Backstage with Bernie: 2006-07 Media Day
The Bobcats tipped off training camp for their third season with Media Day at Charlotte Bobcats Arena on Monday, October 2. Following are excerpts of General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff's comments:
(On the latest with Melvin Ely)
(On if that means those deals are dead)
(On still having X number of days to do a sign and trade if they wanted)
(On effectively having 16 guaranteed contracts)
(On if they are where they need to be cap-wise)
(On where he thinks the franchise is heading in year three and what he hopes to accomplish)
(On whether or not the winning attitude the players seem to have is a crazy attitude to have)
(On the national perception of this team)
(On if the expansion label takes a couple years to shed)
(On the things the Bobcats need to do to get better)
(On Emeka Okafor’s confidence after last year’s injury following a solid rookie season)
(On if Okafor is going to try to work himself back into the fold slowly)
(On having limited depth in the first two years of play, but now having multiple options)
(On how Knight might take to having a more limited role)
(On expectations for Walter Herrmann)
(On if he will crack the rotation)
(On the chance of Adam Morrison starting after showing what he could do in summer camp)
(On if the team is okay healthwise)
(On Okafor’s weight loss)
(On if Sean May is still a rookie)
(On if he is concerned about May’s knee)
(On expectations for Raymond after a solid rookie season)
(On the dynamic between Brevin and Raymond)
(On Brevin and Raymond playing together)
(On why the Bobcats are doing two-a-days in training camp this year)
October 2, 2006
I understand he signed his qualifier. I haven’t received it yet. He’s a Bobcat. Yesterday was the deadline, and apparently it was dated. Now we want to wait and see if it was dated Friday. We had a couple of deals on the table, and we were in compliance with it. Mel said his heart was back here in Charlotte. The deals just didn’t work, so now he’s here and getting a physical.
I have no idea about that. I just know that he is here getting a physical and we’ll go from there.
I think what has to happen is that he has to agree to a trade from this point on. But now we have made contingency plans whether we have Melvin or not. We are ready to move forward. And I really don’t think we should spend a lot of time on that situation. He’s here, he’ll compete, it just makes camp more competitive, which is what we wanted anyway and we’ll go from there. No promises have been made to Melvin about minutes or any of those things.
Well, we had to spend the money, so there is no problem with that. I think what we talked about is that we wanted to have a competitive camp. And if you look at the front line, it’s really competitive. When you talk about Herrmann, Harrington, May, Melvin, and Okafor and all those guys, I might be missing out on someone, but you get the point -- and that’s what we wanted, so it makes for a competitive training camp.
Yeah. Yeah, cap wise, budget wise we are there.
I think you guys probably need to talk to Raymond Felton, he seems to be the spokesman. And which I am not opposed to, I like that, that is why we drafted those kinds of guys, guys who have been in a winning environment. They want to win, and there are areas I think we have to improve. First of all, we have to sustain the way we play. I think we have to be a little more consistent in our skills. And our younger guys have to get confidence. I think we got to improve defensively as a basketball team. We have to improve our rebounding. But we are not afraid to reach out and compete, so I think we should improve as a basketball team, and that’s the goal -- to get better.
I don’t see anything crazy about believing.
I have enough problems with local. But you know, while we are talking about national coverage, at least you guys are here and get a chance to see what’s going on. You know nationally they just reach out, go through the Internet, and that’s probably worse thing you can do.
You know, the fact that we are an expansion team is no longer an impediment. We are continuing to make progress, and we expect to make progress this year. I’m happy the guys feel that they want to aspire to make the playoffs. I think that’s good.
I think from conversations we’ve had, defensively we can get better. I think in scoring we’ll get better. I think we’ll create more spacing. I think we’ve addressed some of those issues with Morrison, Matt Carroll, and Herrmann. We have guys who can create space. I think that’s important. But I think when you try to move to the next level it’s about confidence. Once guys have success at what they do in this league, that is when they can move to the next level. For example, I think this could be a coming out year for Gerald, you know with his confidence level, or even Primoz, if you watched him in the world games I thought he played well.
