Boston Celtics 2005 Pre-Season Press Conference

[Conroy]

GM Danny Ainge: I'd like to welcome everyone it's been an exciting and stressful offseason and I'm glad that it's over. There is still plenty of Free Agents to be signed, but I'm happy to announce the Boston Celtics 2005 team is complete and we will not be pursuing anymore players. This is because we are happy with how the roster rounded out, and mostly because I was informed by our owner we are out of money.

Before I introduce our "big" off-season acquisition, I'd like to thank Baron Davis and Greg Ostertag for their time in Boston. Greg won a championship with us and is a true professional. Baron was our first big Free Agent signing gave us everything we asked for, we are sad to see them both go. With that I'll let Doc introduce Shaquille O'Neal



Doc Rivers: I'm very excited to introduce Shaq as one of the newest members of the Boston Celtics. Shaq has been one of the most dominating players the simNBA has ever seen. With Chris now also resigned we feel that we have the most intimidating front court in the league. We plan on continuing our defensive dominance, being the #1 rebounding team, and as always winning an NBA championship. I think it goes without saying we plan on doing this by pounding the ball inside and daring teams to either double Chris or Shaq or play them man to man. I'll turn it back over to Danny to talk about Chris resigning and the arrival of Sam Cassell

Danny Ainge: While Chris did give us a little bit of a scare, we were confident we would resign him. We had made the decision well before we even traded for Shaq that we would give Chris whatever it took to get him to retire a Celtic. He has earned his contract and we are confident he will continue to be worth every penny. Once we traded for Shaq we felt even stronger about resigning Chris.

We are also happy to introduce Sam Cassell who signed the MLE to be the starting point guard. We were ecstatic when we learned that Sam would be joining us. Jamaal has been in the system for 4 years now and knows it well and is more than capable of starting, but will continue his role in the backup spot, something he excels at. Sam brings that veteran savvy that will be invaluable at the PG spot. Chris is our leader, but Sam will be the one with the ball in his hands in a distributing role.

I'll open it up for any questions

[IamQuailman]

Will Maukie, BucksNation.com.

Gotta say, us Buck fans still hate you guys. 2 years in a row. Meh. I was looking forward to seeing things implode for y'all much like they seemingly have for us. However, we were on opposite ends of the luck spectrum. Going into FA, both of our teams pulled off some trade that relied heavily on our guys resigning. You not only got your guy in Webber back. But you somehow coerced (kidnapped child perhaps?) Cassell to take a MLE to play starting PG for you. So kudos to you for your stellar GMing.

That said, I don't envy your cap situation. EL OH EL

MAUKIE, OUT

[Xist2inspire]

Hello, J. Felders from SI.com here. Bill Simmons was showing me around town, so I decided to drop by and do my job for once.

It's basically impossible to think of the Shaq/Webber combo without thinking of the massive amount of money tied up in them. With your cap space shot to death, is it now a "Championship or Bust" mentality in Beantown until someone retires? Also, what led to your decision to pull the trigger on Shaq's diesel-sized contract, despite the argument that he's been a detriment to each team he's played for since the league reboot?

[Conroy]

Will Maukie, BucksNation.com.
That said, I don't envy your cap situation. EL OH EL
MAUKIE, OUT

Danny Ainge: Thanks Will for the kind words (I think). We have been very lucky it seems every year in Free Agency and have been able to resign our guys or go out and get others. We know our cap situation is rough, but it's something we'll work out as we go along.

Hello, J. Felders from SI.com here. Bill Simmons was showing me around town, so I decided to drop by and do my job for once.

It's basically impossible to think of the Shaq/Webber combo without thinking of the massive amount of money tied up in them. With your cap space shot to death, is it now a "Championship or Bust" mentality in Beantown until someone retires? Also, what led to your decision to pull the trigger on Shaq's diesel-sized contract, despite the argument that he's been a detriment to each team he's played for since the league reboot?

