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Sit-Downs With Sal
Good evening gentlemen. I have RN4L of the Nuggets with me here today ready to talk some NBA. How are you?
Doing well thanks for asking.
No problem, let’s dive on into it. You’ve been one of the more active teams on the trade front so far, what is your current thoughts on the makeup of your roster? Looking to make tweaks or trying to position yourself to make a substantial transaction?
We’ve landed our primary guys in JJ and Iguodala, so we’re looking to make small tweaks to find the right fit around them. Bringing in Okur and Hansbrough, we were looking to boost our bench scoring and have done that. Now we need to find the right rotation to get guys on the floor in the right spots. Our record isn’t great, but we’re not too displeased and have all the confidence that we’re a playoff caliber team.
Can ISO Joe and Iggy be enough to bring Denver to the promise land?
So fair to say you’re in win now mode?Absolutely, we want to compete for at least the next 3 years.
Without a first round pick the next two years as well as long-term contracts on the roster and being over the salary CAP, would you say that you have boom or bust mentality with this current team?
We did put that mentality to work. After trading for Johnson, we found a way to bring in Iguodala who can take some of the ball handling pressure off Monta and Joe, while providing solid defense. We should be able to find a way to compete late into the playoffs.
At all worried that you don’t have a true stand-out big man, or do you like the fact you have a collection of guys that can give you good, solid minutes?
If Biedrins can keep up his FG% on limited looks, while blocking 2 shots per game, we feel we can find a rotation of guys to make the paint work our way.
Some say that Monta Ellis, like his teammate Allen Iverson, is really just a two-guard trapped in a point guards body and with the 4 turnovers per game they might be right. Are you confident that Monta can give you reliable minutes at the point in a playoff run?
Without question. We’ve seen him have solid games in the early part of this inaugural season. He’ll have some rough edges in his game to smooth out, but this was our game plan out of the gate. We feel after a bit of seasoning, his game at PG will shine.
Could Iverson be having a negative effect on Monta Ellis' transition to a point guard?
Does the big personalities on the roster gel well? Allen Iverson, Delonte West, Monta Ellis? Not to mention the headcase Hansbrough. And Blatche and Iguodala have been known to be vocal at times.
The practice court gets a bit chippy at times, but we like the competitive edge that puts our guys on. And when it comes to game time, they gear up and get to work. The biggest problem is finding guys game time. Even at the end of his careers, Iverson is a guy used to being the man and he wants to be on the court. Other than that, nothing serious has come about.
Final question about your team before we hit a few questions about the league, your team has the 6th worst FG% and are bottom 3 in 3P%, any strides being made to add some more efficient shooters to the roster to balance out guys like Monta, Iguodala, and ISO Joe?
We did bring in Okur and Dudley, who have put up solid percentages. Biedrins has good numbers as well, though he played limited minutes against reserves before he came over. We’ve made a few slight adjustments to improve our efficiency, and should see them come to fruition here in the next month and a half.
Any take on Ray Allen recently being traded for primarily TJ Ford and cash considerations?
We were disheartened not to have an offer to match up. The salaries we would have needed to send would have undone all the work we put into this roster. Ray is clearly at his twilight, but we’d have loved to milk him of all the gas he has left in the tank for mere cash.
Kevin Garnett of the Mavericks has recently been out with a fractured jaw. There has been a story recently broke by TMZ that claims Garnett got into an altercation with Lakers’ forward Michael Beasley at a nightclub in LA, and that is the cause of the fractured jaw. Any comment on the matter?
KG is a guy who likes to yap when he’s sober, so I can only imagine what might have been said in a nightclub to have someone swinging at him. Beasley is a scrapper, both on and off the court he’s fearless, so I’m not surprised if there is any truth to that.
Did KG really get his jaw busted by Michael Beasley?
The Knicks are currently 10-13. Can Melo and Kobe co-exist or is that simply just a case of not enough balls to go around?
The first month went well for the Knicks, I would chalk it up to a bum couple of weeks and see how they rebound. I think Melo and Kobe can coexist, their styles are similar one can facilitate from the elbow with the other in the high post. Doesn’t matter which guy, they both can play each side.
Final question for you before I let you go, the Magic currently have the best record in the NBA. It is a team that features LeBron, but the next best player is Kevin Martin. Is their success sustainable?
For the foreseeable future, yes. How long is “sustainable”? They’re going to need to bring back Bibby if they want to be competitive beyond 2013 unless they can land a marquee PG. I think they have the depth everywhere but at guard. They will still be a tough out, but if you take Martin or Bibby out of the picture this year, they will be a much less scary team to face.
Appreciate the time man, good luck to you for the remainder of the season.
The same to you, thanks this was a lot of fun!
Thanks for tuning in everyone, next time we sit down with Rockets' GM, username. Goodnight!
