Goikiri with...BizGilwalker

[goikiri]

I am interesting in write an interview with all GMs of the CSL. My first interviewee, Biz, GM of CSL champions Houston Rockets. I want to be a little critical so that the interview was interesting.

Here my questions :

Congrats Biz, big season for you. Do you think it is unfair put Harden in power forward position?

Not at all, I wanted to have our own version of Golden State's small-ball of death lineup. As it is, Harden is such an aggressive and prolific driver, and a pretty strong post player. He's only two pounds lighter and two inches shorter than Kenneth Faried who has been playing power forward and center for us the last couple years.

Thaddeus Young is back in the fold now, so there is less need to play Harden at power forward all the time. With the current roster, we expect to play a more traditional lineup next season but will continue to throw wrinkles into the game plan to keep opposing coaches on their toes.

We have the most versatile roster in the league, and always try to bring in new players that are strong on both ends.

You didn't closed trades in draft night. Are your players valued for the rest of GMs?

We were fairly close to a couple of draft day trades but they fell through. There were a handful offers, but given how successful this roster was last season, I have made it clear to some GMs that I don't plan to make trades just for the sake of making trades. The goal is to repeat as champions and to keep it sustainable. Being out of town the week of the draft and only holding one 2nd round pick didn't give me the time or interest to make a big move on draft night. We will be monitoring the free agent situations of several players and expect some interesting moves around that time.

With the last trades, the league are equalizing IMO. What do you think? Is better for you, right?

I don't believe any of the other true contenders have improved yet. Having Thaddeus Young (19/6/2/2 with all-world defense) back from injury is almost like a massive free agent signing. Multiple contenders have a really surprising amount of cap space. So it's too early to say for sure but as of right now, I'm pretty confident we have the best roster in the league and definitely the most versatile.

Many rumors affirm that in 2018 will be other "superdraft". Worried?

If it's true, I'm excited. We own Boston's 1st round pick next year, and a pocket full of 2nd rounders. That's affordable talent that we can keep for 3-4 years. A well-run team is a good mix of star talent and young developing talent. We have had success with guys like Marble, Hood, and Lalanne on rookie scale contracts, I don't know why we'd be worried about the opportunity to gain more of that.

No team has done a "back to back". Which do you think is the reason?

This league changes a lot every year. It's kind of unfortunate what's happened to the three previous champions. Indiana puzzlingly blew up their roster after the championship and are now treading water hoping to make the playoffs soon. Denver has also changed management a few times and the latest has really turned the Nuggets from a scary team with a promising cornerstone to a team without a direction that seems destined for mediocrity. New Orleans downgraded their roster from a year ago as well, trading off versatile defenders for a one-dimensional star in Lillard. However they have cap space to improve it again, so it's not nearly as bad as the other two, and they probably could have taken us to six or seven games this year anyway.

Just so happens that each of the first three contenders have made some bad moves that took them away from contention. We will continue to apply the pressure on the rest of the league and have full intentions of repeating as champions.

[WillyJakkz]

Great interview Biz and great questions goikiri.

Great job shaping this team into a champion and getting Thad back helps immensely but I will say this, your championship key rests in the return of Andre Iguodala and that's a hard decision perhaps as age becomes a factor but if you don't return him there's no repeating as champs.

Will be hard enough as is even if you do though.

Good luck man.

[Jestor]

Biz throwing shade at the other contenders and talking smack about his team is the best.

LOL, so great. Glad you started this interview series, goikiri.

[Mattybriand]

Love it!!


Ftr I didn't blow up Indy I took over the aftermath

[Marcos_Beck]

Good one. I agree with Biz in a couple of things however their season haven't started yet as we're not into the FA yet and managing a 90M hard cap will be much harder than expected.

[dapralbe]

biz have probably the best duo of the league, faried-harden. i think that is great idea that biz take other way. thadeus young and drummond for other circuntances open a low usage a more versatile teams for win. offense of houston is tremendous, always will do excellents seasons.

[KW]

Great interview Biz and great questions goikiri.

Great job shaping this team into a champion and getting Thad back helps immensely but I will say this, your championship key rests in the return of Andre Iguodala and that's a hard decision perhaps as age becomes a factor but if you don't return him there's no repeating as champs.

Will be hard enough as is even if you do though.

Good luck man.

No doubt there's a lot riding on free agency. It'll be interesting to see what kinds of offers he gets.

Biz throwing shade at the other contenders and talking smack about his team is the best.

LOL, so great. Glad you started this interview series, goikiri.

haha... wasn't even really supposed to be smack talk I really have been quite surprised that all the other champions went away from what got them there.

Love it!!


Ftr I didn't blow up Indy I took over the aftermath

and you've done pretty well this offseason given what you started with. Not sure you're a contender yet, but things are looking up in Indy

Good one. I agree with Biz in a couple of things however their season haven't started yet as we're not into the FA yet and managing a 90M hard cap will be much harder than expected.

