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Post by Conroy on Oct 21, 2014 12:25:01 GMT -6
 GM Roy: Welcome to the 1997-1998 Boston Celtics Media Days. We’ll start by recapping the year, we had another impressive regular season getting the #1 seed in the East. The playoffs started ugly and we yet again lost a key player to injury in the playoffs (See Gilliam, Armen 1992 Finals; Richmond, Mitch & Coles, Bimbo 1993 playoffs; Hardaway, Tim 1994 Finals) but we were able to scrap our way through the first round without Tim while he was recovering. We were in the middle of a hard fought series with the outstanding Washington Wizards when disaster struck and #0 in our index, but #1 in our hearts; Alonzo Mourning went down with an injury. Derrick Coleman and Bimbo Coles filled in admirably in a tight game 7 at home, but the Wizards were too much and continued their magical run to the finals. Enough whining from me about injures that’s a west coast thing anyway. GM Roy: Onto the offseason, we’ll get right down to the unpopular decision to match Toni Kukoc’s max offer. First things first the language barrier and a greedy agent turned out to be our undoing. Toni was presented with a contract by his agent from the Detroit Pistons. It was Toni’s understanding what he was signing was a legal document saying he would absolutely not play for Detroit, due to his undying hate for the franchise. The shady agent desperate for his commission submitted the paperwork to the league office that Toni had in fact agreed to a max contract with the Pistons. He feels terrible about the situation, and his donating a large portion of his new contract to the Boys and Girls club of Boston. We know it was an unpopular decision, hell on a night with too much bourbon to drink I may even admit it was the wrong decision. But we loved Toni at the draft, he’s been linked to as many trades as Zo has (virtually zero), and we just couldn’t imagine the Croatian sensation playing anywhere but here. We sent some feelers out for a rebuild package and had some good talks, but we didn’t feel confident we could decline Toni and get value back for our veterans to properly rebuild. We also felt just plugging Donyell in Toni’s spot would have worked, but would leave us with little to no depth. As we were almost certain we would lose Bimbo in Free Agency and basically no cap space to sign anyone, matching kept the window open for at least 1 more season in our eyes. GM Roy: We as an organization want to wish Bimbo a fond farewell. He suffered one of the more gruesome injuries Sim League has seen so far, and it was great to see him bounce back from that and secure a nice contract albeit from a conference rival. Again we wish Bimbo much individual success. Now onto our new acquisitions. We were obviously over the cap, but that’s never stopped us before in trying to bring in veteran players, and we feel like we hit a home run again. In the first wave we signed former assist leader John Stockton. John may be getting up there in age, but we feel like he will be a main contributor as a backup Point Guard and sometimes even fill in at the back up Shooting Guard Position. In the second wave we snagged Rex Walters, a solid offensive 2 guard. He scored 8.4 points off the bench last season for the Nuggets which is more than any player we had off the bench last year. Our second unit of John Stockton, Rex Walters, Anthony Bonner, Donyell Marshall, and a big man we plan on bringing in, we feel like will be one of the better 2nd units in the league. With Donyell, Stockton, and Walters getting plenty of run with the starters. Any questions? |
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Post by IamQuailman on Oct 21, 2014 13:21:07 GMT -6
Will Maukie Jr, BucksNation.com: Hey Guy! Shucks about losing to the Wiz; they're a real tough gang to beat! We would've beat 'em, definitely! Anywho, any preliminary talks with Donyell regarding his staying a Celtic for the forseeable future? Or do you think, signing Kukoc, may have sent him a message?
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Post by Conroy on Oct 22, 2014 8:58:06 GMT -6
Will Maukie Jr, BucksNation.com: Hey Guy! Shucks about losing to the Wiz; they're a real tough gang to beat! We would've beat 'em, definitely! Anywho, any preliminary talks with Donyell regarding his staying a Celtic for the forseeable future? Or do you think, signing Kukoc, may have sent him a message? Thanks for the question Will. We won't hide it, Donyell was(is?) our most popular asset on the team. He was shopped in the offseason pretty hard, because we had wanted to bring back Toni. With that being said Donyell had his 3rd straight Training Camp of improving close to 40 points. He is a rebounding force and we think he'll get his 3 pt shot to drop this year. Bringing back Kukoc should have no bearing on Donyell, there's a SF spot and a PF spot and we think both players can play both positions effectively. We are hoping to negotiate with Donyell early in the season and get him locked up so we don't have to deal with this pesky RFA business again. |
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Post by NOLa. on Oct 22, 2014 12:09:37 GMT -6
Now that TC has been processed and teams are figuring out their depth charts, which team do you think will challenge you most for the Atlantic division, if any at all?
