Boston Celtics 2004-2005 Pre-Season Presser

[Conroy]

GM Danny Ainge: We are very excited to get the new season underway. We had a pretty calm offseason this year but will be talking about a few key additions, and introducing our new coach Doc Rivers who is ready to get us back to the finals. Last year we fell the the eventual champions, the New Orleans Hornets, while we lost the series 4-1 it was hardfought with each loss being in single digits. We focused on getting ourselves better and trying to find the glue guy to replace Donyell Marshall from 2 years ago. Let's introduce Doc and let him tell you more about our additions.

Doc had a 13 year NBA career and is a graduate of Marquette University, we are very excited to announce him as our new head coach.

Head Coach Doc Rivers: Thank you very much Danny I'm excited to be here. Like Danny said we had a pretty quiet offseason the team we have here has already won 1 championship, has the most wins in league history, and is a very talented roster. I wasn't brought here to fix anything, I don't want to make any major changes, we just need to shore up a few things defensively and take it one game at a time. We had the worst 3pt defense in the league last year we hope to have addressed this by training both Baron and Eddie in perimeter defense. Chris is in a contract year and will continue to be a top player in this league and we have brought in Josh Childress via the draft who has already put in the work and improved his outside shot and rebounding. Bo Outlaw signed on and will mentor Josh and provide depth at both the PF and SF positions, and we brought in Bruce Bowen to be a defense specialist.

Any Questions?

[BallSoHard]

Hi Doc, Bill Plaschke here from L.A. Can you talk about the East for a moment, concerning your current rival in the Hornets who may have gotten stronger, and up and coming teams you think will be tugging at your coat tails to stake claim in the East? What about a general view of how the entire offseason went down since you guys were mostly spectators. Also any break-out players you forsee on your team?

[Conroy]

Hi Doc, Bill Plaschke here from L.A. Can you talk about the East for a moment, concerning your current rival in the Hornets who may have gotten stronger, and up and coming teams you think will be tugging at your coat tails to stake claim in the East? What about a general view of how the entire offseason went down since you guys were mostly spectators. Also any break-out players you forsee on your team?

Doc: Just because we had a quiet offseason we spent the majority trying to figure out what we needed to do to improve. I always pay attention to what's going on around the league, in my opinion the Hornets are a great team and great organization, and defending champs. I know they were able to resign Hedo and bring in Mo Pete there the champs until someone knocks them off. In our division the 76ers tied for the best record and Wizards just brought in another superstar to pair with Kobe, it's only a matter of time before Lebron takes over the league in Chicago. Point is we need to focus on us there's a number of teams out there ready to take over. Heck, I even hear our own beat writer, Bill Simmons is more interested in Memphis than our own team, we'll have to change that.

As far as players breaking out we expect Eddie Jones to bounce back, his ppg decreased by an entire 4 points from the previous year. He had some lingering injuries and missed almost a third of the season he's healthy and ready to go back to being that 2nd/3rd option that he is. We are also expecting big things from the rookie Childress, he'll start and should have plenty of opportunities to show us what he's made of.

[IamQuailman]

Hi, Will Maukie of BucksNation.com. Love me some clam chowder! Thanks MassaCHEWsetts!

Now onto more "pressing" matters, the Celtics. Our arch-nemesis. The water to last season's fire. To add insult to injury, you steal Bo Outlaw away from our team when we were courting his blocking abilities with our money. How my readers and fellow Buck Bloggers despise your team at the moment. (Nothing personal, of course)

On that note, I'm not sure if Bo Outlaw has ever logged minutes at the 3 during his NBA career. Do you anticipate playing him there and have Childress off the bench? Or are you going to throw Childress out there to the wolves (no, not you Minnesota)?

[Pelicans78]

Rudy T from CNNSI;

You're team was hot at the end of the year but lost a tough series against the Hornets. Do you feel this year's squad can get back to that level and have you started talking an extension with Chris Webber?

