Statement by Warriors GM Hornetstime247:
Last year hurt. We were one game away from the NBA finals, up 3-2 heading home to Oakland and we blew it. We felt like we had a great team last year led by our big three of Nick Van Exel, Latrell Sprewell and Glen Robinson. We had solid role players in Chris Mihm, David Wesley and Rodney Rogers surrounding them. The majority of last years team was put together in one season. Glen Robinson was the only returning rotation player from our previous WCF team; however;thanks to the veteran leadership of our players they were able to gel quickly and come together to form a contender.
Last year team had two flaws; age and height. We were an aging team and we were small team. This offseason we wanted to address those two concerns without getting away from our identity. Warriors basketball is and has always been fast paced, high octane offence. Last years team was not exception. We believe small ball can win in this league. We easily beat a Memphis team that arguably had the NBAs best front line.
We scoured every NBA roster and had two names on the top of our wish list: Nickloz T and Caron Butler. Never in our wildest imagination did we think we could land both and too be frankly honest we were shocked that their respective teams were willing to move them. Nickloz T. is one of the league best up and coming versatile big men. He is a player we have coveted since his rookie year and we believe he is the perfect big man for this team. He will start this year as the teams 3rd big man but don't be surprised to see him starting soon.
Caron Butler....I'm still in shock that we have him. He is in my opinion an up and coming superstar. He gives us a big 4 and we feel that many teams just won't be able to match up with our fire power now that we have him. I expect him to make huge leaps in his game this year being mentored by Spree and Nick.
We in the Warriors organization feel that this is the year. We are excited.
Now on to questions.....