Portlandia Preseason Press Conference 1993-1994

[kucoach7]

GM Kevin U. Coach walks up to the podium. He looks a tired and worn. This is obviously his first rodeo. He has been heavily criticized in recent days for signing four point guards in the offseason. After taking a few deep breaths trying to compose himself like a first time skydiver right before jumping out of the plane, he starts:

"When I took over the Blazers they were a team with a lot of talent. The problem was that we had a 3 playing the 4 and a 2 playing the 3. We were getting creamed on the boards and we couldn't play defense. I promised change and here we are, almost a year later, and on opening day we're going to have a 3 playing the 4 and a 2 playing the 3.

So where did everything go wrong? Well, we tanked last year to improve our chances in the draft and free agency. I'm not ashamed to admit it. That went great. We got a couple of really promising players in the draft in Mashburn and Bradley. We're really happy with them and they've done a great job since joining (they improved a combined 105 points in training camp). Then we hit free agency. . . We put a lot of big money contracts out there for big men. I swear we did. We offered more contracts worth more money to big men then we did to guards but apparently they didn't want to share the post with Bradley or something and we ended up with a lot of really great guards. A LOT.

I've taken a lot of heat for signing four point guards but I'm still optimistic. We moved Murdock for a SF that can contribute (even though he didn't come prepared to camp) and we're excited to welcome Dell Curry to the team and hope that he can become our long term solution at the 2. We fully expect to bring in a young and talented power forward early in the season and to make a run the playoffs this year.

Now I've said far too much so I'm going to turn the time over to you guys for questions."

[Nick Malone 77]

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: With the amount of media that's been warranted for your pursuits of your new point guards, I wanted to talk about your front court a little bit. Who do you feel can get the most shine for the Trail Blazing Point Guards?

[TrayWithAnA]

Are you gonna let demand dictate which one of your PG supply you deal or do you have one in particular you like more than the others in preseason?

[bowtothebill23]

Jack Markson, Golden Take. Will we see any extremely small ball lineups this year with your plethora of guards?

[NOLa.]

Talk about your expectations for Bradley this season, he certainly had a good training camp before playing his first professional game.

[logpmess]

As a fellow first year GM, I am interested to see what you thought was the most difficult thing about the first season.

[Conroy]

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, first off I want to congratulate on a great draft. I think you handled it perfectly and ended with two great players in Bradley and Mashburn. What are the expectations for the season and the two rookies specifically?

[kucoach7]

Mar 14, 2014 22:56:09 GMT -6 Nick Malone 77 said:

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: With the amount of media that's been warranted for your pursuits of your new point guards, I wanted to talk about your front court a little bit. Who do you feel can get the most shine for the Trail Blazing Point Guards?

We're really excited about all three of our point guards but we really feel like Kenny Smith is going to provide the offensive punch that we really lacked last year before and after the fire sale. That being said, we like Mark Jackson's gritty play and we wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with the starting job.

[kucoach7]

Mar 15, 2014 7:26:47 GMT -6 TrayWithAnA said:

Are you gonna let demand dictate which one of your PG supply you deal or do you have one in particular you like more than the others in preseason?

We're partial to Kenny Smith but with Dell Curry joining the team we won't be as dependent on his offense an might consider moving the Jet if the right deal came along.

[kucoach7]

Mar 15, 2014 7:46:05 GMT -6 bowtothebill23 said:

Jack Markson, Golden Take. Will we see any extremely small ball lineups this year with your plethora of guards?

Thanks for the question, Jack. We have to play to our strengths so you can expect a lot of small ball in Portland  to start the season. Eventually we'd like to land a nice PF and evolve into a more balanced offense but until then you can count on Maxey and Bradley enforcing down low on defense and snagging offensive boards and giving our guards a lot of second chance opportunities.

[kucoach7]

Mar 15, 2014 11:41:30 GMT -6 NOLa. said:

Talk about your expectations for Bradley this season, he certainly had a good training camp before playing his first professional game.

We have big expectations for Bradley.  We're really excited to have a beast down low. Last year Hot Rod and Norman never really managed to keep opposing teams out of the post and off the glass. We expect a lot of blocks from him and opposing big men can expect low numbers when they have to match up against him. His offensive game is still developing and doesn't quite fit into our current plans but by the end of the season we expect him to be significantly contributing on both ends of the floor.

[kucoach7]

Mar 15, 2014 14:23:29 GMT -6 Conroy said:

Sports Guy Bill Simmons here, first off I want to congratulate on a great draft. I think you handled it perfectly and ended with two great players in Bradley and Mashburn. What are the expectations for the season and the two rookies specifically?

To be completely honest, we expect to snag one of the lower spots in the playoffs but to surprise some people once we get there. We're really excited to build a team around Bradley and Mashburn that can compete for the championship in the years to come. This year we expect Shawn to be our defensive anchor while developing his offensive game. He'll keep guards out of the paint and make forwards work hard every possession. We are going to be asking a lot of Mashburn right off the bat as we'll be asking him to play some power forward. We recognize that that is going to be a huge challenge and he may struggle early on. Overall we expect him to be a significant contributor on offense. You can expect both to be All-rookie first teamers.

[gmessi2]

Do you feel as though if you make the playoffs that your team can make a push for the championship?

[kucoach7]

Mar 15, 2014 21:45:04 GMT -6 gmessi2 said:

Do you feel as though if you make the playoffs that your team can make a push for the championship?

I think this all depends on who we can bring in at power forward. If we can bring in a star power forward to firm up our starting 5 I think we'll have great 6th and 7th men in Kerr and Stith and should be able to give teams problems and make a run.

[IamQuailman]

Will Maukie, Milwaukee Tribune.

Please take care of Dell Curry. He's near and dear to our hearts.

Have you actively started shopping your redundant players yet? Do you plan on playing the one you want to keep and benching the other or will you play the one guard that you want to move in order to inflate stats?

[IamQuailman]

AWARDED 5 POINTS (Count towards your 93-94 media day press release 5-pt accrual)! THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!

[thesyndicate]

Woody Paige, Denver Post.

Are you worried about BYU star Shawn Bradley being corrupted by the prevalence of the good weed and beer Portland has to offer?

[kucoach7]

Mar 18, 2014 7:47:19 GMT -6 thesyndicate said:

Woody Paige, Denver Post.

Are you worried about BYU star Shawn Bradley being corrupted by the prevalence of the good weed and beer Portland has to offer?

I just saw this. Great post.