Pistons Pre-Season Presser

[ballsohard]

Balls O'Hard:
Good afternoon, all, welcome to the Pistons Press conference! I'm happy to be here for the first time in a long time. We have finally brought a non-OP championship to Detroit. A lot of people doubted us and our commitment, but we stuck with a plan and got here. Before we start i wanted to give our deepest respect to our opponents who pushed us all season. We wound up with the 3 overall seed and pushed us to the hardest possible path to through our conference playoff bracket, without one of our stars, Caruso, through the first 2 and 1/2 round, but we prevailed!

Balls O'Hard:
This championship brings Detroit to 2 championships, and my personal count to 5, I couldn't be more excited about it. If you think we're satisfied, then you're dead wrong. One thing I've never done in my career is win 2 in a row, so our current goal is one I know is extremely challenging and it's not something I want to look ahead of. With that in mind, we had three choices going into our offseason (1) We could tear it down and reset a bit and get under the tax, (2) We could stand pat because we had all the main players coming back, or (3) take a risk and try and get better. Obviously, we went with #3 which comes with a bit of risk. In order to get better and be more aggressive, we have to move on from Emoni and Jarrett. It's not something i did without a heavy heart, however, when we made a move for Frank Daily. What made us comfortable is that Frank is aligned with our core values which are defense and multifaceted players.

Balls O'Hard:
Frank also provides a strength which we haven't need in a while in being able to force turnovers and his versatility is a huge boon to us. If we look through our top 7 players there's not real weaknesses on our defensive front. One of the reasons we rely so much on defense is it's a constant as opposed to offense which can be a little erratic at times.

Balls O'Hard:
With that being said, our goals remain largely the same, focus on the division, then the conference, then the chip. Anything less would be a huge failure. There's a lot of people who think we're a shoe in, but I see a lot of competitors out there that can push us, and we welcome that challenge. I think we've seen a ton of teams who were preseason favorites who do not win it all. We also have to avoid injuries which have been prevalent for us in the past few seasons at very inopportune times. With that, I'll open it up for questions.

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Let me be the first to congratulate you on a hard fought championship win last season. As champ, you get a bonus question.

Firstly, you mention that last year's team was a non-OP team. With two purple current players and three purple potential players, you've got an all-purple potential starting lineup (potentially) and the most purple potential players on one team. Do you consider this year's team OP and why or why not?

Second, of all the teams in the league, which ones do you see providing potential matchup problems come playoff time?

[MexicanMamba]

You're currently in a division with teams in some sort of tear-down or rebuild, though some are further developed than others. Once you decide to take a step back, rank the division in terms of who would he most equipped to take over.

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[ballsohard]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Let me be the first to congratulate you on a hard fought championship win last season. As champ, you get a bonus question.

Firstly, you mention that last year's team was a non-OP team. With two purple current players and three purple potential players, you've got an all-purple potential starting lineup (potentially) and the most purple potential players on one team. Do you consider this year's team OP and why or why not?

Second, of all the teams in the league, which ones do you see providing potential matchup problems come playoff time?

Hey, Shams, great to hear from you! To be clear, I meant a non-OP player ala Anthony Davis in Detroit specifically. I'll clarify because I think you can definitely break between OP teams and players. AD was just a force like we've never seen or rarely seen and is the true definition of a 'generational talent'. Davis drug his team's dead bodies through the playoffs year after year and was always a threat. I think in terms of OP teams, We'd probably be up there as one of the best ever last year and potentially this year if we can pull off a championship. To add to a fun conversation, i think our team last year would wipe the floor with any Anthony Davis lead team of the past.

To your second question, the Omega has a few challengers that should be watched. I'm excited to see Blankley's development, I'm a big fan and I think any team with him has a puncher's chance. The Jazz are probably the favorites in that division though, THT is a powerful player to deal with, and frankly they're a rock solid team. I'm interested to see if Wade will be moved to the 1.

In the Alpha conference, the Clippers come to mind for me. They're another rock solid team and probably our biggest trheat on paper in the preseason of course. The Spurs can never be counted out as well, and the Bulls have a ton of ammo to make a run if they so choose. One really interesting team is the Suns, i'm excited to see how they pull things together. They're a little thin, but have quality everywhere.

[ballsohard]

You're currently in a division with teams in some sort of tear-down or rebuild, though some are further developed than others. Once you decide to take a step back, rank the division in terms of who would he most equipped to take over.

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Interesting question. I think we can eliminate the Heat and Hawks of seeing contention for the next 5 years or so. That leaves the Bucks, the Wolves and Raptors. I think the Raptors have a pretty decent but awkward build; so really it comes between the Bucks and the Wolves. I would hoenstly give the honor to the Bucks right now because the Wolves owner is in cruise control mode. It's hard to say though because the Bucks are extremely erratic in their decision-making processes. I'm excited to watch it unfold!

[greepleairport]

In addition to 'getting better,' you've also set your sights firmly on tax hell at the conclusion of this run. Any scenario in which you pull back from going to tax hell?

[ballsohard]

In addition to 'getting better,' you've also set your sights firmly on tax hell at the conclusion of this run. Any scenario in which you pull back from going to tax hell?

Balls O'Hard: I went forward in time, to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."

Reporter 2 How many did you see?

Balls O'Hard:14,000,605

Reporter 2How many did you pull back from going to tax hell ?

Balls O'Hard:One

[PaulyP]

Congrats on yet another ring Mr. O'Hard and as you've mentioned there are a lot of people already penciling you in for a repeat title but for the sake of parity what do you perceive the weakness of your squad to be?

[ballsohard]

Congrats on yet another ring Mr. O'Hard and as you've mentioned there are a lot of people already penciling you in for a repeat title but for the sake of parity what do you perceive the weakness of your squad to be?

Hey Pauly, thank you very much. I'd say we have a few weaknesses but one of them would be our front court depth and another one would be health. We've had problems with health in the past and some poorly timed injuries could derail us a bit.