Post by Deleted on May 14, 2014 12:41:57 GMT -6
Balls O'Hard: Good afternoon; sorry, for the delay to our presser this year. As always, I want to thank all of the media for coming out to join us. We appreciate it. Let's reflect on last season before we get started on this season. Last season was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, and I feel like that's always the story around this time of year for us. We were the defending champions and had to make some tough roster moves. Which is exactly what happened this offseason. There weren't a lot of people who believed in us after losing the talent we did, but we pushed through. Part of the disappointment last season was our seeding. We earned the 7 seed, and had to push through one of the toughest roads imaginable in the playoffs. We played 4 very respectable teams, all of who no would scoff at if they won the championship, and won 3 of those 4 series.
Balls O’Hard: But we do not make excuses in L.A.; close enough isn't close at all. We lost to a better team, who got through a litany of injuries to win the title from us. There was no luck involved, they took it from us. So let me congratulate the Celtics again on their championship. It was well deserved. Although, at the end of the day, we did not get the job done; I am personally very proud of the guys in that locker room.
Balls O'Hard: This team has a mental toughness about them that you can't really put into words. We preach constantly about the mindset of "Next man up" and our guys live that philosophy. There are times we feel like we need a certain skillset, and as a front office, we are empowered to make that happen. that's something you saw with the acquisitions of Scottie Pippen and Duane Causewell. Unfortunately, we all have a salary cap and a bottom line to reach and we could not afford both of their deals. We wish them individual luck and think fondly of their time in L.A..
Balls O’Hard: We had a few offseason acquisitions that we’re excited about, but as we see, the framework to our team is pretty close to last year. We are very happy to say that Kevin Johnson will continue to be the leader of this team for a long time. He and Cedric Ceballos will be our captains of the team. They have been with us since the creation draft and we are proud to call them Lakers. Along with Kevin Johnson coming back, we signed- and- traded for Rony Seikely. Rony is going to give us the type of center we haven’t had during our tenure, which is a very well rounded guy who can score, rebound and play defense. In the past we’ve designated our 5 spot as more of a specility player; but we’re excited to see what flexibility we can have now with that position not being such a sore spot offensively for us.
Balls O’Hard: Expectations this year are the same as usual. That’s first and foremost, make the playoffs, then, winning our division, and if we’re lucky enough with injuries, put ourselves in position to fight for the conference. The West got extremely tough and deep last year, and this year the stakes were raised even more. Teams that you could count on being push overs aren’t anymore. We believe talent-wise, there’s only 2 teams that “can’t make” the playoffs. So, we state those goals with a lot of respect and understanding just making the playoffs is going to be a battle. With that we will open the floor for questions.
