Washington Wizards Media Room

[IamQuailman]

Wrong Division. Who let this guy in here anyway????

Hey! I was talking on the Raptors behalf!

[janjanjanjan3]

Washington Wizards janjanjanjan3 gave an interview to Mike Prada of www.Bulletsforever.com. The conversation touches on the past season, the Grant Hill trade and the pending Free agency of Kobe Bryant.

Heres the transcript of the interview

Last season's Playoffs

I can not really say that we played up to our potential last season. We fell to 5th seed at the end losing our home court advantage during the first round. Luckily for us, we faced a rookie LeBron James, but we still needed 7 games to win that series. You see we went with Kobe at the Small Forward spot all playoffs last year because Maciej Lampe and Austin Crosshere can not guard LeBron and Jamison. The SF spot have always been our achilles heel, we addressed that back in season 2 and we won the championship. I hope we can do that again

Grant Hill trade

As I've said, the we havent really been lucky with the SF spot. But that changed when we acquired Toronto's Grant Hill, an All-NBA 1st team member, maybe the best small forward in the game today. He will fit very nicely with our team. I envision our team as the modern day 1st 3peat Chicago Bulls. They have Jordan-Pippen-Grant big three and we have Kobe-Hill-Baker.

Weak at the PG and Center spot

I get this a lot. Jahidi, though undersized for his position plays really hard. He have not been given the opportunity to show what he can do if given starter minutes. He will be our starting center, but if that doesnt work out, we may look at putting Baker at the 5 and Wilcox at the 4. Remember we had a 10 game winning streak last year with Baker at center and Eschemeyer at power forward. The PG spot is my biggest concern, Jason Hart like Jahidi White, have'nt gotten his break yet, he has a very good handle and defense. he will also get help from Kobe and Grant with the playmaking so he'll be fine.

Kobe's contract year

Well, the guy deserves the max, no one will argue with that. We will give him the max. Grant Hill? now thats a tough one, haha

[janjanjanjan3]

Washington Wizards Press Conference :

janjanjanjan3 : Good Morning everyone, welcome to the Washington Wizards Press conference. First of all, we would like to thank Vin Baker and Sasha Vujacic. Sasha, on his brief stint with our team, exceeded our expectations. clearly the best pg in this rookie class. We acquired Vin last season and clearly became the leader of our squad, on the floor and in the locker room. we hope for the best for these two and goodluck in Seattle

We will now introduce the newest members of the Washington Wizards. The first one you already saw play, and hes a perfect fit right from the start. I present to you, Sam Cassell



The next one is a very good power forward who will bring toughness and athleticism to our frontcourt. Everyone please welcome Antonio McDyess



We will now take questions.

Mike Prada : Mike Prada, Bulletsforever, The team is doing great and riding a 6 game winning streak out of the All-Star Break. Dont you think trading the captain ball and a fan favorite rookie will not affect the chemistry of the team in a bad way?

janjanjanjan3 : Thats a very good question Mike, we arent worried about chemistry because we are getting veterans who know how to win. Sam have been with us for two weeks now and he is loving it here, I hope that will also be the case with Antonio. Sam, Antonio, Grant and Kobe have been in the league for quite some time now, and they will help each other win it all this year.

Any more questions?

[BallSoHard]

Bill Plaschke here from the L.A. Times. We've seen you agressively build a very formittable team for this year, but a lot of media outlets are saying this move is smart today, dumb tomorrow feeling it will severely cripple you with McDyess' vastly inflated contract. Are you worried about your cap figure with Kobe and Hill coming off the books next year and due to make max money as well?

[janjanjanjan3]

Winning isn't cheap, we are committed to bring championship caliber teams every season and spending a little more is not a big deal. We still have cap space next season to resign both Kobe and Grant. And we are very optimistic that a core of Kobe-Hill-McDyess will make us compete for the title year after year.