[Conroy]

Hi, Will Maukie of BucksNation.com. Love me some clam chowder! Thanks MassaCHEWsetts!

Now onto more "pressing" matters, the Celtics. Our arch-nemesis. The water to last season's fire. To add insult to injury, you steal Bo Outlaw away from our team when we were courting his blocking abilities with our money. How my readers and fellow Buck Bloggers despise your team at the moment. (Nothing personal, of course)

On that note, I'm not sure if Bo Outlaw has ever logged minutes at the 3 during his NBA career. Do you anticipate playing him there and have Childress off the bench? Or are you going to throw Childress out there to the wolves (no, not you Minnesota)?

Doc: The SF position has been an internal roller coaster. But now that the starter has emerged I don't mind discussing it publicly. We drafted Josh to be the starter, then we signed Bo and planned on starting him and easing Josh into the starting role. Now Josh improved in training camp and has become the starter. We are thrilled and Bo is a vet he's been in the league 11 years, he wants to win a championship and will do what's best for the team.

We scouted Bo and even reached out to previous coaches/GMs and while he has primarily played at the Power Forward position his entire career he has the size and speed to play SF, he does lack the outside shot but he is the exact same size and Childress. We know he can play the position and he will be counted on to backup both forward positions and anchor the bench along with Tinsley, Bogans, Kwame, and the rebounding machine Jamie Feick.

[Conroy]

Rudy T from CNNSI;

You're team was hot at the end of the year but lost a tough series against the Hornets. Do you feel this year's squad can get back to that level and have you started talking an extension with Chris Webber?

We were very encouraged with what we saw during that win streak. What some people may not remember is that Eddie Jones was injured and out for basically that entire stretch. Jamaal Tinsley and Keith Bogans stepped up huge in his absence and we are going to count on them to bring that tenacity to the second unit.

Chris knows how we feel about him we want to get him at least 2-3 more rings and have him retire a Celtic, it's really that simple. We know he's got at the very least 5 years of great basketball left in him, and we will try to offer a similar deal Zo accepted this past offseason but are prepared to pay him much more if necessary.

[janjanjanjan3]

Mike Prada of Bulletsforever, Your team is 14 million over the cap. how concerned are you with the lux tax penalties considering Chris Webber is up for a big extension next year.

[Xist2inspire]

Hi, J. Felders from SI.com. With Eddie Jones turning in a disappointing season despite his large contract, what's the word on him? Do you feel that he can return to the level you need him to be at if you plan on reclaiming the Eastern Conference?

[Conroy]

Mike Prada of Bulletsforever, Your team is 14 million over the cap. how concerned are you with the lux tax penalties considering Chris Webber is up for a big extension next year.

Danny Ainge: I'd be lying to you Mike if I said I wasnt concerned. I'm very concerned we have Kwame and Jamaal coming off of their rookie deals this year as well. Chris is our #1 priority we will do what it takes to ensure he retires a Celtic, we have a large number points saved to pay the heavy penalties we are expecting and feel Chris is worth it. We were encouraged by the deal Zo accepted this offseason and will explore a similar one and will also try to find creative ways to lower the cap number and add more points.

[Conroy]

Hi, J. Felders from SI.com. With Eddie Jones turning in a disappointing season despite his large contract, what's the word on him? Do you feel that he can return to the level you need him to be at if you plan on reclaiming the Eastern Conference?

Doc Rivers: Eddie is the perfect shooting guard for this team. Hes a great defender, doesnt have to have the ball all the time which allows Chris to dominate and is great locker room guy. Yes he had a down year by his standards last year but he got off to a horrible shooting start which saw the focus shift to an inside game around C-Webb and O-Tag. As soon as he got back in a groove he was injured. We had a top 5 defense last year while having the worst 3 pt defense in the league he and Baron have vowed to not let that happen again and Eddie is ready to give us a more balanced attack and be a key part of the offense again.