Gortat's $11M coming off the books is huge. Assuming Aminu opts out, we're sitting right below $70M, with only Aminu and Iggy to re-sign, and Gortat if he's cheap enough. Not too worried about the hard cap.

biz have probably the best duo of the league, faried-harden. i think that is great idea that biz take other way. thadeus young and drummond for other circuntances open a low usage a more versatile teams for win. offense of houston is tremendous, always will do excellents seasons.

glad the DDS master himself approves of my roster

[dapralbe]

thanks for the cumpliment, you learn a lot of things i love your imagination this year. i don't know if i said this but with a harden pf faried c and the correct pieces, you can do the first dds3 dinasty

[bt]

I'm a very old school manager and not really up to date with the modern game. As good as Faried is, I couldn't stomach an undersized power forward in the post. As good as Harden is, running him at power forward just isn't right. Iguodala running the point is just nuts but it's the old school in me though that leans this way and we obviously couldn't deal with it well enough in the conference finals as I could never make myself put OP at power forward just to try and counter it.

That being said, it worked and it worked well so props to Biz. This team is going to be so tough next season with Young returning that Phoenix, NOP, Memphis, us and others will need to improve again to try and challenge.

[andrei]

Where did the rumours about next superdraft come from?

[GreenBear]

I'm not buying the comparison to Golden State's small-ball death lineup. Simply put, it's a flaw in the game engine that Harden is that good at PF. No one's blaming you for exploiting it, since anyone has the opportunity to experiment, and there have been plenty of other interesting lineup choices (Horford at SF comes to mind). I actually give you kudos for discovering it, but it just doesn't make logical sense. Even you have to admit that. Harden's rebounding ratings (37 ORB, 55 DRB) aren't even that good for a guard. At PF, they're downright awful (might be the worst in the entire CSL for a front-court player). So add in his lack of height, and this guy should be lucky to average 2 rebounds per game down low. Offensively, although I think he should be blocked a ton, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's got crazy post moves to overcome the height he's facing. So I'm not going to argue too much about his offensive success. But defensively? Opposing PFs should score 50+ on 80% shooting just by backing him down until they just turn around and dunk. He'd either commit a ton of fouls or get man-handled. I think it's a flaw in the system that you found, but it's up to the rest of the league to figure out how to stop it.

Optimistically, I think we will, once we have more exposure to it. Someone will find a blue-print to take advantage of an undersized Harden with atrocious rebounding ratings down low and it won't work anymore (in my opinion).

All that said, you're getting Thad back, which is not good for the rest of the league. You're going to be VERY tough to take down, but it's going to be fun watching teams try (especially Jon's Buffalo Bills haha).

[WillyJakkz]

@ GB: Of course we all know it was a cheese move and untruthful about the experimentation of Harden at multiple positions but I don't mind, it is what it is.

My issue but far too late was the restart gave Harden 65 DEF rating which is absurd (it was 51-55 when I had Rockets in oCSL). Had that not been unwarranted and unnecessarily improved for no reason, I believe he have more trouble on the defensive end.

Other than that guys just have to continue to matchup with him.

[lakeshowak7]

It's his ridiculous DRFL rating that enables him to be able to play PF effectively.

For comparison, LeBron James has a 56 DRFL to Harden's 84.

No big is even that high. He effectively destroys front courts because of this.

I've noticed many of the games "great" players all have the 56 DRFL. Davis, LeBron, George all with 56. Why was Harden buffed so much?

[andrei]

So why doesn't he win every year then? First year they didn't even make the playoffs with Harden playing all 82 games

[WillyJakkz]

So why doesn't he win every year then? First year they didn't even make the playoffs with Harden playing all 82 games

All 10's strategies maybe plus their team wasn't as good plus Harden wasn't PG-PF other teams didn't improve maybe?

Too many factors so that was not a question with an absolute answer probably.

I honestly didn't think his team was that great this season compared to prior seasons but they were good enough to win and that's what's important.

[Dennis]

So why doesn't he win every year then? First year they didn't even make the playoffs with Harden playing all 82 games

I think all 10s won the first season like Willy said and it also requires some skill to win a title. Maybe Biz didnt have the needed skill in the first three seasons, but he learned and won it all this year.
The chances that Harden wins it all is like 60/40 every year, but we have GMs that dont need the better players to win. Especially, bt and Jon. Mix in Marcos, who might not be an as good coach as Jon and bt, but he's the best trader and always can pull off a trade that might gets his team ahead of biz's. Willy has the second best player in George and as soon as he figures out how to play his team he might be in the mix too. However, it is way more difficult to not make the CF with Harden on your team than making it to the CF.

[Sun Scorched]

Well, who does Harden have to play against at PF? I think true PF is one of the weakest positions in the league.

I personally don't mind the challenge - would love to see Harden try and play against AD at PF. I'm not so sure that Harden wins that matchup - it's even less about AD winning it, just Harden not impacting the game the same way.

Also, and maybe some teams did this, but Houston would have been an awesome candidate for 9 zone and 9 FCP, plus you lower the pace to 1 which gives Harden fewer shots and, thus, fewer opportunities to maximize his awesome PPSA.

[emplep7]

I would love to see a playoff AD/Harden matchup. Problem now is that its like the wildcat in the NFL. Now that he's used that technique, every team will look to have an answer to stop it this year so it adds that extra challenge. Once youre at the top everyone is gunning for you, which makes it that much more fun for all those past champs in the next year.

[StOfTheStep]

I love this series Go, keep up the good work man.

As for the Rockets, while their cap might be a problem, you can't argue with their recent success. The offseason just started and it will be interesting to see if they are able to balance competition with affordability, the true challenge of running a franchise.

[Rizzo]

Best point Biz made in the interview was Thaddeus Young being like their big free agent signing. Getting him back just makes this roster that much more versatile.