He’s has to reclaim his confidence. He has to re-claim his reputation, it’s that simple. I went down to Houston to see him, and that is basically what I told him. You know, once you set the standards for yourself and they are high, I’ve always said it’s very difficult. That is when it gets difficult, when you have to live up to it every night and Emeka aspires to those expectations. I have no reservations about that.
Emeka is not that kind of guy; he is the kind of guy who creates opportunities on his own with offensive rebounds and those types of areas. I still say for Emeka and for us to be successful that he has to be the anchor of our defense, where he prevents baskets. He is starting to get there, and there were a lot of games when he was sitting on the bench next to us and we would miss a rebound and that rebound would have been the rebound that would have won the game. We would point it out to him and say we could have won it if we can get those rebounds. So, I think basically everybody’s got to take their ego, put it in a trashcan on the way in and understand who they are.
We started last year with talking about the big guys and that we had too many. But it still wasn’t enough. We ended up with Gerald at power forward and center. We have no control over injuries, but I think we have good depth. I like the fact that we’ve got a couple of veterans now like Harrington -- he’s a good pro and that’s important. So you got a pro that’s got experience on the front line, you got a guy in backcourt with Brevin. They’ve got experience, NBA experience and I think that’s important, because there are a lot of little soul things that you learn from being in the league 10 or 11 years that our guys don’t have a clue about.
I don’t think he will be a problem, but I don’t want him to lose his feistiness, you know, that is what makes him. I’m certainly not afraid to address issues. But Brevin has the right to get up on the wrong side of the bed occasionally.
More effort, the ability to space the floor, shooting -- that’s the attraction, perimeter shooting.
I’m not that smart. I’ve got to let this thing play out. I can’t predict like you guys can, nationally or locally, I don’t have that ability.
I have to put that into perspective, that was summer camp. And I always say there are different phases. You’ve got the summer league, the summer programs, the exhibition season and then when you play for real. And each level takes a different level of intensity.
They are okay right now. Don’t jinx us, but yeah they are fine. Anderson is okay. He still he may be a little tenuous with his foot. Emeka, Sean, they are ready to go -- they are 100 percent. Emeka needs some up and down for his endurance. He worked out with Hakeem (Olajuwon), but he still needs to get up and down the court.
Yeah, he is not as mammoth as he was when he came in last year. I think that was an intellectual decision that he made (last year). Like we have told Emeka, the greatest enhancer to intellect is common sense.
He is a rookie. You get minutes and you get games, but boy he has worked hard this summer. I even got a call from Roy Williams just making sure I knew how hard he was working this summer. So, he brings a lot of diversity to the table. I don’t think people are cognizant of how well he is from the perimeter, that he can play from the perimeter and making people better. He also brings rebounding, something we need, and that is something that is innate with him and you just can’t teach rebounding. He just seems to be where the ball is all the time.
The knee -- I have none, the doctor’s don’t, I have none.
I expect him to get better. He’s added a lot to his game. You know Raymond is amazing in terms of his progression. Do you remember when he first came in, he was shooting the ball from down here and all of sudden he made that adjustment, we’ve been watching him play and now all of sudden he’s got that little in-between game, so it’s just time that’s going make him better because he wants it and he’ll put the effort in. He’s got a pretty good mentor in terms of being able to go everyday against Brevin.
I don’t know until training camp. The one thing I think we are going to do in training camp is, I’m not going to put them in a situation where you just play with certain guys. I think on this basketball team they need to acclimate themselves with the whole team, so where are going to move some lineups around to keep them on their toes and keep them playing with each other and learning how to not compromise each other and what their strengths are. I think sometimes we do that and guys don’t get a chance to play with guys coming off the bench. So I think we are going to try it.
I think it was good, but I think it would have been better if we would have had Emeka and some size back there, but when you put Brevin and Raymond and Gerald at center and Bernard at forward, you know it won’t work -- but with Emeka back there and I think our size, then that makes up for some lack of size.
Well I thought it would be good, one for Adam to kind of acclimate himself. And then I think it’s good because it gives everyone something to do. With one practice for three hours, then you have all this idle time. We are down there to work, so it gives us all something to do. And then we can do more cerebral stuff in the mornings and in the evenings, we can get after it. Although we won’t start our full out scrimmage until maybe the third day in the evenings the way we have things set up.
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