Spurs Year 2003 Preseason Presser

[Eazy P]

Would like to thank everyone for joining us today for the San Antonio Spurs Preseason Press Conference. 1st off I would like to talk about last season. We made a great run but fell short to a great Raptors team in the finals. We like to thank our fans for the support they have given us during that run last season. That season was magical and hopefully we can do better this time around. Now lets get to our upcoming season. Going into this off-season we were looking forward to staying the course and trying to complete the task of winning a title. The past 2 seasons we have made it to the western conference finals and then to the finals the following year. Now we have had some setbacks to after TC and may consider making some major changes to the roster. We will be having a team/organizational meeting in a few days to decide what's best for this team. We still have some great players and with the improvement of Booth can still make a run this season. This Spurs season will be interesting and hopefully a good one.

If there's any questions you guys are free to ask. Thanks again for joining us............Questions?

[NOLa.]

Will Caron Butler be more part of a focal point of your team with Shareef going down a little, or will it be more of Booths time to shine?

Sent via Morse code

[JNR]

GWR: You've been to two straight WCF and made the finals for the first time. Despite your issues in training camp, do you still feel the next natural step is hoisting a banner?

[Eazy P]

Will Caron Butler be more part of a focal point of your team with Shareef going down a little, or will it be more of Booths time to shine?

Sent via Morse code

Booth's improvement helps a lot considering what happened to Shareef a few days ago. We are hoping that with his improvement in TC he will be even better than last season. His Defense and rebounding helped a lot. We still have Ray Allen and G Rob here, who are still in their prime, to carry the scoring load for us if Shareef's setback hampers us. Caron's role may be the same or we may give Dixon a shot to show us what he can do off the bench with increased minutes.

[Eazy P]

GWR: You've been to two straight WCF and made the finals for the first time. Despite your issues in training camp, do you still feel the next natural step is hoisting a banner?

We surely hope so. These set backs on paper look bad but I have seen teams with less talent make it far because of great coaching. I hope Booth can pick up the slack and hopefully get us to the mountain top. It's gonna be tough tho but it's gonna have to be a collective effort from everyone on this staff, players, coaches, training staff, etc. I know the city of San Antonio want that next step to be this team hoisting that championship trophy at the end of the season. We are going to try our best to give our city and fans what they have been waiting for for a long time.

[RPF]

Congrats on your recent success but what lessons did you learn doing your post season run last year?

[Eazy P]

I learned that Game planning is key to success in the Post season. I also learned not to take it for granted because you do not know if you will be back the following season. We have work to do here and I believe the team is more motivated than ever to complete the mission of winning it all after losing that finals series 4-1. I actually talked to Glenn, Ray, Shareef and the guys this past summer and they want to get back there and finish the job this time. So they learn not to just be happy getting there but get there and win.

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: You were pretty upset publicly about the results of what occurred post training camp. Have you talked with Shareef and Caron privately on what you can hope for production wise from them in the future? Do you think that you can still maintain the same kind of success if this team was down to just Ray Allan and Big Dog Robinson?

[kucoach7]

Nathan Sliver, sevenfortyseven.com: Your reputation as a game planner has soared recently and deservedly so. I know you don't want to give away any secrets but what tips do you have for the struggling coaches out there?

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: You've always been known as a "shoot first and apologize if you miss it later" team, but it seems like now, more than ever, you're filled to the brim with shoot first combo guards. Are there any plans to get Vaughn some help in the facilitating department?

[Eazy P]

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: You were pretty upset publicly about the results of what occurred post training camp. Have you talked with Shareef and Caron privately on what you can hope for production wise from them in the future? Do you think that you can still maintain the same kind of success if this team was down to just Ray Allan and Big Dog Robinson?

Yes we've talked to Shareef and Caron about their camp results and they are disappointed and hold themselves accountable for those results. I wouldn't say publicly upset but more disappointed at how they went bout training camp but those things happened and we just need to put those guys in position to maximize their strength. I think booth's camp can aid in trying to maintain our success but time will tell.

[Eazy P]

Random Reporter: You've always been known as a "shoot first and apologize if you miss it later" team, but it seems like now, more than ever, you're filled to the brim with shoot first combo guards. Are there any plans to get Vaughn some help in the facilitating department?

Well Robinson is actually a good facilitator too. He's not a guard but it helps to take the load off of Vaughn when you can get 4-6 dimes from you small forward. True PGs are hard to find in this league so the next best thing is a combo guard. The more positions you can play the better. Our team was ranked 4th in assist per game last year so I guess in a sense we are a assist by committee type team.

[Eazy P]

Nathan Sliver, sevenfortyseven.com: Your reputation as a game planner has soared recently and deservedly so. I know you don't want to give away any secrets but what tips do you have for the struggling coaches out there?

Go with your gut. In the past I always second guessed my initial plans and then go the alternate route and end up in a hole. Now I just try less to second guessing my decisions and go with my gut.

[IamQuailman]

Awarded 5 PTS!