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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 10:11:55 GMT -6
 GM InnerGI: We will start off by recapping last year and this years draft. It was very obvious we were going to struggle last year. Even though we ended the season with a 5 game win streak, we finished with the worst record in the league. How were we rewarded? We got the 4th pick in the draft!! Luckily we already have a good young core in O'Neal and Iverson, and though we missed out on McGrady and Duncan, Van Horn was our #3 player, and the fit couldn't be better. He will play the SF position for us, and give us much needed size on this team. Free Agency: There was a lot of excitement and buzz around the league during this free agency, but most had delusions that certain RFA even remotely had a chance of leaving their teams. We targeted a few players, but didn't get our hopes up. We were focussed on Round 2 of Free Agency, and I think we've added a couple great "fit" pieces. Our big splash was signing Dee Brown to a substantial deal to give us a point guard that we see can play a "in your face" defensive style. The offensive fit will be a work in progress for those 2. Iverson loves to have the ball in his hands, but until he reduces his turnover numbers, Dee Brown will be the primary ball handler. In a trade that may have shocked a lot of GMs around the league, we traded away Stoudamire for Daugherty. Stoudamire's first 2 years in Phoenix were a mess. He wasn't committed to improving, didn't get along with the coach, and his heart was elsewhere. So we shipped him off to get a veteran that will hopefully show 19 year old Jermaine O'Neal the ropes of being a top 10 big in the NBA. Overall, we feel shipping Stoudamire was best for both parties. He got his wish to play elsewhere, and we got a proven vet that will hopefully lead us to the playoffs this year. Training Camp Results: We are very pleased with the results:  Any Questions? |
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J2
Junior Member
Washington Wizards
Posts: 955 
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Post by J2 on Oct 22, 2014 10:19:21 GMT -6
Johnny Junior, The Washington Post: Hello, do the acquisitions of impact veterans Brad Daughtery & Dee Brown signal the end of Phoenix's rebuilding phase?
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Post by NOLa. on Oct 22, 2014 12:03:44 GMT -6
Allen Iverson had a great rookie season that was recognized with a ROY award, and his offensive game just got even better. Do you see him switching positions from PG to SG now with Dee Brown, and will he be an All Star by his sophomore season?
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 12:31:39 GMT -6
Johnny Junior, The Washington Post: Hello, do the acquisitions of impact veterans Brad Daughtery & Dee Brown signal the end of Phoenix's rebuilding phase? Hi Junior, I don't think it signals and end to the rebuild. It does signal an end to relying on the draft to build our team. We've been burned 3 drafts in a row. Lost out on Garnett and Finley 2 years ago, Kobe, Nash, and Camby last year, and Duncan and McGrady this year. We are taking a new approach. We have a very young core that we are now looking to add that mid career players like Dee Brown, and veterans like Daugherty to round out our young core. We'll see if it plays out, but it won't be as heart breaking to lose out on 7 absolute stars 3 drafts in a row; I can guarantee that. |
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 12:36:51 GMT -6
Allen Iverson had a great rookie season that was recognized with a ROY award, and his offensive game just got even better. Do you see him switching positions from PG to SG now with Dee Brown, and will he be an All Star by his sophomore season? Allen Iverson has been impressive. His offensive game should be even more explosive this year, and he will defintely slide over to SG to start this season with Dee Brown. We are looking to play some up tempo offense and high pressure defense with those two at the point of attack. Sliding Iverson to SG may hurt his chances getting into the ASG because I'm not sure he's ready to get there by being a pure scorer. His rookie season surprised a lot of us in the office with his passing skills (averaging almost 7 assists a game as a rookie), so we'll play with the lineup on who we play at the PG position. Allen has a habit of making some pretty ugly turnovers over a course of a game. It's important he gets those numbers down this season, and he's been working hard in "practice" to improve on that. If does that he is well on his way to a ASG appearance. I know he wants it, but he cares more about winning, and that's something we haven't had on this team in a long time. Time to win some games. |
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Post by Nick Malone 77 on Oct 22, 2014 13:01:20 GMT -6
Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Was there an urgency in the offseason amongst the organization and fan base that the Suns needed to make a splash to improve the team at least on paper by signing Dee and trading for Daugherty? Part 2 to that, Do you think this team can realistically contend for a spot in the Western Conference Playoffs?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2014 13:12:01 GMT -6
Sterling Archer here from Stolen Media Pass Network (SMPN), as a long standing advocate against tanking it seemed like the last 2 years you entered that " danger zone " and weren't attempting to win or acquire players that could help your organization in terms of wins. Can you discuss the reversal of philosophies ?
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Post by WigNosy on Oct 22, 2014 13:26:29 GMT -6
How has the addition of Daughtry affected the team's album sales? Also, what kind of win total will it take to make you consider this a successful season?
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 15:36:17 GMT -6
Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Was there an urgency in the offseason amongst the organization and fan base that the Suns needed to make a splash to improve the team at least on paper by signing Dee and trading for Daugherty? Part 2 to that, Do you think this team can realistically contend for a spot in the Western Conference Playoffs? There was much of an urgency within. We've been strapped by some really bad contracts in the past. I think Daugherty and Brown greatly improve the team on more than just paper. We have a team that can score inside and out, play press defense, and have size at the front court positions now. Realistically it may be tough to contend for a playoff spot, but it depends how well we can mesh as a team. We have a solid 9 man rotation that I'm confident will keep the players fresh all year long, and we haven't had that in Phoenix before. |
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Post by coltsguy510 on Oct 22, 2014 15:45:37 GMT -6
It seems like this draft went perfectly for you with Keith Van Horn falling to the 4th pick. He seems to fit in perfectly with your team. What role do you see him having?
