Damn, the season starts again. And just when I was getting used to vacation, too. Here's some hits from the cornucopia:
""I was happy as an assistant, I really was, but to be here in Seattle, it's a special opportunity," he said. "Some guys don't get one chance, let alone three."
"I think the combination of size, athletic ability and ball skills," Carlesimo said. "Usually a guy that big is not that athletic. Usually a guy that big can't play 20 feet away from the basket and pass the ball. When you get a guy like (Green) who has ball skills and athletic ability and knows how to play basketball on top of that, it's a problem if he's on the other team."
"Just reality when you have new players, new coaches, you'd like to go and to practice," he said. "The terminology is different. They're playing with different guys and it's very hard to stop and start as much as we're making them do but given that I thought they did a really good job. They bought into what we were trying to do and their enthusiasm was very good.
"If we practice like we practiced today we're going to be a good team."
Pete at Supersonicsoul ponders a Phoenix panic and produces props for Presti
And Shawn waxes poetic in French as only he can :)
The handsomest man in the NBA on his DC West pals
Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo sees West fitting in nicely in the team’s new system. Carlesimo likes West’s ability to defend and block shots at the guard positions, along with his willingness to compete.
“I think the advantage he has is he can help us solve the logjam (at point guard) by perhaps playing some minutes at the two (guard),†Carlesimo said. “Having said that, if he’s our best one (guard) then he’s going to play a lot of minutes at one. But we need to evaluate him at two positions.â€
West considers versatility his strength.
“I have a lot of assets that I bring to the floor,†West said. “And I kind of don’t fit into one category. You can’t label me as a shooter. Most shooters, that’s all they want to do, but I bring a lot more dimensions to the game than just shooting the ball.
“I’m a hard-nosed player. I like to get in there and get my nose dirty. And I like to compete. I love the game of basketball, the actual competition of it.â€
Asked how it felt not to be among the Spurs chosen to appear on Tony Parker's tour-de-force video premiere, "Top of the Game", the usually circumspect Presti claimed to have originally been cast as a co-star, while the old school Carlesimo asserted that he would have been disappointed if he had been invited to appear. Carlesimo wore a beige blazer.
If you had to pick a starting lineup and/or rotation, what would it be?