Q. Does this organization have to draft better?

A. No we don’t have to do better. I’ve done well. We’ve been right on Zach Randolph. Right on Marc Gasol. Right on O.J. Mayo. You expect us to be right every time? Nobody was asking me whether I was concerned about the draft when we were beating everybody’s (butt) in December and January. What I’d like to talk about is people coming out and supporting this team. I’d like to see people paying $5 to see the games.

lol they didn’t draft any of those guys.

I think this is quite interesting. You rarely get the owner’s POV (unless it’s Cuban). You never hear a peep from half of the league’s principle owners. That’s why they pay David Stern the big bucks to speak for them. But Stern does not often comment on individual teams, and he most certainly cannot speak from a ‘behind the scenes’ perspective.

Heisley is correct when he says that the Grizzlies have far exceeded expectations. Very few pundits had the Grizz as a sleeper this season. His answers about potentially selling the team seem accurate, which surprised me. He obviously loves Z-Bo/Gasol. His comments regarding Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo, and Mike Conley appear to be valid and honest. In particular, I like his tough assessment of Conley:

Michael really is the type of point guard we need. We don’t really need a point guard like (Deron) Williams, who is a big scorer. We’ve got four big scorers on the floor. We need a guy like Conley, who can pass. But we also need him to be a danger like he was in the last few games so his guy has to defend him. We can’t afford to have guys throw zones at us, and we don’t have a threat to break it. He’s got to shoot the ball more. He’s got to finish better. Michael’s game (last Wednesday at New Orleans) shows that he can be a strong point guard. But Michael’s got to be a strong point guard.

We need to do two things. Mike (Conley) needs to get better, and I think he can. But if he doesn’t we need to back him up with a stronger point guard. And then, more importantly than that, we need to add some scoring on that second team.

But I don’t believe for one second that he truly thinks they made the correct pick with Thabeet. He knows he blew it:

Yeah, I could have gotten (Darren) Collison or (Tyreke) Evans. There’s a lot of good players I could’ve gotten that I didn’t get.

In hindsight, it’s easy for us to say to draft a guard, but there was no telling how the Z-Bo/Gasol front-court would do, and Iverson for some reason was in the mix, so drafting a big man made some sense. But clearly Thabeet was just the wrong guy.

Heisley is a businessman. He is not going to tell the world that Thabeet is useless because that would make his trade value even lower (if possible). I actually think that Thabeet can improve to be a DeSagana Diop-type of player in a few years, but if that’s your ceiling, you probably shouldn’t go #2. And since the next 7-8 players that came off the board AND have produced in the league are almost all guards, then he could have potentially fixed his Conley problem at the same time.

So, of the Warriors current roster, which player fits the bill? Which player is Heisley basically admitting to blowing it on?

Yep, Steph Curry.

The real trade was most likely Curry for OJ…….We turn that one down for sure…With the way this has turned out I doubt he will want to do business with the W’s anytime in the near future…

He’s mad that Thabeet’s name got around. as a throw in…