Lakers 06-07 Presser

[BallSoHard]

You know the drill Gentlemen. Please ask away.

[BeeBall Reasons]

Hi Zach Lowe via skype at the hornets press conference, why is there no one here?

[ItsPaulyP]

Jon Snow, Westeros Sports Network. Does a seemingly lack of offensive proficiency from your 3 position (Q-Rich, Ariza, Garcia) concern you?

[BallSoHard]

Jon Snow, Westeros Sports Network. Does a seemingly lack of offensive proficiency from your 3 position (Q-Rich, Ariza, Garcia) concern you?

Mitch Kupcheck: Thanks for the question Jon, and it's a good question. We aren't too terribly worried about the production from the 3 position. When A.I. was here last year he was putting up 18 PPG. We fully expect Q Rich to come in knowing our offense and being about to put up 12-15 a game. We're also plan on being able to supplement that, i wouldn't call it lack of offensive firepower, but more so an reallocation of it, with our really, really strong bench.

[TrayWithAnA]

Some Guy from Detroit: Being the Back-to-Back Western Conference Champs, please give us a quick rundown of the top challengers to your 3-peat. Our East Coast bias is too big to know what is going on in the West.

[Xist2inspire]

J. Felders from SI.com, here. With AI now gone, what are you looking for from your other two stars? And who else are you expecting to step up?

[BallSoHard]

Some Guy from Detroit: Being the Back-to-Back Western Conference Champs, please give us a quick rundown of the top challengers to your 3-peat. Our East Coast bias is too big to know what is going on in the West.

Mitch Kupcheck: Despite the national media being deservingly being focused on the Eastern Conference. The west is getting better itself. We have a good young GM that took over the Kings and is making strong moves to moves to be much more competitive this year. The Rockets GM who looks to be annual contenders, The Mavs GM who took a big gamble in trying to accelerate their growth process, and the Suns GM who has done a fantastic job rebuilding their team. As far as challengers, we think the Suns and Soncis will give us a run in our own division, and the Rockets, Grizz and Mavs in the midwest. Those are the heavy hitters in our minds in the West. Thanks for the question.

[BallSoHard]

J. Felders from SI.com, here. With AI now gone, what are you looking for from your other two stars? And who else are you expecting to step up?

Mitch Kupcheck: The J. for the question. We dont expect for them to make waves and become MIP candidates or anything. Tim Duncan is a multi-time MVP so it's hard to expect more from him, and we've always viewed Tracy McGrady as that next level star, but we feel this year it will show more quantitively. As far as guys stepping up, we've got out eye on Quentin Richardson, who just loves L.A.. He's spend 2 seasons with the Clippers and 3 with us, so he knows the system. Q has never gotten a real opportunity to step into a starting role, and this offseason he won out over a guy we specifically traded for to man the position. Richardson's always been a multidimensional scorer and a solid rebounder for his position, but he seems really focused on the defensive end this year.

Along with him, we've been very impressed with the progress our rookie, Sheldon Williams has has as well as Fransico Garcia who's as good of a perimeter defender that our team has. We do expect a few changes this year near the trade deadline to kind of round out our team and continue our effort to get a little younger while remaining as good.

[Pelicans78]

Last year you dominated the Rockets in the WCFs. Do you feel the moves you made including trading AI has actually closed the gap between both teams? Also how concerned are you about the frontcourt outside of Duncan?

[BallSoHard]

Last year you dominated the Rockets in the WCFs. Do you feel the moves you made including trading AI has actually closed the gap between both teams? Also how concerned are you about the frontcourt outside of Duncan?

Mitch Kupcheck: The gap would be narrowing with or without A.I.; as we said before, there are a lot of improving teams in the west at the bottom, and the top 4 is really loaded and could compete in the East. We do remain confident though against any opponent. We've beaten the Rockets every time we've played them in a 7 game series and the Grizzlies as well. Just because of that doesn't mean we have tremendous respect for both teams and the challenge they bring come playoff time. Internally we have some matchups we can exploit, but all of this is really premature until the rubber hits the road. The Rockets are certainly a team we think can win the West in the regular season, but we're always gearing up for the playoffs. We first need to worry about locking up our division then we can set our eyes on bigger goals for the season.