Danny Ainge: J. Felders, Simmons always has good things to say so I'll answer the question best I can. It's always championship or bust here in Boston and this year it's especially true due to the cap situation and age of our players. When it was known Shaq was available Doc came into my office drooling about the thought of Shaq and Chris playing together. The defensive and rebounding potential those 2 possess let alone each averaging nearly 30 points in all 4 sim seasons was just too much to pass up. We will really miss Baron and Greg, but felt Jamaal Tinsley could step up into that starting role and now with Cassell we feel even better about the trade. And if we remember correctly the one season Shaq played with another superstar in LA they put together one of the best regular seasons in the history (even if they don't care about the regular season in LA) and lost a flukey first round matchup. That was a championship team in my opinion and Shaq knows we have a chance to do something special here and the rest of the vets won't let him squander it.

[ItsPaulyP]

Jon Snow, Westeros Sports Network, Your frontcourt of O'Neal and Webber turn the ball over at a combined 7 times per game. Does that concern you at all? Do you have anything in mind to slow down that rate?

[BallSoHard]

Bill Plaschke: Bill Plaschke here from the L.A. Times. First off congrats on the big gets in Shaq and Webber again. Most of the kudos has gone out towards those guys, but I think a sneaky good move for you was Cassell instead of having to hand over the keys to Jamaal Tinsley, which allows you to add a valuable starter and keep your bench solidified. What was your thinking on that move? Did you have many other guys targeted for your MLE?

Bill Plaschke: Also, over the years you've seen pretty happy with your team, but it seems like last year you realized status quo was no longer going to win you a championship in what is becoming an increasingly competitive league. Can you go over your thought process on why it would taking a huge risk guy like Shaq instead of smaller risks on other guys. Who do you plan on running your offense though?

[Conroy]

Jon Snow, Westeros Sports Network, Your frontcourt of O'Neal and Webber turn the ball over at a combined 7 times per game. Does that concern you at all? Do you have anything in mind to slow down that rate?

Danny Ainge: Yes this is something we are aware of and concerned about. Especially after you factor in how bad of a FT shooter Shaq is. Everytime he goes to the line and misses both it's a turnover. Webber and Shaq will help eachother more than anything, because if you double one you are leaving the other open. Plus Cassell is an excellent Point Guard he will make sure to get them the ball in ideal situations. We know they are both going to turn the ball over but we expect them both to lower that overall number to something more manageable say 5 TOs per game between the 2 of them.

[Conroy]

Bill Plaschke: Bill Plaschke here from the L.A. Times. First off congrats on the big gets in Shaq and Webber again. Most of the kudos has gone out towards those guys, but I think a sneaky good move for you was Cassell instead of having to hand over the keys to Jamaal Tinsley, which allows you to add a valuable starter and keep your bench solidified. What was your thinking on that move? Did you have many other guys targeted for your MLE?

Bill Plaschke: Also, over the years you've seen pretty happy with your team, but it seems like last year you realized status quo was no longer going to win you a championship in what is becoming an increasingly competitive league. Can you go over your thought process on why it would taking a huge risk guy like Shaq instead of smaller risks on other guys. Who do you plan on running your offense though?

Danny Ainge: Thanks for the question Bill. Yes Cassell was a huge get. He was literally the only person in this FA class that we felt deserved the MLE (outside of the obvious max guys) and he was the only person we offered it to or were prepared to offer it to. Given our cap situation and our starting PG situation we felt that he was worth the probable 20 points we will have to pay for having him on our roster this year.

To address your next question yes after winning the title in season 3 we were perfectly content to try to resign the same team. A move in retrospect I regret and take full blame for. We may have wasted 2 years of Webber's prime but we thought we had a special team. Due to the much increased activity by all GMs we realized what we were doing would not cut it anymore we had to make a change. Everyone in the league is getting better and we had to as well. The offense will still run through Webber he is this franchise. This decision also takes into account what Mr. Snow spoke of earlier which is Shaq's turnover problems and poor FT shooting. We feel if we can get Webber going then when teams start to defend him aggressively Shaq can either clean up the offensive boards or look for the ball from Webber. Of course we are greatly depending all of this on Sam to get the offense started and get each player the ball where they like it.

