. Reaching the conference finals and perhaps, Payton and Jim Jackson playing the best stretches of their respective entire careers during the post season ultimately falling to the Bucks. Adam Keefe was a big part of that resurgence. Are you currently looking to provide some backup/insurance for Keefe in the paint? Do you think the loss of Jim Jackson to Minnesota will reset your mode of thinking in terms of how this team is constructed?

[logpmess]

Nick Melon: Charlotte Observer: Last season was quite the magical year for you guys. Reaching the conference finals and perhaps, Payton and Jim Jackson playing the best stretches of their respective entire careers during the post season ultimately falling to the Bucks. Adam Keefe was a big part of that resurgence. Are you currently looking to provide some backup/insurance for Keefe in the paint? Do you think the loss of Jim Jackson to Minnesota will reset your mode of thinking in terms of how this team is constructed?

Adam keefe showed his true worth last season. He has been a stalwart on this team for years and we expect him to do the same. His depth is represented by our big man rotation.

The only adjustment for this team is that tony delk will shoulder more of the load. And with Adam's emergence last playoffs, we expect a lot of positive output from him as well.


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[IamQuailman]

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