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Post by Nick Malone 77 on Oct 22, 2014 13:05:42 GMT -6
Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Over the last two seasons, we've seen the vaunted dynasty of the Celtics begin to crumble without a championship ring and loosing to the Warriors and Wizards. You have alot of cap space going into next off season, do you see this as being the last of THIS Celtics squad before we see a completely different team around ZO next season?
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Post by WigNosy on Oct 22, 2014 13:23:57 GMT -6
Word around the league was Derrick Coleman, Mitch Richmond, and Tim Hardaway were all shopped pretty hard this off-season. Do you think those trade talks may have affected their dedication to their off-season workout regimen?
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Post by Conroy on Oct 22, 2014 13:50:58 GMT -6
Now that TC has been processed and teams are figuring out their depth charts, which team do you think will challenge you most for the Atlantic division, if any at all? Well the computer Power Rankings have the Heat ahead of me and it took me a game 7 at home to beat them this past year they are a threat. The Wizards did beat me in a game 7 series so we are worried about David Wesley and company. And as long as the Knicks have David Robinson we will worry about them. |
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Post by Conroy on Oct 22, 2014 14:01:39 GMT -6
Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Over the last two seasons, we've seen the vaunted dynasty of the Celtics begin to crumble without a championship ring and loosing to the Warriors and Wizards. You have alot of cap space going into next off season, do you see this as being the last of THIS Celtics squad before we see a completely different team around ZO next season? We'll see how in season negotiations go. I would love to keep all of these guys forever, but that's just not realistic. I'd say some of these guys may be looking for one last big contract, but if any of them offer to talk reasonably with us, we'd be glad to keep on. But that being said, I think the fans should try to enjoy watching this team play this season, it could be their last together. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 14:02:32 GMT -6
Sterling Archer here, blah blah blah, With many Bostonians saying you being in the driver seat of the "cock" you've become a lazy GM who makes questionable decisions. Which makes no sense to me. Or was it car? That makes sense. Is there any truth to this accusation? Some are saying you've become so lazy you can't even center you press conference banner. Anywayz
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Post by Conroy on Oct 22, 2014 14:19:54 GMT -6
Word around the league was Derrick Coleman, Mitch Richmond, and Tim Hardaway were all shopped pretty hard this off-season. Do you think those trade talks may have affected their dedication to their off-season workout regimen? Those talks were made in anticipation of what we saw in the offseason workouts. There's no secret TC does not treat those 30 year olds nicely. Mitch and Derrick actually weren't hit too hard, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed in the way Tim approached the offseason. He's our guy though I hope he can play through it. |
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J2
Junior Member
Washington Wizards
Posts: 955 
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Post by J2 on Oct 22, 2014 15:02:59 GMT -6
Johnny Junior, The Washington Post: It's probably safe to say that Alonzo Mourning's injury was the real deciding factor in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. With the lesson of just how valuable Zo is to to your team now answered, what precautions have you taken in case something like that happens again? You mentioned another big man that you were looking to bring in, has he arrived yet?
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logpmess
Junior Member
Miami Heat
Posts: 557
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Post by logpmess on Oct 22, 2014 18:44:48 GMT -6
Gonzalo Lebatard, Miami Herald: We have heard you talk a little about the teams in your specific division that could be threats. The Atlantic division has reigned of the Eastern Conference for the past few years. Do you feel that any team in the Central division has improved enough to take the crown off of the Atlantic division? If so, who do you think is the most likely to come out of the "other" division in the East?
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Post by bowtothebill23 on Oct 23, 2014 12:24:30 GMT -6
Jack Markson from The Golden Take. Speculation around the league is that fans of the team have become bored with the regularity of being easily the best team in the East. Now having been 2 years since winning a title, is the fire back in the team or is it still somewhat of a walk-through until the Finals?
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Post by Conroy on Oct 23, 2014 12:31:05 GMT -6
Sterling Archer here, blah blah blah, With many Bostonians saying you being in the driver seat of the "cock" you've become a lazy GM who makes questionable decisions. Which makes no sense to me. Or was it car? That makes sense. Is there any truth to this accusation? Some are saying you've become so lazy you can't even center you press conference banner. Anywayz  |
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credit loco for photoshop
