Golden State Warriors Press Conference

[hornetstime247]

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.....

[Xist2inspire]

J. Felders from SI.com here. I heard you mention age, your core of Robinson/Spree/Van Exel is indeed one of the oldest, if not the oldest core in the NBA. Do you think that their age will eventually catch up with them this season? You also have a lot of money tied up in these guys, and you've given Mihm quite a bit of cash as well. With your cap situation, do you have a plan for the future in place once the day comes that your core will no longer be able to produce?

[Pelicans78]

Your team has been very successful with small ball. How much small ball will you continue to use and how often will you go bigger?

[hornetstime247]

J. Felders from SI.com here. I heard you mention age, your core of Robinson/Spree/Van Exel is indeed one of the oldest, if not the oldest core in the NBA. Do you think that their age will eventually catch up with them this season? You also have a lot of money tied up in these guys, and you've given Mihm quite a bit of cash as well. With your cap situation, do you have a plan for the future in place once the day comes that your core will no longer be able to produce?

We believe that all three players will continue to keep up their high level of production for atleast another 2 to 3 seasons. Look back throughout the leagues history and you see examples of guys like Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen who were playing at very high levels up to the day they retired. We are also very excited about our future as well. Chris Mihm, Caron Butler and Nickloz T. give us a solid core that we can build around for many years to come.

We are very comfortable with our cap situation. We have a plan that we will continue to execute. I've said it before and I've said it again, I do not believe in putting a product on the floor that I know cannot win a championship. Every year I am GM of this team our goal is to win a championship and to win a big you need to sometimes spend big.

[hornetstime247]

Your team has been very successful with small ball. How much small ball will you continue to use and how often will you go bigger?

Golden State basketball is run and gun, high paced, high scoring basketball. That is our identity and we can win with it. Over the last 2 playoffs we have beat the likes of Memphis and LAC, teams that our much bigger than us. The teams that we have lost to our SA and Portland, teams that had stronger backcourts than we did.

Caron Butler adds to our already strong backcourt and Nickloz T. provides us much needed versatility up front. We will start the season playing small ball with Glen Robinson playing at the 4 but with nickloz T and Maurice Taylor on the roster we can easily shift things around and play a more traditional lineup without taking away from our identity. We love that versatility.

[Pelicans78]

Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle: You added Sofoklis Schortsianitis this offseason. What plans do you have for him? He was a fan favorite in Houston last season.