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 15:48:07 GMT -6
Sterling Archer here from Stolen Media Pass Network (SMPN), as a long standing advocate against tanking it seemed like the last 2 years you entered that " danger zone " and weren't attempting to win or acquire players that could help your organization in terms of wins. Can you discuss the reversal of philosophies ? Still an advocate against tanking. Our front office spent a lot of time exploring free agency and we never landed a solid target. We've been burned by some bad contracts in the past so we have been hesitant to hand out the money it takes to land targets unless we felt confident they fit the team This offseason we found 2 big targets we wanted, and we got them. We had a brief moment of the optimism toward the draft but got burned repeatedly and even the prospects we drafted with potential degraded so quickly we've stopped putting value on draft picks and succumb to the idea of building through free agency. That's the biggest reversal in philosophy Fuck the god damn draft. |
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 16:21:16 GMT -6
How has the addition of Daughtry affected the team's album sales? Also, what kind of win total will it take to make you consider this a successful season? We are looking for 30-41 wins this season. That would be a big improvement. |
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 22, 2014 16:24:15 GMT -6
It seems like this draft went perfectly for you with Keith Van Horn falling to the 4th pick. He seems to fit in perfectly with your team. What role do you see him having? Perfectly? We had the first pick in the lotto and end up as 4th. The draft was terrible for us. McGrady or Duncan would of been better fits. With that said, yes KVH is a great fit because we play such a small guard lineup, I like the idea of playing him as a stretch 4 in stretched. He's going to playing a major role this season. He is an instant starter and I'm hoping he can be an efficient scorer. We are not asking him to handle the ball. We want him spotting up or playing the pick and roll/pop with Iverson. |
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Post by bowtothebill23 on Oct 23, 2014 12:16:10 GMT -6
Jack Markson from The Golden take. The Pacific is regarded by many to be the best division in basketball today. How do you feel your team stacks up for the present and future with regards to this division?
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 23, 2014 12:40:19 GMT -6
Jack Markson from The Golden take. The Pacific is regarded by many to be the best division in basketball today. How do you feel your team stacks up for the present and future with regards to this division? This season, we are probbaly middle of the pack in the division. The future is bright though. Our core players we will be relying on the next 8 years are all here and under the age of 22. The Kings are the only other team in our division that takes "being" young to a whole different level. Before the trade of Stoudamire we were "too young." We needed some leadersip on this team, and Daugherty gives us that. Hopefully he helps us make the playoffs this year. In 2 years we'll have another huge opportunity with cap space to offer a lot of money to players and still have a year left on Iverson and O'Neal's rookie contract. Some may see the Daugherty transaction as short sighted, but we saw as a quick step in the right direction to get this team some meanignful game experience, that will set us up to build what we want completely in 2 years. |
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Post by IamQuailman on Oct 24, 2014 12:58:50 GMT -6
You say Dee Brown is your PG, but why does your starting line-up feature AI at the 1 and Dee Brown at the 2? Is there some kind of conflict of interests here?
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 24, 2014 13:27:52 GMT -6
You say Dee Brown is your PG, but why does your starting line-up feature AI at the 1 and Dee Brown at the 2? Is there some kind of conflict of interests here? We started Dee Brown at PG in the pre-season, and the results were hit and miss. We've changed our plan of attack to have AI starting the one and being our #1 ball handler. This may changed througout the season, but from our preseason, AI's usage was way to low, and he's our best passer on the team. He posted a nice 6 APG in the preseason at the SG spot, but putting him at the 1 and our #1 option should lead to more of a drive and kick type of offense for us, which suits us better with players like Dee Brown (Career 36% 3P), Scott Skiles (Career 35% 3P), Pedrag Danilovic (Career 38% 3P), and KVH a solid shooter in his own right. Also Dee Brown's additional size and weight at the 2 should make us more sound on the defensive end. I like AI (our best steal guy) bothering opposing point guards at half court all night. AI has been putting in a ton of work before the start of the season to improve his handles(paid training) and reduce those turnover numbers from last season. If he's still going to average 4 TOs a game, Dee Brown will be placed back at starting PG. Like I said, this could changed week to week until we found our groove as a team. One thing is for sure, our guard lineup including the bench is a strength for us. It's up to me and coach to find the right balance early in the season. Hopefully that answered your question. |
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Post by TrayWithAnA on Oct 24, 2014 13:40:29 GMT -6
Are you waiting for some of your young stars to blossom before making a huge push at the championship? At a certain point, those purse strings will have to open up and I'm just wondering when you plan on making it rain.
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Post by Inner_GI on Oct 24, 2014 14:08:21 GMT -6
Are you waiting for some of your young stars to blossom before making a huge push at the championship? At a certain point, those purse strings will have to open up and I'm just wondering when you plan on making it rain. The answer is yes, and the line in the sand isn't defined when we will "make it rain." I will say, in two years we will be setup to add a lot of pieces(12M in cap space if cap doesn't increase) while Iverson, O'Neal, and KVH are under a cheap rookie contracts. So if we see some highly talented players we'll make a big push then. Right now we are taking our time learning what are young players have and finding what works with them. This season's roster is very well balanced, but we are running with the idea of our offense coming from the guards. |
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