[BallSoHard]

Bill Plaschke: Thanks. A couple more quick questions. Who do you see as your biggest threats in the East? Who do you see as the biggest overall threats to your championship run? Do you consider yourself the favorite?

[Conroy]

Bill Plaschke: Thanks. A couple more quick questions. Who do you see as your biggest threats in the East? Who do you see as the biggest overall threats to your championship run? Do you consider yourself the favorite?

Danny Ainge: It's always hard to say who the biggest threats will be. I don't know who the biggest threats will be but there is one team in particular we want to beat and that's the Philadelphia 76ers. They are the reigning Eastern Conference champs, won the Atlantic Division 2 years in a row I believe, and it all starts with winning the division. The Hornets are going to be strong even with the loss of Okur, and the Lakers have already been named the paper champions, so I guess that answers you're last question too. We don't consider ourselves the favorites nor do we want to be. I don't think the pre-season favorites have ever won the title. Our goal is to win the division and grab the #1 seed and homecourt, hopefully we can take care of business in the playoffs and end this horrible 2nd round streak.

[IamQuailman]

Danny Ainge: It's always hard to say who the biggest threats will be. I don't know who the biggest threats will be but there is one team in particular we want to beat and that's the Philadelphia 76ers. They are the reigning Eastern Conference champs, won the Atlantic Division 2 years in a row I believe, and it all starts with winning the division. The Hornets are going to be strong even with the loss of Okur, and the Lakers have already been named the paper champions, so I guess that answers you're last question too. We don't consider ourselves the favorites nor do we want to be. I don't think the pre-season favorites have ever won the title. Our goal is to win the division and grab the #1 seed and homecourt, hopefully we can take care of business in the playoffs and end this horrible 2nd round streak.

Will Maukie: No respect. Pssh.

[Conroy]

Will Maukie: No respect. Pssh.

Danny Ainge: I'm sorry Will these threats and contenders questions always seem to get me in trouble...But what did you want me to say, "We hope to beat the Bucks for a third straight year en route to our 2nd NBA title"

[IamQuailman]

Will Maukie: It's a start.

[TrayWithAnA]

Joe Detroit, from DetroitBasketball4Life.com, what is your game plan at this point? Slow or Fast pace? Inside or ultra-inside? Press never or never not never? Do you feel you have defensive options for game plans or does your size in the front court revolve around go stand over there and don't let them take a shot near the paint?

[Conroy]

Joe Detroit, from DetroitBasketball4Life.com, what is your game plan at this point? Slow or Fast pace? Inside or ultra-inside? Press never or never not never? Do you feel you have defensive options for game plans or does your size in the front court revolve around go stand over there and don't let them take a shot near the paint?

Danny Ainge: Thanks for the question Joe, glad to see you made it out of the Detroit Presser unscathed. The gameplan will start out at a normal pace, if ultra-inside is an option we plan on using ultra-ultra-inside. We do not plan on trapping or pressing just playing very aggressive man to man defense. Eddie Jones has trained his perimeter defense, Josh grew up a lot last year and Sam has played 12 years in this league and knows how to defend. Then we will just dare teams to go inside.

The rotation will look like this:
PG: Cassell / Tinsley
SG: Jones / Bogans
SF: Childress / Outlaw
PF: Webber / Outlaw
C: Shaq / Williams

while using Jamie Feick as a reserve rebounder and scorer if the bench needs it. Feick excels at those 2 areas and if the bench needs help he will supply it.

I'll take this opportunity to talk about other acquisitions that aren't in the rotation. Joey Graham, Jason Maxiell, and Steve Blake are all capable young players. Hell Steve Blake's 36 min per averages are 14/5/6. All 3 will provide excellent depth be great competition to the 2nd unit and will get their opportunity as third stringers ready to step in if we suffer any injuries. All 3 were drafted to come here to be backups, but due to Bo Outlaw coming back on a very cheap deal and getting Sam Cassell on the MLE they have become luxuries for depth and we are glad to have them. We went from a team who looked like we would sacrifice depth for the Shaq/Webber frontcourt to a team that I believe is one of the deepest in the league.

[TrayWithAnA]

Danny Ainge: Thanks for the question Joe, glad to see you made it out of the Detroit Presser unscathed. The gameplan will start out at a normal pace, if ultra-inside is an option we plan on using ultra-ultra-inside. We do not plan on trapping or pressing just playing very aggressive man to man defense. Eddie Jones has trained his perimeter defense, Josh grew up a lot last year and Sam has played 12 years in this league and knows how to defend. Then we will just dare teams to go inside.

The rotation will look like this:
PG: Cassell / Tinsley
SG: Jones / Bogans
SF: Childress / Outlaw
PF: Webber / Outlaw
C: Shaq / Williams

while using Jamie Feick as a reserve rebounder and scorer if the bench needs it. Feick excels at those 2 areas and if the bench needs help he will supply it.

I'll take this opportunity to talk about other acquisitions that aren't in the rotation. Joey Graham, Jason Maxiell, and Steve Blake are all capable young players. Hell Steve Blake's 36 min per averages are 14/5/6. All 3 will provide excellent depth be great competition to the 2nd unit and will get their opportunity as third stringers ready to step in if we suffer any injuries. All 3 were drafted to come here to be backups, but due to Bo Outlaw coming back on a very cheap deal and getting Sam Cassell on the MLE they have become luxuries for depth and we are glad to have them. We went from a team who looked like we would sacrifice depth for the Shaq/Webber frontcourt to a team that I believe is one of the deepest in the league.

A lot has been made of your horrible cap number on those two guys, but I didn't quite realize the depth you have managed to place around those two giants. Good job this off season. Good luck to you on all dates not involving the Detroit Pistons.

[Pelicans78]

Clyde Drexler, Fox Sports Houston.

How do you feel Shaq and CWebb will work together? Will their numbers fall off a bit from having to share the paint with each other or will there be one dominant go to guy? Will both guys managed to be happy together? How will CWebb react to having to share the paint where's he dominated in Boston for so many years?

[Conroy]

Clyde Drexler, Fox Sports Houston.

How do you feel Shaq and CWebb will work together? Will their numbers fall off a bit from having to share the paint with each other or will there be one dominant go to guy? Will both guys managed to be happy together? How will CWebb react to having to share the paint where's he dominated in Boston for so many years?

Appreciate the Question Clyde. What I think many (myself included) might overlook is that these guys played opposite Greg Ostertag and Matt Bonner (?) Respectively, while both are fine players neither of them are known for offensive ability (at least in the post). Therefore both Shaq and Webber were constantly drawing double teams and being the lone presence in the post. Yeah their numbers may drop a bit but scoring 22-25 ppg each while being "single teamed," not even sure if that's a term I don't know if it's ever been brought up before, will be much easier for both guys than scoring close to 30 while being the focal point.

When things are easy and we are winning guys will be happy so I'm not worried about morale at all at this point. And yes the offense will still run through Chris we are going to let Shaq focus on defense and offensive glass he'll get his touches in the paint and we hope to keep him away from the charity stripe. CWebb loves to win he was never happier than during our championship season and historic 24 game win streak as long as we win everyone is happy, even that homer Simmons.

[IamQuailman]

Will Maukie again.

Just when Jamaal Tinsley thought the reigns were being handed over to him, the team brings in Sam Cassell. How is he handling this transition back to being a bench player?

Also, do you plan on selling the team 4 seasons from now when your entire team will comprise of Vet Mins, Shaq, and Webber?